“I still don’t get it,” Yomin said for what seemed like the hundredth time.

            On the walk home, you had stayed beside Amber with Yomin and Mrs. An straying a little behind. Mrs. An had spent most of the time trying to explain to Yomin what exactly was going on, but with no luck.

            “Let me try,” you said as you turned back to them and started walking backwards. You looked at Yomin and smiled as you said, “Chubby Chubby + Omega = lots of babies.”

            “Not really,” Mrs. An said but as she turned to Yomin who was nodding her head like she understood, Mrs. An decided to leave it at that.

            You turned back around you looked for Amber who had walked a bit ahead of you. She had been abnormally quiet and you picked up your walking pace to catch up to her. “Amber… what’s wrong? Are you okay?” She kept her zoned out expression as she kept walking, so you tapped her shoulder.

            “What?! What’s wrong? You okay?” She jumped like she was shot and turned to you with a worried expression on her face.

            “Since when did you become a parrot?” you asked, “I just said that. What is wrong with you?”

            “Nothing’s wrong really,” she mumbled as she looked down avoiding your gaze, “I’m just worried, that’s all.”

            You rounded the corner to you street eyes still fixed on your best friend, “Worried about what – ” you began to ask as you turned to look to your house causing you to gasp in horror. “What did they do to my house?!”

            Your house was one of the smallest in the pack. While it was more than enough for your family of four, to the rest of the pack it was tiny. Your mother and father made sure that your house was always welcome to anyone who wanted to enter. There was always a friendly “come as you are” aura to your house, but the house you were looking at now was a far cry from how you had left it earlier that morning. The falling dusk accentuated the newly constructed metal bars that lined every window, and the once lit up house inviting all to enter, was replaced with one light in the living room, the lack of light as a sign that visitors were unwelcome.

            “Precautions dear, just precautions,” Mrs. An said as she followed you through the gate to your house. She tried to reassure you by placing a hand on your shoulder, but you didn’t feel safe or reassured at all.

            “We’re going to go home now,” you heard Yomin say from outside the gate, and you turned to see her following behind Amber who was already leaving.

            As you walked in the house, you were relieved to see that – while it was abnormally dark – the loving atmosphere of the house had not changed at all. There were still pictures of your family, crafts that you and your mother had made, and gaudy flower lamps in the exact places that they had been left.

            You felt a warmth envelope you and you had to hold your breath because you knew that if you didn’t, tears would start pouring. “Sweetheart, I was so worried. I missed you,” your mother said as she kissed your forehead and squeezed tighter around you.

            The hug was interrupted however with your father clearing his throat. “Ladies, why don’t we talk in the kitchen,” your father said as he turned to you and shook his head. You understood that ‘ladies’ did not include you and before you could protest, you felt yourself being pulled out of your mother’s embrace and up the stairs.

            “Jungkook, what’s up with you?” you asked as you were pulled into one of the two extra bedrooms of the house that had been converted into a ‘hang out room’ for you and your brother.

            Your brother let go of your hand as he pushed you inside and shut the door behind him. “Why didn’t you tell me it was today?”

            You walked over and plopped down on the sectional couch, the same couch that – because your little brother had insisted go in the room – you had bartered for an hour with a very angry old lady. “Why didn’t I tell my little brother about it? Because it’s embarrassing and you would have tried to tag along!”

            “Of course I would have come!” Jungkook huffed as he paced the floor, no doubt getting static from his socks sliding across the (absolutely atrocious) white faux fur rug in the middle of the floor. Another insistence of your little brother ‘because it’s cuddly and fluffy’. “What is that?!” He glared and pointed at you and as you followed his finger and his line of sight you realized that with the position you had landed on the couch, your shirt had ridden up and shown a dark purple bruise on your back.

            You quickly pulled your shirt down and tried to avoid the subject, but as you looked up you knew he wasn’t going to let it go. “Fine,” you decided that because you didn’t tell him about the status ceremony, you should at least tell him the truth about the incident with the man. Besides, you needed to talk to someone about it anyways and Jungkook was the person you trusted the most. “Okay, I got lost, I asked a guy for help, and he grabbed my chin and wouldn’t let me move. I growled at him and he let go and pushed me against a door. The doorknob hit me in the back. That’s it.”

            “See! I should have gone with you!” Jungkook yelled as he plopped down beside you on the couch.

            “Just because I’m an omega now doesn’t mean I need protecting,” you the couch cushion until and sat cross-legged as you were facing his side. He was pouting and you remembered his face after you had taken away his birthday cake when you were ten because he was giving you the same face as back then. “Jungkook, you wouldn’t have been able to go back there with me anyways. Besides… I threatened to make him a eunuch if he touched me again.”

            “You told him that?” he asked and you replied with a nod, “That’s my big sister!”

            He turned and wrapped his arms around you in a hug accidently pressing his hands into your bruise. You squealed in pain and he quickly released you. “Sorry, it’s a little sore,” you explained.

            He laid himself across the couch and placed his head in your lap, something he had always done, and of all the people telling you ‘it’s going to be okay’ and giving you hugs, this action comforted you the most.

            “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” you whispered but your reply was just the soft snoring coming from your little brother, “you must have been really worried. It’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around… I’m sorry.”

            With Jungkook asleep you tried to listen in to what your parents and Mrs. An was saying, but your father – knowing how good your hearing was – made sure to whisper. So, all you heard was mumbling from downstairs. With no conversation to listen to, the stress of the day’s events, and Jungkook’s head on your lap, it didn’t take you long to follow Jungkook and fall asleep.

 *    *    *

            If finding out you were an omega was stressful, classes with Mrs. An were even worse. Even though it was winter break, you couldn’t rest at all. Every weekday morning for two weeks you woke up at 8 am and stayed in class with Mrs. An until 4pm, then Amber, or Yomin walked you home because of the advances of strangers that smelled you as you walked by. In class, you learned about being a ‘quintessential omega’. Everything from controlling pheromones, to body changes (which had already started to occur), and… going into heats.

            You could control your pheromones pretty well. Mrs. An said that your pheromones had gotten to a point where you only smelled like a normal omega. The body changes were a little weird though. You noticed that you could run faster, you had more stamina, and you seemed to be physically stronger except for your tendency to get sick often, that hadn’t changed. The weird thing though was that your s had grown about 2 cup sizes, which were already slightly large due to the fact that you were chubby (which also hadn’t changed). ‘To accommodate for children’ Mrs. An had told you, and you understood, but it was still weird. You had asked Mrs. An if your wolf would change as well because your wolf was more like a puppy than an actual wolf. Sadly, the answer had been no and she explained to you that when you had found someone to have children with, you would have to give birth without shifting… fun stuff.

            The last day of class you had learned about going into heats, and you had wished earlier that morning you had poked your eyes out with something.

            “Why did there have to be visuals about it?!” you ranted to Amber as you walked around the fresh air market in town. “I mean, I understand what happens. I don’t need a visual play-by-play!”

            “Was it that bad?” Amber asked as she grabbed your arm and pulled you to the side. You weren’t paying attention to where you were going and almost ran into a cart of apples.

            “Sorry sir,” you said as you bowed to the cart’s owner who replied with only a smile and an outstretched apple, which you took with an ‘oh, thank you’. “Yes it was that bad,” you ranted as you put the apple in your canvas bag. “I’m actually pretty worried about it…”

            “Oh that reminds me!” Amber said as she pulled out a pill bottle from her pocket. “Yixing told me to give this to you.”

            “Yixing~? Your doctor boyfriend~?” you asked as you wiggled your eyebrows up and down.

            “He’s not my boyfriend,” she puffed quickly but the growing blush on her cheeks gave her away.

            “Uh-huh, sure,” you giggled as you poked her cheek, “you just keep telling yourself that.”

            “Oh shut up!” She said as she grabbed your hand and slammed the pill bottle in your hands.

            “4 please… What is it?” you asked as you placed it in your canvas bag along with the sweet potatoes you had just bought from a cute little old