The Scent of Miracles [ Jikook ]

Chapter 1

Stay away, they said. Stay away from the big, black wolf. If you get too close, he will devour little foxes like you at once. He'll eat you up from ears to tail and you will never see home again.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

When Jimin was born, they called him a miracle child.
He was the youngest of five adorable fox puppies who, as their parents jokingly claimed, formed a mini pack of their own with all those different personalities.

Out of them all, Jimin was probably the biggest troublemaker, the one who attracted the most attention and stuck out of crowd thanks to his stunning, pastel pink fur combined with those beautiful ocean blue eyes.
On top of that, he might as well be the happiest ball of fluff in the history of their kind. Whenever he laughed, heads turned, whenever he smiled, everyone around him grinned along. Even the shyest of children bloomed when Jimin held their hands.

His colors reflect how much love he holds inside of his tiny body, his parents would lovingly say. He stores so much of it, it turned his fox pelt as pink as his flushing chubby cheeks.
It's a story they loved to tell everyone who's brave enough to ask, just like the one of how Jimin had apparently held onto the tail of the pup born before him when he finally entered the world, a tale that never failed to make everyone coo, gazes filled with adoration.

Yes, he was loved, truly loved, but he never thought much about it.
In their pack, pups and Omegas alike have the pleasure of being incredibly spoiled, showered in kisses, in compliments and hugs. They are seen to be the future, a sign of health, of life, fertility. They're treasured.
That's why, even when slowly growing older, Jimin had always been carefree. He never had any reason to distrust or be fearful, had no reason to watch his step or swallow his words.

"Jimin!"
Standing at the edge of their village, Jimin's mother sighed and huffed, hands on her hips as she looked around. One of her older sons came up to her from behind, pulled her sleeve to get her attention, a toy clenched in his tiny hands.
"Don't worry about him, Eomma. Jiminie is always out there playing, he'll be back as soon as he's getting hungry."
"That wild child." She sighed and shook her head.
Eventually, she did give up the search. There was more than enough to do with four other children at home who didn't constantly run away but still needed to be entertained.

At the same time, not so far away, Jimin was happily lounging in one of his favorite trees, one of the biggest he could find. He loved to sit on the very top where he could oversee not only the village but also the ocean of trees stretching all around.
Way up here, he felt closer to the sky than anywhere else, closer to the birds that danced above his head, the fluffy clouds on the sky.

If he would just grow a little taller, he might be able to touch them. Maybe, he would even be able to hunt them down and take his prey home, a trophy to show off, to get some praise, some head rubs. It would definitely make his day.
But he wasn't there yet.
No matter how much he stretched his short child limbs, he couldn't reach the ceiling of the world, didn't even come close which, eventually, made him sit back down with the cutest pout on his face, fists angrily pushed into his sides in the same way he saw his mom do it all the time.

Just when his stomach started to growl and he thought it might be time to go home if he didn't want to get punished too badly, the sound of rustling leaves caught the fox's normally very fleeting attention, made him twist his head and eventually his body, to see what caused the unusual noise.
As it turned out, he wasn't alone. On a tree not too far away from him sat another child, one Jimin had never seen before.
His shiny, ink black hair looked completely different from the deep red he knew from home while his eyes looked almost black, two onyx gems in the middle of pure white.