Block A 「Nishimura Riki」

29

"What do you mean?" Eiko asked, her voice was fraught with distress and uncertainty. Then she scanned all of their faces and even Sunghoon's calmness couldn't ease her jittery nerves this time. "What do you mean it went back to normal?"

"We...we can normally feel when things are different. It's a part of us. When the routine was off, we felt it in some way. But now that's gone," Jake elaborated, his tone underlined with aggression as he offered a pointed look at Riki.

Eiko looked around before checking her very own hands. She observed that nothing was out of the normal, so how did it change? That was what she found confusing beyond measure. Eiko glanced back up at the three, trying to read the reason behind it in their expressions; there was no answer in their looks. "But how though?"

Overwhelming silence; trapping Eiko's throat under an invisible pressure when Jake mumbled the sentence, "Riki turned you."

It was the first time Eiko had heard Riki's voice sound so strained when he rushed the word "What?"out of his throat. As if he was affronted by the assumption; betrayed. He wanted to be loud but couldn't get the volume out of him.

He looked at Jake, crestfallen and desperate, and shook his head in refusal to repudiate what Jake had just said. "No, Jake." He breathed, "Not you too."

"It's the only reasonable reason," Jake groaned. He didn't want to jump the gun and accuse Riki but it was all that's left.

Fighting the weight trying to drag her back to the bed, Eiko quietly scooted forward towards where Riki was seated on the edge of the bed and held his hand to assure some solace. "Jake, let's think about this first. I don't think Riki would do something like that. It must be something else."

Jake raised his nose in the air in a disbelieving manner; his arms folded over one another, and though he wanted to give both Riki and Eiko the chance to prove him wrong, he remained looking accusatory.

"He didn't," Sunghoon interjected to break the ice. He didn't do it to help Riki, but only to prevent a dispute. He traipsed about the room like he was wandering around. "So let's just stop the whole thing here."

Jake dropped his aggression immediately, frowning while he looked at Sunghoon. Jake had this puppyish loyalty to him; he was inclined to get frustrated at Riki because he only came into life recently. Sunghoon and Eiko, on the other hand, were two of his closest friends. So he'll start an argument in order to defend Eiko, but quickly shut it down when Sunghoon tells him to.

Eiko sighed when she recognized the tense state between Sunghoon and Riki once again. "What's wrong with the two of you?" She asked and they already knew who she was referring to. Sunghoon and Riki turned their heads to her but Sunghoon was the only one to look away as soon as he did.

"Let's just say it," Sunghoon suggested, his voice flat and rigid. He was unsure about doing so himself.

There were mysterious glints in Riki's eyes but he caved in under the pressure of the rest of them expecting for him to tell the story. "You tell them, then."

Sunghoon derisively scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. "For me to sound like the one at fault? No. You tell them. I obviously don't much about the story, anyway."

Riki leveled a glare at Sunghoon that went unnoticed by the one receiving it. Sunghoon didn't change at all. He just wanted Sunghoon to avoid adding to the conflict. He was already being cornered by Jake; Sunghoon adding on that would make it worse. Riki seemed like he wanted to say something but kept quiet.

"You tell the story," Eiko said. "Let Riki clear things up at the end. But...admit to everything you did. Even if it doesn't sound in your favor," she finished, then squeezed Riki's hand once. Sunghoon understood there that he would just have to.