TW : violence

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    Jin suddenly took a deep breath, a painful breath full of life, as if he had run out. But maybe he was already dead? No, impossible, wasn't death supposed to erase all suffering? But that was exactly what he felt. An unbearable suffering.

     He was now lying on his back as he lay on his stomach when he lost consciousness. His back injury scraped the ground painfully and his whole body was hurting and he was having trouble breathing. After his first deep breath, which had revived him, he was only able to draw in thin threads of air. If he hadn't died the first time, maybe he was going to succumb to this lack of oxygen.

     The lids of his left eye opened three-quarters closed refusing to open more, as if weighed down. The ones in his right eye were stuck together and refused to open even a few millimeters.

     He tried to straighten up to hope to breathe better but his body did not move. Anxiety seized him. He saw only indistinct shadows through his closed left eye, but he did hear the cries and his body vibrated to the rhythm of the vibrations of the ground produced by thousands of footsteps fleeing: he too had to flee, someone had to help him. He tried to scream for help but his parted lips only let out a desperate moan.

     Without seeing anything happen, he suddenly felt a strong pressure on his chest and one of his broken ribs dug hard into his flesh, this time causing him to cry out in pain which was engulfed by the cries of the other victims who surrounded him, some still trying to flee, others lying down after being trampled on and like him unable to get up without help.

     This suffering, these cries, this impossibility of fleeing filled him with anguish: he was not dead but he was still plunged into this hell, he had not been saved. Jungkook had not saved him.

    "I know you're awake, open your eyes!"

     Hearing these words and especially, this voice, Jin's surprise was such that his left eye opened almost entirely. Above him was a still hazy silhouette that stood out against the light cast by the stadium floodlights. It was his powerful hands that were placed on his chest and had just sunk to cause this pain by giving him a cardiac massage.

     "J-Jungkook?"

     "He's gone," Lee told him.

     "H-hyung... You came..." Jin muttered with an almost inaudible sigh, tears of relief escaping from his eyes. "You came to... s-save me."

      Lee looked bored.

     "About that... I don't really know Seokjin."

     Puzzled, Jin concentrated on his rapid breathing for a few seconds, wondering why the manager was leaving him in such trouble.

     "Hyung... I can't... breath... p-properly and... it hurt so m-much... I've been... s-stabbed... it's so p-painful..."

     Seeing that Lee was unresponsive, Jin continued to speak, expending what little energy he still had:

     "I want to... get out... out of here... now... please take me near Jungkook," he pleaded with difficulty.

     He wants nothing more than to get out of this cursed place right now. To be where Jungkook was. Why did Lee have to stay still?

     "Well, I revived you but now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I did well. You see Seokjin, it's not helping me too much to let you live," Lee said crossing his arms.

     "Wh-what?" Jin stammered, desperate.

     "After all," Lee continued thoughtfully, "you're going to go to the hospital and you're going to be asked some very embarrassing questions for me. I don't want to get in trouble because I would have saved your life. I'm sure you can understand."

     "Y-you are going to k-kill me?"

     "I don't have to lift a finger for that, I just have to wait," Lee pointed out. "You're dying."

     Jin's weak heart almost skipped a beat upon hearing that. Lee wanted to let him die. He was going to let him die if he didn't react quickly.

     "N... no, I... I won't say anything," he promised in a pleading voice before falling silent at the manager's concerned expression.

      He shouldn't piss him off or say anything that would make him decide to give up on him. His manager was sensitive and anything could be perceived as insolence in his eyes. If he considered him insolent, he would avenge himself by letting him die here, of that he had no doubt.

     "I understand that you desperately want to live but you know Seokjin, this tragedy, it's all your fault if it happened, so in my eyes, you deserve to die for it," the manager replied.

     "What?! N-No, no, no... I didn't... d-do anything!" protested Jin, dumbfounded.

     "Uh? Do you know how many people died because of you today? I can't even count them as there are so many and instead of apologizing, are you trying to clear customs because you want to stay alive? You filthy, Seokjin, you deserve to suffer before you die!"

     "N... No... I will apologize, I'm sorr-AAAAAaaaaaH!!"

     Lee had just stomped on his broken ankle, crushing it with all his weight, causing Jin to scream in pain.

     "AAAh... aaah... aaah... aaah..." Jin moaned, straining to catch his breath at the same time. "I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... please stop..."

     "Oh, no, sweet Seokjin, you have to be sincerely sorry, not do it just to get out of pain. After all, what happened is your fault: if the rest of your member, your little dongsaengs, are injured or if they are dead, it will be solely your fault, because you have been so despicable in the eyes of people and contemptuous by refusing to let them dream with their ship thing, that they preferred to kill you rather than let you continue to live alongside others. Can you imagine? You may have killed Jungkook, who knows!" he exclaimed, pensive.

     "Oh no, not Jungkook, not Jungkook... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I want to see him, please, let me see Jungk..."

    "Okay, shut up now, you're tiring me out," Lee snapped.

     Jin fell silent and remained panting. He hurt all over but his broken ankle made him want to sit up and hug it with all his might, not that it was helpful. However, he could no longer move.

      For several minutes the two said nothing. Lee looked like he was thinking about what to do but Jin, who was growing weaker and unaware of all the blood he was losing from his shoulder blade injury, was beginning to slip unconscious again as he was still panting and his eye began to slowly close.

     He saw like in a slow-motion movie Lee clasp his hands again on his chest as if to perform a cardiac massage.

     "But... I'm still awake", he thought, puzzled, before letting out another howl when the pressure exerted by Lee broke one of his still intact ribs. "AAAaaaaaah p.... please, please it hurts!" he yelled.

     "Ah sorry, I thought you went back to sleep, and I wanted to revive you again" Lee quipped.

     "No, no, no.... I'm still... I'm still awake I swear, p-please help m-me..."

     Jin was shaking violently. He was cold, he was in pain, he was scared.

     Lee ran a caressing hand over his sweaty and bloody face, loosening the strands of hair stuck to his forehead and showing clearly the bloody gash across his brow bone. There was nothing reassuring or affectionate about the caressing hand and Jin kept shaking, unable to stop, terrified.

     "Seokjin, do you realize how much I've done for you?"

     As Jin didn't respond, Lee pressed harshly his thumb to his forehead wound, pulling a cry of pain from Jin :

     "AAAaaah! yes, yes, I know, I know," sobbed Jin as his still-closed right eye under the wound, sealed by a crust of dry blood, let out tears of pain from the closed eyelid.

    "I kept your secret, I made you a man, I kept you company when you were alone, I allowed you to stay with others, to remain an idol, I did everything to make you avoid the war of shippers by keeping you away from Jungkook even if in the end you still reduced my efforts to nothing. And now, I revived you, I brought you back to life, wow, what a selfless person I am!" He burst out with a thundering laugh.

      "Th-thank you," Jin stammered, thinking that's what the manager was expecting..

     "What?" Lee asked,a little surprised.

    Jin gathered his words and his strength and said more audibly:

     "Thank you... f-for saving... my life."

     Lee started laughing again longer this time, as if he was making fun of Jin and his behavior.

     "Wow, I see I raised you so damn well! You're right kid, I saved your life. That means it belongs to me now. I already told you and Jungkook that you belong to me when I broke your finger, remember? But you still tried to challenge me on different occasions after that. And you could have done that forever. However, from now on, your life is totally mine. You. Belong. To. Me. Do you understand Seokjin? This is my condition to save your life again."

     Jin, exhausted, clinging to life somehow, nodded.

     "Time is running out and don't play in your favor Seokjin," Lee told him as he pulled his hands away from his face and grabbed one of his fingers. "I told you, you deserved to suffer, I can break your fingers one by one, remember that pain? It'll still be fewer fingers than the number of people who died because of you, but it'll be a good start to make up for your faults. However, I don't know how long you'll last."

     Distraught and in tears, Jin tried to struggle to remove his hand from Lee's, remembering a pain he didn't want to have to endure again. But Lee wouldn't loosen his grip.

     "You know, I can wait for you to answer me and submit, but it seems to me that you don't have the same possibility: if you wait any longer, you will be completely drained of blood and you will really die. Look how you're shaking. Oh boy, your fingers are all blue, look!"

     He pulled his hand to show him, accentuating in doing so his pain in the left shoulder blade, and Jin almost threw up when he saw that his fingers had indeed turned blue, due to the lack of blood. How much time did he have left before being completely drained of blood?

     Lee squeezed Jin's left ring finger tightly, threatening to break it with a sharp blow and shouted angrily:

     "Tick tock, Seokjin! I give you one last chance. Say it : YOU BELONG TO ME, YOU ARE MINE, GOT IT?!"

     Terrified, Jin answered weakly with urgency, but with the difficulty of one trying to catch his breath:

     "I-I get it. I-I... b-belong... to you, I... will d-do... whatever... whatever you ask me t-to do... p-please, save me..."

     The manager bent his face over Jin's and brought it a few inches from his to be sure only Jin could hear him:

      "Okay."

     Jin heaved a sigh of relief.

     "You are going to the hospital and we are going to examine and treat you. But I forbid you to say anything, do you understand me? Always remember that I gave you a new life but it belongs to me, I can take it back whenever I want. Not a word to the CEO no matter what he asks you about me. Not a word, or else I'll kill you, do you hear me?"

     "Yes, yes, anything you want, please..." Jin struggled to stay focused when his exhausted and aching body wanted to give up on him. He was ready to accept anything at this moment.

     "Not a word or you will regret it, but your little Jungkook too, believe me. I won't hesitate to kill you both with my own hands."

   "Jung...kook..." Jin suddenly recalled in alarm, his thoughts jumbled together in confusion, trying to look if he wasn't next to him, but only his head rolled to his right side and remained inert there, not being able to see Jungkook. "I-Is he okay? W-Where is he? C-Can I see him?"

     The lack of oxygen in his brain was playing tricks on him, and it seemed to Lee that Jin was losing his mind a bit. He had however told him earlier that Jungkook was not there.

     He sat up, visibly irritated by Jin's intervention. His hands crossed dug into his chest cruelly, and Jin gasped completely. He coughed blood and, unable to breathe for several long seconds, thought his end was finally coming.

     "Arghhh... please... please..."

     "Are you dumb? Why are you telling me about Jungkook now? And just when I asked you to shut up?" the manager cut, "I don't think you understood what I said, you want me to repeat, is that it? Say it, what did I say?"

     Jin was struggling to gather his wits enough to make sentences and anyway, wasn't Lee coming to ask him not to talk anymore? But yes, that was it! This is what he had just said to him:

     "Not... a... word..." he whispered.

     This earned him another heart massage on his conscious body which creaked through and through and forced a muffled cry because he was now too weak to scream and forbidden to do that anyway.

     "Exactly, not a word. And you must deny absolutely everything he says that could harm me, everything, is that clear?"

     Full of anguish at the idea of ​​suffering even more, Jin trembled, not knowing what to do: answer or keep silent? He chose the second option and nodded apprehensively, waiting for the pain. But it did not come. Lee's face, inches from his, broke into a smirk.

     "Good."

     So, the manager began to close the gap that still lay between them. Frightened at the thought of the face of his executioner who approached when he could not push him away, he trembled even more and moaned without daring to utter a word. But the manager was obviously done with his painful heart massages.

     "Oh, one last thing. You and Jungkook, it's over, you've caused me enough trouble as it is. It's over, do you hear me? You belong to me, not to him, I don't want to see you together anymore, no matter what he tells you, no matter how he begs you or how he cries. You won't talk to him again until I give you permission, is that clear?"

     At the end of his tether and barely understanding the manager's words, Jin nodded so as not to suffer and finally let his mind evaporate into the limbo of unconsciousness, waiting for the darkness to take hold of him.

     So, finally, Lee placed one hand on Jin's forehead and used the other to tilt his head back and pinch his nose. Then, he placed his lips on that of the Jin to whom he breathed deeply the oxygen which he missed so much. He withdrew his mouth to breathe in again and repeated this mouth-to-mouth operation several times, noticing in passing Jin's expression full of gratitude which was gradually sinking.

     Jin had already lost consciousness when Lee finally called for help to evacuate him. 

    And when he woke up a long time later, he was in a hospital room, with Taehyung, and the man of his nightmares. Always with him...

     Soobin was in shock when Jin finishes his story. He didn't know what to say, it was worse than the worst things he had imagined. He knew he immediately needed to notify the CEO and other members BTS. But to Jin? At that noment, he just didn't know what to say. Could there be a fair word for someone who had lived through so much horror?

     "I... I..." he began, without finding any right word to say to Jin.

     Jin for his part was shaking, feeling like he made a big mistake by telling Soobin all this. He was still watching the younger one intently, waiting to see what his reaction would be, secretly hoping that he might receive some help from him, even though he didn't know what might help him against his manager.

     Eventually, he realized that he shouldn't expect any help from the younger singer. What had he been up to involving him in his dark secrets? He might have endangered his own life, Soobin's life, and Jungkook's life by doing that. It was no longer just about blackmail and assault, Lee was no doubt capable of becoming a murderer and wouldn't hesitate to come after them.

     "S-Soobin, you mustn't tell anything I've told you to anyone. I regret telling you, please don't tell anyone." His voice was pleading, almost whiny.

     And yet, Soobin refused, shaking his head forcefully, feeling tears of an anger welling up inside him addressed to the man who had done this to Jin.

     "Soobin, y-you promised!" Jin said, panicked.

     "Hyung, you made me promise not to tell him, meaning your manager but I never promised that I wouldn't tell the others, they must know what happened, to be able to protect and help you!"

     "No, no, no, no one can protect me from him," Jin whined.

     "But your members-" Soobin started.

     "No, they can't!" Jin insisted, on the verge of tears.

     He was too insistent, the victim of a deep-seated fear. A flash of madness suddenly seemed to cross his eyes, as if he thought he had found a way to dissuade Soobin from doing anything that might harm the manager.

     "Soobin, don't forget that he still saved my life. Without him I would be dead so I mustn't cause him any trouble by telling to thers, and-"

     "But what are you talking about, hyung?!" Soobin cut him astonished, "this man is crazy and sorry but what you're saying is also crazy! I know you're scared but you have to report him immediately or he will make you suffer again!"

     Jin shook his head sharply in denial and was about to argue to hold Soobin back but was prevented from doing so.

     "Thus, you were unable to hold your tongue Seokjin, uh?" a cold voice suddenly said next to them.

     It was a voice from Jin's nightmares, and yet, it startling both Jin and Soobin proving it was very real.

     "What was I thinking when I let you live?"

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A / N : I feel like I wrote this memory of Seokjin ages ago.

I had written it in the wake of the horror at the Stade de France and originally thought I would do a flashback to that event during the boys' stay in hospital. But I realized that it was better to postpone this story, to better let the mystery of the estrangement between Jin and Jungkook take root.

Lee threatened and manipulated Jin so much that he couldn't even look at Jungkook or talk to him for fear that it would be considered disobedience. He even thought he was responsible for all the suffering experienced by others and kept apologizing. He was truly traumatized when he woke up.

Now let's see how things will evolve...