[ souji normally doesn't need time to compose himself or to think about what he has to say. he's been gifted with the talent to gather his thoughts and to put them into nice elegant little words (so, in short form, he's good at talking) but right now... he hesitates. it's one thing to charm someone with a few words of flattery and a smile but it's another to talk about what you've done wrong and to own up to something of such terrible magnitude. ]

[ he glances downwards for a moment and he begins to move his right hand, running his thumb over his fingers and clenching and unclenching his hand. it takes him a second before he speaks, though he doesn't look away any longer. he looks her dead in the eye. ]

... An apology isn't going to fix or ignore anything that I've said and done to you last month, and I'm not going to hide behind the virus or Retrospec as an excuse for what happened. What I've said was completely out of line and what I've done was worse. If you never want to talk or see me ever again, I completely understand, and you also don't have to forgive me for what happened. You were in the right and I wasn't.