"Do not say stupid things hyung," Taehyung immediately shot back. "I won't let you protect Jungkook if it's to blame Lee hyung." 

    "Excuse-me?!" Namjoon reacted, "And why would you defend him rather than Jungkook?"

     "Because of what Jungkook did of course!"

     "And what Lee did never shocked you maybe? You spent ten years with Jungkook, groing up with him and still, it is in Lee that you place your trust today?! I can't believe it, I swear you must have lost your mind after being trampled!"

     Taehyun frowned, while the doctor watched helplessly as they argued, of which he understood nothing. 

     "Sir, can you give us a minute please?" Namjoon asked the doctor in english, sensing that the discussion with Taehyung was going to be heated.

     "Of course, take your time," Moreux said before going out, taking his files with him.

    When he got out, Taehyung objected:

     "Hyung you seem to forget who helped Jin hyung hold on when Jungkook punch him and left him completely depressed!"

     "And you, you forget too easily how Lee was when we met him. Is it because you had a good time playing your stupid games together?! Or maybe because he never hit you?!" 

      "Stop insinuating that I'm selfish!" Taehyung got angry. 

      "Then don't forget that he didn't hesitated to hit Jin hyung and Jungkook in front of us, no matter what appearances he has taken after! I don't know when we came to think it was normal, because it's not!"

     "I don't forget, but you haven't spent as much time with him as Jin hyung and I, we shared great time together, Lee has changed with us, I assure you. You can ask everyone else and they'll tell you the same thing!" 

    "Yeah, that's what I believed too but I realize now that no one changes drastically that fast, it must have been simply a way of allaying our distrust. Do you remember how his shell shattered after the penultimate concert of the American tour? He got angry at Jin hyung and Jungkook, and they both looked terrified!"

      "Everyone was scared at that time, not just them. Lee was at his wit's end, it was the stress of the tour that made him behave that way, but he didn't do it again afterwards!" 

     "No but, he brainwashed you or what?!" Namjoon lost his temper. "Stop defending him!"

     "I'm not, I'm just saying facts!" 

     "By defending a monster ? My God, Jin hyung too has been standing up for Lee tirelessly, it confirms what I think: our manager is a obnoxious manipulator, it's obvious, so open your eyes, please!"

     Taehyung didn't want to believe Namjoon's theory so he defended Lee's reputation tooth and nail but the more Namjoon talked, the more he realized that the manager seemed more guilty than Jungkook.

      "Jin was defending Lee because he felt happy with him, how is that abnormal?" Taehyung protested however.

       "Happy?" Namjoon repeated in dismay, "then answer this question Taehyung : according to you, why Jin hyung would seek refuge and happiness with Lee against Jungkook when he had us, his five other dongsaengs, and when it was always with us that he was happy and was able to soothe his anxieties before? Everything is weird in this story, just admit it!" 

    "B-but I was there, with them !" Taehyung replied, suddenly less confident because he was far from having been systematically with Jin and Lee during their game nights, "and I assure you, Jin hyung was a mess after what Jungkook did to him but he held on thanks to Lee hyung!"

     Namjoon was exasperated by Taehyung's insistence, but he felt that the younger one was slowly realizing the harsh truth, consciously or not.

    "He hold on? Because you think Jin hyung really looked happier these last months? His smile hid the worst depression I had ever seen him go through!" the leader exclaimed. "And it was only Jungkook who made him smile back, I'm talking about his real smile. Jungkook, you hear me? And not Lee!"

    "S-so you mean that all that time they spent together, was it all just a facade to deceive us? Lee AND Jin hyung would have just acted?" 

     "Jin hyung is a born actor and if Lee is a psycho, then it's no wonder," Namjoon lamented, "That's how they gave the illusion of an almost perfect new friendship and we felt so reassured for Jin hyung that we closed our eyes to what could have led us to the truth."

     "B-but, that would mean that... that when they were alone together during all these game nights, the two of them..."

       Taehyung suddenly fell silent and Namjoon saw him reviewing all the events of the past few months and his gaze suddenly filled with lucidity then horror, then anger, told him that the youngest was finally convinced in turn.

     "N-no..." he shook his head in a final attempt at denial, "it's not possible, it must be a nightmare... I left him spending all this time alone with someone who was hurting him... without seeing anything? How is it possible?!"

     "You're not the only one to be at fault Taehyung, we all are and me first. I saw absolutely nothing..." Namjoon's voice cracked under guilt and pain, and his tears were not long in flowing.  "I d-deserve the worst for what Jin hyung went through, I just want to tell him how sorry I am but it's too late now that he's in a coma. He must have felt so abandoned in his pain that he may never want to wake up again, and we don't even know what happened to Jungkook, maybe the same thing happened to him. And we may never be able to fix it..."

     "W-what have we done," Taehyung sobbed, putting his head in his hands, crying too.

      Soon the room echoed with their heartbreaking sobs and neither of them spoke for a while, each replaying the events of the last few months in their heads and trying and trying not to let themselves be consumed completely by guilt. 

      But then, Taehyung finally raised his head, displaying a cold gaze despite the furrows of tears drawn on his cheeks. His fists were clenched so tightly around the blanket that their knuckles had whitened.

       "I'm going to kill Lee," he announced simply.

       "No, you can't do that," Namjoon said in a soft voice.

      Taehyung turned his cold gaze towards him and Namjoon read pure hatred there which scared him.

       "AFTER DISCOVERING WHAT THAT MONSTER DID TO HYUNG YOU'RE TELLING ME NOT TO KILL HIM?!"  Taehyung exploded, "oh my God, how many times have we left Jin hyung alone with him?! I can't even count them!" He was absolutely horrified.

      "Please Taehyung calm down," the elder begged him. "I know how you feel but we have to act with common sense, otherwise we are going to fail. The goal is to protect everyone, to punish Lee and to be able to go back to our lives, all together, not to send one of us to prison and destroy ourselves."

     "But hyung, look at us, we are already destroyed!!" Taehyung shouted, "do you see anyone here but the two of us crying? Jin hyung is not far from us surely but he is in a coma and he suffered the worst horrors, and even if he wakes up, nothing will be like before. And as for all the others, to my knowledge, are who knows where, maybe dea-

     "Enough, stop!" Namjoon shouted, not bearing to hear more. 

       His group, his members were his life and it was possible that the day before he witnessed BTS'end. But he wanted to believe that he had a chance to fix everything.

     Taehyung calmed down a bit at Namjoon's overwhelmed expression. He realized that not only as a leader, the rapper must feel deeply guilty but in addition, if he had mentioned evidence that was in the dorm, it was because he had discovered things for some time already. Whatever had stopped him from acting earlier, he had to blame himself terribly now.

     Namjoon called the doctor back.

     "So, you figured out who the abuser is?" the man asked gravely.

     "We think it's one of our managers," Namjoon explained, though wondering if this was a good one to reveal. He had to, however, if he wanted to stop the doctor from handing Lee Jin's medical records and making it disappear.

     "I see. I advise you to be careful: above all, do not talk about it immediately because he could vanish into thin air before he can be tried for his crimes. The French police will not be able to arrest him because these aggressions did not take place in France or by a French citizen and no international arrest warrant has been provided."

     "Yes, that's what I thought," Namjoon said.

      "Wait until you get home to Korea to report him," the doctor advised, "and above all, wait to see if your friend comes out of the coma. You have to discuss it with him because he is the main witness in this case and if he refuses to talk, you will not succeed in arresting his attacker either."

      "Why wouldn't Seokjin hyung talk?" Taehyung asked, genuinely surprised, "he will be able to be freed from this monster if he does."

      If Namjoon had made it clear to him that he absolutely couldn't kill Lee, he still did want to have him reported and arrested immediately, to remove this despicable man from their entire group. 

     The doctor shook his head:

     "I told you that often, the victims do not talk about it. Ask yourself another question: why did your friend who is a strong, healthy young man become a victim of rape? Most of the time, it is women who are the victims. Men rarely are, unless gang assaulted."

     "Do you think he was assaulted by several people, not just one?" Taehyung asked, horrified at the idea.

      "No, it's unlikely but I can't be sure. In any case, if your friend was able to suffer all this kind of aggression, it is possibly because he is also the victim of threats, or even blackmail. It is a possibility that could prevent him from speaking and if you do not find the object of this blackmail or if you do not settle it, he may never speak, he would be afraid. As you can see, even if everything remains hypothetical, it will need to be strategic."

     "Strategic..." Namjoon muttered thoughtfully as he thought back to all the strategies Jungkook hatched, thinking it was now his turn to be savvy.

     "I will leave you my contact details and send you by email a copy of the documents attesting to the assaults suffered by Mr. Kim, which will serve as evidence," Moreux continued. "I took the liberty of taking pictures as well to add to the case as some external injuries will eventually fade and it is better to keep the evidence intact for a court judgment. 

      In case of problem, I have the original documents, you can always ask me for them, I will send them to you. What is needed in addition is to take samples to prove the sexual assault of this man, but it's probably to late now and without the victim's authorization we absolutely cannot do that. It is for this reason that we need his testimony: his medical file will testify that he was assaulted but it won't indicate the identity of his attacker."

      "Thank you very much sir, thank you for everything," Namjoon thanked him sincerely. "I know that we will have to provide part of Seokjin's medical file to our managers when they come to pick us up but could you not inform the second part please? One of them is Seokjin's attacker but the other could be possibly his accomplice. In any case, I don't want to run the slightest risk."

     "I understand, I will only inform them of his injuries from the day before. In any case, a file that contains indications of a sexual assault is normally confidential. I sincerely hope that justice will be done, but there is nothing more I can do to help you except to provide you with the evidence of the attack, and get you back on your feet for your return to Korea where other hardships await you."

      "That's already a lot, thank you sir," Namjoon said while nodding his head gratefully

      "Yes, thank you," Taehyung added.

      The doctor took his leave after checking Namjoon's blood pressure and the two boys were left alone to face the horror of the revelations that had just been made to them. Finally, after a long silence, Namjoon spoke up:

     "We absolutely have to keep this a secret until Jin hyung wake up - no, until we return to Korea. Just between you and me. For the moment, our managers must not suspect that we know or they could attack them or flee. We have to go back and only then warn PD-nim and the police."

      "But we absolutely can't wait to go back to Korea!" Taehyung protested.

      "If you care about Jin hyung and Jungkook, you will make sure not to let it show," Namjoon retorted. "Besides, they kept the secret for months when they were the ones who suffered, they waited for so long and you wouldn't be able to endure a few days?"

     "I can't help it; I want to punch him until he die for what he did!"

      "You think I don't want the same thing? And don't you think that's what Jin and Jungkook must have wanted too?"

      "Then why didn't they do anything?! Why did Jungkook who is so strong let it happen?"

      The rapper sighed.

     "I don't know, and it's partly because of that that we can't do anything at the moment. If they didn't do anything, it's because they couldn't. And if we force things, it is possible that we do more damage than anything else. It's possible that Jungkook suffered the exact same horrors as Jin hyung. We have to figure out why they're not talking, we have to figure out how Lee is threatening them," he concluded simply, hoping the younger would be willing to wait.

       Be strategic and not emotional. For now, that's how it should be. It was his duty as a leader, even if it was difficult. And since Taehyung had discovered the truth with him, he also had to impose this cold lucidity on him.

      "I'm sorry Taehyung, but you have to be patient with me. For them."

      What worried him was that Jungkook had already firmly refused to answer their questions and those on several occasions. Would a new discussion, more rigorous this time, allow Jungkook to open up? 

      But he didn't even know if Jungkook was okay and Jin was in a coma.  Without them and their testimony, they could never go after Lee. Namjoon had to contact Han to find out if the others were safe and to give them the alarming news about Jin's coma. 

     This, he could not hide from others. But he didn't want to tell them what the doctor had told them. He didn't want to tell them that Jin might lack the will to wake up. He shouldn't stop others from having hope. Because if the others lost hope, then he was certain that he too would definitely lose it.

     "Please wake up soon hyung..." Namjoon whispered, suppressing a tear. "You probably don't know that but we're lost without you. I know that sounds terribly selfish but, please, don't abandon us. We are here for you now..."