When Namjoon went out to greet Seokjin and pay for the taxi that brought him back, he had the unpleasant surprise to discover that Seokjin was holding a doll as big as a baby against him. Under its dress, legs had appeared and all it needed were feet to be able to have a whole body.

"H-how is this possible?" the leader stammered .

"I found it by chance in the Han River, near the bank. Even though we threw her away, my doll found me," Seokjin said with a small, happy smile, "I think she will always find me. After all, I promised her I would never leave her."

Namjoon tried to ignore his fear of the doll for the moment and paid the taxi driver who quickly left. Then, he focused on Seokjin, who he would have to convince to stay. Only then could he take care of destroying this demon doll and making it disappear from their lives. Definitely, this time.

"Hey, Jin hyung, are you okay?" he asked, hugging him and feeling him freezing.

"Yes, it's okay, I'm sorry for running away like that earlier."

"Don't apologize, it's our turn to apologize hyung. But let's talk inside, you also need to change before you catch a cold."

"Okay," Seokjin said meekly.

"Will you let me take your doll? I'll carry it for you," Namjoon offered, seeing that Seokjin, because of his arms in a sling, was having trouble holding it by his little arm and that it was threatening to slip through his thin fingers.

Seokjin shook his head, giving him a suspicious look.

"No, I don't want you to try to throw it away again."

"I won't do this again, I promise. Hyung, I want to prove to you that you can trust me," Namjoon affirmed, holding out his hand.

Seokjin thought for a few moments and seemed to measure the distance between them and the door, to see if he could trust Namjoon to lead the doll to the house. Then, he finally nodded and let Namjoon take the doll from him, which had indeed become bulky.

"Thank you for trusting me hyung," Namjoon said, relieved.

He led the way to stay in Seokjin's line of sight and entered the dorm first. Upon entering, Seokjin was greeted by Jungkook and Jimin who hugged him tightly while crying that he had scared them and that he should never leave like that again ignoring their calls for so long or even say that he was going to leave the group.

"I don't know yet if-" Seokjin began, who had planned to listen to his dongsaengs but was now undecided on whether to leave.

"Come on hyung, you need to put on some dry clothes, we'll help you," Jungkook cut in so as not to give him the opportunity to say again that he wanted to leave.

Resigned, Seokjin let himself be led to his room by Jungkook and Jimin, not without glancing at Taehyung, Hoseok and Yoongi who were watching him from afar from the living room, not daring to speak to him because of the how they had behaved before.

But when they saw the doll in Namjoon's hands, their relief at seeing Seokjin return gave way to fear.

"You went to pick it up in the street?!" Hoseok asked Namjoon in a low voice to prevent Seokjin from hearing him.

"Impossible, I went to check earlier coming home from the doctor with Jimin, it wasn't there anymore," Yoongi replied.

"Look, it's not me," Namjoon said, "Jin hyung got out of the taxi with it, he said he found it by chance in the river."

"By chance?" Taehyung repeated, "it's witchcraft, there's no doubt about it."

"We will have to go find a priest to purify this object and the dorm at the same time because this story goes too far: how did this doll find Jin hyung?!" Hoseok said.

"The unexplainable cannot be explained," Namjoon retorted, forgoing using his logical mind for once. "Now hyung, go make some hot chocolate for Jin hyung, I think he'll appreciate it from you."

Hoseok nodded and Yoongi said:

" I'll help you. I think coffee will be a better option for everyone because the discussion is likely to be long."

"Please give me back my doll," Seokjin immediately said to Namjoon as he sat down on a couch, between the armrest and Jungkook. Jimin wanted to stay as far away from this doll as possible without making Seokjin feel like he was running away from him, so he chose to sit on the same couch but on the other side of Jungkook. In front of them, the coffee table was filled with steaming cups of chocolate or coffee depending on each person's taste.

The others sat on the second sofa and Namjoon, who had returned the doll to Seokjin, spoke first:

"Jin hyung, before we talk about what happened this morning, I have to ask you: you noticed that your doll had changed, right?"

"Obviously I'm not blind," Seokjin said, looking at his doll with tenderness and not with fear like the others did.

"And..." Namjoon said hesitantly, "that doesn't surprise you?"

Seokjin shrugged.

"It surprised me at first, but I told you that if my doll worked a second time, I would believe in magic. Since then, I have had other opportunities to see that it worked and that my doll was truly magical. It's you who didn't believe me."

"You're right, but now that we've witnessed certain things, we have to believe them," Namjoon admitted to the others who remained silent.

"Did Jungkook tell you about it?" Seokjin asked looking at the maknae who looked uncomfortable although Seokjin, this time, didn't look accusatory.

"He only initiated the conversation but it just brought out the fact that almost all of us had noticed strange things, each of us," Yoongi said.

"Strange?" Seokjin repeated. "Strange how I can dance?"

He turned to Hoseok who stammered:

"N-No hyung, the fact that you can dance isn't strange, you worked hard for it. We are talking about really strange, supernatural coincidences."

"Like what?" the eldest asked.

He seemed so sincere that Hoseok realized he had been so wrong: Seokjin hadn't really noticed anything. He must have been too happy to be getting better to see that his problems were actually just redistributed to his little brothers. Instead of answering Seokjin's question, Hoseok said:

"Jin hyung, I'm so sorry. I accused you of wanting to hurt us, I realize that you didn't notice anything. I don't know how I could believe that you could attack us on purpose, I'm the worst of brothers."

"I-I don't understand," Seokjin stammered, taken aback, "You keep saying that I hurt you, intentionally or not, but the only thing I did was ask my doll to sort my problems out and she did it, I told you. She gave me back my sleep, allowed me to dance... But she didn't do anything bad to the point that you want to throw her away or to the point of saying that I almost destroyed BTS since she allowed me to become a best version of myself for BTS!"

He saw the other members exchange painful glances and he understood that something was escaping him.

"What's the matter?!" he asked. "Please explain to me!"

"Jin hyung, what we're going to tell you is hard to hear but know that it's the truth, we are not lying to you," Taehyung said. "We know you whispered your worries to your doll. And you think it magically fixed them, right?"

"It's the case!" Seokjin said immediately. "This doll has only brought me good things in my life and you wanted to throw her away. But no one will separate me from her!"

The others looked at each other with apprehension. Seokjin had a close relationship with this doll and that was very worrying. It wasn't going to be easy to get him to accept what this monster really was because the slightest attack on her seemed to anger the elder even more than if it was him who was attacked.

"Hyung, it would be wonderful if an object could magically take away all our problems, and I wish with all my heart for you that it would be the case, believe me," Namjoon assured, feeling like he had to walk on eggs as he was careful not to rush Seokjin, "but you have to face the facts, magic necessarily comes with a price, otherwise, it would be too simple."

"Yoongichi keeps my problems away, it's that simple, she didn't ask me for anything," Seokjin replied dryly.

"You weren't the one who had to pay the price for that magic you used," Yoongi informed him, "that's why you didn't see anything."

"What do you mean?"

Yoongi sighed, because he wished he wasn't the one to say it, but he had scores to settle with that doll anyway and he hoped that after this, Seokjin would let him settle them. So he had to make him understand what the whole dorm had been going through.

"I mean you dumped all your problems on other people without realizing it," he declared. 

"On other people?" Seokjin repeated.

"On us," Yoongi clarified. "Hyung, please think reasonably with your head and not with your heart now: when you started sleeping well at night, do you remember who at the exact same time couldn't sleep anymore?"

"It's you, but it's because you were afraid of my doll, you said it yourself that you were afraid of killer dolls!" Seokjin protested. 

"Because it was the only rational explanation!" Yoongi exclaimed, "I couldn't decently believe that your doll was magical!"

"If this is the supernatural coincidence that should convince me, then I'm not convinced at all," Seokjin replied, shutting up like an oyster at Yoongi's argument. "Besides, now you can sleep very well and so can I, so what you say no longer makes any sense!"

"It's because you got rid of your other worries afterwards, the ones that kept you from sleeping!" Yoongi explained to him, desperate for Seokjin to believe him.

"After the insomnia, it's your dance-related shortcomings and your stress about not being able to meet deadlines that you told your doll, right? And who, immediately afterwards, could no longer dance?" Hoseok asked quickly.

"It's you, but that's nothing to do with you slipping down the stairs!" Seokjin said, feeling more and more like he's in the dock in an impromptu trial.

"After hearing a voice that sounded like yours calling me out of the room and feeling someone push me and being sure it was you!" Hoseok exclaimed, dismayed that Seokjin refused to face reality.

"I never pushed you!" Seokjin cried, scandalized.

"I know now, but some evil magic made me believe it was you!"

"I-Is that why you said I hurt you and was going to destroy BTS?" Seokjin asked on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Hyung, I'm really sorry for saying that, truly, I should never have but you have to understand me, after what happened, after all these details that pointed to your guilt, I was afraid that-"

"How could you think I could push you down the stairs? To hurt you or anyone?!" Seokjin cut, tears in his eyes.

"Please forgive me, I know now it wasn't you, it was that doll," Hoseok apologized again. 

"No, my doll has nothing to do with it, stop blaming her for what happened to you or Yoongi. She just helped me, why would she hurt you?"

"So that you won't be so stressed about dancing anymore," Hoseok explained to him, tears in his eyes as well as Seokjin. "And you were able to gain confidence and it prevented you from making mistakes."

Even though Hoseok's tears touched him, Seokjin couldn't accept what he said. It was impossible. If he accepted that, then he had to accept the idea of ​​having hurt the people he loved. He insisted:

"No, that's not true, I asked her to make me a good dancer and she made me a good dancer!"

"You're wrong, you were already a good dancer after all the work you put in," Jimin whispered, "you just lacked confidence because we were moving too fast for you and we weren't giving you the time you needed. Because of this lack of confidence, you made mistakes and like an endless loop, it made you stressed and made you make even more mistakes. When Hobi hyung was injured, it made you feel like you finally had time to do well and you just showed everything you could do. This is what dazzled us: these are very real skills, that of Jin hyung who has confidence in himself."

Everyone seemed to agree with this fact. Except Seokjin who shook his head sharply.

"No, it's impossible, I'm not that good."

His lack of self-confidence was abyssal and it would take more to convince him.

"Jin hyung, there's something else," Taehyung said, taking over to convince Seokjin, "remember your insecurities related to your physical appearance?"

"What about that?" Seokjin asked uncomfortably.

"You told me that you too had had it and I thought you were talking about a distant time and in particular the time when we were still rookies. I wouldn't have imagined that just the day before we spoke, you were still plagued by these insecurities. I'm sorry I didn't notice."

"It doesn't matter anymore, Yoongichi helped me fix them too, she made me more handsome and more confident!" Seokjin wanted to reassure him.

"But hyung, you haven't changed your appearance a bit!" Taehyung protested, "you were already the most handsome, you just needed confidence. And since you devalued yourself when you saw me, do you know what your doll did to me?"

This time, they saw in Seokjin's face that he had understood on his own.

"Y-you mean... that girl in the mirror you were talking about-"

"Yes, I'm sure it was your doll. She never stopped scaring me and devaluing me. She passed on your insecurities to me and that's how you regained the visual position because I was no longer able to maintain it."

Seokjin shook his head and tears flew to Jungkook who placed a reassuring hand on his thigh and looked at him with apprehension while the elder was gripped by a growing feeling of guilt.

"N-no, I never wanted that..." he stammered, crying.

"I know hyung, we all know," Jungkook said gently placing a caressing hand on the back of his neck.

"We were convinced of it yesterday when we talked," Taehyung clarified, "but just this morning after what happened to Jimin, we lost our cool and thought you knew what you were doing."

"I-I didn't..." Seokjin sobbed.

"Hyung, did you whisper to your doll last night?" Yoongi asked.

Upset because he had in mind what had happened to Jimin, Seokjin nodded.

"Hyung, what did you ask your doll?" Jimin whispered, without hostility in his voice, just wanting to understand what made Seokjin confide in the doll.

But Seokjin looked at him guiltily, and remained silent.

"Hyung, I'm going to be fine now, the doctor said my voice will come back in a few days so don't worry too much, okay?" Jimin said gently. "Just tell us what you asked, I won't get mad or anything, I promise."

Reassured but ashamed nonetheless, Seokjin ended up answering:     

"I-I felt guilty about slowing down the group further due to my injury, so I wanted to make up for it by singing more to be helpful to the group. But I have so few lines in our songs that I asked if I could have more, maybe more than you since without being the lead singer, you and I can adapt to the same lyrical tones but it's always up to you to have more line to our tones and... I just wanted a little more for myself, without taking it out on you. I'm so sorry, I'm so selfish... Taehyung was right, I was jealous of you and my doll took it out on you..."

Upset, Seokjin stood up and his doll slipped from his lap without him catching it because of his restrained arms, not that he wanted to, and dropped to his knees and lowered his head in a semi- apologetic prostration in front of his dongasaengs whom he had hurt so much, letting his tears fall to the ground.

"I-I'm so, so sorry for all the hurt I've done to you... sorry Jiminie, sorry Voo, sorry Hobi, sorry Yoongi... and probably sorry to both of you too, Namjoonie, JK..."

Jungkook quickly joined him on the ground and pulled his face up.

"Jin hyung, it's not your fault, you couldn't have known!"

"Yes it is, I should have known..." Seokjin sobbed. "Because of me, Jimin no longer has a voice, Taehyung lost his self-confidence and was put on a diet, Hobi-"

"Hyung, I too did something wrong with that doll without meaning to," Jungkook cut him off, ending the list of what he felt guilty about. "I too have whispered my problems and hurt someone."

"Y-you?" Seokjin stammered, looking at Jungkook. "Did you whisper a worry to Yoongichi?"

Jungkook nodded and started crying like the day Seokjin got hurt.

"Yes, I did it in secret, the night you told me about that doll and I didn't believe you. I found it under your bed and it scared me at first. But when I pulled it out from under the bed, I told myself that I would try to use it to prove to you that it didn't work and that you should learn to trust yourself. I whispered...and I told it I envied you."

"Did you envy me?" Seokjin repeated. "What could you possibly envy of me JK? You already have everything!"

"No, it's wrong, I don't have everything, it's a flaw in your perception of things, it's because you think everyone is better than you. Hyung, there are a lot of amazing things about you that I could have envied," Jungkook told him, "but the first thing I thought of was your broad shoulders. I too wanted to be able to have these without working so hard at the gym. And you know what happened the next day, right?"

He looked guiltily at Seokjin's slumped shoulders and the splints on his arms. Since Seokjin couldn't raise his arms and hands to his wet and stunned face, Jungkook wiped his tears himself.

"I'm so sorry hyung, it's my fault you got hurt."

Seokjin recovered from his shock and hurried to reassure Jungkook.

"No, it's not your fault, I chose to save you, no one forced me, and it was you who was going to be hurt, not me," he reminded him.

"But the doll already knew you. It knew full well that you wouldn't let me get hurt and that you were going to intervene."

Seokjin then remembered what he had seen before the accident.

"I-I saw a girl in the gym near the dumbbell rack, her back was turned on, and she disappeared before what happened," he said, feeling fear creeping up on him, as if he had seen a ghost, "Jimin and Taehyung saw a girl too, so that was... "

"Yeah, it was probably the same one," Yoongi said. "She had to unscrew the nut on the metal structure itself to cause an accident. And this girl is probably the same one I saw in my nightmares."

"Your nightmares?" Seokjin asked, distressed to learn that there were still things he didn't know about that had hit his dongsaengs.

"Yes," Yoongi agreed. "They are the ones who caused my insomnia. At first it was blurry, but then I started remembering my nightmares and how in those nightmares you were pushing me off the moon with a ball attached to me."

"Was it you I was pushing?!" Seokjin exclaimed in horror, realizing why this blurred-faced figure was familiar to him. Since last night only, he had a clear memory of all his previous dreams, he no longer forgot them. He then remembered that the girl had told him that she was becoming stronger because of his worries.

"Yes, but I don't think you wanted to do it," Yoongi reassured him, "you seemed hesitant. However, there was always a scary girl behind you helping you push me by guiding your arms."

"Scary? No, in my dream, she was beautiful and sweet," Seokjin recalled. 

But learning everything the doll had done, even though he had learned last night that the girl and the doll were one and the same, made her suddenly frightening to him. He didn't want to see her again in his head, let alone fall asleep in her arms with complete confidence.

"That's how she appeared to you, but not to those you pushed," Yoongi told him apologetically.

"She was beautiful with me too and explained to me why I had to push you," Jungkook intervened, taking a crumpled drawing from his pocket and showing it to Seokjin. "She said that if I pushed you with this ball that was previously attached to me, I would realize my dream and take away my worries."

Seeing the precise drawing Jungkook had made from a single dream, Seokjin immediately saw that it was the same place and the same girl that he had seen in his own dreams

"So there's really no doubt," he murmured, "it's definitely my doll – I mean me, who did all this harm..."

"No, no, no, it's not you, it's that horrible doll!" Jungkook contradicted him.

"Exactly!" Hoseok agreed.

"Don't feel guilty for what that doll did!" Jimin said.

"Yeah, hyung, don't think about leaving the group again," Namjoon said, "it's this doll that destroyed our unit and needs to be removed. At all costs !"

"But without her, would I be able to live up to it? Seokjin asked, his reddened eyes threatening to cry again. He knew what his life was like before his doll. He remembered losing all hope before Yoongichi.

"Of course you'll be able to," Jimin told him, "hyung, if there is only good thing this doll did, it was showing us that we left you alone to deal with your problems and from now on, we'll be here for you. You won't need a doll for that anymore because you have us."

Everyone nodded.

"But Yoongichi follows me when someone tries to get her away from me, you saw that! Seokjin objected, scared as much by being separated from his doll as by being unable to get rid of it.

"So there's only one solution," Taehyung interjected, "if the doll clings to Jin hyung and keeps coming back, we have to destroy it completely."

"D-Destroy it?" Seokjin asked anxiously.

"Yeah." 

"How?" Hoseok asked.

"In most religions, fire is said to be purifying," Namjoon said suddenly. "Europeans burned witches at the stake for centuries in the Middle Ages, saying they were purifying them of their black magic and the influence of demons on them. I propose to burn this demonic doll."

"I'm fine with that," Taehyung said raising his hand as if it were a vote.

The others seemed convinced by his idea but seeing the reluctant look of Seokjin who did not dare to object because of his guilt, Namjoon added:

"Obviously, we won't do anything without your agreement, we are a team. But I would like you to seriously think about it hyung, okay?"

The elder looked at his dongsaengs whose faces seemed consumed by an anxiety that he hated to see. He had put himself aside many times so that he could protect them from worry and prevent them from feeling as bad as he did. He never would have imagined one day that he would be responsible for their suffering.

Things had changed since the arrival of his doll in his life, that much was obvious. But he had believed – wanted to believe – that his life had changed for the better and that he could finally achieve fulfillment and happiness. Yet now realizing that the end of his troubles had caused harm to his little brothers made him question what he had wanted to see.

He was convinced deep down in his flesh: his happiness could not come before that of his other members. In fact, he couldn't be happy knowing that his little brothers weren't. He was the hyung of all of them, he had to take care of them and if that forced him to get rid of his doll despite his fear of no longer having this magical help that had given him back his confidence, then he had to agree to this sacrifice.

He cleared his throat and said in a serious voice:

"Okay, let's destroy this doll now."