Question on Teshuvah between G-D/person vs person/person

I am not Jewish, but I’m very interested in the way Jewish people study and interpret scripture. My upbringing is decidedly “Christian,” but I find myself out of place in many Christian theological circles so my questions typically go unanswered there. When I’m studying the scriptures, I don’t try to jam the Christian Old Testament into Christian themes. I do the opposite. I try to understand the Jewish interpretation and assume it to be the correct understanding, and then scrutinize my Christian upbringing and whittle away problems in my Christian worldview.

Anyway:

As I understand it, teshuvah is “a return,” and as it relates to a relationship between G-D and people, the meaning suggests returning to G-D, or perhaps to our original design, and it’s tied to forgiveness. The person must seek forgiveness from G-D for their wrongdoing, known and unknown, intentional and unintentional.

As it relates to a relationship between people, the “seeking forgiveness” bit is the same; the focus is on the one seeking forgiveness, and not on the one forgiving. The aim appears to be reconciliation of the relationship, to be made whole again between parties.

With this understanding, I mentioned to a wide audience that teshuvah must be tied to a desire for reconciliation of the relationship between a person and G-D, but given our inability to be perfect, the only way for that relationship to be made right is by the action of G-D. That would be the forgiveness, and that this is reconciliation.

But someone replied to me:

“Judaism never uses the word reconciliation. That involves two parties. Return is unitary. The correct word is return. In the 66 years I have been Jewish I have never heard the word reconcile in reference to teshuvah.”

I pushed back and said, “It is unitary in my view, but for a different reason. We *cannot* return. It is God who reconciles himself to us. This is what I see in the usage throughout the scriptures.”

They replied:

“In general it is poor form to tell Jews what Hebrew words mean and how Judaism applies them. Look up any Jewish source. You will be hard pressed to find the word reconciliation. It means to turn away from sin and return.”

Of course, now I feel awful, because I don’t want to be accused of wrongdoing here. If I approached this the wrong way, I’m sorry. However, the question remains! Does teshuvah point to reconciliation? Is my understanding of the scriptures correct as it relates to teshuvah?