"I'm a person who can't do anything."
Kaito said, staring at the floor.
"What happened?" Leo asked.
"In club, everything went wrong. Even the senior got angry at me."
Mira quietly sat beside him.
"Everything?" Leo confirmed.
"My passes failed, I missed shots. Everything was bad."
"All in one day?"
"Yeah... no, not really. But it feels that way."
Leo wrote in his notebook: "Cognitive distortion: All-or-nothing thinking"
"Cognitive distortion?"
"A thought pattern that divides things into perfect or complete failure."
Kaito countered, "But I really was terrible."
"Making some mistakes and being a terrible person are different," Leo pointed out.
Mira showed her smartphone. On the screen was a video of Kaito's successful play from before.
"This..." Kaito was surprised.
"Past successes don't disappear," Leo said. "But now, you can't see them."
"Why?"
"Because you've suffered a narcissistic injury."
"Narcissistic injury?"
"Psychological damage when your positive self-image suddenly collapses."
Kaito said painfully, "That's exactly me now."
"And it's temporary," Leo emphasized.
"Temporary? When it hurts this much?"
"The pain comes from a large gap between self-image and reality."
Mira wrote in her notebook: "Ideal self ≠ Real self = Suffering"
"The difference between ideal self and real self is suffering," Kaito read.
"Yes. And many people set their ideals too high."
"Is a high ideal bad?"
"Not bad. But unrealistic ideals hurt you."
Kaito asked, "How can I recover?"
"First, separate self-love from self-evaluation."
"Are they different?"
"Self-love is attachment to yourself. Self-evaluation is assessment of your abilities and worth. Confusing them is dangerous."
Mira drew a diagram. Two circles: self-love and self-evaluation.
"Even when self-evaluation drops, self-love should be maintained," Leo explained.
"How?"
"Unconditional self-acceptance. Not 'I love myself because I can do things' but 'I love myself because I exist.'"
Kaito was confused. "Love myself even when I can't do things?"
"Yes. That's the foundation of healthy self-love."
Mira nodded. Then she wrote on her palm: "You are enough"
Kaito's eyes welled up. "Am I... enough?"
"You are," Leo declared. "Even imperfect, you're enough."
"But others..."
"Practice not linking others' evaluation with self-worth."
Kaito asked, "How?"
"There's a concept called self-compassion," Leo explained.
"Self-compassion?"
"Kindness toward yourself. When you fail, instead of blaming yourself, comfort yourself."
"Comfort myself..."
"What would you say to a friend who failed?"
"'It's okay, there's next time'..."
"Why not say it to yourself?"
Kaito fell silent.
Mira wrote in her notebook: "Treat yourself as you would treat a friend"
"Treat myself as I'd treat a friend," Kaito read.
"That's self-compassion," Leo nodded.
Kaito took a deep breath. "I've been too hard on myself."
"Strictness is sometimes necessary. But so is kindness."
"Balance..."
"Yes. For growth, balance between self-criticism and self-acceptance is important."
Mira stood up and put her hand on Kaito's shoulder. Gentle pressure.
"Mira has the same experience," Leo said.
Mira nodded.
"Everyone has moments of breaking," Leo continued. "But from where you break, a new self begins."
Kaito smiled faintly. "A new self..."
"Not perfect, but sufficient."
The three stood at the entrance of the journey to rebuild self-love.
Breaking isn't the end. It's a new beginning.