#... queue

"several days," she says softly, tilting his head this way and that. "it'll get worse before it gets better. looks like it won't be as big as i thought it might, though." satisfied, she turns to the bag of ice chips she'd wrapped in a clean bar towel. "here. hold this against your cheek to keep the swelling down." a regular hesitantly calls from the other end of the bar to close out his check, pulling dami away. but when she returns, there's a gentle smile on her face. "want me to call wooyung, sweetheart? i've got almost two hours before i can take you home. once he's awake, he can get here in fifteen minutes."

She couldn’t help laughing, shy and flustered, down at her messy bowl of dough. "I don't—I don't know how I manged this," Taemin said, cheeks flushing pink. "Every time I think I'm getting better at using an electric hand mixer, I fuck it up again. I used to be so scared of Mom's as a kid."

She felt things too scary to put into words just yet. It was easier, now that he knew she was a wolf. But it was still so new, so fragile. Her wolf was telling her things her half-human heart still couldn’t bear to face. So, she didn’t. Instead, kenz leaned over and sank her teeth into his shoulder—not hard enough to hurt, maybe not even hard enough to feel through his layers of sweaters. But it was enough for now. “Is it going well?” she asked. “You haven’t said a word for at least seven minutes so I assume it’s going well.”

she waves happily to minhyuk as she enters their shop, but it's jisung that she beelines for—as usual, as always. it's always jisung. she makes sure he can see her coming so she doesn't startle him, grin wide and phone already outstretched to show him a tiny, wet, pathetic looking dog. "look at him," makenzie says, speaking carefully so jisung can read his lips while his hands are occupied. "poor little motherfucker. i'm not really supposed to take pictures of dogs at work, but i saw him getting bathed when i was on my way out and i just—i mean look at him!!"

he knows pasha is present can smell him on the far side of the house. thankfully, because he doesn’t want him to overhear his terrible pronunciation. his daughter, of course, has made no complaints. “lana, kde jsi? mám překvapení.” i have a surprise. because of course he does. of course he can’t stop thinking about her, even when he’s supposed to just be picking up groceries.

"Thank you," Liam whispers. "I don't think he was gonna hurt me. But....... felt better. Having you there."

"you know..... it's a bit of a drive, but i'd love to take you to my moms' house if you ever feel like you can handle it." jiwon doesn't say why he doesn't like cars. so wooyung doesn't ask. he doesn't smell quite human, and wooyung guesses it might have something to do with that, but he doesn't ask about that either. jiwon is a skittish little thing and he doesn't want to scare him away. "we live right up against the forest, and...... it's beautiful. so green and bright and....... alive. i think you'd really like it."