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He was damned. He knew it as soon as he walked into the room and saw the man’s omega. To say Kim Seokjin was beautiful would be like calling the mountains that surrounded their town big. It works, but just isn’t an important enough word to describe its majesty.
As an artist, he had been commissioned to paint countless people’s loved ones. Spouses, children, even entire families. But this one commission to paint the omega fiancé of one of the wealthiest landowners in the area. A man who truly must the gods’ favorite person.
“Ah, Seokjin, this is the artist I was telling you about. Jungkook, was it?” the pompous alpha spoke, if the condescension in his voice could be referred to as merely speaking that is.
When the omega turned his gaze toward him, he felt the breath in his lungs escape, “Yes. Jeon Jungkook. Pleasure to meet you,” he finally said, doing his best to control his own scent.
The pompous alpha only chuckled from behind him, “Ha! My Seokjin is glorious, isn’t he? Why, an alpha could almost fall in love with him!”
Jungkook found the comment disturbing. Wasn’t this man, his fiancé, in love with him already? Why else would one marry? Pushing away that thought, he listened as the alpha described the painting he wanted – Seokjin amongst the lush flowering garden. The man seemed consumed with the idea of this painting, wanting to show off his omega the way some men showed off their hunting kills. As if he were one step from stuffing and mounting the omega’s head and hanging it on the wall behind him.
Even though it had had only been a handful of minutes since he met the man, Pompous Alpha was steadily becoming one of his least favorite people. For his part, Seokjin simply sat quietly, waiting for the man to finish his soliloquy and the painting to begin. His ethereal face betrayed no emotions, his scent remaining pleasant through it all. Jungkook thought it to be a highly practiced skill rather than contentment at his position in life.
Pompous Alpha turned to leave them to get to know each other, not one bit of worry about leaving his fiancé with him. Of course, he wouldn’t have any qualms about such a thing. After all, Jungkook was no real threat to him – a simple beta with no knot of his own. No knot meant no chance to alphas like him. After all, omegas only need a knot and a powerful alpha to tell them what, when, and where to do whatever the alpha’s heart pleased.
Not that Pompous Alpha had a heart. He very clearly only cared for his own wants, but not Jungkook. Jungkook wanted the omega to smile. Not just the pleasant, much practiced one he saw when they were introduced. No, he wanted to see the omega’s authentic happy ear to ear smile. He wondered if it’d light up the omega’s face the way he hoped it would.
He smiled softly at the lovely omega before setting up his easel and pulling out his sketching pencils. “Seokjin, tell me about yourself,” he smiled, sitting down across from him, and setting the pencils aside for now.
The omega looked at him in confusion. “I-I don’t understand.”
“I’d like to know more about you. I want the painting to reflect you as a person, not just your face, but the person behind it.”
“No one asks about me,” he mumbled, looking away.
“Well, I do. I want to know about you. What types of things you like, what’s important to you, how you’re feeling.”
“Um, well, I like sewing. I make my own clothes.”
“Seriously?” Jungkook asked, impressed at the other’s extravagantly embroidered dress. “You’re really talented,” he smiled.
The omega smiled shyly at the compliment. It was obvious compliments were something he wasn’t used to receiving. A fact that irritated Jungkook to no end. Someone like Seokjin should hear how truly wonderful he is day in and day out. The fact he evidently didn’t made Jungkook dislike Pompous Alpha even more than he already did. Selfish fool.
“Thank you. My mother taught me. That was back when we still got along.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear you don’t any longer.”
Seokjin shrugged, “It is what it is. She and I haven’t seen eye to eye for quite some time.”
“My father and I don’t get along anymore either. He hated that I didn’t want to take over the family business. When I told him I wanted to be an artist, he called my dreams idiotic and forbade me from pursuing such a career.”
“Why are families like this? My mother is the reason I’m getting married. I used to dream about meeting someone who truly loves me but turns out my hand was given to the richest man in the area. So much for love, huh?”
“Maybe you can learn to love each other?” Jungkook offered.
Seokjin turned to him with a look of incredulity. “Are we talking about the same person? You’ve met him, right?”
Jungkook threw his head back and cackled at the omega’s words, “You could just not marry him, you know.”
Seokjin grew quiet, his face turning back to the well-practiced one he had shown earlier. “You should begin working.”
With a sigh, he began to sketch.
🎨 🧵🖌️
Once Pompous Alpha approved the initial sketch, Jungkook set about painting. Although he didn’t need to, Seokjin would come to Jungkook’s studio to watch him paint under the guise of needing to model. In reality, he usually just loafed about eating Jungkook’s grapes and working on his own sewing.
Where his fiancé had declared his love of needlework and dressmaking as a “useless eccentricity”, Jungkook offered him a nonjudgmental space to work freely on something that made him truly happy.
He would work happily, listening as Jungkook told him stories of the various places he had visited through his artwork.
“Venice.”
“Really? I’ve always wanted to visit!” Seokjin exclaimed.
“Me, too,” he smiled. “I’ve saved up and decided to head there next. My friend has a room I can rent, and he knows plenty of people looking for artists. This is actually my last commission here actually.”
“It sounds wonderful. Much better than being a baby machine for someone who thinks an omega’s purpose is to sit there and look pretty while carrying on his ignorant genes. Ugh.”
Jungkook giggled while working on his painting. Painting Seokjin was like painting a beautiful sunset. There was more to it than just pretty colors. It was the type of charm that was multi-faceted. The warmth it gave you, the feeling of calm bliss it left you with, the type of happiness that could be understand universally. Something that scared him.
Seokjin stopped sewing to look at Jungkook work. Even though he was young, his hands were masterful, working diligently and gracefully to depict him in a way that made Seokjin feel more wanted than any of the useless words he had heard from alphas trying to use his pretty face to impress others.
To Jungkook, he was more than a conquest to be hung from their arm. Jungkook treated him like a person. He wanted to know more about him, not just remark on how pretty he was. He offered him a safe space where he could be himself and enjoy the things he loved. He listened to his stories, dreams, and hopes. He listened to him. That alone was something he appreciated more than he could convey. More than the snacks he would buy just because he knew Seokjin loved them, more than the records of Seokjin’s favorite music he’d play, more than the laughter than came easily to him when he was with the younger man.
Seokjin wondered what it would be like to be as carefree as him, to live a life where he did things for his own happiness. With a smile, he looked down at the material in his hand, resuming his needlework.
🎨 🧵🖌️
Jungkook tried his best to forget the omega. To forget the thoughts that consumed his heart. The omega was engaged to another man – an alpha who had everything Seokjin could ever want. Money, power, a future full of wonderful opportunities.
And Jungkook was just a simple man. A beta who couldn’t offer him children. An artist who couldn’t buy him everything his heart desired. No, it would never work. At least that’s what he tried to convince himself.
Over the last six weeks, he found the omega’s company wonderful. And now that he stood looking at the finished painting, he felt pride and shame. He thought anyone looking at it would be able to see just how much he loved him and that scared the hell out of him. He wanted to hide, tuck his tail and run away, but a job’s a job and he headed out to turn his beloved artwork in to its rightful owner.
🎨 🧵🖌️
Pompous Alpha stood proudly, watching as his butler hung the portrait above the mantle next to a larger one of himself standing in much the same way as now. Reveling at the painting’s “magnificence”, he paid Jungkook a hefty tip for his work.
A few hours later, he found himself waiting in line to purchase his train tickets, his small suitcase beside him. He hated leaving without the omega, knowing his intended alpha would never appreciate him the way Jungkook could. He had come so close to admitting his feelings to the omega but always stopped short, not wanting a pity response.
“You look like something is really bothering you,” he heard from behind him.
Turning around, he found himself face to face with the object of his affection. “Seokjin?”
“I hope you don’t mind me tagging along on your trip,” he said, holding up his own suitcase with a smile.
“What about…”
“He has his painting,” Seokjin smiled.
A smile bloomed on Jungkook’s face, happy to have the chance to prove himself to Seokjin. “He does, doesn’t he?”
Later, as the train set out, headed toward a future where dreams can come true, Seokjin stared out the window, happy to have made the best decision of his life.