"Alright, it's been an hour. Give me the phone," Jin demanded of Jungkook after letting the maknae have his phone for an hour. He gestured his hand out for Jungkook to give it but the youngest refused, "Why is this even a rule? One hour at a time is nothing hyung! I'm in the middle of a game!"

"I don't care. You shouldn't have started a game if you knew your time was almost up! And we gave you this rule so you don't spend too much time on it!" Jin said in defense. The hyungs had a lot of rules for their maknae, much to Jungkook's disliking. He didn't understand why his hyungs seemed really strict when it came to him and only him. They'd been a band together for about 5 years now and nothing was different. The moment the members met Jungkook it had been instant rules. He thought as he got older his hyungs would back off a little bit but that seemed to not be the case. Whenever he'd try to win his way and fight against the rules one of his hyungs would remind him that it was "For your protection" and "For your own good." Taehyung often told him "You'll thank us when you're older." To which Jungkook couldn't see any reason as to why he'd ever do that.

"This isn't fair!" Jungkook pouted as he handed Jin his phone and got up from the couch.

"Life isn't fair," Jin said sternly.

"Yeah, especially having to live with you guys."

Yoongi overheard this from the kitchen, "Hey! Watch your tone, or do you want to be grounded while you're at it?!"

"Seriously?! You guys aren't my parents! Why do you treat me like such a baby?!"

"We may not be your parents but considering we're your hyungs, we're still in charge of you. We don't treat you like a baby we just set boundaries," Jin informed him.

Jimin was sitting on one of the other couches. "Now stop complaining and go get ready for the award show tonight."

Jungkook listened and dragged his feet to his and Taehyung's room. Taehyung was going through outfits deciding on what he wanted to wear for the award ceremony. He was asking for his maknae's input on what he should wear. Jungkook narrowed it down to two options for him and he ended up choosing a nice red suit.

"I wonder what I should wear?" Jungkook asked as he started going through his clothes. He realized he wasn't liking any of the outfits he was pulling out of his own closet. "Hmm...hyung can I maybe see if there's anything you own I could borrow?"

"I don't know, my clothes are a bit more revealing than yours."

"What? How?" Jungkook asked confused. He knew Taehyung's entire wardrobe. What the hell would be revealing?

"Most of my shirts are V cut with low buttons and stuff, you can't wear that."

"Let me try them on," Jungkook demanded. Taehyung offered his maknae some outfits but already knew none of them were going to work. Jungkook tried some on in which Taehyung shook his head no to all of them.

"What's wrong with this one?! It's not even that low!" He asked. He really liked the gray silk shirt he was trying on but Taehyung insisted it showed way too much of his chest and he didn't like how from certain angles it revealed his muscle tone.

"Too revealing," Taehyung said simply. Jungkook felt angry as he took the shirt off and threw the clothes back at Taehyung, "When are you guys going to let me wear whatever the hell I want to wear? These clothes weren't even bad. What do you want from me? To wear a damn snowsuit or something everywhere we go?"

"Ideally," Taehyung chuckled. Jungkook rolled his eyes at his hyung. Taehyung walked over and wrapped an arm around his maknae's shoulders, "I know we're annoying. I get it, but you have to trust us! We'll stop being so overbearing when we feel like you're mature enough to handle things on your own."

"I am mature enough to handle things on my own. I don't understand why everyone thinks I'm not. I mean how am I supposed to ever prove that to you when nobody let's me do anything?" Jungkook pouted.

"You can prove it to us when you're older."

"I've been hearing that for the past five years! I am older!"

"I meant like..older.." Taehyung laughed. He took his clothes and put them away while Jungkook was too moody to continue the conversation. He dropped onto his bed and angrily glared at his hyung. He absolutely hated being treated like a child and wondered when on earth he'd ever be able to finally make decisions for himself. He loved his hyungs, and he knew his hyungs loved and cared about him a lot. He felt like they cared a little too much considering everything they did was 'to protect him'. He figured if they didn't care so much maybe he'd have more freedom. He didn't even know what it was they were ever trying to protect him from. It's not like he ever got into any trouble because they were too overbearing to ever let him. He broke from his thoughts when Taehyung threw an outfit at him, "Here. This is the best I've got for you."

Jungkook tried Taehyung's outfit on and he did quite like it and thankfully it was up to Taehyung's standard of approval for the maknae to wear. The rest of the hyungs gathered in their room to let them know they needed to start heading out. Jungkook asked if he could have his phone back for the car ride but Namjoon told him no because it was important to be aware of his surroundings.

"You all use yours in the car..." Jungkook pouted annoyed.

"Well we're older, we've had more time to be aware of our surroundings," Hobi told him. Jungkook tried to suppress his anger. It really was one rule after another for him.

When they got the the venue, the first rule Yoongi spit out was, "Jungkook if you have to go to the bathroom let someone know to come with you."

Jungkook thought it was an annoying rule but it was one of the ones he understood a little better. He knew it was for safety reasons . It also didn't help that a few years ago he had snuck off to the bathroom alone and ended up getting lost inside the venue for a good 45 minutes which sent all of his hyungs into a downward spiral of panic attacks. They'd had security and police looking for him and he was found trying to find his way around. He'd been grounded for a month after that.

The show had gone well. They won one award out of the three they were nominated for and were happy enough with that. They had been invited to an afterparty by one of the other groups. The group mostly consisted of Jungkook's friends because they were all the same age. The hyungs declined the offer and shot the maknae down when he begged. He was pissed and had enough of his hyungs telling him everything he needed to do every five seconds of his life and controlling every move he made. So once the award show ended, he didn't follow behind his hyungs to leave. He quickly ran in the opposite direction to go meet up with his friends for the afterparty. They were having it in that very venue so he figured he could just claim to have gotten lost again for an hour or something. He didn't care to get in trouble or get grounded, he just wanted to have fun.

Once the members were out of the inside arena they quickly realized Jungkook was missing. They all turned around in every direction trying to find him but there was no sign of their maknae.

"You can't be serious, not this again!" Jin screamed anxiously. They called security and ask for help looking for him. The place was packed with so many people and fans that they were extremely worried about his safety. They started speculating about why he was missing. Suggesting maybe he got lost in the crowd or maybe he snuck away for one last bathroom break but when the searching continued and there was still no sign of him their anxiety increased. Hobi and Taehyung were on the verge of tears over his safety.

"What if he got kidnapped or something?!" Jimin cried in a panic.

"Relax, there's too many people here someone would have noticed," Yoongi said reassuringly.

"But what if nobody realized he was being dragged out!" Jimin cried back.

"Enough!" Namjoon screamed, "I'm sure he's here somewhere!"

They continued to look and found themselves inside the opposing arena where the afterparty was being held. They in no way expected to find their maknae there but they were looking for him in every corner of that venue. They figured he would never disobey them to that kind of extent. Their jaws dropped in disbelief when they saw Jungkook dancing in a group of people and his shirt was even unbuttoned uncomfortably low for his hyungs.

"JEON JUNGKOOK!" Yoongi screamed as they all stormed towards him.

Jungkook saw them and froze in the middle of dancing, "Oh...Oh no..." he whispered to himself. He knew he was in trouble before they even got to him. It was written all over his hyungs faces. They met up to him.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?!" Yoongi screamed. The maknae nervously looked around and gulped. "Uh.....dancing?" he smiled. He was hoping maybe trying to act cute would calm them down. Apparently his answer was exactly what his hyungs didn't want to hear. Jin grabbed him by the ear and started dragging him out of the arena followed by everyone else. "Ow! Ow hyung stop!" Jungkook cried while trying to get out of Jin's grip. Once they were in the hallway Jin immediately started screaming at him.

"We told you no! We told you that we weren't going to that afterparty! What the hell do you think you're doing disobeying hyungs orders!?" Jin screamed. They had all never seen Jin's face so red. Jungkook felt his own face turn red as tears started stinging his eyes. Not only was he angry too but he was embarrassed.

"I just...I just wanted to have fun with my friends hyung," Jungkook pouted to the floor. Jimin leaned in and buttoned Jungkook's shirt back up. "Do you have any idea how scared we were?! We thought you were missing! Or kidnapped! What if you had been kidnapped, then what?!" Jimin cried .

"I'm sorry hyung.." Jungkook whispered.

"If you're not going to listen to our rules, maybe we need to be stricter. I mean what the hell does it take?!" Namjoon asked angrily. Jungkook could feel the anger coursing through his body and decided he'd had enough. Rules dictated everything and it was sucking the youth and the life right out of him.

"You know what, no!" Jungkook cried as he finally looked up and made eye contact with his hyungs, "I'm done! I'm done listening to all your stupid rules! You guys treat me like nothing but a baby and I'm done with it! I don't care if you're my hyungs! I don't care anymore! Maybe I'd be more likely to respect and care about all your stupid rules if there were less of them!"

The members stood in shock at Jungkook's statement. It wasn't like him to ever talk back or undermine authority.

"Don't you dare-" Hobi started but Jungkook cut him off. "Dare what? Huh hyung? Stick up for myself? Speak my mind? Am I not allowed to do that? While you all get to do whatever you want whenever you want, you all keep me on this tight leash and if I'm being honest, it's making me respect you even less. Maybe if you'd just back off every now and then we wouldn't have these kinds of problems!" Jungkook was sobbing at this point. He'd finally let out a lot of feelings he'd been holding in for years.

To his surprise, Taehyung spoke up in his defense. "I'll be honest. He has a point."

"Oh not you too," Jin complained.

"But he's right!" Taehyung defended. "We control everything he does! It took me a while to notice but we really are extremely controlling over him. We all want him to grow up to be independent and take care of himself don't we? How is he supposed to do that if we control everything he does? He can't learn from mistakes if he doesn't have the opportunity to ever make any. And then what? When he is older he won't know how to handle things on his own and he might just turn out...well...bad..."

Jungkook stared at Taehyung. No way? He actually....agrees with me?

The hyungs all stared at their crying maknae for a moment and for the first time in what seemed like ever, they actually took Jungkook's words, and Taehyung's, into consideration.

"I suppose...we...are a bit...overbearing..." Namjoon admitted. Jungkook couldn't believe his ears when he realized what he'd said was actually having an impact on his hyungs.

"I guess we could loosen the reigns a bit. Taehyung-ah has a point. He can't learn to grow up if we never give him the opportunity to..." Yoongi also admitted. They all looked at each other and Hobi started talking about ways they could lighten up such as giving him his phone to keep permanently and loosening the restrictions on other things.

Taehyung pointed to Jungkook's shirt. "Except that! Not loosening that!" Taehyung and Jungkook both chuckled. Jungkook looked at his hyungs with giant eyes while they continued to discuss how they were willing to give him more freedom.

Jungkook smiled but figured there would still be consequences for him being disobedient and going to the party, "But...let me guess...I'm grounded, right?"

"We can discuss that later," Jimin replied.

Jin gestured to the door to the arena where everyone was at the party.

"But first, I believe there was an afterparty our maknae would like to attend." Jungkook smiled as his hyungs all grabbed onto him and dragged him back inside to dance.

[The End]