Despite the experience being completely different from any time she had ever gone shopping on Earth, Kora couldn’t deny that she enjoyed herself. Although she wasn’t ready to admit it, it was mostly due to the person she spent the day shopping with. Before the two of them went back to his house, he led her to a small restaurant. Realizing that she hadn’t seen any sort of kitchen in his house, she decides to ask him about it while they wait for their food to arrive. 

“Do you have a kitchen? Or do you just not like to cook?” Kora asks as she reaches for her drink. 

“Not anymore. We try to avoid kitchens in living spaces because creatures used to break into our houses in search of food. Even the smallest things could attract them, so most people eat in restaurants. If a creature attacks a restaurant at night, nobody will be hurt. Although that doesn’t happen very often.” Nori responds as he takes a sip of his drink. Gesturing over Kora's drink, he asks, “Do you like it?”

Although she had just taken her first sip, she took another before answering. “It tastes really good, there are so many flavors that I can’t figure out everything that’s in it.” Taking a third sip, she savors the flavors as they swirl around in her mouth. He had ordered something for her, because although she was able to speak their language, she hadn’t been graced with the ability to read it. Which, for obvious reasons, would make it hard to order from a menu. “Thanks for ordering for me, do you think you could teach me to read? Or at least the basics? I’ve just realized the books from Elder Maize are essentially useless to me if I can’t read them.”

“First of all, you’re welcome and I’m glad you like the drink. Secondly, I was already planning to teach you anything you need. After all, Elder Maize told me to make sure you have everything you need. Although, I do think a proper teacher may be better so that you can learn how to read.”

“I’d like you to at least teach me the basics. I don’t want to let everyone know just how little I know.” Despite the fact that the village looked primitive from first glance, Kora had seen even the children reading and writing throughout the village. Education was taken very seriously here and she didn’t want to be seen as more of an outcast than she already was. 

“Okay, we’ll get started tomorrow. You look like you could use some rest.”

Although Kora’s first instinct was to protest, she knew that he was right. She could feel the heavy feeling in her legs now that she was sitting down and the wound from earlier was throbbing. They had done a lot of walking as they walked to various stores and shops. Although he had insisted on carrying her at first, Kora was able to convince him to put her down. “You’re probably right, I’m not used to walking everywhere. We have more ways of getting places on Earth. Trains, cars, boats, and planes mean we aren’t doing nearly as much walking as we used to.” 

“You do realize that I have no idea what any of those things are, right?” Nori asks as a grin fills his face and he laughs. 

Kora sighs before launching into a small explanation of each thing so that Nori would have a basic understanding of what they do and how people used them. Although she didn’t know how exactly they all worked, her basic explanation allowed him to understand her point. 

“It sounds like earthlings just tried to do everything they could so that they could be even lazier. It doesn’t hurt to get more exercise. It keeps us healthy and strong.” Nori says with disbelief still evident on his face from her explanation. 

“If you think that using transportation is lazy, it’s probably a good thing that you don’t know anything about the other things used on Earth to make life easier. 

By the time the two of them finished eating, Kora couldn’t deny that her leg felt worse than before and the throbbing pain intensified as she attempted to stand up. Immediately noticing her discomfort, Nori jumps up and swoops her up into his arms effortlessly saying, “Just let me carry you home, I’ve got to check that wound when we get home.”

Despite the fact that she had seen many other women being carried throughout the day, she couldn’t ignore the looks they got as soon as they left the store. “Why is everyone staring at us like that?” Kora says as she looks over Nori’s shoulder at another woman being carried. 

Nori clears his throat before he responds, “In our culture, carrying someone like this is seen as something that is typically reserved for one’s spouse. They are interested because I have shown no interest in a woman since… everything happened.” 

As Kora looks up at Nori’s face, she catches the faintest hint of a blush on his cheeks. At this point, there was no way that he could continue to deny his feelings. Simply saying, “okay,” she decided to spend the rest of the walk home looking for any landmarks to find her way back into town on her own without getting lost. 

Trying to push him about his feelings only seemed to push him farther away so she decided to let things develop more organically. However, neither of them expected what would soon come their way.