Hwan was on his feet and moving before Jae-won had finished speaking, his bare feet slapping against the hardwood as he disappeared down the hallway. I heard him knock on Jin-ho's studio door, heard the music cut off mid-note, heard Tae-min's game pause with a soft electronic chirp.
They gathered in the living room within minutes — Jin-ho with ink stains on his fingers and a half-finished lyric sheet clutched in his hand, Tae-min with his hair sticking up on one side like he'd been lying down, Hwan hovering anxiously near the doorway like he wasn't sure if he should sit or stand.
"The fourth bond triggered," Jae-won announced without preamble, and I watched the words hit each of them like physical blows. "Min-jun ran into her at a restaurant this morning. Accidentally," he added, shooting me a look that was equal parts reassurance and warning. "Neither of them planned it."
"She's okay?" Tae-min asked immediately, his dark eyes wide with worry, his ocean-and-mint scent flooding with protective anxiety. "She didn't run? She's not?—"
"She didn't run," I confirmed, my voice steadier now that I was surrounded by my pack, by the familiar scents and sounds of the people who understood exactly what I was feeling. "She stayed. We talked. She asked for more time, and I... I gave it to her. I left when she asked me to leave."
"But?" Jin-ho prompted quietly, his violet eyes sharp and searching, reading between the lines the way he always did.
"She's really sick," I admitted, the words scraping against my throat like broken glass. "Worse than before. She could barely stand when the bond triggered. Her skin was burning with fever, she was shaking, and she looked like she might collapse at any moment. I wanted to stay. I wanted to carry her home and put her in a nest and take care of her until she was better. But she asked me to go, so I went."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
"Four bonds," Hwan said finally, his voice barely above a whisper, his golden eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Four incomplete bonds, and she's been fighting this alone for days. How is she still standing?"
"She's not," I said bluntly, the truth of it sitting heavy in my chest. "Not really. She's surviving. Barely. But she's not okay."
"We should go to her," Tae-min said, already moving toward the door, his whole body vibrating with the need to act. "We can't just leave her alone when she's this sick. What if something happens? What if she?—"
"She asked for time." Jae-won's voice cut through Tae-min's spiraling, firm but not unkind. "She asked Min-jun for a few more days, and he gave her his word. We can't break that promise. Not if we want her to trust us."
"But hyung?—"
"I know." Jae-won's expression softened slightly, the pack alpha facade cracking to show the scared, desperate man underneath. "I know it's hard. I know every instinct we have is screaming at us to go to her. But this isn't about what we want. It's about what she needs. And right now, she needs us to prove that we can be trusted. That we'll respect her boundaries even when it hurts."
"So we just wait?" Hwan asked, his voice cracking on the question, his hands balling into fists at his sides. "We just sit here and hope she doesn't collapse before she's ready to let us in?"
Jae-won was quiet for a long moment, his thunderstorm scent heavy with conflict. I could see him wrestling with himself — the pack alpha who needed to protect his pack warring with the man who was trying so hard to be worthy of a woman who'd been taught that alphas couldn't be trusted.
"We give her a few hours," he said finally, the words sounding like they'd been dragged out of him by force. "If she doesn't respond to any of our messages by then, we go check on her. Just to make sure she's okay. We won't push, won't demand anything. Just... make sure she made it home safely."
It wasn't enough. Every cell in my body was screaming that it wasn't enough, that she was out there suffering alone while we sat in our comfortable dorm and waited for permission to help.
But it was something.
"I'll text her," I said, pulling out my phone with trembling fingers. "Just to check in. Nothing pushy. Just... letting her know I'm thinking about her." Jae-won nodded, and I watched the others reach for their own phones, probably composing their own careful, gentle messages. The air in the room shifted from anxious waiting to focused purpose as we all settled in to do the only thing we could do.
Wait.
Hope.
Pray that she'd let us in before it was too late.
I typed out my message slowly, choosing each word with care:
I hope you made it home safely. Please eat something if you can. The soup from that restaurant isgood, but I can bring you something better if you want. No pressure. Just know that I'm here.
I hit send before I could second-guess myself, then stared at the screen, willing the three little dots to appear that would mean she was typing a response.
Minutes passed. Then an hour. Then two.
No response.
"She's probably sleeping," Tae-min said from where he'd curled up on the other end of the couch, his phone clutched in both hands, his dark eyes fixed on the silent screen.
"Or eating," Hwan added from the armchair, his attempt at optimism falling flat in the heavy silence of the room.
