I didn't want to find out which of us he would choose is what Regulus is studiously not saying. He doesn't think he ever will.

"No. It's nothing like that. I swear, it wasn't. Things were just... I didn't want to make anything awkward. I thought--" you hated me, he also doesn't say. "I thought it might be weird. It wasn't...like that. At first. I still had to...pretend, around everyone else. Pretend I really, you know."

Hated people.

"Please don't think--I just didn't want to be a problem." That much is a bit too painfully honest.