"Pardon?" Devin brought his ears closer, "What do you wish for? I couldn't get you."
"I wish to marry you," she said while looking into Devin's eyes. She wanted to confront him properly before stating her desires.
'Eh?' Devin had a woozy expression on his face as he couldn't help but feel cringed out.
'What the fuck? Did I hear it right?' Devin pinched himself as if to confirm whether he was even alive.
He had a stream of weird questions running through his head and he could think of some conclusions as well but none of them made any sense. Topped up with her weird attire it made it all the more confusing.
"Marry? Why? All of a sudden?" Devin could only make weird exasperating comments as he couldn't make anything else. The time he was caught off guard the real deal.
"Umm… There are a lot of reasons but I can't tell you any of those until you agree to take me as your bride."
Another set of questions came to his mind with Elena's last comment.
'Damn this girl sure is mysterious.'
Is all of this dangerous? Was it really a bad idea to agree? Has the sun risen from the east today? Should he call the police? Many many questions came to his mind but at the end he could only ask one of them. He didn't want to ask it per se, it just blurted out of his mouth.
"Are you… Eh, like pure?" He asked. He desperately scratched his neck as he laughed wryly.
"Pure?" Ellena cocked her head. 'Pure' could mean a lot of things and what Devin meant by it wasn't delivered properly to Elena.
"I mean, are you a virgin?" He asked, feeling ashamed as to why he was even considering this girl's joke a reality.
Marriage? That must be a big fat joke. Not to mention both of them were too young for that.
"Why? Of course I am!" She placed her hand onto her chest as if to swear on herself that what she says is true. For the first time Elena was flared up as if her dignity was breached.
"Oh.. okay nice" Devin scratched his neck. It was a slip of tongue but at the end of the day he chose to stay out of all of this.
"I am sorry but if this is a joke you can leave. I am not interested."
"It's not! I genuinely need you.. Please"
[Negotiation taking effect…]
"Eh? Then give me some time to think.." Devin scratched his head as he went and sat on his bed again flicking through his phone.
He opened a search engine and typed 'What to do if a stranger comes to your home and proposes to marry you?'
Nothing worthwhile came up.
Devin sighed.
'This is probably a really weird question considering the standards of our world. But this girl… she seems to be some kind of alien to all of this' Devin thought.
At that point he had never expected that his comments would one day be proven true.
If it was anyone else Devin would have downright rejected and might have also publicly denounced such a person. That was who Devin was. He hated jokes like these.
But Elena was different. Devin didn't know of this but Elena was using the [Negotiation] Skill she obtained from the dimensional tunnel on him to persuade him. So Devin was having second thoughts and finding it hard to refuse.
But he didn't accept it either. He had a high self esteem which held him back. All the while Devin played with the phone he had felt to notice one thing.
Elena was standing there unwavering as if waiting for his response.
"Are you going to continue standing there? You can go now and come back tomorrow by then I would have probably thought about it."
"That you say… but I have nowhere else to go. I have no one of mine in this world."
"For real?"
Indeed Elena was from another world and she had no one in this world whom she knew. But there was another reason, if she were to leave Devin's side her [Negotiation] skill would stop taking effect. If that happens Devin would downright reject her. She could feel it from how disinterested he was in her.
"Okay fair enough, sit here then," Devin tapped the bed indicating Elena to sit on it while he himself slipped below sitting on the floor. The apartment was too small to have any chair so the bed was all they got.
'At least for today I would treat her as a guest if not anything,' Devin thought as his attention went back to his phone.
With small and scared steps Elena walked closer and sat on the bed.
"But how long are you gonna stay here?" Devin knitted his brows and asked.
Elena nodded.
"Unless I get your answer, Devin."
Devin rolled his eyes again. It went back to that single stupid thing.
"Fair suit yourself!"
Devin got up leaving her behind as it deemed it time to prepare something for dinner. He wasn't much of a cook but since he was living alone, he at least had to learn to do a thing or two and of course make cup noodles.
"What are you doing?" Elena asked.
"Cooking food."
Elena got up as she watched Devin taking the utensils out.
"I can cook too. Should I help?"
"No thanks," Devin refused coldly.
***
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