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After Cloud left town, with all his promises about how he was going to join SOLDIER, Tifa would check the papers every day – she told herself to be patient, that it would take time for him to work his way up the ranks, get a chance to see his name in print. It didn’t work; Tifa’s heart always skipped a beat when she thought she might see his name and then inevitably sank in disappointment when she didn’t.
In Midgar, after Sephiroth came and her whole life burned away, Tifa didn’t look at the papers so often any more. Not because she didn’t want to see Cloud’s name there – she did, badly – but because it meant that if she did see a report about how well he was doing, about some great act of heroism he’d committed, Tifa didn’t have to ask herself why he hadn’t come to save her.