“Finally, back to the comforts of home.” Nishiki was able to breath a sigh of relief as he plopped himself down onto the couch. “I never thought I’d ever look forward to waiting for you to cook me some dinner.” He said, which prompted her to pout at him.

“Hmpf, yeah yeah.” She was on the opposite side of the spectrum on feeling their day was done. “Let me get changed first. I’d hate for this new outfit to get dirty.” With that, she headed into the bathroom.

“Hmm, I wonder what’s on TV right now?” He turned it on to run right into another commercial for the movie they just watched. This time it was one that hyped up all the good reviews it received. “Ugh, I don’t need more of this.” Nishiki swapped through the channels while he waited for Tenha to get dinner ready.

After a little bit, she returned in her usual attire and got to work. While he just wanted peace and quiet for the rest of the evening. She wasn’t going to give it to him.

“I still can’t get over that movie.” She spoke dreamily as food was frying on the pan.

“You’re still on that?” It got on his nerves with how often she kept bringing it up. “It’s just a movie. There’s no way it’s that good.”

“But don’t you just get that feeling of wanting to talk about it after you’re done watching it?” She responded. “You just want to keep experiencing that high emotion. And it just makes you want to connect that feeling with other people who think the same way.”

“I’m pretty sure my feelings are rock bottom right now.” He didn’t want to partake in this. Though unfortunately for her, he was her only friend here. That was unfortunate for him. “Whatever, what was your favorite part?”

“I loved the part when they finally kissed!” She gave him a clichéd answer.

“And I liked the part when it was over.” He gave her a cliched response in kind. “Anything else?”

“I also liked the part when he put his hand on the wall to display dominance over her.” She added. “What do you humans call it? A kobedon?”

“A kabedon.” He corrected her. That was a move which grew in popularity towards the latter half of Nishiki’s high school days and into college. So he had seen a fair number of men using it in an attempt to woo girls. Personally, he thought it was a bit weird, and it certainly annoyed him when he heard the slamming on the wall when he was on the other side. There were a few times where he knocked back in anger.

“The fox boys back home could learn a thing or two from you humans it seems.” She was on the side of everyone who wasn’t him. “My heart would race if one of them did that to me.”

“Oh really?” He took her idea and decided to have a little fun with it. She had been annoying him all day. So Nishiki took it upon himself to have one over her this time. The man stood up from the couch and approached her in the kitchen.

“Hey, um…” Chills ran up her spine as he got closer. His demeanor made the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. “W-what’s up?” Without saying anything, he walked closer towards her. This resulted in the girl finding her back up against the wall. Then, Nishiki slammed his hand by her head.

“Is your heart racing now?” He asked. Tenha didn’t say anything as she stared him in the eye. Her heart definitely felt the elevation from his sudden move. All he wanted to do was scare her a bit as a joke, but it seemed to have taken a different turn. The young fox girl tightly grasped at her chest and gave him a cute, tearful face unintentionally. “Oh, sorry.”

He backed away after seeing her like this. “It was just a joke, I hope I didn’t frighten you that badly.” Nishiki wondered if her animal half might’ve been the cause. Certainly in real life one would not want to scare a wild animal for fear of it attacking in retaliation. “You all right?”

“Yeah…” Finally, she was able to catch her breath. Tenha sighed, trying to calm her beating heart. “I guess it works even if someone like you is doing it.” It miffed her that he caused her to feel this way. Something like the way those shojo girls do should only be reserved for special boys.

“You know, even those romances for guys got their own quirks too.” He tried changing the subject to remove the awkwardness in the air. Though this would only lead them to something even more embarrassing. “Like how a cu… Err, like how having a girl cook dinner with an apron is liked.”

“Really?” She only allowed it to piqued her interest so she could also move on. “Is there anything we say, or it that all?” If all men wanted was a girl cooking dinner for them, then she would view that as fairly unexciting. “Like, are they any notable quotes?”

“Well, there are…” He responded with strained expression.

“So are you going to tell me?” Now that he had given her a hint, she just needed the answer. “Go on now, what would we say?”

“…” He didn’t want to say the sentence, but she wouldn’t stop poking and prodding him for an answer. “The idea is when the husband gets home from work. Their loving wife is supposed to say… ‘Honey you’re home! Do you want dinner, a-a bath… O-or… M-me?’…” His body tensed up as he said more of the line. It pained him to have to do something so cringy to explain it to her.

It took a moment for Tenha to process what he just said as an example. “Huh, so that’s why the fox spirits elders recommended I find a man to sign my contract. Apparently she was free to choose a woman, but went with their suggestion. “I see that men are simple beings who only wish to be cleaned or fed. But… What does that last part mean?” She took the word, me, from her position as the one saying it. “What do you want from me in that context?”

“Like I said.” He didn’t want to have to explain this any longer. This conversation had been derailed to the worst possible outcome. Now the only thing left was to let this train wreak complete its course. “It’s a thing between a husband and wife. Because when two people really love each other… They… Make love.”

“Make… Love?” It took her another few moments to process what was said. Then, once she came to the realization as to what that meant. Tenha’s eyes shot wide open. “You mean that!?” She took some steps back as if to ready a defense. “Y-you pervert!”

“I didn’t say I was the one who wanted that. It’s just a trope for shonen romance, like with shojo!” He walked towards her to try and calm down the situation.

“No, but it’s for men like you.” Now she understood why the spirits wanted her to select a man. They knew she would tried to find the loneliest sap in the entire world to swindle into this contract. That was their plan to get her to trap herself with someone who wanted her for her body. “Get away from me! I’m still pure.”

“Don’t worry, so am I.” He knew he shouldn’t have done what he did. It seemed that despite being a fan of romance. Tenha was still one who had little, if any, personal experience with it herself. “It’s fine, I don’t want your body.”

“I don’t know if I should be happy or offended.” He couldn’t tell with this girl. Apparently this was one of those situations where he was destined to lose either way. “But I guess I shouldn’t care about what you think.” She sighed, finally calming herself down. “It’s fine. You’re right. It’s not like you’ve got the nerve to actually go after a girl.”

“Heheh, yeah.” A bit mean, he thought. But the man could live with that response.

“I mean really. If where you are is any indication, then you really don’t go after girls.”

“O-okay… You don’t need to keep going.”