🌱un
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Busan was a very busy city.
With bustling streets and beaches that attracted tourists, it was extremely easy to let your head get lost in the cloud of commotion that looked over everybody. It was very easy to forget to listen to the sound of the waves every now and then, and basically second nature to not pay attention to the musical sounds that the birds created.
Forgetting about nature is so simple, if you're just a human living your day to day life.
However, in one of the more rural areas of Busan there is one person who hasn't forgotten the whistle of the morning dove, or the sparkle of the midnight dew drops. There is just one person dwelling within the deepest depths of the forest, surrounding himself with all of the amenities that are provided naturally. Not asking more of the earth than he truly needed to, simply grateful of everything he was already given
Though, he isn't really a person at all. He looks like one, speaks like one, acts like one (most of the time) and wouldn't exactly stand out if he decided to venture into the general public, but he harbours abilities that just aren't in the realm of 'human'.
Jeon Jungkook was Busan's last standing witch, hidden in solitude, and hasn't seen a human being in almost a full decade.
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Nimble fingers plucked each petal off of a moonflower, trained hands making sure not to mar the pure white petals in anyway.
"Five moonflower petals - done." Jungkook dropped the remains of the plant he just harvested into the metal pot in front of him, humming softly as he worked in the comfort of his forest shrouded home. He was hidden from society, a moss and vine covered lump that nobody had even bothered to look for, too occupied with their everyday lives to care all that much to.
Jungkook was what his community would classify as a 'green witch', thriving within nature and celebrating all of the free gifts that Mother Nature had blessed them with. He spent his days meticulously growing and harvesting an array of plants, using them for potions and medications for one day when he finally had somebody to share them with.
That 'one day' didn't seem to be coming soon though.
He was alone, so alone, but he wasn't lonely. There was a distinct difference. One, was a longing for something else, a plead for company. The other, was contentment. Being completely fine with having nobody to share a space with, absolutely happy alone. Jungkook had lived alone for nearly ten years, he was completely accustomed to a life of solitude.
Jungkook brushed a few strawberry blonde pieces of hair out of his eyes and adjusted his pointed hat, before moving to look for the next ingredient for the potion he was working so meticulously on. He wasn't always the only witch in Busan; there actually used to be an abundance, so much to the point where the witch population and human population were equal. Though that may be seen as a good thing, it definitely wasn't. It created an incredibly dangerous environment.
For witches, safety definitely doesn't come in numbers. More witches meant more opportunities for magical exposure and slip ups. Inevitably, those things did happen, and the human population found witches to be an undeniable threat. According to the government, being able to use witchcraft meant having an unfair advantage over regular citizens - a dangerous advantage at that. Witchcraft very quickly became something that just wasn't something that was going to fly with non-magic using community.
The result of the decision was absolutely catastrophic for the witch community in Busan. Anybody even just suspected of being one was murdered in cold blood and stripped of all of the materials they may have had on them at the time - have it be spell books or anything else of the sort. Witches just weren't seen as people anymore. The clouded lenses that the human population looked at them through painted them as absolute monsters that needed to be wiped out.
In the end, seven hundred witches were executed, and the remaining ones fled to neighbouring countries with their families for safety. Jungkook's family, were not some of the lucky ones, his house being raided one day after a human neighbour tipped them off to the authorities. His entire family was killed that day. Jungkook himself only survived due to hiding in a box at the back of his father's closet, trembling in fear, hands pressed firm over his ears to muffle the sounds of his parent's screams.
He still heard them though, even if he wished that he didn't.
Jungkook preferred not to even let himself think of that period in his life though. It would bring him down too far for him to be able to pick himself back up.
He hummed softly as he reached over and flipped through the potion book he had inherited from his grandmother, his dangling earrings swaying as he turned to pick it up. He panned his calloused finger down the page that was yellowed with age, trying his best to spot where he left off last in the recipe.
"Moon man's tears" the potion was called, though a witch from Seoul who was visiting once had told him that modern witches called it "Witch's weed" due to the similarities it held with the human recreational drug. It was one of the potions that his mother had always warned him not to create, and also the one that interested him the most.
The potion stole away sadness, even if only just for a moment. It nullified pain and discomfort, leaving you only with thoughts and feelings that could be considered positive. It never sounded explicitly bad to Jungkook, for what could be the issue with enlisting a little bit of help to feel happy? Jungkook didn't even think he truly did know what happy felt like. He wasn't sure if what he currently felt was happiness, and so his solution was to create a mixture that would cause him to experience nothing but positivity.
Then, he could know what being happy felt like.
Truth be told, he started working on the potion because living without knowing how to be happy was slowly driving him insane.
"One squeeze of lemon juice." Jungkook read the next ingredient aloud, pleased to find that he did in fact have that ingredient as well. He hadn't really prepared to create the potion that day, it only came to mind when he was bored left flipping through the pages of the spell book and came across the page for it. He wasn't exactly sure that he had all of the necessary ingredients, he really was just hoping for the best at that point.
Jungkook set down the book, black painted nails tapping against the leather cover as he thought back to remember where he had left his lemons. His eyes scanned his cracking wooden cupboards, walking over and attempting to remember what he kept in each one.
He opened the first one and was met with various glass jars, many filled with powders and some filled with dried plants. He was hit with a strong, pungent aroma the moment he opened the cabinet, coughing a few times and waving his hand through the air to clear out the area of the smell. "Alright." He muttered. "That's where I keep all of the spices."
The second cabinet was his herbs and greens, more glass containers filled with all of the thins he could possibly need - and then some.
It wasn't until the fourth cabinet that he finally reached the citrus, pleased to see that he did have two lemons left. The recipe only called for one squeeze, and so he grabbed one of the fruits before closing the cabinet and walking back to his work station.
He pulled his birch wood wand out of the custom leather pouch attached to his belt loop, before using it to tap on the lemon twice. The gesture immediately caused the fruit to split itself in half, Jungkook smiling as he watched it do so. He was still a young witch, magic was still so mesmerizing to him.
He picked up the lemon and put exactly one squeeze into the pot, then turning to the book once more to see the next ingredient. It was this ingredient though, that had Jungkook's lips pulling down into a deep frown, completely baffled as to how he could possible get his hands on such an item.
He immediately felt his mood drop as he comprehended exactly what the recipe was asking for. It was something so obscure, so unattainable, that Jungkook was left why it was even put in the book in the first place.
"Three teaspoons of human tears". Absolutely impossible to achieve. Not only would he not dare to get close enough to a human to collect their tears, but three tablespoons was a lot. Jungkook was sure that the witch who crafted the potion had to be out of their minds. It was so extremely dangerous for a witch to be around a human nowadays, how on earth was he supposed to acquire that many tears?
He let out a deflated huff, dropped the book to his dirt floor with a thud. It created a small cloud of dust at the impact, but Jungkook chose not to pay it any mind. He was too busy being more than disappointed, almost pained to learn that he was going to have to give up what he had been so excited for.
Jungkook sighed softly, violet eyes sad as he stared out the window next to him. He watched how the branches of the walnut tree waved to him in the afternoon breeze, allowing a sliver of a smile to grace his lips as he lifted up his hand and waved back gently to the plant.
How would he ever figure out what happiness felt like now? How would he ever be able to tell if he had ever felt it before?
It was right then as he stared sorrowfully at the stiff branches of the fur trees that mostly surrounded his house, Jungkook decided to give up on his old mentality.
He was lonely. He was longing. Longing and pleading for something to make him feel happy. Something that he could look at and confidently say 'that makes me happy.'
He couldn't do that now. He wasn't sure if potions made him happy, or even witchcraft in general. He wasn't even positive that nature made him happy, and he based his whole life around that.
Jeon Jungkook was Busan's last standing witch, and is also pretty sure that was is the loneliest witch in the world.
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