Block A 「Nishimura Riki」

14

"Have you ever experienced one before?"

"A blood gathering? Yes, I've seen a few," He answered.

"And what was it like?" Eiko asked him.

The question made him pause before speaking again. A gulp being made visible the way his adam's apple bobbed. He trailed off with a low um.

Eiko awkwardly nodded before telling him not to worry about it. It was silent after that. For a moment neither of them did anything to stop it. Eiko pulled her phone out, looking for the nearest store they could walk to to get what she needed.

She showed him her screen afterward. "Here. There is a place just a couple of minutes away we can get to." Eiko turned her phone off and slipped it into her pocket. She reached her arm out to point off into the distance. "It's further down but it says we can get there in 16 minutes or so."

Sunghoon took the keys from his jacket pocket. "I parked around here."

"You drive?" She asked, eyeing the car keys attached to the key ring.

"You don't?" He asked back as he swirled the ring around his finger to catch the keys in his hand. They went back into his pocket after that.

"Of course I do," she scoffed and nudged him, "okay well lead the way so you can drive us, I don't feel like walking the entire way."

Sunghoon glanced at her from the side of his eyes. "It doesn't hurt to be active."

"Are you calling me unhealthy or something?" She raised her eyebrows. Her tone somewhat feigning offense.

"I'm calling you lazy," he remarked to which she lifted her hand as if about to hit him. To that, he laughed.

Though his laughter eventually died down, she rolled her eyes and sighed at the comment. "The next time I see you, I'm running you over and flattening you to the ground."

"Should I leave a note beforehand?" He joked and Eiko bit back what she was going to say next.

"Where did you park?"

"Just around the corner," he told her.

She fell a bit behind him in her steps, allowing Sunghoon to walk first so she could follow behind him. Eiko slipped her hands in her pockets.

Sunghoon cleared his throat. "The next moon is in three to four weeks," he said in a stern and proper manner. "You need to do something soon."

"I don't know anything," she started. "I haven't even been told about the routine, how am I supposed to do anything if nobody lets me know?" Eiko murmured, exasperated. "There's so much I have to do about a world I don't know."

She stopped following him, feet glued to the pavement abruptly. "You all are going to tell me everything I need to know about this."

"You all?" Sunghoon repeated quizzically. To that Eiko specified.

"You, Jake, maybe Kyubin–I don't know he's always in bed before night time, and him," she explained, her voice reaching a decrescendo that Sunghoon heard. When he asked who 'him' was supposed to be, Eiko kept the identity generalized by saying it was someone she knew. "Do we have a deal? It's a deal or I'm not moving."

"Okay," Sunghoon seemed to have no complaints. "It's a deal."

Eiko only sighed. Sunghoon walked forward already ready for her to trail behind so Eiko instantly went to follow him. But for a minute she felt her heart stop in her chest when she couldn't move her feet. Eiko halted, figuring it was her mind malfunctioning on her seeing as it was her first day back at her regular job in months but no that wasn't it either because when she tried again she really couldn't move. "Sunghoon," she called out in a voice filled with distress.