"Let the accused enter !"

     These sentences uttered by the judge sent shivers down Jin's spine, who couldn't turn around. He was absolutely petrified and jumped when the doors to the courtroom opened with a deafening creak allowed by the dead silence that reigned in the room. 

    Then he heard footsteps. Those of the two police officers who accompanied the accused and those, recognizable among a thousand, of the heavy gait of the former manager. The courtroom was plunged into silence, no one spoke as the footsteps inexorably approached him.

     Jin wanted to run away, he didn't want his manager to come back to punish him for revenge and kill him for good. Not when he finally decided he wanted to live and be happy.

     All these people gathered around him, why didn't they talk and just watch and did not prevent the man from getting closer to him? Why didn't his parents, who knew everything that had happened to him, step in and yell at him for all the horrors he had done to him? Wouldn't they protect him from the monster that had haunted him for so long despite what they had promised him?

     He was surrounded by so many people and yet he felt like he was plunging back into his past loneliness because he felt like he was the only one filled with pain and fear when he heard those footsteps slowly crossing the whole room.

     Were all these people around them there only as spectators to see Lee finally get revenge on Jin as he had promised? Yes. Jin was suddenly sure: no one would protect him against Lee, it was always like that. Whether there were people there or not, Lee had always managed to punish him. He should never have agreed to fight Lee, he should have refused. Why did he have to let himself be convinced by his dongsaengs?

     "I- I have to go..." he muttered to himself, looking for an exit.

     "No hyung, you have to stay, I'm here with you, he won't do anything to you," Jungkook whispered to him, holding his hand and preventing him from leaving.

     "Please, JK, we have to leave! Let's go or he will punish us both," Jin urged, pulling him by the hand as he heard the footsteps behind him inexorably closing in on them.

      But Jungkook let go of his hand, leaving him to walk away alone. Startled, Jin turned to him.

     "JK...?"

     "Why do you want to leave when I'm telling you that I'm with you? Hyung, you told me you would fight with me, you promise me, and now you're running away?!" 

     These last days, during the preparation of the trial, Jungkook had shown himself more and more tense, Jin knew it. Just like him, the younger one had suffered from Lee's cruelties and he was the one who most wanted to get rid of the former manager forever. 

      But the closer the trial date got, the more he started having mood swings like when Lee was around. He was anxious, everyone felt it and that anxiety often turned to anger when things didn't go his way. Because if they lost the case, then nothing would prevent Lee from resuming his schemes to ruin their lives.

     Surely the last thing he wanted to hear from Jin was that he didn't want to fight anymore. And yet, that was what Jin had just said on the first day of their battle against Lee. Nothing could hurt him more. And Jin was aware of it, but he was attacked by a force more powerful than him. The fear.

    "I'm really sorry JK, I thought I could, I swear, but seeing him now, I..."

     "Seeing him now, you no longer want to respect your promise that we made to become happy again as before?" Jungkook cut him off angrily. "You think I'm not afraid? Do you think I don't want to make him go away? I too suffered, you are not the only one! Do you remember? Just because I've spent the past few weeks reassuring you without telling you anything about how I felt doesn't mean I don't have trauma myself!"

     "I- I know, I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough for you, but you said you'd be there for me and-"

     "And you thought that meant I didn't need you to be there for me? That you could abandon me the day we could finally get rid of Lee for good? That you should leave me to fight alone?!"

     "No, that's not true," Jin protested, "I don't want to leave you alone, I want to run away with you, I want to take you away from him so he can never hurt you again."

    "Who do you take me for? I'm not a coward, I won't run away the day we can finally get rid of him forever and get back to normal life. You said we would fight together and defeat Lee, and I believed you. That's what gave me hope, and now, you just take it away from me."

     "I'm so sorry, I- I'm scared, I just can't..." Jin sobbed.

     "You don't trust me despite everything I've told you?" Jungkook insisted with the urgency of desperation, drawing on his last resources to try to convince Jin to stay. 

      His face said that he thought it was unthinkable that Jin would not trust him and give up on him and it hurt Jin as much as Jungkook was hurt.

     "I trust you but Lee is stronger than us, he always has been, you know it!"Jin cried with tears in his eyes.

     And with that, Jungkook realized that Jin had completely given up. He couldn't accept it. Not after all he had done to allay his fears, to persuade him and himself that everything would soon be better. How could Jin do this to him?

     "Well you just have to run away on your own if you're afraid of him. I won't hold you back, you just have to be alone with your fears forever."

     "No, please don't say that..." Jin begged. 

     He couldn't believe Jungkook was telling him that. Was it his fault he was so weak? He needed the strength of others to keep going, he had always known that.  If Jungkook left him alone again, he would be lost. Then, he turned to his other dongsaengs who kept their heads down in disappointment and didn't want to interfere. 

     "Please say something..."

     "Hyung, we told you that we needed you to win the case and we only conducted it because you agreed to come," Namjoon finally said. "Despite everything, you want to leave now and we won't hold you back because it's your right, we told you, we'll never force you. But what are we going to do now? My whole plan is ruined without you."

     "N-no, Namjoonie, I know you, you're smart enough to come up with something else, aren't you?" Jin said, desperate to see Namjoon up against the wall after seeing him so confident about this lawsuit. All because of him.

     "I'm not sure hyung, time is running out and Lee has his own strategy. I'm not sure I'm smarter than this psychopath."

     "Hyung, how can you do this now when we did all this for you?" Yoongi mumbled. "We want you to heal from your traumas but if you don't want, what can we do for you?"

      Jin knew that Yoongi was saying that to shake him up and not to hurt him but still, it hurt him. Yoongi didn't understand: of course he wanted to heal, but seeing Lee today made him fear that it would never happen. 

      This man scared him more than the worst monsters of his childhood. Because it was a real monster, not one that children imagine hiding under their bed. A human-looking monster that always stood behind him even when he thought he was away.

     "If you don't think of yourself, at least think of Jungkookie," said Jimin who had tears in his eyes too and hugged Jungkook against him. "He wanted you to be able to get better with you, he did everything for that. Can't you do that for him, hyung?" 

      Jin looked at the watery eyes of Jimin who stared at him with sadness, then those of Jungkook who stared at him with hope. Jin wanted to say yes. Yes I can and I will do it for you. But then, the memory of Lee not hesitating to try to kill him out of revenge imposed itself in his mind. No, he wasn't ready to go through that again. He had to leave Lee alone if he wanted the man to stop attacking him, that was the only solution. 

     He just lowered his head pitifully and let Jungkook see that he gave up.

    "Well, I told you your hyung was just a pathetic coward, didn't I, Jungkook?" a sly voice said.

     Turning around, Jin suddenly saw Lee's face facing him, inches from his own, widening his carnivorous smile after he finally joined the front row of the courtroom.

     "Hey kid, miss me?" he asked Jin with his big smile which showed all his teeth and made him look more like a wolf. The wolf who had come back to devour this little lamb that he had been eyeing from afar for too long and that he was in a hurry to devour.

     "No..." Jin whispered, pale as death.

     Seeing Jin's gaze fill with terror in front of him, he let out an evil laugh that echoed through the room and filled Jin's ears. But Jin couldn't cover his ears, his hands were paralyzed, forcing him to listen to that odious mocking laughter that had populated his nightmares for too long. He screamed in fear when Lee shouted to scare him:

     "BOO!"

     Jin woke up with a start and a piercing cry, panting and sweating. He realized that he was no longer in court but in his dark bedroom in the middle of the night and he was crying. He took several minutes to calm down. His throat was dry and he wanted to get up to grab the water bottle on his bedside table but he still couldn't move, still paralyzed. He couldn't even wipe away his tears.

      "It's fine, I'm fine," he gasped, "it was just a bad dream." 

     He had nightmares every night. Yet his mind was unable to get used to it and make him realize that it wasn't the reality, that he was safe where he was. Every night he dreamed either of Lee in court, or of Lee threatening to let him die at the Stade de France, or of Lee trying to drown him him, or Lee breaking his finger, or Lee raping him, or Lee whipping him, or Lee burning him... 

     Every night, it was the same monster that populated his nightmares and reminded him of all he had been able to do without anyone being able to protect him. Every night Lee threatened him in his dreams to stop him from fighting.

     "Despite all his nightmares and all your threats, I won't give up. I won't let Jungkook fight you alone."

     You're lying to yourself, I know how scared you are of me, you're just a coward, you always have been, Lee's voice said in his head.

      "No, I'm not a coward," Jin asserted, remembering Jungkook's words. "I wanted to protect Jungkook from you. Always." 

     What's the point if you abandon Jungkook when he needs you the most?

     "I won't give up on him," Jin assured, "I'm not afraid of you, it's you who's afraid of me, Hoseok told me how afraid you were to know I was alive." 

      Afraid of you? Are you kidding me? What could you possibly do to me? 

     "I will reveal to the whole world the monster that you are. I will tell everything you did to me!"

     I do not believe you. Look at you, all paralyzed with fear and crying after a nightmare in your bed like a crybaby.

      Jin wanted to get up and go for a walk to clear his mind and not hear that voice in his head anymore. But indeed, he couldn't move, he felt too weak and he wanted to go back to sleep. But he was afraid of falling back into his nightmares if he went back to sleep now. So he was doomed to hear that hateful voice until it was willing to shut up.

     "Soon you'll be the one crying in your prison cell where you'll rot forever because I'll do anything for it."

     Do you think I'll let you do it?

    "You can't hurt me anymore. Your threats don't scare me."

     Is that why you have nightmares of me and cry and scream at night?

     "It's just nightmares, when I wake up you're not here."

     Yet I am talking to you while you are awake.

     "You're on my mind, that's all." 

      Isn't that worse? If I'm in your head Seokjin, it's because I'm always with you, no matter where you are. I will always be with you. Even if you try to run away from me, I will never let you go. 

     Jin was puzzled to hear the words Jungkook said to him from Lee's mouth. As if hearing his thoughts, Jin heard Lee's voice say:

     It's not Jungkook who will be with you forever. It's me.

     "N-no, that's wrong, you failed to kill me and I don't want to die anymore, you can't do anything to me now."

     I can kill you whenever I want.

     "That's not true, you can't come here! You will not get out of prison before the trial and you will only get out to go back after your defeat."  

     It's funny that you don't know. I was released for lack of evidence against me, didn't your little brothers tell you? They must have thought they couldn't take the news and they were right! They don't trust you because they know as well as I do that you're just a coward who will abandon them when the time comes. 

     Jin froze. It wasn't true, it was impossible. Lee couldn't have come out and his dongsaengs couldn't have hidden something like that from him. Lee's voice was lying, playing with his mind and his fears. He recovered quickly, not wanting to be trapped by this voice that was doing everything to see him give up.

     "Even if it was true, you can't enter the dorm now, we made sure of that and change all the locks."

     "Oh really? So I wonder... how did I manage to get in? I really must be determined."

     A peal of laughter echoed through the room and suddenly, Seokjin's eyes, accustomed to darkness, saw approaching him a figure he knew only too well. 

     "No, you're not here, you'll never be here again, this is just another nightmare..." Jin muttered, blinking awake. 

     He wanted to pinch himself but he still couldn't move. So that proved he was sound asleep, didn't it?

     "You would like that, wouldn't you?"

     Jin's eloquent silence answered him: he was frozen. Unfortunately, Lee was no longer a voice in his head. He was right there next to him. And contrary to his dream, the man wasn't handcuffed and could hurt him however he wanted. 

     "Han hasn't lost his old habit of covering for me. He managed to steal Sejin's badge during his last interview to prepare for the trial and getting in here was a breeze. Oh I'm sorry," he added seeing Jin's crestfallen expression, "you trusted him to testify against me? What a joke. I guess Namjoon will have to revise his strategy because that's not going to happen."

     "It- it's not true, Han is on our side, he defended us at Doo-Na's trial, you weren't there to see him but he's not on your side anymore!" Jin protested.

     "Yeah, I admit that he played the comedy well, his acting is amazing. To think he would go that far! He knows very well that if you win this trial, he will be the big loser, whereas he will be the winner if I win since all court costs will be your responsibility and we'll keep all the money we took from you." 

     "W-we? What do you mean "we"?" Jin stuttered.

     "You think all that money I got from you was just mine?" Lee replied, grimacing in disgust. "Han is the most treacherous one, and he blackmailed me as soon as he found out I was extorting you. He let me do whatever I wanted to you for that money, that snake."

     "No, no, no, you're lying, Han swore he didn't know and will help us get you convicted!"

    "So why would he have me come in here tonight?"

     "To get you arrested and caught in the act!"

      "Even if it were true, it would only prove one thing: he doesn't give a damn about your safety."

     Jin opened his mouth, stunned because he realised Lee wasn't wrong. Could it really be that Han had tricked them all?

      "He wanted his share of the money and understood very quickly that he had to pretend to be on your side and that he cared about you. He went so far as to defend you at the trial of that little crazy girl to prove that you could trust him. And it's me who they call the psychopath, pfff! What a snake this man, it's always those who talk the least who are the most vicious... fortunately I have him on my side. Or rather, against you, because I know very well that he will stab me in the back at the first opportunity if it allows him to get out of it. But as long as we have a common goal and we need each other, you can't do anything against us, he is smarter than Namjoon, know that. But let's stop talking, I didn't come to talk. I came to act, as you said so well."

     Frightened and wanting immediately to push Lee away as he leaned over him, Jin found he could move but yet his hands refused to push Lee away. Leaning his head back, he realized with horror that they were handcuffed to the bed. So that was why he couldn't move since he woke up?

      He was totally vulnerable, at the mercy of his torturer and murderer. He had an odious sense of deja vu, like when Lee first walked into his room and caught him with Jungkook before assaulting him. Why did this cursed day have to exist?

     "I took the liberty of tying you up, not that I need it to dominate you but I thought this position would bring back memories," Lee scoffed  removing the blanket covering Jin and exposing his lower body which should have been covered in his pajamas and underwear but was completely naked. 

     "No-nngh" Jin began to cry before being interrupted by a feeling he thought was forgotten.

     "That's it, you remember it ? The first time that I touched you? Does it still feel like a dream or has reality finally caught up with you?"

     The pleasure that could turn into the worst suffering according to Lee's goodwill and his hands that had hurt him so much. How could he forget? But he didn't want it. He never wanted it again. Neither in dream nor in reality.

      "No, please..." Jin pleaded.

      "I know you missed it. I missed it too, you know? It reminds me the good old days, when I was still at home in this dorm and came to have fun with you when I wanted. Before you take everything I have. Maybe everything could go back to the way it was. Han called me the pervert and said I could just take your money. But he never understood how much we loved what you and I did together, right Seokjin? And that's why I came to see you. How could you do this to me? Do I mean so little to you, for you to betray me like this?"

     The time had come. Lee was going to get revenge. Everyone had promised him that it wouldn't happen again, that they would protect him from Lee and that was what had given him the strength to fight. Yet Lee was there, with him, and he was alone. He never wanted to relive what Lee had made him live. Never. This couldn't be happening.

     "NOOOOO!!" Jin yelled in terror, "YOU CAN'T BE HERE!! YOU COULDN'T GET IN HERE, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! IT'S A NIGHTMARE, I WANT TO WAKE UP NOW!!"

    "Yes, I'm your worst nightmare, and nothing could make me happier," Lee sneered.

     Jin struggled like a madman to get rid of the handcuffs and flee, but in vain, so he yelled:

     "JUNGKOOK!! NAMJOO-!!"

      He felt the hands brutally land on his throat which took his breath away and his speech at the same time.

      "The door is locked, so shut up now. No one can protect you from me, did you forget?"

     Jin was suffocating but, scared of having to suffer more from his bad behavior, he forced himself to shake his head. No one was there with him to protect him from Lee. He had been crazy enough to believe otherwise and he blamed himself. Lee, satisfied and seeing that he no longer cried nor struggled, released him, leaving him breathless and coughing.

     "Good boy. But because you were reckless enough to not only believe that you could flee but also believe that you could threaten me, I'll make you relive the memory of our first night, to remind you of the terror you shouldn't have forgotten. And I won't be nice, because you deserve to be punished for causing me so much harm with Jungkook and all your damn dongsaengs. You will pay for what they did to me and the humiliation I had to go through."

      "No, no, please no, I won't say anything, please leave me alone, I won't say anything, I won't..." Jin begged while crying.

     But no matter how much he begged, Lee wasn't listening anymore. Jin felt his hands on him in horror. This contact was too real to be a dream...

     "You thought you could destroy me? Now remember, and never forget again that against me, you can do nothing. I'm the one who destroyed you and I will do it again as many times as it takes to make you understand!"

      Jin didn't dare to protest but he couldn't help moaning in terror at the thought of what was about to happen to him. Lee smiled almost affectionately at him. But Jin knew he wasn't capable of affection and that only scared him more.

      "I hope you enjoyed this freedom you had for a few months. Tonight, you become mine again, body and mind..."

______________

A/N : I have a lot to say but I won't say anything.