[Cliff pulled back, brows lifted in surprise for a second before he cast his gaze away to linger on the clean wooden floor beneath them. He sighed, feeling lost for the first time in many, many years.]

Souji, I...[Cliff lifted his gaze to meet Souji's, as if he were trying to search for the right words in the other man's eyes.] Listen. That sorta thing...it's really hard for me. I'm not the kinda guy who can just let something like that sit. If there's something we can do prevent this in the future, then I wanna try.

...We get second chances here. There's plenty of people I know at home who'd jump at something like this.