Dialogue on Personal Values and Choices

You're a coward.

You're really, really a coward.

I know.

That's why I was going to buy you something good.

What do you want to eat?

No.

I'll make you something good.

I'll make you something really, really good.

Okay.

There are lots of good meal kits these days.

Thirty minutes before your boyfriend arrives,

throw away all the containers to destroy the evidence,

put the chopped green onions and minced garlic

in suitable containers and make it look homemade,

six out of ten guys will fall for it,

and four will pretend to.

If you can, date a guy among those six.

Bears should date bears.

No.

I'm going to date you.

You're wavering because of me, aren't you?

Then please keep wavering.

I'll make you really, really happy.

I'm confident.

No.

You're about to be unemployed.

I don't like women with no prospects.

It's not attractive.

With my credentials, I can go anywhere.

I'll resign after explaining myself at the next disciplinary committee.

Then within two months, I'll get a job—

You think this won't happen somewhere else?

Are you going to run away then, too?

That's right.

You were right, but you're being denied,

while the people who were wrong act brazen,

and yet the world keeps going

twenty-four hours a day as if nothing happened,

and it makes you resentful,

angry, so you're running away.

Is that so wrong?

It's wrong,

and if I accept it, I'll become just like them.

I don't want that.

I don't want to live like that.

Then don't live like that.

But

then you won't even make it 100 meters.

The life you have to live ahead is 5,000 kilometers.

But those wonderful beliefs,

values, and convictions you have,

you won't make it even 100 meters holding onto all of them.

I'm not telling you to give in.

If people like you disappear,

it'll only be better for those people. Isn't that unfair?

I felt so, so wronged.

I was so, so resentful.

So

rather than break, I decided to be worn down.

Ah,

that I could just cut off certain parts,

I came to terms with myself.

So

you should let yourself be worn down too.

Your convictions,

your values,

if you want to protect them, try to be worn down.