An Evening for Two
An Evening for Two
LATER that night, I crawled into my futon filled with a deep feeling of satisfaction—the carbonara had come out great and I was very pleased with myself. But for some reason, I couldn’t fall asleep. I shut my eyes and tried some deep breathing exercises, but no matter what, I just couldn’t drift off. I lay there under the covers in quiet agony.
I wanted to be well-rested for tomorrow, but the harder I tried to fall asleep, the more awake I felt. I wasn’t resting—I was merely lying down. In the end, I gave up on trying to get to sleep, sighed, and crawled back out of my futon. If I got up and did something, perhaps I’d grow tired enough to fall asleep.
It might also help to distract me from that particular feeling of helplessness that’ll be very familiar to anyone who’s ever suffered a sleepless night. I tried to make as little noise as possible as I got to my feet, opened the door to my bedroom, and snuck through the house toward the kitchen.
I made it without bumping into too many things in the dark, and once I was there, I finally turned on the light—it was far enough away from the guest room that Techi and Kon were sleeping in that any noise I made shouldn’t wake anyone up. I gave the refrigerator door a good, hard tug.
The classic cure for a sleepless night such as this is a glass of warm milk, with an optional dribble of honey. It slowly warms the body and helps you relax. After that, I’d brush my teeth and do a few gentle stretches to tire myself out. I’d be asleep in no time…I hoped.
I got to work. I grabbed the milk out of the fridge, poured a single serving into a mug, and sweetened it with a little honey. Then I put the mug into the microwave and pressed the on button. I didn’t want to just stand around while it was heating up, so I started doing some stretches to pass the time. Placing my feet closely together, I raised both arms over my head to stretch out my spine. As I did, I saw Techi standing in the doorway to the kitchen in her pajamas.
“What on earth are you doing?” she asked coldly.
“I…I’m stretching,” I said, flustered, my arms still overhead. “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d make myself some hot milk. I’m waiting for it to heat…up…”
Techi shook her head and casually took a seat at the table in the middle of the kitchen. I slowly lowered my arms and took a deep breath to try and shake off my feeling of embarrassment.
“What’re you doing up so late, Miss Techi?” I asked her.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she replied simply.
I nodded in acknowledgment of our shared plight, just as the microwave timer went off. I opened the microwave door, took out the steaming mug of milk, and placed it on the table in front of Techi. Then I set about preparing a second one for myself.
She picked up the mug without a word and began sipping the hot drink. Once the microwave had heated up the second mug, I brought it over to the table and sat down facing her. She stared at me for a while through narrowed eyes before speaking. Her voice was uncharacteristically low.
“So…you still haven’t tried to make a move on me, huh?” she said. “I thought men were supposed to be uncontrolled horndogs who thought about little else. Especially when they’re living under the same roof as a young woman.”
I was about to take a sip of my drink and almost spilled it all over the table. What an absurdly sudden change of topic! By some miracle, I managed to keep all the milk inside the mug, steadying it with both hands as the ripples lapped against the rim.
What was this woman trying to say? Did she have something in mind? I tried once again to take a sip of my milk, this time bracing myself against any unexpected shocks.
“No,” I replied. “Men are not all uncontrollable horndogs. If you’re not dating someone, you don’t just go and pounce on them… We’re in quite an unusual situation because of the raid and quarantine. I’ve not been thinking about…whatever it is you think I’ve been thinking about…
“How could I continue living in Great-Grandpa’s house, or look Kon in the eye, if I abused a situation like this? They’re planning to charge that guy Satoira as a sexual predator; I don’t want to end up as his cellmate.
“Even if I thought a woman wanted me to make a move, I’d talk to her about my feelings and about becoming a couple first… That’s how it’s usually done, and that’s how I’d do it.”
I waited to see how Techi would react, but she simply murmured “Hmm…” before taking another sip of her hot milk. Her gaze wandered through to the living room before she continued.
“That’s how you’d do it, eh? And just how many times have you done that? How many people have you gone out with? How did those relationships work out? Did you go on a lot of dates, out there in the human world?”
“Wh-What? I…what?!” I was completely taken by surprise yet again. “What’s with you today? What exactly are you getting at? Those are some very personal questions!”
Techi continued to peer into the living room, her gaze drawn to the blank TV screen… But her voice had the tiniest hint of excitement—it was lively, curious, eager. She never talked like this normally.
“No, I mean…” she said, trying to plot out her train of thought. “The kind of relationships between men and women that you see on TV—you know, going out and all that… We don’t really have that here. Since you’re a human from beyond the border, I thought you’d have been in a range of relationships like that. Haven’t you?”
She was still looking at the television set, rather than talking directly to me… and I finally understood what on Earth she was talking about.
Techi watched a lot of TV. She was probably really into romantic dramas.
To us humans living in the outside world, those were everyday, unremarkable caricatures of romance. They were nothing to get all that excited about. But to Techi and the other beastfolk, they were a window into an entirely different world, telling stories that revolved around an entirely different system of values.
They could only peer at that world through their television screens. Visiting in person so they could experience it for themselves was beyond their wildest dreams. As someone who came from that world, Techi seemed to think that I’d lived through the kind of weird and wonderful love stories that were so popular in romantic dramas.
Did she really believe in those fantasies? Now that she had a flesh and blood resident of that strange world sitting in front of her, she could ask her own questions, as if taking her own first steps into that world. What bizarre and surprising stories from my life—what twisted and exciting tales, devoid of common sense—might I have to tell? She certainly seemed caught up in the idea—she was almost giddy with anticipation at what I might say.
It was clear now. She wasn’t making advances or flirting with me. She wanted a small taste of the outside world, that fantastical world of romantic adventure from the stories she liked so much.
Now that I’d finally realized all this, I wasn’t sure how to proceed. Should I frankly answer all her questions…or would it be better to refuse? Needless to say, love in the outside world was nothing like TV.
Those all-consuming, life-changing, teenage romances were the most outlandish of fantasies. Most real love stories were ordinary and unexciting when viewed from the outside; nothing that could be put on TV. That televised world didn’t really exist on either side of the border.
But Techi had her own dreamy image of the outside world, some yearning for that fantasy. Was it right to shatter that with boring truths about my life?
I wrestled with the question but struggled to make up my mind… In the end, I let out a small sigh and settled on simply telling the truth. I proceeded to tell her various things about my younger days—my time at high school and my college years. That included honest stories of my failures too—failures borne out of my own youthful misapprehensions about love and relationships…
I told her about the girl I’d gone out with just to say I was dating someone. To this day, I still don’t know whether I really liked her or not. Talk about a pathetic story of young love… In the end, this “girlfriend” and I were unable to close the distance between us—the most we ever did was hold hands. It wasn’t long before we broke up.
That put me off relationships for a while. I stopped actively pursuing them, choosing to focus my energies on my studies and job hunting instead. Once I started working, I started socializing more. I went to mixers and such, and I met all sorts of people, but I didn’t stay in touch with them—I never met anyone I really clicked with. And not long after that, I wound up in this forest.
I told the full story, hopeless as it was, without any lies, exaggerations, or omissions. But what felt pitiful to me seemed captivating to Techi. She enjoyed its mundane twists and turns, and her eyes glimmered with a gentle excitement as she commented and asked questions.
“I see!” Techi said enthusiastically. “So that’s what a mixer is like? I’ve seen them before in manga and such, but they’re shown so differently than what you described! Tell me about dates at the amusement park! That’s a classic date spot, right? What’re they really like? Is going up on a Ferris wheel as exciting as it sounds?”
It was the first time I’d seen her like this, full of excitement and emotion. It felt like something I wouldn’t get to see any other time or in any other place—a rare and precious moment, a show of hidden charm. I basked in the look of thrilled curiosity that lit up her face. Not wanting it to disappear too soon, I continued to answer any and all questions she asked, frankly and honestly.
