The silence that followed this revelation was worse than anything for Jungkook. He would have liked to be shouted at, to be blamed for all the horrors experienced by their mathyung. But they looked at him with pity and sadness instead of anger.

     "Didn't you hear what I said?" he cried painfully, crying harder, "I've known for months, and I haven't said anything!"

     "Jungkook," Namjoon began gently patting him on the shoulder, "we know that if Jin hyung went through this, you must have suffered too because you were with him almost the whole time, when we were watching other way. And it's because we've all looked the other way that we can't blame you for everything that happened, which we probably don't know anything about, and that we feel so guil-"

     "No hyung, don't feel guilty and above all, don't be nice to me," Jungkook cut him pushing away Namjoon's hand, "get mad at me like everyone just got mad on each other!"

     Namjoon looked at the others helplessly and unwittingly met Yoongi's guilty gaze.

     "If you're guilty Jungkook, so am I," Yoongi said to everyone's surprise. "There is one thing that I knew and that I did not tell anyone." 

      "Eh?" Namjoon reacted as everyone hung on Yoongi's lips.

     "You were right Namjoon, I made Taehyung feel guilty as I feel even guiltier. Why? Because I discovered things before you two. It was before the begining of the tour."

     "R-really? But what stopped you from talking about it?" Namjoon asked, puzzled.

     "I wanted to tell you about it, I never meant to hide it forever, I swear, but I thought I had to wait for the opportune moment," Yoongi wanted to explain himself, throwing a guilty look at Jungkook who only returned a nervous look, "because at the time, it did not seem serious to me. I played smart earlier when I said I was patient, thinking I was the one of us who had the key information and evidence that would get Lee fired, but I had no idea there was something so horrifying hidden beneath this story."

     "What is it hyung ? What do you know?" Hoseok asked, suprised by the sudden revelation. "Please stop beating around the bush!"

     Yoongi hesitated for a few second  and Taehyung wondered if, unlike him, he would have the courage to say his secret. But when he met Jungkook's attentive gaze, Yoongi understand that for the maknae's sake, despite his shame and his sense of failure, he shouldn't keep what he knew anymore.

     "I know Lee has been extorting Jin hyung for his money for weeks, probably longer. I heard the argument between Lee and Jungkook in the bathroom at KBS and then I heard the conversation between Lee and Jin hyung after his mother's phone call at the hotel. Jungkook was probably extorted too, I don't see why Lee would have deprived himself of it since Jngkook knew about it."

     "What?!" Taehyung exclaimed, shocked following the rapper's confession because obviously that was not something the doctor could have taught them. And he suddenly wondered how many other things he didn't know.

     He realized he didn't know anything about the hell Jin and Jungkook had been through for the past few months. how could he give himself the right to shout at Jungkook and blame him for anything that happened? While he slept on his two ears, the youngest and the oldest experienced anxieties and suffering of which he had no idea. He instantly hated himself for it. 

     It was his turn now to say what Lee had done in his room while he slept and hugged Jin without doing anything to save him when he could have stopped everything. But he couldn't. Seeing Yoongi at the edge of the abyss after his revelation, he anxiously scrutinized the reaction of others to try to find out if he had a chance of being forgiven. But it wasn't the same fault, not the same seriousness.

     "I'm sorry Jungkook,", Yoongi said with sadness, "I feel so stupid! I thought I let my ears hang long enough to know everything and be able to get Lee fired at the end, but in reality, I knew nothing. Nothing at all..."

     He was on the verge of crying in turn and this time, it was Jungkook who got up to go and comfort him, letting him take refuge in his arms under the pained gaze of everyone.

      "Jungkook, did Lee extort your money too?" the CEO asked, more down to earth than the youngers, when they had all forgotten him, as if he had no place in the middle of their pain. "I realized there was a problem with Seokjin's accounts, but Seokjin and his mother made sure to reassure me about the explanation for these extreme expenses. As for you, I didn't notice anything unusual with yours."

     Jungkook hesitated for a moment and then realized that there was no point in hiding things anymore. The CEO would probably take care of punishing Lee and he would stop him from getting revenge and hurting them again and none of his members would let Lee go after him or Jin again, he was sure of it.

     "You can tell me son, don't be afraid of him anymore," the man encouraged, breaking Jungkook last reluctance.

     "Yes, he did that to me too, but only once, to punish me for causing him harm. He took 13 million won from each of us that first time." Jungkook explained as he continued to hug Yoongi when he himself obviously needed it so much. Clinging to him, he felt like he was clinging to life. "I only learned later that he kept stealing Jin hyung's, I don't know how much, but probably astronomical sums."

     "But it is absolutely shocking!" Namjoon exclaimed bewildered to understand that Taehyung was not wrong when he said that he was far from knowing everything, "I don't even know what to say anymore, it disgusts me so much!"

      "Lee told Jin hyung that if he stayed in the company and could still make money, it was because of him and because of this, the money hyung made was also the his," Jungkook reported.

     "This is absurd..." Jimin whispered.

    The room fell back again into a brief silence, everyone trying to understand the incomprehensible.

     "Jungkook, there is something else we need to know besides that," Bang Si-Hyuk continued with as much gentleness as for his previous question, because Jungkook needs forward. The younger's voice quivered with each sentence as if he was struggling to reveal this information, as if his knotted throat threatened to burst the fragile dam of tears he had made. "Tell us, has he ever tried to assault you like he did with Seokjin?"

    For all the members, it was a crucial information: it was time to find out if in addition to the rest, they had failed in their role as hyung by letting Jungkook be raped too. This idea was more intolerable to them than anything. They hung on his lips.

     "He... he tried once, when we were in the KBS bathroom, but I defended myself," Jungkook said pursing his lips, blowing a wind of relief in the room.

     But Jungkook continued nervously tearing the skins off his lips and it was obvious that the situation didn't end there. Yoongi remembered how scared Jungkook was when he came out of the toilet and ran into him.

     "Jungkook... what did Lee do after you defended yourself?"

     Jungkook's lips ended up bleeding from being manhandled by his plowing teeth. 

     "He... He said he would kill me if I ran away but I couldn't help but run away. I had just given my reconciliation letter to Jin hyung and I thought everything was going to be better in my life but I was so wrong..."

       "What did he do?" Yoongi insisted. 

      "Because of that, he... he came to our hotel room at night to punish me and to punish Jin hyung for reconciling with me when he had forbidden him. This night, it was so painful, it was worse than anything..."

    His hyungs were horrified to hear this from his mouth. They were so happy to see Jin and Jungkook make up and spend the night together like before and unbeknownst to them, Lee had stolen their happiness from their mathyung and maknae.

     But they knew that Jungkook had to reveal everything he had been through to them, if only to free his conscience: he had kept it all for too long.

    "Jungkook, don't blame yourself for standing up for Lee's aggression, it's not your fault that he then attacked Seokjin in retaliation. Nobody would have wanted to know that you too had been raped, believe me. But now, you have to tell us everything he did without omitting anything, okay?" Bang Si-Hyuk told him.

      So Jungkook, after searching and meeting the eyes of all his hyungs seeking approval and support, freed himself by telling them everything.

     He told them how, in revenge for the blackmail he had done to him to make Jin stay in the company, Lee had taken revenge by raping him for the first time so violently that he also had the bite marks that Taehyung had seen later but which also had caused him the panic attack which they had witnessed.

     He also told how the manager kept being violent towards them in the shadow and no more towards the others – that's how even Han, or the members or the staff could tell the CEO that the violence against the group had finally stopped –, threatening them continuously.

     He told how Lee had tried to strangle him in his sleep to scare him after the toilet episode, how he broke Jin's finger - then squealing him into believing he had hurt himself while playing, just because he thought he was insolent. 

    How Lee had forced Jin to burn his foot on pain of being burned too, which he had been. 

     How Lee had forced him to hide the injury and pain in his foot and still dance during the concert.

    How he had raped Jin again under Jungkook's eyes to teach him a lesson.

    And finally, Jungkook told them how Lee starved him during the american tour by forcing him to vomit because he thought he was too muscular.

      During his testimony, the tears redoubled in the room and everyone came closer to embrace Jungkook who for his part did not let go of Yoongi and clung to him like a lifeline without which he was going to completely drown in his horrible memories. They soon formed a small compact heap and united in pain, wanting nothing more than to add Jin to their much-needed group hug.

     But they knew deep down that it was better to experience this emotion first away from the oldest if they didn't want to worry him more. They would comfort him in turn when they themselves had recovered a bit from these dreadful discoveries that were happening too quickly. They had to heal themselves and become strong very fast so that they could all together help their eldest to heal from his terrible injuries. 

     But considering what Namjoon and Taehyung knew and faced with everything the maknae had just revealed to them, they also understood that there were things Jungkook didn't know. Telling him was going to destroy him even more than he already was, both Kims knew so they kept quiet in the middle of this interlacing of arms and tears.

____________

A / N : I leave you with this french song by Indila called "Boite en argent" ("Silver box"), a box full of sad secrets and souvenirs. There is also a part of the song that evokes the moon in a melancholy way:

"Je suis là où tu m'as laissée, sur la route du néant; ici la lune n'éclaire jamais, elle jaunit avec le temps."

"I'm right where you left me, on the road to nothingness; here the moon never shines, it yellows with time."

https://youtu.be/G2sVBDyvra0