"Taehyung, were you really with them when... when things were happening?" Yoongi asked, shocked.

      "So that's what happens during your game nights together alone?" Hoseok asked in turn, , seeing that Taehyung wasn't responding and seemed to say he was there indeed. "I... I thought it was the same game night as when we were all together."

       "Lee said he picked on Jin hyung during his game nights, but if you were with them often, then that means you..." Jungkook said slowly without looking away from Jin and Taehyung. His throat was dry and he was trying to calm the flood of thoughts that surged through him.

     But, scared of what he was saying, he suddenly fell silent and seemed to wonder if he should rush to snatch Jin from Taehyung's arms. Oddly, Jin who was as rigid as Taehyung after this revelation, didn't seem to want to move anymore. Taehyung was kepting his mouth wide open but no sound came out. He was speechless with horror. The horror of having been discovered? Otherwise, why wouldn't he say anything to defend himself?

     Faced with this revealing silence that dragged on, Jungkook whispered:

    "You... you said that you wanted to protect hyung, I was so relieved to know that he was not alone with Lee and that he was with you too, yet you have... you really were..."

     Again he interrupted, unable to formulate his terrible thought, not wanting to think that he could be right. Not when he had just reconciled with Taehyung and that he thought he would all fight together against Lee and the rest of their enemies. Why did Taehyung suddenly seem to have turned into an enemy in turn?

     "Why do you say nothing?" Jungkook asked weakly, after hoping with all his heart that Taehyung would deny it.

     "The only explanation is that he knows he's guilty," Lee slyly suggested. If someone gave importance to what he had just said, on the other hand no one gave him a look. Everyone had their eyes on Taehyung and hung on his lips who remained desperately still.

     Worried about not seeing Taehyung trying to defend himself, Jimin stammered:

      "T-Taehyung?" 

       Taehyung seemed to wake up suddenly from his torpor when he heard Jimin calling him. 

     "No!! I know what it looks like but it's not what you think!" Taehyung cried despite everything, on the verge of tears. "I can explain!"

     He had seen in the gaze of others hypotheses linked together one after the other. Was they really going to think he tricked them all into pretending to take care of Jin when he was actually his abuser? He knew very well that was what the situation led to think but he couldn't let others think so. It was absolutely unthinkable to let them have that thought of him.

     "I..." he started.

     "Sorry Taehyung," Lee falsely apologized, cutting him, "I have no choice anymore, I also have to reveal your secret to others because everyone accuses me of the most horrible things. Me, I had Seokjin's consent during our night games but you didn't! That makes you the rapist by law, not me, doesn't it?"

      "What?! No, I'm not a rapist!!" Taehyung exclaimed, distraught, completely outdated by the turn of events.

      "Nope? So what are you doing to Seokjin in this photo?" Lee questioned while pointing his outstretched phone screen in Taehyung's direction. "By the way, you really hurt him baddly that night and then you fell asleep as if nothing had happened while pretending to be the one to protect him from Jungkook, remember? I believe I remember that you told him, uh, what was it... oh yes : 'hyung, you can sleep with me, no need to go to sleep with Jungkook.'"

     "S-stop lying, y-you are the one who hurt him, not me!" Taehyung protested, stammering furiously.

     "Oh, I am the lier here? Seokjin, did he tell you that or he didn't?"

     Everyone turned to Jin.

     "Yes, he did," Jin said without hesitation, because he suddenly remembered it very well. He remembered how he wanted to run away from the room and how Taehyung held him back, thinking he will defending him against Jungkook when it was Lee he needed protection from. But his eyes widened in horror when he realized what he had just done and he clapped a hand over his mouth. 

     But the damage was already done. His confident response compared to his earlier prose words shocked everyone because it was obvious that he wasn't lying, even if he had spoken without meaning to. Their trust in Taehyung was cracking all over, and Taehyung himself suddenly had doubts. 

     "You see Taehyung, if you lied about that, you could very well have lied about the rest, that's what they'll think of you," Lee said in a smooth voice. "Thank you for your honesty Seokjin."

      Jin, racked with guilt over what he just said but couldn't argue with Lee, hid his face as best he could while Taehyung seemed to crumble even further.

      "I-I just... I just don't remember saying that!" Taehyung half-heartedly defended himself, as he remembered however that night he was pissed at Jungkook for behaving badly against Jin. 

     It was not impossible that he said that to Jin because at that moment he honestly thought he was protecting Jin from Jungkook by keeping him away from him. But if he had said those words, it was only an odious pun, he thought of sleeping, not of having sex! How could others believe that about him?

     "You're not very convincing," Lee pointed out, "don't you remember even making him change the bloody sheets without bothering to wake you up? It's really monstrous of you, Taehyung!"

     Taehyung's jaw dropped and panic flashed in his eyes at the same time as the shock was read on the faces of the others.  He hadn't woken up when Jin was attacked. Then he hadn't woken up when Jin had to change the sheets on his bed and replace them. Who would believe such a thing?

     He remembered how the next day, Lee asked him if he hadn't been woken up by their excited noise, and how Jin said that the evening had been fun when Lee asked him the question in front of everyone. Jin must have kept that to himself, he hadn't told Taehyung anything, not even a word of reproach. He had kept the secret. And at that time, he didn't even have the support of Jungkook who he had a fight with. He must have felt so alone!

      And suddenly, Taehyung himself felt incredibly alone. Lee was accusing him tirelessly, Jin didn't defend him and all the others had suddenly turned into enemies. Was that how Jungkook felt when everyone, himself first, accused him of abusing Jin? It was a terrifying feeling. He felt like he deserved it after what he did to Jungkook.

     He almost expected someone to suddenly come and separate him from Jin to protect the eldest from himself. Unconsciously, Taehyung hugged Jin more tightly for fear of it happening. He felt like if he let him go, he would really be alone against everyone and he couldn't fight Lee's lies and everyone's disappointment.

     "Taehyung," Jimin said, seeing Taehyung lose all his composure, "We want to believe you, and we will, I swear, but you have to tell us how you got into this situation and if it happened again afterwards. Did he force you to watch like he did with Jungkook? Did he force you to... to participate in what he was doing?" 

     "N-no, he didn't force me to do anything like that, I would never have looked without doing anything to prevent it," Taehyung stammered, trying in vain to remember if it could have happened during other of the nights he spent with Lee and Jin. "I swear, we were playing and-"

     "You were playing?" Jungkook repeated in a flat voice, cutting him. "You mean you played his perverse games?"

     "No, you misunderstood, I mean, we were playing video games and I wanted to sleep. But after that I-" Taehyung tried to explain while cursing himself for falling asleep that night leaving Jin and Lee alone.

     "He fell asleep peacefully, because he was confident. He was not afraid because he was the aggressor!" Lee cut him, "By the way, I never scared Taehyung, because we were partners."

    "N-no, that's wrong! I don't know how I didn't wake up, but that's wrong, I am neither his partner nor an aggressor!" Taehyung cried. "The only real thing is that I trusted you!"

     Then the question that haunted him came back with force: how could he not wake up dispite what was happening? Did he trust Lee so much to fall asleep without suspecting him of being able to hurt Jin even though he had physically hurt Jin and Jungkook before his eyes in the past? How could he ? Now, everyone was believing him to be complicit in Lee's actions horrors committed against Jin.

      Jin... Jin must have hated him so much that night! Maybe he hated him ever since? He looked at the eldest, whom he was still hugging, unable to let go and who didn't try to get away from him. Jin was still and attentive to what Lee was saying. He was the only one who knew what really happened that night. But would he agree to reveal it?

     Taehyung shook his head frantically and said to others who had become dumb again and seemed to wonder what to believe because Taehyung's word failed to convince them and was constantly drowned out by Lee's, stronger and more argued:

     "He's lying, I swear he's lying! Jin hyung, tell them he's lying!" Taehyung pleaded looking at Jin, clinging to him as if his life depended on it.

     Jin looked at him with pain for a brief moment as if he wanted to help him and then looked at Lee reflexively.

     "No, no, no, don't look at him or he will forbid you to tell the truth, please tell the truth!" Taehyung whined grabbing Jin's shoulders to force him to turn away from Lee.

     Jin didn't flinch but didn't breathe a word and let his hurt gaze escape.

     "Well, am I the only one to have noticed that you often give him orders those days and that he obeys you finger and eye?" Lee noticed, amused to see doubt creeping into the eyes of others with each of his remarks. "It is however your eldest, did you make your possession of him?"

      "I didn't! I- I'm just trying to protect him from you and your snake tongue, that's all!" Taehyung exclaimed, "I never wanted to force him to do anything!"

     "Yet, that's what you did! Honestly Taehyung, the picture is telling enough don't try to shirk your responsibility for what happened. By preventing him from leaving to seek help from Jungkook like you did, forcing him to stay in your bedroom! Yes Jungkook," Lee added loudly to Jungkook whose eyes widened at that statement, "Seokjin really wanted to take refuge with you that night but when he did the next day, you hit him! Poor Seokjin !"

     Jungkook in turn broke down and Hoseok squeezed his shoulder to stop him playing Lee's game. But faced with his responsibility again pointed out with more brutality than ever, Jungkook was in all of his states and started whining loudly. And Jin who still refused to look at him didn't help ease his conscience.

     He had not made the connection between these two events before. He had pushed away Jin who had just been assaulted. He had done everything wrong. If the day before he hadn't been so obnoxious with Jin, Jin would have dared to open his door and he wouldn't have found himself at this game night with Lee and Taehyung. He was responsible, Lee was telling the truth about that.

     "Yeah, you were both monstruous towards Seokjin, he will never forget that!" Lee said to Jungkook and Taehyung. 

     The two youngest were collapsed and the still silent Jin bit his lips nervously, his eyes moist finally letting out his tears in front of his two dongsaengs he couldn't comfort. 

     Seeing that Jin was keeping silent and did not dare to reply despite his visible pain to see Jungkook and Taehyung in this state of distress, Lee knew that the success of his plan was assured.

     "You want to know something else interesting Jungkook?" Lee asked. 

      "No, he does not!" replied Hoseok in place of Jungkook who was unable to respond to Lee in his condition and Hoseok wondered if he could take another revelation that night.

     "I don't care, I'll tell him anyway because he has the right to now," Lee replied, "listen carefully Jungkook because it will make you realize how much trash Taehyung is. He told me himself that he would blame you for all of Seokjin's misfortunes and that's the first thing Seokjin heard when he woke up from the coma. Can you imagine how scared Seokjin must have been when, barely awake, he heard your voice and saw you in the hospital? You, the culprit designated by Taehyung!"

     Agape, Jungkook let his devastated gaze landed on Taehyung who felt miserable and wanted to throw himself off the balcony to punish himself for what he had dared to say. He couldn't deny what Lee had just said. That was what he had said in the hospital room. 

     He hadn't realized that he could be responsible for Jin's rejection reaction to Jungkook when he woke up. But he remembered Lee making him repeat those words knowing that Jin was awake and was going to hear them. At the time, he hadn't paid any attention to it because he was too relieved to have Jin waking up. Those words were Lee's. But despite everything, it was he who had pronounced them, all that so as not to be denounced.

     Taehyung was up against the wall and no longer trying to retaliate. He was only letting his tears flow on Jin's head still leaning against him and dared not look at Jungkook anymore. 

     Not only did he let things happen, let Jin suffer and he had made Jungkook an enemy in Jin's eyes. Now that he was accused of raping and coerced Jin, he no longer felt the right or the strength to defend himself. He was already guilty of many things and no one would defend him anymore. It was all over for him...

     "Everyone, don't listen to him, he's a psychopath," Namjoon finally declared in a loud voice to others who stopped looking at Taehyung to look at their leader Taehyung's eyes widened after he jumped upon hearing Namjoon's voice who came to his aid to pull him out of his misery. "Everything that comes out of his mouth is only meant to manipulate us and we almost fell into his trap. Even when he's not lying, he's manipulating the truth to stand against each other instead of being united against him, we must never forget it again!"

     Namjoon looked at Jin who was still in Taehyung's arms despite the manager's revelations. 

     "If what Lee said was true and Taehyung hurt him, Jin hyung wouldn't have stuck to him since earlier and also all week in the hospital. If he saw in Taehyung someone who could protect him, it's because he's not guilty of what Lee accuses him of, I'm sure. And if Taehyung says he's innocent, then we believe him, not Lee. Period."

     Taehyung gave him a grateful teary look.

     "Hyung..."

     "Taehyung, is that why you didn't want to oppose Lee anymore and took your anger and distrust to Jungkook?" Namjoon asked gently. "Did he threaten you with that picture like he did for Jin and Jungkook?"

      "Yes, he did," Taehyung hastened to reply while looking at Jungkook. "But I was so scared when he showed me the photo that when he told me he wouldn't tell anyone if I put all the blame on Jungkook, I agreed to repeat his words. I'm so sorry Jungkook, I swear I didn't know that Jin hyung woke up and heard me."

     Jungkook not answering anything still confused by what he had learned, Taehyung, desperate, continued by addressing Namjoon knowing that Jungkook heard him:

     "I really didn't know what happened in my room that night, I found out the day Jin hyung woke up, that's the truth."

     "Is that why you kept saying you should have woken up?" Namjoon asked him gently, finally able to understand everything.

     "Y-Yes, I... I don't know how I did not wake up despite what was happening. I'm guilty for not waking up I'm terribly sorry, I probably could have ended it all if I had..."

     "It's not your fault Tae, you didn't do anything wrong," Jimin asserted, guilty of believing Lee's manipulative word even for a moment. Namjoon was right, this man was a psychopath. "You might have been in danger if you woke up that night because he might have found a way to make you suffer like he did with Jungkook and Jin hyung.""

     "Yeah, it's not yours nor is it Jungkook's fault for anything that happened to Jin hyung," Hoseok said, hugging the maknae. "And you two protected him more than any of us did, do not forget it."

     "He threatened the three of you, it's really heinous," Soobin said sadly watching the three devastated boys before glaring at Lee.

     "Lee made you think he was on your side and was your friend when he never was," Yoongi said to Taehyung, finally understanding why Lee got so close to Taehyung and Jin compared to the others. Jin was his victim. Taehyung was... "He made you the scapegoat in anticipation of the day when he would be accused. Since you were usually only the three of you and he was already destroying Jin hyung's will, he knew that there would be no witnesses to defend you. It's Machiavellian and disgusting."

     To everyone's surprise, applause sounded and echoed. But that could only come from a person without any morals.

     "I'm impressed, sometimes I feel like we share the same brain you and I, Yoongi, we should strategize together in the future!" Lee remarked, hissing in admiration.

     "Go to hell!" Yoongi retorted to Lee who only burst out laughing.

     Taehyung felt completely stupid for letting himself be deceived by Lee. He even defended him when Namjoon accused himand then even knowing what he had done, he had let her convince him that he would protect his reputation. He wanted to vomit. This man was evil incarnate. And he himself was an idiot.

      He was relieved to see the others backing him up one after the other but what he was looking for now was mostly Jungkook and Jin who remained silent, even though Jin remained glued to him.

      Maybe that meant as Namjoon had assumed, that Jin didn't see him as an aggressor. But Taehyung mostly wanted to know if Jin forgave him. Because even if Jin knew that it was Lee who assaulted him, he also knew that Taehyung had remained in the room without doing anything to help him while he was being raped. 

     Yoongi followed Taehyung's hurt gaze and told him:

   "Jin hyung knows what happened and that's what matters. And Jungkook..." He looked at the younger one whose hurt gaze refused to fix on Taehyung. "...He's hurt. Let him time."

     Lee chuckled and said:

     "It's touching but it doesn't take away from the fact that the two most popular boys in the group are going to be suspected of not only having homosexual practices but in addition to having sexually assaulted one of their hyung. I'm no soothsayer, but I think your group won't be long. And then, no more privileges, you will either go to prison or to the army, but it will be the same hell for you, and your reputation will forever be ruined. Good luck, Jungkook and Taehyung!"

     The weight on the two younger shoulders suddenly became even heavier. But their elders weren't planning on letting them suffer Lee's attacks any longer.

     "Because you think you can get away with lies and your photos? These photos and videos you have mainly show that you could have prevented things from happening but that you did nothing and that you used them to make us blackmailing!" Yoongi said coldly.

     "What could I have done? I would have liked to stop Taehyung and Jungkook to hurt Seokjin, but what can I do against the will of the most famous idols? I didn't want to lose my job," Lee slyly said, playing the victim. "All I could do was wait in the shadows and gather evidence to expose them."

     "Is that what you want a judge or the public to believe?" Hoseok said, stunned, while all the others, shocked, looked at the man with disgust.

     "Nobody will believe you," Namjoon retorted, "you can say what you want, tonight you will still go to police custody!"

     "No," the CEO immediately said, firmly.

    Everyone turned to him in amazement, as if they had forgotten his presence. He had put his phone away and no longer seemed to want to call the police, what worried them. His answer was so at odds with what everyone was expecting that Namjoon's reaction didn't take long:

     "What do you mean PD-nim?" he asked, taken aback.

     "Don't make any decisions now. We would be ill-advised not to take seriously what Lee says, we need to find a viable solution to save your group."

     Lee's smile revealed his teeth widely while the boys couldn't believe it.

     "Who cares about the survival of the group now, Lee has to pay for what he did!" exclaimed Yoongi, beside himself.

     "When you're less angry, you'll understand that it's not just about that, Yoongi," Bang replied, deciding to take matters into their own hands from there. "Lee, Namjoon, come to my office, I want to talk to you both. Yoongi, take everyone to the rest room and try to rest. Namjoon will tell you about the decisions we made when he joins you. Soobin, go with them, you will tell them what Seokjin taught you."

    "But-" Namjoon began.

     "No 'but' Namjoon, the situation is urgent and requires a quick and wise decision."

      Lee gave the BTS members an ugly smug smile that made them seethe.    

     Following these words of Bang Si-Hyuk, the artistes weren't happy with the turn of events. Everything should have been very simple: Lee had to be denounced, that was it. But if the CEO wanted to discuss before denouncing him, it was because he wanted to negotiate with him.

      Namjoon and Yoongi exchanged apprehensive looks together before looking at the other members. Everyone was in a pitiful state. It was the end of a battle they should have won thanks to their rediscovered unity and yet, victory was slipping through their fingers, despite all the pain they had just endured to obtain it.

     However, they refused to let the man get away easily. Not after all the evil things he had done. That's what Namjoon conveyed to Yoongi with a simple look and Yoongi nodded, as determined as him.

______________________

https://youtu.be/NpEDWiZTTz0

What is a psychopath?

"This syndrome characterizes people who are arrogant, very manipulative, insensitive, seductive, dominant and fearless. Additionally, psychopaths are considered to be impulsive in several areas of their lives. They have no remorse or empathy. Themes of love, horror, and good and evil mean nothing to psychopaths except in a very superficial way. They constantly seek stimulation, show superficial affect and yearn to control others and their environment. They are unable to form meaningful affective bonds with others. They regard those around them as objects that they can manipulate as they please, maintaining relationships for a utilitarian purpose."

(Source : https://www.passeportsante.net/fr/psychologie/Fiche.aspx?doc=psychopathe)

I think I managed to create my psychopath character. My only regret is that I made it so obvious. I should have made him a normal character at the beginning who would have revealed himself in his true identity afterwards to surprise you. But since I don't have a psycho brain or a genius brain, I didn't think about it until later. Never mind !