... and absolutely nothing happens. There's no recognition in his face at all. He just leans in, perturbed and worried, as if something buried in his spine is pushing him forward.

"I see..." Is it possible Ren has actually lost his mind? No, surely not. "And what else happened, Ren? Can you tell me?"

He thinks if anything happened to Ren, he would die. It hurts even to see him in pain, in a dull kind of way; he has to put it right.