"I have those," Beila says.

"I'm getting that!"

Here is Beila's house! She hops off Liqing and helps Dao down too and sends the bird on her way. "Chali might not be home yet. Might be -" She opens the front door and looks at the clock. "Ten, fifteen minutes. You okay to wait?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"Dad?" calls Beila. Nope, no Chali. She dumps her schoolbag on the stairs to take when she wants to go up, and plops onto the cushions lined up under the window. "Ranyi won't be home till dinner, she teaches afternoon-shift introductory school some terms including this one. She likes morning shift better but can't always get it. What do your folks do?"

"Oh, Dad works for Cabbagecorp," he says vaguely.

"...Just him, then?"

"Yeah. Just him."

Beila is on her guard about being pushy. She pats the cushions next to her, indicating that Dao can sit there.

"Chali might quiz you a little about what you are to me in spite of not being a reporter, fair warning."

"Will he get mad if I start talking about panda carp?"

"If his question is not about panda carp? Yeah, probably."

"Maybe I better let you do the talking."

"Chali will probably let me do most of the talking. You'll have to say 'hi' and answer yes-or-no questions, pretty sure. What do you want me to say if he asks me if you're my boyfriend?"

"Um... I don't know, am I?"

"That's why I'm asking."

"I can be your boyfriend, I guess!"

"Such enthusiasm," she teases.

"I've never been anybody's girlfriend before," she says. "So there's that."

"Awesome," he says, "so you won't know if I mess it up."

"I think I might be able to tell if it's anything egregious," she giggles.

"I can probably manage to stay away from egregious!"

"That's good. Are you expecting to screw up in small ways particularly?"