AITA for telling my old bully that she's clearly only apologising to make herself feel better?
He never expected to run into the girl who haunted his high school days, the one who bullied him relentlessly and left scars that time alone hadn’t healed.
Yet there she was, casually apologizing as if years of pain could be wiped away with a few words. For him, the wounds were not so easily forgotten, and forgiveness was a mountain he wasn’t ready to climb.
Her anger erupted like a storm when he refused to grant her pardon, revealing a bitterness that mirrored his own.
In that charged moment, their roles reversed—no longer victim and tormentor, but two people grappling with the weight of the past, each unable to find peace in the other’s eyes.
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The original poster felt a strong need to maintain personal integrity by refusing to offer forgiveness to a past bully, despite the bully's public apology.
This created a direct conflict between the poster's need for authentic closure and the expectation, implied by the apology itself, that forgiveness should automatically follow.
Was the poster justified in refusing forgiveness to ensure personal congruence after years of bullying, or would offering forgiveness have been the more constructive path to ending the past relationship, even if the apology was perceived as self-serving?
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It didn’t take long before the comment section turned into a battleground of strong opinions and even stronger emotions.