WARNING : VIOLENCE, BLOOD, DEATH

_______

     Jungkook only now realized that Jin had been torn away from his shoulder by other people before being dragged down when they fell off the pontoon. And given his condition, Jungkook knew that Jin would neither have the strength to struggle to escape the crowd, nor the strength to climb back onto the walkway which rose more than a meter above the ground.

     Worse, if he had fallen badly, he could very well have broken his neck. Jungkook chased this monstrous image from his thoughts and instead focused on what he absolutely had to do: escape the crowd, get back on the pontoon and jump to the other side to join Jin. It seemed insurmountable but he had to do everything to achieve it.

     He also wondered if the other members had managed to leave the walkway and the stage to get to safety, but he didn't really have time to think about it: the situation was pressing.

     As the people around him came dangerously close and threatened to run him over again, he pleaded in a small voice to his fans:

     "Please stop this..."

     But the crowd was unmoved. It seemed blinded by a happiness so extreme that it was more akin to madness because the macabre atmosphere that reigned around them seemed not conducive to the emergence of a feeling like happiness. 

      He was their idol, they revered him, no, they venerated him as a divinity that had always been unreachable through a screen and now, in addition to finally being in front of them, he was within reach of their hands?

     Faced with these looks filled with furious and frightening desire, Jungkook understood that he would not be able to touch their reason. He curled up on the floor, his knees drawn up to his chin, his arms crossed in front of his face with his hands firmly held above his head to protect himself from what was happening, and he closed his eyes.

     He felt like a frightened and helpless little boy in the face of this army led to war by the madness that had taken hold of it, and was seized with an irrepressible anguish that ran through him. 

      The air was already thin where he was on the ground, trapped under this crowd that was going to trample him, but his anguish made him gasp. Did his fans only see him as an object of desire? Did they forget that he was only human? A human more fragile than ever when he was not on stage and when he was alone, separated from his hyungs?

     The hands started to pull him from side to side again, slithering all over his body, furious, some even going so far as to scratch him or pull his hair in their feverishness, without realizing that it was hurting him.

     But Jungkook surrendered to this violence, feeling unable to struggle, waiting for it to stop on its own, knowing that this wait could just as well lead him to death by asphyxiation or by trampling because after those hands, he felt feet trampling him as people pushed each other violently to reach him in their turn without caring in the least for his safety.

       One of them lost his balance, fell hard on him and his knee sank hard into his side, cutting off his already difficult breathing and breaking a rib already cracked by his fall from the pontoon. 

     "Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!" 

     The pain tore a scratchy cry out of him. he closed his eyes again and remained in a fetal position to protect his face. Would his bones break one after another as he was crushed? he wondered with terror.

     A powerful voice suddenly split the air and stopped the screams of this hysterical crowd.

     "HEY, STOP IT! BACK OFF, ALL OF YOU!"

     Jungkook felt the crowd freeze but he dared not straighten up or remove his arms from his face for fear that a stray kick land in his face. The air seemed to slowly return around him and his trembling body was pulled into a soft but strong and reassuring embrace, not the over-excited and dangerous embrace of one of his fans.

     "I'm here Jungkook, everything is fine, you can open your eyes." 

     The voice was familiar and reassuring. The young singer opened his eyes to find out the identity of his savior who drove people away from him.

     Namjoon.

     Jungkook felt relief suddenly wash over him, along with a sense of security: he was saved.

     Namjoon also fell on this side of the walkway, dragged by the crowd and then kept pushing his way through the crowd to join Jungkook. But he seemed in poor condition and, sweating with a rising fever, clutched his forearm tightly. 

      Jungkook gasped when he saw the abnormal angle of his visibly broken wrist and the purplish color that stretched down his forearm on one side and down to his fingers on the other. The maknae sat up and winced in pain, clutching his sides; he certainly had more than one broken rib.

      "Hyung..." Jungkook's voice cracked and Namjoon saw that out of his pain, he was absolutely terrified by what he had just experienced. 

     "It's okay, JK."

     He hugged him even tighter before turning back to the crowd and yelling:

     "HAVE YOU NO SHAME?! JUNGKOOK IS INJURED BECAUSE OF YOU AND INSTEAD OF HELPING HIM YOU ARE TRAMPLING ON HIM?! DOES ANYBODY HERE HAVE AN OUNCE OF COMMON SENSE?!!"

      His eyes flashed and fans seemed to come to their senses as the BTS leader's words slapped them. 

    "LOOK AROUND!! YOU THINK IT'S TIME TO GET CRAZY AND THROW AT HIM?!! WE ARE ALL IN DANGER AT THE MOMENT, PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CRASHED RIGHT NEXT TO YOU, YOU WANT THE SAME THING TO HAPPEN TO ALL OF US?!!! TO JUNGKOOK?!!"

     The madness faded from their eyes, replaced by shame and awareness of the horror in which they found themselves hemmed in by the screams and the lifeless bodies already trampled on. Some girls began to cry in anguish.

     Faced with their newfound distress, the leader of BTS calmed down and spoke in a softer voice:

     "Don't stay here. Please, go to safety now and help those in need if you can."

     Then, as the crowd obeyed his word and gradually dispersed, he turned to Jungkook again:

     "Are you okay Jungkook? Can you walk?"

     "I- I will be fine, you arrived in time, you saved me. But hyung, your wrist-"

     "It will be fine too," Namjoon cut in, "get up, we must leave immediately, we have to go backstage."

     "Did the others manage to reach it?" Jungkook inquired, worried.

     "I don't know, I walked towards you without looking back. They may still be stuck like us but they are necessarily closer than us, we may meet them on the way. 

    Jungkook saw Namjoon looking carefully for something.

     "Jungkook, where is Jin hyung? He was with you!"

     In Namjoon's arms, Jungkook started shaking violently again:

     "H- hy- hyung is... is... is..."

     Namjoon lost the few colors he had left on his face when he saw Jungkook panicking at this point. What had happened to Jin to put him in this state?

     "Jungkook, calm down!" Namjoon ordered, alarmed. Lifeless bodies littered the ground, and Jungkook's panic suddenly made him fear that Jin was one of them. "Show me where hyung is!"

     Jungkook pointed a trembling finger to the walkway and whispered to a horrified Namjoon:

     "H-he fell on the other side..."

     "Jungkook, are you sure?" the leader asked feverishly. But in front of the panicked silence of Jungkook he repeated while shouting: "Are you sure ?!!"

     The maknae nodded frantically. Namjoon knew he had to hurry. He helped Jungkook up.

     "Jungkook, you absolutely have to join hyung immediately."

    "Just me?!! Hyung, aren't you coming with me?! Please, don't let me go there alone again!" The maknae was distraught at the idea of ​​being alone again to face what he now perceived as an entire army of tens of thousands potential aggressors and no longer his loving fans.

     Namjoon regretfully pointed at his broken wrist which seemed to be hurting him terribly.

    "I can't, I'm so sorry to send you all alone. I know I'm a terrible leader but I will never have the strength to get back on the catwalk nor to force the passage through the crowd. I can only help you up."

     With an affectionate hand, he stroked du maknae's hair:

     "You will be fine JK, you are strong. You will save hyung, I have no doubt. I trust you more than anyone for this."

      He leaned forward, offering Jungkook his back to allow him to gain support and climb back onto the catwalk.

     "Now hurry up."

     Jungkook regained his composure and nodded before climbing up on the back of his leader who bowed under his weight and hoisted himself up on the pontoon again. His last movement caused the elder to groan in pain. He sat up and gave the maknae a reassuring look.

     "Bring back Jin hyung, Jungkook. For my part, I will try to go backstage and see if I can find the rest of our members on the way. See you there, okay?"

      Namjoon inwardly cursed for making his sentence a question. Of course they would all meet backstage, safe, there was no doubt about that. However, faced with the heavy silence of Jungkook who was looking at him with concern, he forced himself to repeat insistently:

     "Okay Jungkook?!"

     "Okay hyung. I'll bring Jin hyung back and we'll all meet backstage. Fore sure."

     Relieved Namjoon gave a thumbs up and squeezed his injured arm again when Jungkook finally turned his back on him and disappeared on the pontoon. He sighed in pain and dropped to the ground, overcome by pain, muttering to himself:

     "I'm just going to rest a bit before..."

     Now on the walkway where the crowd was still large, Jungkook looked to the other side and saw a gathering a numerous person. That was where Jin must have fallen but Jungkook couldn't see him. 

      Jin was to find himself in the same type of hysterical walkabout that the maknae had just suffered. The older singer was so far from the walkway that Jungkook was convinced that he had been dragged there after his fall by the frantic hands he knew all too well now. But with his broken finger he must have struggled to defend himself

     Without thinking, he jumped off the pontoon and found himself once again immersed in the screaming crowd. But this time, he was on his own two feet and he was ready to snatch his hyung out of this turmoil.

      He hurried to join the crowd and tried to slip through this compact mass which had eyes only for Jin and did not realize that Jungkook was trying to make his way by pulling the individuals who composed it one by one. He finally had Jin in his sight when something called out to him.

     His eyes had just been caught by a flash of red light: an object had just reflected the light of the Army bombs which were still scattered all over the stadium, some still in the hands of their owners and others abandoned on floor. 

      Jungkook widened his eyes when he recognized the object. It was a knife.

     And it was brandished above the defenseless body of Jin who, lying on his stomach, and surrounded right through by his enemies, seemed unconscious.

    "NOOOOO, DON'T!!!!" Jungkook screamed in horror to the person holding the knife.

     But before he managed to free himself from the crowd surrounding his body, the knife slammed into Jin's left shoulder blade. The hideous noise it made was drowned out by the yells of the crowd, and Jungkook also let out a scream of horror which was drowned out by the others.

     Jin's body convulsed from the force of the blow, and the singer suddenly opened wide his eyes. Pain radiated from his body but his gaping mouth didn't let out a single sound, as it was already struggling to inhale air on the ground.

     Then slowly, his eyelids closed and he sank again as he exhaled. It was impossible to know now if he was only unconscious or if the life had left him because he remained motionless, the face and his back were smeared with blood that did not dry up.

     Faced with this vision, Jungkook felt like his heart had just been ripped out. He was frozen in place, barely realizing what had just happened at full speed and time itself suddenly seemed to stand still. 

     "W-what is happening..." he whispered without force, his eyes glued to Jin's inert body. "Hyung, get up, we have to go..." 

      It was not possible. It was just a dark nightmare, wasn't it? When was his hyung finally going to decide to come in his bedroom and shake him to wake him up as always, to pull him out of this dark night that had lasted way too long?

     As people around him stirred again, more violently than ever, terrified at the sight of this weapon which could now strike anyone in this crush and reddish darkness, Jin's body was trampled and this time, Jungkook heard a terrible noise: Jin's right ankle, weakened by his poor reeducation following his sprain, had just broken under the feet of those who had crushed it without consideration. The pain did not wake Jin who remained motionless as a dead body.

     However, this sinister noise awoke Jungkook from his torpor. The movement of the crowd had finally freed his body from the pressure that immobilized him. 

     As he ran up to Jin, the aggressor manhandled by the crowd had managed to find his way toward Jin again too and Jungkook this time distinctly heard an angry female voice screaming like a madwoman shouted at Jin :

     "YOU HAD YOUR NAMJOON SO WHY?! WHY DID YOU KEEP PUTTING YOURSELF BETWEEN TAE AND KOOKIE?! YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN WHAT YOUR PLACE WAS OR LEAVE WHEN YOU WERE TOLD BUT YOU STAYED, SO DIE NOW!!"

     The moment he saw the knife rise up again, Jungkook threw himself on top of Jin without thinking twice and made himself his shield. 

     "AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!"

      The pain he felt was so intense that he screamed until he empty his lungs and only then, after that cry that would have made anyone's blood run cold, did the young woman notice his presence and the identity of the boy. 

     "J-Jungkook oppa?! Is that really you?!" she exclaimed in perfect Korean.

      In surprise, she dropped the bloody knife now stained with both the blood of Jin and Jungkook, and brought her bloody hands to her mouth over her black surgical mask, taking on a horrified expression.  She cried while sobbing:

     "I'm sorry Kookie oppa, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you!"

      Jungkook turned his face and gave her a teary look filled with hate like he had never given anyone. She recoiled under the effect of this look charged with hatred from the one she idolized and let out a gasp of surprise because her sweet kookie had never been surrounded by such a dark and threatening aura. 

      Despite his suffering, Jungkook absolutely had to protect Jin. He growled:

     "Get away from him, don't even dare approach him, I won't let you!"

     The girl, unable to accept her idol's hatred toward her, fled. Only then did Jungkook collapse on his stomach next to Jin. 

      Despite the sharp pain he felt in his back, which he imagined to be serious and made him moan in pain, he slid down on his stomach until his face reached Jin's and their two bodies were completely parallel to each other. 

     "Hyung?" 

     Around them, people continued to run in all directions but to get away from this place and all the bodies that had been trampled there. Soon, they found themselves alone, surrounded by lifeless bodies. Or maybe Jungkook was alone with bodies?

     NO! Jungkook slapped himself internally: he had to keep calm and properly assess the situation to better manage it.

     "Hyung, don't be dead, please, don't be dead..." 

     He stared intently at Jin, stroking his cheek and scatter more blood, looking for any sign that he was still alive, as both of their bodies lay in Jin's still warm blood. Jungkook felt he was soaking his clothes and he felt like throwing up.

    "Hyung?"

     Jin had survived his blow to the head which did not seem to be fatal at first sight but Jungkook knew that an internal injury could still cause death without being visible. He lifted a strand of Jin's hair that hid the wound and with his other hand wiped away the blood that was still dripping from the wound. 

      He sighed in relief when he saw that it didn't seem like too much of an injury. It was bleeding a lot but the brow bone was a part of the face that was known to bleed profusely. The wound immediately started bleeding again after Jungkook wiped it.

     Jin's ankle was broken but it wasn't a life-threatening injury, so they'd have to worry about that later.

     The main problems were elsewhere. 

     First, Jin had taken a fall from the pontoon and it was possible that like Jungkook, his bones didn't all come out unscathed. But he had survived, that was certain because Jungkook had seen Jin open his eyes and convulse when he was stabbed. 

        Before the stabbing though, he seemed to be having difficulty breathing, possibly due to cracked ribs or just the crowd around him, but now that the crowd had dispersed, why wasn't he breathing?!

      The answer imposed itself. The stab wound was ultimately responsible for Jin's current condition. Had the blow hit a vital organ or had Jin simply lost too much blood? Jungkook knew what to do, without getting up because he was unable to, he firmly pressed a hand on Jin's wound. 

      The blood-soaked t-shirt made a spongy sound that sicken him, but he pressed with all his might on the wound to stop the bleeding. His own arm was shaking and he remembered that he was badly hurt too.

     He couldn't last long, someone had to help them as soon as possible. Why was no one coming? And why didn't the pain wake Jin? Didn't make him whine or frown at least?

     "Hyung?" Jungkook called for the third time.

     He let go of Jin's back and feverishly lay down next to him again in an attempt to perceive a sign of life on the face which seemed to have frozen before in a pained expression.

     "J-Jin hyung?" he called again in a small, almost whispered voice that couldn't have been heard by anyone but Jin at the time.

     No answer. 

     No breath. 

     Nothing passed through that familiar mouth that had always loved to laugh and talk so much. No movement stirred his body. Jungkook's hand that was bathed in Jin's blood weakly lifted up and caressed Jin's already blood-covered face.

      "J-Jin..." 

     His call, weaker than ever, went unanswered again. 

     So Jungkook, who hadn't cried since the promise to Jin, cried, his forehead pressed against Jin's, his tears flowing to the floor to mix with Jin's blood. He did not cry silently but in a heartbreaking and continuous whine, so powerful that he managed to be heard through the screams of the crowd across the stadium.

     Then his own body gave in to the pain and he passed out next to Jin.

END OF THE BOOK VI

To be continued...

Author's note : So I finish Book VI with the 75th chapter of my story. That's a lot, I know, but I hope you've enjoyed reading so far. I think I will only add one last book to conclude this story, but this part will still be full of important events and decisions. However, I must take a break before starting to write the last book. Who will be there to read the last part of the story?

Just because this ost is beautiful to hear (I discovered it just yesterday evening while I was writing the chapter =') )

https://youtu.be/eMEAzgdUelQ