As if she had said something he hadn’t expected at all.

“B-but…”

“?”

“From the beginning, I…”

With a face full of confusion, Nasir barely managed to speak.

“You’ve been touching me all this time.”

What… touching?

With her thought process halted, Haniel just blinked stupidly.

Nasir’s voice, sounding as fragile as a bird’s down feathers, and his eyes that didn’t hide his hurt. To anyone watching, it would have looked as if Haniel had violated Nasir against his will.

“I… you, you, you, t-touched you?”

“Yes. You were the one who… stroked me every day… and tickled me! Every time I came to see you!”

“I, I did? I did that?”

“Yes!”

Nasir moved closer to Haniel and shouted.

“There’s not a place on me you haven’t touched! So I thought you… you…”

His face turned completely red, either from anger or embarrassment.

“That you had accepted me…”

His hair slightly stood on end with excitement. His purple eyes seemed to be burning.

There even appeared to be moisture at the corners of his eyes, causing a flustered Haniel to move her lips.

“Um, I touched you? There’s no way…”

‘Huh?’

Haniel drew in a breath as a certain image flashed through her mind.

Nasir, ‘Saedol.’

Herself, always placing him on her shoulder or arm whenever he visited, and showering him with affection.

“Oh, you’re so pretty. Where do you like it? Here? Here? Good boy, good.”

“Squawk!”

She certainly had stroked that bird from time to time. But simply because of that?

Aren’t humans born with the desire to stroke all living creatures?

Whether cute or not, isn’t it human instinct to want to touch and stroke any animal that looks moderately fluffy?

True to that desire, Haniel had stroked not just Saedol, but almost every animal in the vicinity at least once.

‘I didn’t stroke Saedol… Nasir specially!’

But Haniel’s chest, which had been swelling with indignation, suddenly froze as other memories came flooding back along with past recollections.

She suddenly remembered a video she had seen in her previous life.

It was part of a variety show that showcased different kinds of pets.

“I heard there’s an interesting bird here? A bird that loves its owner soooo much, Saedol! How did you meet?”

“Oh my, what bird is this…”

“The injured baby bird Saedol. After stroking him every day and taking good care of him, he came to see Ms. Haneul as his owner.”

“But this guy transforms instantly when he sees people approaching his owner! He attacks right away!”

A bird that followed its owner very well but was extremely wary of other people.

As it turned out, the background to this behavior was that the bird had interpreted the daily stroking as having s*xual meaning…

Because it thought of its owner as its mate, it considered everyone who approached as competitors.

‘Wait a minute…’

Isn’t this my story?

Goosebumps rose on Haniel’s nape.

How could there be such a similar case?

But if that logic was correct, then Haniel had indeed, as Nasir claimed, been diligently caressing him and engaging in a kind of ‘courtship activity.’

Whether intentionally or not.

‘No wonder he seemed so pleased when I stroked him.’

And come to think of it, Saedol often brought her so many hunted animals that sometimes she didn’t even need to go gathering.

Before, she had thought these were gifts given to her as a mother figure, or benefactor and friend, but looking back now…

‘It was courtship. It was courtship!’

He was exactly like a male bringing gifts diligently to his female!

Moreover, Haniel, unaware of this, had readily accepted Nasir’s courtship gifts and eaten them with relish… just like a female accepting a male’s courtship gifts.

And after that, whenever Haniel stroked other animals in the area, Saedol would clack his beak and make a fuss as if protesting.

Thinking about it now, that was…

“How can you flirt with others right in front of me after accepting my proposal!”

Haniel had essentially courted multiple animals right in front of Saedol…

She touched her forehead with a look of dismay.

‘When I think about it that way, it’s not strange that he flapped around so hysterically back then.’

Is this what they mean by a self-inflicted disaster?

But even the person who coined the term “self-inflicted disaster” wouldn’t believe that simply stroking a friendly bird would lead to such a situation.

As it became crystal clear that all this was her own doing, Haniel turned pale. She began to gather excuses.

“So, I did touch you, but…”

“What? You just said you never did…”

“I did touch you all over… but.”

Haniel’s eyes flashed.

“That doesn’t mean I wanted to be your mate, does it?”

“Huh? You, you were this kind of female?”

Haniel was trying to be an even worse dog than the werewolf living in her house. Nasir opened his mouth wide and narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

In response, Haniel, hiding her trembling heart, lifted her chin proudly like someone who acts even more brazen after passing gas.

“I’m really sorry for stroking and touching you, Nasir. But it seems there was a communication problem between us. It’s what we call cultural relativity.”

“Ha…”

“Look, I only found out today that you could transform into a human… so.”

Haniel’s voice and confidence gradually diminished in proportion to the time Nasir’s bullet-like gaze remained fixed on her.

Her body naturally shrank as the prickly, flamboyantly handsome man stared at her intensely with an angry expression.

“I thought you were an ordinary bird until now. So when you suddenly talk about being mates, it’s a bit shocking.”

“But.”

“I’ve never even thought about having a mate…”

Perhaps it was because he was faced with a woman who, after thoroughly fondling him and making him think she had decided to take him as her mate after careful consideration, was now saying, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Nasir’s face was becoming as cold and rigid as marble.

“You’ve never thought about having a mate?”

“Yes. Really.”

“That can’t be. I’ve seen you go through several breeding seasons alone.”

Going through breeding seasons alone…

“!”

Haniel’s face instantly turned a bursting red.

She had realized what Nasir’s words meant.

Her heart pounded wildly at the thought that her most base desires had been suddenly exposed.

The d*ldo she used whenever she felt the urge while at home.

If she had known there was someone in the vicinity who could guess what that object was for, she would have been much more careful, using it discreetly in a secluded corner of the house. But Haniel hadn’t been so cautious.

Thinking that there was no one around anyway and that she was the only human in this world, she had sometimes used it not just inside the house but even on the terrace.

At an angle where anyone watching could clearly see, shamelessly spreading her legs for easier insertion…

As all these past events flashed through her mind like machine gun fire, Haniel’s face went beyond red and began to turn pale.

‘I’m ruined.’

Social death wasn’t far away.

From Haniel’s trembling lips came a stuttering voice like a broken cassette tape.

“W-w-what, no, that’s… no, what…”

“You thr*st it around so defensively anywhere and everywhere, did you hope I wouldn’t see? How foolish.”

Bang. The final words Saedol spat out were like a gunshot that demolished Haniel’s sandcastle-like defensive wall.

Human dignity crumbling away. Unable to handle her tattered mental state, which had become like a sheet of paper, Haniel slumped down on the spot.

“…You saw?”

“Yes.”

Let me die.

Haniel, with eyes like a dead fish, clutched her head.