Chamomile

Description

After finishing his witch training years in a small town, Kyungsoo moves to take care of his ailing grandfather and take over as the local apothecary and put his knowledge of herbal remedies to good use.

Chanyeol is one of his new regular customers, who comes up with more and more outlandish problems/requests just to spend more time with serious Kyungsoo.

Foreword

There's something calming about filing through plants and sifting through leaves. He's always felt relaxed in a garden, ever since he was just a baby playing while his mom worked her calm, confident magic. Even before he learned magic, he'd follow his grandparents and parents, mimicking their spells and incantations and looking at the pictures in spell books he couldn't yet read or understand.

His favorite pastime was always shadowing his grandpa and grandma, who ran an apothecary where they specialized in medicinal herbs and remedies. The cottage he and his wife share is larger on the inside, cozy, and always the comfortable level of warm and dry. Herbs hang from the ceiling in bundles to dry out; books fill the shelves along the walls while jars and vials stuff the cabinets. Whenever Kyungsoo spent the night with his grandparents, he'd go to bed with the smells of chamomile and mint and the soft light of a lamp that dimmed as he fell asleep.

Now, he's living with his grandpa, who doesn't move or see as well as he used to. Even he, with all his knowledge and expertise, can't keep up with his own body's natural aging and degradation.

He's napping, now, snoring softly just around the corner of the cottage with a blanket over him and his own black cat heavily on his lap.

Sighing, Kyungsoo rubs his nose—scrubbing the dirt from his face with his shoulder. As much as he enjoys working in the dirt, he doesn't like the taste of it. He brushes off the knees of his pants as he gets to his feet. A pitcher of tea sits on the counter of the shop; he drinks two glasses before pouring a third for his grandpa.

Unexpectedly, but not unwelcome, someone approaches the front walk. “Mr. Do?—Oh.” Kyungsoo looks up at the call, eyebrows raised in acknowledgment. They can't be much older than himself, looking between Kyungsoo and a paper in their hand. “Uh, hi! I'm Park Chanyeol. I am looking for Do Jungsoo?”

Kyungsoo wipes condensation and bit of mud from his hands on his shirt. “Are you picking up an order?”

“Yes?”

“You're not sure?” He doesn't sound like it, but new clients are often skeptical of buying from witches or are just nervous about what to do, as if it's any different than picking up a package from the post office or a prescription from the pharmacy.

“No. I mean—I am! I just—Sorry. My grandma gets a cream for her hands from here and talks about the 'nice man' who makes it, so I guess I was expecting someone...older.” He rubs his neck, ears pink. “I-Is it ready?”

“Yes.” Kyungsoo brushes off his knees as he stands, leaving behind more dirt. “Do Jungsoo is my grandpa. I'm Kyungsoo.” Rounding the counter, he hears a soft greeting and looks over his shoulder to see his black cat on the counter trying to his head against Chanyeol's. “And that's Baekhyun. Push him off the counter, if he’s too annoying.”

Chanyeol doesn’t push him away, although he does try to dodge the demands for attention. “I'm sorry, kitty, but I'm allergic! I'd love nothing more than to love on you, but I literally cannot, or I will never breathe again.”

“I could make something for that.”

“You could?” More excitedly, he adds, “You're a witch?”

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
1fanfic #1
Chapter 1: aww, this was so sweet! :)