Taehyung almost screamed when he felt a hand on his shoulder, thinking that the terrifying girl had finally passed through the mirror. But his terrified eyes landed on Seokjin's reflection and he stopped himself from screaming. 

He hadn't heard him open the door and arrive because of the headphones. He realized that the girl had disappeared again, replaced by Seokjin's reflection, and the eldest hadn't seen her again. 

His panicked look made Seokjin worry and the latter gently removed the headphones from his ears.

"Taehyung, are you okay?" he asked in a soft voice, not wanting to rush him.

"Y-Yes, I'm okay, why shouldn't I be okay?" Taehyung replied defensively.

Even more worried to see him close off and refuse to share his suffering, Seokjin insisted:

"Then what are you doing here alone? You're hiding, aren't you? But who are you hiding from and why?"

Realizing where he was, Taehyung shook his head sharply.

"I'm sorry hyung, I shouldn't have come to your room without asking you, I'm going back to mine now."

He wanted to get up but Seokjin put his hands on his shoulders to stop him.

"No, I'm not chasing you Taehyung, I really want to understand what's wrong and help you. First you broke your mirror this morning and hurt yourself this morning. Then there was what Sejin said to you and now you're hiding and you look scared and stressed. I don't like seeing you like this. Please talk to me Voo, tell me what's wrong," Seokjin begged. 

He had always been a listening ear to the problems his dongsaengs were having but lately he had felt like he had been so focused on his own problems that others had decided to stop wanting to confide in him. And that wasn't what he wanted. 

He had always tried to hide his own anxieties and soothe those of others. That was how he was. And seeing the younger members suffer made him suffer too because as the eldest, he felt responsible for their well-being. And they always had to come before himself even when things weren't going well for him.

"Please?" he insisted, seeing that Taehyung seemed reluctant to confide. 

"Y-you wouldn't understand..." Taehyung whispered, tears in his eyes.

"I'll do anything to understand and to help you, I promise," Seokjin assured as he sat down on the ground next to Taehyung.

Taehyung seemed to think for a while then finally nodded, still looking very nervous.

"This morning, in the bathroom, I was just getting ready, like every day, there was nothing abnormal. But then..." he shuddered to think of it, "... then, I heard something, a... a voice." 

He paused and looked Seokjin straight in the eyes to detect the mockery or the feeling of betrayal that he had seen there that morning when Seokjin had thought he was insulting him and making fun of him. But there was none of that in the look of the older man who listened attentively and invited him to continue his story. Reassured, Taehyung continued:

"That voice told me to look in the mirror and I did it without thinking, without really wondering why someone was telling me to do that, it could have been Hobi hyung or Jimin playing a prank on me and they were the ones I expected to see in the mirror. But they weren't there. It was only me. And looking at myself, I felt like I was... different." 

"Different? What do you mean?" Seokjin asked.

Taehyung thought of a way to describe how he felt that morning while looking at his reflection.

"My reflection was different from usual, I usually like my reflection, even when I've just woken up. And this morning, I felt hideous, my appearance repelled me without me understanding what could have changed in my face overnight."

"Hideous?!" Seokjin reacted, amazed that Taehyung would think such a thing about himself. "Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"No, that's really how I felt... and looking more carefully, I ended up seeing it myself that I had gained weight."

"Come on Taehyung, gaining weight doesn't suddenly make you someone else, let alone someone hideous!"

"Maybe I didn't suddenly become one," Taehyung said saddly. "Maybe I always was, but I believed people who told me I was handsome and now I finally realize that I'm not, on the contrary. And the voice approved what I was thinking because it started to make fun of me and continued to criticize me and say that I was weird, ugly and fat. And suddenly, she appeared, the-the scary girl I told you about this morning, and she laughed with malice while looking at me and judging me with her eyes. She scared me so much that I reflexively hit the mirror, without thinking about what I was doing. This is where Hobi hyung, Jimin and then you arrived."

"Taehyung-" Seokjin started.

"I know you're going to say," Taehyung was quick to say, anticipating the words of his elder, "it's my imagination, and I could have imagine everything but then Sejin said in front of everyone that I got fat! It means it wasn't just my imagination and... and he took away my central position in the group's visual, judging me unworthy of this place. So I know it's the truth, but I can't stand hearing that scary voice tell me again and again and again that I'm ugly and unworthy of the group..." he sobbed. "But it won't shut up since this morning, I hear it as soon as there's a mirror next to me, it wants me to look at myself and see my true ugliness..."

"Taehyung, listen to me and don't listen to that voice," Seokjin said grabbing Taehyung's hand to keep his attention as his gaze kept shifting to his reflection. "I know that voice, it whispers things in my ear too and puts me down since a long time." 

"You hear it too?!" Taehyung exclaimed, wondering if Seokjin saw the scary girl too. 

But then he realized with disappointment that Seokjin wasn't talking about the girl and her voice.

 "Yes, it's a little hard to admit," Seokjin said, embarrassed to admit his weaknesses to his little brother but he wanted to reassure him. "I think you are consumed by your negative thoughts and they are attacking you, believe me, I know what it is."

"You know?" Taehyung repeated. "How could you know, when you have always been very confident about your physical appearance, and when you are handsome without needing to do anything to yourself?!"

Seokjin was surprised at what the younger said. So he hadn't seen that he himself had been depressed at feeling ugly next to the younger ones? To no longer feel worthy of your visual position? To be dispossessed of it? He must have hidden this well by wanting to encourage Taehyung to express his own beauty and to be proud and happy about it. He didn't want to bother Taehyung with this, only to prove to him that he could recover from this bad situation so he gave him a small smile.

"I have to tell you a secret : I know you see me really confident and sometimes I seem to take things lightly, but I had difficult times too. Our manager also called me a pig, claiming that I wasn't the ideal weight to be an idol and claiming that I was eating poorly. It hurt my heart but I also went on a diet."

"R-Really?" Taehyung said, stunned, as he didn't know. "But hyung, that's in the past now, your body shape is favorable to the stability of your weight and you can eat almost whatever you want and without doing sports, your weight doesn't change much. Mine evolves with the slightest pot of noodles swallowed, with the slightest sports session. I always have to be careful and it's true that lately I've been slacking off a little but I was tired, I ate poorly and-"

"Hey, hey, I don't blame you, you don't have to justify yourself, okay?" Seokjin hurriedly said to stop him from feeling even worse. "Come on Voo, get up, I want to show you something."

He stood up and held out his hand to Taehyung who took it and stood up as well, perplexed. Seokjin turned him towards the mirror by the shoulders and stood behind him, arms around him and chin on his shoulder.

"What do you see in this reflection?" he asked him.

"I see a pig and a prince charming," replied Taehyung who thought he was ugly, especially next to Seokjin.

"Ah damn, do I still look like a pig next to such a prince?" Seokjin asked thoughtfully as he looked at Taehyung's face in the mirror.

"Hyung!" Taehyung exclaimed, outraged, also looking at him in the mirror. "I'm not the prince, you are!"

"Oh no, from my point of view that's not the case. For me, whether you have gained weight or not, you are still the most handsome."

Embarrassed, Taehyung mumbled:

"There's no point lying, I know you're saying that to please me. I'm awful, especially now that I'm fat with a round face, I'm a weird kid again in the eyes of the agency and it's only a matter of time before the fans think the same thing. I will once again be relegated to the shadows, like the extra member who should never have been part of the group..."

Seokjin looked at his younger brother's sad face and understood that he no longer had any confidence in his physical appearance and that it began to affect his whole being even though he was a young man full of talents. It was unfair. Taehyung didn't deserve to feel this bad, he risked falling into a terrible depression if he continued like this and could even at one point decide to leave the group if he felt unable to continue. 

Seokjin had a horrible feeling of déjà-vu. He had been through this before, without anyone helping him, without him finding a way to overcome it himself. But he couldn't leave Taehyung like this. He had to be there for him.

It made him lift his chin and look proudly at his reflection.

"Voo, don't say that kind of thing. If you are not worthy of being part of the group, then no one is and our group no longer exists."

"But-"

"I assure you, for the moment, you are no longer able to see clearly, you have a false vision of reality. So let me tell you what I see," Seokjin said, not letting go of Teahyung and observing him carefully in the mirror, "I see a very beautiful person who must learn to love himself again. I'll teach you."

Taehyung gave him a wry look.

"Hyung, I'm not a child, I know that it is not by wanting or believing it that we become handsome."

"I didn't say become handsome I said relearn how to see it. Taehyung, you're handsome. Say it : "I'm handsome."

"No, I can't, it's embarassing," Taehyung protested.

"There's no one there, only me, and I'm the most embarrassing person in this country, you have nothing to fear. Every morning, I say to my mirror : mirror, mirror on the wall, tell me, who is the most handsome? And the mirror always tells me the same thing: you are handsome, Jin, more handsome than anyone who has walked this Earth... but Taehyung is even more handsome than you!"

Taehyung couldn't help but giggle at his older brother's joke. Delighted to see him laugh, Seokjin insisted: 

"Come on, I want to hear you say while watching your reflection: I'm handsome."

Feeling ridiculous, Taehyung nevertheless agreed look at his reflection, looking himself straight in the eye, to say:

"I'm handsome." 

"Perfect!" Seokjin said in an appreciative tone. "Now say "I love myself."

"I... I love myself."

"With more conviction please," Seokjin teased.

"I love myself," Taehyung repeated with more confidence.

"It's good!" the eldest congratulated him, "now you will say: "I am the most beautiful person on this planet."

"Hyung, that's so weird to say that!" Taehyung replied, red with shame.

"Maybe, but that's what you're going to say. This is what you will repeat to yourself every day when you look in the mirror.

"I will do what?!" Taehyun wondered, looking at Seokjin.

"You heard me right," Seokjin affirmed. "It was the Snow White Witch's mirror that gave me the idea for myself at one time. That woman wasn't particularly beautiful, and yet her mirror kept telling her that she was the most beautiful and she believed it without any doubt, I found that astonishing."

"Because it's a magic mirror, hyung, but magic doesn't exist for us! Besides, the mirror told her that only until it told her one day that Snow White was the most beautiful," Taehyung reminded him.

"Just like my mirror once ended up telling me that you were more handsome than me," Seokjin joked. "I find it magical."

"Hyung, our mirrors don't talk!" Taehyung protested before remembering that from now on, his own mirrors did speak to him, but not to say nice things to him on the contrary. His face darkened again at the thought but Seokjin brightened it up again just as quickly:

"Perhaps, but because it is up to us to make them speak, we can make them say everything we want," he said with a wink.

It was childishly obvious, Taehyung realized. He thought about what Seokjin had just said. His mirror spoke to him. But he said nasty things to him. Should he believe it? Should he let this voice continue to tell him he was ugly and believe it?

"I'm the most beautiful man on this planet because that's how I want to be in my own eyes," Seokjin continued, "not because it's true in everyone's eyes. There are many people who find you handsome Voo but if you find yourself ugly, all of this doesn't matter. So consider the opposite: it doesn't matter if some people say you're not handsome. If you find yourself handsome, that's the main thing. So learn to find yourself handsome and there will be no one more beautiful than you."

These words made Taehyung smile and Seokjin was happy. However, he found it strange to be able to advise Taehyung so easily when he himself had failed to overcome his lack of confidence in his physique on his own and had to use a doll to regain confidence in himself and succeed in regaining his position as a visual.

His doll! He suddenly said to himself. Since it always worked for me, maybe I could lend it to Taehyung? However, he didn't like this idea at all and he told himself that he would only talk to him about it as a last resort, if his advices failed to help him. After all, Yoongichi was now his most precious treasure and he didn't know it he was ready to share it yet.

"I love myself."

Seokjin, whose eyes had been lost in the vagueness, regained his senses and looked at Taehyung who was looking at himself with a determined look and declaring:

"I am the most beautiful man in the world."

"You're telling me!" Seokjin said, winking at him. "And I will tell you this myself too as many times as I see you get depressed saying that you are ugly and unworthy. As for your diet, I will do it with you to encourage you."

Taehyung turned away from his reflection and looked at the older boy gratefully.

"Hyung, thank you for being there for me. I am grateful for your advices, I will do my best to relearn how to help myself and I will do my diet correctly, without despairing. But I don't want you to do it with me. This is my fight. Not yours."

Surprised to see so much resolve, Seokjin thought that Taehyung was a strong person. He didn't need magic to overcome his weaknesses unlike him. He was definitely surrounded by six boys younger than him but so much stronger than him! He admired them so much that he wanted to write and sing a song to praise them and express all the admiration he had for them. He felt like seeing them achieve perfection and be fulfilled could be all the happiness he needed.

He smiled warmly when Taehyung hugged him to thank him and he hugged him back. He didn't see, in the reflection, the girl who, behind them, was watching Taehyung with hatred any more than he saw Taehyung looking into her icy eyes with an air of defiance. He nevertheless heard Taehyung say to the mirror:

"I love myself and I am handsome, and I will no longer believe the mean voices that tell me otherwise so that I hate myself."

"That's good," Seokjin appreciated, patting him on the back. 

"Hyung," Taehyung said, remembering something, pulling away from Seokjin, "I'm sorry about this morning if you thought I was making fun of you and saying mean things to you. That wasn't the case, I hope you believe me. I will never say that you are ugly or a monster."

"I know Taehyung, and I'm sorry for getting upset and then making fun of you instead of trying to help you when you weren't well. I won't do it again, I promise."

Relieved and each freed from a terrible weight, the two boys joined the others to finish the film with them and they all enjoyed this comfortable moment.

Then, everyone went back to their rooms to sleep and for the first time since he got his doll, Seokjin didn't whisper anything to it. He didn't need it that night, as he was fulfilled: he had managed to overcome one of his weaknesses, to regain self-confidence in his appearance and his visual role of the group and also, to help Taehyung with his own demons. He was becoming again someone his younger brothers could count on. What could he possibly ask his doll if he had no worries in mind?

That night for the first time in a long time, in the elders' room, there were two people who slept soundly, with a peaceful mind.