“I’m Ren. This is Hayato.”
Hayato dips his head, which has a growing lump on it from where I slammed it into the door.
“We were assigned as your protectors.”
“My—”
The door bursts open at that moment. A security guard huffs through. His eyes land on the sprinklers and then dart between me, Ren, and Hayato. “What’s going on in here?”
Jittery, the man’s fingers go for his gun. He’s so thick and unathletic that he would never beat me, Ren, or Hayato in a fight.
But a bullet is faster than a fist.
“We came to visit our pregnant aunt,” I explain, staying as calm as I can. “Then the sprinklers suddenly went off.”
“What room?” The guard eyes the cuts on my face and the gauze on my arm suspiciously.
“I don’t remember,” I say.
“What’s her name?” he asks, becoming visibly more red.
Ren and Hayato tense beside me.
The security guard goes for his gun. “Answer me or I swear to?—”
A familiar face pokes her head from behind the thick guard. “Finn,thereyou are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
My eyes bulge.
Smile stretching across her face, J wiggles her fingers at me. “How long does it take to wipe ketchup off your shirt? Aunt Linda is about to pop. You’re missing the big moment.”
Ren and Hayato relax their fists.
The security guard wipes the water from his face with the hand that had been reaching for the gun. “You know these guys?”
“Yeah, those are my cousins.”
He peruses J’s fair skin, blonde hair, and blue-green eyes and then traces a line directly back to me. “Cousins?”
“Yup.” J blinks. “Is there a reason we can’t be cousins? Because if there is, please wait for a moment while I go live on my channel. I’m sure the internet wouldloveto hear your thoughts.”
The guard averts his eyes.
“Oh dear.” J barges into the room, a tiny spark of dynamite. She grabs my hand. “You’re all wet. If I miss seeing our baby cousin for the first time, I’ll be so mad at you.”
The next thing I know, I’m being dragged along.
“You two as well,” J says to Ren and Hayato.
The two large fighters give each other bewildered looks.
“Come, come.” She’s smaller than everyone in the room, but we’re all powerlessly swept up in her tide.
Somehow, J gets us all out of the bathroom while her watch beeps, low and steady.
The guard backs off and unclips his radio to report about the broken sprinklers.
“She’s screaming like a madwoman in there.” J keeps chatting as she pushes me along the hallway. Ren and Hayato follow quietly. “Everyone’s really excited.” Her neck cranes as she looks over her shoulder to make sure the guard isn’t following.
