When Chiaya started teaching Karan the numbers, she quickly noticed how fast he was learning. Now it was time to move on to the currency.
Karan was able to complete imaginary shopping exercises with ease.
"Now it's time to put all that knowledge to the test, my star pupil," she said with a grin.
"What do you mean?" Karan asked.
"I'm hungry. And you must be too. We're going to order food, and you will pay the delivery person and get the change. Also, you'll need to leave a 20% tip. 'Percent' means—"
"I know what percent means, Chiaya."
"Alright then. I'll place the order. What would you like to eat?" she asked.
"I don't mind. Anything's fine."
"Is there anything you don't eat?"
"Just onions."
"Oooh, so you do know what onion means!" Chiaya exclaimed, suddenly feeling as if she'd uncovered a fragment of his memory.
"Of course. It's one of the crops Elara taught the Narval people to grow."
Chiaya hit a wall. "Right…" she mumbled under her breath.
"Anyway," Chiaya said, "I highly doubt Elara taught the Narval people what sushi is."
She picked up her phone and called a place, ordering a bunch of things Karan couldn't quite understand.
When she hung up, she noticed Karan was watching her.
"What are you doing, pupil? Get back to work and solve the problems I gave you… Skksh!" she said.
"What was that sound?" Karan asked.
"A whip." Chiaya said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"That was a whip?"
"Of course it was. You know… Skksh!" she repeated. When she saw Karan laughing, she shouted "Ohhh, if you think you know that well, then you try it."
"I've never tried it before, but I guess the whip sound would be something like... Vzhjss!"
"What kind of whip is that?!" Chiaya shouted.
"Soul whip," Karan replied. "One of the weapons formed using soul power, it shimmers in shades of blue."
Even though they spoke the same language, it was strange how they still had to explain things to each other—like something as common as the sound of a whip.
Still, it was fun, Chiaya thought.
It had been a long time since she talked to someone who saw the world from such a completely different perspective.
Explaining how things worked in her world made her think about how she should describe things she saw every day.
She had never had to explain "what the internet is for" to anyone before.
But now she did.
And it was… fun.
"No slacking, pupil! Solve the rest!" she said.
Karan finished the exercise and handed it to Chiaya. She checked and saw that every single number was written correctly.
"Good job. I will reward you with a coffee."
"Oh, really?" Karan asked.
"Why are you that surprised?" Chiaya had expected a different question from him like "What is coffee?"
"It was mentioned in one of Elara's journals as the drink she missed the most," he explained.
"I remembered when that woman this morning offered us some."
"Elara clearly had good taste," Chiaya said with a smile.
When Chiaya brought the coffee, Karan took a sip. She was watching him with wide eyes, eagerly waiting for his reaction.
He found her impatience amusing.
He took another slow sip before answering, clearly enjoying her anticipation.
"It's good," he said at last.
In truth, he found the taste a bit bitter and didn't quite understand why people made such a fuss about it. Still, he didn't want to be rude to Chiaya by saying he didn't like it.
"What! It's good?" Chiaya's face fell. "You didn't like it."
"No, I did like it… just… this wasn't the taste I was expecting." he said.
Chiaya tried to remember the first time she had coffee. She was probably just a child back then, and the taste hadn't been all that pleasant to her either.
"Give it some time," she said with a smile.
By the time the doorbell rang, they had finished their coffees and all their work. Chiaya opened the door and called out, "Come on, Karan," urging him to pay.
The man at the door was momentarily shocked when he saw Karan. "Uh... um... your bill is 52 dollars."
Karan paid and thanked him. The man kept looking back at Karan as he walked away. Chiaya thought, "Looks like he doesn't only catch women's attention, but men too."
As they set the table and began eating, Chiaya encouraged Karan to try everything he liked, just as she had done before.
Karan found himself appreciating humanity all over again. Who would think to wrap rice and all sorts of other things in seaweed and end up with something so tasty?
Not to mention, it all looked so colorful.
Something green caught his eye. He picked it up and popped it into his mouth—just as Chiaya shouted, "Karan, no!" But it was too late.
Whatever he had eaten was already trying to kill him!
Chiaya rushed to bring water. Karan's face had turned bright red, his eyes watering from the burn.
"What were you thinking, eating a whole ball of wasabi?" Chiaya cried.
When Karan finally managed to breathe again, he rasped, "It looked cute and harmless."
Chiaya burst into laughter. "That's my fault. I should've warned you."
Karan didn't argue. Warning someone before they eat poison was, after all, common courtesy.
Even the people of Narval occasionally enjoyed spicy things, but he had never seen anything on this level before. Karan added one more thing to what he had learned about humans: they actually enjoyed pain.
After he'd done all he could to ease the burning pain, Chiaya asked, "Feeling better now?"
"Yes," Karan replied.
"Thank you for the food. And again, I'm sorry I didn't warn you about the wasabi," she said with a slight smile. "I was too busy eating."
They finished their meal, and afterward, Karan tried writing a few more times in silence before finally speaking.
"You must be tired. I should go. I don't want to be a burden any longer."