Taehyung put a cap on Jin's head as a finishing touch to his outfit. Since Jin could not walk because of his broken ankle or support himself on crutches because of his sling arm and his finger, which had not yet fully healed, he had to be placed in a wheelchair.

     Taehyung had previously helped him get rid of his hospital shirt to put on a wide and comfortable tracksuit set, as well as sneakers on his left foot. Too bad for the good appearances.

     His right foot and ankle were covered with a flat on which Namjoon and Taehyung had already written small messages accompanied by their name, and was now simply covered with a thick black sock to protect Jin's toes from the cold of December.

     Jin was holding RJ tight against him and the cap would allow him to be less attentive to what was around him and reduce his stress. For he was soon to be surrounded by the crowd as he had not been for a week, they were all aware of it.

     Taehyung had warned him of this, and Jin had merely nodded nervous. He had not spoken since last night but seemed more conscious than usual, as if the change announced by their imminent departure would definitely come out of his torpor. Unless it's actually his exchange from the day before with Jungkook.

     Namjoon entered the room with Han, who had just arrived with the rest of the company staff who were going to frame their trip before taking a commercial flight home while BTS would travel in their private plane with their managers and some security guards who would land with them in Seoul.

     "Is everything okay, are you both ready?" Namjoon asked the other two members.

     That morning, Taehyung had already revealed to him that Jin had spoken to him last night but he had not yet managed to get a word out of him since waking up in the morning and nothing could prove what he said.

    Han's first thought was that Taehyung had dreamed but Namjoon knew that for a week, Taehyung had only slept with one eye and that if he said that Jin had spoken, then that's what really happened, without any doubt possible.

    "The path has been secured inside the hospital, so there should not be too many people on the way to the car but for the noise, let's say I can't predict the screams, I hope it will be okay" Han worried, looking at his watch before resting his gaze on Jin who ignored him superbly but seemed to be alert to all these changes from his routine of the last few days.

     "We tried the noise-canceling headphones with the music yesterday," Namjoon said, his voice drawing Jin's attention, "it seemed to be enough to isolate and soothe him."

    Talking as if Jin was not there had become a habit lately but by crossing Jin's watchful gaze, Namjoon wondered if he could continue to do so without being disrespectful towards his elder. Indeed, the mathyung seemed fully aware of what was being said and the rapper was embarrassed, which pushed him to crouch in front of him to explain him directly what was going to happen:

     "Hyung, we're gonna find the others nowat the airport, so you're gonna have to focus on the music and RJ and everything will be fine, okay?"

     Jin nodded in front of a Namjoon so surprised that he unintentionally opened his eyes wide. Even in the absence of a word, he was so pleased to finally receive a reaction from his hyung at his words after such a long time that he gently shook Jin's hand into his.

    Jin did not withdraw his hand but did not give back Namjoon his embrace and the rapper felt him shaking in his hand, obviously not appreciating the skin contact but he wanted to prove to him that he was also a reassuring force at his side, just as Taehyung was, so he just stayed a while like that, doing nothing more than holding his hand and silently looking into his eyes.

    Taehyung brought the audio headset and put it on Jin's head, connecting him to his own phone so he could handle the music nearby, choosing a playlist of soft melodies played at the piano. It also meant for him that he would not stray from Jin. Not that he wanted to.

     He was in fact very afraid that the elder would react in an extreme way outside the room and he had to stay close to him to calm him down if that happened.

     "Let's go," the manager said, placing himself behind the wheelchair and letting Namjoon and Taehyung stand on both sides so that Jin would be sandwiched.

     This position was more reassuring for him, he would perceive less the crowd beyond the two boys. Nevertheless, he kept his head down, his eyes turned towards the ground, his right arm firmly tightened around RJ, the other being immobilized.

     Around them, the security seemed to be sufficiently well organized by the staff and this reassured everyone because it kept the crowd from desperately trying to get close to them. In Namjoon's backpack was the precious copy of Jin's complete medical records and passing by Dr. Moreux in one of the corridors of his sector, he reiterated one last time his deepest thanks by bowing, without adding any precision for fear of being heard by a prying ear.

     Finally, they set foot outside after a week locked up the hospital to quickly rush into the car waiting for them near the exit. The journey to the car passed without incident because despite some piercing cries from journalists and fans, Jin remained blind and deaf to the world around him. In the car with the tinted windows, he let his head rest on Taehyung's shoulder and remained so all the way.

     Because of the traffic jams, the journey, which should have lasted only twenty minutes, lasted twice as long and after having quickly passed the security and the administrative formalities to leave the French territory, the small group soon found themselves on the tarmac of the airport to join their small private plane.

     When they arrived near the plane, Han realized that it would be impossible to fit Jin's large wheelchair on the plane and that a smaller one would be needed, like the ones that airports lent to people with reduced mobility, and that it could be fitted with a lift load.

     He made the boys wait in the vicinity of the plane, but at a safe distance, and hastened to go and ask the airport staff for help.

     As they were alone on the tarmac, Taehyung removed the headphone from Jin's head and put it around his own neck until he needed it again. He also readjusted Jin's cap to widen his field of vision.

     "The boys are already on the plane, they're being set up before you to save time," a voice said making them turn quickly.

    Taehyung then felt Jin's fingernails plow his skin and saw that he had just grabbed his arm. Their eldest seemed absolutely frightened when he heard that voice he hadn't heard since he woke up from his coma. He also refused to look up and look at the man who had made him suffer so much, shaking his RJ.and Taehyung stuck to the wheelchair even more.

     "Ha ha!" Lee laughed, "you should see your faces! I almost think you're not happy to see me after all this time."

     "N-no we're happy hyung, just surprised," Namjoon said, adding a nervous laugh to his words.

     The rapper had planned this reunion with Lee and tried not to show a suspicious hostile attitude. Unable to solve this problem immediately, he had told Taehyung to be content with to simply stay close to Jin to show him that he was safe and to prevent Lee from trying anything.

     Taehyung, who anyway couldn't oppose Lee head-on after the deal they had made, had accepted without flinching, which Namjoon had found strange.

     However, the two youngers could not prevent the manager from approaching Jin to testify to his "happiness" of seeing him again in shape after having avoided the Saint-Louis hospital for a week. He approached him and put a hand on his head, making his flinch.

     "Seokjin! Good to see you again, did you miss me?"

     He wore a confident smile that did not please Namjoon and Taehyung. With their fists clenched, they would have liked to keep him away: how dare he put his hands on him? They couldn't handle it after everything they found out. They could only imagine how Jin must have felt at that moment.

     They could not see the lowered face of Jin who could not or did not want to see the face of Lee whose voice alone had been enough in a second to anguish him more than the trip from the hospital.

     "Seokjin, politeness dictates that when someone greets us, we look at them," Lee said in an imperious tone, making his cap fly with a sharp blow before grabbing his chin and forcing him to lift his face in his direction.

    Jin hated that anyone touched his face, it was a fact known to all. Yet he did not struggle when the unwanted hand clenched his chin and stared at Lee anxiously, just shaking uncontrollably.

      Taehyung would have preferred this time to find the empty look on the older one because at least it would have meant that he felt nothing and it was infinitely better than to see him in fear like that.

     "I don't think he's fit to receive that kind of moral lesson," he protested harshly, staring at that hand that wouldn't let go of Jin as if he wanted to burn it with the force of thought. 

      He was afraid that Lee would ruin all their efforts to nothing, after having done so much to reassure their elder around them and make him become himself again: 

     "Hyung absolutely needs benevolence, not violence!"

     "I think he's had enough of benevolence and he hasn't recovered from it, so it's time for him to get his real life back and shake up a bit."

     The manager stared at Jin, who no longer dared to look away but squeezed RJ and Taehyung's arm harder than ever, as if anxiously awaiting the punishment he was about to receive for being disrespectful while the other two stood ready to intervene at any time if they saw the man try to raise his hand on him.

     "Hyung, please take it easy," Namjoon pleaded, "Jin hyung hasn't recovered yet and he's scared."

     "Scared of me? Why is that?" Lee asked curiously, scanning Jin's scared face between his hands.

     "Not you in particular," Namjoon asserted sharply, "he's afraid of everything and everyone."

     "Oh, I see, but not from Taehyung I guess," the manager added, pointing mockingly at Jin's shaking hand still tightly wrapped around Taehyung's arm. "He trusts you completely to protect him from all dangers, huh? How amazing is that!"

     Uncomfortable, Taehyung refrained from answering, lest Lee add in front of Namjoon compromising information for him.

     "Hyung please," Namjoon said to Lee, seeing that Taehyung was uncomfortable and didn't know how to react, and that Jin was not relaxing at all. "Let's wait until we can get on the plane before we talk about Jin hyung's condition. Han hyung will be back soon."

     "Okay," Lee said, to the surprise of Namjoon and Taehyung, who didn't think he could get away with it so easily. But it was to forget who they had to deal with. "Let's get you on the plane then, big boy."

     Without concern for his injuries, Lee pulled Jin out of his chair and put him standing on one foot, making him let go of RJ and Taehyung at the same time because forced to hardly hold on to the manager instinctively, for fear of falling.

    "HEY!" Namjoon and Taehyung shouted in unison, jumping to snatch Jin from the manager's indelicate grip but not daring to touch Jin for fear of hurting him more because his face was already deformed by pain, and simply stopping to block the manager and try to convince him to put Jin back in his wheelchair.

     Jin, like a rag doll with no will in the arms of the manager, had now his arm hanging, his mouth opened and seemed to utter a silent cry, as if he desperately wanted to scream, pain and fear, but a terrifying force prevented him from doing so, feeling the so hated huge hands clinging to him.

     "Please hyung!" Taehyung begged holding out a hand to the manager to stop him, "you're hurting him, can't you see it?!"

     Lee glared at Taehyung, full of threats that made Taehyung freeze in place, hands in the void and that did not escape Namjoon.

     "Step back," Lee ordered, supporting Jin's trembling body with one hand around his waist. "We're not going to wait all morning to get the freight elevator back to carry a 60-kilogram kid."

     He resumed his walk by strongly pulling Jin towards the stairs, half-carrying him, without regard for his injuries.

     Outraged, Namjoon picked up RJ and Jin's cap from the ground before quickly followed Taehyung who was already following Jin as closely as possible.

     But on the stairs, before going through the door, Namjoon grabbed Taehyung's arm to prevent him from entering.

     "Let go of Namjoon hyung, we have to get to Jin hyung quickly," Taehyung protested trying to free his arm.

    "Don't worry, the others are on the plane and will stop Lee from hurting him if he dares," Namjoon replied.

     "I don't trust no one to protect him, let me in now," Taehyung retorted.

     "W-what did you say?!" 

     "I don't trust anyone but me for this," he repeated. 

     Amazed, Namjoon shook his head:

     "Now I'm sure there's something seriously wrong with you."

     "Trusting Jungkook and then trusting Lee knowing it was the two people hurting him was a lesson to me. I will not do it again," Taehyung replied, annoyed. " I'm completely normal thinking like that."

     "No, you're not," Namjoon firmly said, "We agreed that it was Lee who hurt hyung, so why are you putting them on equal footing now?" 

     Taehyung inwardly cursed his giddiness. Could he tell Namjoon what Lee showed him without telling him about all the discussion they had? But anyway, Namjoon would never believe it. 

      He would say that Lee had manipulated him into believing that Junkook was responsible, which Taehyung had already managed to foil. But just because he knew everything Lee had done didn't mean Jungkook was suddenly innocent. If Namjoon didn't want to believe it, then too bad, Taehyung would take care of protecting Jin from Jungkook on his own.

    "Ah, I was wrong, I meant Lee, just Lee of course," he replied with lightness, as if what he had just said was not very serious

     It made Namjoon frown.

    "You know Taehyung, you've been weird for a little while but I wasn't sure until I saw you face Lee."

      Taehyung sharply turned to him:

      "W-why do you say that? I told you I was wrongto mention Jungkook!"

     "What happened between Lee and you when Jin hyung woke up in the hospital?"Namjoon asked instead. "Why did you look so panicked?"

     The younger's eyes widened but he recovered quickly and replied:

     "Nothing happened between us, I was just shocked to see Jin choking on waking up. And it turns out that Lee was precisely there when he woke up"

     "Are you sure that's the only reason?" Namjoon insisted.

    "It is!" 

    "So why did you keep saying you didn't wake up?"

     "I don't remember, hyung what is this surprise interrogation?!" Taehyung got angry, visibly nervous. "You say my attitude now is weird but I don't see how it's weird to want to protect Jin hyung from Lee, not wanting to leave them together, knowing what he did to him."

     "That's not the problem and you know it perfectly well, so please Taehyung, don't play dumb with me. Your attitude towards Lee is the same as Jungkook's, since when did he scare you with a glance?"

     "DO NOT compare me to Jungkook!!" Taehyung snapped much to Namjoon's amazement. "I'm not like him!"

    First carrier behavior towards Jin, then fear, then nervousness, anger, and denial. There was no doubt for Namjoon: Taehyung had exactly the same behavior that Jungkook displayed at different times. 

     He was hiding something and if it was as bad as what Jungkook was hiding, then he was very worried. Especially if it involved such a hostile attitude from Taehyung towards Jungkook. The only thing that reassured him was knowing that Taehyung hadn't started defending Lee again.

     "Alright, alright, no need to get upset like that Taehyung," Namjoon tempered to calm him down, "I just want to say that you seem to be scared of-"

     "You were mistaken, I'm not scared of Lee ," the younger cut, "apart from knowing that Lee would have hurt Hyung in my absence since Jungkook can't do anything against him and that the others don't know anything. So now, let me go!" 

      He jerked his arm free and dived into the plane.

      "No, nothing weird at all," Namjoon sighed, flabbergasted.