After I told a papa I’d met several times that I liked him, he said, “Then you don’t need any more money, right?” Is that even a thing? If he doesn’t want to pay, why is he registered here in the first place? After the second meeting, it seems like it’s supposed to become a mutually free romantic relationship, but should I report something like this to the club?

Maezawa from the President’s Office here as well. If he says, “Then you don’t need any more money, right?” I’d like you to come back with something like: “Actually, I like money even more. I still have to live, you know? You said that, so I’m fining you.” (smile) If he still says he doesn’t want to pay you an allowance anymore, you can simply end things with him. I do think you should report it to the club, but if he makes excuses like, “I thought you didn’t need an allowance because you liked me,” it becomes a difficult case to handle. However, feedback now includes a scoring system. Give him a -2 in every category when you submit it. That way, you can at least get a little payback. Once his negative score reaches a certain level, he’ll be forced to leave the club. If other women report similar behavior too, those negative points should add up quickly.

While being in a sugar dating club, I can’t help wondering, “What are you even talking about?” Since the allowance comes first, of course I like him—because he’s my papa (a male supporter). Surprisingly, there are quite a few men who slyly try to replace that with something else. Make sure you clearly tell him that your feelings are those you have for him as a papa (because of the money filter). You’ve got this. —Akari

I’m Fuu, a columnist. Huh? Did you really go ahead with a second meeting without receiving any allowance? Couldn’t you have replied with a smile, “I mean that I like you as a papa. If you can’t give me an allowance, then I guess we should part ways”? If you clearly tell him and he still refuses to give you an allowance, makes a scene, or complains, report him to Universe Police. Start by speaking up!

I’m Shingo Lee (Shingori), a columnist. If you can’t come up with a good response when someone says something like that, I’d say you’re better off going to a hostess club or an escort service instead of doing papa-katsu (compensated dating in Japan). I think papa-katsu is a lot like the lottery. The odds of winning the jackpot are one in ten million, but people still buy tickets believing they might win, right? Of course, how seriously they take it varies from person to person. Papa-katsu is similar. Even if it’s only an illusion, I think most people have one thing in common: they want to enjoy “romance.” Everyone understands that the odds of a papa (a male supporter) and a papa-katsu girl developing a genuine romantic relationship are extremely low—say, one in a thousand. Still, I think a certain number of papas take part because, regardless of how serious they are, they believe they might be the one to hit the jackpot and find true love. *Of course, there are also plenty of people who aren’t looking for romance from the start. With the lottery, the most enjoyable part is dreaming about “What if I win?” while waiting for the results. You enjoy the process leading up to the outcome even more than actually winning. That’s why I think papa-katsu is fun precisely because you don’t know whether the two of you might become the real thing or not. So I feel it’s perfectly fine to have the skill to let someone dream about that possibility while receiving money from them.

I’m Kazu, a male member. That’s nothing more than a sophistic argument he made to avoid paying an allowance. It’s a waste of time to give it serious thought. If you want to correct his way of thinking, then by all means think it through and argue back—but you don’t really want to do that, do you? The least effort you can make to get him removed from the club is to submit feedback. Even if it happened on your second or later meeting, they’ll probably still treat it as useful information. You could send something like: “When I met ○○ for the [number]th time, he asked whether I liked him. When I said yes, he replied, ‘Then you don’t need money anymore, right?’ Since I can’t pursue a relationship with him, I’m blocking him.” Then block him. If similar feedback comes in from several women, the club will probably warn him or take some kind of action against him. Of course, if you state in your feedback that you’re okay with the club confirming the details with him, they’ll contact him directly, which should serve as a meaningful warning.

It probably won’t solve the problem even if you tell the club, but you should still let them know. People who are stingy with the allowance even though you met through a dating club are truly a headache. Marika