Parfait

Chapter Sixteen

Days with the band overseas moved slowly, but Hana managed to fill the time. There was always something to do- laundry, cleaning, more batch cooking. Two days passed in this uneventful fashion, but one evening after filling the freezer with dumplings again, she finally found herself wanting for entertainment. That led her to Namjoon's room for the first time, where she perused the many book spines with a critical eye. Finally she selected one that she had read before, wondering if anything new would leap out at her after a couple of years.

She stayed up late reading in her nest that night, for the first time in a long time. It was surprisingly invigorating to be immersed in a book again, especially when the pack checked in on her and Namjoon seemed delighted to hear that she had taken him up on his offer. There wasn't much time to chat, unfortunately, or else she would have been eager to talk to him about what she had re-read so far, especially once she heard that several other members had enjoyed the book too. It was one more thing to look forward to when they returned, she supposed. Somewhere around halfway through the book she felt her eyelids drooping, but there were only a few pages left in her chapter and she wanted to finish. It didn't happen. Maybe that was what brought on the dream; well, it was more like a memory, really.

When she was young she had built her first little nest in her bedroom closet, omega instincts already driving her. But aside from those instincts, she also just wanted a place to hide sometimes. She had a flashlight and a stack of books in there beside her hoard of pillows and blankets, and when things got difficult at home- as they often did, after her older sister first presented at age 13- she would shut the closet door and delve into a book, where the sounds of two alphas clashing couldn't reach her. It probably wasn't as secret as she thought, but the rest of the household at least pretended they didn't know about her sanctuary- until the day she had shared it with Jungkook.

Haneul, her elder sister, barged into the room unannounced and flung open the closet door, growling when she found Hana and Jungkook curled up together reading a comic book by the light of the hidden flashlight. She drug Hana out by the elbow, only releasing her hold after the boy growled at her. "I can smell him," she announced when they asked why she had intruded. "Get him out of here before Appa gets home."

"We weren't doing anything wrong! We were only reading!" Hana insisted, keening when Haneul began pulling the small nest apart. "Stop it, unnie!"

"Our parents aren't going to let you nest with an alpha. No, I don't care if he hasn't presented," Haneul snapped when her little sister opened her mouth to argue. "He smells just like his father, we all know he'll be an alpha."

"Googie is a baby, he's eleven," Hana protested anyway.

"Then protect your baby 'cause he's about to fight me, and I'm not in the mood to kick his ass," Haneul replied. Jungkook had hardly said a word, but he was indeed tensed as if looking for an opening to leap on the older girl. It would not have gone well for him. Haneul was female, sure, but she was still an alpha, and she had been growing like a weed thanks to all of the hormones coursing through her. Jungkook was athletic for a child, but size was on the elder's side, and experience was too. Hana made the decision to protect him in the only way she could: by running away. Even if it meant Haneul was free to wreck the nest.

He chased after her just as she knew he would, all the way to his own back yard. "I hate her!" Hana recalled screaming into the empty air, but that was where she knew she was dreaming. Whatever answer Jungkook had given her- and she knew he did, he always tried to comfort her- fizzled into static noise.

That was where she woke up, heart still pounding from the memory of watching her hard work be torn apart. Her distress was calmed quickly by burrowing her face into her nest. The scents of all her alphas still held strong, even Yoongi's thanks to one of the shirts he had prepared for her being tucked beneath a pillow. Not only could she reassure herself that this space was safe, her waking mind could recall what happened after: Jungkook took her inside his house, where his mother had helped them arrange a little temporary nest on the couch and brought them milk while they watched a movie curled up inside. Why would it matter what had happened before that? It wasn't so bad, was it?