Sori had almost reached the café where she first met Junmyeon. She checked the time on her phone once again just to make sure she was on time for their meeting. A couple of days ago, the alpha of EXO had invited her for dinner in his pack’s house, so that she could meet his whole pack and make new friends, but she had declined the offer, not wanting to upset her pack any more than they already were. She also refused because she sort of had the feeling that meeting another pack on her own would’ve been a big deal, and she was afraid it could be seen as betrayal towards her own pack. In fact, usually packs meet as “whole groups”, single members of a pack meeting another pack weren’t that common.

Feeling uncomfortable both by refusing completely to meet him and by going to their house, but still wanting to befriend someone from outside her pack's close circle, Sori had bargained for meeting him in the same place they met some week sago.

Baekhyun was utterly offended for being left out, but it was nobody’s fault he had to work in the afternoon. No matter what they said, he still pouted and sulked for a good while before reaching the conclusion that they’ could have another little meeting together soon, and he promised he’d bring someone else from the pack, so that Sori could get to know his friends. It was a bit weird for Sori when he acted like he wanted to show her off, but she wasn't going to fuss about something so little as long as they didn't make her too uncomfortable.

Sori opened the café’s door, finally finding a shield from mid May’s hot sun. She looked around and found Junmyeon sitting in the same table in which she sat when they first met. It seemed like he was playing some game on his phone, for he was mumbling words under his breath and leaning from one side to the other while holding his phone with both of his hands. Sori smiled at the sight and loudly joined him at the table, almost giving him an heart attack.

“Yah, couldn’t you make some noise before sitting down like that? I was focused on the game!”, he nagged at her holding his chest. Sori was trying not to laugh, but the way he was taking deep breaths with his eyes closed was really funny, so she let out a small chuckle. So much for an alpha with years of experienced under his belt.

“The last time I was too focused on something different from what I was supposed to be doing I got punched in the face, be grateful I didn’t punch you”, she chuckled again. Junmyeon smirked at that, but didn’t move his hands from his chest. He noticed her cheerful mood, and couldn't help but wonder what made her happy like that!

“So, are you still upset with Baekhyun?”, Junmyeon curiously asked after a couple of seconds. He brought his hands back on the table, and after having tucked away his phone, he intertwined his fingers in front of his him. Time to get Sori to spill the news.

“Nah, what can I even do about him? I don’t think he’ll let that story ever be forgotten”, Sori shook her head. Baekhyun had had a field day when she told them shortly how the training went. And Sori was pretty sure that by now he’d even told about it to all of his packmates… great ways to make yourself known to people who haven’t met you yet.

Suho cackled lightly at her misfortune, not wanting to laugh and rub it even more in her face, and then he stood up. “So, what do I order for you?”, he asked leaning on the table to pass Sori the menu. Sori went through the options quickly, but didn’t really took time to choose something from the menu, because the silence and the weight of Junmyeon’s eyes on her was making her uncomfortable.

“You know what? I’ll trust you, order whatever might suit my taste on your opinion”, Sori dismissed the problem easily. If he was going to be the one paying for the both of them, then it was only right for him to be spending as much as he wanted. It wasn't like she was a picky eater, anyway. She put down the menu and raised her eyes to meet Junmyeon’s, smiling openly at him.

“Mmm, okay, so I’ll force you to eat something, because lately you seem to be losing more and more weight”. He winked at her before waltzing to the counter. Sori chewed her lip, her cheeks warming up. She was losing weight, but to her it didn’t look that noticeable, not for the others at least. Am I the only one who doesn’t see any kind of change?

Thinking about it, maybe she was really the only one. BTS members had questioned her more than once about why she kept losing weight and at times she could feel their eyes scrutinizing her during dinner, but it seemed like no one wanted to bring the matter any further, or maybe they didn’t want to hurt her. Either way, they didn’t question her further about her eating habits. Only Jin and Narae dared asking her frequently about her meals, and Sori never hid the fact that at times she skipped meals. Instead, she hid the fact that she was still feeling nauseous and tired, even dizzy when she skipped too many meals, and despite her promise to Jin, so far she hadn't seen any doctor about this matter.

She knew it wasn’t right, but she really didn’t want to alarm her packmates nor to be forced to go to the hospital, and although she knew they’d respect her choices, the possibility of them dragging her to the ER without her consent scared her. What if they found out she was suffering from some kind of lethal disease? That would make being a turned-werewolf definitely useless.

Ever since the “small” accident during the training, Sori had experienced again the nausea at full blown-force and she was also suffering from terrifying headaches, so Sori couldn’t really think of a way to convince them to let her be until the effect of the punch disappeared if they were to find out about it. So nope, she was not going to tell them about it.

To kill the time, Sori checked her phone to see if she had any new notification, and against her predicaments, there was one text. The text was from Jungkook. Weird.

To Sori, his whole behaviour during the past week could be resumed with the word “weird”. Actually the whole pack’s behaviour had been out of character lately (the training had left the whole pack in a dire need of fighting and sparing with each other at any time, no matter where or how lour they were), but he was the one who had surprised her the most, for he kept stealing glances at her, sending her small smiles and at times even asking her about what she was up to, or how she was doing. Actually, Sori had the suspicion he was more interested in having news to tell the others and facts to proves him right about his theories about turned-weres, so she never really answered him properly, but up to now he hadn’t made fun of her, and it looked like the rest of guys hadn’t really notice their small and awkward interactions. Most of the times Sori still avoided him, honestly, and to spare herself from visiting the hospital, she’d recently been avoiding the others as well. Standing next to him was too embarrassing for her, for there never was that kind of relationship between them before, in fact they weren’t really friends… nor were they anything else, actually. They were just… well, they were nothing, to be honest. After his apology, he’d been acting quite sweet and caring, but it was too awkward for it to be normal. It felt more like he was trying to ignore the big wall between them rather than really patching up their messed up relationship.

Sori often found herself looking at him when she was sure no one else was looking, and studying his behaviour with the other girls of the pack, trying to classify their relationship in comparison to whatever they shared in the past and his behaviour at the moment. With Narae there was not much skinship, just as much as with any other pack member, not to mention that things between them weren’t always smooth, since Narae frequently stepped up to take her best friend side during their fights. In fact their relationship had been quite rocky in the past few months, but Sori knew Narae cared about Jungkook, no matter how much she complained about him, and she knew Jungkook cared about Narae too.

With Minyoung instead, it was a completely different kind of relationship. Although Sori had never really seen them acting as a real couple, in was undeniable that there was something going on between them or at least that’s what it looked like to whomever as much as glanced at the two of them. Having had a couple of days to seriously observe them, Sori could clearly see that the interest between them was reciprocal. In Minyoung’s case, her behaviour wasn’t that openly flirty kind of attitude they show on films, however it could still be easily noticed: she smiled more when she was around him and she talked louder than usual, which was a lot to say since her behaviour was pretty cheerful on a daily basis. She’d sit with her back straight to show her goods, and around the house she’d started wearing more revealing clothes… which could also be because the temperatures were raising, but still… She’d also allow him to sit and stand closer than she looked to be comfortable with the rest of the guys in the pack and Minyoung had developed the habit of preparing afternoon snacks for the two of them, so that they could eat them together when he came back home from work. There was no more room for her to bake her muffins for when Jungkook got home from work.

Instead, on Jungkook’s side, the flirtiness was more obvious, although Sori had to admit it could also be that evident because she’d the habit of observing his every move when he was in the house. He would say all those cheesy lines you hear in romantic dramas, and making a ton of positive comments about every single thing she cooked, no matter how easy the recipe was, like, Sori literally heard him complimenting her skills in making sandwiches… Not to be jealous or have an attitude or anything, but Sori started making sandwiches on her own when she was 5, so she couldn’t see anything special in them that deserved being complimented, especially that much. Not to mention that she cooked way harder things on a daily basis and he never even said “it tastes good” or “thank you”, so she guessed it was just a matter of personal preferences after all.

In all of this studying, observing and being in pain, Sori had reached the conclusion that maybe Jungkook had apologized because he wanted to start their friendship, if they could even be considered friends, anew now that he was getting closer to Minyoung. She even reflected on the fact that maybe it was really Minyoung who had pushed him to apologize, although it was a bit out of her character, it was still possible in Sori’s mind. There were not many options she could think of to justify Jungkook’s change of behaviour.

Having taken all of that in consideration, Sori had made up her mind the previous night: she could be Jungkook’s friend. It wasn’t even that hard to picture it in her mind if he kept behaving the way he had in the last couple of days. To be honest, months ago she felt way closer to him than they were now, but they had never been this openly friendly with each other before, so she thought it would only be easier now that he was acting all nice and friendly. They could be friends, and Sori could be happy for him and Minyoung when they’d decide to make things official. She could be there for them instead of being a sore ex, which she wasn’t, by the way, since he had never been hers before.

This was the main reason why she’d tried to avoid him this week. Sori wanted to get over her feelings for him for real this time. No coming back to him. No finding him interesting. No wanting to be closer to him and no letting him in her room. No wanting to feel his hands all over her again. She was going to have the upper hand this time. She was surely going to keep her feelings in check.

Not to mention this was also the perfect excuse to avoid the rest of the pack, which was a tad too excited for her poor brain. She’d been suffering from severe migraines ever since Taeil had tried to push her nose inside her head, but apparently Voldermort-style wasn’t that easy to acquire, and although her nose was pretty much fine by now, her head wasn’t, which made those extremely loud screeches and banshee yells totally unbearable for her.

To soothe her headache, Sori had spent the first two days by the lake, far from the noises, a part from Baekhyun’s loud voice, waiting for her noise to be back to its original size and thinking about the plot of the next chapter she wanted to write for her book. As soon as her nose wasn’t swollen anymore, Sori had taken a quick trip to the town, looking for new possible jobs she could apply to. Actually, Sori had decided to postpone the whole “job-hunting” until she felt completely fine again, so she was just looking for jobs that could be interesting for her, or maybe not even interesting, just jobs to earn some money. As long as she could apply for them it was fine.

In the meanwhile Sori had spent her resting time trying to figure out the characters she wanted to write about. It wasn’t like she was in dire need for money anyways and she was waiting for a reply from the editing house to whom she’d sent the first three chapters of the book. Thus, why not work on her book some more? Maybe she could fix some scenes that sounded too corny when she read them again.

As of now, the pack provided her with every single thing she might want or need, but using and wasting your own money, what you earned with your hard work, was very different from using and wasting somebody else’s. Not to mention the personal satisfaction in being self-sufficient again. It wasn’t like she needed it, but she liked the idea of it. Moreover, if she didn’t work nor study what could she do during the day? Once she had already cleaned the house and cooked, there wasn’t much left to do, especially there was nothing interesting to do. The house chores were split between the members of the pack, so she had nothing to do. She couldn’t even go that often to the lake unlike a couple of months ago, so she knew perfectly well that staying at home was only going to bore her to death, and the idea that the rest of her life was going to be like this was terrifying. She needed to do something before she went crazy.

For more than three years Sori had tried to spare her alpha’s ego, but she couldn’t do it anymore. If now that they didn’t know about her desire for a job there were no problems, why would them appear later on if she decided to let them know? A part-time job wasn't going to occupy that much of her time, and even id she managed to be a writer , it wouldn't be enough to pack her schedules to the point of damaging her relationship with the pack. What she wanted was to earn her own money and to have something to do when the most of the guys was out. It would also be fairer on them, since she would be able to help with the bills.

Sori lifted her head just in time to see Junmyeon coming back with their drinks. She put away her phone and smiled at him.

“Do you know where's Sori?”, Jungkook asked from where he was sprawled on the sofa. He had been playing games on him phone since he had gotten home from work and he was about to die of boredom. He had spent so much time playing on his own that he was starting to feel restless and annoyed

“Out”, Narae replayed soon after. Jungkook glared at her with his “No , Sherlock” expression.

“I know that much already, thank you”, he rolled his eyes, “but she’s been out for hours ,so I texted her, but she just read it without texting me back”. He was frowning at his phone, as if he was blaming his device for it. He wasn't used to texting Sori, nor was he used to being igno