History Main / ReturningTheHandkerchief

* [[LoveFreak Momochi]] [[HighlyVisibleNinja Yuka]] in ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'' tries to {{Invoke|dTrope}} this with [[{{Protagonist}} Asahi]], but at the last moment she realizes she forgot her handkerchief. So instead, she drops ''{{caltrops}} and [[FlechetteStorm kunai]]'' at his feet.

* In the 2005 ''Film/PrideAndPrejudice'' film, Lydia attempts to do this with the soldiers marching through town but it fails as they don't even notice.

* An old ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny'' short has him advise his victim to start courting. He then dresses up as a woman, drops his handkerchief, and promptly freaks out (in his female persona, as if the guy had done something lewd) when the guy returns it.

[[folder: VideoGames]]

* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' plays out what would be a StrictlyFormula version of the trope, if not for two exceptions: there are no romantic overtones whatsoever ([[ShipTease maybe]]), and the "handkerchief" is Edgeworth's ''cravat'', which he was still ''wearing'' when [[spoiler: young Kay]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny blew her nose into it.]].

[[folder: WebComics]]
* Played with in Webcomic/TheBugPond. Leodegrance the assassin bug intentionally drops his hankerchief for Kid Katydid to pick up for him. She proceeds to stomp it.

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

1. Boy A has somehow dirtied/bloodied/soaked himself.

2. Girl B walks by and, seeing Boy A's plight, lends him a handkerchief.

3. The two might talk for a while, but Girl B usually leaves before Boy A has managed to clean himself up.

4. Left with just a dirty/bloody/soaked and borrowed handkerchief, Boy A sets off to clean it and return it to Girl B. [[ContrivedCoincidence Coincidence usually contrives]] to make this as awkward as possible, or Boy A is already incredibly self-conscious about the whole affair, either because '''a.''' Girl B is his crush, or '''b.''' he's [[GenreSavvy aware]] of the trope's romantic implications.

Note that the scenario need not be StrictlyFormula to count as a ReturningTheHandkerchief plot: the core of the trope is that Girl B has lost something, and Boy A has it. The lost item serves to remind Boy A of Girl B and/or encourage him to seek another encounter with her. It is not altogether uncommon for the handkerchief to go entirely unmentioned upon their second meeting; in which case, the handkerchief is a MacGuffin that [[LawOfConservationOfDetail disappears from the story once it is no longer needed]].

Western audiences might be more familiar with a similar comedy trope, in which Boy A immediately offers the handkerchief back after being done with his business, and Girl B politely rejects the sopping mess with a "keep it". The two forms likely evolved independently, however, and the classic gag is not this trope. Neither is a gentleman stooping to give back a hankie "accidentally" dropped by a Victorian lady, or a medieval knight being given one as a symbol of TheLadysFavour.

* ''TheOffice'' subverts this in the Season 5 episode "Blood Drive"; after lightly flirting with a woman at the blood drive, he finds she left her glove behind. As the people running the blood drive are restricted from giving out personal information, Michael runs a Valentine's Day mixer at the office, advertising the missing glove in an attempt to attract her. But she never comes.

* Parodied as a symptom of the "Love Sim Syndrome" in [[http://www.tsunamichannel.com/index.php?date=2003-04-23&comic=ExCoKo this]] ''TsunamiChannel'' strip.

* In the SmashMouth music video for their cover of "I'm a Believer", the trope is subverted; the lead singer spends the video chasing after a woman who dropped her keys, only to return them without comment, even when the woman attempts to flirt with him.

* ''Series/ResshaSentaiTokkyuger'' uses a version of this, where General Schwartz drops a handkerchief of his and Greeta picks it up; she tries to return it but he tells her to keep it since he doesn't want it back. From then on, she's regularly shown clutching the handkerchief as a sign of just how bad she's crushing on him.

Not related to BitingTheHandkerchief.

%% NOTE: This image is from ‘’Aneimo'', a hentai anime.

A common ShipTease device and an occasional form of MeetCute and/or SamaritanRelationshipStarter, a ReturningTheHandkerchief scenario usually plays out according to the following script:

* In Metal Gear Solid, the character gives Hal "Otacon" Emmerich her handkerchief, which he later passes on to Solid Snake. [[spoiler:Following Solid Snake's second encounter with Sniper Wolf, where she is fatally wounded, Snake places the handkerchief over Wolf's face after she dies.]]

* ''AceAttorneyInvestigations'' plays out what would be a StrictlyFormula version of the trope, if not for two exceptions: there are no romantic overtones whatsoever ([[ShipTease maybe]]), and the "handkerchief" is Edgeworth's ''cravat'', which he was still ''wearing'' when [[spoiler: young Kay]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny blew her nose into it.]].

* Occurs in ''LuckyStar'' between Yutaka and Minami. As Minami was the Girl B, this trope was {{inverted}}.

* In ''DNAngel'', Satoshi lends his handkerchief to Daisuke in the first volume; Daisuke gives it back in the second volume during a chapter that begins to explore Satoshi's character more. This is definitely played for the HoYay.

* This is how Ikki and Karin meet in ''{{Medabots}}''.
* There's a mutant, and averted, version of this in ''VictorianRomanceEmma''. Realizing that a well-to-do caller on her mistress has genuinely forgotten his gloves, she rushes out to return them. Initially, she fails, but manages to actually do so later. A further mutation of this occurs when she and the man in question begin to start up a friendship, which looks to be very quickly heading for romantic territory when Emma tells him she's always wanted a silk handkerchief for her own. He buys it for her on the spot.

* Occurs in episode 12 of ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' between [[LesYay Utena and Anthy]].
* In the ''GachaGacha'' manga by Tamakoshi, this occurs between Clara and Kouhei, although Clara is not the sweet type, the Kouhei got dirtied because she insisted on him fixing her bike.

* Desiree Dubarry from ''[[Film/CarryOn Don't Lose Your Head]]'' tried this to get close to Duke de Pommefrites, except he picks it up and throws it away. When she tells him she dropped her hankerchief he refers to it as a smelly old thing.

* When Richard is forced to impersonate a notorious womanizer with an incredible reputation for being really good in bed in the ''LegendOfTheSeeker'' episode "Princess", he complains about how many women in the Margrave's palace are dropping handkerchiefs in front of him.

* Done by DoggedNiceGuy Takahara in ''TaishouYakyuuMusume''.

* ''{{Homestuck}}'': Rose's Mom loses her pink scarf in a [[ItMakesSenseInContext meteor crash]]. John's Dad picks it up. After they were both transported to the Medium along with their respective children thirteen years later, he returns it. Romance ensues.

* {{Averted}} in the [[AnachronicOrder chronologically last]] episode of ''TheMelancholyOfHaruhiSuzumiya'', ''Someday in the Rain'': Kyon returns soaking wet from a walk in the rain and Tsuruya cheerfully lends him a handkerchief in passing, but neither of the two think anything of it, and the handkerchief is never mentioned again.