Namjoon had been restless the whole night. Narae knew there was something bothering him, but having spent years with him had taught her Namjoon needed to be the one asking for help. Pressuring him to get him to spill the beans was only going to have the opposite effect. So she waited.

The other guys had probably caught up with the alpha's mood, and had left them alone downstairs as soon as they were done having dinner. Since Namjoon wasn't in the mood for talking Narae had opted for cuddling on the sofa until he decided to speak up. To fill in the silence she had the tv, although no one was actually paying any attention to the movie they had chosen. Namjoon had actually been staring at the ceiling from the moment he had laid on the sofa. Narae was pretty much sure her suspicions were right, still she waited patiently.

"What do we do about this?", Namjoon sighed after a while. He had taken up the habit of rubbing his forehead whenever he felt troubled, and he was doing just that when Narae raised her head.

"About what?", she mumbled in his shoulder. She was too comfortable to move from that spot.

"About Minyoung"

"It depends", she shrugged, "I mean, what are our options?". Lately Narae had avoided Minyoung the best she could in order to avoid adding fuel to fire. There was a lot of tension inside the pack bonds, no need for making it even worse. So... had Minyoung done something she didn't know about?

"We have no options left", Namjoon pointed out. "If I let her stay here she's going to definitely ruin our pack bonds. Tae can't stand her already, Jin hyung fought with her and I know Yoongi is barely holding back... We have no options left, no matter how much I think about it". Hearing how stressed out he sounded Narae finally decided she needed to pay her mate and the topic of their discussion more attention. Reluctantly, she abandoned her spot on the side of Namjoon's neck and sat up properly while still resting one hand on his tummy.

"If that's the case then you don't need to think about it anymore. I bet you've already weighted all your options, so I can just say you need to do what's best for the pack, baby". Narae didn't want to go all out and speak her mind about Minyoung, otherwise she risked sounding too biased against her, which maybe she was, Narae didn't deny it, but she was done with all her bull.

"It's not that I don't want to do what's best for the pack... quite the opposite, honestly", he mumbled, "But, yeah, I don't want to disappoint my parents, there I said it. I know I don't own them anything", he stopped Narae from interrupting him by lifting his hand with his palm towards her, hinting that he was not done yet, "I don't even own Minyoung anything, I know, but I can't think of a way to kick her out without upsetting her or my parents". Well, Narae didn't care that much about Minyoung nor about her in-laws. By her understanding Namjoon's parents had been quite strict during his childhood, but he insisted they had changed as the time passed. He said that, but Narae could see how depressed it made him to take in consideration offending his parents in any way. In all honestly, Narae couldn't understand him. Maybe it was because she was the youngest child in her family or maybe it was because she was always pampered by her parents and relatives, but she never had to even reflect on the fact that some of her choices could offend or irritated them. Hence why she didn't answer him right away. For herself, she wouldn't care to ruin the relationship they shared, and she had only met them a handful of times so far, but she didn't want to ruin Namjoon's relationship with his parent without regarding his feelings on the matter. Enough damages had been done by ignoring other people's feelings in their pack.

"I don't know if they will understand. I mean, more than that I fear they will be embarrassed if I kick Minyoung out. I don't want to ruin their relationship with their friends, but I know what I have to do", he specified.

"Uhm, maybe you can try talking with them before actually kicking out Minyoung?", she suggested, "Yes, I know that they're friends with Minyoung's parents, but I think they could be understanding of the situation if you made the see how big Minyoung's role was in making this mess of our pack's bonds". Narae couldn't say she was one undread percent sure they would be that understanding, however they had seemed pretty much nice and caring the few times she had met them so far. They loved Namjoon a lot, which made it hard for Narae to believe they would've preferred their friends over their son. Perhaps the conversation they were going to have was going to ruin the blind trust Namjoon had in them and viceversa, but in the end Narae was convinced they were going to do the right thing. And if they didn't it was their loss. It was going to be almost decisive for her. If they downplayed Minyoung's role and her awful attitude, if Namjoon and her ever decided to have a child his parents weren't going to be allow any alone time with their baby. No need to risk them teaching their child anything improper and opposite to their ideas.

"And with Minyoung too", he covered his eyes with his arm, "I know what I have to tell her, but I don't know how to be polite about it, nor mature. She gets under my skin and she makes me lose my calm". Narae whole heartedly agreed. It definitely was one of Minyoung's talents. Still, they could focus on more important things than badmouthing Minyoung together.

"Well, even in this case, you don't have to go full on right away. You could try talking with her again"

"I know it's going to be useless, and you know it too", he huffed, "She doesn't want to listen, she doesn't want to change. She doesn't care about anything she can't benefit from". They were basically done with her. Each one of them. There was no way Minyoung could possibly stay in the pack, whether Sori decided to come back or not.

"About that... I have a suggestion!", Narae had been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now and she was just waiting for the right moment to speak her mind. "What do you say if we give her an ultimatum?"

"Like?"

"Like, if she doesn't agree to changing her ways, if she doesn't change the attitude she has towards Sori and apologizes to her, she will have to leave the pack. We can also give her a time limit. Say she doesn't want to cooperate, then she will have to leave the pack in two weeks at maximum".

"And you think she will leave without a fuss?". There was a lot of sarcasm in his voice, but Narae didn't take it personal. After all she knew he wasn't actually irked at her, he was just exhausted.

"Well, it doesn't matter if she wants to leave or not. If you tell her she needs to leave in two weeks maximum, if she doesn't want to adapt to our lifestyle, that's enough time for her to pack her things and go back to her pack or, I don't know, find another pack. She's well loved in her old pack, I'm sure they would happily take her back", she reassured him. Minyoung didn't fit in with the rest of their pack and her presence was no longer needed there. Moreover, Narae highly doubted she was going to accept she needed to change her ways to stay there with them, after all if she wanted to change herself she would have started long ago, way before the whole mess with Sori exploded.

"I still think she will complain and argue something stupid back, then I will get mad and I'll do and say things I will regret, or maybe I will even embarrass my parents by offending the daughter of their friends", he moaned, "Ugh, I don't want to be an alpha anymore". He was whining like a silly baby and it was an endearing sight. And Narae could understand him. She was exhausted after all these weeks and months of internal crisis, she couldn't begin to imagine what Namjoon was going through.

"Oh, come on, Joonie, don't be silly!", she slapped him lightly on his arm, "You are a great alpha"

"Am I?". Suddenly his voice sounded less playful, becoming lower and reflective, as if he had been thinking about it for a while.

"Yes, you are, babe! Why are you doubting yourself?". Namjoon only hummed as a response, not wanting to say what was going on inside his mind. "I know you're disappointed with how everything went down the drain lately, but we're here to support you. What happened, both with Minyoung and Sori was the result of all of our actions, it wasn't something you did on your own", she reassured him.

"I don't know, I mean... I guess I could have done better". He didn't move his eyes from the spot he was staring on the wall. "It's okay, you don't have to comfort me, I'm more than aware I should have done it. I just think that as of now, whatever I'll do will hurt somebody. Still, I'd rather act in Sori's favor, rather than letting the situation stay as it is right now", he shrugged. "Tell me more about that idea of giving Minyoung an ultimatum. It sounded like something that could help me at least with the most embarrassing part of it all".

“I didn't actually plan it out, I was just suggesting how you could untangle this mess”, Narae shrugged, “For me, I think you could ask her once again if she's willing to change her ways, and if she doesn't tell you a clear yes, or tries to change the topic, then you should tell her she needs to leave”. It wasn't necessarily the most delicate way to go about this situation, but “delicate” wasn't one of Narae's habits, aside from very few and very specific people. “At least, that's what I would do”.

“You think I should do that in my studio, formally, or should I just take the first chance I get?”

“I mean, if you feel more comfortable in your studio, then by all means do it that way, but if you get the chance to talk with her in a more spontaneous way she could be less defensive and who knows, perhaps she will tell you something interesting”. It sounded a little bit fake coming from her, but whatever, she knew Namjoon didn't like having to impose on others unless it was necessary. If all he needed was a little push to just get over it..

“Yeah, I'll try to get her in a more private conversation rather than starting this conversation with the rest of the pack around us”, he agreed. “I just hope it won't turn into a yelling contest or something. As long as I get her to leave the pack without making a scene and overly offending my parents I have no problem doing this tomorrow”, he added.

If Sori had to name a thing she was grateful to, it was that summer was coming to an end. Mid September's afternoons could be very hot, but the nice breeze blowing around them was enough to reduce the temperature and actually make it okay to sit outside. Not that Sori disliked the hot weather or summer, it was much better than the colder season honestly. However, it was very different to appreciate the hot weather and cute dresses when you were alone in your body from when you were holding a little monster inside of you with your blood pressure barely keeping you up right. Not to mention that as of lately, the baby had been getting more and more active, jumping around, twirling, stretching and kicking around in her belly, especially during the night, and albeit Baekhyun insisted the kicks weren't that hard yet, feeling them from the inside gave her a quite different opinion. Apparently the baby wanted her walking around constantly as if she was some sort of human cradle, and the pace set by her aching back and ankles soothed him back to sleep. The instant she sat down, tho, the soothing motion ended and the baby started jumping around again. It all made her very irritable and tired, which admittedly was nobody's fault, but they could at least her by keeping quiet or giving her ice cream.

If there was one thing Sori had learnt the hard way was that her body was going to change whether she liked it or not, so all her constant drive to be the perfectly healthy mother had dried down almost completely. Sure, she wasn't going all out with sugar and raw meat, but her health and pregnancy checks were all going well, so she had softened up her diet a little. If she wanted pizza she was going to eat it and leave veggies and fruits for the next day. If she wanted sweets she was going to have them. As long as that wasn't all she ate in a day she was good and her weight wasn't changing that much. Nobody had argued with her about it or anything. Moreover Kyungsoo was an amazing cook and he generally tried to cook healthy but tasty food, so Sori saw no reason to force herself to eat plain boiled veggies when she could have healthy and tasty food, and baby Minsoo seemed to be of the same opinion.

Minsoo. That was going to be her baby's name. It wasn't traditional to just give the baby a name without consulting the in-laws or openly picking parts of the father's name, but she had no relatives she could confront nor a father for her baby, hence Minsoo. Sure, at some point the baby was going to discover he actually had a father out there, but that was a discussion for another time. Maybe one day Jungkook would enjoy the idea of creating a bond with Minsoo, but she was not going to ask his opinion about anything involving the baby, her pregnancy or anything else for that matter. For now her baby was simply “Minsoo” and she was still learning about him and his personality.

Also, from the very first moment she had seen a scan of her baby in her mind she had called him Minsoo. If she were to take in consideration borrowing parts of Jungkook's name to create the baby's name what would his name be? Jungsoo? Minkook? Meh. Even worse. What if Jungkook's parents learnt about the baby and started pressing her for the baby to have Junghyung's name? Minhyung didn't sound that bad, but Sori didn't want to give her baby a name to show respect to someone who thought her to be less than dirt on the sidewalk. If she had to chose another name, than maybe she was going to ask Narae, Junmyeon and Baekhyun to help her out, still she was pretty sure Minsoo was going to be her child's name.

As for the surname, she hadn't made up her mind yet. It was mindboggling to have to decide such a thing completely on her own, but all the people that cared about her and those she actually cared about were biased about the situation, hence she didn't want to make any decision knowing she was being too partial. She had to be the one naming the baby, but it was going to be the baby who was going to bear the consequences of that name. Shin Minsoo didn't sound bad to her, but it was obvious that having the prestigious"Jeon" surname was going to link him right away to Jungkook's old pack. If one day something were to happen to her could she trust her baby to be cared by Jungkook's old pack? That didn't seem likely, however she had tried multiple times to say it in her mind to test how it sounded. Jeon Minsoo. It wasn't bad per se, however she needed more time to consider this matter thoroughly.

“Are you still training?”, Jin asked her out of the blue. Or maybe it was just the way Sori perceived it because she was lost in her own thoughts. Also, the question made her turn suspicious of his intentions right away, which added to her previous irritable mood, led to a quite dry reply.

“Sometimes”. She took another spoonful of ice-cream, not wanting to give away he had gotten under her skin. In the end, if they were still trying to make her look like a bad mother who didn't care about her child, as if a stranger man who's never been pregnant before could know better, she was going to clap back.

Sori had agreed to meet Yoongi and Seokjin just to smooth things over and clear the air. Both Narae and Junmyeon had believed it to be useful to get over the grudges, thus she had reluctantly accepted that maybe she didn't have to cut the two of them off her life. Hadn't she been relieved when she had seen Yoongi was fine? That he hadn't been harmed in the attack? So if she still cared about him, and he about her as Narae and Hoseok insisted, did she really have to leave him behind? And Jin... hadn't he been someone she cared about when she was in BTS? Was it possible for her to stop loving him? In the end, didn't she want him to ask, to beg even, for her forgiveness so that she could let go of her anger?

“And, uhm, are you finding it difficult?”, Jin muttered. His ears were reddening as they always did when he was embarrassed. Sori was getting fed up with this meeting.

“Not really”. Actually, she was finding it hard to train now that she had a bigger belly. Not only because of her belly that had popped lately, but also because her barycentrer was different, and it didn't help her balance, especially if added to her sore ankles and back, still she wasn't going to admit to a weakness in front of them.

“Oh, uhm, that's good than”. The conversation was pretty much done, and Sori had pretty much decided she was going to text Jongin and ask him to pick her up. No need to waste more time there when she could be lying down and relaxing. It was awkward and the silence was suffocating. To occupy the time Sori took he sweet time eating and enjoying her ice-cream.

“Let me”, Jin shot up as soon as Sori ended her ice cream. He snatched the paper cup from the table and slowly made the beeline to the trash bins, easily subtracting himself from the pathetic situation they all were in. The silence stretched as Sori checked her phone and started writing the text for Jongin.

“Uhm”, Yoongi broke the silence. Sori eyed him, but he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were searching for Seokjin as he was scratching his neck nervously. “Uhm”, he tried again, “can I talk to you for a moment?”. Well, actually Sori knew this conversation would have come up one way or another today. If on one hand she was was expecting it and she was relieved Yoongi wanted to clear the air with her, one the other hand she was uncomfortable with the idea of baring her vulnerabilities and this conversation was definitely going to vert towards some soft and personal topics Sori didn't feel ready to discuss with him. Not after the way he had acted after the scan. She told herself he had helped many times before the whole mess that led her to being kicked out of the pack, that she had to be more lenient with him because of that, but she had to keep reminding herself of that since her anger cover everything else.

“Sure”. She kept it short to maintain her calm appearance.

“Look, I know I ruined everything and I've acted like a for no reason”. That was just about what Sori had imagined he would have said. Yoongi wasn't one to talk a lot even under normal circumstances, it fit what Sori knew of him to go right to the point as soon as he got the chance to speak his mind. “I've reflect on what I said. I know I was out of line”. He put it out there for Sori to decide what to think of his words. And Sori took her time to take them in. To make sure to analyze every single nuance of his words. To carefully pick the words she wanted to pronounce to respond to Yoongi's honesty.

Their conversation stopped being private before Sori had decided how to act. Seokjin took his seat again, but decided to keep quiet, probably understanding the heavy atmosphere around Yoongi and Sori.

It was only when Jongin's affirmative text came that Sori felt the need to say something before she had to go. Jongin had just gone window shopping with Chanyeol, looking for a nice present for Jongdae's birthday, so she didn't have that much time left before she had to leave.

“I... first of all, I'm glad you thought back to what happened that day, and I appreciate it”, she begun. “It's just... well, I'm going to be frank. I don't like the way you've been treating me lately”, Yoongi moved his mouth so Sori blocked him right away. “Let me talk. I tried putting myself in your shoes, but even then I don't think I would have acted the way you did. I am my own person, and I'm done with doing whatever you all tell me. I guess you are so used to guiding me, knowing that I would do whatever you said that you felt overwhelmed or something when I suddenly didn't, but this has to stop. I get it, you're worried for Jungkook, but that's not my problem. I think I can forgive you, because in my mind I know you're not a bad person. Deep inside me I know you care about me, but I am putting my foot down. What happens with my baby, and no, it's not Jungkook's. A two minutes long in which I didn't even come doesn't make him a father. If, and only if, I decide to let him have a role in the baby's life that's going to be my decision. Not yours, not Narae's, not anyone's but mine, and to get that chance he has to prove he has changed. I'm not going to allow him near this baby just to ruin him with his ty ideas. I won't allow him to disrespect me in front of the baby, and I won't let him humiliate me anymore. No more of this bull, do you understand what I'm saying?”. Sori looked pointedly at he two ex-pack mates waiting for them to give her a sign they were listening. Just as the two of them nodded with their head Sori started catching Jongin's scent. Probably she still had a couple of minutes before Jongin got there, since her sense of smell had improved with the pregnancy. “What I decided to do for my baby is not up for discussion. Maybe later on I will appreciate some advices or even a different perspective on what I'm thinking, but as of now I don't want to hear any of that from you. From any of you, I mean. I can stand better Narae because she's always been there for me and Hoseok