The woman pulled out a chair and sat down.
Phew.
The woman let out a long sigh.
Then the veins in her forehead began to throb.
"Ox-Nose!"
The woman ground out each word through clenched teeth.
"Why did you push me off?!"
Half-asleep, she'd nearly thought there was an earthquake.
In the chaos of that instant, she'd almost leaped up and rushed for the door.
If she really had done that...
It would have been a spectacularly embarrassing sight.
Luckily.
Her reaction hadn't been that fast.
She hadn't been able to leap up at all.
Ox-Nose furrowed his brow.
The woman froze.
This seemed to be the first time she'd seen Ox-Nose express such emotion...
But...
Just as anger began to rise in the woman, a flash of inspiration struck her.
She realized something.
"You..."
The woman's expression turned a little complicated.
"Is it because I told you..."
"Don't wake me by throwing things at me. Just push me awake..."
Was that it...?
"So you pushed me awake?"
Ox-Nose didn't react again.
But the woman already had her answer.
The woman raised a hand and rubbed her head.
This...
The woman slowly let out a breath.
"I told you to just push me awake..."
The woman held back her emotions.
"But when I said to push me..."
"I didn't mean like this..."
The woman mimed a forceful shove. "Push me."
"I meant like this..."
The woman mimed a gentle nudge.
"Push me."
"Understand?"
Ox-Nose: ...
The woman took a deep breath.
"Of course they're different."
"There's a big difference between the two kinds of pushing."
"The first kind is what made you push me right onto the floor just now!"
"You might hurt me."
"The second kind would wake me up more gently!"
"I