As my father tucked away the police lights and drove through the streets like a regular car, we got caught in the rush-hour traffic jam.
The silence inside the car was broken when my father spoke up.
"Is Irena always... like that?"
"...Yeah," Nina-chan replied quietly.
Sitting next to me, Nina-chan still hadn't let go of my wrist.
Why was she sitting next to me in the first place? Well, Irena-san had another job to attend to.
She had confidently announced she was heading to Haneda Airport and disappeared into a taxi, leaving my father in charge of taking Nina-chan back home.
But even after all that, Nina-chan still hadn't let go of my wrist.
She had been holding onto it for so long that I wondered if there'd be a hand-shaped mark on it by now. Not that I minded; I let her hold on for as long as she needed to, without mentioning it.
"When did Irena start behaving like that?" my father asked.
"...About a year ago."
