Relative

Standing in the door frame was a woman younger than Rin's mother and who had her hair tied up at the back in a ponytail. 

"...Lena?"

The name slipped out of Rin's mouth almost unconsciously. 

"You remember me? Oh, that's great! It's been too long."

She beamed at him.

"...Yeah."

Rin looked away and rubbed the bridge of his nose before remembering the issue at hand.

"Uh-"

"Sorry for not visiting you earlier by the way. I figured you'd want some alone time before you had someone bothering you."

"No, I-"

"So how are you? O-Or do you not want to talk about it?"

"Ah-"

"Oh, I know what'll take your mind off of things. How about we play a game?"

She dug through her bag looking for something. Rin sighed as all the memories he had of interacting with this person started flooding back to him. 

-That's right, she was always like this.

"I brought a pack of cards. We can play that one game we used to. Remember? What was it called again?"

"...Old maid?", Rin asked.

"Oh yeah, that's right! Old maid! Wanna play?"

She eventually found the cards in her bag and dropped it on the bed as she approached the chair next to it. Rin had to look down to build up the resolve to speak again. 

"Look, right now I'm not in the mood for a game, I need you to do something for..."

Finally turning to look at her, Rin was stunned to see Lena on her phone and already too engrossed in it to pay any attention to him. He screamed internally. 

-Just how scatterbrained is she!?

He waited for her to finish, completely exacerbated. And eventually she noticed the silence, looking up apologetically in response to it. 

"Sorry, I totally zoned out. So? Wanna play?"

Rin rubbed his face in utter frustration and as he did, he contorted his neck in all sorts of directions. He soon found himself looking directly at the suit sitting to his left. After brief consideration, he grabbed it, balled it up as much as he could, and threw it at Lenna.

He took care not to put too much force into it, which seemed to work since she was able to catch it out of reflex. She stared at the suit for a bit before tilting her head and asking something.

"The heck was that about?"

"Can I ask you a favor? It's really important."

"Oh, well why didn't you just say so? What's up?"

Rin put aside his irritation in order to answer her. 

"Okay so, mom left that suit for me as a change of clothes, but it doesn't seem like the most comfortable thing to wear when I get out of here." 

Lena looked down at the suit, opened it up, and saw just how dirty it was. She frowned slightly then muttered to herself.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Do you think you can get me another set of clothes?"

Lena looked back at him.

"Sure, that's no problem. But... Is that all?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said this was really important. I guess I just wasn't expecting something like this?"

She scratched the back of her head.

***

*Vroom*
A car backed into the parking lot of the hospital. The suited man stepped out of it walked briskly to the entrance. He then made his way to the reception desk and pulled out a photo from his breast pocket.

"How can I help you?", the receptionist asked.

"I'm here to see this person."

Handing her the photo as he said it, he looked around the waiting area for any sign of his target.

"Room 102.", the receptionist said.

Without even stopping to take the photo back, the suited man walked towards his destination. 

***

"Want me to get you anything else while I'm out?", Lena asked. 

"I don't.", Rin replied. 

"You sure? I really don't mind."

"I'm sure. Just get going already."

As their back and forth continued, Rin noticed the door to the room slowly open. He leaned forward to confirm what he saw and then turned to look at the clock.

-It's too early.

"Lena, you should go now.", he said hurriedly.

The suited man stepped into the room as soon as he finished talking.

"Rin. I need to speak with you."

Lena looked back and forth between the two. 

"Do you know each other?", she asked.

"Actually-"

"Yes.", Rin said.

A brief silence.

Rin cleared his throat before speaking again.

"Sorry Lena. I'd rather speak with him in private."

"Oh, okay...", Lena said.

She tightened her grip on the suit before putting it into her bag. Still unsatisfied however, she pulled out a pen and paper. It only took her a couple of seconds to jot her phone number down and hand it over to Rin. 

"Call me if you need anything."

Rin took it, looking it over oddly as he did. 

"I'll be back soon.", Lena said.

"Take your time.", Rin responded.

The suited man watched as she exited the room. His eyes lingered on the door for a while before turning toward Rin.

"That was your cousin, right?", he asked.

Rin nodded in response. As he did, the suited man approached.

"Name's Klein. Sorry, he told me you weren't very social, but I need to ask you a couple of questions."

He extended his arm out as if to offer a handshake, but Rin didn't feel the need to comply. He was too busy looking at his reflection and scolding him in his mind. 

-I almost got caught because of you.

His frustrations with his future self wouldn't end there however as it seemed his reflection had shown up to provide him with one last bit of information.

"They'll catch you, you know..."

Rin narrowed his eyes in response to that. 

-How could that possibly happen?

As soon as he'd pondered the question, his reflection answered it. 

"In about five minutes, he's going to leave this room and go after Lena."

"Son of a-"

Rin bit the inside of his mouth before he could finish speaking. After giving his reflection a spiteful side eye, he turned to look at Klein. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice anything wrong as he stared at the floor in total silence. 

But out of nowhere, he looked up to meet Rin's gaze. 

"How long has it been since you last spoke with her?", he asked.

The question sent chills down Rin's spine.

"...S-Sorry, who are you talking about?"

"Your cousin. What was her name, Lena?"

It didn't take a genius to see where this was going. Ignoring Klein would be a death sentence. The more he was allowed to think; the sooner the pocket watch would be discovered. But at least, Rin knew exactly what he had to do now.