Chapter Text
Seokjin was still unpacking the first time he saw the wolf. He had downsized considerably to move here, to get a little two-bedroom cabin on this little slice of habitable land right between the rocky shores of the bay and the thick, forested hills right behind it, just five minutes outside the quaint little town nearby. So all of his belongings fit into one fairly small rental truck for the drive here, and now fit mostly into the living room while he opened boxes and at least got everything into the room it was meant for, if not completely “away.”
In any case, he had been at it for a few hours and was starting to feel discouraged and tired, so he took that as a sign that it was time to take a break and get something to eat. He grabbed one of the sandwiches he had packed for himself this morning, a bottle of water, and went out to sit on his new deck. He had a great view: it looked right out onto the bay, so close that he could throw a rock off of the left side of the deck and hit the water. And then just a few dozen yards off to the right side, the landscape went up in a steep slope and quickly became almost impassible due to the thickly-placed trees and bushes.
Suddenly, he heard a little rustling in said bushes. He looked up, expecting a squirrel or a crow or even a housecat, but instead he saw a wolf. It was right in the treeline, looking directly at him with cautious yellow eyes.
“Oh, hello neighbor!” Seokjin called out with a wave. “I didn’t know there was a pack in the area!”
The wolf tensed up a little, but made no other reaction. It just kept staring right at him. Seokjin had grown up in an area that had a few shifter packs, none that he had gotten close to, but he had at least gotten acquainted enough to expect a nod when he greeted one, whether as wolf or human. He had a sudden chilling thought that this was an actual, animal wolf, in which case its willingness to appear in front of him was actually a sign that he was in fairly imminent danger. In his research into the area before he moved here, he had noted that there were no registered shifter packs in the woods, so the more he sat and thought, the more likely it seemed to him that this was a genuine wild animal.
Seokjin stewed in an awkward dilemma for a moment. Should he stand up and yell and try to drive the wolf away? Should he flee into the house? Should he try to greet it again and make friends? If he acted as if he were afraid, and it DID turn out to be a shifter - wow, that could REALLY put him in a bad light with his new neighbors. But if it was a wild animal, dangerously devoid of its natural fear of humans and interested in challenging him, he needed to keep himself safe.
“Local Man Dies After Being Too Polite To Fight Back Against Wolf Attack,” he thought to himself, imagining the headline. He snorted to himself in laughter. That, then, ended up resolving the issue, as the wolf jolted and then vanished back into the woods.
Seokjin finished his sandwich inside the house, just in case.
By the end of the day, he had at least gotten the bare minimum unpacked so he had somewhere to sleep, something to wear tomorrow, enough toiletries to brush his teeth and shower, and a cup to drink out of. He ate the second sandwich he had packed for a somewhat unsatisfying dinner and then fell asleep very early, hardly a minute past sunset, out of exhaustion.
Bright and early the next morning, he took his bike down from off the top of his car and rode into town, which when he looked at the route on his phone, thought it would take him about twenty minutes. At first, as he made his way along the narrow, shoulderless lane that wound through the forested hillside, he thought he was just imagining flashes of something in the undergrowth. As he kept going, however, he caught more and more glimpses, and then he was sure: there was a wolf running in the trees, parallel to the road, keeping pace with him. Was it the same one?
He had a nice, big, hot breakfast at the diner in town, that completely made up for the previous day’s very lacking dinner. Two young men in the uniform of the local police force were eating there as well, laughing about something. They seemed quite relaxed and friendly with each other, in fact. He picked up a few essentials at the little grocery store next door, then started the ride back home to see how far he could get in his unpacking for the rest of the day.
Just after he got past the outskirts of the little town, and was winding back through the heavily-forested area, he caught sight of the wolf again.
“Hello, my little shadow!” he called out towards it. “Are you here to keep me company?”
The almost-undetectable noise from the creature’s movements through the bushes suddenly became much louder, and Seokjin could see the plants getting thrashed around from some kind of violent motion. Suddenly, the wolf leapt out of the undergrowth completely and with one more elegant bound, was running directly beside Seokjin on the road.
Seokjin yelped in surprise and wobbled a little, but the wolf just yipped at him and kept running alongside. Once over the shock, Seokjin actually found it a little exciting to have such a large, powerful animal loping alongside him, as he wound up and down the gentle curves and slopes of the road.
Soon, they were back at his house. Seokjin pulled over into his driveway, and turned around to see the wolf already jogging back into the woods. Now that he’d had a few minutes close up with the creature, he could tell by its size and coloration that it was almost certainly male, so if nothing else he had learned a little more about him today.
“Thanks for traveling with me, little shadow!” he yelled towards him.
The wolf stopped then, and turned his head back towards Seokjin. He yipped once more, sounding almost a little…shy? Then he vanished into the trees. So, definitely a shifter, Seokin thought to himself. Must just be a very cautious, reserved type of guy.
Over the next week, Seokjin tried to establish a routine for himself: booting up his laptop every morning to do some work, taking a walk along the shore for a lunch break, doing a little more work and then unpacking at least one box in the afternoon, and biking into town each evening either to buy ingredients for dinner or to just eat at one of the handful of restaurants. And as he did so, the mysterious wolf seemed to learn his routine as well. He often saw him on his walks and bike rides - not every single time, but most of them. After the first two days, he started bringing along a little extra deli meat on his lunchtime walks and tossing it to him, which he seemed to like judging by the wagging of his tail.
He also started wagging his tail whenever Seokjin greeted him as “my little shadow,” which Seokjin enjoyed too. He didn’t end up getting any more information about him until the next week, when he unfortunately got a flat tire on his way back home from dinner. It was on the worst possible spot on the way, too: pretty much exactly halfway home, so it was a crapshoot whether he should backtrack to town and ask for help there or just continue homewards.
“Ah nuts,” Seokjin sighed to himself as he looked at his bike.
The wolf had been running with him this time, and had been pacing around the trees in agitation every since Seokjin stopped, and let out a little whine at Seokjin’s unhappy words.
“Don’t worry, little shadow,” Seokjin said, putting on a brave face, “I’ll just walk my bike home and repair it. It’s not a big deal, okay?”
The wolf looked at him with big worried eyes nonetheless. Just then, Seokjin heard the sound of a car approaching from behind, so he turned around to look for it coming around the curve, debating whether to try to flag it down. Then, it appeared, and to Seokjin’s delight it was a police car, so he waved to it enthusiastically.
The patrol car smoothly pulled over just behind Seokjin, and the officer emerged. It turned out to be one of the men Seokjin had seen in the diner.
“Hello there!” the officer greeted. “You’re the new guy who moved into the old Mays house, right?”
“Yup,” Seokjin confirmed, “that’s me. My name is Seokjin, nice to meet you!”
“Nice to meet you too! I’m Jungkook,” the officer said with a friendly grin.
Then he turned to the wolf.
“Hey Taehyung! Have you been chasing Mr. Seokjin here?” he said in a teasing tone.
The wolf - Taehyung apparently - gave Jungkook a lupine grin and wagged his tail a little. Then he produced a questioning “rur-rur” noise, which made Jungkook laugh.
“You can say hi to Bam through the window but he can’t jump out right now, okay?” Jungkook said, then he pressed a button on a keyfob hanging from his belt, and the rear window of his police car rolled down halfway.
A very excited dog, probably a German Shepherd mix of some kind, Seokjin thought, stuck his head out excitedly. Taehyung immediately ran over and they exchanged a series of friendly growls and yips.
“Would you like a lift back to your place?” Jungkook offered, turning away from the wriggling mass of happy fur.
“Oh, sure, that would be great,” Seokjin replied, relieved.
The two men got Seokjin’s bike strapped on top without too much trouble, as Jungkook had all kinds of straps and tools and equipment in his trunk. The other two entertained themselves by chewing on each other’s faces while they worked.
“Bye Taehyung! See you later!” Jungkook called out once they were ready to go.
Seokjin waved to him too, watched him vanish into the trees yet again, then got into the passenger seat of the car.
“So you’ve met Taehyung already?” Jungkook asked Seokjin once they were underway.
“Yes,” Seokjin confirmed. “Only as a wolf though - he hasn’t shifted back to speak to me so far.”
“Ah,” Jungkook said a little sadly. “He actually doesn’t any more. As far as any of us know, he’s stayed as a wolf for several years now.”
“Really?” Seokjin replied, perplexed. “That’s unusual, isn’t it? Is there a pack around here?”
“Not anymore,” Jungkook told him. “There was a pack, and Taehyung was part of it. They mostly kept to themselves but we were all at least a little familiar with Taehyung and the others around town. Then they moved away, maybe eight years ago, didn’t really say goodbye or anything, they were just gone.”
Jungkook sighed before he continued.
“We thought that was that, but then we kept spotting Taehyung around. Nobody’s really sure what happened - if he didn’t want to go, or if he went with them and then came back, or they kicked him out, or what. We’ve tried talking to him, but he’s not interested. And like I said, as far as any of us know, he never shifts back any more. So we all just try to keep an eye on him from afar,” he concluded even more sadly.
“Oh wow, I see,” Seokjin said. “Well, thanks for letting me know. He’s been meeting up with me when I go on walks and rides sometimes, and I’ve been sharing my lunches with him when he shows up.”
“Ah yes,” Jungkook said with a wry grin, “food is definitely the way to win that guy’s attention.”
Seokjin learned that the other officer he had seen in the diner was named Jimin, and that in fact the two of them comprised the entire local force. Then he heard a whole bunch of local gossip, and some of the history of the house he had bought - apparently one woman had owned it for seventy years before he bought it, all the way to the end of her life - and she lived to be ninety-nine!
Seokjin got to see Taehyung interact with more people a few days later, after he finally met his neighbors up the road. They came by and introduced themselves; a nice couple named Yoongi and Namjoon. They had a little ranch that took up most of the valley on the other side of the little hill that Seokjin’s house butted up into. Of course they extended him an invitation to come over for dinner, and of course Seokjin accepted.
He was out on their deck, drinking something delicious that Yoongi handed him, looking out over the small fields they had where they grew some speciality varieties of berries, rows of sprouting flower bulbs, and several raised beds of mint, when he saw what he was pretty sure was a wolf emerge from the trees on the far side of the valley.
“Oh, is that Taehyung?” he asked Namjoon.
Namjoon squinted a little in the direction Seokjin gestured to, and then gave an embarrassed chuckle.
“Ah, I’m not wearing my glasses,” he said, “but if it’s a wolf, then yeah it must be Taehyung.”
Taehyung trotted further onto their land with no hesitation whatsoever.
“Does he come by here often, then?” Seokjin asked.
“Yeah, sometimes he just sits and looks at the flowers,” Namjoon said with a nod. "Other times he helps keep the rabbits and groundhogs from going after the bulbs.”
Seokjin watched as he trotted ever closer. He was close enough that Seokjin could make out his face, and it was clear that Taehyung had spotted the three of them as well. Then, Yoongi stepped past Seokjin with a plate in his hand, with some of the meat fresh off the grill. He carried it down the stairs leading off of the deck and put it down on the ground next to the first bed of mint plants. Taehyung happily ran over, nodded a greeting to Yoongi and the other two men up on the deck, and started to eat it.
He hung out there for a while, as the three of them sat on the deck and conversed easily. After he finished eating he sat with his head up on the edge of the bed of mint, smelling it every so often. Yoongi pointed that out to Seokjin with a smile.
“You see that?” he said quietly. “He loves the smell of it. He’d roll around in it if I let him.”
That gave Seokjin an idea. The next day, he walked around the area he had behind his house, and checked out the little slices of space he had on either side of the deck. Then he shot a text to Yoongi and Namjoon, asking whether they thought he’d be able to grow some mint of his own.
Yoongi reassured him that mint is quite hardy and easy to grow, and in fact he insisted that it be planted in a raised bed, as it’s very aggressive, and will spread all over if he doesn’t keep it contained. He linked Seokjin to a YouTube tutorial on how to build one. So, later that day, Seokjin headed to the old-fashioned general store in town, where he introduced himself to the owner, a very friendly man named Hoseok.
“I saw you have a little lumber yard out back,” Seokjin explained once they’d gotten the usual pleasantries out of the way. “I’m making a raised bed like this.”
He showed Hoseok some of the screenshots he took, and Hoseok made a very pleased noise of understanding.
“You know what, you actually don’t need to buy lumber for that,” he said. “We did a community cleanup of an empty lot a few months back, and Jimin still has a stack of old railroad ties in his yard. If you have a truck and can haul them away yourself, I bet he’ll let you have them for this.”
“Oh wow,” Seokjin said, impressed by the onslaught of neighborliness. “That would be great!”
Somehow, his little mint project spawned a group text with all of them on it, with his five new neighbors chiming in with all sorts of advice and local connections. He arranged a time to get the railroad ties, and Jimin even brought out his chainsaw to cut them to the lengths he needed. Jimin and Jungkook - who were next door neighbors, in fact - helped load them into Seokjin’s truck and then carry them out to the spot in his backyard where Seokjin had already cleared out the weeds and leveled it as best he could with a shovel.
Jungkook knew somebody else doing a landscaping project who had dirt to get rid of, so the officers helped with that a few days later, showing Seokjin how to line his truck bed with tarps before loading up the dirt, to minimize the amount of chaos later. Seokjin had to run out to Hoseok’s store to buy a wheelbarrow though, when he realized he didn’t have one. Hoseok was so excited to hear about the project that Seokjin started sending pictures of their progress on the group chat. In return, Namjoon sent them a picture of the mint cuttings that he had started in some little cups of water, which he said will be ready for Seokjin to plant in another two weeks.
Once Seokjin, Jungkook, and Jimin got the bed assembled and filled with dirt, Seokjin thanked them by insisting they stay for dinner. He cooked them a rather basic (in his opinion) meal of beef and noodles, but they both went into raptures of how delicious it was. As they sat out on the deck afterwards, and admired Seokjin’s excellent view of the water, Taehyung finally made an appearance.
“Hello, my little shadow!” Seokjin called out cheerfully.
Taehyung approached slowly, looking alertly at the new installation in Seokjin’s yard.
“I’m starting a little garden!” Seokjin explained to him. “I’m going to grow some mint, just like Yoongi and Namjoon do, but I’ll let you roll around in it.”
Jimin laughed.
“That’s what you’re putting in there?” he asked.
Seokjin nodded, faux-seriously, then looked back to Taehyung.
“You’ll have to be patient, though, it’ll take some time to establish itself,” he told the wolf.
Taehyung nodded, and looked happy.
They had an even bigger party a few weeks later, when Namjoon declared the mint ready to be planted. Jimin and Jungkook wanted to come over to see the fruits of their labor finally put into use, and of course invited Hoseok as well, and Yoongi and Namjoon drove the tray of propagated mint over so they could advise on the planting. Taehyung even came by fairly early in the process, watching as the six of them crowded around, carefully planting the tender little sprouts while they laughed and got dirt and water everywhere.
Seokjin of course cooked dinner for them all again, with some assistance from Yoongi and Namjoon. They all ate together out on the deck, Taehyung alternately pacing around the new little garden or lying down to one side of the deck listening to them talk. Seokjin was amazed at how natural it all felt - how easily he was accepted into the friend group, how nice it was to all hang out together.
Life continued on in that vein as summer wound on and started to give way to fall. Seokjin continued his routine: typing on his laptop out on his deck and catching glimpses of Taehyung, biking to town and having Taehyung run alongside him, meeting up at his house or the houses of the others every other week or so. Finally, one lazy weekend day where the weather was still not too cold but it was gearing up to rain by nightfall, Seokjin went over to his garden, ruffled the much-taller mint plants with his hands, and declared it sturdy enough to be rolled around on by a large, furry body.
“Hey, why don’t you give it a try!” Seokjin offered to Taehyung, when the wolf showed up later that day for his usual offering of sliced chicken.
Taehyung gave him a quizzical look.
“Your mint. It’s ready for you!” Seokjin explained, making a grand, dramatic gesture at the garden.
Taehyung yipped and immediately jumped up into the mint plants, shifted his feet around them with a few little tippy-taps, turned around three times, and then with a very satisfied-sounding huff, laid down right in the thickest growth in the middle.
Seokjin smiled at the sight, utterly pleased. And sent a picture on the group chat for good measure. After that, whenever Seokjin was out on his deck and Taehyung came to keep him company, he usually sat down on the mint. He sometimes dozed off there, and sometimes Seokjin would even come out of his house to find Taehyung already there. Jimin laughed that he could tell when Taehyung had been at Seokjin’s house because he smelled very strongly of mint afterwards.
Summer quickly gave way to fall, and a distinct chill entered the air at nighttime, and more and more days were rainy. Seokjin noticed that his friends all had little covered dog beds out in their yards now, to provide a warm place for Taehyung to stay if he wanted. So of course Seokjin had to rush out and get one from Hoseok too. As the weather continued to get colder, they all discretely kept each other in the loop of where and when they last saw Taehyung, to make sure he hadn’t been out in the cold unseen for too many days in a row. Seokjin felt a little burst of pride that Taehyung seemed to spend the most number of nights sleeping at his place.
He didn’t always see him, though. He was often gone, off into the woods doing whatever he did to while away his days, by the time Seokjin woke up in the morning, just leaving a fading warmth behind on the plush bed. Also, Seokjin certainly couldn’t work outside on the days that it rained, but he did rearrange his desk inside so that he was looking directly out over the deck, and could see if Taehyung were hanging out on the bed, or the mint patch.
Life continued on. Seokjin kept working, telling his new friends about the interesting contracts he got, hearing Jungkook and Jimin’s craziest police stories, learning about Hoseok’s family history and how he was the third generation of his family to run the store, finding out all about the intricacies of running a ranch for boutique produce from Namjoon and Yoongi. And they all kept an eye out for Taehyung, who still seemed perfectly calm and healthy, even in the cold and wet weather.
Then, in the middle of winter, they had a tremendous thunderstorm, much more violent than the usual slow and soaking rains they got in the area.
Seokjin didn’t think too much of it when it started sprinkling. Even when it picked up and started raining quite heavily, he thought of it as pleasant background noise. It was nice to be snug and cozy inside his little house, watching the raindrops splatter against the window. It wasn’t until he was startled by the first loud peal of thunder that he thought of Taehyung. Seokjin looked out of the windows then, and caught the flash of the next burst of lightning. The thunder followed just a few seconds later.
Seokjin immediately stepped out onto his deck, hoping that Taehyung had snuck up there at some point and that he’d find him sitting safe and snug in his little outdoor nest - but no such luck. His bed was empty and cold. Seokjin stood there agonizing for a moment, trying to decide if he should follow his instincts and try to find Taehyung and convince him to come in out of the rain, or if that would be overstepping - Taehyung had been outside for years on his own at this point, surely he was fine out in the rain, and Seokjin was overreacting.
Just then, accompanied by another tremendous roll of thunder, a furry blur came streaking out of the woods on the hillside, and with one giant leap over the mint bed, barreled onto the deck and directly into Seokjin.
“Oof!” Seokjin said, trying to brace himself against the impact.
He just barely managed to keep upright, Taehyung’s bodyweight flung against his thighs. Seokjin crouched down and grabbed the soaking-wet wolf, feeling him trembling where he was pressed up against him.
“I don’t like thunder either,” Seokjin said into his ear, hoping he could get him to calm down. “Let’s go inside and get out of the wet, ok?”
Taehyung didn’t respond, keeping his head pressed flat against Seokjin’s leg. So Seokjin had to walk them slowly back across the deck and through the sliding door. Seokjin quickly slid it shut once they were inside, not needing to push Taehyung’s tail aside since it was tucked between his legs. As soon as the door was closed, muffling the sound of the rain a slight bit, he could hear how Taehyung was whimpering in fear.
Seokjin led him into the living room, until they were close enough to the couch for him to reach the throw blanket he had there. He reached out and snagged it with two fingers, and then simply dragged it over the two of them. They sat side by side on the floor then, Taehyung shivering and then jolting with each clap of thunder, for several long minutes. Seokjin tried murmuring some words of comfort but nothing seemed to get through to him.
Finally, he leaned over and stretched out his arm to the coffee table, just barely able to reach the TV remote. Taehyung whined when Seokjin separated from him briefly, so as soon as Seokjin sat back down he put his arm around Taehyung to try to placate him. Taehyung leaned against him even more strongly, so Seokjin just fixed the blanket around their shoulders and held on. He turned the TV on and scrolled through Netflix, trying to find something colorful and distracting that Taehyung might like. Finally, he put on Chef’s Table, and turned the volume way, way up, hoping that all the sweeping exterior shots and extensive slo-mo cooking scenes might grab Taehyung’s attention.
It took until the second episode, but Taehyung finally relaxed and stopped shaking. He laid all the way down then and put his head on Seokjin’s leg, and kept watching that way. Seokjin kept petting along his back until Taehyung fell asleep. Seokjin smiled down at him, feeling pleased and relieved he was able to help his friend.
After that, Taehyung started spending every night there, instead of rotating through everyone else’s yards. Seokjin started offering for him to come inside and sit in the living room while he worked, which at first he refused. Then, another storm blew up - not a thunderstorm like the last one, but still a very cold and heavy rain - and Taehyung showed up sitting very politely right outside Seokjin’s sliding door, making what could only be described as Puppy Eyes. Externally, Seokjin was very chill about it, but inside he was jumping up and down in excitement. He slid open the door and let Taehyung in.
“Hey, open invitation to come in whenever you want!” he said, trying to sound casual. “I’ll leave this door unlatched, so you can slide it open, alright?”
Taehyung wagged his tail as he came in and sat down, curling up so that he could watch the rain beat against the window just like Seokjin did.
As winter gave way to spring again, Taehyung started spending even more time at Seokjin’s house. Seokjin came to expect the wolf to come padding onto his deck at least two or three times every day, sometimes to beg cutely for treats or to roll around on the now very well-established mint bed, and sometimes to just sit next to Seokjin as he worked.
Then, Taehyung started to bring Seokjin flowers every once in a while. Fortunately, not big fancy flowers, like he had plucked them from someone’s yard, but the little rangy wildflowers that grew in the forest, in yellows and purples and one very spiky red one that Seokjin particularly liked.
Taehyung had long since become an expert at opening the sliding door from the deck into Seokjin’s house, even if it was closed. He would carefully push at it with his front paws until he got it just far enough open to push his nose in, then he’d wiggle it with his face and paws until it was just wide enough for him to scoot through. But then one day, instead of doing that, he just stood outside the door and whined a little. Seokjin, working up at his little desk on one side of the living room, looked over at him in surprise and saw he had something in his mouth, evidently preventing him from using his usual door-opening technique.
Seokjin walked over and opened the door, and saw that Taehyung was carefully carrying a little stalk of purple flowers in his jaws, barely gripping so that he wouldn’t bruise the stem. He looked up at Seokjin and opened his mouth, wagging his tail.
“Is this for me?” Seokjin asked, and Taehyung wagged his tail even harder.
“Aw, thank you Taehyung!” Seokjin said with a smile.
He gently plucked the stem from between Taehyung’s teeth and took the slightly-drooly flower into the kitchen, then popped it into a vase.
“There, see?” he said to Taehyung as he put the vase out on the part of the kitchen counter most visible from the living room.
Taehyung beamed at him, exuding lupine happiness from his entire body. He brought Seokjin another flower every few days after that. Seokjin remembered that when his sister went through a crafty phase as a preteen, she got really into pressed flowers, so when the very first flower Taehyung brought started to wilt, he decided to give it a try. He thought the flowers Taehyung brought were too cute and unique to just throw away. So he got out one of his big “coffee table” books, carefully flattened the flower out between two sheets of thick paper, then put the paper in the middle of the book, closed it up, and stacked a few more books on top of it.
He checked on it a week later, and was pleased to discover that it was nicely dried and quite flat. He did the same thing with the next flowers Taehyung brought too: the red spiky one, the yellow one (though he could only press the petals from that one, as the center was too thick), and the little clusters of creamy white ones. He didn’t consider himself particularly artistic, but it occurred to him that he could paste all of these flowers together and make something very simple that he could hang up on the wall. The more he thought about it, the happier the thought made him. It would be perfect! A little tribute to Taehyung’s efforts bringing him these little native blooms; a unique artwork showcasing the flora right around the area of the cabin.
So, he did the first thing that occurred to him: he carefully glued them down to another thick piece of paper, arranging them all roughly into the shape of a heart. He smiled to himself a bit at how cheesy it was, but it still made him happy to look at. He couldn’t wait to have it hung up, where he could look at it and have it inspire happy feelings every day. Once it was all dry, he sandwiched it between a few pieces of cardboard, put it in his backpack, and biked to Hoseok’s store. He had a little art supply section in the back, where Seokjin thought he remembered seeing a few frames and mats as well. As he biked to the store, Taehyung popped out and ran next to him for a stretch of the route, as usual.
Hoseok was very excited to help him pick out a mat and a frame for his project.
“Oh, you made this?” Hoseok exclaimed after he looked at the flower artwork.
“Yeah,” Seokjin said, feeling a little self-conscious about it.
“It’s so cute!” Hoseok squealed. “Wow, I never would have guessed you did crafts like this!”
Seokjin smiled sheepishly. Hoseok brought over a few different mat colors to try out. They finally end up deciding on a sage-green mat and a narrow copper-hued frame. Hoseok laid out his materials on the little workbench at the back of the shop, then reverently lifted Seokjin’s work off of the cardboard and lined it up, up-side down, on the back of the mat. Seokjin watched quietly as Hoseok quickly and expertly assembled the whole thing, admiring Hoseok’s elegant hands.
“So have you been collecting these flowers on your neighborhood bike rides or something?” Hoseok asked as he worked. “I definitely recognize most of these as being local.”
“Actually, Taehyung brought me all of these,” Seokjin explained, feeling relaxed and peaceful sitting back there in the quiet store.
Hoseok turned his head to look at Seokjin.
“Really?” he all-but-squealed. “That is so cute. Too cute, almost. Oh my gosh, you guys are bad for my heart,” he concluded with a sigh.
“He’s always so happy when he brings the flowers and sees me put them in vases,” Seokjin said, feeling the need to explain himself, “that I wanted to find a way to keep them longer.”
Hoseok nodded approvingly. Soon, the whole thing was finished. It was a little too big to fit back into Seokjin’s backpack for the ride back, but he was too impatient to bike home and drive back, so he bought a large tote bag from Hoseok and rigged up a way to use that to wrap up the frame and keep it secured to his backpack. So with that, and the hardware he needed to hang it on his wall, he biked back home.
Seokjin didn’t see Taehyung on his way back home, so he figured he must be deeper in the woods right now. Soon enough, he was home, his bike was away, and he had gotten out the step-stool. He already had a place in mind, on the wall right next to the little dining table. It took a little trial and error, but he found a stud to nail it too, and got the frame securely hung. He even got his level out of his toolbox to make sure it wasn’t crooked. He stood there and looked at it for a long time, satisfied. Then he put it out of his mind, as he had to get some work done for the rest of the afternoon.
He saw Taehyung the next day, while he was sitting on the deck eating his lunch. Taehyung hopped up next to him so Seokjin gave him his usual share of lunchmeat and pats.
“Oh, I have something to show you!” Seokjin said once he had finished eating.
He stood up and walked inside, beckoning Taehyung to follow him. It took just a few strides before he was standing in front of his framed flowers, which he gestured to dramatically.
“I kept the flowers you gave me!” Seokjin explained, looking into Taehyung’s big yellow eyes which were gazing at him so earnestly. “I pressed them and dried them, so now I can keep them forever!”
Taehyung went completely still then, staring even more intently at Seokjin, and then at the little flower heart. Seokjin started to feel a little silly, and was about to make a self-deprecating joke when Taehyung made a weird little choking noise. Seokjin looked at him in alarm as he started to wave his head back and forth in an odd way, making a little yip and then a wail, tapping his paws on the ground and thrashing his tail.
“Oh no, Taehyung, what’s wrong?” Seokjin cried, dropping to his knees and trying to grab Taehyung’s furry face in his hands.
He felt completely overcome by panic, and was about to run into the kitchen to call 911 when Taehyung’s body convulsed again and he wrenched his head out of Seokjin’s grip, then fell over sideways on the floor.
“Taehyung!” Seokjin cried out again, reaching down for the wolf’s shoulders.
But then, suddenly, a strange ripple ran across Taehyung’s form, and then instead of gray-brown fur, Seokjin was looking at golden-hued skin, and his hands were gripping a man’s shoulders.
“Taehyung?” Seokjin gasped, as his face turned up towards him, large brown eyes brimming with tears.
“Forever?” Taehyung croaked out. “You’re really going to keep them forever?”
“Yes, of course,” Seokjin replied, stunned, half-terrified that Taehyung was going to immediately shift back.
Taehyung, instead, flung himself forward and grabbed onto Seokjin in a desperate hug. Seokjin hugged him back, and there they sat on the cold floor, Taehyung trembling with his hands fisted in Seokjin’s shirt, and Seokjin gently rubbing his hands on Taehyung’s back.
Finally Taehyung pulled back and looked Seokjin in the face. Seokjin looked back, trying to memorize Taehyung’s features, still in disbelief that Taehyung had actually shifted back, unsure of how long it would last.
“I’m so glad to finally see your face,” Seokjin said, once it seemed like Taehyung wasn’t going to be the first one to speak.
“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Taehyung whispered sadly.
Seokjin smiled softly at him and put his hands gently on Taehyung’s cheeks.
“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you felt comfortable enough. I would have been happy waiting as long as it took,” he reassured him.
Taehyung tremulously smiled back then, and Seokjin was relieved.
“Do you want to stay like this for a while?” Seokjin asked carefully. “I mean, I would love it if you would stay here for a bit and hang out with me, but if you want to shift back that’s okay too.”
“I wanna- I wanna stay,” Taehyung said shyly.
“Oh, great!” Seokjin said enthusiastically. “Want to borrow some clothes? Take a shower? Can I make you some lunch?”
“All of the above!” Taehyung said with a chuckle, sounding less uncertain now.
So, twenty minutes later, Taehyung was sitting at Seokjin’s dining table in a borrowed pair of sweat shorts and a t-shirt, wet hair draggling into his face and down his neck, rhapsodizing over a bowl of fresh cherries.
“These are so good,” he gushed. “But they’re just too hard to eat as a wolf.”
Seokjin, at the other side of the table, just smiled as he watched him eat, and thought that life probably couldn't get much better than it was now.