Words can also be blades.

It was past 8 p.m.

Only the classroom lights were still on.

On the desk, there was a pile of student essays.

Next to them,

a smartphone lit up.

It was a notification for a "suspicious DM."

For a moment,

my finger stopped.

…They've been frequent lately.

Every time I see a notification like this,

I find myself bracing for it a little.

On a night like that,

what caught my eye,

was a note article.

"Please be careful of suspicious DMs."

Investment scams.

Information products.

Romance scams.

Even though these are stories that have been around for a long time,

Thanks to social media,

I feel like it has become much more familiar.

Of course,

we must be careful.

That is true.

But,

after finishing the article,

what caught my attention,

was a slightly different point.

In the word "fraud",

the character for "deceive".

When I looked it up,

I found that "deceive" contains the character for "word".

It means,

to deceive with words.

I see,

I thought.

People in the past, too,

I knew that deceiving people

was not about strength,

but about words.

For a moment,

I felt afraid.

—And,

at the same time, I remembered a night.

A single word I said to a student

during class.

"This phrasing is a bit strange."

I thought I was teaching them the correct usage.

But,

in the next class, that student

handed in a blank essay.

"I was afraid of being corrected by you again, teacher."

With those words,

I realized that my own words

had become a blade without me even knowing it.

The right words do not necessarily

help the other person.

Words can

also deceive people.

But,

with the same words,

you can also put people at ease,

or encourage them.

Even though it is the same 'word',

depending on the person using it,

it becomes something completely different.

To that student,

I used a different way of saying it this time.

'This is an interesting expression. Please tell me a little more about it.'

The essay that had been blank,

by the following week,

was filled in.

I will be careful

about suspicious DMs.

But today,

the thing I decided to be most careful about,

was the words I use myself.

――Scary things,

weren't just scams.

Words that hurt people,

might always be coming out of my own mouth.

If today's article,

made you pause for a moment,

I have also summarized here,

what I usually think about while writing.

▶ Hurrying, getting lost, and comparing. Even so, I keep writing.