Jungkook awakes to an incessant and very rude knocking at his door at approximately o’clock in the morning. He groans and rolls onto his back, flopping his arm over his face as though it could block out the noise. The knocking comes again, even louder this time. Jungkook just groans again in response, also louder this time. The knocking refuses to cease, however, and Jungkook thinks he hears a voice call his name too, so he finally, extremely reluctantly rolls out of bed—literally, lying on the floor in a heap for a few moments while he mentally and physically prepares himself to get up. Once he manages that, he shuffles to the door on autopilot with eyes still mostly closed, not even bothering to change or wash up. From the voice, he figures it’s Hoseok at the door, so it’s not like he needs to.

“Wha’ d’you wan’?” he grumbles out in a slur as he swings open the door, but instead of being met with the sight of Hoseok, through his sleepy gaze all he sees is a weird purple alien—or something.

He blinks, rubs at his eyes with one hand while the other still rests on the door to hold it open, but nope. He can still see a strange mass of purple in front of him.

“Jeez, did you just wake up?” comes a voice, and it definitely sounds like Hoseok’s voice. Maybe the purple alien ate Hoseok and stole his voice? What if it’s like No Face?

Jungkook rubs his eyes again to try and get them to open more than the squint they’re currently at—and stay open, at that—but it seems like too much effort so he just closes them and stands there with a furrowed brow and closed eyes, in his week-old pyjamas, undoubtedly with messy and probably greasy hair.

He hears Hoseok—or the alien?—sigh, and then say in a slightly softer voice than before, “Kook, you know it’s three p.m., right?”

Jungkook hums, a weird gravelly sound that doesn’t much sound like his own voice.

“How do I know you’re not lying and this isn’t just some weird tactic so you can eat me like you ate Hoseok?”

He hears laughing then, which very much sounds like Hoseok’s laughter.

“Kookie, open your eyes.”

Screwing his eyes shut, Jungkook shakes his head, refusing to do anything the freaky alien tells him to. He hears rustling, then feels something that feels very much like a human hand caress and pat his cheek. Finally, he peeks open one eye a little, still seeing the purple thing but now realising that it is not an alien, but in fact, a plant, nestled in the crook of Hoseok’s arm, hugged close to his body. He manages to lift his gaze, and there is Hoseok, very much there and not eaten or possessed by a strange extraterrestrial creature.

“Oh,” he says lamely, unsure what he’s even responding too.

“Jesus,” Hoseok mutters, studying Jungkook’s features, “How much sleep exactly have you had?”

Jungkook shrugs. “Some.”

“When was the last time you ate? Showered?”

Jungkook shrugs again.

“You need to take better care of yourself,” Hoseok shakes his head, and his mouth does that thing where it downturns and makes him look like a kicked puppy and Jungkook immediately feels guilty.

“I came here to give you this,” Hoseok continues, lifting the purple not-alien up slightly, “To help motivate you to look after yourself better, and to make your dump of a room look livelier.”

“Um.” Jungkook blinks, staring at Hoseok blankly through still squinted eyes. “Thanks?”

“It’s supposed to be pretty easy to look after, so you won’t have to do much, but still, thought it might help. The owner recommended this plant when I told him what i was looking for, so.” He pauses. “It’s an oxalis triangularis. You look far too out of it to remember how to care for it so I won’t even bother, but it says it on the little card in the soil.”

Hoseok transfers the plant to the palm of his hands and holds it out for Jungkook to take.

“Anyway, I gotta go, but you take care of yourself, okay? Go back to sleep, make sure to eat something, and drink lots of water! Please talk to me if you ever need to, too. Okay?”

Jungkook nods dumbly, taking the plant and eyeing it warily, still not entirely convinced it isn’t some kind of supernatural being. Hoseok plants a kiss on his cheek and waves goodbye, and then he just, disappears—or maybe Jungkook falls asleep on the spot and misses seeing him leave.

Mustering up all his energy, he pushes himself away from the frame of the door and shuts the door, making his way over to the window sill as steadily as he can manage. He slides aside the curtains so he can place the oxalis on it. He spots the card that Hoseok mentioned sticking out of the soil, and takes it between his fingers, glaring at the words to try and make sense of them, but they just look like obscure squiggles that seem to swim around on the card. Giving up, he sets the card beside the plant pot and admires the little purple shrub instead. There’s a few tiny lilac-pink flowers peeking out of a nest of deep purple leaves which look remarkably like butterflies. The three leaves on the end of one stalk are folded upwards, making a sort of cocoon, so Jungkook taps it, watching in surprise as the butterfly wing leaves unfurl to reveal… a fairy? Jungkook blinks a few times, but it’s still there, curled up in the centre point of the three leaves, apparently fast asleep. Soft looking mint-blue hair fades into a lilac-pink at the tips, matching the shade of the tiny blossoms above… him? Jungkook thinks it’s a him. Do fairies have genders? Either way, the fairy is clad in a large, flowy white shirt that almost completely obstructs the white shorts he—it? they?—has on underneath, while a set of gorgeous, translucent mint and lilac-pink butterfly-esque wings extend from between its shoulder blades. It is most probably the prettiest sight Jungkook has ever laid eyes on.

“Yep, I’m going back to sleep,” Jungkook announces to no one in particular, deciding he must be worse off than he thought if he’s having hallucinations this vivid. That, or his initial suspicions were correct, and it really is an alien not a plant, and it did eat Hoseok which is why he seemed to vanish earlier. Definitely the more likely explanation.

After closing the curtains on the light and the demon plant and its fairy inhabitant, Jungkook collapses back onto his bed and falls asleep in record time.

 

It’s only about an hour later when Jungkook wakes again. He’s still tired, but forces himself to get up anyway. After washing up and throwing on a slightly more decent set of clothes, he goes to open the curtains and almost screams upon finding the oxalis sitting behind them. He quickly recovers, remembering the events from earlier, only to scream again when a tiny head of mint and lilac-pink hair pops out from under a leaf, the colour a stark yet stunning contrast to the sea of byzantium surrounding him. He scrambles back a few paces, but all the while unable to look away from the pretty little fairy that has now fully emerged from under the leaves, bare feet resting on the purple surface, delicate wings fluttering slightly at his back, presumably to keep his weight light so the leaf doesn’t curl over.

“What the ,” Jungkook eventually says, extremely eloquently. Either he’s still hallucinating, or there really is a fairy—like, an actual, real life, living fairy—in front of him right now.

He steps closer again, curiosity getting the better of his fear. He reaches a finger out towards the fairy before he can rationalise his action, and the fairy shrinks back a little, tiny hands curling around the stalk of a flower as he pulls the stem in front of himself in a feeble attempt to hide.

“Hello?” the fairy calls out quietly, and Jungkook blinks in surprise at the voice. He was expecting it to sound high pitched and squeaky, like in the movies, but instead it just sounds like a regular human voice—and a deep one at that—just a lot quieter.

“Um,” Jungkook replies, retracting the hand that was reaching out towards the mini creature. “Are you real? Or a figment of my imagination?”

The fairy chuckles a little, moving the flower stem a little to the side so his face is unobstructed, but not enough to fully come out from behind it. “I’m real.”

Jungkook squints his eyes. “How do I know that’s not just my imagination telling me that?”

The fairy flaps his wings twice, not flying, but the movement catches the sunlight, making his iridescent wings glitter and glisten and glimmer. Jungkook is awestruck. Then the fairy does fly—only a little, just fluttering to a leaf higher up on the plant to get a better look at Jungkook, though still partially hiding behind some of the other stems.

“I don’t think I could imagine something as beautiful as you,” Jungkook mutters, and swears he sees the fairy’s cheeks tinge pink at his words.

“Do you have a name?” he asks, because it, if he’s seeing a fairy in this mysterious plant, he might as well indulge himself and get the most out of his potential hallucination. How often will he get the chance to have a perfectly realistic and vivid interaction with a fairy?

“It’s Yoongi,” comes the fairy’s soft response. Jungkook thinks the name suits him.

“Hi, Yoongi,” Jungkook says gently, “I’m Jungkook. Sorry if I scared you, but well, I was scared too, so.”

Yoongi doesn’t reply, just keeps looking at Jungkook from behind the green stalk with a mixture of wariness and curiosity.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he reassures him.

Sighing upon receiving no response again, he decides to leave him be. He spots the card laying abandoned by the side of the plant pot and picks it up, now able to actually comprehend the words on it. Hoseok wasn’t lying; it does seem pretty easy to look after. Occasional watering, taking care it doesn’t dry out but making sure the water can drain from the soil, keep at roughly room temperature, shouldn’t need repotting for a while. He flips the card over and is surprised to find another set of instructions on the back, written in faint silver writing.

 

How to care for your fairy:

 

1. Make sure they get plenty of water

2. A diet of sugar, honey and fruits is ample

3. Give your fairy plenty of attention

4. Let them sleep for a few hours twice a day

5. Make sure to let them outside frequently

 

 

Jungkook blinks at the instructions, making sure they really are there. Did Hoseok know about this? Why had no one ever told Jungkook that fairies were real? Or is he hallucinating this too?

He sets the card aside again and looks back at the plant. Yoongi is sitting with his legs dangling over the side of a leaf, elbows resting on his thighs and head resting on his palms as he watches Jungkook.

“Do you know if the plant needs watering yet?” Jungkook asks him, and then, “Do you need watering?”

Yoongi giggles, but nods despite Jungkook’s odd phrasing. “Yes, please.”

“Okay, cool, let me go…” Jungkook turns, still in a bit of a daze if he’s honest. He picks up his empty water bottle from his desk and braves the world beyond his room to fill it up in his flat’s shared kitchen, secretly praying that it is empty right now.

Thankfully, it is. He takes out his container of sugar too, and then a banana for himself, figuring he probably needs to eat too. He returns to his room with the items, setting them down on the windowsill to check how dry the soil is. Deciding it’s probably too dry, he pours a little water onto it, Yoongi now on a leaf lower down, leaning over it so he’s practically hanging upside down as he follows the movement of Jungkook’s hand with his eyes. Jungkook wouldn't be able to stop the smile that forms on his lips because of it if he tried. Yoongi sits up again once Jungkook is done, looking up at him with sparkly eyes.

Jungkook pauses, water bottle still in hand, trying to figure out how to give Yoongi water. His eyes land on the bottle cap, and he carefully pours a few drops into it before picking it up between his index finger and thumb and giving it to Yoongi.

“Wait,” the fairy says before hopping down from the leaf to perch on the edge of the plant pot. He holds his arms out and Jungkook places the bottle cap in them, trying to refrain from crying at the sight. The bottle cap looks huge in Yoongi’s little arms.

After taking a few sips, Yoongi holds the cap towards Jungkook.

“Now water yourself too,” he says earnestly, and Jungkook’s not actually sure how he’s not crying right now.

“Okay, I will,” he says but doesn’t make to take Yoongi’s offered bottle cap of water, which causes the little fairy to pout and that’s just. Not fair.

“Thank you, Yoongi, I’ll drink from here,” Jungkook says, picking the water bottle back up. “Okay?”

Yoongi nods, retracting the bottle cap but continuing to pout until Jungkook takes a gulp of water, and then it’s replaced with the most dazzling smile Jungkook’s ever seen, all pink gums and pearly teeth and just cutecutecute and Jungkook's honestly shocked and impressed that he manages to swallow the water without choking. He ends up downing about half the bottle after, and yeah, he really needs to remember to drink more water.

He plops himself on the foot of his bed, so he’s still close to the window sill, and starts peeling his banana. Upon realising he doesn’t have a knife, he breaks the tip off with his fingers, squishing it a bit in the process and getting it all over his fingers but still managing to get a solid piece out of it. He reaches over and offers it to Yoongi, who happily takes it.

They eat in silence for a few moments, not having or needing anything to say. To Jungkook’s surprise, Yoongi flutters over and perches on his thigh, sitting there while he finishes the rest of his little piece of banana.

If this is a dream, it sure is one hell of a dream. Jungkook really hopes it’s not a dream.

 

The day passes rather uneventfully after that, Jungkook begrudgingly working on some of his assignments. Yoongi decides to join him at his desk at some point, sometimes sitting on the edge of the bookshelf above it and swinging his legs as he watches, sometimes planting himself on the desk itself a little ways beside Jungkook’s laptop.  Somehow, having the little fairy there motivates him to keep working, and not give up and just go to sleep again.

And then after a few hours when Yoongi nudges his hand and just says “food,” it reminds him that yes, he does in fact need to eat. Granted, his fridge is empty save for the crust pieces of a loaf of bread, some random condiments, and one very browned banana left, but he finds a box of frozen pizza at the bottom of his freezer drawer and well, it’s better than nothing.

“What were you working on?” Yoongi asks, once they’re both sitting and eating their respective meals of pizza and sugar.

“Just some stuff,” Jungkook sighs. “I have an essay due on Wednesday and I only just started working on it because I’m stupid.”

“You still have a few days though,” Yoongi offers some reassurance. “Tell me about it. Only if you want, of course! I just don’t get to hear much about stuff, you know, since I live in a plant and all.”

“Oh! You’d be interested in my boring law essay?”

“Yeah, why not?”

So Jungkook talks about his essay and that helps too, to sort out the he actually knows from what he’s just bulting and of course what he doesn’t know at all. Then Yoongi tells him about the plant shop owner and about plants in general, and later calms Jungkook down when he glances at the oxalis and sees the leaf triads folding downwards and freaks out. Reassures him that that’s just what the plant does at night. Afterwards, Jungkook gets a little bit more work done, but soon enough he’s so exhausted he can barely function, having to read the same sentence at least fifty times before just one of the words in it starts to have some kind of meaning to him. Needless to say, he decides he’s better off going to sleep, even if he practically slept through the whole day already.

He’s surprised, however, to hear a pretty melody drifting through his room from the window sill once he comes out of the bathroom. He’s tired and everything is spinning, so he has half a mind to believe it’s all in his head, but when he takes a closer look, sure enough, Yoongi is sitting in the centre of a triad of leaves, serenely strumming on what looks to be a tiny golden harp. Even through squinted eyes and slightly distorted vision, Jungkook can appreciate how gorgeous the combination of all the colours is—mint and pink hair, white clothes, golden harp, aubergine leaves. Jungkook has no idea where Yoongi got the harp from, or where he’d kept it until now, or how such a tiny version of the instrument sounds like the real deal, just quieter, but honestly he couldn't care less because the sound is so beautiful and he's so tired and this is just making him feel like he could drift off right where he stands.

Until it stops, suddenly.

“Oh, I’m not disturbing you, am I?” Yoongi asks bashfully.

Jungkook shakes his head. “Not at all. Um. Please, keep playing, actually.”

Yoongi flashes him a small but warm smile. “Okay.”

Jungkook collapses into his bed, and the faint music from Yoongi’s harp manages to lull him to sleep, far quicker than he normally does.

 

Yoongi is asleep when Jungkook awakes properly, and he regrets that he can’t greet him before leaving for class. Instead, he refills the bottle cap with water and leaves a spoon with some sugar in it on the side for him, taking the ugly brown banana for himself. He makes a note to buy honey and sugar cubes for Yoongi, then adds fruit and actual food to the list too, remembering the desolate state of his fridge.

The whole day, he’s pretty much only thinking about going home and seeing Yoongi again, which, isn’t the best for his focus, but it’s not like he actually focused in lectures before anyway. If he even managed to show up for them, that is. However, it does actually help him get through the day, give him something to look forward to returning to, something to keep going for, even if he’s only in until one p.m. today. And yeah, he’s only had his plant and Yoongi for one day, but still. Still. It overrules the constant thoughts of imsotiredimsotiredimsotired that he normally has.

Upon arriving back at his room, he drops his bag carelessly on the floor and immediately goes to the oxalis, only, Yoongi doesn’t seem to be there. None of the leaves are folded up, so he can’t be sleeping inside, and Jungkook can’t see him anywhere else. He had one job, he was literally responsible for one ing thing, and he’s already gone and ed it up and lost Yoongi after only one day. Before he can start full-blown panicking though, he hears a tiny voice call out above him.

“Kookie!”

He looks up and, oh. There Yoongi is, sitting on the curtain rail, legs dangling over the side. Not lost. He flutters down gently and Jungkook doesn’t know why, but he finds himself holding out his palm. Yoongi lands on it and smiles up at Jungkook, who would smile back if he wasn’t so awestruck every time Yoongi did, well, anything, if he’s honest, but especially when he smiled. He may only be a few inches tall, but his smile is still big enough to dazzle whoever is lucky enough to lay eyes on it into a stunned daze. Jungkook absently wonders again if the plant is indeed a demon monster, and if Yoongi is part of an elaborate ploy to get to Jungkook, by dazzling him with Yoongi’s immense beauty and downright adorableness to distract him, and then the plant will strike while he's displaying weakness. Jungkook figures even if that were the case, he wouldn’t even mind.

“Yoongi,” Jungkook finally remembers to reply. “How are you?”

“Good,” Yoongi replies, plopping down rather unceremoniously to sit on Jungkook’s palm, legs stretched out in front of him. “How was your day?”

Jungkook shrugs. “It’s better now that I’m with you.”

Yoongi’s tiny, round cheeks colour pink, just a little. Almost enough to match the tips of his hair.

Jungkook goes about his normal routine after, keeping Yoongi on his hand until he realises that he, in fact, needs his hand, so he transfers him to his shoulder instead. He gets some of his mini-tests out of the way before his stomach growls particularly loudly, causing Yoongi to insist he get up and have some food. He’s so used to his stomach rumbling just to ignore it, that it feels weird to actually act on his hunger now. Normally, if he just ignores it for a while he stops feeling hungry, so he doesn’t bother to eat until night, or the next morning, depending. But with Yoongi looking at him with tiny big puppy eyes under his pink bangs and insisting so sweetly, he just can’t deny him.

They sit on Jungkook’s bed after Jungkook’s eaten, Yoongi still perched on his shoulder, liking the vantage point and the closeness to Jungkook, and later when he looks in the mirror, Jungkook realises he liked plaiting Jungkook’s hair too. He’s lying down on his front, head resting in his palms as he watches Jungkook cut an apple, then reach for the honey on the window sill to pour over the slices in his plate.

“Here,” Jungkook says, handing Yoongi a little piece of honey-drizzled apple, although struggling to actually see the tiny fairy who’s nestled closer to Jungkook’s neck than his shoulder. Yoongi sits up as he accepts it, taking a bite only after Jungkook has.

That night, he falls asleep again to the melodious playing of Yoongi’s harp, and it’s not quite as restless as it usually is.

 

The routine repeats the next day, only Jungkook has a much longer day at university, much to his displeasure, but the relief and comfort he feels already, after only three days, upon coming home to Yoongi softly playing the harp is incomparable. Jungkook lets himself take a break from working to listen to Yoongi. Later, Jungkook finds out that Yoongi loves watching him cook.

As with the previous two nights, its to the sound of that sweet harp, this time accompanied by Yoongi’s soft humming, that Jungkook falls asleep.

 

Yoongi falls asleep curled up in Jungkook’s hair the next day. And curled up in his hoodie's pouch pocket another.

 

The days keep passing like that, and Jungkook is slowly but surely developing healthier habits, whether it’s because of Yoongi reminding him or insisting that he do it, or whether it’s him doing things for himself unknowingly by doing things for Yoongi. Things like actually going outside and letting his skin see the sun and actually using his muscles instead of lying in his bed all day like he usually would, when he goes for weekend walks in the park under the fairy's insistence, with Yoongi fluttering around him and admiring all the plants they pass by, and sometimes flying off only to come back with arms full of flowers which he then spends the rest of the time weaving into Jungkook's hair.

Things like eating fruit, when he shares it with Yoongi, since Yoongi can’t eat the whole piece on his own. Or remembering to eat, in general.

Things like remembering to drink water whenever he waters the plant, or gives Yoongi some.

He’s so grateful to Hoseok for unknowingly or not bringing Yoongi—and the plant—into his life.