𝐀𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐋𝐃𝐈𝐊𝐎 || 𝐉𝐉𝐊✗𝐏𝐉𝐌 ✔

Aspaldiko

"One caramel macchiato to go, please."

The kind lady working the café register gives Jungkook a polite smile as he hands her the money for the coffee. His hands slide into the pockets of his brown coat as he moves aside to make way for the other people standing behind him in the queue. The wonderful smell of fresh ground coffee hits his nose, and he anticipates having a warm cup in his hands and feeling the euphoric sensation of the first sip. After a long and stressful day working as a webtoon artist, he longs for a warm drink, and a caramel macchiato is just perfect for that.

A friendly smile creeps onto his lips, and he thanks the barista who hands him his hot coffee, wishing him a good day. This is what he enjoys about this café; The staff are friendly here, and with it being a small, familiar place, they can take the time to make these polite gestures to positively influence your day. So far, he has only visited it a few times, but he has never been disappointed.

Jungkook heads outside and makes his way home. With the sun long vanished, the sky already turning gray, reminds him of the dark sky he illustrated a week ago. Looking up at the clouds, they are just like in his own drawings. Rain clouds, heavy with water waiting to fall. His gaze strays to the tree in front of him, two squirrels running up and down, round and round. Leaves have fallen to the floor around the tree as the evening weather turns colder.

Lost in thought, he takes the last sip of his coffee and throws the empty cup into the nearest waste bin. He buries his hands deeper in the warmth of his coat pockets and hums a tune that has been stuck in his head all day. He had the song suggested to him by Spotify when he listened to music while making the finishing touches on a fight scene of two enemies. Listening to music always calmed him even when he was behind on work, and with deadlines coming up faster than he liked, this particular song really hit something in him, and now it's stuck in his mind.

Jungkook's eyebrows furrow, his face morphing into bewilderment as he feels a sudden tug on his jacket. A soft male voice speaks up before he can doubt whether he had only imagined the tug or not.

"E-excuse me... You d-dropped this."

Jungkook turns around, and his gaze automatically falls on the familiar object the person has in his hand and is reaching out towards him. His wallet fell out of his pocket without him noticing. The surprise of the interaction doesn't stop Jungkook from letting his bright golden eyes travel from the wallet and up to the man's face, noticing the marvelous scent of peaches in the air as he takes in what little he can make out of the man's features where he stands with his face facing the ground, hiding. It makes Jungkook knit his eyebrows closer together in confusion while becoming increasingly dazed from the magnificent scent of peaches the longer he stands there. However, the scent catches his attention—Glances of his childhood pop into his mind like muscle memory, the smell of his favorite shampoo, warm lazy mornings, laughter, and hot tea. But the ever-sweet scent holds a tinge of something else too, something sour and different, a contrast to the sweet peach. Is the man sad? Is that what that scent is?

It irks him.

His inner wolf suddenly roars and scratches inside of him. Jungkook is overcome by a wave of worry, the instinct to find out what makes the sweet smell seem off. He watches the man with blonde hair nervously nibble on his plump bottom lip, then he bows when Jungkook gratefully takes his wallet from him. Looking at him, the content of his wallet no longer seems to be the focus of his attention.

"Wait!"

It happens more out of instinct that Jungkook reaches out to grab the man's wrist, hindering him from leaving. The pheromones amplify their scents and Jungkook realizes the happy and excited reaction it gives his wolf to be near him as the other stops in his grasp. But the weather seems to not agree with this elation that spreads through Jungkook's chest. As predicted, the heavy clouds finally open up and the water splatters against the ground, creating a symphonic silence inside the pouring rain.