The taste of hard apple cider was heavy on Yoongi's dry tongue. There was a fullness in the base of his stomach. The blush on his cheeks was deep and the sleepiness in his eyes was apparent. His mind was on the verge of drifting away from reality, ready to escape the problems of life.

He gripped the dark brown bottle tighter and lifted his head to the cold sky above. He pressed his body against the balcony railing, leaning on it for support. His hair was wind-swept by the breeze and his eyes stung from the cold air.

It was midnight on a bitter winter's night.

"There you are, I didn't know you came out here."

Yoongi looked behind me and found Namjoon in the balcony doorway. The sliding doors were pushed back but the frost remained encrusted on its surface. Ice grew across the glass in curling vines and fractured lines, glimmering in the dark.

Namjoon's large body was half-covered by a large blanket and an oversized sweatshirt that dropped below his hips. There was a bottle in his hand too. The rich scent of the mountains came with Namjoon's presence, along with the undercurrent of power. His presence commanded the attention of those in the room.

He was an Alpha, there was no mistaking it now.

Namjoon has stayed with Yoongi's pack for Alpha training for over a month now. Alpha Iris was in charge of Namjoon's schedule during his stay, but she allowed him the freedom to wander the territory without supervision. The packs were allies, after all.

Yoongi and Namjoon came to know one another a week after Namjoon's arrival. They spent most of their time exploring the pack's library and raiding the kitchen in hopes of tasting the Sol's newest cookie recipe. Ashton loved to experiment. He took online classes for baking and dreamed of opening a bakery someday. Yoongi had no doubt that he would accomplish it one day and the pack would be more than happy to become his loyal customers.

Namjoon, on the other hand, wasn't sure about his future. They often talked of their future with hesitation and half-made sentences. Yoongi knew he could stay in his pack, but he felt restless. And Namjoon was set to officially leave his pack when he turned twenty-four.

Alphas were not allowed to remain in their home pack if their Alpha was not close to retirement. It causes tension and unrest when there are too many Alphas in one pack. Many packs had been torn apart by divided pack loyalties. To avoid confusion, the young Alpha must leave their pack and start their own. It was a rite of passage.

Namjoon often spoke of his conflicted feelings of being an Alpha. He didn't feel worthy of the birth-given title. Sometimes he hated the sound of his own voice when his power was activated.

Yoongi listened to his troubles and did his best to offer sound advice on the matter. Their relationship was built on long-winded talks in the dead of the night. They would talk to each other to death if they could.

"Have you come to join me?" Yoongi asked, raising his bottle.

Namjoon's eyes twinkled in the faint moonlight. He held his bottle, "Yes. And I've brought a friend."

The subtle scent of prickly cactus flowers was carried out onto the balcony.

"Hoba?"

From behind Namjoon's frame, Hoseok stepped into view with his fluffy brown hair and soft eyes. He wasn't wearing a shirt but had a blanket tied around his neck like a cape. The sight of him made Yoongi smile.

"Hey hyung," Hoba greeted quietly and stepped out onto the balcony. He shivered as a cold wind swept through and small goosebumps spread across his exposed chest and shoulders. Yoongi watched him closely and opened one arm.

"Are you drinking with us?" Yoongi asked curiously.

Hoba shook his head. He walked over to Yoongi and ducked underneath his outstretched arm. Yoongi pulled him close, his arm resting on Hoba's shoulders, and felt a wave of warmth come from the young wolf.

"You're so warm," Yoongi commented, tilting his head to look at his face.

Hoba's eyes are sleepy as if he were fresh from bed. "It's cold out here," he said instead.

Namjoon stepped out onto the balcony and looked to the sky with wonder in his eyes. "Wow... the view is beautiful here. Back home, I could never see the stars. We were too close to town."

"Yes... We took astronomy as an elective," Yoongi replied. He looked up to the heavens and saw the beauty woven in the black sea and twinkling stars. "Winter is the best time to look at the stars."

"Charlotte would have loved astronomy," Namjoon said wistfully. "We took a lot of nature study classes together. Our pack didn't have an astronomy option."

"She's the one that likes mushrooms?" Hoba asked playfully.

Namjoon chuckled. "Yeah. My mushroom girl." He took a long drink from his bottle and sighed when it left his lips. "I miss her."

Charlotte the mushroom girl, otherwise known as the love of Namjoon's life, was still living with their pack. Yoongi has never met her, but he knew how much Namjoon cared about her, and worried about her.

Charlotte was a Luna. She transformed into a werewolf late, and she wasn't happy about being a Luna. She was better now, according to Namjoon. She struggled in the first months of being a wolf, but later she adjusted to her new life. They were heat partners and by the sound of things, he was her only partner.

"How is she doing?" Yoongi asked.

Namjoon's free hand went to the phone in his pocket. "We talked earlier. She's doing well. Her hunt went well." There was a hesitation in his voice that made Yoongi frown.

Hoba must have heard it too because he asked, "Is that all?"

Namjoon looked down at his bottle with a furrowed brow. "She said that things feel strange."

"How strange?"

"Is it about the borders?" Hoba asked worriedly.

Namjoon nodded solemnly. "It sounds like it's getting worse. Luke's pack is starting to ignore the boundaries. They've already been warned... and outside the pack, things are getting... worrisome."

Yoongi nodded in understanding. He heard it all the time on the news.

The humans are beginning to lose it. Threats of a world war were underway and tensions between countries were high. A submarine was destroyed by a mysterious missile and nobody was taking the blame for its destruction or for the death of the crew members.

Something about it made Yoongi feel nervous. He wasn't one to assume the worst but judging by the way they were escalating, it didn't feel right. Something was wrong. It was as if he saw the silhouette of the iceberg in the pitch-black ocean before the Titanic was struck.

Hoba leaned his head against Yoongi and looked out at the expanse of snow-capped pine trees. "I don't blame her. It's getting worse," he said quietly.

"Hyung, what do you think?" Namjoon asked with a note of anxiety. He stood beside Yoongi's side and exchanged a look with him.

"What does our resident prophet say?" Hoba added jokingly.

Yoongi suppressed a smile at the joke. When he was younger, there was a running joke that Yoongi was gifted with prophecy. He made predictions and they came true almost every time. It was merely a joke though he often overheard some of the older wolves discuss the possibility of having a prophetic power in hushed tones after he left a room.

"I'm not sure," he said instead. "I'm hoping for the best."

Namjoon nodded. "Me too. I'm just worried about her."

Hoba gave Namjoon a soft look. "You're friends, it makes sense."

"And heat partners," Yoongi added.

"If Yoongi was away for a month, I don't know what I'd do without him," Hoba said with a small smile. He leaned against Yoongi again and bumped his hip against his. "I'd be worried sick."

Yoongi chuckled quietly and shrugged one shoulder. "I doubt I'd be able to stay away for that long."

Namjoon clinked his bottle against the railing with a distracted look. "She'll be eighteen soon. We've talked about staying together when I have to leave but..."

"But what?"

He was quiet and continued tapping his bottle against the railing.

Yoongi studied him closely. "What's stopping you?"

Namjoon's expression became reluctant as he continued to hesitate. Something was obviously bothering him.

"Is it because she's a Luna? And you're an Alpha?" Yoongi asked carefully. "It's like you don't want to force her to become the Luna of your pack, but you want her in your pack?"

Namjoon's eyes widened. "Yeah. Exactly like that."

"But whoever is in your pack would be worthy to be in your pack," Hoba offered. "Accepting members into your pack would require both of your opinions. It's how it usually works. Alpha Iris and Ashton were the original members of our pack, and they grew from there."

Namjoon nodded at him. "I know that, but still... She didn't want to be a Luna in the first place. Adding a pack to her troubles... I don't want to put her through that."

"Maybe she would be fine with it," Yoongi suggested. "You said she was better now."

"I shouldn't underestimate her, but I am really worried about how this will end."

"Everybody is," Yoongi agreed, "but giving into fear won't help anybody."

Namjoon finished his bottle of beer and tapped the edge against the railing. "You're right, but I don't know how long this bravery will last."

"We don't need to talk about it right now," Hoba offered, snuggling closer to Yoongi's body.

"What if we go to town?" Namjoon asked suddenly.

Yoongi blinked at the young wolf in brief confusion. "Go to town? Right now?"

Namjoon nodded at him. "Yeah, hyung can drive us."

Hoba stood up straight and pulled away from Yoongi's embrace. He leaned forward on the railing to look at Namjoon. "Why do you want to go to town?"

"Just for fun," he claimed.

Yoongi studied his half-empty bottle and tilted the glass back and forth. He held it to the sky to judge if he could knock it back in one go. "We'll need to ask somebody for the keys. And it's a forty-minute drive to the town."

"We also need one of the pack cards," Hoba added.

Money wasn't necessary to live in the pack. Food and housing was provided to everybody. If somebody needed to buy anything from town, they were given one of the pack's debit cards. Trips to town were less than frequent because the nearby town was boringly small and everything was already provided by the pack. The pack was mostly self-sustained but there were some random items they needed to buy. The pack's income, Yoongi learned recently, came from selling produce at the weekly farmer's market and skillfully investing in the stock market.

Namjoon gave them a secret smile and reached into his pocket. He held up his wallet and shook it around. "Alpha Samuel gave me an allowance, just in case. I haven't spent any of it, and I'm going home in a few days."

"We still need car keys," Yoongi pointed out.

"Who usually has the keys?"

Hoba walked away from the railing and looked towards the open sliding glass doors. He motioned for the boys to follow him. "I think I know. He was the last one to take a trip to town."

The two boys trailed behind Hoba and they reentered the warm house. Yoongi's bedroom was dimly lit by the light of the moon reflecting off the snow. There wasn't much in his room aside from a dresser of clothes and laptop tucked away in a corner of the room. He had plans to start a podcast and was still writing out his script.

Hoba opened the bedroom door quietly and crept out into the hallway. He glanced both ways as if he were a ninja and began tiptoeing out of sight. Yoongi followed close behind him and fought to keep his heart from racing. The dead silence of the packhouse was adrenaline-inducing.

Suddenly, he felt like a small child again. He remembered sneaking through his house and escaping outside to meet up with Hoba and Seokjinnie hyung. They always met by the river, and later they built a fort to establish their secret hideout.

It might have been the alcohol in his veins but a surge of excitement caused his heart to skip a beat. Yoongi started to smile as he crept through the hall, a little wobbly, and imagined he was back in the forest with his friends.

They walked quietly through the multi-storied log cabin home. This house was meant for teenagers and young adults. The oldest wolves in the house were automatically put in charge of the others. Each wolf had a personal bedroom and they shared the large bathroom at the end of the hallway.

Hoba stopped in front of a closed door decorated with Mario stickers and silver stars. There was a faint light underneath the door. He turned back to Namjoon and Yoongi before he tested the doorknob.

"Come in," a faint voice called.

Hoba opened the door and his concentrated expression melted into a playful smile. "Jannnn..."

"If it isn't my little sunshine... What's Hobi doing up at this hour?"

Hoba skipped into the bedroom and went straight to the bed. Yoongi peeked around the corner and found Jin sitting up in bed. There was a Nintendo Switch in his hand. Hoba jumped onto the edge of the bed and grinned mischievously at his hyung. "Nothing...?"

Jin looked over and blinked in surprise. "Oh, hey Yoongi. You too?" The comforting scent of roses perfumed the air.

Yoongi entered the room with Namjoon close on his heels. "And a guest."

Jin smiled warmly at the young Alpha. "I haven't seen you in a while. Hey Joon-ah."

Namjoon smiled shyly and nodded. "Hi, hyungie."

"What brings you by?" Seokjin asked curiously. He sniffed quietly and gave Yoongi and Namjoon a sly look. "Are we drinking tonight?"

Hoba sat down on Jin's legs causing the hyung to squirm and attempt to kick him off. "Actually, we're here to ask if you have the car keys!" he explained as he tried to pin down Jin's legs with his body weight.

Jin kicked fiercely before finally giving up. He laughed for a moment before relaxing back against his bedpost. "The keys? Where are you going?"

"Namjoon wants to blow all his money before he goes home," Yoongi answered with a smirk. "And we were going to join him."

Seokjin looked down at Hoba who was now sprawled out over his legs. "Hmm what if I had a condition for taking the keys?"

For a moment, Namjoon appeared disappointed. "What is it?" he asked seriously.

Jin gave him a humorous look. "Oh, it's nothing serious, Joon. Don't worry. All I ask is if you could pick up some gummy worms for me."

Namjoon's expression relaxed and he smiled bashfully. "Oh. Yes, I can do that."

"Great. The keys are on my desk."

Yoongi walked over to the desk and found the car keys. "Thanks, hyung."

"You're welcome. Be careful, alright?"

"We will, have a good night." Yoongi motioned for the others to follow.

Hoba dragged himself off the bed and made a kissy face at Jin. Seokjin chuckled and blew a kiss to Hoba. With that, the three wolves left the rose-scented bedroom and set off to have a midnight adventure.

The grocery store was brightly lit and filled with the void. Yoongi strolled through the small aisles with a swagger in his walk. His head was fuzzy from the effects of the bottle he chugged in the car. Namjoon found it in the kitchen on his way out. Vodka and winter was a match made in Heaven, and it made his body burn like Hell. He was so hot, it reminded him of being on the verge of a heat. His legs were light when they were moving yet heavy when he took a solid step. It was as if he were walking through a low-gravity zone.

The flickering fluorescent lights of the store acted like blurry stars in his vision. The neon-colored packages were difficult to focus on. The whole world appeared to be out of focus, except for his friends.

Yoongi laughed as Hoba grabbed his jacket sleeve and dragged him down the aisle. "Lead the way, pup, lead the way!" he announced only to have Hoba shush him, fighting to contain his own giggles.

They found Namjoon by the shopping cart. His arms were filled with packets of ramen and gummy worms. He flashed them an easy smile but his body swayed with a drunken rhythm. He turned to the cart and unceremoniously dropped everything into the metal basket.

"What are you doing?" Yoongi stared at the young wolf with an amused smirk. "Are you looking to feed a whole army, Joon?"

Namjoon snorted and a sharp laugh came from his lips. "I'm just buying whatever."

"We're a three-man army!" Yoongi exclaimed, trying to elbow Hoba in the side but woefully missing and stumbling over himself.

"Oh hyung, you're so wasted," Hoba scolded and dragged Yoongi into the side of the cart. His body hit the metal and he burst out laughing again, bracing himself over the edge, and leaning on it. He pushed the cart into the shelves but Hoba quickly moved the cart away and faced it forward again.

"Blame Joonie-yah, damn Alpha thinks he can out drink me."

"Shh," Hoba said urgently, grabbing onto Yoongi's arm.

Yoongi shot him a wild look before playfully shouting, "Do you want to die?!"

"Hyung, hyungie, shh," Namjoon giggled as he refilled his arms with more ramen packets and random sauces, "shh, you're going to get us in trouble..."

"Yah you can't tell me what to do," Yoongi argued as laughter bubbled up inside of him. "You're not my Alpha, look Hoba, look at this dummy, he thinks his my Alpha--"

"Nobody said he was your Alpha, Yoongi, but you need to be quiet!" Hoba tried to shush him again but Yoongi wrenched free from his grip.

He staggered away from the group and stood at the end of the aisle. Yoongi lifted his head proudly, and pointed at them. "You see? Nobody can hold me down!"

Hoba smacked his hand against his head.

Namjoon burst out laughing again in sharp breaths. He dropped another round of food into the cart with a loud clattering. "Ohh hyungie, you don't even know what I could do to you."

Yoongi's curiosity spiked. "Oh?" he said, faking an interested smile. "Oh what could you do to me, pup ?" he challenged.

"We're not going to find out!" Hoba cut him off and shoved Namjoon forward. He urged Namjoon to keep moving by shoving the cart into the backs of his heels. "Come on, idiots, we're going to the check-out aisle."

Namjoon pouted over his shoulder as Hoba kept pushing him with the cart. "Oh... alright..."

Yoongi marched off to another aisle and found himself looking at a wall of wine bottles. He looked over their gothic red labels and cursive writing until he found one that caught his eye.

Werewolf Pinot Noir. It even had an image of a werewolf on the label.

"Oh this is perfect..." Yoongi muttered to himself. He took two bottles off the shelf, one for each hand, and wandered until he found Hoba and Namjoon. They were standing beside the cashier, fumbling to place all the crap Namjoon bought on the little conveyer belt.

There was a young woman at the cashier. She looked pissed off to be alive with a messy ponytail. Yoongi set the two bottles on the end of the conveyor belt and earned an odd look from Hoba.

"Werewolves," Yoongi said simply.

Namjoon moved to the end of the small aisle and pulled his wallet from his pocket. He tried to hand it to the cashier but Hoba caught his hand. He quickly pulled out the correct amount of money from the wallet and handed it to her.

She stared at Hoba cautiously but started counting the money. "So... where are you guys from? Passing through?"

Yoongi inhaled sharply and his senses recoiled at the harsh scent of bleach. There was a blanket of human scents, all earthy and warm, but the cleaner made his nose hurt.

"Yeah... we're doing a short road trip," Hoba replied casually.

The cashier handed him back change and finished bagging the rest of their things. "Looks like a fun road trip," she added. "We've been getting a lot of those. You know, with the whole 'world-is-ending' trend going on."

Namjoon stopped trying to look through the magazine and gave her a saddened look. There was a powerful emotion in his eyes and it made Yoongi's heart lurched for the young Alpha. He's sad. I don't want him to be sad. "A trend?"

"You haven't heard of it?" she asked.

Namjoon shook his head.

Hoba finished placing all the paper bags into the cart. "You know about it, Joon," Hoba said quietly, "you're just too drunk to remember."

"Everybody is rushing to finish their bucket list before the world goes to hell," she explained, having not heard Hoba's comment. "It's a whole thing. Live now so you can die later."

"I don't think we're going to die," Hoba answered, self-assured. "We're just taking a late-night drive."

"Hoba, did you get the gummy worms?" Yoongi asked, suddenly remembering Jin's request.

Hoseok nodded at him, "Yes, yes we got them. Now come on, before you two start breaking things."

"The only thing I could break is my heart--" Namjoon cut himself off and scowled. "Wait no. The only thing that you break is--, I mean--"

Hoba sighed and took his sleeve in his hand. He dragged him out of the aisle and gestured for Yoongi to get the cart. "Come on, guys. I think it's about time you two sobered up." He gave the cashier a parting smile, "Thank you, have a nice night."

She nodded. "You too."

Yoongi pushed the cart of the small grocery store and walked it over to their small van. Hoba opened the trunk for Yoongi and they started to unload the bags into the back.

"Do they really think this is the end?" Namjoon asked, standing off to one side.

"It's sad how bad it's gotten," Hoba replied. He took a moment to look up at the star-lit sky. "I'm happy to have the pack. I don't know what I would do without them. It would be so lonely."

Yoongi's cheeks burned with the remainder of the alcohol. He moved the last bag and slammed the trunk door shut. He studied Hoba and reached for his hand. Hoba's hand moved to his and they held hands for a moment. Yoongi began, "I'm glad I was born into a pack with you and Jin."

Hoba smiled softly at him. The lights of the grocery store illuminated his features and highlighted the fluffy outline of his hair. "Same here. And I'm glad Namjoon got to stay with us."

Namjoon nodded at him. "Me too. I hope you can meet Charlotte someday, I think you'd like her."

Hoba squeezed Yoongi's hand before dropping it. "Come on, it's cold."

"Can we stay in the car?" Yoongi asked, following Hoba into the van. "Just stay here for a while?"

"Stay here? It's pretty late, we have a bit of a drive home..."

Namjoon shared a look with Yoongi and then nodded. "I like that. We can eat in the back."

"I can't drink with you guys," Hoba commented with a note of regret.

The three boys climbed into the backseat of the van and shut the door behind them. They pulled a few bags from the trunk area and dug into their bounty. Yoongi squeezed himself against the wall and stretched his legs out over Hoba's lap. Namjoon sat on the ground and cradled the bottle of wine to his chest as he fought with the cork.

Hoba settled into his seat and found the packets of gummy worms. He passed them around, making sure there was one saved for Jin, and repeated, "As much as I would like to, I really can't drink with you."

"You can't chug a bottle of vodka, but you can have a few sips of wine," Yoongi suggested hopefully. He reached out and gently pushed Hoba's hair from his forehead. Hoba caught his eye and they held a stare. Yoongi slowly smiled at him, still fuzzy from his earlier chugging session.

Hoba's gaze relaxed and he found himself nodding. "Alright. Maybe just a sip."

Namjoon finally popped the cork off the bottle and took the first drink of the werewolf wine. They drank deep into the night, allowing the grocery store parking lot to fade away from their minds like melting ice, and fell into each other's arms.

As easy as breathing, that's what it felt like to be with them. Yoongi's heart was filled with content as he looked at the young wolves around me. It felt as if the world fell into place. Finally, he felt as if he belonged somewhere. It was different than calling his pack his home. The pack he was born into was a phase of his life that was coming to an end. The next phase of his life lay before him in the van's velvet seats, blushing from their wine hazes.

Yoongi finished off the second bottle of wine, tasting the gritty leftovers on his tongue. He sighed loudly and fell back into Hoba's chest. His eyelids grew heavy as satisfaction filled his body. "I wanna go on a trip too," Yoongi wished out loud. "I want to go on a trip together."

"We can go..." Namjoon replied dreamily. He crumpled an empty gummy worm packet in his hand and let it fall to the ground. "We'll go to all the museums, all the galleries... we'll see it all, hyung."

Hoba held onto Yoongi's hand and lifted it into the air. He chuckled quietly and nodded against Yoongi's back. "We'll go to parks too. I'd love to run with you."

"We'll take Jin hyung," Yoongi added hopefully. He turned over and faced Hoba. "We'll take him too, and we'll take Namjoon's Charlotte. It'll be a date, we'll travel the country together."

"Oh Charlotte would love it," Namjoon said excitedly. He smiled wide enough to reveal his dimples. "She'll find all the mushrooms in her book, she loves the outdoors."

"Our road trip..." Hoba said wistfully. He smiled as well and his eyes appeared to be filled with stars and wondrous daydreams. "That would be amazing... We could decorate the van too, put little lights on the windows--" he gestured around, "--little twinkle lights, and we could use campgrounds. We could learn to camp, hyung, that would be so much fun..."

"Drinking coffee and watching the sunrise together..." Yoongi imagined it vividly and it brought a sleepy smile to his lips. "I wouldn't have it any other way..."

Yoongi wasn't sure when he fell asleep, but he awoke in the backseat with his head on Namjoon's head. Through his blurry vision, he watched as street lamps passed the fogged windows and the moon hanging over the sky. Hoba was humming quietly to himself from the driver's seat. His cheerful voice lulled Yoongi back to sleep once again.

In his dreams, Yoongi was weightless. Drifting across a black sea and moving passively against the warm waves. Occasionally, Namjoon's hand would pass through his hair and remind Yoongi that he isn't alone.

For a blissful moment, Yoongi believed he was truly at home .

And despite his fit he threw in the grocery store, he would be proud to call Namjoon his Alpha.

In the sweet darkness of his wine-drunk mind, Yoongi heard the faint screeching of tires against gravel. His body lurched forward and suddenly, he was awake...

"Do you remember the last day with my pack?" Yoongi asks quietly, looking up from his desk. The small microphone is muted, the radio continues a track Yoongi made a few nights ago. Its gentle piano melody and plucking of guitar strings are paired with the song of a lone cello; he wanted it to spark yearning for the world around himself. It was a pretty song, but there was a dark undertone to its flowing notes.

Namjoon sits in the pillow corner of the train car. His large body is wrapped with blankets and his eyes are sleepy from a rough night. He looks up at him slowly with confusion. "The last... day?" He just woke up.

Yoongi looks over his desk, his homemade radio station that consists of a laptop, a boombox-like radio, twisted wires, and a little microphone he bought years ago. They found this abandoned train car during their nomadic period; it served as their temporary home while they built the cabin. Now Yoongi uses it as his radio station to contact nearby packs and send out messages.

Phones don't work in this area, and Yoongi doubts they ever will again.

They use solar panels to charge everything since electricity is impossible to get this deep in the mountains. Most human colonies no longer use electricity because it's difficult to upkeep. Everything fell apart, and electricity was turned off for the majority of the country to conserve energy for an upcoming war. The war came, and it destroyed the government and its power. Since then, the country has decided they were on their own and switched to solar and wind power. Only in emergencies, they turn on the generators.

"Yeah," Yoongi confirmed. "The last day."

"It was a nice day," Namjoon answers softly. He rubs his tired eyes for a moment. "We..." he chuckles, "we were drunk for most of it, hyung. Why do you ask?"

Yoongi sits back in his chair, the wood creaking with the shift of his weight. "I was just thinking about it. Do you remember the road trip we planned?"

Namjoon smiles fondly at him. "I do, actually."

Yoongi smiles back at him as allows warm memories to replace the terror that followed. To this day, he still has nightmares about that fateful night. It was the night his pack was killed, and they had to seek refuge in Namjoon's pack.

"I guess we went on a road trip after all," Yoongi says hopefully. "We traveled the country together in our little van."

Namjoon laughs, "I guess we did."

Yoongi falls quiet for a moment and listens to his song play through the static on the radio. The little space heater rumbles in the background like the purring of a cat. Yoongi adjusted his wool-lined blanket over his shoulders and laid his head on his desk, lost in thought.

Namjoon's gaze becomes worried. "Are you alright, hyung?"

Yoongi sighs through his nose as Namjoon's scent sours. "I can't believe it's been four years. It doesn't feel right. It's moving too fast."

"I get that," Namjoon agrees, sinking deeper into his blanket cocoon. "Jimin said something like that the other day."

Yoongi thinks back to last night when Jimin helped him ease out of a heat paralysis. He felt so helpless at that moment; it reminded him of that fateful night. That night contains memories Yoongi never wants to revisit. He wishes he could forget it already. Unfortunately, he remembers that night as if it were only hours ago.

His parents died that night. So did Hoba's. So did Jin's. His Alpha, the Sols of his pack, the other wolves, were all murdered in cold-blood by a rival pack who gave into that damn end-of-the-world insanity.

The end of the world came because people gave into the fear of the end. Yoongi still believes that if everybody had not panicked, the world would be back to normal again. It is a bitter feeling but Yoongi knows it's true.

His song comes to an end and Yoongi sits up from the desk. He clears his throat and unmutes his mic. He leans down and begins to speak in a calming, low voice; it's part of his radio persona's charm.

"Welcome back to the show. I hope you enjoyed our music segments today. All songs shared today were produced by myself. Now, moving onto our next segment... we have a couple of announcements today. First, Jackson asks their friends to watch the west river today. Secondly, Tomorrow will open their market during the blue hour. And finally, the Boyscouts will send their final request to speak with the Walkers before November 15th. Please contact the Boyscouts through traditional methods. Thank you, that's all for today's messages..."

A/N: I wrote this chapter with a soft heart and couldn't help but indulge in Yoongi's POV. In the past, I didn't understand what "losing normal" felt like and struggled with those feelings while writing post-apocalyptic stories. I guess Covid-19 and 2020 gave me all the experience I needed to write this from a personal view. I had a moment like Yoongi's, the night before lockdown started, and it feels strange to look back on those days now that I've adjusted to a new normal. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I really do love writing from the boys' perspectives! Stay warm everybody!