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Be there for me

Chapter 23

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

 

Jungwoo woke up early the following morning, too excited to sleep. Unfortunately, when he padded out of his room, Jaehyun’s door was still closed, signifying that he was still asleep. 

Jungwoo walked to the kitchen and as he started to pull out pans and bowls to make breakfast he realized that this was the first time that he had woken up before Jaehyun. Usually the alpha was up for at least an hour before Jungwoo, and even if Jungwoo did wake up early, he normally didn’t leave his room until at least 10 am. 

This morning, however, the clock read 8:23 am and Jungwoo was wide awake, cracking eggs into a pan on the stove with the coffee brewing in the pot. Jungwoo had watched Jaehyun make his coffee enough times that he was fairly certain that he could do it himself. It was pretty simple: black with a shot of creamer. Jungwoo doubted that he could mess that up.

Jungwoo was just finishing up with the last fried egg when Jaehyun stumbled out of his room, hair sticking up everywhere and eyes half closed as he shuffled into the kitchen. But the minute that Jaehyun saw Jungwoo his eyes widened and he ran his hands through his hair, trying to make it lay flat. 

“You’re awake? Already? Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah, of course everything is fine. I just woke up early because I was excited.”  Jungwoo handed Jaehyun the cup of coffee that he had made.

Jaehyun looked around the kitchen as he sipped his coffee. “You made breakfast too? You really didn’t have to do that.”

Jungwoo subconsciously took a step back, “Are you mad at me?”

“What? No! Of course not! I just don’t want you to feel like you have to cook and stuff just because you’re an omega and it’s your ‘job’ or whatever.”

“And if I did it because I wanted to? And also it meant that we’d go to the shelter sooner?” The words burst out of Jungwoo’s mouth before he realized what he was saying.

Jaehyun held up his hands and took a step back “That’s perfectly okay. I didn’t mean to insinuate that it wasn’t. You can make and eat food whenever you want, Jungwoo. I just don’t want you to feel like you have to for whatever reason.” 

Jungwoo let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding at Jaehyun’s words and he felt the tension seep out of his shoulders.

“Let’s start eating so we can go to the shelter sooner, yeah?” Jaehyun grabbed the plate with less food on it and headed to the table. 

Jungwoo grabbed the other plate and sat across from Jaehyun, trying to think of ways to discreetly slide two of his eggs onto Jaehyun’s plate. Jungwoo knew that Jaehyun did it on purpose, but there was no way that he was going to finish all four eggs on this plate, especially when he knew that Jaehyun only had two. 

“So how long is the drive to the shelter?” Jungwoo asked.

“Um, I’m not quite sure, let me check.” Jaehyun pulled out his phone and in the moment that he was looking down, Jungwoo reached over and slid two of his eggs onto Jaehyun’s plate. 

“It’s about a 15 minute drive.” Jaehyun looked down at his plate, brows furrowing when he saw the extra eggs and then finally widening in realization. “Nope, you’re eating at least one of these.” 

Jaehyun reached across the table and Jungwoo flinched back, but all Jaehyun did was slide one of the eggs back onto his plate. “There, now we both have three and it’s fair.”

Jungwoo had many protests to that statement; however, he was pretty sure that Jaehyun didn’t want to hear them, so he sucked it up and ate the additional egg. To be honest, the way Jaehyun beamed at Jungwoo as he ate made it all worth it. 

An hour later Jungwoo and Jaehyun were pulling up to the shelter.

“Just let me know the minute you feel uncomfortable and we can come back to the car to take a quick break, okay?”

“Yeah,” Jungwoo responded, already halfway out of the car door. He was pretty sure that Jaehyun sighed at that, but he was too excited to care, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited for Jaehyun to lock the car. 

When they entered the shelter, Jungwoo headed straight towards the kennels, ignoring whatever the person at the front desk had said. Jaehyun caught up to Jungwoo a few seconds later, he had actually stopped to listen to whatever the lady had to say. 

“She gave me some treats to give the dogs. And you could have some too if you didn’t charge ahead.”

Jungwoo was too busy scratching a golden retriever’s back to care that he didn’t get any treats for the dogs, plus Jaehyun would undoubtedly cave and share the treats with him the minute Jungwoo asked for some. 

“I thought you wanted a puppy? The chart says that this dog is 5 years old.”

“I do want a puppy, but I have to meet all the dogs at the shelter. They deserve love too.” 

Jaehyun sighed, but Jungwoo noticed how several minutes later he was kennel flirting with the chihuahua in the kennel next to where Jungwoo was. Jaehyun liked to act tough, but he was really just a softy.

Jungwoo turned his attention back to the golden retriever whose whole body was shaking with the force that she was wagging her tail. It made Jungwoo smile. 

Eventually, Jungwoo moved onto the next dog, his heart breaking when the golden retriever stopped wagging her tail as he left. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I would adopt you, but Jaehyun’s apartment doesn’t allow big dogs.”

The next dog was small and brown, a mixture of breeds that Jungwoo couldn’t identify. He was curled up in the corner and snarled when Jungwoo crouched in front of his kennel, not moving from his bed. 

“Are you scared? Honestly, I was too. I used to be in a cage just like you, with no hope for my future, but then I got bought, just like you will one day. And it was really scary at first, but then it gets better. One day you’ll have a loving family and this will all just be a distant memory.” The center wasn’t truthfully a distant memory for Jungwoo, more like a scar that would never stop hurting, but he figured the dog’s memory was much poorer than his.

 

After petting every dog in the shelter, they finally reached the puppies. And if Jaehyun thought that seeing Jungwoo play with the dogs was cute, seeing him with the puppies was even cuter.

Jaehyun had asked a worker to let them in with the puppies, so Jungwoo was currently sitting on the ground, the puppies crawling all over his lap, biting at his clothes, chewing on his fingers. Jungwoo didn’t seem to mind, though. In fact, he had the biggest smile on his face that Jaehyun had ever seen and Jungwoo even laughed as one of the puppies tugged particularly hard on his shirt. Honestly, if getting a puppy was all it took to see Jungwoo genuinely happy and laughing, then Jaehyun should have gone to the shelter much sooner. 

“Jaehyun, come pet the puppies. It’s no fun if you just stand there.”

Jaehyun tentatively sat down on the ground next to Jungwoo who thrust a wiggling puppy into his arms. The puppy instantly started to chew at Jaehyun’s fingers, her dark brown eyes looking up at Jaehyun’s adorably. 

“I like this one,” Jaehyun said, stroking the puppy’s soft ears.

“Yeah, she’s really cute. She looks like a beagle so she might howl and stuff, beagles are a loud breed. They’re no husky of course, but they still are quite talkative.” Jungwoo didn’t look at Jaehyun when he spoke, his eyes focused on the puppies in his lap. 

“You’ll be home all day, so it doesn’t matter if she’s loud, you’ll keep her occupied.”

Jungwoo nodded as he removed one of the puppies from chewing at his shirt.

“Also, how do you know so much about different dog breeds? You seem to know everything.” 

Jungwoo shrugged. “Before I wanted to be a nurse I wanted to be a vet so I googled a bunch of stuff about dogs and I even had a huge book of dog breeds and their characteristics. Beagles are hunting dogs and generally make great pets. She would want to play a lot and that would definitely keep me busy.” 

Jungwoo smiled and reached over to Jaehyun’s lap to pet the puppy in this lap. Jaehyun went still at the action, not wanting to move too suddenly and spook Jungwoo. He was surprised that Jungwoo was willingly reaching into an alpha’s personal space, but then again, puppies seemed to make Jungwoo more confident, more comfortable. 

Jungwoo seemed hardly aware of what he was doing as he continued to pet and play with the puppy in Jaehyun’s lap. “What do you think of Bella for a name?”

Jaehyun blinked in surprise. “For this puppy?” He gestured to the beagle in his lap. 

“Do you not like the name? You can always pick one. I really don’t mind. It was only an idea.” Jungwoo’s hand was back in his lap, stroking a puppy that had settled there as he looked at Jaehyun with wide eyes. 

“No, no. Bella is the perfect name. I love it.”

A hint of a smile came over Jungwoo’s face. “Thanks,” he muttered, ducking his head. 

Jaehyun stood up, wrapping Bella in his arms. “Are you ready to go sign the papers?”

Jungwoo nodded and carefully shooed the puppies off his lap, having to detach yet another one from his shirt. 

Once they were let out of the kennel by a worker, Jungwoo reached out his arms towards Bella, and Jaehyun easily transferred the wiggling puppy to Jungwoo who cooed over her and somehow managed to calm her instantly. Jaehyun couldn’t even find it in him to be jealous, he was just impressed by how much Jungwoo seemed to connect with all the dogs. 

Jungwoo stayed silent the entire time Jaehyun was going through the adoption process, not looking up from where Bella was in his lap once. 

Just as Jaehyun was finishing up signing the papers, the worker asked, “So you’re getting a puppy for your omega? Is he a particularly good investment and you thought you’d reward him? Has he been a big help around the house? Or maybe in the bedroom?” 

Jungwoo flinched, but didn’t look up, instead burying his face in Bella’s fur, the puppy looking surprised by the action, but didn’t protest. 

The worker’s words, however, made Jaehyun furious. He took a deep breath and tried not to let his anger leak into his voice. “I got a puppy because Jungwoo wanted one. Nothing more. He’s a person not an object.” 

The worker rolled their eyes, but handed Jaehyun the finalized papers and within a couple of minutes they were back in the car, Jungwoo still not looking up from his lap. 

Jaehyun sighed, “You know that I don’t agree with what the worker said, right? When I said that you’re a person, not an object or slave I meant it.”

Jungwoo nodded, but still kept his eyes firmly trained on Bella in his lap.

“Are you still up for going to the pet store today?” Jaehyun asked as he started the car. “It’s okay to say no, I can always drop you off at home and I can go by myself if you aren’t feeling up for it.”

“I can go,” Jungwoo muttered. 

Jaehyun nodded and pulled out of the parking lot, doubting that Jungwoo actually wanted to go to the pet store right now, but not wanting to protest Jungwoo’s decision. 

 

The trip to the pet store went just about how Jaehyun thought it would. Jungwoo clutched Bella to his chest the whole time and rarely looked up from the ground. He just pointed to the things on the shelf that he wanted and Jaehyun would put them in the cart, while trying to make small talk to no avail. 

“You can put Bella in the cart if your arms are getting tired from carrying her,” Jaehyun offered, but Jungwoo just shook his head and clutched Bella even closer to his chest. The puppy must’ve sensed Jungwoo’s stress because she didn’t wiggle at all or try to escape from Jungwoo’s arms. 

Jaehyun didn’t try to get Jungwoo to set Bella down after that and just accepted that Jungwoo was going to silently suffer through this shopping trip, eyes wide, and flinching everytime they passed another person in the store. 

When they were finally ready to checkout, Jungwoo did his best to hide behind Jaehyun, not even looking up from the floor once. The cashier was blissfully silent, her only remark being that Bella was cute. 

Back in the car, Jaehyun let out a small sigh of relief. How Jungwoo had made it through that trip was a mystery, but Jaehyun was grateful that he hadn’t had another panic attack. 

Bella must’ve helped in that aspect; the puppy was now asleep in Jungwoo’s lap, with Jungwoo slowly stroking her fur. The tension was finally gone from Jungwoo’s shoulders and he looked relaxed for the first time since they left the shelter. 

Jaehyun was happy that at least this trip had gone much better than the first and this time he most likely wouldn’t have to call Ten to come coax Jungwoo out of the car. And now they had a cute new puppy, that made Jungwoo happy, so Jaehyun considered that a success. 

 

Jungwoo honestly only vaguely remembered going to the pet store. There were colors and the feeling of Bella in his arms, but no concrete memories, only flashes of feelings and impressions. 

After the worker at the shelter had spoken, Jungwoo had zoned out. It was too close to what the handlers had spat at him everyday at the shelter, how he had felt during those horrible years. 

The worker spoke those words and Jungwoo’s world went out of focus, everything felt out of reach. He was touching things, but they weren’t real, nothing was. He was only dimly aware of his own body as he followed Jaehyun to the car and then throughout the pet store. The only things that had seemed concrete to Jungwoo was Bella, the little mass of fur in his arms the only thing he could feel, the only thing keeping him tied to earth. 

Now, everything was starting to come back into focus, the fog clearing from Jungwoo’s mind. 

He was sitting on the couch in Jaehyun’s apartment, Bella’s small body curled up in his lap, sleeping. Her adorable face scrunched slightly as she slept and one white paw twitched. Jungwoo couldn’t help but hum and run his hands through her soft, black, white, and brown fur. 

Jaehyun then appeared, sitting down on the couch a healthy distance away from Jungwoo. “I put her bed and toys over in that corner, the water and food bowls by the kitchen, and her collar and leash are by the door. Feel free to move anything however you like, okay?”

Jungwoo nodded, he’d mess around with stuff while Jaehyun was at work tomorrow. 

“And as for a feeding schedule, I figured that I could feed her in the morning since I always wake up first anyways and you could feed her at night? Just so we don’t have any confusion.”

Jungwoo nodded again.

“As for walks, I figure that you don’t want to go outside by yourself?”

“No,” Jungwoo said with a shake of his head.

“So I’ll take her for a quick walk in the morning so that she can go to the bathroom and we can take a longer walk together at night. Maybe Ten or Taeil can over some days to give her a mid-day walk with you? At least until you can get comfortable doing it by yourself.”

Jungwoo was pretty sure he was never going to be able to leave the apartment by himself, but he still responded with a “Sure.”

“Great! I’ll get started on lunch and you get Bella settled in, alright?”

Bella was already asleep, so Jungwoo wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to get her “settled in”, but he didn’t say anything in response and instead opted to shift himself so he was laying down on the couch, curled around Bella. 

 

Jungwoo woke up to Bella licking his face and pawing at his arm. He sat up and she jumped off of the couch to run around and explore the apartment. Bella must’ve found Jaehyun, because pretty soon he was walking into the living room, Bella at his heels.

“Are you hungry? There's a sandwich in the fridge for you, I didn't want to wake you up.”

“Thanks,” Jungwoo muttered, stretching out his stiff muscles.

“Also, everyone wants to come over tonight to meet Bella, but I wanted to check if it was okay with you first.”

Jungwoo was confused why Jaehyun was asking him for permission. It was Jaehyun’s apartment, not Jungwoo’s. “Uh, yeah. They can come over.”

“Great! I’ll text the group chat. Don’t forget to eat lunch.” And then Jaehyun was disappearing back into his room, probably to write some emails or something. He never seemed to stop working, but always claimed that he would have more free time as soon as they finished the project that they were working on. 

To be honest, Jungwoo didn’t really mind that Jaehyun was always busy, especially now that he had Bella to keep him company. Jaehyun being busy meant that there were less awkward moments and Jungwoo didn’t have to be constantly aware. 

 

The rest of the day passed without consequence until dinner time when Ten came bursting through the door, closely followed by Sicheng. “Where’s the puppy?” 

Jungwoo scooped Bella into his arms and Ten and Sicheng were by his side in an instant, rubbing Bella’s ears and cooing over how cute she was while the puppy soaked up all the attention, her tail wagging so hard her whole body was moving. 

The three of them had already transitioned to Jungwoo’s room by the time Johnny and Yuta finally got to the apartment, out of breath from trying to chase after Ten and Sicheng. 

Taeil arrived several minutes later. The fact that he and Taeyong were on time for once spoke mountains to how much they wanted to meet Bella.

Taeil entered Jungwoo’s room holding a stuffed duck squeaky toy that he must have snagged from the living room. At the first squeak of the toy, Bella abandoned her game of tug-a-war with Sicheng and ran over to Taeil who handed her the duck and scooped her up into his arms. “She’s adorable. What do you want to bet that Taeyong will be begging for a puppy after this?”

Ten smirked. “Definitely. Good luck with that.”

“What about you, Sicheng?” Jungwoo asked, laying his head in the other’s lap.

“What about me?”

“Do you want a pet?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really want to bother Yuta with it, I can keep myself occupied at home well enough.” 

Sicheng started to card his fingers through Jungwoo’s hair and Jungwoo hummed in appreciation.

Ten groaned at Sicheng’s statement.

“You know you can ask Yuta for stuff and he won’t get mad or think that you’re being selfish or whatever, right?” Taeil looked up from where he was playing with Bella. Jungwoo swore Taeil had a sixth sense or something. 

“I know,” Sicheng said. “And I ask him for things when it’s important. We get along well.”

“I have his phone number, you know.” 

Sicheng scoffed. “We really do talk every night which is more than Jungwoo and Jaehyun do.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that we went to the park together last night and I even let Jaehyun catch me when I couldn’t get out of the tree.” Jungwoo winced the minute that the words left his mouth and he quickly sat up.

“Why were you in a tree?” Taeil dropped the dog toy in his hand to turn his full attention to Jungwoo. 

“I got excited and then climbed a tree and then I got stuck and Jaehyun helped me get down.”

Taeil sighed. “I feel like I have six kids. You are all adults, why can’t you use your reasoning skills?”

“Six kids? Why are you counting Johnny and I? We have our shit together.” 

“Barely.” Taeil scooped Bella into his arms and she tried to lick his face. “Sometimes I wonder how you all can be such big disasters. When I became friends with Taeyong, Jaehyun, and Johnny in college I had no clue that it would lead to this.”

“I’m cute though,” Jungwoo pouted and poked his cheek, causing Ten to choke and Sicheng to hit his shoulder.

Taeil looked up to the ceiling. “I can feel myself losing brain cells.” 

A knock sounded on Jungwoo’s door, interrupting Taeil’s crisis. “Jungwoo, can I please meet Bella? Jaehyun has been showing us pictures and she looks so cute.” Taeyong’s tentative voice sounded through the door.

Jungwoo picked up the puppy and headed to the door of his room. The instant the door swung open, Taeyong gasped. “Aw, she’s adorable.”

“You can hold her.” Jungwoo carefully transferred Bella into Taeyong’s arms and Taeyong looked like he was about to die of happiness. 

“Do you guys want to come out so we can eat dinner and play with Bella together?”

Ah, that was the real reason Taeyong knocked on the door, he was the representative alpha designated with the task of getting them out of Jungwoo’s room. But Taeyong looked so hopeful and Taeil was nudging Jungwoo’s side, so he had no choice but to agree.

Taeyong’s smile got impossibly bigger and Jungwoo couldn't help but smile back as they all headed to the living room and sat in a loose circle on the rug while Bella ran around from person to person looking like she was having the time of her life. 

For once Jungwoo didn’t feel nervous in the presence of the alphas, in fact his face hurt from how much he had been smiling. Maybe things really were going to be okay. 



Notes:

wow, there's only one more chapter and then this fic is done...