Archive of Our Own

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

The whole reason Park Jimin had moved to the outskirts of town was because it was quieter. He needed a quiet environment to live in because of his work. He worked the afternoon shift in his busy role as an Operations Manager for an international freight company, 3 pm to 11 pm.

Which meant sleeping in. Which was preferable to relying on large doses of caffeine to keep him going. He needed to be able to unwind after work which meant he usually slept from 1 am to around 8-9 am.

It was a great routine. He had thought about it, he had planned his life and executed that plan. He was proud of how well he had regulated his life.

Until the fucker next door moved in.

VROOM……..VROOM….Vrooooooooooooooooooom. 

Or some variant of that every goddam morning.

It was doing his head (and his sleep) in.

☙

Jimin had a high level of self awareness, unfortunately it didn’t dictate the level of self control he had when he was pissed off. So what it meant in real terms was that after he had lost his mind at someone, he knew that he had done it and could beat himself up about it.

It was one of the reasons he wore scent blockers at all times, the minute he got annoyed he was emanating a miasma of spoiled flowers and it made him feel vulnerable. Which distracted him from being angry, which made him more angry, you can see where this is going.

He managed to endure the noise for a week and then he snapped.

Fist banging on his neighbour’s door, he put his hand on his hip, knee cocked ready for the shithead to open up.

As the door swung open, the level of mutual astonishment was laughable.

One of them was confronted with a shorter man with the energy of an angry wasp emanating from him. Said wasp was, however, a vision. Shoulder length blonde hair, full pouty lips, clearly toned body sitting underneath form fitting clothes.

The angry wasp was stunned to see a taller man with tattoos, lip piercing, muscles bulging from his tight tank top and an engaging smile.

A momentary stalemate ensued.

‘Hello?’ the taller man ventured.

‘Yeah, hello,’ Jimin responded, still irritated but distractedly drinking in the vibe of the beautiful man in front of him.

‘Can I help you?’ Jungkook prompted with another smile.

Brought back to his purpose, Jimin blinked and said ‘ yeah, look I’m your neighbour, I’m a shift worker and I sleep until at least 9 am weekdays.’

‘Okayyyy?’ Jungkook responded not clear as to why he was being told this.

‘Your motorbike,’ Jimin gestured at the offending vehicle parked in the driveway. ‘It’s fucking loud and you’ve been waking me up every morning.’

His tone clearly expressed his annoyance and Jungkook grinning at him wasn’t helping.

‘I’m Jungkook by the way.’

‘Great, so Jungkook, if you could kindly not turn that infernal thing on before 9 am on weekdays I would appreciate it,’ Jimin reiterated.

‘I’ll see what I can doooo………,’ he elongated the last word, intimating that he didn’t know his visitor's name, in an invitation to tell him.

Turning on his heel and walking away, the omega barked over his shoulder, ‘Jimin, Jimin-ssi to you.’

‘How do you know I’m younger than you,’ Jungkook called after him.

‘95,’ was the retreating reply.

Jimin-ssi it is then, the alpha nodded to himself. He’s cute when he’s mad, let’s see what we can do with that. Shame about the scent blockers, bet he smells delicious.

Jungkook let a couple of weeks pass and then he unpacked his karaoke machine, and checked his watch. 8:50 am, enough to set his neighbour off but also not too short of his full sleep.

Once it was set up he picked a banger with a heavy bass and turned the volume up to full. He made sure that he could see the entrance to his property unobserved and started singing into his state of the art microphone.

It was all he could do not to laugh when he saw Jimin bolt towards his house at a run.

He was ready and waiting to answer the door when the banging started, microphone still in hand.

What he wasn’t ready for was to have said microphone snatched out of his hand and brandished back at him.

‘The FUCK are you doing Jungkook?’

Jungkook looked at his watch.

‘What do you mean? It’s just turned 9 o’clock?’ he feigned innocently.

‘But it wasn’t 9 o’clock when you started was it? I didn’t tell you 9 o’clock as a fucking target to meet, you prick. I’m seriously tempted to shove this up your ass,’ he waved the microphone in Jungkook’s face.

‘At least buy me dinner first,’ Jungkook teased, because he didn’t know who he was dealing with.

‘THIS ISN’T FUNNY, CUT THIS SHIT OUT OR I WILL SET YOUR HOUSE ON FIRE,’ Park Jimin yelled at the top of his voice, flourishing the offending hardware like he was casting a spell.

‘Do. Not. Do. That. Again. Do. You. Understand. Me. Jungkook.’

Jungkook nodded solemnly.

Jimin stared into the alpha’s soul as he bent down and placed the microphone gently on the doorstep. Standing up again he jabbed a finger in Jungkook’s chest to emphasise his point and turned and walked away.

Hoo, the pecs on that guy, and that was Park Jimin, always thinking with his dick.

☙

Jimin pulled up to the Bangtan laundromat on his way to work later that day, basket clasped to his chest he bumped his car door closed with his hip.

‘Jiminie!’ Hoseok called to him as soon as he walked in.

Hoseok, Taehyung and Yoongi were the owner operators of the local laundry service. In their reality they were a local band who lived above, and financed their lives through, the laundromat. The throuple sex arrangement was a bonus.

They were obsessed with music, it was the entire focus of their lives and while the business served a purpose it came a poor second to what they really loved.

Initially they had shared all laundromat tasks equally but it had soon become apparent that there were things that each of them hated less, because they collectively hated all of it, so it was a choice of lesser evils.

Hoseok did the accounts and managed all the machinery, Taehyung oozed charm and had naturally taken over customer management, Yoongi had taken the least customer interaction and led the actual washing and drying operation. Of course they all had to fill in for each other at times, but that’s mostly how it worked.

Yoongi was legendary in the neighbourhood for his lack of attention to detail when it came to the items in his care, and could often be heard playing his guitar out back as the machines whirred and spun.

Customers were now accustomed to finding the wrong laundry in their weekly deliveries, some washed, some not. You could pick up and drop off, but the Bangtan boys as they were known locally, also offered a delivery and pick up service.

If you picked up your own laundry you could sort through on the spot and work out if there was anything that didn’t belong to you, but home deliveries meant you had to return it next time. There was even a rack at the front of the shop where all returned items were placed. Everyone knew to check there for items they were missing. Hoseok and Taehyung had tried talking to Yoongi about it, but had been told in no uncertain terms where they could shove their suggestions.

Now it was a feature of the laundromat experience, everyone just rolled with it.

When one of them was asked about why they had named the laundromat ‘Bangtan’, they would launch into complex stories about how one of the others had been shot on the streets of Seoul and survived despite the odds. None of which was true.

It appealed to their collective sense of humour, and they competed to make their stories more outrageous to see which ones endured. At this point their alleged escapades were urban legends in the community. It never failed to make them laugh when one of the stories was repeated back to them and they would nod their head solemnly confirming it was indeed all true.

It was impossible not to smile at Jung Hoseok, he was sunshine personified.

‘How’s things,’ the older man asked.

‘Don’t ask Hobi, seriously don’t ask,’ Jimin replied, dumping his basket on the counter.

‘Work?’

‘Worse, new neighbour,’ Jimin replied as he sifted through the returned clothes rack.

‘The young guy? Cute? Has a motorcycle?’ Hoseok enquired, checking he had the right person.

‘Selfish, thoughtless, inconsiderate, immature,’ Jimin replied, returning to the counter with a shirt that belonged to him in his hand.

‘That bad?’

‘The guy is a pain in my ass and not in the good way,’ Jimin smiled at the man behind the counter.

‘Ah and I had such high hopes for him,’ Hoseok winked suggestively.

‘Well you can bury those hopes 6 feet down in the sand with the creatures that make a hole,’ Jimin replied, killing Hoseok’s matchmaking scheme before it started.

‘Ok got it. Do you want these dropped off?’

‘Yes please Hobi hyung.’

‘Ok Jimin-ah, have a good one,’ Hoseok called after Jimin as he walked back to his car.

When he arrived home that night his laundry was sitting on his doorstep waiting for him. Usually it took a couple of days, depending on how much work they had and what mood Yoongi was in that week.

‘Yoongi must be having a good day,’ he mused out loud to himself.

He placed the basket on the coffee table, hung up his keys and took his jacket off.

After pouring himself a drink he grabbed the remote and turned the television on. Time for some cats on YouTube, the Park Jimin happy place.

A giant ginger cat was rolling around in a bed of autumn leaves, extending its claws to catch other leaves as they drifted to the ground. It made his heart happy.

Something at the edge of his senses was distracting him.

Looking around he couldn’t see anything out of place and returned to the cat channel.

There it was again. Just on the periphery. A smell. A scent? He pushed pause.

Looking around again and sniffing this time, it became more clear. Something a bit spicy?

He picked up the cushions and sniffed them, no not there. He smelled the sleeves of his sweatshirt, no not there. Lifted up the front of his shirt, not there either.

It was annoying him now.

He shifted, looking left and right, nose bobbing up and down as he sniffed. Leaning towards the coffee table, his nose and his omega locked in.

Why are you interested in this smell, Jimin thought curiously.

He shuffled to the basket and withdrew the items one at a time. Although they had a faint whiff of the scent, it wasn’t strong enough to be setting off his wolf like this. Until he got to the bottom of the basket and pulled out a shirt he didn’t recognise, that also appeared too big to be his.

Holding the shirt to his nose he inhaled deeply, accustomed to the faint scent on the other items of clothing.

That turned out to be a mistake. The random shirt hadn’t been washed yet and so Jimin got a full blast to his senses of unmistakeable alpha black peppery scent. His cock twitched and his mouth began to water. If there was one thing that Park Jimin loved, it was spicy.

He smelled it again, from a distance this time.

Definitely alpha, the aroma was simultaneously warm, spicy, and slightly earthy. It was delicious, his omega almost purred in satisfaction.

Suddenly Jimin was hot and bothered. He threw the shirt to the other end of the couch, taking his own sweatshirt off. Trying to relax he unpaused the television and began to watch some kittens fluffballs, rolling around doing kitten acrobatics.

The scent called him.

He shook his head, and turned the volume up hoping in vain to distract himself that way.

His omega whined, seeking. What was up with his omega, it never behaved like this.

Ah what the hell, his cock was also whining at him, the pressure growing against the zip of his jeans.

It had been a couple of weeks since Jimin had tended to his needs as he liked to refer to his sex life. He had long ago decided that relationships were too much hassle, small towns like this didn’t have enough of a population to provide the assortment of one night stand opportunities a man of his predilections enjoyed.

For that reason, there were stashes of lube in different places around the house. Including one in the drawer of the coffee table, which was quickly retrieved.

The practiced glide created the only sound in the room, squelching obscenely into the silence. Mystery alpha shirt resting on his chest, head thrown back, hips canted forward. One hand providing an anchor placed on the flat surface and the other rhythmically pleasuring himself.

The shirt was close but not close enough, his free hand folded it in half and draped it over his face. Two weeks between hand jobs was a long time for a man in his prime and his body was quick to remind him of that. The warm pressure building invited him to speed up his ministrations and with a few more strokes he moaned loudly, thrusting his hips into his hand, spilling over it.

Of all the clarities, post nut clarity had to be the worst.

Jimin breathed heavily, slowly reducing the friction on his softening cock and dragged the shirt off his face with his clean hand.

'What the fuck am I even doing,' he asked himself looking around for something to clean himself up with.

Not the mystery alpha shirt though, that would mean mixing the scents and Jimin already had future plans for that piece of apparel.

There’s something deeply wrong with me, he thought as he sealed the shirt inside a ziplock plastic bag to preserve the scent and put it in the coffee table drawer along with the lube.

He had used the shirt until the scent wore off, and then he had washed it himself and returned it begrudgingly to the laundromat.

Every time since then when a load of laundry arrived on his doorstep, prompted by his omega, he would frantically sniff the basket to see if it contained any hidden treasure. Weeks went by and he had assigned it as a random taunt from the universe and almost forgot about it.

Until one night he had arrived home after a long tiring shift, automatically picked up the basket from his doorstep and stopped in his tracks as his omega alerted him.

Pulling the basket up to his nose he could smell the spice, it was strong this time.

Racing inside he dropped his phone and keys, didn’t know or care where and tipped the basket on the table.

He quickly sorted through and found not one but three items that didn’t belong to him. One smelt washed but the other two were not, and the stimulating scent filled his senses to the point of giddiness. He folded the hoodie and put it in the ziplock bag he had previously used. It took everything he had not to put it on and let it consume him.

The other item was a pair of sweatpants.

They lasted him for a month.

☙

Work had been brutal. Two nights in a row he hadn’t got home til three in the morning and he was over it.

Throwing his keys and phone on the kitchen counter, he stripped off and walked straight to the shower.

The hot water hit the back of his neck, streaming over his shoulders and down his back, he scrubbed his day off him and leaned back to indulge in the sensation of heat being forced into his skin.

Towelling off he walked to his bedroom, looked around for his phone and remembered it was in the kitchen. Rolling his shoulders in small circles to release the tension he retrieved his phone and ambled back to his bed. Settling in, he drifted off quickly, exhausted.

His alarm summoned him from sleep and he flailed his hand around looking for his phone. Alarm off, he sat up to make sure he stayed awake. After a few seconds he got up and walked out to the living area to open the curtains and turned to get his morning herbal tea underway.

He paused and turned back.

‘What the fuck is this?’ he demanded of the silence of his home.

He could see Jungkook’s house. 

The whole house. Like the whole thing. 

The trees that provided a barrier on the boundary between his property and Jungkook’s were gone. 

Just gone. 

A series of jagged ugly stumps were all that were left in the ground.

‘Are you fucking serious?’ he demanded again out loud.

Fuming, he exited his house and was running up Jungkook’s driveway in record time.

The hammering on Jungkook’s door alerted the alpha that there was something urgent on the other side that needed his attention.

Yanking the door open in consternation he was confronted with an angelic face pink with rage. 

Unfortunately Jungkook didn’t know about the rage yet and smiled his friendliest smile at the omega.

‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ the angel demanded furiously.

Taken aback, Jungkook tried to manage the situation with a dose of humour, which had the effect of throwing kerosene on a bonfire.

‘Well good morning to you too, what can I do for you on this lovely morning?’ he proffered cheerily.

‘WHERE ARE THE TREES JUNGKOOK?’ Jimin shouted at the top of his voice, gesturing wildly in the direction of his own home which unfortunately was very visible.

‘What do you mean where are the trees? I had them cut down?’ 

The older man physically vibrated with anger, ‘why? Why did you cut them down? Who are you to just cut them down without even talking to me? What the fuck Jungkook?’

Confused, the alpha stared at him trying to process the questions.

‘But I did? I mean I wrote to you?’ Jungkook ventured.

‘Wrote to me? What is this, 1876? What do you mean you wrote to me?’

‘I….I wrote you a note and stuck it in your front door because you were at work and it’s hard to catch you at home on a week day and I didn’t want to wake you up with your shift work and everything.’ 

Ah fuck.  Jimin remembered coming home from work one night and finding a piece of paper stuck in the front door. Jimin didn’t do paper, especially notes randomly stuffed in his front door. He had consigned it to the bin as soon as he got in the door.

Luckily for Jimin, loss of moral high ground wasn’t required to maintain his ire.

‘You just chopped them down, what the fuck were you thinking, why do you hate trees?’ he fumed in the unfortunate alpha's face.

‘I explained in the note…’ Jungkook began, because he hadn’t been taught as a child not to throw fuel on a fire.

‘FUCK YOUR FUCKING NOTE.’

‘Right, right,’ Jungkook took a few steps back and began again, ‘as part of my work I know a bit about trees and I thought I saw some signs of decay, and so I got an arborist in and he confirmed that they were all dying and some of them were about to fall over.’

‘What do you mean dying,’ Jimin asked, having calmed down, minutely mind you, but calmed down nonetheless.

‘They were Korean fir trees….’

‘I know that,’ Jimin interrupted impatiently.

‘The arborist estimated they were close to a hundred years old and at the end of their life span. So they needed to come down, there was one in the middle that was only being held up by the others and could have fallen on either of us at any time. I had the boundary surveyed as well and they were planted either side of our property line alternately, so half were on your side and half were on mine,’ Jungkook spoke in a rush, trying to cram all the information that had been in the note into this small window where Jimin wasn’t screaming at him.

 ‘I arranged for them to come down while you were at work so it didn’t disturb your sleep in the mornings, and I’ve paid for it all,’ he ended, bracing himself for another tirade.

The rational part of Jimin’s brain knew that this was a reasonable explanation, but that had never stopped him.

‘What are you going to do about those ugly looking stumps that you’ve left behind,’ he queried officiously.

Jungkook’s patience was wearing thin now too, he had been mesmerised by this gorgeous firecracker up to this point, but now the unreasonableness was getting to him.

‘You know what? I’m going to do nothing with them, they’re not that bad and in a couple of years they will rot down and it will sort itself out. I think I’ve done enough, don’t you?’ Still calm, but now allowing a tiny amount of woodiness to enter his scent. An unusual reaction for the young alpha who prided himself in his iron control over his scent at all times.

It wasn’t lost on Jimin’s sensitive nose. 

‘Oh you’ve done enough alright,’ his voice quavered in unconvincing indignation, the fury that had propelled him here was starting to wear off and the older man replaced it with bravado.

Park Jimin did not lose face to random cute alphas.

 Cute? Yah, stop it. Jimin told his libido. 

As he turned to walk away he threw over his shoulder ‘do something about those stumps.’

‘Make me,’ Jungkook called out fuming, but still able to admire the omega who looked as good leaving as he did shouting in front of him.

☙

That had been the last straw for Jimin, he was out all day and Jungkook was home all day. He worked from home as an architect or a graphic designer or something, Jimin didn’t care so he hadn’t paid any attention.

He couldn’t be ambushed again like this so he ordered some state of the art security cameras that he could view remotely and had a technician come and install them.

Ironically he saw Jungkook notice them while he was looking through them from his home computer screen. Jungkook had been wandering around in his yard when he stopped and stared at Jimin’s place. Jimin saw him walk forward staring intently.

And then Jungkook was on his doorstep knocking in a rat-tat-tat rhythm.

“What?’ Jimin wasn’t in the mood.

‘What are those?’ Jungkook pointed to the three cameras on that side of the house.

‘Cameras.’

Jutting his chin out in frustration Jungkook asked, ‘why are they there?’

‘Because you do shady shit when I’m not here,’ Jimin replied bluntly, folding his arms.

Jungkook pressed his fingers into his eyes trying to keep himself calm. 

‘I don’t do shady shit Jimin-ssi, that’s not fair. You know I tried to tell you. Can those cameras see into my house?’

‘No, I’m not a pervert,’ Jimin answered, except for mystery alpha clothes but that’s neither here nor there.

‘I would like to think that you won’t invade my privacy with those, can I assume that is the case?’

‘You can assume anything you like, it’s a free world,’ Jimin taunted the taller man.

‘Jesus you’re hard work.’

‘And you’re noisy and annoying, what’s your point?’ 

Jungkook knew there was no point and losing his temper would solve nothing, he stood for a long moment looking at the pretty pouting demon in front of him.

He decided to live to fight another day and walked away without saying anything else.

☙

Jimin had a long established sleep routine and was vigilant about sleep hygiene. A few years ago he had struggled with his sleep, it was part of his decision to move here to the middle of nowhere, and a sleep specialist had helped Jimin explore the steps of his sleep routine that worked best.

One of the key aspects which contributed to its success was sleeping with the window open. 

Wider in the summer to take advantage of any passing breeze and narrower in winter so he didn’t freeze to death. Just something about the way the air circulated.

The missing trees had added an unwelcome intrusion into his attempts at slumber.

As the weather had started to warm, he had opened the window a bit wider to achieve better airflow essential to be able to wake refreshed for his busy job.

He dreamed he was on a construction site, hands over his ears as the pneumatic drill broke up thick concrete, the drill started and stopped, the faceless operator oblivious to his discomfort.

Jimin sat up with a start in the dark trying to get his bearings.

Then he heard it, a loud roaring noise coming through his window, it stopped suddenly. He scrambled to his feet and leaned out the window listening intently. 

There it was again, he felt a moment of mild panic. Was there an unknown creature out there? Where had it come from, what did it want? He glanced at the clock, 4:23 am. It stopped again.

Grabbing a torch from the drawer in his bedside table, he shone it out the window looking for the source, bracing himself for a wild pair of eyes reflected in the torch light.

Nothing presented itself to fulfil his terror, and it started again.

He knew sleep would be impossible under these circumstances, so he threw on a sweatshirt to preserve his decency, slipped on some shoes and crept out tentatively into the night. The goddam noise kept stopping.

‘Shit,’ he complained as his motion sensor lighting came on and blinded him. But that was short lived as the noise rang out across the night again.

He turned to locate the source and moved gingerly towards it, expecting to be ambushed by something from his nightmares any second. It was coming from the direction of the house next door. He had reached the tree stumps when it stopped again.

Head swivelling left and right, and turning to check behind him so that he wasn’t attacked by things that lurk in the night, he waited for the next iteration.

It started again and he moved past the row of tree headstones and tentatively approached an open window in Jungkook’s house. It stopped again.

He positioned himself under the window and waited.

When it began again Jimin began to curse under his breath, ‘are you fucking serious, enough is enough.’

‘JEON JUNGKOOK,’ he yelled at the top of his voice. The barrage to his ears continued. 

‘JUNGKOOOOOOOOOOK,’ he yelled again.

He heard a snuffle and a cough and waited.

Silence.

He waited some more and the silence continued. No more snoring like a jackhammer.

‘Okay,’ he nodded to himself in satisfaction and started walking back to his house and his nice warm quiet bed. He had reached his front door when it began again.

Pausing, Jimin cast his head down in frustration, sighed and continued back to his bed and the worst sleep he had had in the last 2 years.

☙

He had struggled through work, barely able to keep his eyes open, and in the end he had to drink strong coffee which played havoc with his guts. He had stopped at the pharmacy on the way to work and purchased some ear plugs in case he was confronted with the same scenario tonight. He wasn’t hopeful of that being the remedy as he hadn't had good experiences with ear plugs.

And sure enough once he lay down to sleep it wasn’t long until the noise started again. Grimacing, he reached for the ear plugs on his bed side table and shoved them in his ears. Five minutes later he was pulling them out because they hurt his ears, and he threw them at the wall wide awake and frustrated.

He lay there staring at the ceiling listening to the Rrr-rrr and then the silence and then Rrr-rrr until he could have screamed. Banging the window shut didn’t completely block out the noise but it dulled it enough for him to drift off into an uneasy slumber.

The next night he waited until he heard Jungkook begin snoring and then he crept quietly across their lawns and stood underneath the window with his hands over his ears. He had estimated the height of the window and had his broom with him.

Using the broom head to distribute pressure along the bottom of the window frame he gently pressed the window closed, and ran as fast as he could.

I can’t believe my life has come to this, he thought as he fled, maybe I need to sell my house.

He reached his room and listened intently, the sound had definitely diminished and by having his window open only slightly the noise had dulled enough for him to sleep well that night. This proved to be a winning formula, each night he would slip over with the broom, close the window and high tail it home. He congratulated himself on not murdering Jungkook in his sleep.

A week later he found himself under the window as was his new nightly ritual. Raised the broom head to the right angle and leaned on the handle to close the window. But it didn’t close.

What’s going on he thought, perplexed.

He tried again, it wouldn’t move. He pressed harder, still nothing. Stepping back and raising himself on his tiptoes he stretched to see if there was something in the way, and that’s when he saw them glinting in the moonlight.

The bastard had installed window stays. No amount of pushing would shut the damn window now.

☙

By the weekend he was so tired he barely knew what to do with himself and decided to go and offload on Jin and NamJoon, his neighbours across the road.

He was in the barn with NamJoon handing him tools as Joon laid underneath their car which had a hole in its exhaust. Joon could turn his hand to anything mechanical and Jimin was a born problem solver so between them they enjoyed working on projects like this and chewing over life dilemmas as they did so.

Jin rarely joined them but condescended to bring them snacks from time to time and this was one of those moments.

‘You don’t understand hyung,’ Jimin complained. ‘He is driving me insane. He cut my fucking trees down, he is as loud as fuck when he is awake and when he is asleep he is even worse. I can’t sleep, you know I moved here so that I could sleep……’ he wailed, tired and despondent.

‘Have you spoken to him about this?’ NamJoon asked, reaching his hand up waiting for Jimin to pass him the screwdriver.

‘He doesn’t give a fuck and I’m sick of asking him to be quiet. How many times am I supposed to have to ask the same person?’

‘Have you thought about moving into your office on the other side of the house?’ Jin asked, practical to the core.

‘It’s too small hyung, I measured it and the bed would take up almost all the space.’

‘What about if you got a smaller bed?’ asked the voice from under the car.

‘Should I change my whole life for this man? Why don’t I just sell the house while I’m at it,’ he asked with a choke. Jimin was really upset now, he couldn’t see any other way out of the situation.

‘It’s a shame you can’t buy some sort of anti snoring spray that you could just spray through the window at him,’ Jin joked to lighten the mood.

An idea hit Jimin like a lightning bolt and he spun around to look at Jin.

‘You might just be on to something there,’ he said mysteriously, ‘you just might have something there.’

‘Good for me,’ Jin cheered, ‘always happy to help. I’m going to leave you barbarians to this grease and dirt.’ And with that he left.

NamJoon grunted as the exhaust finally came free and landed on his chest. Sliding out from underneath the car he fished out the offending part and held it up examining the hole.

‘That’s going to have to go to the shop for a weld,’ he observed, oblivious that the younger man was lost in a world of his own searching for something on his phone.

‘Hyung?’ Jimin asked without looking up from his phone. 

‘Yeah?’

‘Do you happen to have a small pump that looks like this?’ holding up his phone to display a portable aerosol pump.

‘I think so, somewhere around here,’ NamJoon responded, waving in the general direction of piles of tools and other equipment.

Later that evening Jimin was sitting at his kitchen table assembling a pump attached to a chamber, testing the level of noise that the pump was making. It was pretty quiet and if Jimin wrapped it in a small towel , almost all the noise disappeared. He attached tubing to the chamber which was branched on the other end into two parts. There was a small suction cup on either end of the branched tubing.

Experimentally he attached the suction cups to the scent glands on either side of his neck. Switched the pump into suction mode and felt the cups fasten over them.

Then he sat there and gave free reign to his anger and distress. He focussed on every tiny detail that had upset him lately, and while he could smell the glands at his wrists releasing the sour scent that was his hallmark when he was upset, it appeared that all the scent from the base of his neck was being captured in the pump. Success!

He gave full vent to his feelings for five minutes and then de-escalated and detached the suction cups. Turning the switch to pump he held the device in the air as it released its contents. As the scent hit his nose he recoiled slightly, it was overwhelmingly pungent.

He didn’t know if it was going to work but he was going to give it a try.

That night he waited for the snoring to start and followed his usual routine but this time with the pump not the broom.

In position, he silently lifted the pump and angled it through the window. Holding his breath he turned it on, feeling it vibrate in his hand but not make any discernible sound. The face of the pump was placed over the lip of the window sill and all the scent was being pumped directly into the room.

Jimin waited, the snoring had continued and then stopped as it normally did, but after a few minutes the sleeping alpha stopped snoring and grumbled in his sleep. Jimin heard him turn over, waiting to see what else would transpire.

A few minutes later the snoring hadn’t resumed and all Jimin could hear was restless sounds coming from the bedroom. He waited until the pump had discharged all its contents and then slunk home in the dark quietly pleased with himself. He knew this scent would linger until the air coming through the window eventually dissipated it. 

His experiments, when he had tried spraying it in his office, had a longevity factor of four to six hours. Long enough to wreck Jungkook’s sleep the way he had been wrecking Jimins.

He slipped into bed, window slightly ajar and listened to the blissful silence. 

Who said bottling up your feelings is bad for you, he mused to himself as he settled comfortably into his pillow.

Three weeks later Jimin had developed his process into a fine art. He could get his scent stored and ready in less than ten minutes, be over and back from Jungkook’s house in ten minutes and asleep shortly after.

Life was good, everything was normal again.

Except his omega didn’t like it. In fact everytime he pumped his distressed scent in through Jungkook’s window his omega fussed and whined trying to get Jimin to stop. He wasn’t in the habit of ignoring his omega usually but this was a life or death situation. Eventually his omega would settle into a whimper that lasted until he went to sleep.

That was literally the only thing that made him feel bad about the whole situation.

☙

Jungkook reached for the fish that the supermarket assistant had just finished wrapping up for him, when someone to his right commented, ‘good choice. What are you making with that?’

He turned to see an unfeasibly handsome man beaming at him with interest.

‘Um, I was thinking about making maeuntang?’

‘Oh nice!’ the stranger praised. 

‘You’re Jungkook aren’t you?’ not waiting for an answer he continued. ‘I’m Jin, I live across the road from you.’

At Jungkook’s continuing lack of comprehension Jin elaborated further, ‘the house directly opposite yours and Jimin’s driveway.

‘Oh, oh,’ Jungkook finally registered where he meant.

‘There you go. Why don’t you bring that over to my place and we can cook together and get to know each other?’ 

At Jungkook’s look of consternation about what this invitation might imply, he continued ‘my husband loves maeuntang, we can compare recipes.’

Jin nearly laughed at the look of relief on the younger man’s face.

And that is how they came to be sitting at Jin and NamJoon’s table that same evening (because the fish had to be fresh) debating whether they had used the right amount of gochujang paste.

NamJoon was given the final decision and he declared it perfect. The chefs both beamed from ear to ear.

Jin and Jungkook had exchanged their back histories during the cooking of the stew and NamJoon asked the obvious question, ‘so what brought you to town Jungkook?’

Jungkook swirled the soju in his glass, ‘I needed a change of scenery, you know, classic Seoul burnout,’ he shrugged.

His listeners nodded, they had both arrived there the same way, from different directions but on the same journey.

‘And I can work from anywhere so here I am!’ He injected some energy in the last few words to bring the vibe of the conversation back.

‘So, how are you finding living in a smaller town?’

‘I’m from Busan originally so it’s not too much of a stretch, like any small town it has its ups and downs,’ he smiled ruefully, sipping on his soju again.

‘How are you and Jimin-ah getting along,’ Jin asked with faux naivete, and felt NamJoon’s thigh pressing against his under the table telling him to proceed cautiously.

‘Hah,’ Jungkook uttered derisively. ‘Safe to say, I’m not.’

Jin heeded NamJoon’s warning and left space for that to sit to see if Jungkook would elaborate.

The younger man contemplated his glass, ‘I’m not quite sure how we got here, but that hothead hates me with a passion.’ He looked at them to see how his comment had landed.

Seeing no judgement he continued, ‘I didn’t realise he was a shift worker and got offside with my motorbike and the whole thing went downhill from there. I don’t think it’s retrievable so I’m planning to keep my head down and hopefully we can just ignore each other in peace from here on.’

‘It’s a small town,’ NamJoon commented cryptically.

Jin followed that with,’ Jiminie can be very, ah, passionate when he is stressed.’

‘You can say that again,’ Jungkook snorted.

‘What I’m trying to say is that we’ve known him for a few years now and there is another side to him, I hope you get to experience that too,’ Jin said delicately.

‘I wouldn’t hold your breath,’ Jungkook responded.

‘Let’s change the subject, how long have you had your motorbike for? What made you choose that model?’ Namjoon asked, steering the conversation into calmer waters.

As the conversation progressed into the evening, Jungkook began to yawn uncontrollably.

Aware it might seem disrespectful he felt compelled to explain. 

‘I’ve been sleeping really badly,’ he confessed. ‘When I first got here I slept so well, completely out to it for 8 hours like clockwork. But now I can’t settle at all. I feel like I’m awake half the night tossing and turning, I have crazy dreams and my alpha is so unsettled it's not funny. I’m on the verge of going to see a doctor about it.’

‘That sounds awful Jungook-ah,’ NamJoon commiserated. ‘I’ve struggled to sleep in the past as well, so I know how hard it can be,’ having no idea of the instrumental role he and his husband had played in the reversal of the younger man’s sleeping fortunes.

Inspiration hit Jin, ‘Joonie, why don’t we throw a party to introduce Jungkook-ah to everyone?’

☙

Jimin drifted back into consciousness, it was dark, but it also wasn’t dark because the moon was shining in the window. 

Hazily, his eyes adjusted to the light, and he patted the bedside table looking for his phone. 3:37 am - he closed his eyes and groaned softly.

Moon coming in through the window? That’s not my window, I don’t have one on that side of the bed? 

As his senses returned he could hear breathing sounds coming from nearby. Turning over in trepidation he saw a man’s head and back, someone clearly asleep on the bed next to him.

Adrenaline coursed through his veins. Shit, shit, shit.

He slid carefully backwards out of the bed on his stomach, landing on his knees, never taking his eyes off the prone figure. So far so good.

One hand on his phone, he scanned the floor for his clothes. His boxers were at the foot of the bed but that was all he could see. He scrambled into them and made an executive decision not to use the light on his phone. He would rather risk running for it in his underwear than wake the sleeping stranger.

What the fuck. His foot touched something soft and slimy, skidding slightly before he could lift it again. Gross.

The bedroom door was open. I’m going to assume that means there is no-one else in the house he assessed rapidly.

He sped down the hallway looking for exits and found the kitchen, in the moonlight he could see what looked like a shirt on the table. Grabbing it, he sniffed quickly identifying faint traces of his own scent and struggled into it as he continued to scan for an outside door.

Stopping for a moment to look around. It was hard to get his bearings as everything appeared to be dark. Dark walls, dark curtains, dark furniture, like a damn vampire den.

Moving through the lounge he spotted the front door, opening it slowly and softly he stole out into the night, closing it quietly behind him. 

One of his socks was at the bottom of the stairs and he had a sudden flashback.

He toed off his socks as the other man carried him towards the house bridal style. Jimin, having surrendered to the sensory overload of the scent, taste and touch of the alpha carrying him, latched his lips onto the alpha’s neck in ecstasy.

Shaking his head to dismiss the image, he couldn’t find his other sock and decided to leave it there like a debauched Cinderella. Intently scanning the driveway he moved quickly towards the road. The moonlight reflected off something on the ground near the garden shed to the side and he diverted to check it out. The reflection was his belt buckle, the belt lying on the ground where it was abandoned along with his jeans.

'Fuck fuck fuck,' he chanted this mantra over and over in frustration and terror of being caught ditching the faceless man.

His brain delivered him another memory, the other man on his knees, undoing his belt, unzipping his jeans, stepping Jimin out of them and casting them aside. The omega paused, remembering fragments, a head buried in his crotch, face panting wetly over his hardness, hands caressing his ass, gliding finger tips greedily seeking leaking slick. 

Torn between the memory and his haste to leave, he put his jeans back on hopping further along the driveway as he did so. As soon as they were on, he ran to the road, thumbed his phone screen, opened the app to order his ride home when he caught sight of the house across the road.

Oh.

He whirled around and looked behind him.

And stared in dismay. 

It was a house he knew very well.

Seokjin’s house was what had caught his eye. 

He had just left Jungkook’s house. 

He was standing outside his own driveway.

‘Nooooooooooooooooooooooo,’ he cried out into the stillness of the night. Frozen to the spot by the panic and slow mental processing power because of the residual alcohol still in his system.

Freeze was over and flight kicked back in.

Jimin ran for it, shoes clutched to his chest. Reaching his front steps, the outside light automatically came on, inappropriately spotlighting his run of mortification. 

'Fuck fuck fuck,' the mantra was back as he entered his door code and barrelled inside collapsing on the floor as he heard the door automatically close behind him.

Which it turned out was a great prompt for another memory to land.

His shirt was being pulled over his head in Jungkook’s kitchen and tossed on the table as Jungkook walked him back towards it and then turned him around and bent him over it.

Jungkook, it was Jungkook, fuck fuck fuck.

Hiding his head in his hands, still lying on the floor, Jimin’s treacherous brain delivered his memories in living colour. Elbows braced on the table top, head hanging on his chest, he had ….oh god….he had….shiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

He had whined ‘please Alpha please….’ as the strong hands had grasped his thighs, Jungkook glorying in their supple thickness and running  his hands up and down them. The omega pleading before him had been too much to resist, and the alpha ran his thumbs between Jimin’s buttocks and parted them, exposing the source of the divine creamy magnolia scent . Sweet, heady, floral and intoxicating. The utter filth in Jimin’s loud groan as Jungkook’s tongue lapped and traced a pathway to its source, came back to him.

He banged his head none too gently on the floor, 'fuck fuck fuck.' 

That was the last thing he remembered until he woke again, face down on the floor. Limbs stiff, eyes crusty, mouth dry and head pounding. 

He moved reluctantly, turning onto his back, fishing around for his phone, one eye squinting open to read the time.

10: 13 am.

I could just stay here and die, he proposed to himself. 

Pros - don’t have to deal with this headache, don’t have to get off the floor, don’t have to deal with the Jungkook situation.

Cons - might take too long to die, might stain the rug, would give Jungkook the satisfaction of knowing he won somehow.

Having decided to live after all, Jimin levered himself upright, removed his own clothes this time, collected a large glass of water and some painkillers on the way to his bed and decided to deal with the consequences of his actions some other time.

A few hours later he was awakened by banging on his front door.

How many fucking times was he going to have to wake up today? He was up to three so far and none of them had proved worth it in his estimation.

The pain in his head had reduced to a thrum, which was much more manageable, so he yelled out ‘I’m coming,’ as he threw on a shirt and pair of sweat pants and headed for the door.

What if it’s Jungkook? The thought brought him up short as he reached for the door handle. 

‘Who is it?’ he called tentatively.

‘If you don’t open this door I will murder you, so it’s a murderer that’s who it is,’ yelled a deeply emotional Kim SeokJin from the other side of the door.

‘Hyung?’ Jimin blinked blearily into the late afternoon sunlight at the incensed man standing on his doorstep. ‘What’s going on?’ 

‘You disappearing from the party into the night without so much as a goodbye, not answering your phone for hours, not answering the door. I was about to file a missing persons report,’ the older man huffed, clearly both very relieved and very upset at the same time. 

‘I have to call NamJoon,’ he glared at Jimin, defying him to speak, or leave, or even move really.

Jimin had no desire to do any of those things and was silently revisiting the pros and cons he had been considering earlier.

‘Yes, I’ve found him. He’s in his house. Yes, he answered the door this time,’ SeokJin responded to the rapid fire questions from his beloved. ‘I don’t know I haven’t asked him yet. I haven’t asked him that either. I haven’t asked him anything, I rang you straight away,’ he continued responding to NamJoon’s interrogation.

‘I’m going to go now. I will thoroughly grill him and then I’ll come home and help you finish cleaning up.’

Lack of sleep, stress and a brain still soaked in booze made Jimin slow on the uptake.

'Why are you going to cook me hyung?’ he asked petulantly.

Kim SeokJin stared at the smaller man disbelievingly and scoffed. 

‘Are you still that drunk Jiminie? I’m not going to cook you. I’m going to interrogate you, question you, give you the third degree,’ he clarified. ‘Where did that saying come from? Why the third degree? Why not the first or second degree?’ he mused, distracting himself from the task at hand.

Jimin wandered over to the kitchen to get more water, waiting for Jin to find his way back to his mission.

Refocussed, Jin continued ‘where did you go last night? Where have you been? Why weren’t you answering me, I was so stressed that you might have made me develop a skin condition,’ the older man exaggerated. ‘I will send you my dermatologist’s bill, and I warn you he isn’t cheap.’ 

He was about to launch into the merits and otherwise of his dermatologist when he caught himself and stopped.

‘Well?’ he glared at Jimin.

The small omega was sitting on the couch rubbing his eyes, exhausted to his bones.

‘I’m sorry hyung, I was very drunk I think.’

‘You think? You think?’ the older man interrupted him. He stopped himself. ‘Please continue,’ he gestured with his hand for Jimin to resume.

‘I guess I hit it off with an alpha and spent the night with him. I got home before dawn and went back to bed and didn’t hear the phone or you knocking. I’m sorry that I worried you,’ he whispered penitently, hoping for an end to the lecture.

Unfortunately for Jimin, the sparse information he had shared sparked a thousand other questions.

‘Which alpha, why were you out til then, don’t tell me you were at it all night? Were you safe? Was it good? I need details. You owe me that, you scared me Jimin-ah, tell me the whole story it will make me feel better.’ Jin had earned his black belt in emotional dramatics and was getting his money’s worth out of it.

Jimin squinted at him out of one eye. ‘One question at a time, I only have one brain cell working,’ he pleaded.

‘Which alpha?’

There was no way in hell that Jimin was going to own up to that. He would rather Kim SeokJin thought he was a complete whore than ever tell him about Jungkook.

‘I don’t remember,’ he lied, wishing like fuck it was true.

‘You don’t remember? You don’t remember?’ the older man shrieked incredulously.

Jimin motioned for him to turn the volume down.

‘Park Jimin, what do you remember about this man?’

Evasion tactic 101 incoming.

‘The sex, hyung, I remember the sex. Well some of it.’ 

Judging by Jin’s expression he was about to rise to the bait, however no sooner were the words out of Jimin’s mouth than another flashback entered the organ formerly known as his brain.

He had already been very drunk, because he hadn’t eaten. He had deliberately decided to get drunk and get fucked. The fastest way to get drunk was to forego eating and the fastest way to get fucked was to take his scent blockers off. He knew his magnolia scent, tinged with rose and lemon zest when he was aroused, was irresistible to alphas.

He was already both drunk and somewhat aroused by the attention he was receiving when he had smelled it. Faintly at first, but as he sniffed the air and moved around between rooms and throngs of masked strangers, he had closed in on the brightly accented peppery scent. The one from the clothes from the laundromat. The one he had been using for ‘comfort’ for weeks. The mystery alpha was at this party. 

Operating on instinct alone, he walked onto the large patio area at the back of the house where the food was laid out and a dense heaving cluster of people partied on the improvised dance floor. The mixture of scents emanating from the direction of the dance floor indicated that everyone was enjoying themselves.

The volume of the music, heady mixture of arousal in the air and his lightweight ability to tolerate large amounts of alcohol were all clouding his senses, hindering his capacity to hone in on the scent his omega was beginning to cry for. His own scent began to discolour in heightened distress as he strove to locate the last vestiges of the warm spicy aromatic scent wafting away into the night.

He moved toward the dance floor in a last ditch attempt to focus his nose, unaware of the waves of his own agitated scent curling around him. 

Jimin’s attention was suddenly diverted when he saw people on the dance floor being pushed apart to make way for a taller, dark haired man in a purple and gold mask, sniffing at the air, looking wildly around him.

‘There it is!’ Jimin and his wolf responded, ecstatic at the prospect, catching the scent, growing warmer and spicier by the moment, preceding him like a bow wave as the man approached.

‘Arsh y’real?’ the taller man slurred. ‘Hour you,’ making a big effort, he over-enunciated, ‘reallllll?’ He seemed as drunk as Jimin was.

Fortunately (at the time, not now, now it was very unfortunate), Jimin’s inhibitions had completely disappeared and he threw out a hand, grabbed the stranger’s shirt front and dragged him in for a bruising kiss.

Having that scent attached to a real person, a very desirable real person, a very desirable real person right in front of him undid Jimin completely. He led the man off the dance floor, unnoticed by the dancers absorbed in their own hedonistic delights, to a secluded part of the garden and melded into the stranger until it was impossible to distinguish where one of them began and the other ended.

The details were blurry after that, but Jimin could still feel the small bruises on his knees from where he had kneeled in the gravel abandoned in his greed for the unknown man’s gorgeous cock. He had consecrated that man’s dick with his tongue, showed him no mercy and devoured the alpha’s self control until he had moaned into the night, giving Jimin everything he was asking for, in cascades down his willing throat.

‘I think we were both very drunk hyung, I don’t remember his face (technically true, Jungkook had had his mask on and then it was dark, so yeah technically true), there was a lot of sex, parts of which are coming back to me in bits and pieces. I woke up in the early hours and left, hook up manners and all that,’ he finished lamely.

‘Were you safe?’ 

‘If the used condom I stood on, on my way out the bedroom door is anything to go by,’ Jimin grimaced at the memory, ‘then yes, yes I was safe. He had realised what it was just now.

Seokjin put his hand on the younger man’s knee, rubbing it in reassurance, having finally de-escalated from his fear that something terrible had happened.

‘Ok then, as long as you were safe, you young rascal,’ he chuckled softly out of respect for Jimin’s sensitive dehydrated brain.

‘I’m going home to finish cleaning up and tell Joonie what a slut you are. Don’t bother denying it.’

‘Takes one to know one,’ Jimin slung after him as the older man walked out the door.

This is bad, This is really bad, he thought.

He had finally realised that he had recognised Jungkook’s scent from the laundry mix up, but Jungkook had recognised his scent once Jimin had become distressed, and that could only be because Jimin had underestimated Jungkook’s wolf. 

Jungkook had been oblivious all those nights that Jimin had tortured the man’s slumber with his annoyed pheromones through the window, but Jungkook’s wolf had not. Jungkook’s wolf knew who Jimin was. 

And worst of all, had led Jungkook to Jimin.

☙

The next day he was feeling human enough to do some cleaning up around the house and stripping off his bed sheets found the sealed bag with the ‘mystery alpha’ scented hoodie in it, stashed at the foot of his bed. 

Only it wasn’t a mystery any more was it?

He picked it up, staring at it, torn between throwing it out the window and tearing it open and burying his face in it. As if being controlled like a marionette, his arms twitched first one way and then another as his mind vacillated between the two options. 

Shaking his head he threw it in the laundry basket in the corner of his room, he would take it back to the laundromat as per protocol and it would go back to its owner. He grabbed his keys, knowing that if he didn’t follow through with this plan right now he wouldn’t follow through at all.

☙

Unfortunately for Jimin his omega had not signed off on this plan and the struggle to get through the next few days was exhausting, so when it was time to pick up his laundry, he was already vulnerable.

‘Jimin-ah, great timing,’ Yoongi called to him as he walked through the front door.

The younger man smiled warmly but suspiciously at the warm greeting.

‘What is it hyungie?’ Jimin knew Min Yoongi very well, effusiveness equalled either excited anticipation or ingratiation because he needed something from you.

‘Can you look after the shop for half an hour? I’ve had my guitar restrung and I need to pick it up before the shop closes?’

Disastrous.

As soon as he had walked in Jimin had smelled it, the mystery alpha’s scent (he refused to mentally use Jungkook’s name) was front and centre in the myriad of smells in the premises.

‘Of course hyung, you go.’

Yoongi rewarded him with another smile but this time it was the excited anticipation one, and he zipped out the door at the speed of light.

‘I’m so fucked,’ Jimin said out loud to no-one as he sniffed around looking for the treasure trove.

It was out the back, stacked under two other loads of laundry waiting to be washed. 

‘Didn’t see that coming,’ he said as he realised that Jungkook had folded all his dirty laundry rather than tossing it in like a normal person. He stared at the basket for a very long time, fingers flexing and then balling into fists over and over again.

He breathed deeply trying to regain control over his omega who was whining pitifully about being so close to the alpha scent and not able to roll around in it like they did at home. 

Unfortunately taking a deep breath immediately adjacent to the most deliciously peppery smell ever created was not the best idea he had ever had.

The hit to his senses was overwhelming and his frontal lobe was overridden by his cock, leaning down he grabbed the entire basket and buried his face in it, inhaling deeply.

Jungkook’s unwashed gym clothes were in there, the spicy sweat infused garments stupefying him, making him forget where he was.

The tinkle of the bell alerting him to a customer broke through his lustful reverie, startling him. 

He dropped the basket much to the consternation of his omega and emerged from the back room, praising the gods for the invention of scent blockers so that the grandmother and her grandson who had just walked in the door weren’t confronted with an atmosphere that would have, without doubt, reeked like an omega pleasure palace on steroids.

As soon as they were gone, he had liberated 2 of Jungkook’s workout shirts from the basket and stashed them in the trunk of his car.

Safely back in the laundromat, appearing to be a normal person to the average passer by, totally not like a scent stalker, he muttered to his smug omega  ‘this is not going to end well is it?’

In reality Yoongi was gone for about 45 minutes but it may as well have been 45 years to the impatient omega who alternated between holding himself back from returning to the laundry basket or trunk of his car. The constant smell in the air sat under his skin, goading him, enticing him, tempting him.

As soon as he saw Yoongi pull up he was outside, opening his car door, waving goodbye.

‘Yah, Jimin, I wanted to show you the guitar,’ the older man wailed at him across the carpark.

‘Sorry hyung, later, I’ll come back tomorrow, something urgent came up.’ 

Came up is right, he thought to himself as he drove,  the thing that had come up was hard against his lower belly being encouraged by the friction of a poorly positioned seat belt. 

Trying desperately not to speed he barely remembered the drive home. The subtle spice just on the edge of his senses filtering into the car from the trunk, his omega urging him home to be near their alpha. Not our alpha, Jimin corrected, never our alpha. His omega mewled plaintively. Fuck this was torture.

He slid his hand into his pants and held himself, seeking momentary relief so that he could focus enough to get home, groaning at his sheer rigidity. As he pulled into the driveway he jolted the car to a stop and unlocked his seatbelt. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a movement.

He bit his lip and shook his head in disbelief. Jungkook was out in his yard. Shirtless.

Jungkook was never out in his yard. He cursed the universe all the way from the big bang to the implosion of the galaxy. He couldn’t get out of the car and risk having to talk to Jungkook in this condition, and he couldn’t liberate the contraband residing in the trunk, torturing him through both smell and proximity.

He thanked the gods for the second time in an hour that his scent blockers were on, and then reflected what that meant about the situations he was getting himself into. He shook his head again, this time in exasperation at himself.

None of that helped a horny wolf and a raging boner confined in a car.

An idea occurred to him, he was in such a state that the obvious course of action was to take the matter into his own hands. So to speak. Only how could he deal with the neighbour situation. 

A quick risk assessment ensued.

He could re-position the car slightly on an angle so that his presence in the car was harder to see from Jungkook’s place. He could have one hand on the phone pretending to be on a call, and the other hand, well the other hand could make this all go away.

The phone call was plausible deniability to anyone who happened to glance his way. He was spitting into his hand before he had completed the thought.

He made a small adjustment to the back of his seat to recline just far enough to provide a comfortable angle. As a school kid he had asked his mother where he would ever use geometry in real life, who knew it could be this useful.

Phone to his ear, zip down, hips jutted forward, he slid his wet hand along his cock, focussing all his scent receptors on the merest whiff of the pungent spice that remained beyond his reach. He knew he had to keep his eyes open to maintain the ruse and because of that he groaned out loud when Jungkook walked into his direct line of vision a few metres away.

The tension between holding his upper body and right hand holding the phone still, and at the same time bucking his hips into his spit slickened fist, took all his concentration, so when he looked over toward Jungkook again to see him raising a hand in a friendly wave of acknowledgement, he panicked and instinctively raised his only free hand to wave back. That free hand.

It all happened in the space of three seconds, he lifted his hand to wave, the prolonged wait to jerk himself off and the sudden appearance of the cause of all his troubles looking muscular, chest and tattoos on display, all collided and he jolted as he came all over the steering wheel. 

The fucking steering wheel. 

Jungkook had waited just long enough for the acknowledgement and then turned away to resume whatever the fuck he was doing.

‘Gah…go away, go away,’ he panted quietly to himself, phone still stuck to his ear, cock softening and cum dripping off the edges of the steering wheel like the icing on one those drizzle cakes you buy for special occasions.

‘Well this is a new low, a very very new low,’ the blonde man despaired of himself. 

He was completely out of control and he knew it.

☙

Jin reversed the car into a parking space outside the laundromat, grabbed the large laundry basket full of clothes from the back seat and walked in to drop it off.

On his way back to the car he caught sight of Jungkook sitting in his car, two spaces over. He waved but got no response, so he stopped and looked harder at the young man.

Jungkook had his hands on the steering wheel and was staring at the dashboard immobile.

Concerned, Jin walked slowly over and tapped softly on the window.

The younger man shook his head to bring himself back into the moment and slid the window down.

‘You ok?’ 

Tonguing his lip piercing, Jungkook replied ‘yeah, I guess so,’ convincing neither of them.

‘You don’t sound ok?’ came the gentle question.

‘I ……, it’s sort of hard to explain,’ the younger man ventured.

‘How about you come to dinner tonight and tell us as much or as little as you want to?’ Jin asked kindly. And not waiting for an answer he gave Jungkook a little wave and turned back towards this car.

Jungkook looked after him, nodding to himself, it would be good to get an objective opinion.

☙

Jin eyed Jungkook across the table, dinner had been eaten, small talk had been talked and the wine was underway.

Jungkook had an element of musty sadness in his scent that Jin had been paying attention to since the younger man had walked in the door.

‘You going to tell us what’s going on?’ he asked gently, nudging NamJoon under the table with his knee to get on board.

‘We'd like to help if we can,’ the large alpha reinforced his omega’s offer of support, swirling his wine around in its glass.

Jungkook hesitated, he had thought about this all afternoon, what to say, how to broach it and he was really still none the wiser about how to start.

‘Is it work?’ Jin asked.

Jungkook shook his head and rubbed his ear distractedly.

‘Is it money?’ Joon followed up, placing the glass back on the table and leaning forward to bring Jungkook’s attention back to them.

Another shake of the head.

‘Love?’ Jin queried softly.

‘I don’t know if you could call it that,’ the alpha replied nervously, fidgeting in his seat.

‘Lets move to the couch and talk about this comfortably,’ Jin suggested, wanting to give Jungkook a few moments to collect himself now that the topic had been revealed.

When they were all relocated, Jungkook in the stuffed armchair and the other two snuggled in in the two seater, NamJoon took up the conversation again ‘If it isn’t love, then maybe you could tell us why it isn’t love?’ clearly trying to be helpful and gentle and respectful.

‘I’m embarrassed about the situation, but it’s getting to me at the same time. And it’s just hard to explain,’ Jungkook blurted out.

‘Can you tell us what the context is that’s making you feel embarrassed? We won’t judge you, well we will judge you, but with love and help, so not textbook judging okay?’ Jin smiled trying to lighten the mood. He watched Jungkook carefully and could see when the alpha decided to get it over with.

‘There’s this omega.’

‘There’s always an omega,’ Namjoon commiserated in alpha. 

Jin bounced a cushion off his head.

‘Continue,’ he motioned to Jungkook.

‘So here’s the part where you judge me. We hooked up once and I can’t get him off my mind, and my wolf is doing my head in asking for him.’

‘What is stopping you exploring more with him? Why is it complicated? Is it complicated? It sounds like it's complicated,’ Jin rattled off a barrage of questions.

He was so uncomfortable, it was at the forefront of Jungkook’s mind to make a run for it. But his alternative was to go home to an empty house where the memory of the omega in question lingered.

‘I don’t know who he is.’

‘What?’ 

Both men reacted with disbelief. NamJoon put his hand on Jin’s knee to silence him and asked, ‘okay, you’ve said the hardest part of it now, how about you just tell us the rest in your own time. We won’t interrupt,’ he said the last part deliberately, clearly side eyeing Jin.

Taking a deep breath Jungkook continued, ‘I’d been sleeping really badly for a few weeks and the night of your…..your masquerade party I was fucking drunk…’

‘Ah, the party,’ Jin interrupted in direct contravention of Joon’s instructions. He received a glare from that quarter.

‘I was more drunk than I realised. I was dancing with everyone else, out of it, just vibing and then my wolf started to go crazy. Insisting I pay attention to a scent that had appeared out of nowhere and I suppose I followed my nose without thinking much about it, until I caught the scent and…’ he hesitated, looking down, entwining his fingers on his lap.

He didn’t see NamJoon warning Jin with his expression to hold the silence to allow Jungkook to say the next part. It stretched out thinly between them and eventually broke as Jungkook took a deep breath.

‘He was standing there, he was searching for a scent too. My scent. My alpha recognised him immediately and well, and well, and well….’

Jin was not a patient person under normal circumstances, let alone being left hanging as the best part waited on the brink.

‘Jungkook-ah, I love you, but I am going to beat you if you don’t get on with it.’

‘He was looking for me too, he just walked up and grabbed me and kissed me. Then he dragged me off to the garden.’

‘Did you do unspeakable things in my garden Jungkook?’ Jin demanded.

Jungkook nodded. 

NamJoon bit back a laugh.

‘And in my driveway, in my kitchen and my bed.’ There he had said it. ‘When I woke up in the morning he was gone. Like he had never been there. The bed wasn’t even warm,’ he said sadly.

The older men looked at each other silently deciding who would go first. Jin waved at his husband to take the initiative.

‘This was a few weeks ago, and he is still so strongly on your mind? And your alphas?’ 

‘I can’t get him out of my mind,  I can’t get past the connection between our wolves, it’s like they knew each other. Pining for each other almost. How can that be when I don’t even know who he is?’ Jungkook’s tone was pleading for reassurance.

‘I mean we could go through our guest list and see if anyone seems likely, although it could have been a guest of a guest that we wouldn’t necessarily have known about, but maybe it’s worth a shot?’ Jin suggested, immediately rewarded by the look of hope Jungkook flashed at him. ‘I know we had quite a few unattached omega’s there that night, let's look.’ 

NamJoon opened his phone and pulled up his notes app to peruse the guest list.

‘Min-jun? Si-woo?’ he queried.

Jungkook looked at Jin.

‘Could be, who else is on the list?’ he encouraged NamJoon to keep going.

‘Ji-Ho, Min-Jae, Woo-Jin, Yoongi?’ 

‘What are you talking about? Min-Jae is an alpha. Give me that,’ Jin demanded, reaching for the phone.

‘Min-Jun, Si-Woo, Ji-Ho and Woo-Jin are all unattached omegas as far as I know. I think Chin-Hwa brought an omega friend with him and Beom-Soek brought that omega colleague from his office. And as for Yoongi, he would never look at you twice, he already has more on his hands than he can deal with,’ Jin listed efficiently. 

Apart from Yoongi, the list meant nothing to Jungkook, but NamJoon was nodding along in agreement.

‘And last but not least, Park Jimin,’ which was so ridiculous they all burst out laughing at the same time, relieving the tension that had been building.

‘He’s the first one we can cross off the list,’ Jungkook scoffed.

‘OK leave the list with us, we will do some discreet snooping and see if we can casually ask some questions that will narrow the list down. Not promising anything though, it may have been someone we didn’t even realise was there,’ Jin cautioned.

‘Is there anything else you can remember about him that might help us narrow the list down? Any defining features?’ 

‘Ooooo look at my clever detective husband,’ Jin cooed with admiration.

‘Not really, I’m useless because I was drunk and exhausted, he had a mask on until some point I don’t remember, then it was mostly dark,’ he squinted trying to recall, as if that would help. ‘He had dark hair, was weird about me touching his hair, slightly shorter than me.’

‘That could be anybody that was at the party though.’ NamJoon observed.

‘What about his scent?’ Jin leaned forward excitedly.

‘I can’t remember his scent at all, hyung.’

Jin quirked an eyebrow, surprised at this answer.

A sudden flash of memory.

‘He had some tattoos.’ Jungkook remembered.

Both men leaned forward, eager to hear about these markers of identity.

‘But they were in discreet places so unless anyone else has seen him naked, describing them won’t help us, and I don’t think I’m comfortable sharing that. It feels intimate somehow and I don’t want to break that, I don’t know what word I’m looking for, privacy? trust? Is it a boundary?’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what I’m trying to say, it just doesn’t feel right to expose something that he may have chosen to keep private. I can say that the ones I’m thinking of are on his upper back and side.’

The other men nodded in understanding.

‘Let’s start on the list then, and we will let you know what we find.’ Jin suggested.

Jungkook lay in his bed that night feeling a sliver of hope, his alpha appeased that a plan had been put in place, and he drifted off, sleeping better than he had in weeks.

Because unbeknownst to him, Jimin had abandoned his life of nightly scent crime.

☙

Jimin was mopping the floors when the unexpected knock came on his door.

Still with his rubber gloves on and the mop in hand he opened the door, to see Jungkook standing there.

Panicked, he blurted out, ‘hang on a minute,’ and shut the door in the younger man’s face.

He hastily dumped the mop, stripped off the gloves and slapped on the scent blockers he had forgotten that morning, hoping to the gods that the scent diffusers he had placed around his doorway, seeing the place was turning into Seoul Train Station, were doing their job.

Smoothing down his shirt he opened the door again, making sure to stand as far back from the doorstep as possible so that Jungkook couldn’t smell him.

‘Hello, to you too,’ Jungkook drawled sarcastically.

‘What do you want?’ God his scent is mouth watering, his omega perked up in response to unexpected exposure of the spice that clung to the alpha.

‘Those cameras of yours….’

“I told you I’m not removing them,’ Jimin interrupted him. And he looks so good. Jungkook was standing with his arms crossed in a short sleeved shirt, emphasising his biceps. Just one bite, I wouldn’t even leave a mark. He shook his head imperceptibly, get it together Park Jimin.

‘It’s not about that.’

‘Then what is it, I’m busy.’ 

‘I had something happen at my place and I wondered if you caught it on your cameras,’ the taller man ventured.

‘What? Sure, tell me what date and I will send it to you,’ Jimin replied, beginning to close the door.

‘The night of SeokJin hyung's party,’ Jungkook dropped the bomb from 30,000 feet, exploding all over Jimin’s peace of mind. The fucking cameras, he hadn’t even thought about them.

‘Uh, right, okay.’ And because he wouldn’t be Park Jimin if he didn’t ask, ‘are you looking for anything in particular? You know, to help me with sending you the right footage?’

‘Um, I don’t know,’ Jungkook prevaricated, ‘I guess I will know it if I see it. Thanks for your help.’

Jimin closed the door on Jungkook’s face for the second time in ten minutes and ran to the computer.

He watched himself walk down his stairs, along the pathway and out onto the driveway, before crossing the road and lost to the camera as he entered Jin’s property and the events that would end his life as he knew it.

Fast forward, fast forward. Come on computer, he grumbled impatiently.

And there they were.

Jimin pushed pause and put his face in his hands. 

Why were they standing in the middle of the road with their tongues down each other's throats? 

Was his hand down Jungkook’s pants? In the middle of the road?

Fuck 4k, who invented that for home security cameras for fucks sake.

He pressed play and watched looking through his fingers, like he did for scary parts in movies.

No, no, no, no, no, oh God, NOOOOOOOOOOO.

He watched the activity by the garden shed as Jungkook sank to his knees to remove Jimin’s shoes and toss them to the end of the driveway. The belt was undone in a flash and the jeans were gone soon after. He could see himself tugging impatiently on Jungkook’s hair as he nuzzled the omega’s cock through his briefs. Large hands holding them locked together in place at the back of Jimin’s thighs.

This was like watching a slow motion car crash, he was horrified but he couldn’t look away.

Jungkook brought his hands back around and licked his fingers provocatively. Ok that was still hot, Jimin’s cock twitched in confirmation. 

Jimin realised his brain was watching the camera version but applying previously buried memory to fill in the detail he couldn’t see on screen. 

Although he couldn’t see it on camera he knew that Jungkook coated Jimin’s cock in his own slick and then sank down on it, a warm hungry mouth engulfing him completely. Jimin remembered watching the younger man feasting on the taste, worshipping him with his boba eyes as he sucked and licked and teased Jimin through the best blow job of his life.

On camera Jimin threw back his head, mouth open , hands sunk in the alpha’s hair, body jerking as he came.

Jungkook got to his feet and swept Jimin up in his arms bridal style, walking him towards the house, the camera cut out as they reached the stairs, because Jimin had agreed not to angle the camera so that it captured anything on the house itself. Back in the days when I had integrity, Jimin thought ruefully.

Fast forwarding to just after 4 am, Jimin saw himself appear at the bottom of the stairs, looking wildly around, finding his singular sock, running down the driveway, diverting for his jeans. Looking like he was being electrocuted as he tried to put his pants on while running at the same time. And finally locating his shoes.

If it had been anyone else he would have died laughing at the man who stood at the end of his neighbours driveway stock still after doing the run of shame, and then slowly turned as he realised he was outside his own house.

He saw himself scurrying in panic up his driveway, along the path and up the stairs. He paused it in horrified fascination. He had literally never seen himself look this terrified. What was he doing with his life?

Sighing, he scrawled a note.

No footage, must have been a power cut or something.

He would put it in Jungkook’s letter box on his way out later.

☙

Feet and heart pounding, sweat running down his back into his ass crack, Jimin pushed through his pain to complete the last few metres. Slowing as he reached the part of the road near his property, he stood there, bowed at the waist, hands on hips, pacing around in a circle after completing the punishing run he had just put himself through. He had needed to clear his head and it had worked (well for now anyway). Focussing on his breathing, listening to the rhythm of his feet as they hit the pavement, eyes narrowly focussed in front of him, falling into a meditative state for ten kilometres was a welcome reprieve from the stresses currently plaguing him.

Speaking of which. What was that warm earthy smell? He whipped his head around and looked up the driveway to Jungkook’s house to see if he could see the younger man.

‘Boo,’ a voice sounded behind him, scaring the shit out of him.

‘Yah,’ Jimin yelled, whirling around.

And there, tattooed, shirtless and stunning, Jeon Jungkook stood in all his sweaty glory.

Jimin’s omega howled in delight.

‘Good day for a run, isn’t it?’ he said through slightly laboured breaths, smiling at their shared experience.

‘Yeah, it is. How far did you run?’ Jimin asked like a normal person, not a person who was slowly moving backwards away from the irresistible scent which had his omega clawing at his chest with abandon.

Shaking his head like a damp dog to release the sweat running down his face and in his hair, ‘twenty kilometres,’ Jungkook replied.

‘That’s nearly a fucking marathon, you’re a machine, ten nearly killed me,’ Jimin smiled at him with admiration despite his better judgement.

‘Maybe we should run together some time?’ Jungkook ventured tentatively, bracing himself to be yelled at.

‘Maybe we should,’ Jimin called over his shoulder as he scurried away, beyond the reach of the temptation incarnate.

☙

The next time it was hammering at his door on a Sunday afternoon.

I’ve got to get a doorbell, Jimin thought, that door is taking a lot of abuse lately.

‘Who is it.’

‘It’s me, you need to get out here and see this,’ Jungkook called with a weird note in his voice.

Jimin opened the door with an enquiring look on his face as Jungkook gestured to their respective lawns.

‘Ah shit not again.’

‘Again? Again? This has happened before?’ Jungkook asked, bewildered looking at the large flock of sheep contentedly grazing on their lawns.

‘Its the mindeulle, our lawns are covered in them and this time of year we have to keep our lawn short or they can smell them and come looking for them. They’re a sheep delicacy.’

‘I was holding off mowing my lawn because the bees were having a great time,’ Jungkook observed sadly.

‘I’ve spoken to the farmer before about his fences but contrary to popular opinion, sheep can be smart when they want to. I’ll find his number and call him to come get them.’

Jungkook seemed in no hurry to go home and waited for Jimin to finish the call. 

‘He’s on his way, he only lives a few minutes up the road so he should be here soon. I’ll give you his number so you can call him if it happens again when I’m not home, but we will have to keep on top of our lawns until the season is over.’

When Jungkook had finished putting the farmers' contact information in his phone he shyly asked ‘do you think I could have your number too? You know, for neighbour emergencies like these?’

Jimin, surprised and strangely warmed by the request, nodded and told Jungkook his number.

Jungkook text him immediately, ‘that’s my number.’

‘I know how phones work Jungkook-ah,’ shit, where did that informality come from, Jimin thought.

Jungkook’s broad smile told him that it had not gone unnoticed. 

‘See you later Jimin-ssi,’ the alpha waved as he turned to leave.

‘See you later Jungkook.’ 

Fuck now its more awkward, how is that possible Jimin lamented to himself, resisting the urge to sniff around the front door for the last vestiges of the presence of the alpha, like a deranged pervert.

☙

Between the band, the laundromat, his two boyfriends and his frequent trips to Seoul to see his mother who was recovering from knee surgery, Taehyung hadn’t spent much time with his best friend in the world and he was rectifying that right now.

He knocked on the door, looking around trying to figure out what was different and had his back to Jimin as he emerged.

‘What are you looking at?’ the smaller man asked, also looking around to see what was so interesting.

‘There’s something different? Like, more light?’ 

‘Don’t fucking start me,’ Jimin growled, yanking Taehyung inside and shutting the door.

Taehyung pulled Jimin into him and hugged him tightly, not releasing him until Jimin eventually physically pushed him away. 

Grabbing his hand the older man led him to the couch and cuddled up to him.

‘You okay?’ Taehyung looked down at him, one hand positioned behind Jimin’s back, caressing the back of his neck.

Before Jimin could say anything Taehyung sniffed at the air, ‘why can’t I smell you in here? Are those diffusers? In your own house? What’s going on?’ 

He turned to Jimin, scanning his face in concern.

‘Uh, there’s a lot to catch you up on.’

‘Have you been hiding things from me hyung?’ Taehyung knew his Jiminie like the back of his hand.

‘You’ve had a lot going on Taehyungie, I didn’t want to bother you, and…..and I, well I think I’ve lost my mind,’ he trailed off, wringing his hands in anxiety.

‘Ah Jimin-ah, c’mere,’ enfolding him in a hug. ‘I’m here now, tell me everything.’

He started with the motorbike and karaoke, Taehyung had made sympathetic noises.

Then he moved on to the trees and the snoring. Taehyung was indignant on his behalf about the trees and looked concerned when Jimin described not being able to sleep.

‘Sounds like this guy is hard work, I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through all this baby.’

Jimin had the grace to look embarrassed, ‘um there’s more.’

As he described closing Jungkook’s window at night, a stunned look crept across Taehyung’s face.

Oh gods if he is looking like this now, what’s he going to look like in five minutes, Jimin despaired.

Taehyung caught the look and beckoned his friend towards him,  Jimin leaned in and the younger man tore Jimin’s scent blockers off in one movement. An unacceptable behaviour in any other social setting but it reflected the high level of trust between the two men.

The air immediately filled with a sour floral scent. Taehyung physically flinched at the overwhelming reek of rotting flowers.

‘Park Jimin,’ his friend said seriously. ‘What are you hiding from me?’

The omega hung his head.

He talked rapidly, explaining how he had conceived of and executed the scent pump plan.

Taehyung started to speak several times but the intensification of distress in his friend’s scent stopped him. 

By the time Jimin got to the part of the story about Jin’s party, explained how he had figured out that their wolves had recognised each other  and its entire aftermath, his friend’s jaw was hanging fully open.

‘You fucked this man?’ Taehyung asked incredulously.

Jimin described the run of shame and Taehyung lost it. He laughed so hard tears poured down his face, he began to hiccup. All Jimin could do was wait until his friend regained the power of speech.

‘It’s worse than that.’

‘How can it be worse than that?’ 

‘My new security cameras caught it.’

Taehyung subsided into another round of uncontrollable laughter. JImin knew what was coming and while he was waiting for the laughter to peter out, he connected his computer to the television screen and played the footage.

He spared himself nothing, starting from the moment he and Jungkook appeared from Jin’s house.

‘You’re in the middle of the road!’

‘I know.’

‘Woooo, there go the jeans.’

Jimin put his head in his hands.

Most friends would recoil from watching their friend being orally serviced. Kim Taehyung was not one of those friends.

‘Oh, it was goooooooooood good Jiminie, look at your orgasm face, you loved that,’ he patted his friend’s thigh in delight.

Jimin fast forwarded to the bit where he exited the house.

Taehyung was riveted to the screen. He watched as Jimin retrieved his clothing and reached the end of the driveway, saw Jimin realise where he was and who he had fucked, and screamed in delight.

‘Oh my gods this is too good,’ he was half out of his seat watching Jimin leg it back to his own house. ‘You’re running so fast baby.’

When Jimin’s horrified face appeared on camera Taehyung dropped to the floor and laughed until he nearly vomited. His laughter was contagious because Jimin had enough distance now to see it objectively. His own shoulders began to shake and it wasn’t long before he was also wiping at his eyes, well it was laugh or cry at this point.

‘I can’t believe I missed this,’ huffed the younger man as he recovered.

‘There’s more,’ Jimin squeaked in between gasps.

‘Nooooooo, I can’t take any more…….tell me everything,’ Taehyung lapsed into laughter again.

After many attempts, Jimin was finally able to relay the steering wheel incident.

‘In the car? While he was outside? Oh gods you’re trying to kill me, my stomach, my abs, stop, don’t tell me any more,’ Taehyung clutched his abdomen in pain, unable to stop laughing.

Jimin went to get them both a drink of water, the worst was over.

‘No wonder Yoongi and Mrs Lee said you were acting weird.’

‘Who the fuck is Mrs Lee?’

‘The old lady you dealt with when Yoongi was out. She asked me if the pretty little omega who was acting weird was okay,’ the laundromat customer service representative explained.

‘Fuck,’ Jimin shook his head in disbelief at himself.

☙

Work had gone surprisingly well today. Jimin was feeling calm and relaxed as he drove up to his house and blinked in astonishment when he saw what was going on.

His headlights caught three men in the beams as they swept across Jungkook’s driveway.

They were clustered around the cursed motorbike in a clear attempt to steal it. 

For half a second he thought about letting them, but courage being the better part of valour and all that, he knew he had to do something about it.

Using the tools at hand, he stopped his car with headlights focussed on the panicking men who were still, despite the illumination, trying to make off with the bike. The immobilisation device on the wheels was thwarting their efforts.

Jimin leaned on the horn with his elbow, making them even more animated as they continued to inch the motorbike down the driveway.

Using his hands to dial Jungkook’s number he chanted under his breath ‘Come on, come on, answer.’

The thieves were making headway, having decided that Jimin was all aggravation and no action and between them had picked it up and were walking it slowly away.

‘Mmmm….what?’ Jungkook answered sleepily.

‘They’re trying to steal your bike, that’s what.’

‘Who? What?’ Suddenly Jungkook appeared to be awake and it sounded like he was moving.

Jimin hung up, reversing the car to keep the thieves in the headlights as they neared the end of the driveway.

He saw Jungkook come bursting through his front door, leaping down the steps and running full tilt towards the bizarre palaquin parade.

Jimin leaped out of his car and ran around from his side in support, reaching the men at the same time as Jungkook.

The thieves were sizing them up, working out whether it was worth a fight.

Jimin shouted ‘I have cameras on my house, they can see everything in 4K, if you don’t want your faces all over the news, you better put it down and go.’

Jungkook stepped forward menacingly and that’s when Jimin realised the enraged man was only wearing grey sweatpants and nothing else. He could tell there was nothing else because Jimin’s car headlights were providing the exact contrast needed to detect any movement in the soft fabric. Jimin wondered if they were the sweatpants he had recently returned to the laundromat. 

Not now for fucks sake the older man remonstrated with himself. And sneaked another peek before looking away.

Angry, half naked, chest and muscles on full display was not what the men had bargained for when they had begun to execute their opportunistic plan and collectively they lowered the bike, raised their hands and backed away.

And then they ran for it.

Jungkook followed them to make sure they were gone and then returned to the motorbike and Jimin.

‘Bastards,’ he spat out, examining the precious item to see what damage it had sustained.

‘I was just coming home and caught them,’ Jimin explained even though he hadn’t been asked.

‘Thank you Jimin-ssi, I’m very grateful.’

‘I know you love that stupid bike,’ Jimin retorted without any bite, feeling weirded out by this change in dynamic. ‘I’m going home, let me know if you want the footage to give to the cops,’ he offered as he walked past on his way back to his house.

‘Will there be a convenient powercut this time Jimin-ssi?’ Jungkook called after him. 

‘Call me hyung,’ Jimin called back, ignoring the accurate taunt.

‘Good night hyung, thanks again,’ floated back to him across the boundary.

☙

The following weekend he was working with NamJoon on an old ride-on lawnmower that he had picked up from a local farmer. It was a heavy duty one and perfect for NamJoons wide paddock like back yard.

NamJoon liked to tinker with engines and Jimin liked NamJoon so they worked well together, solving the small niggly things that had made the farmer decide to get rid of it.

They both heard the dull roar start up somewhere nearby and didn’t think much of it, it was a semi rural town, someone was always doing something noisy.

Zzzzhhhhhrrrr, zzzzhhhhhrrrrr the noise continued on a regular basis as the two men screwed and unscrewed things, greased and cleaned other things and stopped and started the engine to check for improvements.

When Jin called them for lunch the noise was still going and Jimin’s curiosity got the better of him.

‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ he called out to Joon as he sprinted down to the gate to see if he could see what the noise was.

He was surprised to see that the noise was coming from the direction of his place. He could see Jungkook manhandling some large piece of machinery, ear defenders on and fountains of something flowing into the air on either side of the machine.

Intrigued and ready to be annoyed he darted across the road to investigate.

The closer he got the more outrageously loud the sound was, Jungkook saw him approaching and turned the machine off. Lifting his ear defenders to either side of his head so he could hear the omega.

‘What’s going on?’ Jimin asked pensively, eyes wandering over the sight in front of him, and the machine too.

‘I’m grinding the tree stumps down,’ Jungkook waved his arm towards the two remaining stumps by way of demonstration.

Jimin realised that the rest were gone, they were now a scattering of wood chips, the majority having been raked into a pile for disposal.

‘You said that you were going to leave them to rot?’ 

‘You wanted them gone,’ Jungkook shrugged.

Not sure how to respond to this or why Jungkook had changed his mind, Jimin nodded.

‘Thank you,’ he said uncertainly, attempting a small smile.

He was rewarded with a grin, ‘no problem hyung.’

‘Jin is waiting for me,’ Jimin explained pointing in the direction of their neighbours house and started to move away with a small wave.

Jungkook waved back, hands still poised on the stump grinder. Jimin expected it to start up again but when it hadn’t by the time he got to the road he turned around to see Jungkook still watching him.

He awkwardly waved at the younger man again and hastily ran back to Jin’s house.

His omega purred. Stop that Jimin thought sharply, I don’t need the encouragement.

☙

Extensive research had provided no new information as to Jungkook’s mystery man.

Jin and NamJoon had divided the names between them, having coffees and lunches with their friends, innocently reminiscing about the party, casually asking questions and getting absolutely nowhere.

It was constantly nagging at the back of SeokJin’s brain.

He had told Jungkook of their failures and hated every time he had had to disappoint the young alpha whose scent flared with sadness each time.

Come on brain, think, he scolded himself, to no avail.

Looking out the kitchen window he saw Jimin crossing the road holding a box clearly planning to visit him.

He opened the door delightedly and sang out ‘Jimin-ah! This is a nice surprise, come in come in.’

‘Thank you hyung, I’ve come to return those pump parts to NamJoon, I don’t need them any more,’ he explained, holding out the box in front of him.

‘I don’t care, just put it on the floor and come have a coffee with me,’ the older man waved dismissively. ‘I’m trying to solve a puzzle, you might be able to help me.’

Jimin’s attention was caught, he loved puzzles, he sat down, locked in on Jin.

‘I’ve been trying to track down someone from the party and I just can’t do it and it’s driving me crazy,’ Jin confessed with frustration.

‘Who are you trying to find?’ 

‘A dark haired omega, that’s all the information I have.’

‘There must have been a lot of them there that night, I remember at least three of them before I got so drunk that I remember almost nothing,’ Jimin over explained. 

Gotta reinforce I don’t remember anything. Keep the alibi tight.

‘And everyone had masks on, so that makes it even harder,’ Jin complained.

‘I’ve looked through all the photos that everyone posted online as well as the ones we took, and I just can’t find anyone who fits the description.’

‘Maybe they were a figment of someone’s drunk imagination,’ Jimin offered.

‘Maybe.’

Jin paused, ‘your blonde hair sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all us dark haired people, but come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing it in the photos when I was looking through them. Were you evading the cameras all night?’

‘No hyungie, remember I always wear a black wig to parties to blend in, except when I don’t want to blend in of course,’ he smirked at the older man.

‘Of course, of course, silly me,’ a faint smoke signal appeared on the horizon of Kim SeokJin’s fabulous brain.

He paused thinking furiously, ‘did I tell you I’m thinking of getting a new tattoo?’

‘No!’ Jimin exclaimed. ‘Where? What are you going to get?’

‘I haven’t decided yet, but I’m thinking of getting it somewhere I can hide it if I need to.’

‘Ah, that's what I did with mine,’ Jimin shared with delight,  walking head first into the trap.

“Remind me where yours are ag….?’ He didn’t even get to finish the sentence before Jimin was lifting his shirt to display his rib cage and spine to his good friend.

Got you…..you clever sneaky little rascal, thought Jimin’s good friend Kim SeokJin.

☙

Jin and NamJoon had realised after their party that if they wanted to do any hosting in the future they would need extra patio space and some sort of retractable roof over top in case of weather.

So they had organised their friends to come round and help with putting down a concrete pad near to the patio which could serve as space for a band or a DJ or food. It would just give them extra options.

Jungkook and Jimin had both been invited to help and with the enticement of drinks and barbecue afterwards they had both turned up not knowing the other was invited.

As soon as he had seen Jungkook arrive, Jimin thanked the gods again for scent blockers, maybe he should invest in shares.

This is fine, Jimin told himself. This fine, this is fine. I’m the only one who knows. Keep it together. Say nothing, stay away and it will all be ok. 

The morning had progressed well, there were enough people there that Jimin could hide among them without seeming to ignore Jungkook, and the digging, framing and laying of the concrete had gone according to plan.

Until, right at the end when Jin was watering off the finished concrete surface with the hose.

Jimin saw it in his friend’s eyes when the thought had entered his head, but couldn’t react in enough time to prevent it.

‘Yah!’ he yelled loudly as SeokJin, master of mayhem and mischief, turned the hose on Jimin at full volume, soaking his upper body.

It was over as soon as it had started and Jimin was pulling his dripping wet shirt off heedless of anything else.

Heedless of Jungkook standing to his right.

Heedless of his ‘Nevermind’ tattoo on his ribs on display for all the world to see.

And heedless as he turned around to face Jin and wrestle with him for the hose, that his moon tattoos on his back identified him beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Jin was watching for Jungkook’s reaction and he was not disappointed.

The young alpha’s incredulous stare moved from Jimin’s oblivious back to meet Jin’s eyes.

The older man nodded in quiet affirmation while still fending off the incensed demon attacking him.

Jimin caught the nod, and turned to locate its recipient.

He froze when he saw Jungkook standing there and the expression on his face, realising at once what had happened.

Jin dropped the hose and called to the others to come inside and help prepare the food. 

As he passed Jimin and Jungkook he said loud enough for only them to hear ‘I think you two have something to discuss.’

Jimin watched him leave and still shaking himself off, started wringing out his shirt, unaware in his agitation of the impact of a wet, shirtless Park Jimin on the average onlooker.

And Jeon Jungkook was not your average onlooker. He had a very vested wolf, surging in response to the phenomenon of its omega which had suddenly been revealed when Jimin’s scent blockers had been washed off by the force of the hose. 

The alpha was frozen in place by the revelation that the man of his dreams was also the annoying fucker next door, that he looked like a wet dream and that his scent was currently wafting around appealing to him like angry wolfnip.

‘Fuck this,’ the smaller man raged, slinging his wet shirt over his shoulder.

He turned and strode off down the driveway before Jungkook could collect himself.

Jimin’s anger had quickly propelled him to the gate where he was brought up short by the sight of NamJoon waiting there, leaning casually against the fence like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Jimin paused, staring NamJoon down. 

Well, trying and failing to stare him down. 

NamJoon continued to silently look at him. 

‘Good chat,’ the omega snarled and took a step forward to leave.

‘No you don’t,’ the older man advised calmly. 

‘So you’re my gatekeeper?’ Jimin asked with frustration. 

‘No, I’m a man that wants to eat well, sleep well and fuck my husband. I won’t get to do any of those things if I let you pass. He knew you would run, so here I am.’

Jimin glared at him.

‘And you know that you have to deal with this Jiminie, you literally live next door to this guy,’ NamJoon cajoled with a voice that held an implied iron fist within it.

Jimin, hands on hips, pissed off beyond belief, and agitatedly tapping his foot, held the older man’s gaze.

‘FUCK,’ he shouted at the top of his voice in sheer frustration and maybe also acknowledgement of all his chickens coming home to roost and shitting all over him.

‘Atta boy,’ the alpha encouraged him, as Jimin turned and strode off back to where Jungkook was still getting his bearings on this newly tilted axis.

As he walked back into Jungkook’s orbit he raged ‘ fuck, my fucking life.’ 

Then catching sight of Jin looking out the window, he shouted ‘and fuck you Kim SeokJin.’

Jin opened the window, threw a dry shirt at him, blew him a kiss and closed the window.

Grabbing the shirt and throwing it on over his head, he ran his hands through his hair, pacing in short steps back and forth. 

The omega emanating wave on wave of distressed scent was too much for the alpha to bear and he reacted instinctively.

Jungkook stepped into Jimin’s space and paying no heed to the alarm in the omega’s eyes, or the performative attempt to push him away, enfolded him in a tight hug. One hand on the middle of his back, the other holding the back of his head  tightly, positioning the omega over the scent glands at his neck, making sure that all Jimin could inhale was the soothing mixture of warm spicy pepper that Jungook’s wolf was concocting just for him.

When Jungkook felt the fight go out of the smaller man’s body he gently released him and stepped back. Waiting and watching. He had no plan, he had just reacted to what his omega had needed. 

His omega.

Jimin's eyes focussed on the ground, said quietly, ‘thank you,’ flicking his eyes up tentatively to Jungkook’s face and then back to the ground again.

He made a decision, time to redeem himself.

‘I’ll…..I’ll go first. This isn’t going to be pretty, I warn you, but just hear me out ok?’

He didn’t look up. ‘Yes it was me, that night………it was me.’

Pausing, that simple sentence had taken so much to say, he felt exhausted. ‘I know you didn’t know it was me, and I didn’t know it was you either until I got to the end of the driveway. And then I didn’t know what to do, so I just filed it and tried to move on. The camera caught everything.’

He flicked his gaze up to Jungkook again, who raised an eyebrow in amusement? sarcasm? condescension? Jimin couldn’t tell and the alpha had his scent completely under control so that wasn’t giving anything away either. He gestured at Jimin to continue.

The omega returned to his examination of the patch of grass under his feet.

‘You know how they mix up the clothes at the laundromat all the time? Well some of your stuff must have got into mine and my omega…..my omega,’ he faltered, trying to find the words. ‘My omega responded to your scent, which is why I was…… I caught your scent at the party, and that’s why I was looking for you there.’

He looked up again and Jungkook nodded silently, knowing there was more to come.

Jimin’s scent spiralled again as he struggled with what he had to say next. 

Maybe I don’t have to tell him, he doesn’t need to know does he? 

In response his omega nudged him, more like jabbed him. And kept jabbing at him.

‘Alright alright,’ he said out loud to acknowledge the insistence in his chest. But he still couldn’t do it and worse, he found himself on the brink of tears. He clenched his fists, trying to summon the words, his scent intensifying out of his control.

Strong arms wrapped around him again, moulding his chest to Jungkook’s, a thumb was stroking the back of his neck as he began to sob. The events of the past few weeks had caught up with him, constantly living on the edge had extracted a price he hadn’t even realised he had been paying.

He cried until he couldn’t cry any more, subsiding into soft sobs, rubbing his wet face into Jungkook’s shirt. Desperate to salvage things with this man but knowing that what he had to reveal would ruin it forever.

Pulling back, he wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands and took a deep breath.

‘The reason your wolf recognised me at the party and responds to me like this when I’m upset is because,’ he let out a shallow breath. ‘Is because,’ then he interrupted himself, ‘I want you to know I’m not proud of this.’

He began again, ‘it’s because when you cut the trees down I was so angry I…,’ and his courage failed him again.

Jungkook pulled him back in again.

‘I’m not letting go until you’ve said it hyung.’

Faced with this ultimatum Jimin had no choice but to confess.

‘I was so angry, and it wasn’t just the trees, it was the karaoke while I was trying to sleep, and the motorbike while I was trying to sleep and then you cut the trees down and then because you cut the trees down, your snoring woke me up.’

Jimin felt the hands caressing his back in soothing motions stop for a moment and then continue. 

‘So I….I……..I,’ again the words wouldn’t come, he couldn’t say them.

‘You can tell me,’ Jungkook’s voice whispered in his ear, contradicting his thoughts.

‘I….I built a device that pumped my angry scent in through your bedroom window while you were asleep. That’s why you couldn’t sleep and how your alpha recognised me,’ he blurted out in a rush, unsure whether having finally said it made him feel better or not.

A shout of laughter from the man holding him tight was the last thing he expected. Still not releasing him, Jungkook leaned back slightly to look at him, a bemused smile on his face.

‘How did you even do that?’ he queried.

A technical question? That’s what he wants to know? Jimin was confused.

‘I researched how to do it and found parts for it and built it, I dunno,’ Jimin responded shrugging. 

He had just done it, that’s how his brain worked.

‘What an evil, vengeful, pretty little genius you are,’ Jungkook chuckled, looking at him with amusement. ‘I made you that mad?’

Jimin batted at Jungkook’s chest, ‘you made me absolutely insane.’

‘Clearly!’ the taller man grinned back at him and pulled him back close, kissing the top of his head.

‘You think I’m pretty?’ He asked, muffled in Jungkook’s chest. 

‘You know damn well that’s a rhetorical question Jimin-ah. I, on the other hand, have so many unanswered questions. What were you doing with my clothes that your omega ‘responded to’? Can I see the camera footage, there’s things I half remember that I would really like to remember in more detail? Why weren’t you blonde at the party, how did you change your hair colour back and forth like that? To name a few, but they can all wait.’

He released the omega, creating space, checking in to see that he was okay.

Jimin smiled softly at him, not sure what to do next.

Jin had been keeping an eye on the Shakespearean dramedy  performing outside his kitchen window and judged that it was now safe to approach the leading men.

Jin had recalled NamJoon from the gate as soon as he had seen Jimin return. Joon had spent the rest of the time physically restraining SeokJin from hanging out the window listening to every word.

He had had to settle for stealing occasional glances out windows and agonising over what their body language meant.

‘You don’t understand,’ he had whined plaintively to his husband. 

‘I do baby, you love them both, you unravelled the mystery, you set up the finale, but you can’t control the closing scene,’ NamJoon narrated accurately.

‘Well maybe you do understand,’ Jin said fondly, kissing his husband’s cheek. His curiosity had remained unsatisfied and he had watched like a hawk for signs that the two idiots outside had worked it out.

Jungkook’s laugh had been the signal he had been waiting for. He stepped out into the yard.

‘Are we done now?’ he enquired loudly, noticing the glance between the two men before Jungkook turned back to the omega and said ‘I think so?’ 

Jimin nodded in agreement.

‘And where have we got to?’

They looked at each other.

‘To a start?’ Jungkook asked Jimin hopefully.

‘To a start,’ Jimin confirmed, smiling and holding out his hand to the alpha.

‘Good, the first place you can start is on the dishes.’