The Man Who Failed at Matchmaking

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“What? You’re turning her down? Natsumi Yamauchi has such great credentials. She contacted us right away saying she wanted to move to the next step.”

The marriage agency representative tried every argument, but Nishida stubbornly refused to budge.

“Her educational and professional background are impeccable, and the other party even vouched for her wonderful personality. And look at her—she’s a beauty, isn’t she? Honestly, you might not find a woman better than Ms. Yamauchi from here on out.”

“Yes, but... I don’t think we’d be able to talk to each other. She’s a nice person, though.”

“Hmm, won’t you meet her just one more time? It seems she said you seemed kind and easy to talk to.”

Nishida shook his curly head and sighed.

“‘Seem kind,’ ‘easy to talk to’... is that really ‘me’?”

The representative smiled as if to dodge the question. Nishida continued.

“I want to find someone who likes me for who I am. Any other conditions don’t matter to me. Ms. Yamauchi didn’t seem like that kind of woman.”

“I see, I understand... Very well.”

The representative tapped the spread-out documents on the desk to align them, then curled the corners of her mouth upward.

“Then, shall we look for the next person?”

♡♡♡♡♡

A few days later, Nishida was visiting the agency for a matchmaking consultation.

“Mr. Nishida, are you turning this one down too?”

“Ah... yes.”

After looking at her laptop screen, the representative tilted her head and smiled at Nishida.

“The other party seems to have taken a liking to you. May I ask the reason for your refusal?”

“Taken a liking to me... Where?”

“Well, she said you seem kind, healing, and sincere.”

Nishida sighed and shook his head.

“No, that’s not it at all. I’m not kind, I’m not healing, and I’m not sincere. If we keep seeing each other and she sees the real me, she’ll definitely end up hating me.”

The representative leaned forward intently.

“No, Mr. Nishida, you are surely kinder and more sincere than you think you are. Sometimes the image others have of you is more truthful than your own self-image.”

Nishida raised an eyebrow and stared into the representative’s eyes.

“Do you really think so? Even now, aren’t you thinking, ‘This guy is such a pain’?”

“Wha...! I’m not thinking that at all. It’s just that if you don’t realize your own charm, I think it’s a waste...”

Nishida exhaled through his nose, dropped his gaze to his clasped hands on his lap, and said in a weak voice,

“I just want a reason I can accept. A reason why the woman likes me. If I could think, ‘Ah, in front of this person—’...”

The representative narrowed her eyes and spoke in a slightly gentler voice.

“I understand how you feel. However, in the case of a marriage agency, feelings grow as you meet. At this initial stage, please try to relax a little more...”

“If I do that, and I’m the only one who ends up liking her, and then the woman turns me down saying, ‘I guess it wasn’t meant to be,’ what am I supposed to do!”

“Hmm... if that happens, I suppose I’ll introduce you to someone else...”

“Ah...!”

Nishida hung his head in despair.

♡♡♡♡♡

After that, Nishida went on several more matchmaking dates and turned them down for similar reasons. The women liked him, but he just couldn’t bring himself to take the next step.

Recently, it seemed the representative wasn’t listening as sympathetically as before.

“Ah, right. You can’t see the other party’s feelings... I see. Well, shall we move on to the next person?”

While listening to the representative’s explanation with half an ear, he began to think that perhaps the marriage agency system wasn’t for him.

That day, too, Nishida finished a matchmaking date at a hotel lounge.

Sitting across from a woman he was meeting for the first time, sipping tea, talking about work, hobbies, and weekends, and parting after about an hour. When he faced them with the minimum social manners he kept in mind, for some reason, the women liked him.

But that wasn’t the real him he was showing.

Is there any point in continuing to pay membership fees and doing this? As he watched his date leave in front of the lounge, Nishida felt gloomy.

Suddenly, Nishida realized he had forgotten his handkerchief at his seat. He called out to a staff member and started to head back to the seat where he had been sitting. At that moment, a conversation behind him pierced his ears.

“I really think those beaches are connected, Asuka and Asuka.”

He looked toward the voice involuntarily and saw a woman he recognized talking rapidly to the man she was with—no, looking closely, she wasn’t just talking rapidly. She was very engrossed and talking happily.

“So, I think the beach is a symbol throughout the whole series, and isn’t the poster like that too? Oh, did you know that if you go around once, it connects?”

The man was listening with a slightly troubled smile. As he watched her face as she spoke passionately, Nishida remembered who she was. It was Natsumi Yamauchi, his first matchmaking date. He didn’t remember what they talked about, but he felt he had turned her down because she was too pushy.

“Sir? Is something wrong?”

Brought back to reality by the staff member, Nishida quickly grabbed his handkerchief and started walking toward the exit. From behind him, he could hear Natsumi’s cheerful voice.

“That cherry blossom blizzard was the perfect culmination of the series, it was the best!”

After leaving the lounge and walking a bit, Nishida called the agency. The representative answered immediately.

“Mr. Nishida, thank you for your hard work! How was today’s meeting?”

“Ah, the meeting... it was the same as usual, but more than that...”

“Is something the matter?”

Nishida took a small breath and said as if he had made up his mind.

“Is it possible to meet someone I’ve already had a matchmaking date with and turned down once more?”



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