I’m a black-tier male member at a regional branch.

I’m Basil, a male member. I’ve had a few last-minute cancellations because of typhoons, the flu, and other reasons, but fortunately, I’ve never had to pay a cancellation fee myself. I didn’t give it much thought until the first time it happened. Luckily, the first time was at a place that didn’t charge cancellation fees, so ever since, I’ve checked their profiles and chosen places that don’t charge them when a girl seems like a person to avoid or when it’s a particularly risky time. I hate wasting money—or maybe I’m just cheap.

I’m Date◎Yume, a male member. Repeatedly feeling unwell and canceling plans puts you in a difficult position… Ultimately, I think the decision is yours to make. She must be one of your favorites—the woman you made the offer to—right? Looking at Maezawa-san’s answer, if it were me… Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I’ve become more patient, so I’d probably wait and see how things go once she’s recovered. You won’t know the reason unless you meet her. That said, there are plenty of other women who could become favorites, so you don’t necessarily have to force it. In any case, I think it comes down to your own judgment.

I’m Marika, a female member. I look like Satomi Ishihara, but I’ve got Fujiko Mine’s personality! You simply have to see for yourself, don’t you? Go ahead and invest heavily to outbid the men hoping to have me exclusively. Your very own Satomi Ishihara… And even while you’re dating, you’ll get the kind of thrills only Fujiko Mine could provide! Doesn’t just thinking about it get you excited!? If you’re going to be stingy over something as small as a cancellation fee, Fujiko Mine would just laugh in your face.

I’m Flagmaker, a column writer. I agree with the comments expressing sympathy and offering comfort. That said, looking at it from another angle, I think the more important question is whether you still have feelings for this woman—or secretly still want to meet her. If you can’t give up on her, I’d vote for “making another offer,” even if her response this time was harsh. If you let bygones be bygones with a generous spirit and show her a mature attitude, might she think, “Oh my, what a wonderful person!”? Maybe not… I can’t say for sure, though ^^;

I’m a male member based in Seattle. I’ve only ever made offers to ordinary, down-to-earth people, so I’ve hardly had any bad experiences. There was just one person who was slow to respond and stood me up twice. She’s been rated one star now, so I doubt she’ll be getting any more offers. Recently, I’ve switched from Type A to Type B.

I’m Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office, and I’ll answer as well. > The setting fee was a special rate of ¥100,000 for an attractive woman. Since she was a lovely woman who resembled Satomi Ishihara, I imagine your expectations were high. That said, after canceling twice in a row, you can’t help wondering what this woman’s intentions are in registering with the club. I looked into it, and apparently she had properly gone on her previous dates. Since she has a track record of dating, there’s a possibility that she really was unwell, which may be why she wasn’t forcibly removed from the club. From here on, this is just speculation, but perhaps a man she had dated before had been telling her things like, “I want you to be exclusive with me,” and she was feeling conflicted. When I looked into it, I also found posts along the lines of, “A man asked me to leave the club. I don’t want to quit because my goal is to earn ¥〇〇〇 million.” So it’s possible that this man has continued saying various things to her. Maybe it turned into something like, “I’ll pay you ¥〇〇〇 million, so…” Or perhaps she intended to go on the date, but that man suddenly asked to see her that day. He may have said something like, “You’re still registered? Then I can’t offer you the terms we discussed before. Becoming exclusive was part of the deal, remember?” I’m imagining all of this, so the speculation has gotten to the point where even I’m thinking, “That can’t possibly be true.” We don’t know what really happened. In any case, the club is strict with women to prevent them from causing this kind of inconvenience to men. Still, since this involves people dealing with one another, perhaps these situations are difficult to eliminate completely. But canceling at the last minute is absolutely unacceptable. To that woman: please never do it again. By the way, it seems that before the exchange described in the question, you had asked whether she could meet tomorrow sometime between 〇 and 〇, and she said she could meet 30 minutes later. It does make you wonder whether things might have worked out if you had pushed yourself to meet her then. Of course, I assume you declined because those extra 30 minutes weren’t possible, but timing can be difficult. She sounds like a woman who would probably cost quite a lot, but if you have the financial means to handle that and genuinely like her, she certainly sounds worth meeting. She seems like the type of person who has a Mine Fujiko-like personality. Dating her would probably be challenging, but that might also make things exciting. If it were me, I’d have someone tell her something kind, like: “Please contact me whenever you’re feeling better and able to meet. There’s no rush.”

I’m a male member, Paper Airplane. That woman probably isn’t receiving any more offers, or she’ll likely be forcibly removed from the club soon. If you think of the cancellation fee as the price of avoiding wasted money, time, and effort by not meeting her, then you could say the damage was relatively minor.

Meg here, a female member. Whoa! That sounds like quite a situation. My condolences to both you and the staff member... Please try to keep your spirits up and move on to the next person. Oh, and well... next time, someone who isn’t quite so persistent might be better♪