Three hours earlier, Ha Sungwoon was extremely nervous to meet with his soon-to-be step-mother. He wore his best grey suit he had and had styled his hairstyle into a neat style. After thirty minutes in front of the mirror, Sungwoon grinned, actually felt satisfied about his looks right now. He might’ve not the best in height department, but he was a heart-stopper, he was certain of it. Confidence at its finest, he stepped out of his room, only to find—

“Sungwoon-hyung, are you ready?”

The calm, soothing voice made Sungwoon turned and his eyes were blessed with the sight of Minhyun. Minhyun, as always, looked like prince charming from Joseon era with the regal air around him. His hair was effortlessly gelled into parted hair only Minhyun could pull off and he wore a sharp yet intellectual black suit to match his onyx eyes. His sharp eyes regarded Sungwoon curiously and appraisingly, before smiling kindly, “You look handsome, hyung. Let’s go downstairs. Everybody has been waiting for  you.”

Sungwoon smiled sadly. There was sky above a sky, huh…

The sight below was chaotic good. Sungwoon always knew that his brothers were all lookers, but seeing them dolled up and nervous like this took every single attractiveness level they have into another level. Woojin was silently fixing his tie seriously, while mumbling something under his breath, undoubtedly with his busan dialect. Daehwi was talking nonstop to Jinyoung, and Guanlin blankly stared into the wall, but they all knew the maknaes were nervous. Jihoon was nowhere in sight, Daniel sat on the couch doing nothing, Jaehwan, Seungwoo, and Jisung were engaged in a serious conversation.

The night before, they were all just minding their own business together on the living room. The six eldest who were usually not in the house because of their jobs just came home. Just doing the traditional things they did when all of them were together—laying, playing games, or eating, but still in the vicinity of each other. That was how their pack worked for years. Even though some of them were busy because of their jobs now, they wouldn’t give up the time they could use to play with their brothers. That was how strong their bond was.

“Hello kids!” suddenly their father came strolling in. They greeted the older man in sync. He had just got back from his shift from Gangnam Headquarters. As a D.I, it should be very tiring and exhausting. They went back to do whatever they were doing when the older man said, “Sleep tight tonight, kids. Tomorrow I’m going to introduce all of you to my girlfriend.” 

Silence.

More silence.

Even Daehwi was at lost. The universal translator was at loss. He peered helplessly to Jisung, who knew the thing equally as the next guy. Jisung stammered, “Wh-what? Come again Father?”

Dad looked guilty all of sudden. “Oh.” He said, “I didn’t tell you? I guess I forgot to tell all of you… I’m going to get married, guys! The woman I’m going to introduce to all of you is going to be your Mom! Well then, I’m going to my room to pick some best suit I had for tomorrow’s event… and all of you too, don’t forget to dress up! I don’t want gallivanting hobos escorting me tomorrow!”

Then he went upstairs, as flittering as he came.

Nevertheless. Chaos ensued.

“WHAT THE HELL?” Jaehwan had exploded.

“Amen.” Guanlin sniffed.

Then, because of the mayhem their father had created, Jisung, Daniel and Sungwoo stormed to their father office room to demand, extract, and force some explanation about the epic admission he had just spouted off earlier as if talking about weather. The rest of them waiting anxiously at the living room. Minhyun inspected how restless Guanlin was. No, not only Guanlin—most of them were restless, but Guanlin looked even more…

“We’re going to have a… Mom?” Guanlin asked in his deep, but meek voice, breaking the pregnant silence. Minhyun sighed as he patted Guanlin’s head mutely, didn’t have the heart to actually say anything. They were still in the grey. Their father had been a spontaneous person—hence the existence of eleven kids in his house—and his spontaneity had been the best trait, but also the worst trait. They couldn’t predict the outcome of whatever he did. Sometimes it was good—sometimes, it was bad. 

This? Minhyun didn’t know if this was bad or worse.

After an hour, the men came downstairs with various looks that range from solemn, blank, and confused. Then they settled on the living room. Minhyun could see that they were having a sudden internal meeting right now. First time they made the pack, conflicts happened, even more so with the fact that more kids joined. However as time passed, this meeting had been decreasing steadily. The intro was always the same—Jisung nudged Daniel, and Daniel nodded a little bit before opening the main problem, assessing the reaction first and then asking the big question without further ado. “So, after a talking session with father, we concluded that tomorrow we’re going to some restaurant to meet with Father’s soon-to-be wife… a.k.a our potential step-mother.” He assessed his brothers before continuing. No reaction. Only palpable curiosity and muted ‘okay, go along, we get the gist.’

“Her name is Cho Nara. Father’s girlfriend for a year.” Murmurs and gasps. A year? How could they not know about this? “Now I know this sounds really weird considering that Father had never let us met with his girlfriend before, even though he claimed that he had been with her for a year. No one here has meet or has the knowledge of this mystery woman. So the question is; will we let Father married this unknown woman or not?”

No one said anything until, “Father will still marry her even when we vetoed no. That’s how he rolls.” Daehwi said the matter-of-factly, “So why bother ask us now?”

“He isn’t even here now,” Jihoon said. “This is big news, right? Why did he need three people as his messengers? Why didn’t he just relay the news like a normal father?”

“We’re not here to discuss about his parenting style, we’re here to decide whether we’re going to accept the marriage or not.” Jisung cut the blooming protests.

“We can’t know about that for sure, you know.” Jaehwan piped. “We don’t know the woman… and she probably don’t know about us … I just don’t want Father choose the wrong person, you know. He’s our father, after all.” A murmur of agreement bubbled. Sure, their father was careless and lacking in common sense, but he was the one who had raised them together even when no one would adopt them from the orphanage. Ten—back then Guanlin hadn’t joined their pack—wasn’t a number to be underestimated. If it was anybody, they would be separated and couldn’t see each other again. That was the most fatal blow to a werewolf pack. And Father had done excellent job in raising them so far, even though with flawed parenting skill, but still, excellent to boot.

“Cho Nara, a famous morning anchor news of GBS2, 39 years old. An alumni of Seoul University with a magister degree of Harvard University—“ Seungwoo spoke up, eyes scanning lines over lines on his handphone. He was doing a quick research on Naver as they spoke, as expected of the quick feet Sungwoo. A whistle bubbled and sounds of approval surfaced, “Majoring in Laws and journalistic. She is the frontrunner and promoter of supernatural registry right in South Korea. Is active at political talk shows regarding magical beings and is the founder of Supernatural Witness Protector of Seoul.” Seungwoo looked up from his handphone and said quietly, “I like her already.”

“I’ve heard about Supernatural Witness Protector,” Jisung said. “They protect supernatural beings or humans in exchange their testimony in the court if the cases revolve around crimes committed by supernatural beings.”

“How is it any different with regular witness protection program?” Guanlin asked.

“Imagine a mafia being run by, I don’t know, vampire? It sounded fictive but there actually are vampire mafias… And there was this exchange of human organ traffic happened on some ran-in buildings, and the lone witness of the whole exchange was this homeless man who was just around at the wrong time. Would an ordinary human protection hold a candle with a herd of mafia vampire?” Jisung explained and Guanlin nodded in understanding.

The woman was already on their good side. How could she not? She was a fighter for their freedom, supernatural beings’—humans were always scared of them and tried to hunt them, and ever since their existence got exposed internationally, they lived in constant fear of death and isolation. Even now only their father knew the true nature of his kids’ bond. The mood got considerably better—at least the intruder was on their side.

“So?” Seungwoo still asked the obvious.

“Can we just see her first? You know, trying to test the water?” Sungwoon asked. “We didn’t know how her personality was, aside from what Naver had offered. We don’t know, you know, the real her. That’s important too, right?”

“Precisely what I want to say, too.” Jisung agreed. “I say we meet her first and then we judge her second. Marriage is still too far away from the picture, tho.”

“How about the others?” Seungwoo went to the other.

Everything rolled like water in an instant, they agreed with Jisung-hyung—when Jisung-hyung had said something, everybody would instantly follow him. He was like the spokeperson of their pack, while Seungwoo was in charge of forcing quick decision from them.

So almost twenty hours later, they found themselves waiting on a spacious room on an Italian room. Jisung had complimented their father’s handsome yet gentle look tonight, as the