I’m a male member.

Maezawa from the CEO’s office here—I’ll answer as well. > They left my LINE message unread, so I got discouraged and canceled at the last minute. Unread but ignored??? I don’t understand what that means. If it’s still unread, that simply means they haven’t had time to read it yet. So how can you say they’re ignoring you? You don’t even know whether they’ve seen it or not, so I don’t understand how you can call it being ignored. If it had been read but left unanswered, then I could understand saying they ignored you. Even then, though, wouldn’t you think they might just need some time to figure out how to respond? To begin with: Woman: “Let’s do this day.” Me: “Okay. I’m looking forward to it.” The conversation is already over at that point, so what kind of further contact are you expecting? Do you want to keep exchanging messages endlessly, like: “I’m looking forward to it.” “Me too.” “I’m excited as well.” “Yes, me too.” > Was I the one at fault? Since the date had already been set and you canceled on your own at the last minute, I’d say you were 100% in the wrong. > Please tell me how to avoid getting discouraged or how to resolve this. If the woman says, “Let’s do this day,” then the date is set. It’s fine to message her that you’re looking forward to it, but after that, I think it’s perfectly okay not to contact her again until the day itself. You could send something like, “Looking forward to tomorrow,” the day before. If she doesn’t reply on the day, then you might worry that she’ll cancel at the last minute. But if she does reply, I think you only need to send a brief message like, “See you today.” There’s no need to worry about her leaving your message unread after that. As long as she shows up at the meeting place, there shouldn’t be any problem.

This is だて◎ゆめ, a male member. Hmm… Rather than saying either of you is at fault, I feel that you may not be communicating with each other very well. If I had to suggest a solution, I’d say you should both face each other more openly and take the relationship more seriously.

I’m Shing Lee (Shingori), a male member. I think this was a sad incident caused by a misunderstanding… Messaging apps like LINE are simply “tools,” so people have different expectations and personal rules about how to use them. While email has commonly accepted etiquette and conventions, LINE is used individually, so there aren’t really any universal manners. I think that’s what led to this situation. You seem to view LINE as a replacement for conversation, so perhaps it felt as though the exchange suddenly came to an end. For the other person, LINE may be more of a tool for communicating and exchanging information—once the information has been conveyed, they consider the matter finished. In particular, people who see LINE mainly as a communication and information-sharing tool often don’t bother opening the chat again to mark it as read after seeing the message in the pop-up notification. Also, people who feel that marking a message as read means they have to reply may intentionally leave it unread when they have nothing in particular to say. This time, when you started feeling uneasy, you could have tried asking something like, “It’s only ● days away now. I think I’ll be able to finish work on time that day, but will you be okay, △△?” Or you could have checked their reaction with a small question, such as, “The meeting place is ●●, right? Should we meet at the entrance to ●●?” Finally, here’s a tip for using LINE “properly”: conversations on LINE are more likely to lead to misunderstandings. Nuances may not come across correctly, or something may be interpreted differently from how you intended it. To avoid those kinds of miscommunications, it’s best to use LINE as much as possible as a tool for conveying information, and if you need to discuss something in detail, talk about it separately over the phone. I hope you find an arrangement that leaves you satisfied.

I’m in Seattle. About two days before the date, send: “I see you haven’t read my message. Are we still good for the day after tomorrow? Please let me know by tomorrow.” If she hasn’t replied by the day before, the woman is in the wrong. Either way, last-minute cancellations aren’t okay—whether you’re a man or a woman.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. From the conversation, it doesn’t seem like she intentionally left you on read, so I don’t think you need to feel discouraged. With LINE, sometimes you think you’ve marked a message as read or sent a reply, only to find that you actually didn’t. Also, if your reply already wrapped things up, you might not notice right away when her response comes back quickly. These days, we get a flood of LINE messages from shops and other places too, so your message may have gotten buried and been easy to miss. In your exchange, the conversation essentially ended with her saying, “I look forward to it,” so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Of course, I understand wanting her to send another message right after yours—it would make you happy. But depending on the girl, a reply that isn’t particularly necessary may come within a few minutes, after several days, or not until she actually needs to say something. Everyone is different. P.S. This is a minor detail, but in “るわ,” was the わ a typo? Since you’re still not very familiar with each other, I’m assuming it was a question. If you really meant “るわ,” it can give off a somewhat intimidating, tough-guy impression. If you give off that kind of vibe in two or three other messages as well, she might shy away from you.

I’m Kazu, a male member. I don’t think this is really a matter of deciding who was at fault. First, there may have been a reason she left your message unread. For example, she may have intentionally left it unread so she would remember it. That way, she’s reminded of it whenever she opens LINE, and I do that sometimes myself. Alternatively, she may simply be the kind of person who saw in the preview that the message didn’t require a reply and habitually left it unread. As for you, I think canceling at the last minute just because she left your message unread was a little short-tempered. Why did you lose interest? Was it because she didn’t respond to your LINE messages very regularly? I think the best way not to lose interest is to stop worrying about every little thing. That said, it may be difficult to change your mindset at this point, so when you start feeling put off, why not try telling her that something is bothering you? For example, you could send something like, “Am I no longer needed now that we’ve set the date?” That would probably prompt most women to take some kind of action. Cutting someone off immediately whenever something displeases you does seem rather short-tempered.