#ni ki

[snikisblog]

global trend? Yes, our runaway vampires

[kpoppiethings]

[vvbitemevv]

rikis raw vocals will always be my favorite. 💕

[sunghoonah7]

#step-brother Nishimura Niki

ᨳଓ He was her enemy before he was anything else, the boy who teased her in every hallway, stole her notebook, made her life impossible. Then their parents got married, and the one person she couldn’t stand became the one person she couldn’t escape. Falling for your stepbrother was never supposed to be an option.

ִֶָ. ..𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ🪽་༘࿐

Y/N had always been the quiet type, the girl who sat in the front row, finished her assignments early, and generally tried to stay out of everyone else's business. She wasn't shy exactly, just careful. Focused. Her mom always said she'd been born with an old soul, and maybe that was true, because while everyone else in her grade seemed obsessed with drama and gossip, Y/N just wanted to get through the day with her grades intact and her head down.

Which was why, when she first heard the name Niki, she assumed it wasn't worth her attention.

"Stay away from him," Mina had warned her within the first week of school, nodding toward a tall figure leaning against the lockers like he owned them. "He's trouble. Picks on people for fun. Teachers can't even do anything because he never actually breaks a rule, he's just—" she made a face, "—awful."

Y/N had glanced over at him then, just once. Messy blond hair that looked like he never bothered to brush it, easily the tallest guy in the hallway, an expression that seemed permanently stuck somewhere between bored and smug. He was talking to a smaller kid, and even from a distance she could see the kid's shoulders curling inward, trying to make himself smaller.

She didn't think much more about it. Not until three days later, when she turned a corner and found that same tall boy — Niki, apparently cornering a freshman against the lockers, laughing at something that clearly wasn't funny to the kid on the receiving end.

She didn't plan what happened next. It just happened. She walked straight up, shoved Niki's shoulder hard enough to knock him half a step sideways, and put herself between him and the freshman.

"Leave him alone."

The hallway went quiet. Niki blinked down at her and she meant down, because standing this close she finally registered just how much taller he actually was — easily over six feet to her five-foot-three. He, meanwhile, looked like he genuinely could not process what had just occurred.

Nobody pushed him. Nobody stood up to him, not like this, not so easily.

Something shifted across his face. Not anger. Something closer to interest.

"Careful," he said, voice low and amused. "Didn't know they made bodyguards this small."

"I'm not small, you're just freakishly tall."

He laughed, actually laughed, a real one, like she'd said something genuinely funny instead of an insult. The freshman took the opportunity to disappear down the hallway, forgotten. Niki didn't even seem to notice him leave. His attention had narrowed entirely onto her.

"What's your name?"

"None of your business."

"I'll find out anyway."

He did find out, within the day, and from that point on Y/N's carefully quiet existence stopped being quiet at all. Niki seemed to develop an instant, relentless fascination with getting a reaction out of her. He'd steal her notebook and hold it over his head, laughing when she jumped for it and couldn't reach. He called her "kiddo" in the cafeteria loud enough for half the room to hear. He made comments about her height so often that her friends started keeping count. None of it was ever truly cruel — nothing like what she'd stopped him doing to that freshman, but it was constant, exhausting, impossible to escape.

"I don't understand why he won't leave me alone," she groaned to Mina one afternoon, dropping her head onto the cafeteria table.

"Because you're literally the only person who's ever stood up to him," Mina said, unwrapping her sandwich like this was obvious. "He probably doesn't know what to do with that."

"So his solution is to torment me for the rest of high school?"

"Apparently."

It went on like that through the rest of junior year an odd, exhausting rhythm of insults and teasing that neither of them ever seemed to tire of. It was partway through that year when Y/N's entire world quietly cracked down the middle. Her father had been cheating, for over a year, with her mother's closest friend. The fallout was ugly and quiet in the way that only family devastation can be, hushed phone calls, her mom crying behind closed doors, an empty side of the closet that stayed empty for months.

It took a long time for her mom to smile again. When she finally did, it was because of a man named Haru soft-spoken, patient, nothing like Y/N's father had ever been. They'd been quietly seeing each other for almost a year before her mom worked up the nerve to say anything, careful not to rush her daughter into accepting someone new too soon. Y/N liked him immediately, which was more than she could say for most things that year.

"I want you to meet someone," her mom said one evening, nervous in a way that made Y/N's chest tighten with an unfamiliar kind of dread. "His name is Haru. We've been together for a while now. And he has a son. Around your age."

She didn't think much of it until the front door opened at the engagement dinner a few weeks later and a familiar mess of blond hair walked in, wearing an expression of pure horror that mirrored her own.

"No," Niki said flatly, staring at her like she'd personally engineered this to torture him. "Absolutely not."

"Small world," Y/N muttered, wanting to sink straight through the floor.

It turned out Niki had lost his mother young enough that most of his memories of her were feeling more than image — warmth, a voice, gone too soon. He'd spent years being just fine with it being him and his dad, no gap that needed filling, no space that felt empty so much as quiet. And now some woman was stepping into that quiet, bringing along the one person at school who’d made his life mildly, deliberately difficult for the past few months.

The wedding happened right after graduation, whether either of them liked it or not, and by the start of summer Y/N found herself hauling boxes into a house that used to only be Niki's.

Then, almost immediately, their parents left for a month-long honeymoon and dropped both of them into that house alone together.

"Rules," Niki said the first night, dropping his bag by the stairs like he was drawing a line in sand. "I'm not babysitting you."

"I don't need a babysitter. I need you to stay on your side of the house."

It didn't work like that. Within a week they were at each other's throats over everything, the thermostat, whose turn it was to deal with the trash, the volume of Niki's music at midnight. Without their parents around to disapprove, Niki teased her more, not less, and without anywhere to escape to, Y/N snapped back harder than she ever had at school.

It was a Tuesday night, both of them mid-argument on the stairs about something neither of them would remember by morning, when her foot caught the edge of a step. The floor disappeared out from under her and then Niki's hand closed around her wrist so fast it hurt, yanking her sideways as he threw himself backward to take the fall instead of her.

His back hit the ground first. She landed on top of him, hard, both of them knocked breathless.

For a second nobody moved. Her hands were braced flat on his chest, his hair fanned out messily against the hardwood beneath him, and their faces were close enough that she could feel him breathing. Neither of them decided to close the last inch between them. It just happened, the softest, most accidental brush of her mouth against his, gone almost before it started.

They both froze like the entire house had stopped breathing along with them.

Y/N scrambled off him first, face burning, and bolted for her room without a single word. Behind the locked door, her heart wouldn't slow down no matter how hard she pressed her palm flat against her chest.

Niki knocked twice that night. She didn't answer either time.

He came back the next morning with a plate of eggs he’d clearly burned and reburned trying to get right, set it outside her door, knocked once, and walked away without a word. She didn’t open the door until his footsteps had disappeared down the hall — and even then, only because her stomach wouldn’t stop growling. This went on for three days straight: food outside the door, one knock, silence, hunger eventually winning out over pride.

By the time their parents came home tanned and glowing, blissfully unaware of everything that had happened while they were away, Y/N and Niki had come to one unspoken agreement: nobody could know about what had happened on those stairs. Not their friends. Not anyone.

And when college started that fall, they took it one step further.

“We don’t know each other,” Niki said flatly the night before orientation. “No one at uni needs to know we’re step-siblings. Or that we live in the same house. As far as everyone there is concerned, we’ve never met.”

“Agreed,” Y/N said, a little too quickly.

It should have been easy. It was not.

They’d all ended up at the same university, which was a coincidence nobody found particularly funny except Niki, who thought it was hilarious that fate apparently wasn’t done with them yet. None of them lived on campus; the university was close enough that they could all commute from home. That meant Y/N and Niki still lived under the same roof, drove to the same parking lot most mornings, and then had to pretend they were complete strangers the second they stepped onto campus.

Mina, Y/N’s closest friend since high school, already knew all about Niki. She’d been there from the beginning, back when she’d first warned Y/N to stay away from him. She’d spent the whole time she’d known him watching him steal Y/N’s notebooks, tease her about her height, and find new ways to get on her nerves.

So Mina had never been a fan of him.

What she didn’t know was that, over the summer, Niki had gone from being Y/N’s annoying school nemesis to her stepbrother.

“So you’re telling me that guy from your school is here too?” Mina asked when she spotted Niki across campus, looking as smug as ever. “Seriously? I swear that guy follows you everywhere.”

Y/N forced a shrug. “Apparently.”

Mina narrowed her eyes at him. “I still don’t like him.”

“That makes two of us.”

Mina had no idea how close to the truth that answer was.

Across campus, Sunoo, Niki’s closest friend since middle school, and somehow the gentlest, most easygoing person Niki had ever willingly spent time with — wasn’t buying his sudden weirdness either. Where Niki was all sharp edges and lazy smirks, Sunoo was warm in a way that put people at ease immediately. He noticed things Niki thought he’d hidden well.

“You flinched. I saw you flinch when she walked by.”

“I didn’t flinch.”

“Bro, you walked into a door.”

Niki rolled his eyes and kept walking, but Sunoo wasn’t convinced.

Then there was Heeseung, technically friends with both of them through some tangled chain of mutual acquaintances neither of them could quite trace. He had an uncanny instinct for secrets and seemed to notice every awkward glance or strangely timed coincidence.

“Something’s going on with you two,” he announced within the first month, earning identical blank looks from both of them. “I don’t know what it is yet. But I’ll find out.”

Mark showed up in Y/N’s Intro to Psych class in week two, dropping into the empty seat beside her with an easy smile and an even easier way of making conversation. He was funny, attentive, and walked her to her next class more than once. For a few weeks, it looked like a simple friendship might actually develop between them.

Then, without explanation, Mark started keeping his distance. He stopped sitting next to her and gave short, awkward answers whenever she asked if everything was okay.

She didn’t understand it.

Not yet.

What she didn't see was Niki cornering Mark by the vending machines a week earlier, voice low and knuckles white around the strap of his bag. "Find someone else's class to sit in."

"Dude, we're not even— what's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem," Niki said, in a tone that suggested the exact opposite. Mark wasn't interested in finding out what that tone actually meant he just quietly filed Niki away as someone not worth the trouble and kept his distance from then on, no explanation offered and none really needed.

At home, the games continued pretending to live entirely separate lives under the same roof, at least whenever their parents were around, both of them acting like nothing strange lingered between them since the stairs. But behind closed doors, it curdled into something sharper. Niki started showing up outside her door just to annoy her again, like they were freshmen in high school. He'd "accidentally" lock her out when she went to grab something from the kitchen. When she tried to sneak out to a party with Mina, he stood in the doorway, arms crossed, refusing to move.

"You're not going."

"You're not my dad."

"No," he said, low, "but apparently I'm something."

It escalated one night into a real fight, voices raised, a door slammed so hard the picture frame in the hallway rattled off its nail. She pushed past him toward the stairs, furious, not thinking about her footing, and for one terrifying second history repeated itself: her foot slipping on the top step.

Niki's hand shot out and caught hers again, yanking her back against his chest so hard they both stumbled into the wall instead of down the stairs. For a flash, she was back on the floor of that house during the honeymoon, his back taking the fall that should've been hers, her mouth brushing his by accident. His heart was hammering against her back now the same way it had been then. Neither of them said anything for a long moment.

"You need to be more careful," he said, voice rough, still not letting go of her hand.

"You need to stop making me so angry I don't watch where I'm going."

His grip tightened, just slightly. Neither of them moved.

It kept happening like that over the following weeks brutal fights that ended in something neither of them had a name for. A hand that lingered too long. A silence that felt too loud. She hated how much space he took up in her head. He hated how much he thought about the stairs, both times.

At dinner one night, with her mom and Haru laughing over some story from the honeymoon, Y/N felt Niki's foot hook around the leg of her chair and drag her subtly closer to him under the table. She nearly choked on her water. Their parents didn't notice a thing. His hand found her knee under the tablecloth once, resting there like it belonged, and she had to excuse herself to the kitchen just to remember how to breathe.

"You're impossible," she hissed at him later that night in the hallway.

"You didn't move my hand."

She didn't have an answer for that.

The tension between them stretched tighter and tighter until it finally snapped one night in his room, both of them mid-argument about something that didn't matter anymore, voices low enough that the parents downstairs wouldn't hear. She was jabbing a finger into his chest, furious, when he caught her wrist the way he had on the stairs except this time he didn't let go.

"I can't do this anymore," he said, quiet, almost angry at himself for saying it out loud.

"Do what—"

He kissed her before she could finish the sentence. Not accidental this time. Not brief. It was everything the moment on the stairs hadn't been allowed to be desperate, deep, months of pretending collapsing in on itself all at once. Her hands fisted in his shirt like she needed something to hold onto. His hand slid along her side like he'd been aching to for longer than either of them wanted to admit.

They broke apart just enough to breathe, foreheads pressed together, both of them shaking slightly.

"This is a terrible idea," she whispered.

"Worst idea I've ever had," he agreed, and kissed her again anyway.

Downstairs, a door opened. Footsteps on the stairs. "Kids? We're home early—"

By the time their parents reached the top of the stairs, Y/N was wrapped in Niki's blanket up to her chin, sitting stiffly on the edge of his bed, and Niki had yanked his shirt back on inside out.

"Everything okay in here?" Haru asked, glancing between them.

"Fine," Y/N said, voice higher than usual. "Just cold."

Nobody in that house was cold. The heat had been running fine all night.

Her mom gave her a look the kind mothers give when they know something is off but can't quite place what before shrugging it off and heading to bed. The second the door clicked shut down the hall, Niki dropped his forehead against Y/N's shoulder and started laughing silently into her hair.

"Cold," he repeated. "Really."

"Shut up."

It didn't stop after that night. If anything, it got worse — worse in the way that neither of them could resist anymore. Stolen kisses in the kitchen while their parents were one room away. His hand finding hers under the table during family dinners like it was the most natural thing in the world. Doors that locked a little too quickly whenever they ended up alone. At uni, they still acted like strangers. Mina still had no idea what was really going on, though her suspicious looks grew sharper by the week. Sunoo still caught Niki smiling at his phone in a way he'd never done before, and gave up asking why. Heeseung, ever the bloodhound, spent an embarrassing amount of energy trying to catch them in the act — following flimsy leads, asking pointed questions neither of them answered — and came away every time with nothing but a growing, unshakable conviction that he was missing something huge. He never did land on the truth. It became something of a running joke between Y/N and Niki, the one thing they could laugh about together without anyone else understanding why. Mark eventually stopped trying altogether, quietly figuring out on his own that whatever invisible line he'd crossed wasn't worth crossing twice.

At home, the fighting never fully disappeared — they were still them, after all, still perfectly capable of throwing insults across a room over something stupid — but it had changed shape somewhere along the way. The arguments ended differently now. Softer. Closer. Like the anger had simply become another language for something neither of them had the nerve to say out loud yet.

"We're going to get caught eventually," Y/N told him one night, head resting on his chest, his fingers tracing absent patterns along her arm.

"Let them catch us," Niki said. "I'm tired of pretending you're nobody to me."

She lifted her head to look at him, searching his face for the joke that always used to live there. It wasn't there this time.

"You used to call me short stack and steal my notebook."

"And now I can't stop thinking about you." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, quieter now, almost like he was admitting it to himself for the first time. "Guess people change."

Downstairs, their parents laughed at something on TV, completely clueless that upstairs, the two people who couldn’t stand each other had finally run out of places to hide.

…the end

[thevirginsuicidesloverr]

He literally looks like an angel , why has this photo been hidden from me

[grace2719]

𝘕𝘪-𝘒𝘪!𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘹 𝘧!𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 - 𝘗𝘖𝘝

𝘗𝘖𝘝: 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘪-𝘒𝘪 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘰𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳

𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵: 𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦, 𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦. 𝘏𝘦’𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘴, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬. 𝘛𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱. 𝘏𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺, 𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

[angel4usthings]

Congratufuckinglations to whoever gets to bounce on it every single night

[chromehypen]

𝘋𝘈𝘕𝘎𝘌𝘙𝘖𝘜𝘚𝘓𝘠 𝘋𝘌𝘝𝘖𝘛𝘌𝘋

damn.. look at that bodyguard.

PARING: bodyguard!riki x fem!reader

SUMMARY: IN WHICH - riki was hired to protect you.. not fall in love with you. But every late night rescue, every quiet gesture, left him wanting more. His quiet devotion slowly turns into something far more dangerous.. especially when neither of you can admit the truth, or that’s what you thought.

CONTAINS: slow burn, forbidden romance, rich family dynamics, protective!riki, cold!riki, fluff, angst, tension, arguments, emotional comfort, forehead kiss, minor yelling, bodyguard AU, mutual pining, eventual confession.

WC: 1.4k

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / maybe more..

— once we got home

The moment I stepped inside the house, I knew I was fucked.

I barely had any time to take off my shoes before I heard my father's voice echo through the hallway.

“Upstairs. My study. Now.”

For a moment, I considered pretending i hadn’t heard him.

But then I remember Riki standing behind me.

yeah.. that’s wasn’t gonna work.

I turned around and looked at him and he looked completely calm, but he did have a slight hint of concern in his expression.

“you couldn’t have warned me first?”

One of his eyebrows lifted slightly.

“would it have changed anything?”

I opened my mouth to say something.. but I realized he was right so i closed it.

I mumbled something before making my way upstairs, dragging my feet with every step.

My heart was practically in my ass.

I already knew what was coming.

Sneaking out.

Ignoring my father's rules.

Going to a party.

And getting caught by the one person who was specifically hired to make sure I didn't do exactly that.

I was so getting grounded.

Probably at least for a couple months.

I reached the top of the stairs, While Riki followed quietly behind me.

When we reached my father's study, I pushed the door open.

My father was sitting behind his desk.

He looked up.

His expression was completely unreadable.

He wasn't yelling.

Somehow, that made it worse.

His eyes briefly moved toward Riki before returning to me.

“Sit.”

I swallowed.

Slowly, I walked over to one of the couches and sat down.

Riki remained near the doorway, his hands positioned behind his back.

My father leaned back in his chair, sipping his whisky.

Silence filled the room.

I fidgeted with the sleeve of my jacket, trying not to look as nervous as I felt.

Finally, he spoke.

“So, do you wanna explain yourself?”

I stared at him for a moment.

Then at the floor.

Then back at him.

“mhm..”

His eyebrow lifted.

“I'm listening.”

I took a small breath before speaking.

“I just wanted to go out for one night.”

His expression hardened.

“And you thought sneaking out of this house was the appropriate way to do that?”

I stayed quiet.

My father stared at me for several seconds.

“You were explicitly told to stay on the property.”

I nodded slowly, trying not to make the situation worse.

“I know.”

“And yet you left without permission?”

“Yes.”

His expression hardened, but he tried to stay calm.

“Do you understand how dangerous that was?”

i looked at the floor, trying to figure out an excuse to say.

“I wasn't thinking.”

“Clearly.”

Ouch.

I sank further into the couch with embarrassment.

My father sighed and rubbed his forehead before turning his gaze toward riki.

“And you.”

Riki immediately straightened.

“Sir.”

“You were assigned to keep her here, weren’t you?”

The room went quiet.

Riki didn't make excuses.

He simply nodded.

“Yes.”

My father stood from his chair.

“So explain to me how she managed to leave the property without you knowing.”

I glanced at Riki.

For the first time since we'd gotten home, he didn't look completely calm anymore.

His jaw tightened slightly.

“I was distracted sir.”

I blinked.

What?

My father narrowed his eyes.

“That's your explanation?”

Riki remained composed.

“I should have been paying attention more carefully.”

I sat up slightly.

“Riki—”

He glanced at me.

Just once.

A silent warning to stay quiet.

My father crossed his arms.

“You knew she was determined to leave.”

“Yes.”

“And you let her?”

There was a pause.. then riki answered.

“I underestimated her.”

I stared at him in slight disbelief.

He was actually taking the blame.

My father shook his head.

“Riki, you were hired because I trusted you.”

Riki's expression remained serious.

“I understand.”

“If something had happened to her tonight, would you still be standing there telling me you underestimated her?”

Riki's eyes lowered for a moment.

“No.”

The room fell silent again. The tension in the air was strongly intense.

Then suddenly I felt guilty.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

I was the one who snuck out.

I was the one who ignored him.

And now he was standing there taking responsibility for my mistake.

I looked at my father.

“Dad, it's not his fault.”

Both of them looked at me.

I swallow nervously and I continued to speak.

“He told me not to go. I ignored him.”

My father stared at me.

“You were told no, and you went anyway.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you defending him?”

I glanced at Riki.

He was already looking at me, his expression was unreadable, but there was something different in his eyes.

“Because it's true.”

My father sighed.

He walked around his desk and stopped in front of me.

“You're grounded.”

I groaned.

“Dad—”

“Two weeks. No parties. No going out without permission. And your phone stays with me or riki after ten.”

My eyes widened.

“Two weeks?! That's it?”

My father gave me a look.

“Would you prefer longer?”

I immediately shook my head.

“Nope. Two weeks sounds amazing.”

He sighed before his attention shifted back to Riki.

“And you.”

Riki straightened again.

“Yes, sir.”

“From now on, you don't take your eyes off her. You stay near her 24/7.”

I groaned.

“Seriously?”

Riki looked at me.. and for the first time that night, the corner of his mouth almost lifted before looking back at my father.

“Yes sir, I will not disappoint you again.”

My father glared at both of us for a few moments before speaking again.

“Both of you, out.”

I immediately stood, because I was ready to end the night and just go to bed.

As I walked toward the door, I glanced back at riki as he started to follow behind me quietly.

The hallway was quiet.

Neither of us said anything as we walked away from my father's study.

I kept replaying everything that had happened.

The lecture.

The grounding.

And the fact that Riki had stood there and taken the blame for me.

I stopped walking.

"Riki."

He paused a few steps ahead before turning around.

"What?"

I hesitated.

"Why did you do it?"

He frowned slightly.

"Do what?"

"Take the blame."

He looked at me for a long moment before answering.

"Because it was my responsibility to protect you."

"No." I shook my head.

"It was my fault. I lied to you. I snuck out. You could've told my dad everything."

His expression didn't change.

"Would that have helped?"

I didn't answer.

Because...

No.

It probably wouldn't have.

He stepped a little closer.

Not enough to invade my space.

Just enough that I could finally see the exhaustion behind his usually unreadable eyes.

"You're stubborn."

I scoffed.

"That's rich coming from you."

The corner of his mouth twitched.

Barely.

But I caught it.

"Was that..." I narrowed my eyes. "...a smile?"

He straightened up immediately.

"No."

"Liar."

He sighed quietly.

"Go get some sleep, princess."

There it was again.

Princess.

My stomach did that annoying little flip.

"You know..." I said softly, "I don't hate it when you call me that."

For the first time since I'd met him...

Riki looked caught off guard.

His gaze lingered on mine for a second longer than usual.

The silence stretched between us.

Neither of us looked away.

For a brief moment, it felt like the rest of the house had disappeared.

Then Riki took a slow step back.

"Goodnight."

And before I could answer.. he kisses my forehead then walked away, disappearing down the hallway.

I watched him go and i thought.

what that fuck just happened..

Soon.. a small smile slowly spread across my face as i walked back to my room.

Maybe i wouldn’t mind him being around me after all..

—

note: this was a little rushed since ima little busy but i’ll try and post part 3 as soon as i can!!

🏷️ @kaiserskittyy @erenjeagersswifee-janaee @elfayec @chaexxe

(taglist is open!!)