"They don't understand me."
Haru said in frustration.
Noa gently asked. "Who?"
"My parents. They don't understand my feelings at all."
Ren quietly questioned. "What do you think understanding means?"
"Huh?"
"What does it mean to understand others?"
Haru thought. "Knowing how they feel?"
"Then how do you know?"
"...Listen and imagine."
Noa added. "But is imagination really their feelings?"
Haru was confused. "Isn't it?"
"Maybe you're just inferring from your own experience," Ren pointed out.
"Inferring?"
"You say you're sad. I remember past sadness and say 'I understand.'"
Noa continued. "But that's my sadness. Not yours."
Haru was surprised. "So we can't really understand?"
"Husserl said, 'We cannot directly access others' consciousness.'"
"Direct access?"
Ren explained. "I directly feel my pain. But I can only infer yours."
"But we can empathize, right?" Haru countered.
"Empathy and understanding are different," Noa said quietly.
"Different?"
"Empathy is sharing emotions. Understanding is grasping the other's perspective."
Ren supplemented. "Empathy is emotional. Understanding is cognitive."
Haru was confused. "Which is important?"
"Both," Noa answered. "But neither is complete."
"Not complete?"
"You cannot completely become me. So you cannot completely understand me."
Haru said sadly, "So trying to understand is pointless?"
"Not pointless," Ren asserted. "Even if imperfect, the attempt has value."
"Why?"
"Because the attempt itself creates relationship."
Noa smiled. "Trying to understand. That's what matters."
Haru pondered. "Not the result, but the process?"
"Yes. Levinas said, 'The other is absolutely other.'"
"Absolutely other?"
"Cannot be fully grasped. But that's why we respect them," Ren explained.
"Respect because we don't understand?"
"Thinking you understand fixes the other person."
Noa added. "People are always changing. Complete understanding would stop that change."
Haru began to understand. "Leave them not understood?"
"Acknowledge not knowing while努力ing to deepen understanding," Ren said.
"Isn't that contradictory?"
"Philosophy often contains contradictions. Because reality is complex."
Haru thought of her parents. "My parents can't completely understand me either?"
"They can't," Noa said gently. "But not because they don't love you."
"Then?"
"Human limitation. But within that limit, they're trying their best to understand."
Haru's eyes welled up. "I wasn't understanding them either."
Ren said quietly, "Understanding is bidirectional. Not one-way."
"Bidirectional?"
"If you want to be understood, they want to be understood too."
Noa added. "Continuing the attempt to understand, mutually."
Haru took a deep breath. "Then I'll talk to them again."
"That's good," Ren nodded. "But don't expect perfection."
"Not perfect is okay?"
"There's no perfection in human relationships. But there's sincerity."
Noa said quietly, "Being able to say you don't understand is also sincerity."
Haru smiled. "Admit I don't understand."
"Yes. Convey 'I don't understand, but I want to.'"
Ren stood up. "Sartre said, 'Hell is other people.'"
"Scary," Haru reacted.
"But conversely, others are also mirrors reflecting ourselves."
Noa added. "Through others, we understand ourselves."
Haru looked out the window. "Understanding others and self-understanding are connected?"
"Deeply connected," Ren acknowledged. "By trying to know others, we know our own limits."
"Knowing limits is growth?"
"Yes. Humility is the beginning of understanding."
The three fell silent. Pondering the difficulty and value of understanding.
There's no complete understanding. But the attitude of trying to understand. That was the core of human relationships.