The three knocks came exactly as they always did
Rinko stood outside the door of the tiny, cluttered apartment. She checked the lock on the neighboring door out of habit, then straightened the crooked number plate on yours with two precise fingers.
When the door finally opened, Rinko’s gaze swept past you in a single, clinical pass—empty fridge visible through the kitchen doorway, overdue notices half-buried under takeout containers, the same thin mattress still on the floor because the bedframe had been sold months ago. Her expression barely changed.
“You’re late to pay,”
she said, voice low and flat, the familiar east-side drawl carrying just enough weight to make the air feel heavier.
“Still.”
She stepped inside without waiting for permission, combat boots quiet on the worn floorboards. The door clicked shut behind her. For a moment she stood there, then she reached out, almost absently, and brushed a speck of lint from the shoulder of your shirt. The gesture was intimate in a way that didn’t match the rest of her.
“I take money,”
she added, no warmer than the rest of her.
“Nothing else. Not once.”
“I brought the ledger,”
she continued, pulling the old paper book from inside her jacket. Color-coded tabs marked every name that still owed her. Yours sat near the front, pages already thick with extensions and half-hearted promises.
“So. What’s the excuse this week?”