The next morning, Eunkyung did not want to get up. She drags herself out of bed and dully brushes her teeth before dully nibbling on a granola bar while packing her school bag. Then she forced herself to put on jeans and a t-shirt to at least look like she tried.

Halfway at the door, it hit her what was waiting for her at school.

Jungkook.

Eunkyung groaned. She really did not want to deal with him right now. After all the harsh things she had said to him before storming out of his house, it was probably going to be more than a little awkward around him. Skipping school sounded like a better option to her.

She debated for a moment. On one hand, she had never skipped class before. It was something she just didn’t do. Being a model student was kind of a force of habit at this point. One the other hand, it was her last year of school and missing on day of class wasn’t going to kill her. She had all A’s in her classes and all her teachers liked her and would be happy to help her get caught up on the material she missed.

It wasn’t really a hard decision to make.

If she wasn’t going to class today, she might as well spend time with her friends.

Just as she had said the day before, them being werewolves hadn’t changed anything about their friendship. After spending so much time with Jungkook and his clan, the fact that the boys next door were creatures she previously thought were mythical wasn’t as big of a surprise as one would think it had been. It was like she had found out one of them was adopted or they did taxes for a living. It didn’t change who they were, but it explained why they were who they were and she was able to learn a new thing about them.

With that in mind, Eunkyung tossed her backpack to the side and grabbed her purse instead. She locked her front door behind her and began to walk the path to the boys house with a spring in her step.

However, all the confidence she held when she decided to visit the werewolves evaporated when she actually got to the boys house. They had always told her that she could come over any time, but she had never taken them up on that offer. It was very forward of her, but she really did want to hang out with them. Yugyeom mentioned he was homeschooled and that the other boys taught him, so they were probably home on a school day. And they could always turn her away if they didn’t want her over, right?

Before she could talk herself out of it, Eunkyung hurriedly knocked on their door and waited.

After a moment of silence, there was a shuffle and then a click as someone unlocked the door. Bambam peeked out with a curious expression and beamed when he saw Eunkyung.

“Eunkyung’s here!” He shouted over his shoulder and into the house while he opening the door wide so she could come in.

Within seconds, the whole pack surrounded Eunkyung and welcomed her.

“Eunkyung,” Youngjae ran over with a smile. “What are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to hang out, it that’s not any trouble?” She let her words turn up in an unsure lilt and looked at the older boys nervously, seeking their approval.

JB glance at Yugyeom before nodding. 

“Of course,” He told her. “You’re always welcome here.”

“Yugyeom,” Jr shot the youngest boy with a sharp look. “Don’t think you can skip math just because Eunkyung is here. You can hang out with her once you finish today’s lesson.”

With an upset grumble, Yugyeom let himself get dragged back to the patio but his math teacher, Youngjae. Jr watches them go until he is satisfied that the youngest isn’t trying to pul a fast one. He then turned to Eunkyung with a smile.

“I’m almost done with breakfast, so you can go play video games with the others while you wait.” He said.

“Oh, can I help?”

“I appreciate the offer, Eunkyung, but you don’t have to. You should go hang out with the others.”

“It’s not any trouble,” She smiled at him. “I want to help.”

 Jr smiled at her and led her to the kitchen while the other boys separated to go to their separate tasks.

“Eunkyung, isn’t today Monday?” Jr asked her with a knowing look as he handed her an apron. “Don’t you have school today?”

Eunkyung froze with the apron still in her hand. She look down and then give him a meek look. “I didn’t feel up to going today.”

Jr nodded and tied his own apron. 

“Well, you are always welcome here. But remember that running away from your problems isn’t a good way to handle them. They’ll only follow you. It’s important to face your problems head on.” Then he smiled at her and turned toward the fridge. “But it’s okay to put things off for a while.”

After that, the two fell into a comfortable silence as they started to make breakfast. Jr had decided on french toast and it was simple enough that they were both able to get to work on it. Jr dipped the pieces of bread in the eggs and Eunkyung watched them as they cooked to make sure the food didn’t burn. 

As the Eunkyung flipped the french toast, Jr looked at her from the corner of his eyes before starting to talk.

“How are you handling the, you know, the whole werewolf thing?”

“Hm…” Eunkyung began to flip over the toast. “It’s kind of a surprise but I’m already use to the idea. It’s not as surprising as I thought that sort of a thing would be. I mean, it doesn’t change much for me. You guys are still my friends. And I’ve only ever seen Yugyeom transform once. It’s not like you guys are suddenly wolves around me all the time. You're still you.”

Jr smiled at her gratefully. “You know, before when we just invited you to dinner all the time, what was your impression of us?”

Eunkyung let herself think for a moment before she started to speak. “You guys seemed very kind. You always asked me to come over for dinner, even though I said no for years. It made me feel like I wasn’t entirely alone when I was grieving.”

“Yugyeom never made you feel uncomfortable?”

“N-No,” She stuttered slightly and her cheeks turned light pink. “He was a-always very nice to me.”

“Really,” Jr turned away and when to the pantry, suddenly very interested in finding powdered sugar and honey. “How so?”

“Oh, you know…” She mumbled and suddenly felt very bashful. “He always made small talk with me. And he always said good morning when we were getting our mail. It was a nice way to start the day.”

Jr set down the sugar and honey on the counter and had to hide his smile. His pup’s mate liked him too.

When Eunkyung set the last piece of french toast on the plate, Jr took it from her and put it on a tray with the powdered sugar and honey.

“I’ll go put these on the table. Would you let everyone know that breakfast is ready?” He asked.

Eunkyung nodded and quickly ran off to find the others. She found Bambam and Jackson playing Smash Bros in the living room. Before she could even open , Jackson let out a lout whoop and ran straight to the dining room with Bambam hot on his heels. Eunkyung giggled as they yelled about how hungry they were before going off to find the others. JB was in his room reading a book. Eunkyung waited until he put his bookmark in and looked up at her before informing him that breakfast was ready. He thanked her with a ruffle of her hair.

Youngjae and Yugyeom were the last two she needed to tell. She remembered them heading to the patio when she first got here, so Eunkyung ran over and peeked her head out of the back door to look for them.

The pair sat at the picnic table with a bunch of papers spread out in front of them. Youngjae pointed at sheets filled with equations Eunkyung didn’t even recognize and explained them in a soft tone. Every time he paused for breath, Yugyeom would nod his understanding or ask a quick question to clarify something.

Silently, Eunkyung sat down at the table and waited for them to notice her and get to a stopping point.

Yugyeom quickly scribbled down one last thing before giving her his undivided attention.

“What’s up, Eunkyung?” He asked. 

“Breakfast is ready!” She informed them. “We’re having french toast.”

“I’m almost done with this worksheet. I’ll join you guys when I’m done.” He gave her a quick smile before turning back to work.

Youngjae glanced between the two of them before grinning mischievously. He snatched away the worksheet from Yugyeom and hid it behind his back. 

“I’d say you’re done for today, Yugyeom. You can finish the last few problems later.” He turned toward Eunkyung and took her hand. “Let’s go!”

Yugyeom quickly dropped his pen on the picnic table and ran after them, taking Eunkyung’s other hand in his own. Together, the three of them sat down with the whole pack to eat breakfast together.

***

After they ate, Yugyeom invited Eunkyung to talk a walk in the forest with him.

“Let’s go this way,” He said, and lead her to path she had never been on since it led through the boys’ land. “There’s something this way that I want you to see.”

“Really?” She followed him, side by side along the thin winding trail. “What is it?”

“You’ll see when we get there.” He said simply.

After few endless minutes of walking toward an unknown destination, Eunkyung spoke up.

“Can you at least tell me how far we’ll have to go?” She asked.

“Not that much further,” He took her hand and helped her over a fallen tree that blocked the path. “It’s just down this path. Believe me, you’ll know it when you see it!”

Feeling playful, Eunkyung let Yugyeom get ahead of her, trailing behind to pretend to look at flowers around the base of a tree. Once he was far enough away from her, she grinned and ran toward him.

“Tag!” She yelled at him, tapping his shoulder as she sped past him. “You’re it!”

Yugyeom gave her a startled look as she ran ahead of him with a lighthearted giggle. He took after her and Eunkyung stuck her tongue out to taunt him.

“Bet you can’t catch me!” She glanced over her shoulder as she wove through the trees.

“You’ve made a mistake, Eunkyung!” He called after with a grin on his face. “Never challenge a werwolf to a game of tag.”

But she just laughed at him and continued running down the path.

Yugyeom could catch up to her effortlessly, he knew that, but he also didn’t want to. They were close to the place he wanted to show her and that gave him an idea. He jogged behind her lightly, teasing her occasionally by pretending to almost catch up to her. She would let out a playful cry before ducking out of the way of his hand.

The trees began to thin out and Yugyeom grinned.

They had arrived. Before them was a small clearing with freshly fallen leaves covering the grass. They crunched satisfyingly beneath their feet as the two ran through. Seeing his opportunity, Yugyeom lunged forward and attacked her sides.

Eunkyung let out an uncharacteristically loud shriek as he tickled her.

“Yugyeom!” She cried. “Stop it!”

“Make me,” He taunted her.

After scuffling around in the leaves for a while, Yugyeom finally let her go. Eunkyung took a few steps away from him before letting herself fall back onto a pile of leaves. Yugyeom laughed before joining her and laying down next to her. They looked up at the cloudy fall sky and the only sound between them was their panting.

After she had caught her breath, Eunkyung glanced around the clearing with interest.

“Is this what you wanted to show me?” She looked over at Yugyeom. His eyes were closed as he enjoyed the sun on his skin but he cracked open one of them to meet her gaze.

“Yeah,” He took a deep, clearing breath, before sitting up. “This was were I first met my pack.”

“Really?” Sensing that this was something serious that he wanted to tell her about, Eunkyung sat up as well to give him her full attention. “How did you meet them?”

“I was a lone wolf.” He looked off into the distance as he remembered the past. “I was little more than a pup at that point. My pack abandoned me in the forest and I had to take care of myself. Being a lone wolf is rough, because you’re on your own and don’t know who to trust. A lot of wolves on their own don’t last very long.

“JB was the one who found me. I tried to fight him at first, because I thought he was a threat, but then he just sat their when I barked at him and didn’t even move. He was very calm. Then he talked to me and invited me to join his pack.

“And that’s really rare. I thought I was going to die alone at that point. So I jumped at the opportunity and became one of them. All of us did that actually. For different reasons, we all left the pack we were born into, and found our own pack.”

“That’s amazing, Yugyeom.” Eunkyung smiled down at him after he finished his story. “No wonder your guys are so close to each other.”

“Of course, they’re my brothers.” 

Looked at his mate. Oh Eunkyung. A human girl into a world she didn’t belong to but took to with grace. Eunkyung, the girl who always knew the right thing to tell him. Eunkyung, the mist beautiful girl in the whole world.

After they stayed and enjoyed each others company in the meadow a little more, they headed back to the packs house, where Eunkyung spent the entire day playing game with her friends.