This was something of a first for me: properly writing a book through to its end.
Here, I sincerely apologize to every reader who followed along all this way, because I know you could tell that both the quality and the number of updates dropped considerably toward the end.
That was caused by my personal problems. I'm sorry.
I'm an emotionally sensitive person. When I started this book, I had a girlfriend. We had been together on and off for a year or two, long-distance. We chatted almost every day and every night, for long stretches at a time.
When this book was halfway through, my relationship with her deteriorated rapidly. I could actually feel her pulling further and further away, but I still instinctively tried to hold on to the relationship.
The outcome, however, was only to be expected.
My emotional troubles almost immediately affected my daily routine, my life, everything. Around the same time, my mother retired, and I returned to my hometown to buy a home for my parents to spend their retirement in.
The extreme emotional repression and low spirits, along with extreme physical exhaustion, left me in a daze all day. Those of you in the readers' chat group probably noticed, because I quite enjoyed chatting with everyone, but over the past six months, my appearances were pitifully few.
My love life really did affect me, and that ridiculous relationship really did profoundly change some of my understanding of things.
It seemed that at my age (I was born in 1995), relationships had become a transaction: lay out what each person brought to the table, both aiming for marriage, match everything up one by one, and that was all.
I couldn't get emotional support from my former girlfriend; instead, I was always giving it to