Hyungwon had started warming up to Jooheon again. He still seemed to live by the "rules" that continued to govern his behavior, but he was more affectionate and open to affection in turn.

He was letting Jooheon feed him apple slices (which of course Jooheon had carved into bunnies) when Changkyun appeared at the edge of the kitchen, having not realized that Hyungwon was eating.

"Oh, Changkyun-" Jooheon began, and the effect was immediate. The apple slipped out of Hyungwon's mouth as he curled in on himself, tail coiling around his leg.

Changkyun paled, moving back quickly and retreating to his room.

"No, wait, Ch- wait a second," Jooheon said, chasing after Changkyun with his eyes before hesitating once he saw Hyungwon. He sighed, quickly rounding the kitchen island to rub Hyungwon's back until he relaxed. "I'll be right back, okay?" Jooheon said, and Hyungwon bobbed his head, his right ear twitching, although his eyes were shadowed with worry.

Jooheon gave him one last pat on the back before going over to Changkyun's door and knocking.

"Go-"

"Hey," Jooheon said, opening the door and stepping inside before closing it behind him in case Hyungwon left the kitchen. "Changkyun-"

"He trained Hyungwon to hate me," Changkyun said, whirling around to face Jooheon angrily, his eyes wet. "He knew that the best way to hurt me was through Hyungwon. He never would have bothered with Hyungwon if it wasn't for me, Jooheon. Hyungwon-"

"-would still be on his own, alone in the world, if it hadn't been for you," Jooheon interrupted, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You can't bother with what-if's and regrets at this point, Changkyun. We can't go back in time. We can't change the past. Our only option is to figure out how to fix the future."

"We can't," Changkyun muttered, sitting down on the edge of his bed. He ran his rough fingertips over the silky covers before pulling his fingers inward in a fist and hitting it against the relenting fabric, the feeling of his blow being absorbed unsatisfactory in every regard. He hated feeling helpless, powerless. When Hyungwon had been out of his grasp, he'd been prepared to do anything to get him back. But now he had him, and there was nothing he could do.

"We can," Jooheon argued back. He knew that Changkyun's spirit had been worn down, but he wasn't ready to give up. Not on Hyungwon, not on Changkyun. "Look, if Seungcheol conditioned Hyungwon to hate you or be afraid of you, then we can just reverse the conditioning. Instead of hurting him - which is what I assume Seungcheol must have done - you nurture him. Feed him lunch, or brush out his tail, or-"

"I can't, don't you see that?" Changkyun interrupted. "For any of that to happen, I have to be near him, and when that happens, he flinches. He feels pain because of my presence."

"But Changkyun-"

"No." Changkyun shook his head. "I won't cause Hyungwon more pain."

"But it could work, Changkyun."

"Jooheon," Changkyun said sharply, looking up at his friend. "I will not experiment on my family at their own expense."

"So what, you're just going to avoid Hyungwon for the rest of his life?" Jooheon asked, chuckling, but the hope in his eyes had shattered.

"If that's what makes him happy."

***

That had been the plan. Avoid Hyungwon, and everything would be fine. But as Hyungwon began to regain some of himself, the plan began to fall apart.

"Are you feeling all right, Hyungwon?" Jooheon asked, brushing out Hyungwon's tail. All the knots were gone, and yet Hyungwon wasn't appreciating it as much as normal. "You usually like having your tail brushed. Is something wrong? You can tell me, Hyungwon."

"Why is he avoiding me?" Hyungwon mumbled, turning his face in towards the couch cushions.

"Who?" Jooheon asked, having an inkling as to who Hyungwon was talking about, but he was hoping that he was wrong.

"Chang-" Hyungwon tried to say, but a tremor took hold of his body, and he was unable to finish the word.

"He's just...busy," Jooheon said awkwardly, setting the brush down on the table. They'd never had the conversation, he and Changkyun, where they'd come up with an excuse for him. Jooheon didn't know what to say. The room was quiet before Jooheon realized that he hadn't provided a question, meaning that Hyungwon couldn't provide a response. "Is something the matter?"

"Does he hate me?" Hyungwon asked, his voice even weaker than before as he shifted closer to the cushions, almost as though he were intent on melting into the couch itself. "Am I a burden to him? Does he want to get rid of me?"

"No....no, no, no, no, no," Jooheon quickly rushed out, surprised by Hyungwon's words. "Wonnie, he cares about you a lot. He always has, and he still does."

"Then why is he ignoring me?!" Hyungwon cried out before stiffening abruptly as he realized he'd spoken out of turn. He continued burrowing into the couch, his body quivering in fear of punishment, and Jooheon sighed, rubbing his back reassuringly.

"It's okay to speak your thoughts, Wonnie," Jooheon said first and foremost. Hyungwon rarely spoke without being asked to, and he didn't want to discourage Hyungwon from doing so. But there was another issue he had yet to address. "And he doesn't want to avoid you or ignore you. He's just scared of hurting you."

Hyungwon pulled in his knees, curling up into a compact ball, his tail tucked in, and Jooheon sighed once more before pulling Hyungwon's bundled figure toward him and settling Hyungwon on his lap.

"Why are you even thinking about Ch- about him?" Jooheon asked, catching himself quickly while he ran a hand through Hyungwon's hair, rubbing at his good ear.

"Because I belonged to him, before," Hyungwon mumbled. "And S-Seungcheol...he told me all these things...that he didn't care, that he didn't want me, but now I'm here and I don't understand and it's all very confusing to me. If I don't belong to Ch- to him, and if Seungcheol got rid of me too, then who do I belong to?"

"Oh, Wonnie," Jooheon said with a sigh, nuzzling his forehead against the top of Hyungwon's head. "Why do you have to belong to anyone?"

Hyungwon turned just enough so that he could meet Jooheon's eyes with his own. "What- I don't- how else am I supposed to exist?"

Jooheon slipped two arms underneath Hyungwon and rotated him so he was lying stomach-up, cradled in Jooheon's arms. "Nobody has to own you," Jooheon said. He wasn't sure what had cultivated this seed of thought in Hyungwon's incomprehensible mind, but he needed to kill that sprout as quickly as possible before it took root. "Kyun has always done his best to take care of you. He doesn't own you. As for Seungcheol, he didn't take care of you, and you can just forget him. But Kyun just wants you to be safe. Outside, you aren't safe. But here, you are. But...but you don't belong to anyone. Nobody owns you. The only belong here is that you belong to our family because we care about you, Wonnie. But you aren't a possession, an object. Okay? Does that make sense?"

"But K-Kyun said..." Hyungwon paused, testing out the abbreviated name, and when he didn't sense a reaction, he exhaled in relief before continuing. "Kyun said the collar he gave me meant that I belonged to him, that I'm his." Hyungwon's eyes flashed a moment in panic as his fingers climbed up his neck like diseased spiders, alighting on the cursed collar that currently trapped him. "That one is gone," Hyungwon recalled, anxiety sharpening the angles in his face. "This one is- this one is Seungcheol's, and I can't...I can't get it off, it won't come off-" Hyungwon began scratching at his neck, spiders becoming slender needles as they bit into the soft surface of his flesh, blood tipping their sharp edges.

"Hyungwon!" Jooheon snapped, using both of his hands to restrain Hyungwon's, and the task required all of his strength as he forced Hyungwon's bloodied hands away from his throat, holding them down by his stomach instead and leaving Hyungwon's head to rest of Jooheon's knee. "Hyungwon, you're hurting yourself...You can't do that, okay?" His voice shook. He hoped he looked more in control than he felt.

"B-But-" Hyungwon stuttered, the hysteria still present and growing in his eyes as he looked up at Jooheon, and the clarity Jooheon thought he'd seen there before had disappeared entirely. "If I can't get the collar off, then that means I'm still Seungcheol's, doesn't it? I'm- I'm his, because I was Changkyun's-" His body spasmed in a tight muscle contraction, but Hyungwon just gasped, fighting through it. "It won't come off, I want it off, I-" His fingers flexed, his overgrown nails, tipped with blood, now scratching at the air as tears began pooling from Hyungwon's eyes, which stared helplessly at the air in front of Jooheon. "I don't want to belong to him, I want to belong to Changk-" He cut off this time, the physical reaction in his body too strong for him to suppress or fight through.

Jooheon stared down at Hyungwon in horror. He was afraid to let go of Hyungwon's hands, scared they'd go back to his neck in an effort to claw the collar off, but by holding them down, he was powerless to help Hyungwon. He needed someone to-

"Hyungwon?" Taehyung asked, surprise evident in his voice as he stared at the scene unfolding before him.

"Thank God you're here," Jooheon mumbled.

"What's-"

"Not a good time," Jooheon said with an edge in his tone. "Questions later, help now."

Taehyung nodded, bangs flopping on his forehead as he dropped to his knees next to Hyungwon who, judging by his continued ranting and the faraway look in his eyes, was not aware of Taehyung's presence. "What can I do?" Taehyung asked breathlessly, his eyes darting to the blood on Hyungwon's hands before darting away and fixating on the blood on his neck. "Did he-"

"Yes. I need you to calm him down, okay? There's a spell I can try but I need my hands free for that. Can you hold his hands down?"

Taehyung nodded, placing his hands on Hyungwon's wrists and wincing as he felt his hand slipping on a viscous substance.

"I'm going to let go in three, two, one..."

Jooheon removed his hands, and Taehyung had to immediately apply more pressure as he felt how strongly Hyungwon was struggling.

"Good, hold them like that," Jooheon said with a nod as his hands began glowing blue.

"What are you going to do?" Taehyung asked, his brows furrowed. He wasn't really in a position to say no to anything Jooheon planned on doing, but he didn't intend on being kept in the dark about it.

"The only thing I can do," Jooheon said through gritted teeth as he tried to focus on his magic and answer the question at the same time. "Create a barrier."

Jooheon cast several symbols, his breathing growing uneven, before he cast a final symbol over Hyungwon. Abruptly, Hyungwon twitched and went still, going limp in Jooheon's lap while he leaned back again the table, his face discolored and sweat beading on his brow.

"Is he okay?" Taehyung asked, staring at Hyungwon in apprehension before gradually removing the pressure from his hands. When he realized that Hyungwon was no longer fighting back, he removed his hands, staring at Hyungwon with concerned eyes.

"He's fine," Jooheon mumbled, trying to catch his breath. While his magic was very often useful, he didn't have a large store of magic himself, which rendered his ability basically useless without a conduit. But he refused to use Hyungwon, not when he wasn't sure as to whether Hyungwon would willingly give his consent. "It's a mental barrier. It's like...putting his crazed mental state inside a box."

"So he's still struggling inside?" Taehyung asked, frowning down at Hyungwon, who gave no sign of conflict.

"At least he can't hurt himself like this," Jooheon defended. "I can't put him to sleep, Taehyung. That's Jeonghan's thing, not mine. And if I had him on speed dial, I'd invite him over myself. But one, I don't have him on speed dial and two, he's still probably our enemy. All we can do is contain Hyungwon while he's in this state, all right? So can you please run into the kitchen and gets some clean rags and a bowl of water? We need to clean him up a bit. Oh, and the nail clipper."

Taehyung nodded, returning with the requested items plus a few more. They worked in silence, Jooheon dipping the rags in water before ever so gently rubbing against Hyungwon's hands, washing the flakes of blood off. Then he moved to Hyungwon's neck, being even more careful of the shallow gashes in the skin as he rinsed off that blood as well. Once he finished, Taehyung swooped in, wrapping a layer of gauze around Hyungwon's neck to cover the open wounds so he couldn't make deeper incisions.

Then Jooheon took one of Hyungwon's hands in his and trimmed down the nails as short as they could go, moving on to Hyungwon's left hand once he finished the right.

They sat back to examine their work, making sure there was no blood left on Hyungwon, no wounds left untreated, and no nails left untrimmed.

Reassured, Jooheon leaned back against the couch, sighing deeply. "I'm sorry you had to see him like that. I imagine it was a bit disturbing."

"He's not okay," Taehyung said after a moment, joining Jooheon against the couch. "We knew he wasn't okay. But he hasn't..."

"No, he hasn't done that before," Jooheon conceded, nodding his head forward and letting it stay out of exhaustion. "It just comes back to the issue that we're all aware of."

"The collar."

"The collar," Jooheon agreed, bobbing his head once more. "What are we going to do about the collar."

It wasn't a question because they didn't have an answer.