It's knowing the wrong, deep down, and owning it. Confession does not always mean throwing a big, emotional scene. Some level of being sorry is probably important. But a lot of people are only sorry that they got caught. They're not really sorry for what they did.
Confession is about facing reality .
Sometimes in the process of confession, the wrong turns out to be not just one-sided. It's not always that way. Sometimes the wrong really is all on one side. But often the process of confession reveals more than just the initial admission of one-sided wrongdoing. The second stage of being reconciled is called restitution .