He reiterates that he’s not being overly nice at all he’s just being decent, the way everyone should be to each other. Sayu understands what Yoshida is on about, and so tells him that she was thinking to herself why he’s so nice. He calls her out on it with what I’d call “harsh kindness”, assuring her that even if his home isn’t hers, she’s allowed to be there, and doesn’t have to be “weird” or “lie to him” with those smiles. It’s doubly frustrating to him that someone so young had been forced into a situation where she didn’t feel safe not smiling when she didn’t feel like it. He notes that the smiles she flashes often feel forced, strange, and wrong. As a result, she still behaves around Yoshida the way she had to behave around other men with whom she treated her body for shelter. Leaving home only gave her a fleeting freedom, and she eventually had to do what conditions at the time demanded her of her to survive. Sayu has apparently lived a life where her choices were few and her freedom nonexistent. Behaviors are learned through social interactions and time. A princess raised by wolves is going to act like a wolf, like San, AKA Princess Mononoke.

A princess raised in castles is going to act like royalty, like Queen Elizabeth.

Project aho freedom of choice