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Bzzzz. Bzzzz.
"Aghhh. Who the fuck is calling me at this ungodly hour."
"It's already 9 in the morning, Father."
Ren opened one eye. Bone Saw was standing in the doorway of the clinic's back room, his skull face directed toward the phone vibrating on the desk, the red light in his eye sockets steady and unhelpful.
"Still an ungodly hour," Ren said.
He picked up the phone.
"Hello."
"Ehh, mister? Are you still sleeping?"
He recognized her voice before she finished the sentence. "Rhea?"
"Yup. Your cute best friend."
"Cute is a stretch."
"Boo. You're no fun, mister." A pause.
"Why are you still sleeping? Don't you have doctor things to do?"
"I'm conserving my energy."
"You talk like an uncle, mister."
"I'm an uncle at heart."
He sat up. Through the window the sky was the pale grey of a morning that had not committed to anything yet.
"Mister, can I come see you?"
"Right now?"
"Yup."
"I'm at work, Rhea. I'm a Dao Guild doctor."
"You were sleeping, mister."
"That's different."
"I mean, I'm your cute friend, right?" Her voice had the quality of someone making a case they know is unreasonable.
"Don't you need a cute nurse by your side?"
"I have a nurse."
"Oh really? What's their name?"
"Bone Saw."
Silence.
"Hahahaha, what kind of name is that, mister? If a nurse named Bone Saw walked in the patient would piss themselves."
"He has a very warm bedside manner."
"Mister."
"Come after six. I'm done by then."
"Sure, mister." A beat.
"You're not planning anything bad, are you?"
"In your dreams, little girl."
"Boo."
"And aren't you a college student? You should be studying, not wandering around."
"I study enough. I can get an A on every subject without attending class."
"Sure you can."
"I can."
"Yeah, yeah. See you at six."
"See you then, mister~"
Click.
Ren set the phone on the desk.
"Huh," he said. "What a pain."
"You seem happy, Father," Bone Saw said.
"Shut up, you unfilial son."
.
.
.
At six he was standing outside the Dao Guild's main gate, leaning against the wall, watching the evening traffic. The city at this hour had a different energy than midday, people moving with direction instead of aimlessness, the light going amber and low across the buildings.
"Agh," he said to himself. "Ren, you're too kind for your own good."
"Boo."
Ren startled badly enough that he pushed off the wall. He spun around.
Rhea was standing behind him, grinning, a takoyaki box in each hand. She had short black hair that cut just below her jaw. The grin said she had been there long enough.
"Hahaha, your reaction is way too cute, mister."
"You are going to kill me someday," Ren said.
"Hahaha, mister, you talk like I'm some kind of monster."
"Yeah, yeah." He took a breath. "You kind of look like one."
"Mister, I'm a girl at heart. You should treat me with some care."
"Sure, sure."
She held out one of the boxes. "I bought these for you."
Her other hand was already holding the second box open, a piece of takoyaki between her fingers. He noticed the tattoo on her lower arm when she reached out: an angel, simple lines, clean wings.
He took the box. "Thanks."
"Your face is tired, mister." She looked him over directly.
"Although your body is quite manly. You should eat better."
Ren opened his box. "And takoyaki is better?"
"It's full of carbs."
"It's the thought that counts. I added love into it, so it'll be good for the body."
"Haa." He took a piece and ate it.
He paused.
"Why does this taste so good."
Rhea's grin widened. "Right?"
"Where did you buy this?" He looked at the box. "It's seriously good."
"Heh heh." She popped her own piece in her mouth and chewed with great satisfaction.
"I made it."
"What."
"Yup. I work part time at a takoyaki stall." She took out another piece.
"So I made you one, mister. Freshly made this afternoon."
Ren looked at the box in his hand. He took another piece.
It melted. The outside had the right resistance, the inside still warm, and there was something in the seasoning he could not identify and did not need to.
"I'm still the best," Rhea said, mostly to herself, finishing her second piece with quiet certainty.
"You made this during your shift?"
"I made extra. The boss doesn't care if I take some home." She reached into her box.
"You looked like you needed feeding, mister. Your face has been tired since I met you."
"I'm a doctor. This is what doctors look like."
"No, I've seen tired and this is something else." She ate another piece.
"You look like you've been carrying something for a long time."
Ren looked at her.
"You study political science," he said. "Not psychology."
"I'm naturally insightful." She didn't say it with any particular weight. Just fact.
"What's actually bothering you, mister? And don't say nothing."
"Work."
"What about work."
"Complicated work situation."
Rhea tilted her head. The blue of her eyes caught the amber light of the evening, briefly. "That's the least informative answer you could have given me."
"I'm aware."
"You're not going to tell me, are you."
"No."
She considered this. "Okay," she said. "I won't ask."
He looked at her, slightly surprised by the speed of the concession.
"Most people push," he said.
"I know when someone doesn't want to talk about something." She shrugged.
"I spent two years in a political science degree. Half of what we study is knowing when to press and when to back off."
"And the other half?"
"Pretending to understand historical decisions made by people who weren't thinking clearly."
Ren ate another piece of takoyaki.
She was standing in the amber light with her box and her short black hair and her blue eyes, wearing a grey sleeveless shirt and jeans, looking about as dangerous as someone who had just made excellent food for a friend and knew it. The angel on her lower arm caught the light when she reached into her box again.
Why does she seem familiar.
A quality in her face, or the particular way she held herself, or something in the directness of her attention.
He let it go. He was tired.
"Mister," Rhea said.
He looked up.
She was watching him with the tilted-head expression she had when she was paying more attention than she was letting on.
"You're spacing out again."
"Conserving energy."
"While standing up."
"Especially while standing up."
She laughed. It was the same genuine laugh as the first time, the one that had surprised them both on the convenience store step. She took the last piece from her box and held out the rest of his.
"Finish it," she said.
"You made two and you're giving me both."
"I had plenty at work. Eat, mister."
He took the box. She folded her empty one and tucked it under her arm and pulled out her phone, scrolling something with the easy inattention of someone comfortable in the quiet.
They stood like that for a while, him eating and her scrolling and the city doing its evening business around them. A tram went past. Somewhere nearby someone was arguing cheerfully with someone else about something that did not seem to require resolution. The light got lower.
"Hey, mister."
"Hm."
"Do you like working here?" She was still looking at her phone. "At the guild."
Ren thought about this honestly. "I like the work," he said. "The place is fine."
"That's a non-answer."
"It's an accurate answer."
"You like patching people up."
"Yes."
"Even when they're annoying?"
"Especially when they're annoying." He finished the last piece.
"Annoying patients are more interesting than cooperative ones."
Rhea looked up from her phone. "Is that why you stopped for me? Because I was interesting?"
He looked at her.
"No," he said. "I stopped because you cute."
She held his gaze for a second. Then she looked back at her phone.
"Okay," she said.
The tram went past again, or a different one. The light had gone from amber to the cooler grey of early evening, and Rhea's short hair was dark against it, and she was smiling at something on her screen that she did not share.
Ren looked at his empty box.
"I'm keeping you," she said, pocketing her phone. "You have early morning doctor things."
"I do."
"Go sleep, mister." She turned to leave, then stopped. "Genuinely. You look terrible."
"You said I was manly."
"Both can be true." She was already walking. "Bye bye, mister. Text me when you wake up tomorrow so I know you didn't die in your sleep."
"That's not something doctors die of."
"Just text me."
He watched her go until she turned the corner, her grey shirt disappearing into the evening crowd, the angel on her arm the last thing visible before she was gone.
Ren stood at the gate of the Dao Guild with two empty takoyaki boxes and the comfortable kind of tired.
Why does she seem familiar, he thought again.
He still had no answer. He went inside.