The sound of the small bell above the cafeteria door signaled the last customers to leave. Today had been another labor-intensive day, and Jungkook was prepared to leave the scene and not return for two days.

With automatic movements, Jungkook and his colleagues were in charge of cleaning the premises and leaving it ready for the next day. In less than half an hour, they had everything ready, and they said goodbye to the manager before heading out the door and going home.

"Hey, Kookie." Jimin greeted him when Jungkook got home. "How was the day?"

"Horrible." He replied as he kicked off his shoes and headed for the kitchen. He was hungry, but didn't feel like cooking, so he took out a glass of instant ramen and put it in the microwave. "I couldn't wait to finish."

"The truth is, you don't look very good." Jimin acknowledged as he looked at him with concern. "Tomorrow you can rest all day."

"It would be a positive change, for a change."

"What do you mean by that? Have you had trouble sleeping?"

The young man nodded as he took the glass out of the microwave and joined Jimin on the couch, careful not to wake Taehyung, who was sleeping peacefully on Jimin's lap. "Yeah, I've been sleeping badly for a few nights now."

"When does your heat start?"

Jungkook cocked his head as he chewed, trying to remember the date. It was fortunate that their periods of heat were punctual, at most a day early or late. "It doesn't start for a couple of weeks, so I don't think that's the problem."

This only made Jimin frown. "Maybe you should make an appointment with your doctor. Maybe you lack vitamins."

Jungkook simply shook his head as he finished the last bite and got up to throw the glass away. "It sure is from stress, hyung. Do not worry."

"Insurance?" The alpha asked not very convinced.

The young man nodded. "This week we have been at full capacity. I think my body needs to rest and recover from stress. I'm sure it will pass me." Jungkook assured him.

Jimin was still not entirely convinced, but he knew that the week had been difficult for the two omegas. Proof of this was seeing Taehyung sleeping during a report on the best science fiction movies. "It's okay. Rest, Kookie."

"Good night, hyung."

Back in his room, Jungkook closed the door softly and began to prepare for sleep. Despite the fact that the week had been complete hell in the cafeteria, that was not the real problem that kept him from falling asleep.

To be honest, the first time it happened, he didn't pay much attention to it, after all, sometimes your body and mind aren't able to completely disconnect even if your eyes are closed. Also, the work in the cafeteria had started to increase little by little, and that was the next cause the young man thought about for his problem.

However, the real motive was something much simpler.

After meeting Yoongi a couple of weeks ago, Jungkook had decided to make the most of the alpha essence, and had put the clothes he had worn that night under his pillow. Jimin and Taehyung would never snoop around his room without his permission, so he wasn't afraid that they would find out what he had done.

It wasn't a bad thing, but it was desperate. At the time, Jungkook was just like every other omega in the nightclub. Just as they were trying to get an alpha with which to quench his desire, Jungkook clung to a scent that he couldn't have and that would fade with time.

The essence of a person, be it alpha, beta or omega, does not last in time. Some may last longer than others, but over time they end up disappearing, leaving a void in their wake, as if they had never been there.

And Jungkook wanted to remember Yoongi, not just as a memory in his memory, but as something physical, palpable. While his scent was fresh, Jungkook slept like a baby, feeling wrapped in the fragrance he perceived. He could almost feel that Yoongi was by his side.

As the days went by, and as expected, the smell faded, but the young man continued to sleep peacefully. Days after the scent finally disappeared, and Jungkook began to spin around during the night, the young omega realized that his lack of rest was related to the absence of the alpha's scent.

From the beginning he knew that this would happen, but that did not make reality easier to assimilate. In fact, Jungkook didn't expect the absence of Yoongi's scent to affect him in this way.

It was hard not to think about him as he tossed and turned in bed, knowing that the only thing that could calm him was his scent. But for his own sake, Jungkook had to turn the page and move on with his life, just as he had been doing before meeting Yoongi.

It wasn't going to be easy, but it wasn't impossible. Besides, it wasn't like he had any other option. After all, he would be in heat in a couple of weeks, and it wasn't convenient to think of an alpha who couldn't be by his side, helping him through the process. That would only make it more painful.

With a resigned sigh, Jungkook went to bed, gazing at the starry sky from his window, hoping that the stillness of the night and the soft glow of the stars would lull him to sleep.

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The days passed slowly, but at least he could sleep a little better. Jungkook would like to say that he had developed some immunity to the absence of Yoongi's scent, that he had forgotten the place he occupied under his pillow, but the truth is that he had not. He had had to turn to his hyungs in an attempt to cope with the loss of something that had never become his.

It was something that Jungkook did not understand, but that his animal part kept reminding him over and over again. Of course, he didn't tell them that his problem had to do with Yoongi, as he knew there was nothing they could do to fix it.

He tried to make it look as if it were a side effect that his heat was near, that he missed home and his parents, just as it had happened the first few times he had been in heat away from home. And just like on those occasions, Jimin and Taehyung made sure that he was surrounded by their scents, that comforting smell that he associated with a second family.

The two of them made sure to cover Jungkook with their scent to give him that feeling of protection and security, hoping it was enough to relax him, to rest him.

The morning before going into heat, Jungkook's body began to undergo the typical changes that all omega undergo when they have to go through this phase. It didn't take him by surprise, since his cycles were regular, but he could feel that this time the whole process was going to be much more intense. And he was not wrong.

The heat he felt was too suffocating, and made him feel like he was going to spontaneously combust; no odor could completely calm him and his skin was more sensitive than usual. Everything he was going through was something normal in his situation, but the intensity with which all those reactions had appeared scared him, because he was not even at the height of his heat, he had barely started the first day.

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Story by @nometoloco in Ao3

And here's the first chapter to the sequel of All I Want Is You!!