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All there is to it.
A common Ship Tease device and an occasional form of Meet Cute and/or Samaritan Relationship Starter, a Returning the Handkerchief scenario usually plays out according to the following script:
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. 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 aware of the trope's romantic implications.
Note that the scenario need not be Strictly Formula to count as a Returning the Handkerchief 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 disappears from the story once it is no longer needed.
For returning the handkerchief to make any sense, it has to be a washable cloth one (and it usually tends to be a fancy, decorated one at that), which is slightly peculiar considering the prevalence of simple paper tissues in modern society -- especially Japan. This might contribute to the fact that the trope is largely discredited these days; if a literal handkerchief does appear in the story, the setup is likely to be parodied or not played entirely straight.
Today, this trope occurs mainly in Anime and Manga, but it also occurs in Western works - for instance, many Genre Savvy ladies in Victorian fiction provoked just this sort of behavior from gentlemen they were courting by visibly misplacing their handkerchiefs.
Western audiences might be more familiar with a common Parody of this 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.
Anime and Manga
- The trope image comes from the Aneimo Hentai anime, which is an example of the handkerchief-as-MacGuffin variant: it isn't seen after that last screenshot, but the encounter quite firmly cements the relationship between the two.
- Occurs in Lucky Star between Yutaka and Minami. As Minami was the Girl B, this trope was Inverted.
- Averted in the chronologically last episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, 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.
- In D.N.Angel, 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 Ho Yay.
- Inverted, subverted and combined with an Indulgent Fantasy Segue in Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro Chan.
- This is how Ikki and Karin meet in Medabots.
- There's a mutant, and averted, version of this in Victorian Romance Emma. 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.
- Done by Dogged Nice Guy Takahara in Taishou Yakyuu Musume.
- Happens between Usagi and Mamoru in the manga version of Sailor Moon.
- In Hekikai no Ai ON, Tatsuya starts to weep when he believes he'll never be a "man of high caliber" and Seine gives him a handkerchief. Later, he tries to invoke this trope just to talk to her because she say to him to stay out of her way.
- Occurs in episode 12 of Revolutionary Girl Utena between Utena and Anthy.
- In the Gacha Gacha 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.
Film
- In the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film, Lydia attempts to do this with the soldiers marching through town but it fails as they don't even notice.
- Desiree Dubarry from 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.
Literature
- Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass collection has a poem that references the "dropping the handkerchief in hopes of Mr. Hotness noticing it" variant positing that Nature itself is the Handkerchief that God has dropped to get our attention.
- In Les Misérables Marius finds a handkerchief left behind on the seat where Cosette and Valjean were sitting. He assumes it was Cosette's and makes a point of showing it to her to demonstrate his feelings. However, since the handkerchief was actually Valjean's, she doesn't have any idea what he is going on about.
- Early in The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan meets Aramis while the latter has his foot on a handkerchief. D'Artagnan picks it up and hands it to Aramis, accidentally revealing Aramis's relationship with a lady and creating an opportunity for a duel.
- In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the male beaver returns Lucy's hankerchief, which he got from Tumnus, to demonstrate that he can be trusted.
Live Action TV
- When Richard is forced to impersonate a notorious womanizer with an incredible reputation for being really good in bed in the Legend of the Seeker episode "Princess", he complains about how many women in the Margrave's palace are dropping handkerchiefs in front of him.
- In the Smash Mouth 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.
- The Office 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.
Theater
- Othello may be the earliest subversion. Cassio doesn't love Desdemona, but Iago makes sure he finds and returns her handkerchief, so as to frame him for having an affair with her. (It's worth noting that early critics were appalled to see a lighthearted comedy trope used to set up multiple murders, although opinion has softened over the years as critics have become more used to the concept of Playing with a Trope.)
Video Games
- Ace Attorney Investigations plays out what would be a Strictly Formula version of the trope, if not for two exceptions: there are no romantic overtones whatsoever (maybe), and the "handkerchief" is Edgeworth's cravat, which he was still wearing when young Kay blew her nose into it..
Web Comics
- Parodied as a symptom of the "Love Sim Syndrome" in this Tsunami Channel strip.
- Homestuck: Rose's Mom loses her pink scarf in a 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. Love ensues, until they are killed by the Big Bad while having an adorable tea-party.
Western Animation
- In Barbie and the Diamond Castle, Jeremy and Ian find Liana's handkerchief after she and Alexa spurn their advances, and they use it as an excuse to follow after the girls.
- An old Bugs Bunny 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.