blood is thicker than water | nishimura riki

vii.

A warm yellow glow emanated from your windows, surprising both you and Riki as you exchanged glances. You unlocked your door and poked your head inside, immediately spotting Jungwon, who was curled up on the floor on top of your rug, limbs tucked in and face hidden. "Jungwon?" you asked softly, unsure if he was sleeping or not.

"Wake up!" Riki shouted, "did your useless ass figure out how to fix this yet?"

You shot Riki a look, and he shrugged as he closed the door behind him. Jungwon had not moved. Concerned, you inched towards him, kneeling in front of his scrunched up body and shaking his shoulder gently. "Jungwon? You there?"

"He's gone!" Jungwon burst out, surprising both you and Riki, "he's gone!" He sat up immediately, forcing you backwards.

"What? Who's gone?" you asked, a rock of rotten anticipation settling in your stomach.

"My brother," he said hoarsely, wiping furiously at his eyes, which you now realized were extremely red and swollen. "They got him. The stupid vampires got him, and now he's dead."

"Jeongin's dead?" you whispered, heart sinking, both because you knew Jeongin was your only chance at reversing the spell and because you knew how much Jungwon loved his older brother. Those two words you uttered seemed to switch the waterworks on again, because Jungwon's large eyes started leaking again as he stared at you helplessly, hands clenched into fists and placed upon his thighs. His knuckles were pale from how tight he was gripping onto his pants, and his chin quivered from trying to hold in his loud sobs. Wordlessly, you pulled him into a tight hug, his head nestled into the crook of your neck as he wet it with his endless tears, voice parched and throaty from how loud he was wailing. You hated it, the way it shook you to your core. His cries were so human, something that was odd to say about a witch, but they reminded you so of the time you passed by a human funeral—you didn't know them in the slightest, but the way the young woman's screams echoed off the walls of the surrounding buildings haunted you for many moons. Jungwon's sobs were almost too reminiscent of that, and you glanced up at Riki, expecting him to have a look of pure disgust spread across his face as usual, but his expression almost mirrored yours—a mixture of helplessness, pity, and shock.

"I'm sorry," Jungwon gasped, small hands clinging to your sleeve desperately, "I can't fix you yet, I need to find another way."

"That's not our top priority right now," you said sternly, wiping his tears from his paled, puffy face, "don't even worry about that."

"I mean, still think about it," Riki muttered, and before you could shoot him a venomous look Jungwon was already spluttering out an apology, pushing away from you and scooting towards Riki's feet, hands splayed across your dark floor.

"I promise I'll find a solution," he said quickly, bowing to Riki, "I promise."

You glared at Riki as you pulled Jungwon back into your arms, but he flinched as he looked at your face. "Please, don't..." he whimpered, "you have his face. Even though I know it's you in there... I can't. I can't be hugged by his body." You felt your heart clench as fear flashed in his dark eyes momentarily, and he backed up unconsciously, closer to Riki than you.

"Right, sorry," you said quietly.

For some reason, Riki felt his own heart clench painfully as he looked between the two of you. He felt bad that Jungwon couldn't go near his body, even though he wasn't even the one inhabiting it. Was he truly that bad? He felt a wave of unexplainable guilt wash over him as Jungwon stood up awkwardly, nearly slipping and falling as you rose with him, clearly not wanting you anywhere near him. "I'm going to go home," Jungwon said, voice slightly nasally from his stuffed-up nose, "I think I need to be alone right now."