While Jungkook had fled, the secret conversation between Mr. Jeon and Mrs. Kim continued, audible only to Seokjin's ears.

"If I officially recognize him as your son immediately, I'm lost, Young-Jae will destroy me, you know that, right?" Mrs Kim said. "I'm more afraid of him than of you."

"If you recognize my son as our, as a Jeon, I will divorce Ji-Ha and marry you without thinking twice. You're the woman I always wanted, not your sister. And to prove you that, I will make our son the first heir."

"Are you ready to put him before Jungkook?"

Seokjin suppressed a cry of surprise when he heard this. Thus, his doubts were confirmed: it was not Jungkook, the son of Mrs. Kim and Mr. Jeon who was mentioned in this discussion. It was the child Taehyung's mother was carried in her womb : Mrs. Kim had cheated on Mr. Kim and carried an adulterous child that Mr. Jeon wanted to make the Jeons' main heir to the detriment of Jungkook. And at the same time, he wanted to steal their mother from Taehyung and Namjoon!

"And you," Mr Jeon said, "are you ready to abandon Namjoon and Taehyung for him?"

"Yes," Ji-Won replied without hesitation, which outraged Seokjin: how could she abandon Namjoon and Taehyung? "They are the sons of this monster, I find it more and more difficult to look at them lately because I know that they will end up completely resembling him."

"Both of them?" 

"At first I thought Namjoon would be different from him but he scares me more and more as he grows up. He may be becoming worse than his father, as he is more devious. On the other hand, I wanted to raise Taehyung as far away from his father as possible but he instinctively started to look like him, even seeming to believe that he must. Nothing is right in this house now. I want to run away from it every day but I hold back, waiting for my pregnancy to end."

Mrs. Kim seemed anxious and the man said to him with gentleness :

"You need to calm down, dear, think about our son."

"You don't have to tell me, I've only been thinking about him for several months. Junghyun will be the only one of my sons who does not have the cursed blood of Kim Young-Jae. He will be a Jeon for sure and I'm his mother. I choose you and our son, so protect me from Young-Jae. Otherwise, I should make him Young-Jae's child to protect hi-"

There was a sudden silence, as if Mrs. Kim had been interrupted by something and Seokjin poked his head slightly out of the tree to see what was happening. He then saw Mr. Jeon kissing Mrs. Kim fiercely and the latter, although constrained by her stomach, kissed him back passionately. Eye to eye, they seemed to promise each other to betray their respective spouses without the slightest scruple.

Seokjin, embarrassed to witness such a scene, decided that it was time for him to leave discreetly. He got up in silent and... stepped on a twig on the ground, the sharp sound of which made him stop dead in his tracks. Silence surrounded him and he remained completely still, terrified of being caught.

After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, he looked to the other side of the tree but saw nothing, the light had disappeared, and with it Mr. Jeon and Mrs. Kim. They must have been afraid of being surprised and left. Seokjin sighed with relief and was preparing to leave the forest as quickly as possible to return to the other guests, especially Namjoon, with whom he would feel safe.

However, as soon as he turned around, he faced the blinding light of Mr. Jeon, who towered over him to his full height, making him cry out in surprise.

"So you're the little spy who listened to us in the shadow?"

Behind Mr. Jeon, Mrs. Kim seemed in a state of disarray and meeting her gaze, Seokjin wondered how he could get out of this: this woman had always hated him. Instinctively, he took a few steps back but Mr. Jeon grabbed him by the shirt and pinned him harshly against the tree to prevent him from fleeing. 

When his back hit the tree trunk, Seokjin felt his breath catch and he winced in pain. He felt trapped and the two adults staring at him scared him.

"Seokjin, right?" Mr. Jeon asked, "what am I going to do with you? You've heard everything, haven't you?"

"N-no, I didn't hear anything, I-I just got here, I got... lost," Seokjin stuttered, scared and even more incapable of lying than usual.

"He's a liar, he knows the garden like the back of his hand, he must have heard us!" Ji-Won exclaimed. "You dared to follow us, Seokjin?!"

"N-no, I swear, I found you here by chance, I was looking for Jungkook and I thought he was there because I heard noise and saw light!" the boy hastened to explain with visible honesty this time.

Mrs. Kim seemed to believe him but Seokjin was not saved yet as her lover seemed even more agitated to hear that. 

"You were here with Jungkook?!" Mr. Jeon asked, suddenly worried, looking around. "He heard us too?! Answer me!" he shouted at Seokjin, shaking him roughly and scaring him even more.

Seokjin didn't know what to say. What would happen if he said Jungkook found out about his father's affair with Taehyung's mother? He tried to understand how these rich families worked but he didn't understand anything, he didn't know what Jungkook was risking. 

What would happen to him when the truth comes out? Was he going to be abandoned by his father and disinherited that very night in favor of Mrs. Kim and Mr. Jeon's unborn son? According to Namjoon, it was the worst thing that could happen to an heir. 

Namjoon! Seokjin realized. Namjoon will know exactly what to do when I tell him everything because he always knew everything!

In the meantime, he was going to have to hide the truth to protect Jungkook so as not to make the situation worse for him. And as he did not know how to lie, he decided to give only part of the truth:

"No, Jungkook wasn't with me anymore so he doesn't know that Mrs. Kim's baby is his brother," he said honestly. 

This sentence made Mrs. Kim's face tense because it certainly proved if it wasn't already enough the case that Seokjin had heard everything. Seeing the woman's expression and eager to appease her anger, the boy hurriedly said with an urgent frankness who did not deceive:

"It's the truth, I swear, I'm the only one who heard!"

Jungkook's father and Taehyung's mother looked equally relieved and this reassured Seokjin at the same time. 

"And you better not tell him anything! Not to him, not to Taehyung's father, not to anyone else!" Mr. Jeon said harshly to Seokjin who shrank but nodded in despair, eager to run away from these two scary people.

"I won't tell anyone, p-please, I just want to go..." Seokjin pleaded while Mr. Jeon's hand did not loosen its grip on him. 

"Seo-Jun," Ji-Won suddenly said to his lover. "He heard us and he saw us, you can't let him go."

Pale as death, Seokjin realized that he was alone in a small forest with no light other than that of Mr. Jeon's phone and that apart from Jungkook who was gone and surely wasn't going to come back for him, no one knew where he was. Was Mrs. Kim implying that they should get rid of him here and now, permanently? Were they going to kill him, cut him into pieces and hide his body in the garden, like in the movies, when people disappeared forever?

Panicked, he started panting and begging them holding Mr. Jeon's arm:

"N-no... p-please, I won't... I won't say anything... I swear!" 

Mrs Kim knew that Seokjin was asthmatic and that this anxiety attack was likely to turn into an deadly asthma attack for the boy but unresponsive to his pleas, she only caressed her belly protectively. She looked like a lioness who would do anything to preserve the future of her unborn child. And crushing Seokjin would be no problem for her.

"Your word has no value in my eyes, Seokjin, none, you hear? You remained Taehyung's friend even though you said you would move away as we told you! And look at Taehyung, he's hung up on you more than ever!"

"I- I'm sorry, I... I tried, b-but then... then he was angry, and sad, and... at the end, I didn't want to leave him alone, and, and-" he stuttered, losing his means when he was sure of living his last moments. 

His tears began to flow without restraint but neither of the two adults was moved.

"Taehyung never needed you, it was you who made him believe that he needed you!"the woman replied in a sharp voice.

She looked with hatred at the boy who was trembling in front of her, without hiding the contempt she had for him. She seemed to think, however, to her upcoming departure from this house and to the future of his two eldest sons. Thus, calmer, she looked at the tearful face of Seokjin who was visibly terrified by her and who tried to avoid her gaze. She told him in a dry tone :

"Look at me!"

Immediately, Seokjin obeyed and looked at her.

"Do you sincerely care about Taehyung and Namjoon?" she asked him, taking him by surprise.

"Yes, I do!" Seokjin hurriedly assured, without knowing if it could save him.

"Would you do anything to protect them?"

"Yes of course, anything!" 

"Then, what you heard and saw tonight, you must keep it secret or my boys will suffer the consequences, do you understand, Seokjin?"

Seokjin widened his eyes but was quick to promise forcefully:

"Yes, yes I understand! I promise, I won't say anything!"

"Seo-Jun, let go of him now," Ji-Won said. 

Surprised, Seokjin felt Mr. Jeon released him without trying to contradict his lover. The man, then, ruffled the boy's hair in a falsely affectionate gesture destroying the hairstyle Taehyung had done for him earlier in the evening. Now, Seokjin would have given anything not to have been invited to this party and to have stayed quietly at home with his grandfather. 

Now, Seokjin didn't care about his physical appearance, he was just too relieved to be free of the man's grip but still unable to stop trembling in fear. Yet, Mrs. Kim wasn't finished with him and now that Mr. Jeon had freed the boy, she was the one who caught him, grabbing his chin to force him to look into her cold eyes. She said in a threatening voice :

"If you came, despite this promise, to say anything to anyone, I promise you I will make sure you are miserable for the rest of your life, is that clear?"

"Y-yes, that's clear ma'am," Seokjin replied, scared.

But Taehyung and Namjoon's mother seemed to consider that her own threat was not clear enough for the boy and decided to make it more concrete:

"Do you love your family, Seokjin?" 

"Y-yes, of course I love them!" Seokjin exclaimed spontaneously.

"Good. Then if you say something, I will make sure your mother and your grand-father lose their residency permit and are sent back to Japan, far from you. You'll never see them again and you will stay in Korea alone, do you hear me?"

Open-mouthed, Seokjin didn't respond because of the shock.

"You are deaf?" Mrs. Kim insisted.

"N-no, I- I heard you well," the threatened boy stammered.

"Then go join Namjoon and Taehyung now, before I change my mind."

Mrs. Kim glanced at Seo-Jun who stepped aside to allow Seokjin to leave. As soon as he was freed, Seokjin ran with the force of despair and soon disappeared from the sight of the two forbidden lovers.

"Suddenly, you believe the boy?" the man noticed. "I don't understand."

"He kept Taehyung's secret for seven years. I know he will hold ours too," Mrs Kim explained. 

"A secret? What secret?" M. Jeon asked, gripped by curiosity.

"If I could tell you, it wouldn't be a secret, dear. If this got out, Taehyung would be in trouble, I can't let this happen. The only thing I can tell you is that this secret is the only reason that made us take care of this boy's education. Otherwise, we would have gotten rid of him and his family a long time ago."

"I understand better now why Young-Jae agreed to this," Mr. Jeon said amusedly. "Interesting, he's a child who knows lots of compromising secrets and keeps them to himself."

"Seokjin is a poor servant's boy but he is loyal to my children who in return have unconditional affection for him," Mrs Kim explained. "I tried to stop it but in the end there was nothing I could do about it. I'll let Young-Jae decide what he wants to do with this boy, soon it won't be my problem anymore because I will no longer take care of Namjoon and Taehyung's education. But I just realized something tonight seeing Seokjin :  if it is neither their unworthy father nor their unworthy mother that my children's salvation will come, perhaps it will come from this boy."

"Are you ready to bet everything on him? I didn't know you were so reckless Ji-Won"

"I'm not. That's why I didn't bet everything on his desire to protect his friends. He now knows that if he decides that my children are not important enough to him,  it's his family who will pay the price if our secret is revealed. He is so attached to his mother that he will never dare say anything. This boy's mother and even his grandfather are Japanese who only benefit from a residence permit because I vouched for them as their employer. But the boy is Korean, he has never set foot in Japan. I would put him in a young offenders' home here in Korea until he comes of age if he says anything."

"And it's Young-Jae you're calling a monster," Seo-Jun chuckled, kissing his lover's hand.

Seokjin ran without stopping until he reached the edge of the small forest, where his little house was. He wanted to rush there and curl up in his futon, far from all these dangerous people. But before he could head towards the house, he saw Jungkook leaning against a tree and standing up when he saw him too.

"Heyyo, Jin!"

"Y-you've been waiting for me," Seokjin said, out of breath from running so much.

"Yeah, I've been waiting for you," Jungkook agreed grimly. "But it took you a long time to come back."

He spoke with a strangely slow voice that alerted Seokjin even if the only light from the garden lamp in front of his house, he couldn't clearly make out Jungkook's face. A foul smell hung in the air around Jungkook.

"Jungkook, are you okay?" Seokjin asked, uncertain.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Because of what we heard earlier- OH!" Seokjin cut himself, thinking that he should reassure Jungkook, "about what we heard before you left, I need to tell, you don't have to worry about-"

"I'm a Jeon, not a Kim, I do not worry," Jungkook said in a harsh voice. "I'll be fine as long as you keep your mouth shut about what you heard tonight."

"Wh-what?" Seokjin stuttered, stunned.

Jungkook looked into his eyes and said in that same hard voice who had surprised Seokjin:

"You better not say anything to Taehyung Jin, or I will kill you."

Hearing this threat from his friend, Seokjin, still moved by Mrs. Kim's threats, burst into tears.