He waited about twenty-five minutes before he felt her elbow his side with the force of a pickup truck.
"That's for being a jerk."
Ren groaned as he tried to play it off.
"That's fair..."
"So," Yui began, "what'd James say?"
Ren sighed as he straightened.
"We talked. He mentioned something about getting help." He shrugged. "Said we should meet up at campus."
"We can't do that," Yui said immediately. "Not while we have no idea where Akira might be."
His eyes glimmered again.
Again with the hybrid...
Yui tilted her head as she studied him.
"Why do you do that?"
Ren blinked.
"Do what?"
"That."
She said it like that was supposed to be obvious.
"Gonna need you to be more specific, Yu."
"That thing you do every time I mention Akira." She frowned. "You react whenever I bring her up."
Ren almost let out an unimpressed laugh.
"You're really asking me that?"
"Yes."
Immediate.
Firm.
"Didn't you hear what I said earlier?" he asked bluntly.
Yui's brow twitched.
"I did."
"Then you know why I'm reacting whenever you bring her into the conversation."
"No," she replied. "That's not it."
Ren's smug replies ran out.
The tall Essential didn't answer her directly.
He said nothing as the wind drifted past and his eyes closed.
When they opened again, that same cold numbness had returned.
"I'm scared of her too, Yui," he stated, like it was a simple fact.
His eyes fixed on an alleyway across the street.
"Hybrids are dangerous people. They have a way of making you do stuff you don't wanna do."
The wind picked up again.
"Say stuff you don't wanna say..."
[ "...on the best day of your goddamn life." ]
His mind replayed the café again.
Yui studied his face.
[ "I try to make as few mistakes as I can..." ]
[ "...to make up for being the mistake I am..." ]
His jaw tightened.
"...and feel stuff you don't wanna feel."
Yui watched him carefully.
Then their eyes met.
"That's why I'm afraid of hybrids. That's one of the things that makes them dangerous," he said, his voice unwavering. "So forgive me if I'm not emotionally attached to someone whom I know might end up hurting me in the end-"
"That's wrong, Ren."
The wind blew past, stronger now.
Yui cut him off, speaking straight through his carefully constructed logic.
The distant laughter from the amusement park contrasted sharply with the tension between them.
"I don't care if it's wrong," he muttered as he straightened. "It's reality."
A beat.
"Hybrids are dangerous because hybrids kill."
This time, Yui didn't react.
She only stared at him.
Then looked away.
Her eyes followed the direction of his gaze as she spoke.
"Even if that's true..." she began. "It doesn't mean they're not people too."
Ren didn't react.
His eyes remained dull and focused.
"Even if that's true, Ren... that doesn't give us the right to judge them based on something they didn't choose."
Her voice lowered, but remained steady.
"Even if that's true, Ren..."
She paused.
Looked down at her hands.
Pink fingers.
Cold.
Stiff.
Human.
She clenched them and looked back at him.
He didn't look back.
"Even if it's true that hybrids kill... even if it's true that hybrids are dangerous..." Firmer now. "The fact still remains that that 'hybrid' risked her life to save another."
That almost made him react.
But she kept going.
"The fact still remains that that 'hybrid' told us she's never had anyone look at her like a normal person."
She took a step closer.
"Even if it's true that hybrids kill," she muttered, quieter now, "that doesn't change the fact that the only hybrid I've ever met in my entire life... almost cried when I offered her a fist bump."
That earned a faint, reluctant huff of air from him.
And for a long while, neither of them spoke.
Until—
Buzz.
Ren's phone.
He took it out.
His eyes flattened as he sighed.
"What?"
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS—"
He flinched.
Loudspeaker.
Bad idea.
Yui let out a tiny laugh.
"Dammit, James. I swear I'm gonna block your number..."
Yui watched as Ren frowned more and more with each reply.
It made her heart flutter a little.
The dynamic between them.
She loved it.
A moment later, Ren hung up and immediately grumbled about his ear.
Yui chuckled.
"What'd he say?"
"Wants us to find out which station she might be at. Said we should text him when we do." He slipped the phone away. "Apparently he found whoever or whatever he was looking for."
"Oh, good. Then we just need to find out about the local law enforcement stations—"
"No need."
Ren turned around and started walking.
"I already have an idea where they might've taken her."
"Oh."
"Let's go."
And as they made their way toward the station—
the world around them was still debating whether hybrids mattered because they were dangerous but useful...
or dangerous but people.