At some point while Cho is talking, Ben's curiosity shifts into something else. He wouldn't be able to pinpoint it exactly, what sentence, what phrase even, that tipped the scale. Small prey animals, maybe. Or possibly subject. Then again, maybe worth exploring. In any case, by the time she finishes, he is not curious anymore, or embarrassed over his earlier slip. He is extremely wary. The signs of this, in Ben, are subtle. Mostly it just means he is silent in response, for a little longer than is entirely polite.

And when he does speak again, his voice is so precise, so carefully neutral, that even a stranger might guess that Something is Up.

"Are you going to hurt them?"

It's a simple question, and all the more devastating for its plainness. That's all Ben needs to know. If Cho is going to collect more of the helpless animals, only so she can take them back to a lab somewhere and torture or kill them just because it might be beneficial in some kind of abstract possible way, well. He's not entirely sure he can stand by and let that happen. Certainly, he at least isn't going to help it happen.