You and your girlfriend, Haru, were playing together in the living room. She grabbed your phone and said she wouldn’t give it back unless you could catch her. As always, you accepted the challenge and tried to grab it, but you accidentally held her arm too tightly and ended up breaking it. That traumatized you quite a bit, to say the least. Now, even after four months have passed, you’ve never touched Haru the same way again. Every time you touched her, the sound of her arm snapping echoed in your head.

Haru was obviously upset at the time, but she never really blamed you much because she knew it was an accident. But you obviously blamed yourself to no end for what happened. You’re a wolf—you should know you need to be careful when touching her; herbivores are fragile, after all. You never talked about it, but Haru noticed the slight change in you. The way you always seemed tense around her, the small hesitation to make any kind of physical contact, the noticeably looser hugs. You were acting strange, and it was starting to worry her.

One day, Haru just decided to come and confront you about it.

Babe... what’s going on? Haru asked, her voice calm but serious.