continuation to "that night" on demand

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aera hurries down the stairs, holding her roller skates in her hands and a small bag pack on her back as she tries to sneak away without catching anybody's attention.

the morning itself wasn't that pleasant when the rest of the boys came to know about what happened last night and how jungkook left the house. even though aera hated this and wanted to change things from how they are, all her attempts were going in vain. the elders just wouldn't listen to her and quiet her down claiming that she's young and has less understanding of right and wrong.

all she wanted was jungkook back and jimin to make up with him.

but the elders believed she was just a child who didn't see all aspects of the situation which is why she could favour jungkook over everything. she knew they were wrong with this conclusion about her and even jungkook's, because she remembered clearly that jimin didn't hear him out. in spite of always telling aera to not judge anyone or anything without knowing the full thing, jimin himself was making the exact mistake of judging the younger brother without even knowing what happened with him.

aera couldn't even hug jungkook or tell him that she loves him and was waiting for him to come back from his party. she knew he wouldn't do anything wrong on purpose or to hurt anyone. her brother is not a bad guy, and she had to see him no matter what.

so she ventures out, sighing in relief once she's reached the main door and sits on the last step, putting on her roller skates that would help her find jungkook without getting that tired.

"aera?" yoongi's voice calls from inside, giving her a mini panic attack as she ducks down quickly shifting behind the bushes by the driveway and shuts her eyes, praying god to let her get away without anyone noticing. "where are you kiddo?"

she keeps quiet, focusing on securing her skates on her feet and nods firmly, peeking her head slowly to check if yoongi left or not. on not seeing him there, a sigh of relief heaves out of her lips, standing up as she dusts herself off, almost skating away when a hand catches her onto place by her bag pack.

"ah ah! ouch..." she mumbles, falling on her butt, gradually lifting her head up with a pout to find yoongi standing there with a questioning gaze and his hands on his hips, "appa... i- i was going out to get snacks, i'm hungry,"

"there are snacks at home," he lets her know.

she laughs nervously, "i was joking, i wanted to see some birdies in the park,"

"birdies...?"

"yeah," she nods, "i should go, or the birdies will go home and it'll get late. and i've to come back before the curfew y'know?"

"aera," yoongi sighs deeply, massaging his temples and crouches down as she's still sitting on the cemented pavement, "where were you going?"

"to see the birdies and take pictures of them," she says more confidently this time and turns to pount at her bag, "i've bread for them too, you wanna see?"

"yeah, show me," yoongi plays along, making her gulp thickly as she didn't think he would actually ask her to show him the bread for all she had seen in t.v. was people falling for that question and confidence, never really asking for real proof. "show me," he repeats and watches her clutching the straps of the bag tightly.

"i forgot to take the bread i think..." she laughs again, shaking her head at her silliness and stands up, "don't worry appa, i'll buy some on the way."

"don't try to fool me, aera. you're not going anywhere."

"what's going on?" jimin comes out too, crossing his arms as he finds aera with a bag and yoongi telling her to come inside. "where are you going?"

"to feed the birdie– birds," she sighs, "can i go?"

"birds...?" jimin gives her weird look, "you wanna feed birds out of nowhere?"

"uhm yeah, i feel like doing something good."

"well clean your room for the starters and then do your homework,"

"i did my homework, it's done you can check!" aera emphasises, looking at him with a huff, "and now i'm going out, bye!"

"aera," yoongi says, "you're not going anywhere."

"but appa–"

"i said no," yoongi voices out more firmly and pats her back, nodding towards the house, "get in,"

aera looks down, nodding slowly and bends down to take off the skates which yoongi allows and starts walking back, giving her time to sneak away, "sorry appa!" she says, skating away as fast as she can, seeing yoongi and jimin glaring from the gate, letting her know that she's in trouble when she comes back.

aera cares less, focusing ahead of her and goes to the nearest park where she stops for a moment, pulling out her phone from her bag and calls on jungkook's number, hoping he would pick up as soon as possible, at least before jimin or anyone else comes out to take her back.

"hello? aera?" it's not her brother who answers but his friend, making her sigh on the line, "jungkook is sleeping right now, is it something urgent?"

"uhm kinda', where is he? i wanted to see him,"

"we're at my place," daniel says.

"oh okay, i'll come in a few minutes,"

"alright, how are you coming? do you want me to pick you up?"

"no no, it's fine. i'll come by myself. bye," she says before hanging up and makes her way towards daniel's house for she had gone there a few times with jungkook and knew the way enough to get there without getting lost.

as the distance to daniel's place decreases, aera feels her eyes getting teary, remembering how bad he was hurt when she saw him yesterday and even now his friend said he was sleeping, means he really must be in a bad condition. she rubs her eyes, messing up that instant and breaks into a sob as she fell down. a few people stop by, gasping on seeing tears rolling down her lips when they help her up and dust off the clothes, asking if she's okay.

aera just nods slowly, dusting her burning hands and ignoring the blood surfacing up on her knee and elbow, making her way to daniel's place to see jungkook. he's hurt way more than this. rubbing away the tears frequently from her eyes, she finally reaches the house, taking off the skates and climbs up the stairs, pressing the doorbell a few times.

"danny oppa, open the door!" she calls.

"coming!" she hears and soon the door is opened, revealing a messy-haired daniel, probably just awaken too. "hey, come in," he says with a soft smile which doesn't last long as his eyes notice her tears, "why are you crying? and how did you get hurt?"

"i fell on the way," she shrugs, "where's jungkookie?"

"ah he's upstairs, come," he pats her back, leading her upstairs to a room, "go in, i'll get something to treat your wound,"

aera says nothing and opens the door slowly, peeking inside, having the tears back when she finds jungkook laying on the bed, sleeping peacefully. there are bandages on him though, one on his eyebrow, one on his cheek and some ointment on the side of his lower lip. she rubs her eyes, approaching him quietly and sits on the bed, tugging on the blanket to see his hands for she remembers seeing blood dripping yesterday.

a wince breaks out, holding his hand wrapped with white bandages, "koo..." she whispers out, wiping her tears and leans forward to hug his sleeping body.

jungkook groans lightly, turning to his side with his eyes opening slowly until he notices the person hugging him is none other than his sister. he sighs softly, bringing his arm up and wraps it around her tightly, kissing the side of her face a few times, "ri..."

"i missed you," aera mumbles, blinking away her tears as she pulls away slowly when he tries to bring her under the covers with him. she shakes her head, glancing at her knee where the blood is still there, not wanting to ruin daniel's bedsheets.

jungkook however, follows her gaze and frowns, sitting up in his place, pulling her straight to face him and scans her body properly, now seeing the blood on her elbow too and her clothes which look a bit dirty, "what were you doing?" he asks.

"i fell down while coming here,"

"aish!" he shakes his head, hugging her gently to his chest and pats her back, "you should be careful,"

"i know, i'm sorry," she hums, "how are you? is it hurting a lot? i was so worried y'know, i was crying on the way because i thought you must be hurting so much."

"it doesn't hurt at all," he chuckles lightly, "you don't have to worry, but thanks for coming."

"i don't like it at home... jimin oppa and appa and everybody is acting weird,"

"did they say anything to you?" jungkook pulls away, cupping her face in his hand, "tell me if they say anything to you okay?"

"not to me, but i can feel it. they're not happy. today jimin oppa didn't even have breakfast with us and even after that he wasn't talking much," aera tells him, resting her head against his chest, containing her sobs somehow, hugging jungkook loosely, "he must be mad at me right now,"

"why?" jungkook glances down at her, feeling bad that their sister was getting caught in their fight for no reason. someone said it true, when the elders aren't responsible, the kids suffer.

"because i didn't listen to him and appa," she mumbles, looking at him with a pout, "they said no when i said i was going out, but i really wanted to see you, so i escaped when they weren't looking."

"wha– gosh! that is wrong aera, you don't do that." he massages his temples, then pulls her straight, "do they know you're here?"

"no, i said i was going to the park."

jungkook gives her a strict glare, making her look down, mumbling out an apology for her actions to him, "why did you lie to them?"

"because they wouldn't let me see you if i said the truth! jimin oppa is mad at you and he didn't want me to see you even yesterday before you went away!"

jungkook sighs at her words, knowing all she said was true, but a part of him was still concerned about home where he's sure the elder brother must be worried about aera. he cups her face, leaning down and plants a kiss on her forehead, "listen, you'll go back home now and say sorry to jiminie and appa,"

aera pouts at him, shaking her head and hugs him tighter, "i don't wanna go without you,"

"you have to. please understand baby," he strokes her hair, "i really don't wanna go back, at least now. i need some time alone to think and understand everything, after that i'll decide what to do."

"please don't be mad," she hushes out softly.

"i'm not mad at you," he assures, "we can still call each other, meet after your school and even go on long drives... just that... i won't be at home,"

"i'll miss you,"

"i'll miss you more, but please aera, don't force me this time."

she looks at him and sighs, kissing his cheek, "okay, but promise me you'll come to see me everyday and call me at night before sleeping?"

"promise," he smiles, kissing the top of her nose, "now you promise me that you'll apologize for misbehaving when you go home, and you'll be a good girl while i'm away."

"okay," she nods and sits straight, "will you tell me what happened? how did you get hurt?"

"well..." jungkook glances at his hand, then back at his sister, "let's just say i met some bad guys, they were saying some stupid things and i got mad."

"must've been really stupid to make you that mad,"

"yeah," he chuckles now, hearing her and rests back against the head board of the bed, opening his arms for aera who again shakes her head, pointing at her knee and elbow. "it's fine, just come here," he says, leaning towards her and takes her shoes off before pulling her between his arms. "ri, if i tell you something about... uh what happened, will you keep it a secret?"

"yes," she nods, peeking at his face and waits for him continue.

"i broke up with this girl yesterday," he starts with a deep breath, earning a loud gasp from aera as she stares at him with wide eyes, making him chuckle.

"you had a girlfriend and i didn't know?! who is she and why did you break up without me meeting her?"

jungkook shrugs his shoulders, glancing at her and speaks, "you don't need to know her name, but yeah i had a girlfriend for a little more than two months and yesterday we broke up because... well, we weren't working out? do you know what that means?"

"means you cheated on her?"

jungkook falls silent, not being able to deny but then he has to say something, so he shakes his head, "it means we don't love each other and... it– the relationship i mean, was getting meaningless. i wasn't nice to her, and she wasn't nice to me,"

"why?" aera frowns, "why did you date her if you don't love her?"

"because... i don't know," he looks down, "she asked me out and i just said yes, she's beautiful though,"

"like me?"

"a little less than you," jungkook chuckles, patting head and sighs, "yesterday she said we should end this, and also she's seeing someone else. they're getting engaged soon."

"wha– is she stupid? you broke up yesterday and she's already found someone else? better than my brother? no way,"

jungkook's eyes holds tears at that, hugging her close in his embrace as chelsea's words from last night were in complete contrast with aera's, making him feel suffocated between the trust and mistrust he has within him. funny how both girls were speaking of the same person, one with so much love that she doesn't see past anything than his goodness and the other being too hurt to overlook his bad deeds. 

"koo? are you okay?" aera tries to pull away but jungkook refuses to let go, not wanting her to see him crying as he just lowers his head on her shoulder and nods slowly. "what happened then? after you broke up... were you sad?"

he gulps down the thick lump of bile burning in his throat before hushing out softly, "not really... i was just thinking if we deserved this, me and her. i hurted her, she hurted both of us."

"what did you do?" aera asks quietly and jungkook wipes his tears.

"i... didn't love her... i didn't treat her the way a lady is supposed to be treated."

"but you said we should do that right? if a boy hurts me i should tell him no loudly and hit him,"

jungkook shuts his eyes, nodding his head as he fails to keep in his voice breaking into a sob, "i'm sorry... i shouldn't have..."

"what did she do?" aera asks this time, making him go quiet for a moment, his fingers gently stroking her back. "what did she do to hurt you?"

"she... she blamed everything on me. she hurted herself and blamed it on me. she fell out of love and blamed it on me. she used to break stuff when she got angry and cry her heart out, then she would hug me so tight and said i made her do that... maybe i did, but i never let go of her y'know? she was selecting an engagement ring that night i was with her, i didn't say anything because i didn't feel like having an argument about something that won't last. she wanted us to last, but didn't hold me tight enough to even last a day without a fight."

"...i don't get it," aera hushes out, "i'm sorry..."

"it's alright," jungkook closes his eyes, letting out more tears and pulls aera closer, "let's just stay like this for a while hm?"

aera nods, hugging him tighter than before, feeling his body tensing as he sobs on her shoulder. his breath hitches, scaring the sister every time he's trying to hold himself together but fails for she had never seen him like this before. tears are evident in her eyes as well, not saying anything for the fear of doing more damage than any good right now.

"y'know aera, no one... literally no one heard me out... i went home thinking hyung will listen to me even if he scolds me a bit... i thought he would hear me out and help me, maybe hold me and say something like it's okay kook, shit happens. he didn't do any of that... he just kept yelling and assumed that i was doing this to disrespect him and the rest of the hyungs. i wasn't mad, aera, i was upset... i was- i was disappointed, because the person i thought would understand me, didn't even bother looking at my state. i can swear on my life he still thinks the same of me... like everyone else, like her... a rich spoiled guy who gets whatever he wants, or when he doesn't, he rebels.

"i'm not that... i don't wanna be that, you know me right? you know how i am, h-how your jungkookie is... i swear baby, i didn't do anything on purpose."

aera sniffs softly, rubbing her eyes and kisses his cheek, "i know koo, you're not bad," she hushes out softly, "i love you okay?"

jungkook doesn't reply, but his hold tightens, pulling aera on his lap, never letting go from the hug. it takes him a few minutes to calm down, gaining himself back and breathes much calmly than before, realising how much he needed this, a hug from someone like home and to pour out his thoughts without the fear of being judged or hurting anyone. 

he pulls away slowly, glancing at aera, cupping her face, "i'm sorry, i shouldn't ha–"

"it's okay," aera kisses his cheek, "i like hugging you. and you hold me too when i cry sometimes, that's what siblings are for right? to have fun together and hug each other tightly when one is having a hard time."

"yeah..." he looks down, bringing her hand up and kisses her palm, "i love you a lot, princess."

"i love you too," she smiles, wiping the tears from his face and bumps her forehead against jungkook's lightly, "please don't cry now, i like it more when you smile."

jungkook smiles for her, staring at her innocent face with a layer of warm tears in his eyes, considering his sister too beautiful to be true. "my little kookie is growing up huh?" he ruffles her hair.

"yes, and y'know yesterday i even baked cookies on my own! i mean i took a little help from jinnie oppa, but i did most of the work," she nods, being proud of herself.

"good job, when am i getting to taste them?"

"tomorrow! i'll bake more and bring them fo–" aera's interrupted by the muffled ringtone of her phone which is coming from her bag, making her sigh as she already knows it must be jimin.

jungkook takes her bag, taking the phone and glances at aera, showing her the screen with jimin's name popping on it, "i'm answering it, you'll tell him that you're okay and you're coming home," he says, getting a small nod from the sister as she pouts.

"do i need to go?"

"yes, you do," he says and answers the call, putting on speaker between them.

"hello oppa," aera says, "i'm okay and i'm coming home, don't worry."

"it's dark outside, aera. where are you?"

"i'm... i'm at the park,"

jimin sighs softly on the line, "ri, i won't say anything, tell me the truth kiddo," aera stares at the phone, gulping nervously and tries to speak but jimin cuts her off, "i came to the park to take you home... i thought you're mad and might be upset, sitting under a tree or something. you did that once, remember?"

"oppa, i'm sorry," aera hushes out, "i'll come home,"

"tell me you're okay," jimin says softly.

"i'm... okay," aera says, glancing at her knee and pouts, "just a little bit hurt on my knee and elbow,"

"what? how? what were you doing? i've– okay," he takes a deep breath, "tell me where are you, i'll come and get you,"

"it's fine oppa, i'll come by myself. it's not that bad. i'm safe here oppa, don't worry,"

"i know you're safe, but i think you should come home now,"

aera hums and stands up after giving jungkook a last tight hug and kissing his cheek. she waves at him and takes her bag, hanging up the call then as she tells jimin to wait in the park and she'll meet him there in ten minutes.

jungkook follows her downstairs where daniel is having a coffee and stops aera, remembering about her injury, "hey, wait put something on that. i didn't come earlier because it looked like you were having some real serious conversation, and i didn't want to disturb,"

"it's okay danny oppa, i'm fine." aera smiles at him, giving him a hug too, "thank you for being jungkookie's best friend,"

daniel smiles at that, glancing at jungkook who probably didn't hear it as he's searching for the keys of daniel's car on the table. "no problem," daniel says, patting the girl's back.

"let's go i'll drop you," jungkook says, holding out his hand for her.

aera however shakes her head, "you should rest, koo. i'll go alone,"

"i'm okay baby, you don't need to worry that much. c'mon i'll go with you,"

aera nods eventually, taking his hand and waves at daniel before heading out. jungkook drives away pretty fast, taking the ride as an opportunity to tell the sister to behave like a good girl and listen to the elders. aera nods to his each command, making him smile as this habit of hers still didn't vanish from years.

"-and let jimin oppa clean that wound without throwing any fit,"

"okay, but why didn't you do it?"

"it's not that serious, and we were busy talking." jungkook sighs, "sorry though, i should've taken care of that."

"no, it's okay, i didn't even remember about it so i didn't hurt. but now it does a little bit,"

jungkook chuckles, ruffling her hair as he pulls in front of the park gate where jimin is already waiting. he leans towards aera, unfastening his seat belt and hers to bring her closer and presses a kiss of forehead, "take care,"

"you too," she says, "get well soon koo,"

"i will," he pats her head, "now go,"

"bye, love you," aera waves at him, stepping out of the car, making jungkook smile as he waves back, staring at her running towards the eldest brother with soft eyes.

he can see jimin smiling with a relieved expression on seeing aera and hugs her tightly, even kissing the top her head a few times, until his eyes meet the car, right at jungkook. the younger however, doesn't give a reaction, knowing that jimin can't see him through the windshield glass.

aera says something which grabs jimin's attention pulling him out of his trans and he looks down, seeing where she's hurt. jungkook sighs at them, shaking his head as he starts the engine, backing away the car into the street and drives away, smiling softly on catching aera's stare in the corner of his eyes.

•••

"where were you?" yoongi asks firmly, his arms crossed on his chest and eyes giving off a strict gaze to aera who stands with her head hanging low.

she pouts, fiddling with her hands, "i'm sorry appa..."

"that doesn't answer my question," he voices, "you go out despite of us telling you not to, then you weren't replying to our texts and calls, we have had no idea where you were or if you needed help, and now you think you can get away with just a sorry?"

aera stares at her feet, shaking her head slowly and steps forward, bringing her arms to wrap around yoongi's waist, "i was with koo... i wanted to see him, appa. he was hurt when i saw him yesterday and he was crying. you and al the oppas are mad at him, so i didn't tell you because you wouldn't let me go to him... i'm sorry for lying to you and oppa, i didn't want to be a bad girl i promise appa,"

yoongi glances at jimin getting a brief nod from him too, making him sigh as he pats aera's head, "okay, but you should never leave the house like that. do you know how worried we were?"

"i won't do it again," aera says.

"that's my girl," yoongi smiles at her, kissing her forehead, "appa loves you,"

"i love you too," she giggles, pulling away and goes to jimin, "now let's go, put something on my wound,"

jimin follows her upstairs with a smile, getting some cotton, a bottle of disinfectant, an antiseptic ointment and some bandages. aera sits on the bed, touching the dried blood with her index finger gently and winces at the contact until jimin takes her hand away, sitting next to her and brings her leg a little up to treat it properly.

"how did you fall down?"

"i was skating and lost balance,"

"you should not skate on the street, kiddo. there are vehicles and it could be dangerous."

"i know, but it's fun,"

"sure," jimin sighs, "anyway, if you were with jungkook, how come he did nothing about this?"

"he said it's not that bad and big girls don't get hurt," aera giggles, "we were talking so we forgot about that i'm hurt,"

"weird," jimin scoffs, "what did he say?"

"nothing much, just that i shouldn't go to him like that when you said no."

"at least he can think straight," jimin mutters, earning a look from aera as her smile fades away and a subtle pout rests on her lips. "okay sorry, i shouldn't speak like that,"

"y'know oppa, koo was crying a lot today. i never saw him crying that much, he's even got a bandage above his eye and on his cheek and a big one on his hand... i was crying because i thought it must be hurting him, but he's very strong, he said it didn't hurt him."

"then... then why was he crying?" jimin asks with a heavy heart, knowing that he shouldn't ask that when he's mad at his brother and trying not to care about him.

aera falls silent now remembering that jungkook told her to keep it a secret, so she gulps nervously, shaking her head and looks down, "i don't know," she mumbles, pulling her leg down and shows him the elbow, "now this,"

jimin stares at her with soft eyes, a little hurt that she couldn't tell him whatever it was, but deep down he knew it was because of the fight between the brothers that their youngest was also suffering and paying for their actions.

aera pulls away once he's done treating her wounds and chooses a butterfly bandaid for the elbow while a normal white one is wrapped on her knee. she gets changed quickly and joins the rest of the boys for dinner, frequently sparing glances at the empty chair which belonged to jungkook, as usual between jimin and yoongi or sometimes aera would switch seats with jimin and sit in his place to be next to jungkook.

the dinner wasn't as awkward as breakfast, but aera could tell everything was forced: from sitting together, to having those small talks that kept dying ever so often, to trying to smile. it was all forced. aera too, finished her dinner half heartedly, quickly wanting to go back to her room and just lay in her bed until tomorrow comes and it's time to go to school.

the door of her room opens slowly and she peeks above the blanket, seeing jimin standing there with a hesitant smile, "uh will you mind sleeping with me today?" he asks softly, making her smile as she gets off the bed quickly, grabbing her pillow and holds his hand.

jimin smiles as though relieved that she wasn't avoiding him, and hugs her from the side, closing the door behind him. aera's already changed in her nightwear, and jimin too wears a comfortable thin t-shirt and a slim lower, adjusting the ac for he knew aera kicks off the blankets at night and might catch a cold if the temperature of the ac is too low.

"no, it's getting hot," she shakes her head and takes the remote of the ac, lowering two degrees and smiles, "it's cool now,"

"then make sure you have the blanket okay?" he ruffles her hair, getting in the bed and chuckles when the sister instantly cuddles into his arms, snuggling close to his chest until she's comfortable and lets out a small yawn. "riri's tired today, it was a long day hm?" he smiles softly, stroking her back and kisses the crown of her head.

"yeah, aren't you tired?"

"a little bit," he nods, closing his eyes and holds aera close, "i love you," he whispers, patting her back gently to help her sleep faster, "i love you both..."

"both? me and koo–"

"shh, close your eyes,"

________

a/n- ik u want the brothers to talk it out, but guys go and read the "high hogh hopes" chapter again, jimin apologizes in that. and just to make it a little clear that all this is in the past with respect to that chapter. so if u wanna see how they make up, read that chapter, jimin apologizes to jungkook and tells him to come back home.

anyway vote if u liked the chapter comment your views. thank you for your time ❣️

my board exams are starting soon, so there won't be many updates, i'm super busy the upcoming weeks. to everyone who's appearing in the final exams like me, best of luck to you, i hope we all can make something good out of our hard work and effort. fighting! ✊

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