The Turning Point in My Life Brought About by a Dissolution

"Yes, dissolution."
"Huh?"

This one phrase became the deciding factor for me to get married, or rather,
to think that it might be okay to get married—

Past my mid-thirties and still unmarried, I felt terribly miserable.
On weekdays,
Work -> Games -> Sleep.
Work -> Movies -> Games -> Movies -> Oh, it's morning.

On days off, I didn't even know what to do.
Movies -> Games -> Food -> Games -> Movies -> Games -> Oh, it's morning -> Work

That's awful. Though, I haven't changed that much even now.

Anyway, while living such a lazy life, I would occasionally dabble in romance or unrequited love, but nothing would ever come of it, and I'd return to my routine.
I was living a very cozy life.
No, that's probably wrong. It wasn't cozy.

What threatened that cozy life was a visit one day from a friend of my father's, who was also an acquaintance of mine.
In a word, he was the type who said things very straight, and while he was also the type you could feel somewhat fond of, he was at the same time someone easily misunderstood.

"You, write this down."

What he handed me was a single sheet of paper.

A pachinko strategy guide.

"My mistake, this one."

I think that's a part you shouldn't be getting wrong.
Are you telling me to write a pachinko strategy guide?

What was handed to me instead was a paper to write my profile on.

"What am I supposed to write?"
"Just write it."

The pressure is intense.
It seems the story is that he's going to register me in a matchmaker system.
I don't really understand what that means.
The content seems to be a system where people gathered by administrators called matchmakers are matched with people gathered by other matchmakers to bring about a union.

"Write it."

I wrote it.

"Start over."
"Yes."

I've left out a lot of the details, but I wrote that quite seriously.

"Well, that should be fine. I'll contact you later, so do your best."

Do what?

Still, I suppose this was a turning point.

About a month later, I heard from that matchmaker.

And so, many women passed by me.

Yes, they just passed me by.
Sadness.

One day, the matchmaker contacted me, undeterred.
I was even thinking that if the next one didn't work out, I might just give up.

And that was when I met her.

As was the case with other women, we basically meet two or three times for meals and such.
I assumed this time would follow the same pattern.
Or there were cases where I was rejected on the spot without even meeting once.
It can't be helped. I am 89.5kg. Y9SH!

Well, I wondered what would happen this time.
My first impression was her wavy hair.

You might think, 'What are you looking at?', but that was my first impression.

Wavy hair.

Honestly, that was all there was.

The matchmaker introduced us at a family restaurant, and then it was time for the two young people (though we aren't really young anymore) to have a meal.
However, I don't remember at all what I talked about with the wavy hair.
Since we were meeting for the first time, we probably had a safe, standard conversation.

We exchanged contact information as we left, and I sent a polite thank-you note for the time being.

What kind of business document is that? By the way, when she saw this message,

She apparently thought, "This is the kind of guy who won't contact me again."

How rude. I thought.
How rude.

From there, we exchanged messages in moderation so as not to be a nuisance, and then came our first date.

We had a safe meal, talked a bit more openly, and then it happened on the way home.

"Do you mind if we stop by a multi-purpose bookstore?"

It was a warehouse-like bookstore where games, plastic models, books, CDs, and the like were packed tightly together.

"Sure, that's fine."

She readily agreed.

And the moment we entered the store, that was the first thing she said.

"Okay, dismissed."
"Huh?"

I had intended to walk around together, so what was that all of a sudden, you wavy-haired person?
No, by this time her hair had already become straight.
Apparently, she had a perm.

"It's more fun to wander around places like this alone, right?"

……She had a point.
But, this was a date.

In the end, I thought that made sense, and we both spent our time as we pleased.
Well, I'm the one who was convinced by that, too.

However.

――Dismissed.
I remember feeling strangely at ease when she said that.
She was the first person I didn't feel the need to force myself to decorate, embellish, or put on a facade for.
Usually, I think I would have decorated myself like a Christmas tree.
All lit up with electric lights.

But with those words, I suddenly felt the tension leave me, and I thought,
I wish someone like this could be my partner.
I suddenly remembered the relationship between onion rings and fries in an onion-potato combo.
Like that, being in the same bag together.

So, this person later became my wife, but one day I asked her,

What was the deciding factor in marrying me?

"Your hands were beautiful."

What is that supposed to mean?

My wife sometimes goes back to having wavy hair.