This is Mac, one of the answerers. Win just told me about this a moment ago. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts m(_ _)m.

I’m RIN, a female member. I have to wonder whether the single mom’s story is really 100% true… It also feels like she may be wandering around on the app as a single mom to hone her approach for the next wealthy man. As for the “price of falling seriously in love”… If a man truly believes he’s in love, couldn’t he simply take full responsibility for the compensation, pay his mistress compensation behind the scenes as well, and say, “I hope you’ll be happy ♡”—and leave it at that? I feel that someone who doesn’t have the determination or resolve to admit he’s seriously in love, get divorced, and hand over all his assets to his wife shouldn’t call it “true love” in the first place… And if a woman is going to call it true love, I don’t think she should go around spilling everything and trying to gain sympathy from others with all the “sob, sob” theatrics. This is just my personal opinion.

I’m Flagmaker, a column writer. In my household, that kind of situation could very well happen. If my wife found out about this kind of activity—including cheating—her first reaction would be to direct her anger at me and say, “I’ll kill you.” I’d desperately try to explain myself so I wouldn’t actually get killed, but I couldn’t defend the other woman in the process. I’d probably end up criticizing her instead. As I kept apologizing profusely, my wife’s anger would likely turn toward the other woman too. I have a feeling it would ultimately lead to demands for compensation and things like that. That’s why I take the utmost care to make sure I’m never found out. Before going home, I delete any suspicious data and browsing history from my phone, and I always check the contents of my pockets and wallet. In the first place, I avoid dates at unreasonable times or on my days off as much as possible. And then I just rub my wife’s butt like crazy. I rub it with complete single-minded devotion. Lately, I’ve realized that developing genuine feelings isn’t something I can dismiss as someone else’s problem. This is the difficult part, but the more I like someone, the more I consciously keep a certain distance and never ask for personal information or anything like that. I don’t want to cause her any trouble. Even married people are human, so they can develop genuine feelings. I have, and I’m still in dangerous territory. But if I don’t cause the other person any trouble, that’s just barely acceptable—wouldn’t you say? lol Or is it already over the line the moment you develop genuine feelings…? I’d like to think it’s still barely acceptable ^^; I’m moving forward as if I were crossing a minefield, taking the utmost care both at home and outside. As an aside, my wife currently works as an online fortune-teller, and 90% of her consultations are about people who have developed genuine feelings and are having affairs.

I’m a confused man in my 60s. My relationship with my partner isn’t bad. In fact, people often ask us, “How are you two so close?”—and I feel the same way. But when it comes to club activities… I suppose I’m the type who seeks a little pseudo-romance to fill a small gap in my life. That’s why I would never do anything that might alert my partner. Falling genuinely in love would mean game over—a married man involved in club activities has failed. As a man, is the key to setting my own boundaries—in other words, having the courage and resolve to step back when necessary—and not getting sucked into the club rabbit hole without them? And going to Nagoya by bicycle is an absolute condition（笑）

I’m Hikōki, a male member. If both people genuinely fall in love, then 80 seems like a small price to pay. But if it’s something you never wanted, then it isn’t really the price of finding happiness, is it…

I’m Maezawa from the CEO’s Office, and I’ll answer this one too. Thank you for your question. There was a recent question from someone who said they felt uncomfortable being asked out of the blue whether they were married, but dating a married man carries far too much risk, so I do think you should confirm it. You should also keep some kind of proof that the other person said he was single—having him send it to you on LINE would probably be fine. If you explain the reason properly, he’ll likely send you a message stating that he’s single. (That doesn’t necessarily mean he actually is, though.) If you have that proof, then even if you’re sued, you can argue that you didn’t know he was married. In that case, the court might decide that it would be unfair to make you pay compensation if you genuinely didn’t know. If so, it seems unlikely that you’d end up having to pay damages. Still, I wonder why the woman in the original story took it all the way to court. Did she have enough evidence to believe she could win? That part is a mystery. Normally, if you don’t have evidence that would support a win, I would think the matter would be settled through discussion. Or perhaps the other party demanded an outrageous amount, and her goal was to have the court determine a reasonable figure? The amount also seems slightly low, so perhaps she had some evidence, but the court didn’t accept that she was completely unaware of the marriage and reduced the compensation instead.

I’m だて◎ゆめ, a male member. > As a result, the woman above ended up unhappy. What do you think could have been done differently? Was there any way to avoid this? In this case, I’d say it was an accident. Accidents are always a possibility. Rather than blaming the accident itself, shouldn’t we look at whether the necessary precautions and preparations were insufficient? I think the man should be responsible for the慰謝料 that was demanded. I also don’t think someone should enter into a relationship if they don’t have that level of responsibility. As for the issue of “gachi-koi” (genuinely falling in love), some people may be misunderstanding what it means despite being old enough to know better. Considering his position, I personally don’t think true “gachi-koi” was possible here. That said, she was still someone he was involved with and certainly a woman he needed to treat with care. It may be more accurate to say that this feeling was expressed as “gachi-koi,” and that the man himself may have been wondering whether he was genuinely in love. My personal view is that married people should not pursue “gachi-koi.” If they do, they need to move forward while also considering divorce. In this case, I’d like to know whether the man actually had that kind of “resolve.” I think this situation is similar to a man saying, “I got the woman pregnant.” It seems reasonable to view the financial responsibility as the man’s. For the woman, the original goal of papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan) has effectively been achieved. If the man is pressured to divorce, I think it’s fair to say that he will then begin looking for a new partner—including the woman he was seeing.