“We’re going out later, do you want to come?”, Yoongi asked, slipping his head in Sori room instead of fully opening the door of her room.

“To go where?”. Sori lazily asked him. She actually wanted to join him since she had to buy a present for Narae’s birthday, but she was writing a chapter of her novel, and she was afraid of wasting the inspiration she had been feeling since that morning.

“Nothing much, just the mall. We have to buy a couple of things and go grocery shopping”, he shrugged opening the door a bit more. “And before you ask, there’s going to be me, Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook”, he sent a wink in her direction. At that Sori turned back to face her computer, trying to hide her red cheeks to Yoongi’s sly eyes. Ever since the training session Jungkook had been acting kinder than usual towards her, or at least kinder than he’d been in the last few months, and Sori couldn’t help but be happy about it. He wasn’t even acting all nice just when they were alone, and that had surprised her a lot, but since for once it was a positive kind of surprise, she accepted it gladly. Albeit it was a bit embarrassing when he talked with her in front of the other guys, and things were still a bit awkward between them, it felt good to see him trying to be more gentle. However, Sori couldn’t help but wonder about the cause of his sudden change of behaviour.

“Uhm, 'kay, I need to buy something too, I’ll go with you guys”, Sori nodded slowly at him, “what time are we leaving?”.

“Not too late since we also have to pick up Hoseok from his studio… how about 15.30? It should be okay for the others too, so Jungkook will have enough time to eat and wash up before leaving”, Yoongi told her, thinking things through to set the perfect time for everyone.

“Mmm, fine. I’m calling shots for driving there with you!”, Sori half yelled at him before he closed the door. She had no problem with Taehyung and Jimin, and even with Jungkook things were going better, but when the three of them were together annoying and upsetting things tended to happen, hence why Sori didn’t want to risk it. It was her first afternoon out after a while, and honestly she wanted to have a good time. Lately she had started feeling less nauseous and tired, but since summer was finally coming and also because she was feeling better, and she wanted to spend some quality time with Yoongi. After all it’d been a while since they had last hang out alone, as she had been working on her book, staying at the lake and spending time with EXO, while he was always with Hoseok or working, and just like he’d told her a couple of days ago, Sori missed spending time with Yoongi.

Yoongi had been one of the first to be nice to her when she joined BTS. He never liked to be too openly touchy and affectionate, but he often checked on her before going to sleep or leaving for work, and he always bought her small gifts when he went to the mall. Yoongi was never was to talk a lot, but he listened well to all her concerns, giving her his opinion when he felt like it might help her. He and Jin had this trait in common, which was probably one of the reasons why she felt so close with them. Sori was always very thankful to Yoongi, because she had the impression that without his help she wouldn’t have stayed in the pack. In a certain way Yoongi had been even more important than Narae in letting her in their group. Narae had helped her and she was the reason why the pack had accepted her as a new member, but Yoongi was the reason why she stayed in the pack and she got to know the other members well.

As the time passed they got quite close, and he eventually told her that his older brother had married a turned-were more than a century and half ago, so he had been in contact with “normal” turned-weres way longer than anyone else in the pack. Yoongi even told Sori he would have gladly introduce the two of them, so that Sori could have a sort of mentor that could actually answer her questions since his sister-in-law knew what she’d been through. Not to mention that through the years she had also been involved in campaigns against the condition of turned-weres, and that had lead her to meeting other people who shared her beliefs. As far as Yoongi knew, his sister-in-law was also friends with other turned-weres that were not used as mere es, which could allow Sori to make new friends. He always did his best her to the top of his abilities.

However, Yoongi had too had been lonely all along, so Sori couldn’t really blame him for wanting to spend more time with Hoseok lately. Once Jin had explained her that those two had liked each other for a very long time, yet they had grown up inside a close-minded society, in which being gay was seen as disease that had to be extirpated. This made it really hard for them to accept their feelings and their uality, also because they both of them had been with girls before, so for a very long time they attributed their very touchy and deep friendship to the fact that they were best friends. Sure they had also seen how society evolved in the past century, learning to accept homouality, but hearing stories from other people, made it seem like changing your ways is easy, when in fact it is not.

Yoongi once told her he always envied the teenagers of this new society, since they could freely choose what they wanted to be and what they wanted to believe. They were all young and free, with a brilliant future in front of them, while he was young only on the outside. He was really old indeed, and so was Hoseok. They had been on the same pack for centuries, and hearing it like that made it seem like an incredibly short period of time, when in fact Sori couldn’t even imagine how hard it must’ve been for them to be together for so long refusing to accept their true nature.

Sori could see them struggling with their beliefs and needs, but how could she help them when she couldn’t even help herself? Before joining the pack she had dated no one, no boyfriends, no real-life crushes, no sentimental life at all, thus she had no experience on that field. Despite being totally inexperienced, Sori wanted to be there for the two them, so whenever they spoke about their feelings and beliefs Sori lent them a ear. She let them speak as long as they wanted, for there was nothing else she could do for them, and probably there was not many people they could feel as comfortable with, since almost all of their packmates were just as old as them. After all Sori couldn’t quite think of a way to help them apart from being there for them and giving them tight bear hugs when she thought they needed one. Sori was still rooting for them. After all these years it was time for them to accept their feelings.

“So, did you ask her?”

“Mmm”, Jungkook fidgeted, playing with a thread sticking out from the hem of his shirt.

“Really? How much of a loser can you be?”, Jimin shook his head, “She’s not coming today, is she?”, he inquired raising an eyebrow.

“No, I asked Yoongi hyung to ask her, and he told me she’s coming, but she wants to stay with him only”, Jungkook shrugged, pretending he wasn’t disappointed about it. Yoongi had been all cheeky about it, and it didn’t surprise Jungkook since the two were quite close and lately they hadn’t spent as much time together as they usually did, yet he couldn’t stop his jealousy.

He’d been putting some efforts in stitching back his relationship with Sori, but the improvement wasn’t much up until now. Surely things were going better, but it wasn’t going how he had imagined it to. Jungkook knew he screwed up, but Sori had always been a forgiving person and so he had believed things would’ve been okay after he apologized. Actually Jungkook never had to apologize before, which could also be because he had never told her she looked like a whale or a monkey before, but still…

Actually apologizing hadn’t been as hard as he had imagined, for he had been feeling down ever since those words had left his mouth and apologizing made him feel a little bit better with himself. Jungkook still couldn’t pinpoint why he said those words to Sori. He didn’t believe any of them, nor had he ever thought of telling her something like that, which made him feel even worse about having told her those things right to her face. Before apologizing his nights had been sleepless, and he was so distracted he’d broken a whole set of glasses at work, for whom he’d had to pay after having received a harsh reprimand.

Seeing the looks his two friends were giving him, Jungkook added: “Think about it. Do you really think Sori would’ve accepted it if it were me asking her?”. The two smiled sadly at him. “And I can’t even blame her for wanting to keep some distance with me”, Jungkook whispered. The fact that Sori was still cold around him was depressing. Jungkook had gotten used to Sori secretly glancing at him, cooking for him and even letting him off the hook easily, so this was all new for him. And it was not a good kind of new, in his opinion.

“Come on, don’t put yourself down too much! Sure, you acted like an and if I were her I’d have kicked you in the balls so hard you wouldn’t have walked for a week, but you’ve apologized and you’re trying to show Sori that you care about her”, Jimin told him comfortingly as he patted him lightly on the back. If only apologizing was enough...

“Right. I think we’ve all noticed how you stopped acting like a duche, don’t give up yet!”, the ever so encouraging Taehyung said, “I have to apologize for a couple of things I said as too, and I’m waiting for the right moment to do it. Let’s try to make the best out of today and buy her something pretty as a first attempt of an apology”, Taehyung showed him his rectangular smile. His two friends had been very supportive and in the last weeks they’d been trying to figure out a plan to help him gain Sori’s forgiveness once again. They had also insulted him quite a bit when Jungkook informed them about the things he’d told to Sori a couple of weeks ago, but they didn’t give up on him, which was more than enough for him.

“What do you want to buy?”, Yoongi asked her without moving his eyes from the street. He was a good driver, no rushing, no braking out of nowhere, no almost bumping in other cars just because. He was definitely a much better driver than Namjoon and Taehyung. Sori felt at ease when Yoongi was driving.

“Not sure yet. I’ve been looking for things online, but I wasn’t really convinced by anything yet. I mean…there were tons of pretty things, but I’m not sure whether they’d be the right present for Narae. So I’m just looking for something in general”, Sori answered looking out of the window. “Have you decided what you’ll buy yet?”

“Nope”, Yoongi said popping the “p”. “Actually, I didn’t exactly remember her birthday was coming, so I haven’t thought of anything yet. I just wanted to buy some clothes for me and get out of the house for a while without it being because of work”, he shrugged. “I guess I’ll just follow you around and look out for something that catches my attention. It’s not like Narae doesn’t have money to buy the things she needs and I can’t think of anything she might want”. Sori nodded understandingly at his words. She was having the same exact issue. She wanted to buy a pretty but useful gift for her best friend, however Narae had always had a lot of money, so there weren’t many things she needed nor wanted. Her original family and pack were both very rich, thus Narae had always had whatever she wanted without ever having to worry about wasting money. BTS wasn’t poor, not at all, but Sori couldn’t imagine the use of wasting hundreds on a present Narae wouldn’t even need. She’d made a list of possible presents, but in the end she had nothing left on her list a part from jewels, books, shoes or purses, and none of them were things Narae could possibly need seeing how she’d e of the rooms on the third floor into her personal wardrobe.

“I’m looking for clothes too, actually”, Sori the radio, adjusting the volume so that the music would just be a comfortable background to their conversation.

“Namjoon?”, Yoongi chuckled. Sori scrunched her nose in displeasure.

“Yesterday he came to my room looking like a mad man and handed me a lot of money I don’t need. Like, he actually apologized for having forgotten about giving me the money before, and that he wanted me to buy whatever I wanted with it, and that if I wanted more I only had to ask”, Sori’s expression showed her distaste for her alpha’s behaviour. “I told him I didn’t needed it, but he insisted it’s been a while ever since I last bought clothes and that since I’ve slimmed down a bit I need new dresses and pants. He was so adamant about it, I felt bad just at the idea of telling him I still haven’t even used the money he gave me the last time yet”. Yoongi chuckled shaking his head. To him it looked like Namjoon hadn’t found a way to show Sori he cared about her, so he gave her big allowances as a form of affection. Unfortunately Namjoon hadn’t do the same with him. Yoongi would’ve known how to spend that money.

“Oh, come on, just accept it. You know he’s paranoid about not being a good alpha and not giving you enough attention, and since you never ask for things…why don’t you just keep it in case you need anyhing? You never know right?”, Yoongi tried to make her rationalize her weird fear of spending and been given money.

“Yes, but it’s not like I need THAT much money anyway. He’s been giving me so much money lately that I’ve even thought about opening a bank account in my name”, Sori half joked, half coplained. Obviously Namjoon wouldn’t know about it, because he was just too sensitive about this topic, and Sori didn’t want to upset him. “Moreover I might make money on my own soon”, Sori mumbled. Noticing how Yoongi was eyeing her, she quickly added: “I’m not leaving the house, though. Just…do you remember when I told I always liked to write? Mmm, I might have the chance of publishing one of my books soon”.

“Oh, really?! That’s great, but how did it happen?”, he asked her smiling brightly.

The rest of the way to the mall was spent with Sori telling him about her job interview and Yoongi asking her questions about it every now and them. He was humming at the song that was playing on the radio as Sori spoke. Just like he always did when he was on a good mood or he felt comfortable. It felt good to know he still felt comfortable around her. It was good to know he wasn’t stopping her from pursuing her dream.

“Do you plan on buying something for her?”, Taehyung asked Jungkook. He’d been thinking about possible presents for Sori, but he could only think of food which wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, but he was scared she might misinterpret his present and he really didn’t want Sori to be mad at him anymore.

“Not really? I mean, I think she only came because she wants to buy a present for Narae, so... well, from what hyung told me, Sori wants to spend time with him. I don’t think I’ll get as much as minute alone with her to give her a present or even just talk, really”, Jungkook scoffed rolling his eyes. Jimin and Taehyung smirked at him. Jungkook was too easy to read for his own good. At times Jimin wondered how the others hadn’t figured out his feelings for Sori yet.

“Well, so why don’t you go ask Sori her opinion about something you want to buy for Narae and use that as an excuse to drag her away from Yoongi hyung?”, Jimin intervened. Jungkook could already feel his cheeks warming up. The things he had to do because of Sori.

“I don’t think she’ll want to come with me. I just…ugh…I want to spend some quality time with her, not spend an hour talking about Narae. Let alone that I have no idea about what I’ll give Narae as a gift either, so how do I ask her about her opinion if I don’t have an opinion to submit to her in the first place?”, Jungkook was starting to get annoyed at his two friends. They always made things seem easier than they actually were. He wanted to add more, but his phone ringed and he got distracted checking the text that he had just received.

“Is it Namjoon again? I swear, if he tells us we have to be back by 17.40 tops I’m going to purposefully bump against the first truck I see”, Taehyung scoffed annoyed. Namjoon had been a little overbearing lately. Jungkook had known him long enough to know Namjoon had figured it out too and was trying to get a hold of himself, albeit he clearly wasn’t really succeeding in it. It was relatable though: there was a real threat to his pack, and he couldn’t follow all of them around, so his alphas instincts were all over the place.

“I guess we’re going to be late if we destroy the car, but I’m scared about what will happen if we don’t die on the impact. Like, do you remember what happened the last time you didn’t answer his calls when you had broken your arm?”, Jimin cheekily replayed, patting his friend on the thigh.

“Oh…”, Taehyung answered, remembering the pathetic episode, “but we can answer our phones and still be late, right? I mean, if we don’t die we’ll have to be late for sure: we would have to be brought to the hospital, then we would also have to discover where the car was towed to and how much it was damaged, and then we would have to walk home. We can do this, right?”, he wondered playfully. It was actually terrifying for Jungkook, because Taehyung was totally capable of doing that stunt if it meant more freedom for a couple of hours. Not to mention that his driving skills weren’t exactly his best skills. Okay, maybe Namjoon had been more than a little overbearing in the last couple of days, but still…

“No, it’s not Namjoon, it’s Minyoung”, he quickly informed them, hoping they would be satisfied with his answer, although he already knew they wouldn’t. A heavy silence followed his words. Taehyung and Jimin exchanged a look, having a silent conversation.

“So, mind telling us how things are going between the two of you?”, Taehyung asked, as he shot a look at Jungkook through the rear view mirror. Jungkook knew it was coming. He should’ve known they wouldn’t have lasted until they reached the mall before they started with their personal investigation.

“What do you mean?”, Jungkook sight, slouching down on his seat. He’d already imagined Jimin and Taehyung were only waiting for this to start digging in his business. Jungkook was starting to feel grateful Sori and Yoongi had chosen to drive on their own till the mall.

“We mean that the two of you lately are attached by the hip. Really, what do you even talk about this much?”, Jimin questioned him half annoyed. “It’s not like you’ve known each other for that long. I always see the two of you chatting and laughing. That’s what we mean”, Jimin concluded his speech raising an eyebrow at the younger in the back seat.

“There’s nothing going on between us...”, but having noticed the sarcastic glares his two friends were giving him, he quickly added: “I swear there’s nothing between us!”. Jungkook shoved his hands in the air to prove his innocence. A groan left his lips as his two friends stared at him in disbelief.

“Yeah, your nothing really seemed like something to the rest of us, though. You haven’t answered to Jimin’s question”, Taehyung still sounded very sarcastic. As for Jimin, he was still staring at him with an eyebrow raised. Jungkook seriously took in consideration the idea of telling him that scrunching his forehead like that would give him wrinkles just to be petty, but in the end he decided against it.

“Think whatever you want”, Jungkook said in exasperation. “We talk about many things. She’s really nice, and if you actually stepped up to get to know her better you’d know that by now. Not to mention that her original pack was very similar to mine, you know, all the unbreakable rules, punishments, strictness in people’s relationship, the strong hierarchy, etc…It’s easy for me to talk with her”, he shrugged, hoping his answer would satisfy them and finally allow him to change the topic of the conversation. His old pack wasn’t a topic he liked to discuss often, since that kind of strictness wasn’t seen well in the werewolves society anymore and it often brought strong criticism to his father and his whole former pack. Jungkook wasn’t proud of how he’d grown up, but at the same time it was his pack and his father. He didn’t like to hear any criticism about them, also because he didn’t think it was really that bad to live with firm rules and control, you only had to learn what you could and couldn’t do.

“By that you mean you’ve used Sori as a conversation starter, right?”, Jimin mocked him, and without letting Jungkook speak, he mumbled: “Pathetic”. Jimin had always strongly criticised his pack and the way Jungkook had been brought up with these ideas about turned-werewolves being mere servants to born-werewolves. Jimin himself recognized he still had confusing behaviours towards Sori, but he justified his mistakes and action with the lack of contact with turned-werewolves. In his original pack there were only two turned-werewolves, but they were really old and liked to live on their own, so they never mingled with the rest of the pack a part from some rare occasions. Jimin’s mother had told him that the times had changed but old scars don’t heal.

“Oh, come on, hyung, why are you being like this? I just told her I knew it was hard to accept Sori for what she is because we haven’t been brought up to accept people like her as our equals, we didn’t spend whole afternoon talking about her”. Jungkook was starting to feel really annoyed now. Out of everyone else in the pack, Jimin and Taehyung must’ve been the two to notice his efforts in gaining Sori’s forgiveness the most, so why were they bringing up all of this right now? Moreover he saw nothing wrong with what he’d done. You can’t simply change your mind about all the things you’ve been taught from night to morning. Minyoung felt weird and he helped her, end of the story.

“Yeah, well, I guess you talked about Sori a little longer than that, but whatever. Why didn’t you bring her with us? Scared Minyoung could misunderstand your intentions if she saw you pining after Sori?”, Jimin . Jungkook furrowed his eyebrows at his words. He wasn’t pining after her, he only missed her as a friend and he was tired of feeling guilty because of something he wished he never said in the first place.

“I’m not pining after anyone, I just want to get over this mess”, Jungkook spoke through his teeth. “I didn’t invite her because I didn’t feel like it, can’t I spend my time however I want?” He frowned. Jimin raised his hands in the air as if he was surrendering. “It’s not like she has to be my shadow, I can still decide to spend time with other people if I want to”.

“Don’t act all innocent in front of us, Kookie”, Taehyung bit back at the youngest of the group.

“Do you still go around telling people you believe Sori is involved with the group of rogues?”, Taehyung smirked, knowing full well that Jungkook was getting really irked by the continuous pressure he and Jimin were putting on him. By the face of the younger, he had obviously thought they were letting go Sori and Minyoung’s topics.

Jungkook held back the snarls that was about to leave his mouth, and took a deep breath. As much as he wanted them to understand, they just couldn’t. No one in his pack could. A part from Minyoung, maybe. “I don’t just go around throwing at her. You know it’s a possibility. Not to mention that she “casually” started going out this much right when this whole with the rogues started. I remember you saying it seemed weird to you as well no further than a week ago”, Jungkook raised an eyebrow. “Moreover, I’m not forcing anyone to believe it, I’m just stating it’s a possibility since you can never trust people like her”, he leaned back on his seat.

“And if your oh-so-convinced she might betray us, why are you trying to gain her forgiveness?”, Jimin sarcastically asked him. Jungkook knew Jimin had a weak spot for Sori, but he tried to hide when the others were around, yet to him and Taehyung it was clear. He liked to cuddle with her and he always checked how much she was eating, at what time she was leaving, how her temperature was. Jimin was a clingy person, and he was often left out whenever Jungkook and Taehyung played a prank on Sori.

“I simply said it could happen, not that I’m sure about it. Can’t you just shut up?”, Jungkook tried to stop the conversation from going further on. He knew that Sori probably wasn’t doing anything wrong, but the continuous prodding about Sori annoyed him. He was still a pure born-werewolf, and there were no turned-weres in his family. They were pure. In the old society his family had gained power exactly because of the fact that there was no turned-were blood in their family. His friend’s words sort of implied he had feelings for her, and it really annoyed him. Even though in his head he knew it might’ve been true, it still bothered him. One thing was believing and knowing you cared more than you’d like to admit about a person, but letting other people know about it was not something Jungkook wanted. The things Jungkook had told them about Sori betraying the pack were merely a way to stop them from saying he was jealous, but then Jimin and Taehyung ended up giving the idea a thought. It happened at times that Sori left the house for hours and somehow the three of them found themselves speculating about her whereabouts and her intentions. There was no proof, but to Jungkook it felt very intriguing, as if they were detectives. And it was also quite childish, but in his head they were doing nothing wrong. In his head there was nothing wrong with coming up with weird mysterious stories about a turned-were, after all there was no born-were who hadn’t heard about turned-weres. Everyone knew they were traitors and they were always seeking for money. The stories he, Jimin and Taehyung came up with were nothing more than that: stories.

“Sure. Well, Jin hyung wasn’t really pleased with your theories though”, Taehyung lightly informed him. “For a second I thought he was going to hit me when I told him about them”. Jungkook sighed as he rubbed his face with his hands. This wasn’t how he’d planned his afternoon.

“Jeez, why did you tell him?”, Jimin almost screeched, panic clear in his voice. Jin had this weird thing about him that turned him in a second from lovely to scary, and no one needed angry Jin in the house.

“Mmm, it was after the last time we went clubbing. I mean, Jin hyung wasn’t really pleased with the things I told Sori that night, so he came to have a…very short chat with me about it. It just sort of slipped out of my mouth?”, Taehyung smiled sheepishly, “It came out before I realized it. I swear, it didn’t even seem that bad until Jin hyung begun turning red, and then, well, you know him, right?”. Awesome. Now they’re all going to blame it on me. As of now Jungkook could only hope the news didn’t reach Sori’s ears, or he’d never gain her forgiveness again. He was pretty sure he was swimming in a pool of right now. Or at least it felt like it.

“Have you finally found something you like?”, Yoongi sighed in despair. He refused to leave the mall before Sori bought at least one piece of clothing, but after almost an hour his resolution was weakening.