Chapter Text
-
Jimin begrudgingly walked through the open grass field, with his very long raven hair flowing in the wind and in front of his eyes messily.
The thick skirt of his red hanbok slowed his steps a little bit. The upper part of the hanbok resembled a long robe and wasn’t tied at the front properly, which gave him a sleazy, unkempt look.
The 20-year-old omega held a metal bucket in one hand and a broom in the other. There were cleaning supplies and rags in the bucket.
He was at the edge of the pack’s main village, where it was quiet, with few houses. Jimin was heading to the blacksmith’s workshop, an old and dark wooden warehouse.
Jimin reached the front porch of the large warehouse and slowly climbed up the four wooden steps to an open area with a very large counter. As Jimin approached the counter, someone walked up to him from the other side of the counter, coming from the deeper parts of the dark cabin.
Jimin met Min Yoongi’s curious gaze with a smile. “Alpha Min, hi!”
The strong alpha walked up to the edge of the counter and around it to meet Jimin at the front of the cabin.
“Omega Jimin.” Yoongi greeted him seriously, with tense shoulders.
The young, strong alpha was wearing a black long-sleeved vest, black pants, boots, and a black leather apron. His short, straight black hair was pushed back.
The alpha’s sharp eyes went from Jimin to the cleaning supplies in his hands.
“I’m on cleaning duty.” Jimin cheerfully explained before Yoongi could ask. He set the bucket on the floor and the broom against the counter while he said, “The elder omegas assigned me here. I’ll be coming here every day to clean.”
“I thought you worked in the kitchens.” Yoongi said, crossing his arms over his chest. The muscles of his thick shoulders and arms naturally flexed with the movement.
“I did, but I was getting scolded every day for lazing around too much, and my supervisors got fed up with me.” Jimin shrugged, already looking around the shop for a place to sit down. His gaze landed on a dark leather sofa against the inner wall of the cabin, right under one of the front windows, facing the counter.
Jimin unceremoniously went to the sofa and lay down on it, curling up on his side comfortably, shamelessly. His messy long hair cascaded all around him and reached the floor.
The alpha still watched Jimin from that same spot, with his arms crossed over his chest, tense.
“I don’t understand. They just sent you here?” Yoongi questioned. He slowly stepped closer, as if he hesitated to approach Jimin.
“The kitchen supervisors? Yeah.” Jimin shrugged. He turned on his back and looked up to the alpha. “They begged the elders to replace me somewhere else. ‘Said I was too lazy, that all I did was steal sweets and run away to take naps in the forest, yadda yadda yadda. You know, the usual.”
“But I never had cleaning staff in the shop before.” Yoongi frowned, “At least not someone coming here every day.”
At those words, Jimin suddenly sat up. He met the alpha's eyes pleadingly, “Alpha Min, please, please, please let me stay!” Jimin joined his hands under his chin, “Please, I promise I won’t cause trouble, I’ll just nap on this sofa all day and you won’t even know I’m here!”
Something in the omega’s shameless attitude made the alpha hesitate, with his jaw clenched, as if Yoongi was troubled with holding back words.
Yoongi watched Jimin intensely, and said with a hoarse voice, “Did you just admit that you won’t even do the cleaning work you were assigned to do here?”
Jimin looked up to the alpha, doe-eyed, and pouting unknowingly. “I don’t like to work… You know that. That’s why I’m called the laziest omega and the elders hate my guts.”
Yoongi gulped dryly. “I don’t think they hate you. They just wish you were more… put together, I think.” Yoongi said, then sighed. “Not that it matters what they think. You look- I mean, you don’t look bad. I mean-” Yoongi sighed again and looked away, tense.
Sitting on the edge of the sofa, Jimin watched the alpha expectantly.
“I mean,” Yoongi continued, with his arms crossed, “You can stay here and do whatever you want. Don’t worry, I won’t tell on you to the elders. It’s not like I asked for cleaning staff anyway.”
“Thank you, Alpha Min.” Jimin smiled brightly. “I’ll stay out of your way!”
Yoongi nodded stiffly and quickly turned to go back inside the warehouse.
-
Jimin lay on the sofa. It faintly carried Yoongi’s alpha scent, which Jimin didn’t mind.
Jimin napped through the morning, lulled by the sounds of clanking metal of the lone blacksmith working.
The cleaning supplies remained by the entrance of the cabin, untouched.
At lunchtime, a young alpha boy, Choi Soobin, came to the workshop to bring Yoongi a packed portion of the lunch that was being served at the dining hall for all pack members. The smell of food woke Jimin up.
Jimin lazily sat up on the sofa, yawning. Soobin seemed surprised to see Jimin there.
“Omega Jimin!” The young alpha, still in his early teens, bowed curtly to the omega as a way of greeting, to which Jimin reciprocated, less energetically.
“Alpha Choi.” Jimin greeted him, then yawned again.
Yoongi came up on the other side of the counter to receive the packed food. “Thank you, Soobin.”
As the young alpha was on his way out, Jimin sat up on his knees on the sofa and watched the alpha uncover the food.
Yoongi placed a bar stool behind the counter and sat on it. He was getting ready to start eating his lunch while overlooking the front porch, but Jimin’s stare made him falter.
Just then, the lunchtime gong hit. Its sound could be heard all over the pack village, and faintly from the Min’s workshop.
“Aren’t you going out to grab lunch, Omega Jimin?” Yoongi asked, speaking formally to him.
Jimin bit his lower lip. He was hungry, yes, but he also didn’t want to walk all the way to the dining hall.
“I don’t want to walk all the way to the hall.” Jimin admitted.
Yoongi shook his head as if he was already expecting that type of shamelessly lazy answer from the omega.
“Come here, I’ll share my portion with you.” Just as the alpha was finished uttering the words, Jimin was already on his feet and rounding up the counter to stand beside the alpha.
Jimin leaned against the dark wooden countertop and eyed the big bento box hungrily. It had rice, eggs, vegetables and big pieces of cooked red meat.
Yoongi wordlessly offered the spoon to the omega, who took it and quickly scooped some of the rice. Jimin chewed the big mouthful, satisfied, and offered the spoon back to the alpha.
He found Yoongi watching him with dark eyes and a clenched jaw. Yoongi didn’t move to retrieve the spoon.
“Take what you need, omega.” Yoongi said simply, with his naturally rough, deep voice, almost like an order.
Jimin felt himself shiver instinctually, but didn’t think too much of it, and just obeyed. He took more of the rice, which was a big portion for him, but wasn’t really making a dent in the big lunch box.
Jimin ate the hardboiled egg and some of the vegetables, then dropped the spoon back into the bento box, still chewing his last spoonful, satisfied. He quickly swallowed before saying, cheerful, “Thank you so much, Alpha Min!”
Yoongi just grunted and nodded curtly.
Jimin didn’t leave his side as the alpha finished the contents of the lunchbox himself.
While Jimin leaned over the counter distractedly and watched the front yard of the workshop, he couldn’t help but notice how the alpha’s scent was strong, like leather and woods, and it seemed to possessively mark everything it reached as Yoongi’s.
Jimin himself felt marked by it, currently standing so close beside the seated alpha that their shoulders touched.
Yoongi finished his lunch and set the spoon down. He cleared his throat.
“Can I ask you a rather personal question, Omega Jimin?”
“Yes?” Jimin turned to the alpha curiously.
Yoongi didn’t meet his eyes, at first, but stared ahead seriously. Then, he turned to the omega with an unreadable face, “Are you still sure of your plans to never mate?”
Jimin nodded in understanding to the question. He was aware that all of the pack knew that he was the only omega who openly rejected all his courting gifts, anonymous or not, because he had decided that he didn’t want to get mated, ever.
“Yep.” Jimin answered, smiling, “Never. Never ever. I’ll be happy to just be an auntie. I can’t be a wife, I’d be so terrible at it, my alpha would hate me. Those unmated alphas only try to court me because of my good looks, but apart from that, I’m not wife material at all.” Jimin laughed shortly, although Yoongi was still serious while he listened to his answer.
Yoongi nodded stiffly. ”I understand.”
The alpha didn’t ask any more questions on that subject. After a moment of silence, Yoongi got up from the stool and went back to the warehouse. Shortly after, the gong hit a second time, indicating that lunchtime was over.
-
In the afternoon, Jimin wandered around the workshop, not sleepy anymore, but still not willing to pick up the mop and do the one job he was told to do that day.
For the rest of the day, no one else showed up - not any other member of the Min clan but Yoongi.
The Min clan was not one of the largest families of the pack.
Unlike it, Jimin’s family, from the Park clan, was known for their omegas and female betas having several children in their lifetime, and Jimin’s mother had given birth to over ten children before stopping at Jimin, her youngest.
The Min clan, however, was known for not having many heirs at a time.
Yoongi was an only child and the only heir to the First Alpha position of his clan. Yoongi had uncles and nephews who shared the Min name with him, but Yoongi’s closest family was small - just an omega mother and an alpha father.
In the pack’s general tradition, each clan specialized in some craft or activity.
The Park clan’s traditional occupation was hunting and religious moon rituals.
The Min clan’s tradition was fighting battles, and forging swords. So, their members were responsible for passing that knowledge through generations.
That division of work wasn’t completely rigid in their pack. The vast majority of wolves could pick and choose what they wanted to do, regardless of which clan they had been born in.
Only the main families of each clan were responsible for keeping the traditional knowledge assigned to their own family names.
Which meant that, being the Min clan First Alpha’s only heir, he had no choice but to be a blacksmith and a warrior.
In Jimin’s opinion, the position fit Yoongi well. He was great at both - or at least, that’s what everyone said about the alpha, that he was such a good blacksmith and an even better warrior.
-
Jimin wandered the workshop, looking for something to do.
He went into the deeper part of the cabin, the warehouse in the back.
The place was slightly dark, and warm because of the furnace. Yoongi was the only one working there, although the shed was big enough that many more could be working at the same time.
He walked closer to Yoongi, who was standing in front of an old wooden table, working with blades, stones, and a bowl of water.
“What are you doing?” Jimin asked, standing beside the alpha, close enough that their shoulders brushed.
“Sharpening knives.”
“That’s a lot of knives.” Jimin commented, looking at the table.
There was a crate full of them on top of the table, a water bowl and a block of stone that Yoongi was using to sharpen the utensils.
Yoongi suddenly looked up, as if feeling something in the air.
“Someone is coming. I think it’s one of the elders.” Yoongi told him, and Jimin gasped before hurrying to the front of the shop, leaving Yoongi alone at the back.
When Jimin reached the front porch, he saw, in dismay, that the alpha had been right. In the distance, he could see three hunched figures slowly making their way to the blacksmith’s workshop.
They were three elderly omegas - the ones responsible for teaching all of the young, newly presented, or unmated omegas, how to act, dress and perform their duties.
They were Elder Omega Kim, Elder Omega Choi, and Elder Omega Park, the latter being Jimin’s very own great grandfather.
Jimin quickly hurried back inside and picked the mop from where it had been forgotten by the counter, in a futile attempt at pretending that he had been working all along.
When the elderly omegas reached the front porch, they barely paid Jimin’s respectful bow any attention before they started nagging him with questions and judgments.
“What did I tell you about your hair, Jimin?” his great-grandfather questioned him, sounding frustrated and impatient, “A respectable omega doesn’t walk around with their hair a loose mess like that. It should be braided, I’ve told you so many times. Why didn’t you braid it? Did you just roll out of bed this morning and didn’t even brush it, didn’t even braid it? And your hanbok, oh my God, it isn’t even tied-”
Jimin bit his lips and quietly endured the scolding, blankly looking ahead.
The elder continued, “This place is all dusty. You napped all morning, didn’t you? I have known you since you were in your mother’s belly, lazy child! This poor boy, alpha Min’s only son, has been working in this dirty shed for who knows how long-”
Jimin suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at the scolding. It was mostly the same words he had been hearing ever since he presented as an omega at thirteen years of age.
In the midst of Jimin’s scolding session, Yoongi emerged from the workshop and swiftly placed himself between Jimin and the elders, shielding the omega from their view.
“Pack Elders, what a pleasure to receive your visit.” Yoongi said calmly, bowing to each of them. “I want to thank you for sending such a helpful omega as Park Jimin. He’s been great at cleaning. But, as you can imagine, this place has never been truly cleaned, so it is natural that he couldn't clean it all in one day. Please, go easy on Omega Jimin, he’s doing his best.”
The three elders watched Yoongi with narrowed eyes, knowingly. Yoongi straightened his back and stood his ground calmly, shielding the disheveled omega from their view.
Elder Park scoffed “Hah, you think you can fool me, son? I'm 76 years old… I've seen this happen countless times.” the elder muttered at Yoongi, “I assigned this little rascal here because you two can learn from each other - one works way too much, the other, way too little!” He shook his head and turned to leave.
Jimin peeked from behind Yoongi’s back, holding onto his big shoulder. He didn’t quite get the meaning behind his great-grandfather's words, but he was thankful that the elders were finally leaving him alone.
As the elders descended the porch stairs, elder Park turned to them one last time and pointed at Jimin, “You better have braided your hair next time I see you, Jimin, or you’ll be in big trouble!”
-
Jimin’s new routine in Yoongi’s workshop picked up well.
The next morning, Jimin found some comfortable furry pillows on the sofa near the counter which hadn’t been there the day before. When Jimin questioned Yoongi about it, the alpha had just grunted and shrugged.
Jimin lay down to take his morning nap of the day, with his head on one of the soft pillows, and hugging another pillow to his chest. He had braided his black hair today in a single long braid, with his straight across bangs hanging freely over his face.
He was awoken by the sound of the lunchtime gong, realizing he had been sleeping with his mouth open and one of his bare feet hanging from the edge of the sofa.
Jimin slowly sat up and looked up to the counter. There, near the entrance of the cabin, he found Yoongi and Soobin exchanging greetings, and Soobin handing Yoongi his lunch pack.
However, the packed lunch was bigger than the one from the previous day.
Jimin got up from the sofa and went into the inner side of the counter, exactly where he had been the day before.
“Hi, Omega Jimin.” Soobin greeted him, smiling bashfully. Jimin nodded at him, also smiling, “Hi, Alpha Choi.”
Soobin didn’t stay long after that and went back to the dining hall, leaving the two others alone in the workshop cabin.
Jimin inspected the packed lunch on the counter curiously. There seemed to be three tin boxes today, instead of one, and they were wrapped in a white kitchen cloth. There was also a thermal bottle made of wood.
Yoongi didn’t say anything as he unpacked the boxes, leaving one in front of the omega.
“Is it for me?” Jimin asked, already opening the lid and looking at the mix of rice and vegetables.
“Yes.” the alpha grunted. He pointed to one of the stools beside Jimin. “Sit down to eat.”
Jimin did as told, pulling one of the stools close to the alpha’s and sitting on it. Jimin curiously reached for the bottle and the third tin box. “What is this?”
Yoongi cleared his throat, hesitating before answering. “Tea, and berries.” The alpha said curtly, not meeting Jimin’s gaze, but looking down at his own lunch. “You like them, right?”
Jimin gasped, “If I like them? No, I love them!”
“Good.” Yoongi nodded, serious. “Eat your lunch first.”
Content, Jimin picked up the spoon and started to eat the white rice, humming. Beside him, the alpha picked a piece of smoked rib with a bare hand and gave it a bite.
“Doesn’t this remind you of when we were pups?” Jimin asked after a moment of comfortable silence. “We were in the same class in school, you’re only two years older than me so we’re from the same generation. We used to eat lunch together, play together every day.”
Yoongi nodded curtly, still busy eating. “I remember.”
“You were so good at climbing trees, I thought you were the coolest.” Jimin commented, smiling fondly at the memories. “And we presented around the same time, right? When I was thirteen and you were, what, fifteen? Or before that? You presented as an alpha first, then I presented as an omega a few months later.”
Yoongi hummed. He stole a glance at Jimin, then quickly looked forward again, with the tips of his ears red, although Jimin didn’t notice that and kept talking.
“After you presented, you were sent to that training camp in faraway lands, right? That, what was it called, warrior school?” Jimin asked, smiling, “And when you came back years later, I almost didn’t recognize you. You changed so much, on the outside, at least.”
“But you,” Yoongi muttered, “you didn’t change much. Still look like a pup.”
Jimin gasped and laughed, “Wait until you see me wearing make-up, though! I look grown-up when I’m wearing make-up.”
“If you say so.”
“I remember that when you came back, there were so many other young alphas who came back from the camp as well, Jungkook, Namjoon, Hoseok, the other Hoseok, Jaebum… all bringing courting gifts to omegas, and some of them bringing gifts to me,” Jimin scoffed, still in disbelief, “I was so shocked. And it was sad that I had to reject them all, but it couldn’t be helped. I had to make it clear that I’m not interested in mating anyone, ever. By the way, you didn’t bring a courting gift, right? I don’t remember you trying to court any omega after you came back from training camp, years ago.”
The alpha’s shoulders were tense, and he just shook his head along to Jimin’s words as a way of agreeing with the omega without verbally responding.
Jimin left his lunch halfway eaten and reached for the tea. He filled two cups and happily started to drink from one. The tea was perfectly warm.
“My parents were so mad when I announced my decision.” Jimin commented, “Still are, too. My dad still thinks he will arrange a mating between me and Namjoon, can you believe it?” Jimin snorted.
Yoongi, however, didn’t find the topic nearly as fun. He growled under his breath before he could stop himself, his chest rumbling, annoyed.
As usual, Jimin was too distracted, content to sip his favorite warm tea, to notice the alpha’s dark aura.
“Namjoon deserves so much better than me, it’s actually funny that my dad thinks we’d be a good match.”
Yoongi took a deep breath as if to compose himself again. He said conversationally to the omega, in a deep voice, “Alpha Park is very proud of all his twelve children, but especially you.”
“People say I’m ‘the favorite’, but I don’t see it.” Jimin shrugged, “I’m not even the only omega in the family, I have two other omega sisters.”
“But they’re both older than you and have already mated.” Yoongi commented. As he spoke, he opened the tin box with the strawberries and pushed it in Jimin’s direction. Yoongi continued saying, “You’re the youngest omega. And the most beautiful of your clan. Your father takes great pride in you.”
Jimin wasn’t bashful to hear the older alpha say that he was beautiful. Jimin had grown up hearing that from everyone around him, so much that he was used to it.
Jimin hummed humorously, “That’s why I have to be the laziest omega in the pack, despised by the elders even though I come from one of the founding families. You know, to even it out. We can’t have everything in life.” Jimin shrugged.
He was smiling as he took a bite of a strawberry, meeting the alpha’s gaze happily. Yoongi’s dark eyes seemed to be focused on Jimin’s hand that held the berry by the stem, and the way that the omega’s lips closed around it.
When Yoongi spoke, his voice was lower, rougher than usual, “Who cares what the elders think?”
“You say that, but you’re one of the most respected alphas, apart from the pack leader and his son.” Jimin commented. He ate another strawberry.
“Because I’m the strongest.” Yoongi said seriously, watching Jimin intensely, in a dark way that would have intimidated most, but Jimin was too distracted by his beloved strawberries to care for his safety.
“Are you, really?” Jimin asked quickly, almost laughing, while he chewed with his mouth closed. He was leaning with his elbows on the countertop, close to the alpha.
“Are you challenging me?” Yoongi asked hoarsely.
Jimin giggled. “If I was, what would you do, fight me?”
Yoongi watched Jimin in silence for a moment. His dark gaze went from the omega’s red lips to his delicate neck. After a moment, Yoongi answered, with his deep voice resembling a low growl, “Not fight.” - but something else.
-
In the afternoon, Jimin napped on the sofa, smiling at the comfort of the soft pillows.
By the end of his shift, it was late afternoon, but still a bright day outside.
When Jimin got up and went into the workshop to let Yoongi know that he was leaving, he found the alpha not alone but accompanied by others.
He overhead Yoongi’s father, Alpha Min, talking in the group, “-we need to calculate how many pieces the new building will need-”
Jimin recognized all of them, Namjoon, Jaebum, Jungkook, Namjoon’s father who was also the pack leader, and Yoongi’s father. They were all standing around a table, talking about work, Jimin figured.
When they saw Jimin approaching them, they all turned to look at him. The alphas’ postures shifted slightly, instinctually as if to appear less threatening towards a young omega.
Jimin greeted them with a smile and a bow.
“Omega Jimin, long time no see.” Namjoon’s father, in particular, seemed happy to see Jimin. More specifically, the Pack Leader was pleased to see Jimin and Namjoon in the same vicinity, seeing it as an opportunity to get them to interact.
Jimin’s own father wasn’t the only one interested in arranging their supposed mating.
Yoongi’s immediate reaction, however, was to walk up to Jimin and stand facing him, blocking Jimin’s view of the others in the distance of the warehouse.
“Do you need something, Omega Jimin?” Yoongi asked gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest.
Jimin smiled up at him. “Just wanted to let you know I’m going, my shift is over.”
“Hey, Jiminie, don’t go so soon!” Namjoon’s father called cheerfully, “Stay for a minute, we’re almost done, and Namjoon will walk you home!”
That suggestion seemed to have made Yoongi tense up and clench his jaw to stop himself from growling.
“Omega Jimin is tired, he must go now.” Yoongi said with a turn of his head, as calmly as he could, although with gritted teeth. “Go.” He told Jimin.
“Alright!” Jimin said happily, not really noticing what Yoongi’s annoyance might have been about. “Bye, everyone!” Jimin waved at them from behind Yoongi’s wide shoulders, standing on the tips of his toes.
As Jimin turned on his heel and walked back to the front of the shop, he overheard the older alphas talking, and Namjoon’s father say with an energetic voice, “I should ask the elders to assign Jimin to cleaning duty at Namjoon’s workplace at the library, if you don’t mind.” the older alpha said, hopeful.
Yoongi uttered a sound that was between a growl and a clearing of throat, “With all due respect, Alpha Kim, I’d rather not lose my cleaning staff-”
Jimin left the cabin before he could hear the rest of the conversation.
-
Jimin’s best friend, Taehyung, was an omega the same age as him. Taehyung was also an unmated omega. However, unlike Jimin, Taehyung was in the process of being courted by an alpha a year younger than him, Jeon Jungkook.
After his shift at Yoongi’s workshop was over, Jimin visited Taehyung at his house. Taehyung was one of the pack leader’s nephews, and Namjoon’s cousin.
Taehyung’s family was small, just him and his parents.
Jimin sat in Taehyung’s bed, in the omega’s bedroom. They sat close to each other on the mattress that was placed directly on the bamboo wood floor, both with their knees drawn up to their chests.
They wore soft pajamas with long robes over them. Jimin’s long hair was loose and falling over his back and chest like a black curtain, and Taehyung’s soft honey-blonde hair was cut short, just above his jawline.
Taehyung had light blue eyes, sun-kissed skin and a boxy smile. Taehyung was wearing long silver earrings, which had been a courting gift from Jungkook.
“Jiminie, I have something I want to tell you but you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone- Ah, but should I? Should I tell?” Taehyung rambled, anxious and excited, biting the tips of his nails.
“What is it?” Jimin asked, leaning closer.
“This is super serious,” Taehyung whispered very quietly, almost not emitting any sound, “Do you promise?”
“...Yes.” Jimin whispered back. “What is it?”
“I… I lost my virginity. Yesterday.” Taehyung whispered.
Jimin’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?!”
Taehyung nodded frantically as if he was equally surprised, and worried, “I know! I did! I’m freaking out!”
“With who?!” Jimin exclaimed, gesturing with his hands around.
“Who do you think?!” Taehyung exclaimed back, in a frantic whisper, “Jungkookie, of course!”
“What?! But- How?” Jimin asked, confused, and Taehyung raised his eyebrows.
“You know how!” Taehyung whisper-screamed, blushing.
“No, I mean- you don’t even carry his scent right now, you don’t even smell like him!” Jimin said.
“Oh, about that, well,” Taehyung whispered, looking around his bedroom anxiously, even though he knew that they were the only ones at home at that time, since his parents were at the dining hall eating dinner.
“Okay, I’ll explain, but you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone.” Taehyung whispered.
“I promise.” Jimin said, nodding quickly.
“Okay. Here’s what happened,” Taehyung whispered, fidgeting with his hands on top of his knees, “I was taking a walk with Jungkookie in the woods, and then we went to the river, you know, just to see the flowers that bloom at night, then… then I kissed him, and then… I got carried away and started asking him to, you know, touch me… and he did and then… well, you know, we did it-” Taehyung whispered quickly, and Jimin gasped, bringing his hands to his mouth. Taehyung continued, “and then, after everything was done, Jungkookie told me that he knew how to make our scents go back to normal. So that no one would know just by our scents being left on each other.”
“How?” Jimin asked, curious.
“We went up the east river and took a mud bath.” Taehyung whispered excitedly, “I mean, we spread mud, like wet clay, all over our bodies, by the riverside, especially over our scent glands, and… it worked! I don’t smell like Jungkookie at all, and now my skin is super soft, look,” Taehyung took one of Jimin’s hands and pressed Jimin’s fingers to his forehead, “Isn’t it soft? Jungkookie said it was called exfoliation.”
“Ah…” Jimin whispered in awe.
-
Later that same night, Jimin sneaked out the window of his bedroom at his own parents’ home and walked into the woods.
The Park’s main house was large, with one floor and a tall roof made of red clay tiles. There were many rooms on the property and a large backyard with a beautiful garden and ornately-cut trees. Beyond the garden, there was open forest, with a part of the smallest river stream.
Jimin had a bedroom all to himself, so in the quiet of the night, he usually escaped through the window with no one noticing.
He usually went into the forest in his wolf form. Jimin would take off his clothes, leave them in his bed, under his covers, and crouch to the ground to shift into his wolf form - a young, lean wolf with light brown fur. Compared to his peers, Jimin’s wolf was considered to be on the smaller side, even for an omega.
Jimin quietly ran into the forest, following the river stream up a hill. He loved to venture out at night - there were so many things to do. He could hunt fish and ducks, he could climb trees, he could swim in the river, he could run around as fast as he could, then fall asleep in a flower patch.
That night, he decided to take a bath. Jimin went to a part of the river where the water was slightly deeper and the stream was slow, and shifted back into his human form.
While he floated in the fresh river water, naked, with his black hair floating in a big circle around himself, Jimin thought about his conversation with Taehyung.
He couldn’t stop thinking about it - that a mud bath was enough to erase another wolf’s scent off his skin, that he could have a secret lover that way. Maybe not a ‘lover’, in a way, but - a partner. A friend who he could do ‘forbidden’ things with, in a secret mutual agreement.
That night, that was all Jimin could think about.
-