The blade of 'sympathy' that spilled from her lips—this one got to me.

When I first met the director of that office, I looked at her 'mouth' and immediately knew.

She was the type who was much more talkative than me, the kind whose feelings would just spill out of her mouth like a muddy torrent.

If you have the lens of mask psychology, you can predict the other person's 'thought patterns' in advance.

So, no matter how talkative a person might be, I should have been able to let it slide, thinking, 'This person just has these characteristics,' at least to some extent.

However, the one thing she said while putting on a sad face

pierced my heart deeply and sharply.

I was shocked when I saw your medical records, Mako-san.

After all, we are the same age.

And yet, for you to end up like this...

What spilled out from her was

a word that was far too cruel, under the guise of pure 'sympathy'.

'We're the same age, yet you're so pitiful.'

Behind those words, I could see her unconscious sense of relief shining through.

She arbitrarily defined my life as 'shocking' based on her own standards,

and painted it with the colors of pity from a position of superiority.

Knowing about mask psychology, I was calmly analyzing it in some corner of my mind.

She has no malicious intent.

Due to the characteristics of her brain, what came to mind simply slipped out without passing through any filter.

It was her own way of trying to be supportive as best she could.

However, understanding something with your head and being able to accept it with your heart are two different things.

That night, I felt sad, and to my own surprise, I was furious.

To dismiss it as 'just the way she is' would be impossible,

because my life is far too precious, and it is something I have nurtured with great care.

However, this story has a sequel.

A few days later, I told my rehabilitation therapist about this 'bombshell remark'.

To my surprise, the therapist turned even redder than I did and became indignant on my behalf.

That kind of language is absolutely inexcusable!

Later, at a group meeting where support service providers gathered,

the therapist brought up the slip of the tongue that the director had made,

so brilliantly and with nowhere to hide,

and confronted her.

And you cut it down without mercy.

As a professional,

And above all, as a human being,

The teacher who fought on behalf of my dignity. Seeing that,

The thick, muddy, sad anger that had been dwelling in my heart,

I felt it simply fade away.

Just because you know someone's characteristics through Mask Psychology,

doesn't mean you have to swallow everything on your own,

and smile like a Bodhisattva.

Having an ally who will say 'that's not right,'

and protecting your own heart. That, too, is an important skill for living happily.

She, with her talkative mouth, that day,

might have learned for the first time just how much of a blade her words had become.

Now, my heart is calm. Even those blade-like words,

are now, behind the lens of 'Mask Psychology,'

something to speak of the mystery of the creature that is a human being.

It has become a single episode.