"Ooh, look at them!"

    "Stop screaming."

    "But they are too cute!"

    "Hush, hyung, you're too loud, let them sleep a little longer."

     Despite the thoughtfulness of the last voice that belonged to Jimin, Jin woke up hearing the voices talking happily around him.

      "Ooh, look, Jin hyung is awake!" Hoseok exclaimed seeing Jin's eyes open and blink rapidly to get used to the light in the room, before placing his forearm on his face.

     "Of course he woke up with your screams," Namjoon pointed out.

     "I told you not to scream,"Yoongi growled. "Your voice must have hurt his head."

     "I'm sure that it's not the case, my voice is a saving voice since it was already my voice that woke him up earlier too. Don't be so embittered just because you couldn't do it yourself with your little meows," Hoseok sneered.

     "I'm not jealous, you scream all the time and it's tiring for everyone!" Yoongi replied.

     "It's not tiring, it makes people happy and full of hope, even you, although you won't admit it!"

     Jin chuckled at this funny argument before realizing with a hint of guilt that if Yoongi was growling and looking in a bad mood at this more than early hour, in a still completely black winter sky, it was because he hadn't had his night's sleep. He probably couldn't stand Hoseok's screams anymore because of this.

     "Hyung, how are you feeling?" Taehyung asked and Jin turned his attention away from Yoongi.

     The eldest thought and took the time this time to check that his whole body was working well but his mind too.

     "Honestly? I feel wonderful ," Jin ended up saying sincerely, rubbing his eyes and straightening up to greet the five with a smile. "I haven't felt this good in a long time."

     "Really? That's grat but... unexpected considering what happened that night," said Taehyung, who seemed to waver between relief and skepticism.

     "I know it sounds hard to believe, but it's the truth," Jin assured him.

    "I believe you, and I also believe that Jungkook too feel wonderful," Jimin said, amused, pointing the bed space that should have been empty next to Jin.

      Jin, still wrapped up in the warm covers, realized with surprised that he wasn't alone anymore in his bed. Jungkook had fallen asleep against him and the other bed was empty. It was a distant but surprisingly familiar warming feeling and it made him smile. Since Jungkook was a deep sleeper, the loud voices didn't seem to bother him in the least.

     Lying against a wall, he had already been brought new crutches and he noticed that his ankle was again in plaster. How was it possible that he didn't feel like he was being put in a new cast? He must have been very tired.

      "Oh no!" he cried suddenly, thinking about something.

      "What's the matter, hyung?" Namjoon asked, a little worried.

       "The nurse... she came back while we were sleeping, that means she saw Jungkook and I sleeping together!"

      Jin looked really distressed, and for good reason: the times Lee had caught him sleeping with Jungkook had been horrible nights for him and Lee had made them realize how inappropriate and disgusting it was. What was this woman going to think and say around her?

      "Don't stress about it," Taehyung said as he crawled under the covers next to Jin, "we don't care what people think, we do what we want. No one will hurt you anymore more for minor things like this."

     Jin shivered as he felt Taehyung's cold body squeeze against him and Taehyung seemed to misinterpret that shiver.

     "I'm sorry, I'll come down if you don't feel comfortable next to me," he said hastily, straightening up.

    After all, now that Jin had come to his senses and no longer needed his protection, maybe he resented him terribly for what had happened with Lee and Jungkook. But Jin's hand gripped his coat firmly to make him stay.

     "No Voo, it's not that at all," he reassured him, "it's just that you're freezing but you can stay, I'll warm you up." 

      "Oh," Taehyung said relieved, "does that mean... that you forgive me?"

     Jin pulled Taehyung closer to him and gave him a comforting hug under the layers of warm blankets. After receiving so much from Taehyung when he so needed to feel protected, it was more than normal for him to comfort him in turn. 

     "There's nothing to forgive, I never held it against you," Jin swore. "I'm the one who should apologize for all the trouble I caused you."

     "You never caused us any trouble: it's Lee, the haters and the sasaengs who are responsible for everything that happened," Taehyung affirmed.

    The other boys smiled at their mutual inability to accept the other's apology. 

    "Still, at least let me thank you for everything you have done for me, thank you for protecting me," Jin said nevertheless.

     Taehyung nodded smiling, happy to finally feel the weight of guilt lift off his shoulders.

      "Does that mean you forgive us too?" Namjoon asked for the others who was watching Jin carefully.

      "Does that mean you forgive me too?" Jungkook mumbled from the other side of the bed which startled Jin who was closest but had his back to him.

      Surprised, everyone turned to him because everyone thought he was still deeply asleep.

     "Yaaa, how long have you been awake, you little snake!?" Jimin asked.

     "From the beginning," revealed Jungkook who straightened up with a smile and presented his wide awake face to the others. "Hobi hyung's voice woke me up."

     "I told you!" Yoongi said to Hoseok who shrugged.

     "But Hobi hyung, your voice made me smile," Jungkook came to his rescue.

     Hoseok gave Yoongi a triumphant look and the eldest of the rappers gave up. On the other side of Jin, Taehyung stood up to see Jungkook :

    "I should have said bad things about you Jungkook," he regretted. "You would have had to listen without moving, pretending to be asleep!"

    "No way! I would have sleepwalked and kicked you," Jungkook replied without hesitation.

     "That's my kangaroo boy!" Jin appreciated.

     Everyone burst out laughing. Soon, Hoseok, Jimin and Namjoon settled on the second bed left by Jungkook, the first two crawling comfortably into the warmth of the blankets and the leader simply sitting on top of them, while Yoongi made his way to the only large armchair in the room in which he curled up as comfortably as a cat would and began to doze, while being attentive to the verbal exchanges which continued to take place in the room.

     "Jin hyung," Jungkook said suddenly, back to apologies, "Lee said that you would never forgive me and Taehyung after all the hurt we had done to you."

     The two youngest members of the group, on either side of Jin, looked at him apprehensively but Jin was quick to reassure them.

     "Lee will never make a decision for me again, especially since he is the only one who hurt me here and he wanted you to believe that it was because of you," he said, shaking his head, "It's not, I promise you. Everything there was to forgive is forgiven if there was any. I don't hold any grudges against any of you, so worry no more, okay?"

     Moved, Jungkook and Taehyung hugged him in a tremendous sandwich and Jin returned them both their brotherly embrace and the others looked at them with tenderness. 

    "It's a shame you two didn't witness Lee's arrest, you would have loved it," Jimin regretted, addressing Jin and Jungkook.

     "I wish I was there, it must have been a great moment for you, to see him lose his evil smile, and realize that he had finally lost," Jungkook said.

     "But at least, JK, you have already seen him lose his smile and you were even able to hit it," Jin said.

     "Yeah, I even broke his nose," Jungkook recalled smugly, looking at his right hand that had "ARMY" written on it and took it upon itself to take revenge without the young man having the impression of having ordered it. He did it so naturally it made him smile now.

     "Exactly! I'm the only one who didn't see anything!" Jin complained, sulky. 

    "Sorry, hyung, you will have to imagine the scene!" Jimin mocked gently. 

    "So you better add details to make my imagination work!" 

     "Mmmm where to start... Ah! Lee lost a few toes along with his arrogance," Jimin clarified.

     "Ouch!" Jin wince, realizing that if he had been lucky not to lose any limbs, Lee had been well punished for coming to kill him.

     "He tried to keep his composure and make fun of us but we wouldn't let him, even for a second," Taehyung added proudly recalling Lee's childish attempts to save face.

     "Ah yes, Taehyung got his revenge well!" Hoseok laughed, "he dropped Lee headfirst in the sand like an ostrich and rode him like a donkey."

     "You did that?!" Jin exclaimed, stunned, imagining the scene Hoseok had described to him when imagining Lee with the head of an ostrich and the body of a donkey. It was so weird and Jin felt like laughing.

      "Yeah," Taehyung answered proudly. "He was so weak after the blows given to him by Jungkook and with his body paralyzed by the cold that he couldn't even get up." 

     "Ah really," said Jin who regretted more than ever not having attended the scene. Lee had humiliated and broken Jungkook and him so much that he too wanted to have his part in this humiliating revenge. Still, he didn't know if he would have been able to do to Lee what Taehyung did. 

    "Jin hyung, you also played your part in this revenge" Hoseok intervened, seeing Jin's disappointment. Everyone turned to him to find out what he meant by that.

    "How's that?" the elder asked, doubtful.

     "Well, despite all his efforts to kill you, you survived," Hoseok said.

     "Hobi hyung is right," Jimin intervened, seeing Jin wondering how it had contributed to the revenge against his former manager. "Lee tried to remain impassive when he saw us then when he learned about his toes and then he tried to continue to be scolding and arrogant towards us but there is only one thing that made him lose his confidence: knowing that you were alive, that he failed to kill you, and that you were gonna be able to beat him for good. It showed in his eyes: he was afraid of you when you weren't even there! It shows the extent of your strength!"

     "He's scared... of me?" Jin asked, astounded. 

     He remembered that when his mother called to tell him unknowingly about Lee's extortion and that the man had overheard his phone call, he thought he read fear in Lee and he had then sworn to himself that one day, Lee's fears would come true. 

      But then he had abandoned that promise and that hope because of everything that had happened and never, ever, would he have imagined being the object of Lee's fear after being so frightened by that wicked man. 

     Jin was then particularly happy to know that that night, even if he hadn't been there to see it, the roles had reversed.

      "Yeah!" Hoseok confirmed. "I believe that the worst thing for him tonight was not to be arrested but to have learning that you were still alive. He was shocked!"

     "About that..." Namjoon thoughtfully interjected before lamenting : "with hindsight, I wonder now if it wouldn't have been better to pretend that Jin hyung was really dead so that Lee prepared an irrelevant defense and makes a fool of himself at trial making it easier for us to win."

     "Namjoon stop bothering you, the defense we prepared is already enough to make us win," muttered Yoongi whose closed eyes and motionless body gave the impression of sleeping.

    "Yes and at least, it will have allowed us to see in preview the face of his next public defeat!" Jimin exclaimed, still laughing at Lee's expression and scream of rage when the police pulled him over.

     "Okay, but now,  stop talking about it please, Jungkook and I would have liked to see that too but we didn't and it's so frustrating!"  Jin complained, having all the difficulty in the world to imagine what the face of defeat could look like on Lee who had always been so arrogant and confident in front of them.

    "Hyung, you will see him too soon," Namjoon promised him, "are you ready to fight him with us?"

    Hearing the words of its leader which reminded him of those of Jungkook earlier, Jin turned to the maknae who stroked his hand and nodded encouragingly.

     "Yeah, I'm ready," Jin agreed, despite his remaining fears. 

     He knew that his fears existed and that he had to live with the time that they disappeared but in the meantime, he would let others carry him and he refused to give up. With them, he would go to the end of the fight.

     "Good," Namjoon nodded, "because it's not just Kim Seokjin who is going to sue Lee, nor is it just Kim Seokjin and Jeon Jungkook individually. It's BTS who will - who already did last night - filed a complaint against him and it was more that time."

     Jin widened his eyes.

     "BTS?! But Namjoon, does that mean you took responsibility for the whole group?"

    "Yes, without any regrets," the leader affirmed looking at his other members, "we decided it together, you won't be left to fight alone."

     "When a member of our group is attacked, it is BTS who is attacked,"  Yoongi added, opening his eyes. "So it's BTS who will go to trial: the seven of us will be together to do this. From beginning to end."

     "Guys..." Jin murmured moved, hugging Jungkook and Taehyung even tighter.

      "Neither you nor Jungkook will ever be alone again, remember?" Hoseok added.

     "And our families support us, so we didn't hire individual lawyers," Namjoon explained. "We hired lawyers for BTS, and we refused those from the company even though we have their support. We don't fight in the name of Big Hit, we fight in the name of BTS : we're going to fight for ourselves. It will be our victory, not that of our company."

     Jin was the only one unaware of all this because he had been isolated from the others for a long time due to his fragile state. He was finding out about all this, and he suddenly felt a lot less afraid to sue Lee.

     "And Army? What if we lose their support after that?" Jin worried.

     "We have to trust our fans," Taehyung told him.

     "Exactly,"  Namjoon said, "let's reveal the whole truth. If the support of Army is strong enough, we can break this infernal system of the kpop industry. If not, we will lose everything, but we will have allowed others to continue a more than important battle. As for us, we will always have eachothers and that is what matters. We will get up together in another way and start all over again."

    "Why are you talking about the system of the kpop industry?" Jin wondered. "What do you mean?"

     "Hyung, we are not just going to sue Lee," Jungkook explained to him, "we are going to take the opportunity to denounce all the excesses of the system."

    "What?" 

    "Unfortunately, we realized during our hiatus that Lee was only one of the evil links in a longer chain of perverted things in this system and even if we get rid of him, there will always be the rest of those rotten things that make our life stressful," Hoseok said.

     "The infernal rhythm, physical abuses, sexual and moral harassment, dietary restrictions, blackmail , extortion, hate, fan excess, money reign..." Jimin listed, "everything that has made our life hell and destroyed the lives of other idols, we will fight against it and protect the future of trainees, the young generation that will succeed us."

     Shocked, Jin looked at Namjoon, convinced that he was the one behind the crazy idea. 

     "With the Lee case and those of the Stade de France and Incheon, it's now or never, I'm convinced," Namjoon said. "It is not sure that a South Korean group will one day have as much influence as us on the international scene so let's take advantage of this influence, even if it is destined to disappear, to enable a necessary change in our country. BTS will leave its mark in history other than musically. It will be like a super trial of the kpop and it will make a lot of noise, nationally and internationally."

     "Wow..." said Jin who couldn't think of anything else to say about the gigantic size of Namjoon's project. "That's... huge, even for us, don't you think?"

     "I think it would be huge for anyone else but not for us, actually," Namjoon corrected.

     "Who would have thought it was our destiny," Jimin sighed, feeling overwhelmed by the the turn of events but confident in their power as a group.

     "It's both noble and frightening as a fight : we fight for ourselves but also for others, we can lose everything or win everything, but you know what?" Hoseok said, "I'm sure we'll come out of this like royalty."

     "After all, we are the kings of K-pop!" Taehyung said before seeing Yoongi's gaze that seemed to judge him, "what? We are going to challenge an all-powerful industry in front of the entire world, I think it's time to be a little arrogant and realize our real strength!"

     "He's right, let's be pretentious for once," Jungkook agreed, "if we're going to crash next, then let's be aware right now that we're on top."

     "That's right," Namjoon said, "we may soon be fallen kings, so now let's show the world that this is us who reign over our industry and not the other way around, no one controls us anymore."

    "Sounds more like a pack of wild wolves that's going to invade the court than a line of kings to me, doesn't it?" Yoongi laughed. 

     "Ooooh hyung, you always ruin the good vibe!" Hoseok moaned.

    "Agree with us for once!" Taehyung added.

     "Okay," Yoongi sighed but said heartily: "we're kings."

     "Yeaaah!" Taehyung shouted and everyone clapped in concert.

    The seven kings of k-pop burst out laughing and felt that nothing could stop them: they were stronger than all.

     During the day, their managers Sejin and Hyun, Jin's particularly moved family, the group's lawyers and the police joined them in turn to the hospital. 

    Jin's mother burst into tears when she thanked Jungkook for saving her baby in a suffocating embrace but Jin refused to help Jungkook to escape her because he felt the youngest deserved all the love his mother was trying to give him. Jungkook would forever be part of his family, that was a fact. 

    Jin was happy to find his parents, whom he had had a hard time letting go after promising them as his dongsaengs that he would never attempt to end his life again, but he also felt happy to see again his former managers after all that had happened. After all, it was by their side that BTS had made its greatest journey and achieved success. Their last conflict should never have led to their dismissal, especially to have two horrible managers in exchange.

     Comparing Sejin and Hyun to Han and Lee was like comparing light to darkness: with the former, BTS had experienced difficulty but also happiness and their first successes, with the others, they had only experienced suffering and misfortune.

     Jin had been told that Han had to appear at the trial to testify on their behalf. Although it was a relief, Jin wasn't sure he could trust him and knew he would never come to like the man after everything that had happened under his tutelage. He had done nothing to protect them from Lee, he could not prevent the tragedy at the Stade de France from happening and he had even used the fear that Lee could inspire in them to force them to obey.

     Ultimately, it was in the reassuring presence of his family, his dongsaengs, his managers and the lawyers of the group that Jin finally made his full testimony to the police. He testified against Lee, against the sasaeng of the Stade de France and against the haters of Incheon.

     Although much of the story was known to all present, hearing it from his mouth was so heartbreaking that most could not hold back their tears and Jin received many comforting hugs.

     After that, they all left the hospital to prepare together for what one of their lawyers had already called the Trial of the Century

____________

A/ N :  greetings to all those who will have read "Stephen King" instead of "Seven Kings" for the title. I immediately thought of that but I think I'm the only weird one here XD

https://youtu.be/DHHntoCBWOQ