Just as Ririko was struggling to explain that those two "new friends" were both her, her phone rang.
She pulled her phone from her cardigan pocket. The screen displayed a contact nicknamed "Fruit Bat Man."
She answered, and Bruce's voice came through the receiver. "Where are you?"
Ririko was about to answer, but Dick's ears were as sharp as a dog's. Hearing Bruce's voice, he took the phone from her as naturally as anything.
"Bruce! We're already at the base! Come on up!"
There was a moment of silence on the other end. Bruce said, "Oh," then hung up.
Dick handed the phone back to Ririko.
Then his brows suddenly furrowed.
Something felt off...
He pointed at her phone. "Why would Bruce call you?"
Ririko silently slipped her phone back into her pocket.
Barbara and Harvey both looked up at the strange scene unfolding before them.
Before long, the metal door opened.
Bruce entered in a dark gray coat, carrying a paper bag printed with the Gotham University café's logo.
His gaze moved across the four faces in the room. His steps were a little slower than usual, as though he were puzzling over something he hadn't quite figured out.
He walked up to Ririko and asked softly, "You know Dick?"
Dick stood beside them, his brows knitted together.
He asked Ririko, "You know Bruce?"
Ririko looked at the two of them and calmly straightened her cardigan. "So what if I do? You both know plenty of people too."
Bruce remembered that Dick seemed to have mentioned a girl he'd recently met during one of their latest calls. He'd said she was incredibly pretty, incredibly smart, incredibly classy...
Bruce hadn't been in much of a mood to listen at the time and had treated him as nothing more than background