♦ - ♥ - ♦

"I'm going to fail," Mark wailed as he wrapped his arms around Somin with a dramatic sigh. He let his head fall on her shoulder, eyes closing. "One bad grade won't keep me from graduating, will it?"

"This test is ten percent of our final grade. How's your history grade right now?" she asked, reaching to give his dark hair a comforting .

Mark was silent, so Somin glanced down at him. He looked guilty. "Uh...possibly a C?"

"Then if you fail, it could tip your grade in the wrong direction," she pointed out, shaking him off of her. "Study."

The youngest wolf groaned in protest, resting his head in his hands. "I can't cram this much information into my brain in two days!"

Somin shook her head at him, then perked up as the door opened, the rest of the wolves coming home. "Doyoung!" she called out, hopping up. A big smile spread across her face as she approached him, reaching for his hands to grab.

"Well, well, well, did you finally realize you're madly in love with me?" the male asked with a tilt of his head. "I know. I'm amazed it took you this long too, when I shine so brightly among all these idiots."

"Are you talking about me?" Johnny accused, but he was ignored.

Somin blinked. "What? No. I need your help."

Now Doyoung smirked, pulling her in closer to him by the grip she had on his hands. "Yuta's not a good kisser, so you need a good teacher, right? Don't worry, baby doll, I'm not only excellent at kissing, but in--"

"Biology," she interjected, quickly getting annoyed. "I need help with biology."

"Reproductive biology?" he pried with that same smirk, but laughed as Somin yanked her hands away. "I'm done. What is it?"

Now that he was done with his tries at flirting, Somin lead him to the living room, pointing at her textbook, her workbook open beside it. "I don't know how to remember all of this stuff about DNA and cells," she complained.

Doyoung, who was in pre-med with a current biology major, was able to help her, smirking as she threw her arms around him, thanking him multiple times since now she understood everything, she just needed to remember the terms. "I know, I know," he agreed, "I'm a genius. You're welcome. You should repay me with a kiss, since I know you can't make me Bond."

"Don't push it," Mark snapped from her other side.

It made the other roll his eyes and peer over at the youngest. "Having trouble with history? Just memorize the important dates."

Now Mark brightened up. "Hyung! Do you remember which dates are most important? Like which ones would end up on a test?"

Scoffing, Doyoung stood. "No. Ask Jaehyun, he's the one who got an almost perfect score on his Korean history exam."

Jaehyun, who was wandering into the kitchen, was stopped as Mark called for him. "Hyung! Help me please!"

But it was no use; as soon as Jaehyun saw Somin sitting next to Mark, he shook his head. "I don't know what the questions on your test are. Just memorize all of it. Use flashcards or something."

"What's his problem? Usually he helps when I ask." Mark grumbled to himself, but Somin was frowning.

Jaehyun was still acting weird towards her. Cold, distant. For the past few days now he'd been ignoring or avoiding her, and she couldn't figure out why. It couldn't have been a headache, like Jungwoo suggested. So what? Did she do something wrong to upset him? She tried asking once, but he walked away from her before she could finish her sentence. So what the hell was wrong with him?

♦ - ♥ - ♦

It had been nearly five days of Jaehyun acting weird when Somin decided she'd go to Taeyong. He and Jaehyun were close at least, so maybe he'd know.

"Taeyong?" she called as she opened his door.

The wolf, who was working on homework, glanced up, smiling immediately at the sight of his mate. "Yeah?"

"I need to ask you something." Closing the door behind her, Somin sat on Taeyong's bed, careful not to mess it up much since it was made, and she knew he could be a bit particular about having things organized. "It's about Jaehyun."

"Jaehyun? Why, did he do something?"

Shaking her head, Somin looked down at her lap. "No...he's just been acting really weird and I don't know why. I don't think I did anything to upset him. It's been almost a week that he's been ignoring me."

This made the alpha frown, setting his pencil down as he turned his whole body towards the female. "Out of the blue? I have noticed he's not been around you much lately, but didn't know why."

"Well..." Somin's gaze slid to Yuta's side of the room, a hint of amusement coming through as she noticed how messy it was, but her worry quickly took over once more. "When he went with me to the store a few days ago, he...well. I thought he might have Bonded to me. I've seen it happen a few times to know what happens to you guys when you do. He shook, and his eyes changed color. But when I checked on him, he was glaring at me or something, and then he refused to talk to me after. It's weird, right?"

"It is," Taeyong agreed, his frown deepening as he crossed his arms in thought. "Maybe he needed to shift? Go on a run? No...he went for a run the day before. And he did yesterday too, so that wouldn't explain why he's still like that towards you. Have you tried talking to him? Or can you feel him in your head? You could see if he Bonded that way."

Somin rolled her eyes. "Really? That's the first thing I tried, but he ignores me! Just walks away like I have the plague. And there's so many of you in my head I can't tell who's who. I'm not a wolf, all I feel are vague prickings of emotion, I can't tell who it's from." Now Somin's posture slumped, her torso falling back onto Taeyong's bed. "I was ignored my entire life, basically. Until I met all of you. So now that he's ignoring me...it feel like there's absolutely a reason my family, and the pack ignored me. Like I deserved it, somehow."

A soft scraping noise indicated Taeyong had stood and pushed his chair in, the wolf sitting next to her on the bed, reaching his arms around her frame to pull her into his chest. "No. That's ridiculous. You