School was finally out for the summer holidays, which greeted them with warm sunshine and a new-found addiction to iced lemonade. Su Ji brought out the summer hat she used to wear when she and her father used to go to the beach for vacation, but hastily took it off when Yoongi asked her what the heck she was doing with "that thing" on her head.

No one had yet spoken about Namjoon's proposition of going off to find wolves. It wasn't because Su Ji and Yoongi hadn't yet spoken about it honestly, but it was mostly about Jin – they couldn't leave him here alone. For the past week, he had been sulking and refused to move one foot out of Namjoon's bed. "He invaded my house!" Namjoon would grumble, setting up camp in the living room. Jin only spoke to Jimin, and even then he didn't say much.

Mrs Choi was always over at Grandma's house. She trembled a lot and jumped at small noises, and hissed once in a while at Yoongi, but other than that, she was doing pretty well. In fact, she had "borrowed" some of Grandma's yarn and was in the process of knitting who-knows-what. When she wasn't knitting, she was on her knees in the soil, helping to take care of Grandma's beautiful garden.

Yoongi was fascinated by the garden – more like he was fascinated by the strawberries and blackberries growing there, which mysteriously disappeared and he swore he had no idea about what had happened.

Since he had eaten all of the berries that would have gone into her pie, Su Ji felt no guilt whatsoever by dumping a bucket of water over his head when he was napping one afternoon. He sputtered and fell off the deck chair, shocked. The shock only lasted a moment though, because he leaped up and yelled, "I'm gonna kill you!" Su Ji squealed and made a run for it, Yoongi running behind her with his own bucket of water.

Su Ji ducked behind a bush and Yoongi flung the water just as Namjoon had turned up and was demanding what the heck she was doing, hiding like that. Of course, Su Ji barely got wet, and laughed so hard that her ribs hurt. On the other hand, Namjoon did not laugh – he was not one bit amused.

"How childish," he sneered, wiping his soaking hair off his forehead. Then, to show that he, on the contrary, wasn't "childish," - note the sarcasm - he took the bucket and dumped it on Yoongi's head.

"You're so juvenile!" Yoongi hollered at Namjoon's retreating figure, lifting up the bucket and throwing it to the ground.

That bucket was the star of nearly every day. Hoseok and Aanchal came over often, and Aanchal's favorite target was Su Ji, who threatened to not only stuff the other girl into a trashcan, but to also whack her with her grandmother's shiny new frying pan.

"They're so childish," Yoongi would say wisely to Hoseok, as the girls chased each other. Su Ji had grabbed the hose and was running after Aanchal, who had dumped the bucket once more on her head.

Hoseok nodded. "Yes, indeed," he said, equally wisely. Both boys felt incredibly mature, but when Su Ji sprayed them with the hose they yelled and all their "maturity" was forgotten.

Grandma and Mrs Choi migrated to the other lady's house, complaining about the noise, but Grandma had a twinkle in her eye as she said so. Since they had an entire house to themselves during the day, it became their official meeting place. Board games and cards and snacks and DVDs were stored in the living room cabinet, and Su Ji denied having eaten anything when they weren't around.

Two weeks passed – two weeks full of fun, games, laughter, and a lot of easy bickering on Su Ji and Aanchal's part. In fact, it became their new favorite activity of the day.

To Hoseok and Aanchal's request, Yoongi phased to his wolf form one day. Su Ji petted him and convinced the other two that he didn't bite, and Yoongi was like an overgrown puppy again, wagging his tail and excited to be the centre of attention. Aanchal especially loved to pet him. "I want to kidnap him!"

She asked Yoongi to phase often after that, and once she brought over a bright red bow and tied it around his neck. Yoongi didn't like that very much. He liked even less the huge Mickey Mouse headband she put on him the next day.

"I'm not a doll for you to dress up!" he huffed, once he was back in his human form.

Despite the lightness and fun of the holidays, Jin was never forgotten, however. Everyone asked Namjoon about him everyday, to which there was always one reply: "He's the same."

Finally, Namjoon asked Yoongi to go and talk to Jin. "He doesn't want to talk to me," he explained. "He doesn't trust me, and I don't really blame him for that."

"What makes you think he'll trust me?" Yoongi asked. "He thinks of me as a traitor, remember?"

"Traitor or not, you're still a wolf, which makes you better than me."
 

"Ok, I'll talk to him," Yoongi agreed.

In the evening, when the others were making popcorn and cold coffee to eat while watching a movie, Yoongi went to Namjoon's house and entered the bedroom. "Hi, Jin."

The pale boy glanced up, then looked back down, sullen-faced. His hair was greasy and matted, as though he hadn't washed up for quite a while. The dark circles were a contrast to his paper-white skin, and it seemed as though his entire body had gotten even thinner.

"How are you getting along?" Yoongi asked, pulling up a chair and sitting near the bed.

Jin shrugged. At least Yoongi was acknowledged, that was a good thing.

"Do you like it here? Or... do you miss your home?"

Jin's face clouded. "Don't you dare refer to that hellhole as home again," he spat. The amount of venom in his voice took Yoongi slightly aback.

"Ok," he said, not sure of what to say. "Um, do you like the food?"

Jin laughed derisively. "What's it to you?"

"Namjoon and I just to make sure you're comfortable-"

"Oh please, the Protector doesn't give a damn about me. He doesn't give a damn to any of the wolves."

"He gives a lot more than a damn," Yoongi defended. "You have no idea about him, or of me, either!"

Jin set his jaw in a straight line, but fell quiet.

"I was a pup when Namjoon found me." Yoongi's voice was soft, hesitant to voice his worst memories, but he thought it would do Jin a lot of good to hear them. "It was during the Purge. I don't know exactly how much is my own imagination, but when I dream of it, I can smell blood and burning houses. My mother hid me in a cupboard before they – the Protectors – came. They killed her," he said abruptly. "I saw it happen."

Jin's eyes zeroed in on the block pattern on the quilt, as though he was going to make a quilt, too.

"You know who found me? Namjoon." It felt like a pair of ghostly cold fingers wrapped themselves around his neck, trying to choke him. "He... " Yoongi shut his eyes and struggled to get those last words out. "He nearly killed me."

Jin looked up sharply.

"My father saved me. He had told the Protectors where the wolf village was, in return for sparing his life. But then he came and exhanged his life for mine."

"That Protector would have killed you." Jin's tone was hard. "He killed your family, he would have killed you, and still you consider him your friend."

"It sounds so messed up, doesn't it?" Yoongi forced out a bitter laugh. "Sometimes I think I'm crazy too."

But he wasn't. Namjoon was not like the Protetors who had killed his family. One of Yoongi's first happy memories after his parent's death was playing Frisbee with Namjoon in the park, in his wolf form. He could remember chewing Namjoon's slippers to shreds and attacking his socks. He could remember running away shrieking when it was time for a bath, and the way Namjoon kept buying toys and treats to bribe him. He could remember Namjoon buying that fluffy wolf plushie because he had kept on crying about having no friends. And the strangest memory of his was... in that chaos and fear and confusion, the night his parents had died, he could remember sensing one person in the entire village who had no desire to harm him, and that was Namjoon.

"Kim Namjoon...." said Yoongi slowly. "He thinks life is precious. He said that once upon a time, the Protectors thought every life was equally precious, but it got twisted and warped over the years, and he hates that. You know, he risked his life by bringing you here. He risked his life when he decided that he wanted to save your father. And he is risking it again by wanting to find other wolves."

"Why the hell does he bother then?" Jin spat. "No one is asking him to risk that precious life of his!"

"Because he really does care," said Yoongi. "You must sense it, too...."

"I don't." Jin sounded firm. "I don't sense anything. The only thing I can ever sense is trying to keep my wolf inside, trying to erase that part of me. How the hell can I sense anything else?"

"You don't need to try and erase that part of you anymore," Yoongi said. "Here, it's ok to phase as whatever you want, as long as you don't hurt anyone."

"Hurt anyone?" Jin took a deep, shuddering breath. "Don't you get it? I have done that, not once, not twice, not thrice – more. Do you have any idea of what it's like to suddenly wake up and realize what you've done? To just... black out and then the next thing you know, you.... I can't. I can't phase, I can't trust myself not to lose control again."

"Wouldn't you like to be able to control yourself?" Yoongi's voice was very soft, almost soothing. "I can help you. We can go into the forest together. Namjoon will help you too – he has helped me so much."

"What choice do I have?" Jin muttered. "None. I will never step foot in that house I called home again."

That was right – Jin did not have much choice. In fact, he had no choice at all, except the choice of accepting to learn or being forced to learn.

"Think about it," said Yoongi, getting up. He had finished saying what he had to say. "Tell Namjoon when you're ready."

His hand was on the door when Jin's hesitant voice called out, "Ok... we can go into the forest together. But not because I trust you," he added hastily. "Because I want to be able to control myself."

Yoongi smiled. "Of course. I'll see you later, then."

****

Exam results were finally out, met with groans and squeals and cries of congratulations. Su Ji quickly filled out a bunch of college application forms and sent them the day the exam results came. Then she let herslef fall into the usual habit of comparing grades with everyone else – unsurprisingly, Namjoon had gotten a perfect score. Yoongi had barely scraped by, and Hosoek had achieved average grades, which for him, was enough – he was proud to have passed with his own abilities. Aanchal had done excellent, and Su Ji had done very well – well enough that even Grandma didn't nag her about her grades.

Much to Su Ji's dismay, Yoongi didn't spend the evenings and sometimes even afternoons with them anymore – he went to Jin.

"At this point you're going to become BFFs with him!" Su Ji would say. Well, why not? Jin was the only wolf Yoongi knew, and vice versa.There had to be some kind of special liking there, somewhere.

Nearly two weeks of this had gone by, and Su Ji was seeing less and less of him – the only time they were alone together was at night, when they would exchange snatches of conversation and a kiss before they fell asleep, tired out from the summer day.

One evening, after Hoseok and Aanchal had just left, Namjoon turned up at the doorway.

"Hey, Joonie," greeted Su Ji – to her joy, a shadow of annoyance and embarrassment went across his face at the new nickname.

"Want to see something?" asked Namjoon, having already resigned himself to the nickname.

"Yes!" she cried immmediately.

Namjoon beckoned her outside and she followed him. They went out the garden and crossed the road into the forest.

"What are we going to see?" she asked, curious.

"Just wait," said Namjoon. He paused. "Ah... let's stop here."

Su Ji looked around. There was nothing beside lush greenery and the birds. It was beautiful out here, with the sunlight streaking through and the trees providing a cool canopy of shade, but she doubted this was what Namjoon had wanted to show her.

"What is it?" she asked again, impatient.

"Shh! They're coming."

"What is?"

No sooner had Su Ji asked this question than two wolves went streaking by, one white and one black.

"Was that..." she said slowly, turning around to watch the two wolves chase each other playfully.

Namjoon nodded, his dimples so deep you could fit your fingertip in each one. "That was Jin and Yoongi – they come out here every day. Let me tell you, Jin has improved so much! He got a lot stronger, and he seems a lot happier now!"

"You sound like a proud father," Su Ji laughed.

"Oh, shut up," said Namjoon, rolling his eyes.

The two wolves stopped playing, and trotted towards them, long tongues hanging out and panting.
 

Even though Su Ji knew nothing would happen, she was still a bit wary of the black wolf – when Jin approached, she unconsciously took a step back. The black wolf gave a whine and shrank back, and Yoongi came forward to press his fluffy body against her legs comfortingly.

He says he's sorry, she