Set during episode 90, "Sota's Brave Confession of Love".
Good and Ready
Hitomi firmly believed that when you had something to say, you should just say it. After all, what was the point of dithering? Words were meant to be spoken out loud, not kept in your head like rabbits in a hutch. That was the whole point of language, wasn't it? If you weren't going to say what you had to say, then what was the use in being able to speak at all?
That was why she liked hanging out with her friends and why she rarely walked alone. She liked listening to people, liked talking to them. It was so much more pleasant being with people and just having an honest conversation with them; that was fun. It was why she didn't like people who didn't say what they had to say. It stifled a meeting, making her uncomfortable, always having to guess what the other wanted to say. The unspoken words could hang heavily in-between.
But when Sota just came right out and said that he liked her, Hitomi had to admit she was floored. She had been utterly unprepared for the revelation and though she was thrilled, she understood for the first time why some people kept what they wanted to say behind locked lips for a while. It was to give the other person a chance to be good and ready to actually hear them.