Yesterday, I went out for a rare family dinner.

Recently, my daughters have not been able to spend any time with me, however, last night, by some miraculous chance, we were all together, so I decided to eat out immediately.

One of last night's stories was "Unrequited Love for a Person I Hate".

Ebata: "Why can't I get this passionate feeling of 'I hate you' across?"

My family looked at me strangely and gave me a witty comment.

Wife: "Dad, you usually tell people those things verbally, don't you?"

Ebata: "Don't talk about me like I'm a psychopath. I'm just a normal, defensive-minded, small-minded businessman."

When my family heard this, they looked at me like, "Damn".

To tell you the truth, if I talked about what I write in my columns on a daily basis, I would die socially.

The survival strategy for business persons is to hide their inner secrets, defer to their superiors, and play it safe with their subordinates.

Well, that's beside the point.

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Ebata: "When I made a plan of ski events..."

Wife: "Have you ever organized a ski event?"

Ebata: "After we got married, we would go skiing and play tennis with my colleagues at the institute for a few years.

Wife: "Oh, I see. I had a feeling you'd been the character you are now from the moment we met."

Ebata: "When I was a student and even after I became an adult, a guy who was 'I don't want to go with just this guy,' appeared, and for some reason, he would get involved in my ski projects.

Daughter: "Why don't you just not talk to him?"

Ebata: "Of course, not. I didn't say anything to them. Even when he blatantly said in front of me, 'I want to go with you,' I just smiled and left."

Daughter: "Why were he coming in?"

Ebata: "One of the participants was even letting him join on their own."

Daughter: "Why don't you just say no?"

Ebata: "Can you say, 'I don't like that guy, so please turn him down ?& You can't, can you?"

Daughter: "I don't know if it's anyone else, but I think Dad can tell them."

Ebata: "No way! My friendships would be broken at that time"

Daughter: "You don't have any friendships to begin with, do you?"

Ebata: "That's 'me' now! I used to be the head of the tennis club, the realest of the real, and they used to call me 'the head of the tennis club who can't hit a service. I am starting to piss me off when I remember.

Wife: "And?"

Ebata: "I was emitting an aura of 'I hate you' with a passion that rivaled that of any other relationship, but I wondered why this feeling was not being conveyed.

Wife: "I see."

Ebata: "This made me angry at the insensitivity of the person receiving the aura of 'I hate you', but at the same time I was convinced that I myself was not receiving the aura of 'I hate you'."

Wife: "And?"

Ebata: "I ended up in a place called 'Skiing Alone'. When I think about it, I feel like that was the starting point of my 'history of being alone'..."

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(1) I like skiing in the first place.

(2) I like skiing with the person I like better than (1).

(3) Skiing with someone I don't like is more uncomfortable than (1) and (2).

The only optimal solution that satisfies the above (1) to (3) is 'skiing alone'.

(To be continued)