A Tiger Rolled Into My Life, Bringing Chaos With It - Chapter 19

‘What a world of difference from my regular tiger customer.’

Even though she tried not to compare, since these two were the only tigers she had met, she couldn’t help but contrast them. Their opposite personalities played a part, too. Unlike her quiet and gentle regular customer, Cher was talkative and did things his own way. Still, his thoughtfulness was apprecia—

“Look at this.”

“W-what is it?”

Just as she was thinking positive thoughts about him, Cher, fresh from his shower, spoke to her in a confrontational tone. Tinya reflexively took a defensive stance. It was an automatic response developed from the thirty minutes of nagging she had endured.

Cher approached with large strides and climbed onto the bed in one swift motion. As his body drew near, a dim shadow fell over Tinya. The suddenly shortened distance made her body stiffen. Before she could ask what he was doing, he pulled her body toward the center of the bed.

“You’re practically glued to the wall.”

“I was worried Cher might fall…”

“Even if you pushed with all your might, would I budge?”

Tinya’s lips automatically pouted. Being reminded of something so obvious made her feel annoyed. His condescending tone and slightly mocking gaze made him seem even more hateful.

Her expression, which revealed her displeasure despite trying to hide it, caught Cher’s eye. Small as a guinea pig, yet stress had built up from being nagged all day. Though this new expression was refreshing and entertaining, he couldn’t just watch as she tried to inch away again.

“Hey. Don’t you know that when you share a bed, you’re supposed to sleep touching each other?”

“…What? Really?”

Facing Tinya’s innocent questioning eyes, Cher nodded without changing his expression. Well, his parents always slept that way, so it wasn’t completely untrue. He conveniently ignored the fact that their relationship wasn’t that kind of relationship.

Tinya stopped her movement. Until now, though Cher had said many unpleasant things, he had never said anything untrue. From Tinya’s perspective, there was no one to correct him.

Unfortunately, the only person Tinya remembered sharing a bed with was her mother. Perhaps her father had also slept with them, but he had passed away when she was five, so her memories were hazy. Even her memories with her mother weren’t clear, but at least the moments of sleeping together in bed remained. In her memories, young Tinya always fell asleep in her mother’s embrace.

“Come here.”

Judging that his nonsense had been believed, Cher patted the center of the bed. Tinya rolled her pupils around and then crawled to the middle.

“I had no idea.”

“Better late than never.”

He very naturally slipped his arm behind her neck. Tinya’s face pressed close against the inside of his arm. It felt somewhat different from sleeping with her mother, but the warmth of their contact didn’t feel bad… so she just silently maintained her position.

‘She’s small.’

Cher newly realized how small Tinya was as she fit completely in his embrace. Her head that could probably fit in his outstretched hand, and while their eye levels were similar, her feet only reached his calves.

‘I wonder if her animal form is small, too?’

Although human and animal forms don’t necessarily correlate in size, somehow, he felt her animal form would be small too. A tiny rabbit that could just fit into a burrow seemed more fitting than a bulky, muscular one. He was curious… but if he asked her to transform now, wouldn’t she be scared? After all, she felt more intimidated when he was in animal form.

It would be troublesome if she perceived it as establishing dominance. She cowered at trivial things, so he needed to be especially careful about this. Still, living together, he would see it eventually.

Despite these thoughts, his hand fidgeted with impatience, and before he knew it, he had placed his hand over Tinya’s hand that had entered his field of vision. Her hands were small and round, too.

As Cher slowly caressed her fingers, he suddenly felt calluses on her fingertips. Unlike the soft back of her hand, her knuckles were rough. How much must she have gripped, pushed, and scrubbed things throughout her life for them to have hardened like this?

Just as he was about to ask something, he quietly closed his mouth. Tinya’s eyes were closed; she had fallen asleep at some point. Shallow breaths rose and fell regularly on her chest.

‘Now she sleeps well even with me here.’

Perhaps her wariness had decreased since he slept in human form, as she fell asleep faster than before. Seeing her fall asleep even more quickly than yesterday, the corner of his mouth twitched. Though no one was watching, he forcibly turned down the corners of his mouth and carefully extended one arm to touch the switch.

Click.

As the light turned off, the room was enveloped in darkness. He lowered his arm back to its place and continued to fiddle with Tinya’s hand with his other hand. Perhaps because of the steady movement, Tinya didn’t wake up. As he gently traced her small fingertips, thoughts of his mother flashed through his mind.

His mother often ran across the wide plains, but her hands, when in human for,m couldn’t be very soft. She wasn’t one to avoid hard work either…. At that moment, a particular memory emerged. It was the image of his mother periodically applying oil to her hands and meticulously caring for her skin.

‘Would it get better if I applied oil?’

Though he was a novice in this area and wasn’t certain, plans to buy oil tomorrow were already being methodically drawn up in his mind.

The next day.

After Tinya left for work, Cher took out two boxes of sausage-shaped mushrooms from the refrigerator and grilled them for lunch. After finishing his lunch of nicely browned mushrooms, he immediately began preparing to go out.

First, he put on a rabbit ear headband. Over that, he wore a hat with holes for the ears to naturally poke through. He looked quite ridiculous, but his silver hair and distinctive appearance were somewhat concealed. With a zip-up that came up to his neck, he exuded a suspicious aura. Fortunately or unfortunately, the rabbit ears protruding from the top of his head destroyed all tension.

‘Better safe than sorry.’

It was almost certain that the hyenas had obtained scent neutralizers. Whatever method they used, they were clearly coming and going in the herbivorous district, so it was best to cover his face as much as possible.

Leaving the house, Cher traced the path Tinya had shown him and reached the general store without difficulty. As he opened the door, his eyes met with the store owner, who was just getting up from his seat.

“Welcome.”

The store owner seemed to recognize him despite only his eyes and nose being visible. When Cher nodded, the store owner casually spoke.

“Did you give the pomegranate as a gift well?”

It seemed his curiosity was piqued, probably because customers who called the carnivorous district were rare. Cher shrugged and joked.

“Unfortunately, they said there were none left.”

“Oh my.”

“So I’m going to buy a different gift.”

“We don’t have pomegranates, but we have almost everything else, so take a good look around.”

After exchanging formal greetings, Cher slowly entered the store. Responding to the near-casual interaction was a form of image management. It was so he could get a proper answer later when asking if anyone else had bought scent neutralizers.

When you consistently buy the same product, that product becomes linked to the customer in memory. Even for products normally not paid attention to, once a regular customer emerges, when someone looks for that product, their face unconsciously comes to mind. Cher planned to periodically visit this general store to buy scent neutralizers, establishing the formula “scent neutralizer = himself” in the store owner’s mind.

So today he planned to buy not only oil but also a scent neutralizer. However, this plan was only half successful. There was scent neutralizer, but no oil. Even after thoroughly searching every shelf in the store, it wasn’t visible.

‘This is troublesome.’

He was reluctant to look for another store as it would mean unnecessarily roaming around the herbivorous district. That was also why he tried not to leave the house unless necessary, like for groceries. Maybe he should at least ask.

“Owner. Don’t you sell oil here?”

“…Oil?”

The store owner’s expression became subtle. At the end of his glancing gaze was an inexplicable sourness. Cher, inwardly puzzled by the store owner’s incomprehensible reaction, continued.

“I looked everywhere but couldn’t find it.”

“Of course not. That’s an under-the-counter item.”

The owner slowly rose and bent down under the counter. It was the exact same place where he had taken out the phone that could call the carnivorous district last time. Cher’s brow furrowed slightly. He couldn’t understand why mere oil would be treated on the same level as the telephone.

Eventually, the store owner took out an hourglass-shaped glass bottle.

“10 silver.”

“I’ll also buy one scent neutralizer.”

He shook the scent neutralizer he had picked up while browsing.

“You buy a lot of scent neutralizers. Together, that’s 11 silver and 25 copper.”

“I work in the peace zone, so. And I’ve found the product to be good. I can’t even use the ones sold elsewhere.”

“I have an exclusive contract anyway, so it’s only sold in my store.”

“You must have good business acumen.”

Cher joked as he paid. Though the store owner replied nonchalantly, “It’s nothing,” his tone softened considerably, pleased by the compliment. His hands became noticeably more delicate as he placed the items in a bag. Maybe he was being careful because the oil was in a glass bottle.

‘Is it expensive because it’s glass?’

Though he didn’t know the appropriate price for oil, considering the average value of items on the shelves, it seemed to be on the expensive side in this store. It occurred to him that this might be why it was kept under the counter. If it were both expensive and glass, it would be troublesome for the store if it were stolen or broken.

Just as he finished his plausible reasoning, the store owner, having packed all the items, handed him the bag.

“Thank you.”

“Goodbye.”

After seeing him off, the store owner picked up a newspaper. Then, belatedly, he let out a single “Ah.”

“I didn’t tell him how to use the oil.”

It would be problematic if he used too much at once. But he soon dismissed his concern. Come to think of it, this customer had asked for oil without changing his facial expression. Given that he confidently requested oil that only knowledgeable shifters would know about, he probably already knew how to use it.

“Newlyweds are so passionate.”

The store owner’s soliloquy didn’t reach Cher, who was already far away.