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I was watching a romance film.
On the screen, two people who seemed one step from reaching each other kept somehow missing.
And then it struck me.
This is like pool.
The harder you try to understand, the less you understand
When you first take up pool, you think:
“Learn the right stroke, and I’ll get better.”
And that’s true.
Master the basics, and balls start to drop.
The cue ball starts to move, too.
Little by little, there is a sense of beginning to understand.
But the deeper you go, the more there is that you don’t understand.
In a quiet hall near closing, playing alone, the 9 kicked off the point of the pocket.
I hadn’t changed a thing.
Same tip position as yesterday, same touch, same rhythm — and still it didn’t go.
My breath catches.
That day’s condition.
A hair’s slip in where the tip meets the ball.
A wobble of the mind.
The body’s rhythm — something words can never quite hold is always lurking there.
The moment you think “I’ve got it,” it betrays you.
This, truly, is like love.
A game of distance
Pool is also a “game of distance.”
Tense up too much, and it won’t go.
Control too much, and it drifts.
Yet indifference gets no answer either.
Try to dominate it, and it breaks.
“Face it, but don’t cling too tightly” — pool demands that strange kind of relationship.
The hand on the cue had tightened, ever so slightly.
That alone sends the cue ball rolling somewhere you never planned.
I can almost see my own face in that moment.
Doesn’t this sound like human relationships?
Love too much, and it grows heavy.
Care too little, and nothing is born.
Only within just the right distance does a beautiful moment come into being —
Tsundere, the exact word
It’s a slangy word, but pool is quite “tsundere.”
Cold enough to be honest, it never lies.
Yet it seems capricious.
It isn’t kind.
And yet, now and then, it shows you a moment of breathtaking beauty.
Working hard doesn’t guarantee it will answer you.
But there are “moments when it’s in a good mood,” known only to those who have kept company with it a long time.
The moment everything meshes — the cue ball moves just as you meant, the object ball is drawn in, and the next position falls perfectly into place.
At that moment, you want to show someone.
But often, you’re alone.
👉 The balls don’t lie. — On being a professional.
You can never understand it perfectly. You can never fully control it.
But that is exactly why you can’t walk away.
If you could conquer it completely, you’d probably get bored.
But pool repeats “I almost get it” forever.
The harder you try to understand, the more new mysteries appear.
That is what draws people into the depths.
That is why it becomes your karma — and your love.
A rather dangerous game
Pool is a rather dangerous game.
Once you start, there’s no turning back —
You go back to the hall.
You miss again.
It goes right again.
And you think about it again.
It’s love, isn’t it? Love.
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