As Namjoon was going on and informing Jin about what had happened with everyone else, and informed him that Jimin and himself were the only two who weren't completely incapacitated right now, Jin passed back out into the realm of unconsciousness. It was too much for his heart to handle. What the hell kind of nightmare life is this?

Namjoon felt the panic rise back up in his chest. He put his hand on Jin's shoulder. "Hyung? Hey...Jin hyung? No, please wake back up!" He gently shook him. "Hyung please," he whimpered. Tears slowly dripped from his eyes. "I really need a big brother right now. Please hyung...I can't...I can't do this by myself."

When Jin noticeably wasn't stirring again anytime soon, Namjoon dropped his head into his hyungs chest and sobbed. Jin waking up had been a huge comfort, as he was the eldest of them and the one everyone always turned to.

Unfortunately, Jin wasn't invincible either. Namjoon would have done anything to trade places. He honestly felt like the members would need Jin hyung more than they'd need himself, at least he knows that's what he would want. He hated having to take charge and be the leader in situations where, simply speaking, he didn't want to. For band activities, sure, he was good at it. Yet for family crises, forget it. He wanted to crawl under a blanket and have someone else hug him and tell him everything was going to be okay.

Maybe this is the final sign that everything, in the end, is not going to be okay. Not if we keep up like this. We'll end up dead. We already are dead. At least on the inside.

Namjoon decided it was time he make an executive decision. This would be the first decision he'd ever make without consulting the group first, but he didn't have a choice. Everyone, aside from Jimin and himself, were laying in hospital beds. And he'd be damned if he let it continue. He decided to do something he realized he should have done long ago.

He called up manager Junso. Before his manager even had the chance to say hello, Namjoon spoke as soon as he heard the phone pick up.

"We're done. We all quit. No more BTS. No more Ky." Namjoon hung up before his manager could reply.

He saw his manager try calling him back but he ignored it. He didn't care to explain anything, because he was sure Junso knew exactly what the problem was. It had been the same problems for weeks now. It was time to put an end to it. Manager Junso can take that information and do whatever the hell he wants to do with it. My members are far more important than working for the damn band. We can rip up our contracts and be our own band. Make our own rules. With seven members. Not eight.

He cried harder because he really didn't know what this would mean for them going forward. He loved the band and all of their experiences, but figured this was the only way to keep them all not only safe, but alive. They could figure something out later. All that mattered was that the seven of them stayed together, no matter what the future held.

He stood up and wiped his tears. He stared down at Jin and patted his hyungs chest. He wanted to stay with his hyung and protect him but he was also feeling desperate to get back and talk to Jimin and Jungkook. He called a nurse back in and asked her to keep an eye on Jin, and to not let Ky enter that room under any circumstances. She said she will keep an eye on him while he left and went back to be with his dongsaengs.

Jimin shot to his feet when he saw Namjoon enter. He ran to his leader. "Was he okay? Is Jin hyung okay? Why are...you were crying..." Jimin saw Namjoon's puffy, red eyes.

"Hyung, please tell me he's okay." Jimin's voice cracked as he tried to hold back his own sorrow.

Namjoon completely broke down again and pulled Jimin into a tight hug. Jungkook sat up in his bed as he began releasing tears too. He was depressed, and his ribs and fingers were throbbing fiercely.

"What happened, hyungie?" Jungkook whispered through shaky breaths.

Namjoon wiped his face and pulled himself together. "Jin is alright. Ky was trying to convince him he killed you. I tried explaining everything going on and he passed back out. It's all just too much." He dropped his gaze to the floor and nervously started picking at the skin around his finger nails. He cleared his throat. "I also called manager Junso and told him we all quit."

He waited for his two dongsaengs to throw some kind of tantrum or outburst, so when he was met with nothing but complete silence from the two, he lifted his gaze to see their reactions.

Jungkook and Jimin were staring at him, both still. They were speechless.

"Please say something." Namjoon was desperate to make sure the two wouldn't hate him for making such a big decision without them. "And please know I did this to protect us."

"I know," Jungkook whispered.

It was evident that he was extremely exhausted and it was getting hard for him to speak. The circles under his eyes had turned a deeper black and purple. "I can't say I blame you. Maybe it's for the best, I don't know hyungie." He lay his head down on his pillow and shut his eyes. "Honestly I'm not feeling so good." He was asleep without a moment's notice.

Namjoon and Jimin looked at each other. Jimin pulled Namjoon into a hug and the leader broke down once again. "I'm sorry, Jimin-ah. I didn't know what else to do. I'm so sorry." He buried his face into Jimin's neck and sobbed. His shoulders bounced up and down as his saliva and snot soaked Jimin's shirt. "I wanted to do a good thing."

Jimin was rubbing Namjoon's back. "Shh, it's okay hyung. I understand. I think for now it's the best option for all of us. It doesn't matter what happens as long as we all stick together, right?"

Namjoon smiled. He was so grateful that Jimin was on the same page as him. He still wasn't too sure about how Jungkook handled it, considering he basically passed out from the news.

"Breathe, hyung." Jimin said calmly when he noticed Namjoon still hyperventilating. This really helped the leader calm down. Jimin mentioned that he wanted to go see Jin too, even if he was asleep. He left to go visit his hyung and sat by his bed side holding Jin's hand as he watched him sleep.

"What a mess," Jimin whispered to himself. While he sat there with Jin, Namjoon sat there with Jungkook. Even though some of them were awake, none of the other members were allowed visitors quite yet.

--

A few days had gone by, and for the most part everyone was on the mend.

Except Yoongi.

He was still in a medically induced coma after needing surgery to repair some ruptured organs. He'd truly been beaten half to death. Nobody knew how much more time he'd need, but it would be a lot.

Jin, Jungkook, Hobi, and Taehyung were all wheeled into a large room together, their beds placed next to each other. They were heartbroken about Yoongi and Hobi would often cry for him, falling into coughing fits because his lungs weren't completely healed yet. Taehyung was actually eating quite a lot of the hospital food without feeling ashamed of himself. It actually made him feel a lot better to get nutrition into his body. Nurses had given him pamphlets for therapy to help with his eating disorder, which his members encouraged him to attend, but he said he wanted to try his best on his own first.

Jin and Jungkook were stuck like glue. Jin often found himself in Jungkook's hospital bed holding him. The five minutes where he was convinced Jungkook had been killed really fucked with his head. The members were a bit worried that Jin might now be falling into a state of severe separation anxiety when it came to Jungkook. Sometimes if the maknae even fell asleep Jin would shake him awake to make sure he wasn't dead.

They all replayed everything that had happened that dreadful day and it hurt a lot. When Namjoon informed the rest of them about the decision he had made, he was still extremely surprised to see that not one of them had protested or questioned his decision. They all agreed it was for the best. At least for now. They could focus on being away from Ky and focus on themselves and healing rather than band activities.

Namjoon had ignored every single call from his manager. He, along with the rest of them, didn't care what that man had to say. They knew they'd have to deal with him eventually and discuss ending their contracts, but none of them were in the proper state to do that right now.

In the meantime, Ky had gone MIA. Not that any of the members cared. Good riddance to him.

The police had stopped by once again to speak with Jin about the accident, and once his story and Jungkook's matched perfectly, the police concluded that it truly was an accident. Definitely not Ky's fault, though!  At the very least, they could now put all legal matters regarding the accident behind them. They knew the police would never believe them about Ky, so they stopped bothering with it.

The members were sitting together in the big hospital room discussing some things when a doctor opened the door and their manager walked through it. This was the first time they'd seen him in some time and as always, he looked angry.

"Leave," Jin said sternly. "You're not our manager anymore."

"On the contrary," Junso spat, "Your contracts aren't up!"

"Fuck our contracts, we quit!" Taehyung screamed.

Junso started screaming, and the boys all turned to the doctor who was still standing in the doorway. Junso realized he'd be taken out if he didn't calm down, so he composed himself. He turned to the doctor. "No worries, sir. I will speak to them rationally about this."

The doctor nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Jungkook cried. "Don't le-" It was too late, the doctor was out the door. The members' anxiety immediately spiked as Junso came towards them. He himself wasn't one to physically hurt them before, but they all figured anything was possible at this point. He took a seat in a nearby chair.

"What can I do to keep this band alive?" Junso asked.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Hobi's voice was laced with anger. He gestured to the others as he continued. "Look at us. Half of us have already experienced the brink of death because you're the one who put Ky in this damn group! He doesn't care about being in a band, all he wants to do is ruin our lives and murder us!" Hobi burst into tears. "We don't even know when Yoongi hyung is going to wake up! For all we know he might not even make it! So you can take our contracts, and you can take your precious little puppet, Ky, and shove them all up your ass!"

"A contract is a contract. I need this group. And I need Ky in it." Junso gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw. They could tell he was trying his best to control his anger so as to not make any doctors or nurses pop their heads back in.

Jimin stood up and crossed his arms. "Why? Why is that so damn important? Our group was fine before Ky. Why is he so fucking important to you? And clearly you're not understanding. With Ky in this group, there is no group. How the fuck do you expect us to perform, or really do anything for you, when Ky does shit like this? We're useless to you if we're all injured. And you don't give a shit! We're done working with you! We can change our name and start our own company. We can manage ourselves! We don't need you!"

Junso took a deep breath. "Unless you can pay out your contracts, you don't have a choice."

Namjoon gulped. He hadn't considered that part. "How much would we have to pay you?"

Junso shot up from his chair. He stood so aggressively that the chair almost fell backwards, making the members flinch. He pointed his finger at them. "More than any of you can afford, that's how much! I'm talking billions, each!"

"Billions?!" The members screamed in unison. They didn't know how the hell that happened.

"Clearly none of you read the fine print when you signed them!" Junso spat.

"You fucked with those contracts!" Taehyung yelled. "I know damn will it was never that much! I read the whole thing!"

"Clearly your injuries have you a bit fucked in the head, Taehyung!" Junso screamed. He started walking towards Taehyung but Jimin ran and blocked him. "Stay the hell away from him. Stay the hell away from all of us. You can take that money and shove that straight up your ass too, Junso! We're done! Fuck you and the money! We aren't working for you anymore! You can't make us do shit."

Junso backed off and straightened out his shirt. "Surely there is something I can do to keep you. I can speak to Ky about his attitude."

Jungkook couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah right. We've asked you a million times to get rid of him and you put the blame on us. You really think he cares what you have to say?"

"Yes," Junso replied.

The members didn't understand why Junso was trying so hard to keep them. And they didn't understand what he meant by saying Ky would listen to what he says. They felt like they were in some kind of twilight zone.

The members were silent. "Even if you got rid of Ky, or got him to stop all of his shit, you're just as manipulative and abusive as he is. You've supported him this entire time, and look where it's gotten us. We're done working with you!"

Junso walked to the door and opened it, ready to depart. His entire demeanor changed once again. He suddenly gave off a charming look as he smiled at them.

"Don't you worry, boys. I will figure something out."