*Jin POV*

NEW GROUP MESSAGE
Hoseok, Jimin, Jungkook, Namjoon, Seokjin, Taehyung

Seokjin Guys, we have a problem.

Jimin ??

Jungkook Is Mirae okay?

Seokjin Um, not exactly.

Namjoon What happened?

Hoseok Was she not at home?
Do we need to help look for
her?

Seokjin No, she was at home. But yes,
we need to look for her.

Jimin What does that mean?!

Seokjin She got really upset with me
and ran out. And she doesn't
have her phone.

Taehyung Why not? She takes
it everywhere!

Seokjin She uh...kinda threw it at me.
She said we all need to leave
her alone. Among other things...

Hoseok What other things?

Seokjin That's not really important
right now.

Seokjin For the time being, we just
need to find her. Can you all
meet at the neighborhood
park in 10 minutes?

Jungkook Of course!

Namjoon See you there.

Taehyung Leaving now.

Jimin Yep

Hoseok On my way.

~~~~~~~~~~

It had been three hours, and we'd all met in the park again. I was starting to get scared; the sun was starting to go down. It would be dark soon, and we were no closer to finding Mirae than we had been when we first started searching. We had split up, six different people searching all over town, and had all come up empty handed. What are the odds?

"Hyung, I think it's time to tell us what else happened at Mirae's." Jimin said.

I sighed. She'd begged me not to tell anyone. I had looked at the website and her comment on it after she'd run out. I didn't feel worried anymore; on the contrary, I was very proud of her, and I had already decided to honor her request. But how was I going to explain to the others what had happened without telling them?

"I can't tell you everything – "

"Why?" Namjoon interrupted.

"Because she asked me not to."

"But what if it can help us find her?" Namjoon reasoned.

"What happened between she and I is really not the most important part," I explained. "What's important is that because of what happened, I insinuated that I don't trust her and that really hurt her feelings. Then she talked about how we all keep doing the same thing to her... that we judge her and demand that she change, and then we just follow that up with apology after apology. That's why she threw her phone at me. She said we never give her any peace, and she didn't want to hear it anymore."

The others stared at me, dumbfounded. "She really said all that?" Jungkook asked.

I nodded. "That's not even the worst part." I cringed, remembering her analogy of the porcelain doll. "She said we treat her like she's fragile and needs to be protected, but then we're the ones who actually end up hurting her."

All of their eyes widened, and Hoseok gasped. "But – "

"She kinda has a point," Jimin interrupted quietly. "We do it because we care about her but look at it from her side. All she wants is to be treated like she's normal because she doesn't believe she is."

"But we don't," Namjoon said quietly. "We treat her likes she's weak."

I nodded. "But she's not." I thought back to her comment on the message board. "She's actually very strong."

Everyone was silent, feeling as bad as I had felt in the moment when she yelled at me. No one looked at each other until...

"I know where she is."

Everyone's heads snapped in Taehyung's direction. "Please let me go to her alone. I have more to apologize for than anyone." He looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Okay, but if you do find her, you let us know immediately."

Taehyung nodded and hurried off.

~~~~~~~~~~

*Tae POV*

I quietly slipped through the gate into Hoseok's backyard and looked up at the treehouse his father had built. As we got older, his dad had decided we needed a "clubhouse". He mostly just didn't want to have to continue to relinquish his living room (and thus, TV) to seven excitable kids, though.

We'd spend hours up there, playing games, reading, eating snacks and even having sleepovers. It was our favorite place in the world. Now that we were seventeen, though, we hadn't been up there in years. But the last time we were, Mirae had made the comment that it was where she felt safest.

It had become dark so I couldn't see her from the yard, but there was no doubt in my mind that she was up there. I pulled out my phone and quickly texted Seokjin: I found her.

I put my phone back in my pocket before carefully climbing the boards that were nailed to the tree to make a rudimentary ladder. I then slowly opened the "trap door" entrance and poked my head inside.

And there she was, huddled in the corner where she always sat when we were kids. Even in the darkness, I could see that her eyes were puffy, and her eyelids heavy. She looked exhausted.

She glanced at me. "Took you long enough."

I smiled slightly as I climbed in and shut the door. I, too, took my old seat, right next to her. "We haven't been here in years. It wasn't exactly the first place anyone thought to look."

"What made you remember?"

"Years ago, you said you felt safest here. I didn't think about that until Seokjin said that you told him we always end up hurting you. Where else would you go to find comfort in who we were back then in order to feel safe from who we've become?"

"What else did Jin tell you?"

"Not everything. He said something happened and that he'd hurt your feelings because of it. Then he told us what you said when you became angry. He refused to tell us what happened, though."

She looked up at me, her tired eyes full of surprise. "He really didn't tell you?"

I shook my head. "He said you asked him not to."

A very small smile appeared on her lips. "Thanks, Oppa," she mumbled under her breath.

"Rae, I need to tell you something," My heart started racing, nervous that she would get upset again. "I know you're not happy with us right now, and probably me most of all. And I understand that you're sick of hearing our apologies. I'm sure they seem hollow after we continuously push you to your limit." I took a deep breath. "But I need to tell you that I'm so sorry for what I said this morning. It was an awful thing to say, and it's been haunting me all day. Especially because I didn't mean it."

"Then why did you say it?"

"I don't know."

She pulled her knees against her chest and hugged her legs. "Do you know what it felt like? Like you really are sick of and frustrated by me. Like that was something you've been feeling for so long that it finally just subconsciously slipped out."

"No!" I raised my voice, not out of anger but out of shock that she'd think that. "I've never felt like that! You're my best friend, and I love you so much! I've never thought poorly of you!" I sighed. "I think I got caught up in what Namjoon was saying – "

"Don't blame him. I'm already upset with him enough as it is." She rested her chin on her knees.

"I don't blame anyone but myself," I insisted. "It's just that...well, I agree with him. I don't agree with the way he said it, but I do think that you should try to step out of your comfort zone sometimes. But I'll never pressure you to do that or think less of you if you don't. I just want you to be happy, and I think getting out of the mundane routine we follow every day might help. Repetition can be so confining. You know?"

She imperceptibly nodded once.

"But it can also be comforting, and I understand that now," I continued. "That's why I'm sorry about what I said. And I want you to know that I'll support you either way."

After a moment of silence, she laid her head on my shoulder. "Thanks, Tae."

"You ready to go see the others?" I asked.

"Not just yet," she said. "Will you stay with me, though?"

"Of course."

We sat in a comfortable silence for about ten minutes, her head still on my shoulder. I thought she might have fallen asleep until she spoke, so quietly that I almost didn't hear her.

"Jin thought I was cutting again."

My eyes widened, and I knew I had to choose my next words very carefully. Based on the little I knew about the situation from Seokjin and that he had refused to tell us about it, I could deduce that he ended up figuring out that he was wrong.

"But you're not," I finally replied. It was a statement, not a question.

"No," she said matter of factly. "I have been feeling kinda down lately, though, so I joined an online support message board for people who are recovering from the same issues. They've really been helping me feel better and to come up with other ways to cope. Jin briefly saw the website and jumped to conclusions."

"That's amazing!" I said, genuinely happy for her. "I'm so proud of you for doing that!" I paused before continuing. "But you know why Jin – "

"I know," she said. "But he wouldn't listen to me. He wanted me to show him the website, but I knew he'd see my comment that admitted I'd been struggling with wanting to do it again. I knew that would make him just as worried and upset, and then he'd tell everyone and mom and all of you would treat me like you did when you found out in the first place. Because I hesitated to show it to him, he said he didn't trust me."

"That hurt you. And that's why you ran off again."

She nodded against my shoulder. "I needed some time alone, just like I did this morning. And if he told mom like he threatened to do, I knew I wouldn't get to have that again for a very long time."

I felt tears beginning to form in my eyes, realizing everything we'd been denying her for so long. Privacy, respect, trust, understanding. Hell, the benefit of a doubt. No wonder she wanted to be alone. No wonder she didn't want to be around us.

"Rae, all of us love and care about you. I think you know that." She nodded again. "But we've been disrespectful and haven't shown you that lately. And for that, I'm so sorry."

She didn't say anything, but I felt her posture change. She leaned further into me and let me put my arm around her. I understood that to mean that she forgave me.

"Let me walk you home," I said. "And then I'll talk to the guys and try to explain some of this before you see them again. I won't tell them about the cutting stuff, though. I promise."

"Okay."

"And hey!" One more thought occurred to me. "You talked to complete strangers on that message board, and about some of your deepest thoughts and secrets. If that's not stepping out of your comfort zone, I don't know what is. But you did it because you knew you needed help. And that's incredibly brave."

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes, but a smile on her lips. "You think so?"

I smiled back at her and nodded. Then I scooted over to the trapdoor and pulled it open for her. We both descended and headed to her house.