[He should have known talking about this would be a mistake. Already, he feels the exhaustion of trying to comfort someone else through his grief. He should have left well enough alone, kept his mouth shut until he sent Livio off and then continued dwelling in his own misery.

But now here they are. He can't exactly pull back without another fight, so...]

There were -- are a lot of people living in JuLai. Dunno how I'm supposed to go on like normal, knowing what I do. Especially when [He swallows.] Nick knew for almost a month. He didn't tell me. All that time, I coulda been making a plan. Figuring out how to stop it.

There's so much I have to make up for. To... come to terms with. And to swallow down.

So I needed space. That's all.