No One Saved Me ||KookV||

Extra: Scent

It was the third year of Taehyung's death. 

No matter how advanced the technology was, it couldn't make the increasingly faint pheromone scent last. Jungkook suffered from insomnia, anxiety, and even mania every day and night. 

When he thought that Taehyung's existence was about to completely disappear, he was terrified. He called the Science and Technology Institute, urging them to quickly find a way to preserve Taehyung's scent — now, he could hardly smell any scent of that person's existence.

Researchers at the Science and Technology Institute were exceedingly troubled. If it was a living person, pheromones could be extracted using a serum to generate the smell. Now that the person was dead, asking them to extract the residual pheromones from that person's used pillows, sheets, and quilts to retain the smell from three years ago... It's extremely difficult, everlasting retention was simply impossible.

The researcher helplessly explained to Jungkook. 

Seeing that he was still obsessed, he said, "As for Mr Taehyung's scent preservation, we have done everything we can. The only thing we can do now is to simulate his scent. What do you think, Mr Jungkook?"

The long period of insomnia made Jungkook seem to have changed into a completely different person. His head often hurt, his personality became anxious and irritable, and he also became temperamental - often speaking with indifference one second, and the next second, he would throw things and get furious. People around him avoided him. 

His life... except for work, had become increasingly lonesome because of this. It would be nice if Taehyung was still by his side. 

Often, one would only realize the importance of a person once they were gone. 

The home-cooked food that he was used to, the smell of the warm home whenever he came back, and the faint smell of red wine from his cheap artificial gland gradually encroached on his life over time - he was unmoved by it at that time. 

It wasn't until Taehyung left that he realized that these things that were usually ignored would be ferociously fought back in the future. Until now, not only did he have difficulty sleeping, but even when he had finally fallen asleep, he never saw... Taehyung in his dreams. 

He never even kept a picture of Taehyung. He was deeply saddened and pained to think that Taehyung had carefully cut out a photo of the two of them back then-to this day, he would touch that photo repeatedly before going to bed.

Taehyung...

He ignored Taehyung for a whole decade. That person ended up killing himself. He even hung up on him in disgust before he died. Taehyung was previously tortured by two extreme pheromones, as well as severe depression. He was the executioner who killed the only person in the world who loved him silently, without asking for anything in return.

Jungkook lay on Taehyung's former bed, staring at the ceiling with wide-open eyes, unable to hold back his silent tears again just by thinking of what kind of despair that person had died in. 

It's been three years.

 He could no longer smell Taehyung's scent at all. When the researcher asked him, his eyes lit up and deluded himself into thinking... 

Taehyung would be coming back soon.

"May I ask how it needs to be simulated?" 

He pursed his lower lip and asked, "... Is it like an imitation?"

 The researcher said, "We need Mr Jungkook to give us a detailed description, and if necessary, Mr Jungkook is also required to participate in the development. We will also... do our best."

Taehyung smelled like an extraordinary red wine. Jungkook never smelled such a special and attractive mellow scent on someone else. Later, Taehyung's scent was tinged with the cheap sweetness unique to the omega artificial gland, as if a cheap sweet drink had been maliciously poured into a glass of precious red wine. 

He used to miss Taaehyung's original pheromone scent, so much so that he began to hate him later. However, he didn't expect to also miss Taehyung's later scent. Because... no matter how the scent changed, it was still Taehyung.

It was rare for him to be distracted from his work to engage in scientific research. His employees who were "enslaved" by him were secretly glad that the workload had finally been reduced recently. There was no need to worry about what they did wrong and being called upstairs to be scolded by Mr Jungkook, and some unlucky ones were even directly fired by Mr Jungkook.

Since Taehyu- they were now afraid to mention the name of that person- after he left, Jungkook almost became a completely different person. From the indifferent work machine of the past... to the demonic boss of the present...

Three years. 

President Jeon was still single. Some time ago, he solemnly introduced his deceased partner... Kim Taehyung? 

All the staff of the company felt that Jungkook had gone crazy. In personal matters. In terms of work-related matters, due to the increase in salary, they were not too willing to leave their jobs even though the work was hard and tiring.

Ugh.

Jungkook devoted almost hundred percent of his energy to scientific research. Regarding the development of the new scent simulation, he calculated that seven percent of it came from Taehyung's own red wine scent while three percent came from the artificial gland.

In fact, even if it was developed... It was only the smell of pheromones. But he always felt as if by completing it, he could delude himself into pretending that Taehyung was still with him. He anxiously waited for a year, and finally, the science and technical staff came to his house with samples of the research results.

 He almost ecstatically opened the lid and leaned over to smell. That's right, seven parts red wine scent, three parts artificial gland scent...

But, that's not what Taehyung smelled like. 

What went wrong?

The smell dissipated so quickly that the room was filled with that strange mixture of smells. For the first time, Jungkook felt the reality, as if he drowned in an abyss of despair. 

Although he was sorrowful, remorseful, and in pain, because of the remnants of Taehyung's scent before, his faint scent gave him a little bit of comfort.

And now-

It was all gone.