"Thank you for this painful testimony, Mr. Lee," his lawyer Ho said in conclusion.

     Lee had totally altered reality to pose as the victim. Even though it was predictable, the six BTS members present who had to listen to it without saying anything were deeply sickened, as well as their families. Jungkook's parents were devastated to see their son thus accused but Mrs. Kim, just as shocked by Lee's false testimony, remained close to them, wanting to show everyone that their two families remained united and that no one should believe Lee's lies.

     Some people in the audience seemed to doubt this testimony but many others gave the BTS members disgusted looks, they took them for criminals who tried to hide behind their notoriety and the support of their company to accuse their manager and not be accused.

     Testimony of Park Eun-Jung, stylist of the group BTS

     "Seokjin has always been a model of resilience within his group. We, the staff who have worked with the group for several years, have seen him evolve and we can see when something is wrong. While he was a bubbly and full of life boy despite all the difficulties he could encounter, we gradually noticed that he was more and more extinguished, less energetic, less smiling.

     Worse, I started noticing that he was hiding wounds under bandages, I frequently discovered new ones, not to mention the obvious wounds that everyone could see as his facial wound and one day I even found blood in his clothes.

     Then I understood that it was necessary to speak about it, I could not let Seokjin suffer like that without doing anything, it was impossible for me to continue to close my eyes, even if the suffering is part of the job of an idol. It's a cruel work environment, you know?

     But in general, the staff avoids reporting disturbing things that they see because it could be perceived as a criticism of the management of the company and that can get us fired. So we close our eyes and plug our ears."

     "Why did you decide to speak if you were familiar with injuries in idols and if you were used to always closing your eyes?" Lawyer Ho asked.

     "Because I had the distinct impression that he was being abused by one or more people. For me, it was clear that someone was inflicting these injuries on him, it was unthinkable that he would hurt himself so regularly and so badly on his own, not to mention his behavior which was different as I said. He seemed... unhappy. Very unhappy."

     "Who did you talk to about this?"

     "I first talked to my colleague Choi Soo, who does makeup for BTS members, to find out if I had false ideas, but she confirmed my doubts. And together, we tried to find out who was the best person to warn to help Seokjin and protect him."

     Eun-Jung looked nervously at Lee's side and then at BTS' side. She knew the boys weren't lying, she knew them too well to know that he would never have done all the things Lee accused them of. She was aware that she had made a big mistake talking to Lee as he had certainly taken revenge on Seokjin after that, and she wondered how she could have found this infamous man charming and how she could have been seduced by him. She was sick of herself.

     "You judged that the right person was Mr. Lee, didn't you?"

      The young woman burst into tears and murmured to BTS:

     "I am very sorry..."

     "Don't worry, your testimony will allow us to help Seokjin," Ho said, giving her a malicious smile.

      Between her tears, the young woman glared at him.

      Testimony of Choi Soo, makeup artist of the group BTS

     "It pained me to see Seokjin suffer like this so I thought about who could inflict this on him and the first thing I thought was that there must be some disturbing things happening in the dormitory at this time. Because apart from public outings and events, there is only one place where things can happen in secret, without anyone outside the group knowing about it: the dormitory."   

     "So you immediately suspected one of the members of being guilty of this abuse on Seokjin, right?" Ho asked slyly of the woman who seemed on the verge of a panic attack.

     "Y-yes, but I-" she started, wanting to tell the members how sorry she was.

     "And you suspected Jungkook because you observed the unusual distance Seokjin had created between them, even though they were previously inseparable?"

     "That's what my colleague Eun-Jung suggested but I wasn't sure if that was the case because Jungkook is a good person, always lovely with his elders, especially with Seokjin."

     "But you say you noticed that it was then Taehyung who was glued to Seokjin and not Jungkook who was rather isolated, as if Taehyung wanted to protect him from Jungkook's actions?"

     "That's not exactly what I meant to sa-"

      "You weren't wrong since it turned out that it was indeed Jungkook who punched him that morning," the lawyer cut her off. "And then you and Miss Park Eun-Jung decided to go tell Mr. Lee, right?"

     "Y-yes, she thought he was the best person to tell if things like this were happening. For my part, I thought that the boys were mature enough to settle their affairs on their own, without involving anyone. But seeing Seokjin in pain smiling at us to make sure everything was okay, I understood that we had to do something for him and that talking to his manager could be a good thing for him. After all, his manager is there to take care of him and help him with his problems when he has them."

     "So you didn't see Mr. Lee as a danger at all, correct? At no time contrary to the doubts you may have had regarding Mr. Jeon?"

      "No, how could I? Mr. Lee had always been charming with everyone and seemed to take care of the boys in front of us. I felt free to talk about anything with him, including the boys' discomfort, convinced that he would do everything to help them get better. How could I have  imagined that in secret he-"

     "Thank you, that's all for me," Mr. Ho cut off to prevent the witness from ruining the defense testimony in favor of Lee that he had managed to extract from him. "We feel that this witness is afraid that her testimony will cause her dismissal from Big Hit but she had the courage to reveal the truth to us and we thank her."

     "I hate this man, I hate him so much that I don't have the right words to express it!" Jungkook said as they walked out of court among the last after that harrowing day that had only been a series of testimonies used against them in favor of Lee.

     "What just happened so unfair..." Jimin muttered. "All he did was lie and reject everything he did to Jin hyung on Jungkook and Taehyung."

      "Do you think people are really going to believe it?" Taehyung asked with worry. "It's so big that it's obvious he's lying!"

     "But sometimes people prefer lies to reality," Hoseok regretted.

     "It's going to feed the tabloids and people are going to find it more interesting than a nice bunch of artists getting mugged," Yoongi said. "We are going to be seen after this as the most famous boy bands in history who certainly rose through the ranks to the top by crushing innocent people. People are going to feel like everything makes more sense and they're going to belittle us and all of our work."

     "It's not over," Namjoon interjected as he saw his group's motivation dangerously disappearing, including his own. "We will have to ensure our testimonies and the presentation of our evidence. Anyway, there are already things that will make him guilty, including Yoongi's recording which proves that he extorted Jin hyung and Jungkook and that he lied. If he lied about one thing, people will understand that he could have lied about other things."

     "But for a lot of things that happened in secret, how do you prove they happened?" Yoongi asked.

     "Without Jin hyung's testimony? It seems impossible," Jimin lamented.

     "It doesn't make sense to base the entire success of the trial on Jin hyung when in the same way that Jungkook did with Han, Lee discredited his testimony by saying that in any case, he would be afraid to tell the truth," Namjoon reminded them and Jungkook nodded.

     "Namjoon, what about your secret weapon?" Hoseok asked. "Can we hope to get out of this?"

     "I'm still working on it," Namjoon said anxiously. "For now, it is better not to count on it and focus on what we already have."

     "That is to say not much..." Taehyung grumbled. "Even if we can get him convicted for extortion, what does he risk if we can't get him convicted for all his abuses?"

     "Not much," Namjoon admitted, "but we're on the side of the truth so we have to hope that people will eventually believe us."

     Looking somber, they got into the cars that had been brought forward for them and set off. They expected to greet their fans who had come to support them, as they had done each time, but this time it was different.

     Even though some people continued to hold up signs of support, shouting "I believe you BTS!" many faces were disappointed, and few people spoke.

     "Please," Jungkook whispered from the other side of the tinted window, in the car he shared with Taehyung, "don't abandon us too, you have to believe us in the end...".

     He jumped when suddenly, a sign was thrown against the window and had the reflex to walk away.

     "People are attacking us!" he cried outraged, gazing intently at the crowd through the window.

     "What?!" Taehyung exclaimed as he turned to see what was going on.

     Indeed, angry people had started throwing their support signs at the cars.

     "You are disgusting!" one person yelled.

     Others followed, chanting:

      "BTS, CRIMINALS! BIG HIT, ACCOMPLICE! BTS, CRIMINALS! BIG HIT, ACCOMPLICE!"

     "N-no, we didn't do anything..." Taehyung stuttered.

     Jungkook was amazed to see a sign waving and bearing the inscription: Free Doo-Na! Was Doo-Na going to be supported now for nearly killing them? Would the Incheon haters also be supported in turn for wanting to make BTS disappear? It was unfair. Lee had destroyed the relationship they had with their countries and with their fans. Now people hated them, despised them.

     Crowds swarmed around the cars, and some people managed to get around security to knock on the windows, unaware that behind the tinted windows, the anguished faces of the BTS members were watching them. Because it awoke in them the painful memory of the mad crowd who wished them harm and who had succeeded in harming them.

     While security and their drivers allowed them to escape unscathed from this painful ordeal, they momentarily lost their fighting spirit, only wishing to return to safety, far from these people they had disappointed.

     On returning Jin greeted them by taking them eachin his arms to comfort them. because he had obviously seen everything that had happened and could only understand the state his dongsaengs were in. They only wanted one thing, to protect him, and now they were accused of being criminals while Lee appeared to be innocent. It was an unspeakable injustice.

      Jin had prepared a comforting meal for them but none of them wanted to eat and each took refuge in his room.

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A/N :  The outcome is approaching, but how will the members be able to cope with hostile public opinion and a psychopath?