Wildflower || j.jungkook

Day 1; khr

The door chimed, signaling a new customer.

"Ah! Welcome to Wildflower Shelter!" I say, surprised that someone would be showing up while a blizzard was raging outside. Placing the boxes I was holding down carefully, I made my way towards the door, undoing my apron and hanging it on a coat stand.

The man who had just entered shook some snow off his coat, took a look around, and cast me an apologetic glance after realizing how empty it was here. "Are you working here alone?"

I pushed up my glasses as my lips curved into a sorrowful smile, "Unfortunately, yes. My employees quit when business wasn't doing so well."

He opened his mouth to speak, but I spoke up before him. "You probably ended up here to escape the blizzard, right? It's alright. Would you like anything? Maybe some hot chocolate?"

He looked surprised at this, but he nodded. I smiled again and made my way into the employee room to make him some hot chocolate.

When I returned into the main room with two cups of hot chocolate, I found one of the bigger huskies, who I had named Mocha, was barking and licking his face.

He chuckled as he tried to keep her from completely overtaking him. I laughed as well, which caught his attention.

"Sorry about that. Mocha, come here, girl!" I say, whistling and clicking my tongue. Once Mocha came to rub her head against my leg, I handed the man the hot chocolate. "The dogs get really excited when new people come in, since not many people have been visiting lately. So when they do see someone who isn't me, they get really energetic and start barking and usually rush towards the newcomer."

And as if on cue, around 6 other dogs came running out, barking and wagging their tails. "Oh boy, here they come. Watch out, this might be worse than the blizzard," I laughed, raising an eyebrow and smirking at him, as if I were challenging him; can you survive this?

He smirked back at me as if to say; challenge accepted.

We had a conversation without any words spoken, just facial expressions. And soon after, the dogs pounced. One ran behind him and nudged his knees, one pawed at his chest, one circled his left foot, two of the calmer ones just sat back and barked, while another started playing with Mocha. I giggled as I saw him nearly topple over as the golden retriever behind him, Miso, pretty much headbutt the back of his knees, making him wobble. He laughed as well, and he kneeled down to pet the shiba inu pawing his chest. The smaller puppy, who was a pomeranian named Sunja, jumped onto his lap, rubbing her face against his chest.

He looked up at me, "Are these the only dogs left?"

I averted my gaze to Mocha and her friend, Daegu who was a samoyed, and spoke softly, "Yeah. Ever since less and less people have been visiting, I haven't been allowed to take in any more dogs. All that's left for Wildflower Shelter is to find an owner for these seven dogs and that's it."

"Have you thought about adopting them yourself?"

His question surprised me. Of course I have. But I just wasn't sure if I could handle it. "Well of course. But when you still have to work all the time to maintain a life, take care of seven dogs, and pay for expenses of myself and the dogs alone as a 19 year old, it's pretty hard. Somehow I've been managing to do so for the past year, but I'm getting paid less and less and I don't think I'll be able to keep these dogs happy."

"You care about these dogs a lot, don't you? I'm impressed. I don't think I've ever seen someone who runs an animal shelter that isn't doing so well just because of love. Most people I know would've just given up," he tells me, a surprised expression present on his face.

"Haha...yeah. To me, these dogs are everything. Honestly, they've kept me sane for so long, I don't know what I'd do without them. So it's only natural for me to grow attached to them and want them to be happy."

"Then why don't you give them to a different animal shelter who might have more success?" He asks me. My face fell, and he must've noticed, since he quickly apologized, "Ah, I didn't mean to offend you..."

I shook my head, "No, you're right. I should, but I can't bring myself to do it. I want to see these dogs be adopted with my own eyes. I want to make sure who they are adopted by someone who will treat them right. I'm sure that no other worker in this business has cared for the animals as much as I do. I don't want to have to give up on these poor dogs who are still searching for homes. I want to see them be happy with my own eyes, I want first-hand proof of their happiness, which is why I've been holding on for so long."

"They seem happy with you, though," He said, eyeing me curiously, as I sat down and Mocha climbed onto my lap and pawed my glasses of my face, whimpering affectionately and rubbing her snout into my cheek. "Isn't that already proof?" He asked, referring to Mocha.

I picked my glasses off of the floor and put them back on, hugging the husky that was on my lap. "Is it? Maybe they are happy with me at the moment, but when life gets worse from this point on, which I know it will, I don't want to burden them with my problems."

He nodded, picking Sunja up and placing her on his shoulder, as she snuggled into his neck. "Mind if I stay until the blizzard calms down?"

"Hmm? Sure. It'd be nice to have company," I smiled. "For the dogs too."

For the next few hours, I spent time with him and the dogs. Asking his name completely slipped my mind, and apparently his too. But it was fun, just talking and having another presence there. We didn't know when the blizzard would calm down, but it did so much faster than I would've like, to be honest. Because when it did, 6 other people entered the shelter.

Hearing the bell chime again, I quickly made my way back towards the entrance.

"Hello! Welcome to Wildflower Shelter! How may I help you?" I inquired, curious to why they would be here.

The man had followed me out, and when he saw the other 6, he grinned.  "Yo!"

The man in front sighed in relief, "Thank god you're safe. We thought you were dead."

I stared at them dumbfounded, even more confused than before. Glancing back and forth between the group and him, I blinked. "U-um..."

"I'm Kim Namjoon. Sorry for any inconvenience he may have caused. Thanks for taking care of him," The man in front said.

"Oh, it was no problem. The dogs enjoyed his company too, don't worry."

The blonde in the back perked up when I said dogs. "You have dogs here?!"

(do you know how hard it is to write like this without specifying names omg)

"Yeah! They're really cute. You should come see them!"

"Jungkook! Taehyung! We aren't here to sight-see. We have to get going. Thanks again, miss." Namjoon spoke. The said two pouted a bit, and Namjoon shook his head. The other 4 seemed completely fine, other than them looking around and probably wondering why there was only me here.

"Uh, no problem. Feel free to stop by anytime, if you wish," I say, smiling. "Have a nice day."

Namjoon nodded, "Come on, Jungkook, let's go."

He nodded and waved to me, giving me a cheeky grin as the seven people left the building, leaving me with the chilling silence once more. I sighed. It's been a while since I enjoyed other people's company that much.

"Jungkook, huh? I wonder if I'll get to see him again..."

****

As Jungkook and the rest of BTS was walking down the street, he flinched. "AH! I forgot to ask for her name!"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Dude."

"He's actually stupid."