"Why do we need to talk?" Jungkook asked Namjoon. He was sitting on his bed filled with anxiety. He felt his cheeks start to turn red and his pulse pick up.

"So you can tell me what happened to you," the leader replied.

Jungkook stared at his bedroom door. He instantly felt trapped. Just like he did when he would be trapped in a room with Shik.

Thankfully, though, he knew Namjoon would never beat him half to death. He also really didn't want to tell Namjoon what happened to him. He felt like he couldn't. At the same time, he had become exhausted lying.

He knew deep down it was becoming a wasted effort, he had used the excuse that he fell so often that it was way too obvious to his hyungs that he was lying when he said that, and he was aware that they didn't believe him anymore. He couldn't tell the truth and he couldn't lie. He wanted to disappear instead. Then he wouldn't have to answer any questions.

"Hyung can we talk another time? I'm really tired and just want to sleep. We just got home from the hospital and my stitches hurt," Jungkook pleaded as he tried taking his blanket and covering himself.

Namjoon tugged the blanket away. "Well then, the sooner you tell me what happened, the sooner you can go to bed."

Jungkook stared at Namjoon and felt tears start forming behind his eyes. Namjoon had been assertive and stern plenty of times, being the leader meant he had to be, but Jungkook could feel that this was different.

"Hyung, I-"

"So who is it?" Namjoon cut him off without hesitation. He already fully suspected that Shik was the one who had hurt Jungkook. And the majority of his members agreed with him, it was pretty much only Yoongi who was refusing to accept such a reality. He didn't want to throw out Shik's name or mention other peoples names because he felt like that would tempt Jungkook to lie about who it really was. He needed Jungkook to admit, on his own, the name of the person.

A small part of Namjoon was hoping he was wrong, though. He still silently hoped nobody was actually hurting his maknae. Especially their manager, who they had to work closely with all of the time. Maybe it was actually just a janitor or something? Namjoon shook the thought out of his head. He realized a janitor would never have any reason to harm the youngest.

However, nobody ever had any reason to harm the youngest. The maknae had never spoken rudely to or done anything bad to anyone ever , especially to people at work. Namjoon couldn't figure out why, if anyone, someone would actually hurt Jungkook so badly that they'd attempt to actually kill him.

"What?" Jungkook stared at Namjoon in terror. He hated that his hyung was already expecting his injuries to be inflicted by a person. How was he supposed to get around that?

Namjoon had to fight back his own tears as he sat next to Jungkook on the bed, the maknae's eyes slowly started to flood. Namjoon noticed that Jungkook's cry was a different kind of cry. It wasn't an outburst of rage or the kind of cry he'd produce while throwing his little tantrums and screaming at everyone.

It was a silent cry.

Jungkook stared at him silently and let the tears fall down his cheeks. Namjoon knew Jungkook was exhausted, and not the simple 'I want to go to bed' exhausted.

Namjoon gently grabbed Jungkook's hands and held them in his. "Listen to me. Jungkook we know. We know it's someone. You can't tell me it isn't."

"It isn't." The maknae couldn't bring himself to admit it. His hyungs lives were at stake.

"It wasn't a person? Then what happened? Because don't you dare sit here and tell me you fell again, either."

"I didn't fall, either."

"Then how did it happen?"

"I don't know," was the best Jungkook could come up with it. Namjoon stared at him in silence and saw him start to tremble. He could visibly see how scared the younger was, that was something he couldn't lie about.

Namjoon was feeling a little frustrated. He wasn't trained in any kind of therapy no matter how many books he had read. The main thing he had discovered was that he needed to make sure Jungkook felt safe and comfortable enough to admit the truth.

"Are you afraid to tell me what really happened to you? You don't need to be afraid of that. You know hyung would never be upset with you or angry at you for telling me the truth. None of us ever would, if that's what you're so worried about."

"It's not." I can't tell you what I'm worried about without telling you the truth.

"Then what is it that you're afraid of? Because I can tell you right now, if someone is hurting you, if you just tell me, I can absolutely promise you they will never get their hands on you ever again. You know all of us would protect you from anyone. And like I said, you don't need to be afraid of telling us. We would never do anything bad to you."

Jungkook felt his heart tense up. Namjoon's remark kept repeating in his head. I can absolutely promise you they will never get their hands on you ever again. Jungkook loved the sound of that, but it sounded like some kind of distant dream. His hyungs could promise him anything they wanted, but what about them? What if he put his hands on them instead?

"I'm not afraid of hyungs."

Namjoon noticed that Jungkook's answers were extremely short and blunt. He didn't know how to get more elaborate answers out of him.

"But you're afraid of someone?"

Jungkook stared at him in silence again while more tears fell down his cheeks. Namjoon took his finger and wiped them off. The longer his maknae sat there in silence, the more heartbroken he himself became. He knew there had to be a really good reason that even after everything, his maknae still wouldn't speak up. He could see he was terrified. Namjoon brought Jungkook into his arms and held him in a tight hug.

Namjoon felt like a light bulb went off in his head.

Threatened.

He had to have been threatened about telling anyone the truth.

But threatened with what? If it is Shik, what would he threaten Jungkook with? If he's already beating him how would he get him to keep his mouth shut?

Namjoon decided to take a bold leap of faith and see what his maknae would say if he simply asked him.

"Are you not telling me because you're afraid of what might happen if you do?" Namjoon asked.

He felt Jungkook tense up in his grip. He knew enough about body language at this point to realize that was all the answer he needed.

"No. I'm not..." Jungkook fell silent again. He felt defeated. How did hyung figure so much out on his own? He still kept thinking of what his hyung had just said, about nobody hurting him ever again.

He buried his face into Namjoon's chest and finally, after not being able to stand it anymore, started to completely sob. Namjoon started rubbing his back as he began to cry harder too. He hated seeing Jungkook cry so much. This wasn't easy for him in the slightest. He knew it'd be hard but he didn't realize it would be this hard. Thinking that he was the reason for Jungkook's current tears, he felt like he was the one hurting his maknae and it was breaking his heart but he told himself he needed to remain strong and not leave that room until he had the answer he was looking for. Only then could he truly save him.

"Shh. You're okay," Namjoon cooed to him. He began talking with his own shaky voice as his emotions started taking over. "I hate...I hate...seeing you hurt. We all do. Jungkookie we just want you to be safe. You won't be safe if there are bad people around. People hurting you. Or threatening you. I know you're scared. Scared of telling me because you might not know what will happen but please..." Namjoon had to stop to take a breath. His crying had made it hard to breathe. He saw one of his own tear drops fall onto Jungkook's face and collide with one of Jungkook's own tears.

He decided to keep talking when Jungkook didn't. "And I'll be honest. I'm scared. We're all scared. For you. Maknae you could've...could've...died. What happened to you... That's something that could have killed you. I don't think you'll ever understand how scared I was seeing you pass out in my arms. You just...you just...went limp. I was so scared you'd never wake back up. The thought of losing you is terrifying and I don't want to keep living like I might lose you at any second knowing there was something I could have done. So please, I don't want you to die."

Namjoon completely broke down and sobbed into Jungkook's shoulder. He knew he was supposed to be strong, but he was terrified. Terrified for his youngest. Terrified that he would lose his youngest all because he wouldn't ask for help.

Jungkook said something that caught him off guard."I don't want you t-to die either," he sobbed into his leaders chest.

As badly as he wanted to protect his hyungs, he also just wanted to feel safe. He hated this just as much as they all did. He felt like he had no more fight in him. He knew he could never get rid of Shik on his own. He'd end up dead eventually. He started to wonder if maybe he could tell his hyungs, but simply ask them not to bring it up to anyone or Shik.

He wondered if maybe they could know and just stick by him when Shik was around so the man wouldn't have the chance to hurt him. A million questions ran through his head about what his hyungs could actually do to protect him if they knew. And how they could protect themselves if they knew, but if they simply didn't tell Shik they knew, maybe they'd be okay.

Namjoon froze for a moment. Me to die either?

"Jungkookie why would I-" oh no. "Have I been threatened too?"

Jungkook shook his head and mumbled something into his leaders chest but he couldn't make out what he had said .

"I've been threatened too?" Namjoon asked again.

"Hyungs..." Jungkook whispered more audibly this time.

"Hyungs?" Namjoon asked confused. Jungkook nodded his head yes.

Namjoon instantly realized what he was saying.

Hyungs have been threatened.

Namjoon felt his heart plummet into his stomach. He knew if there was one thing in this entire universe that would make Jungkook keep his mouth shut about anything and everything, it would be a threat towards his hyungs. He would never do anything to put his hyungs in danger, and the person who was hurting him must have known that. Namjoon felt nauseous when he realized this further proved his point that it was most likely Shik, because it had to be someone close enough to know the members relationship. His heart also shattered thinking that Jungkook had been enduring physical trauma for possibly months solely to keep his six hyungs from getting hurt.

"I-I-" Jungkook sniffled and sucked in a deep breath. "H-h-have to protect hyungies. I can't l-let hyungs get h-hurt." He was having a very hard time talking because he was crying so hard.

Namjoon pulled Jungkook out of the hug to look at his face. His face kept turning bright pink and then draining back to pale, over and over again, it was scaring him. He'd never seen that happen to anyone before. He had never seen anyone with this expression of pure terror, not in real life anyways.

"Look at me," Namjoon told him as he took his maknae's cheeks in his hands and tilted his head up. "Look at me. That is not your job. You're the youngest. Your job is the be the youngest. You don't have to worry about hyungs. I know we're all very protective of eachother, but something like this is a weight you were never supposed to bare. Nobody is going to hurt us. We won't let someone hurt us. Please do not let a threat like that stop you from telling me what is going on."

Jungkook turned his gaze down to his knees while his face was still clutched in Namjoon's hands. "I'm so scared, hyung," he whispered.

Namjoon took in a sigh of relief. Not that Jungkook was scared, but that he finally admitted it. He felt like this was a step in the right direction, a step towards the truth.

"I know you're scared. We are scared too. But you don't need to be scared for us. I promise whatever threats were thrown at you about us, they were empty threats. They aren't going to happen, no matter what they were."

Jungkook looked back up at his leader and could see how badly he wanted to help and protect him. He hated knowing how worried his hyungs were. It stressed him out knowing they were stressed out. He wanted everything to be over with.

"You don't know that!" Jungkook cried out loud, to Namjoon's surprise.

"Don't know what?"

"That the threats won't happen. I can't let you get hurt! I just can't!"

"So you think we're supposed to just sit here and let you?!"

Jungkook felt anxiety and guilt eating away at his chest. "No, I don't want to get hurt! I hate getting hurt! I try and try to not get hurt and I still can't win! If I can't win then neither can any of you!"

"Jungkook you're only one person! Together, we're seven. I know you're getting hurt but if we're all actually in this together you know who will get hurt? None of us. Only the person who is guilty. And I know it's someone! So just tell me so I can protect you!"

Namjoon thought back to one of the psychology books he read and decided to try another tactic of guilt tripping his maknae. "We can't protect each other if we don't know how to. If the rest of us have been threatened by someone, wouldn't it make sense to let us know? Being unaware doesn't mean we are safe. It means we are vulnerable. What if whoever it is decides to one day hurt us for the hell of it, even if you haven't said a word?"

Namjoon knew mentioning Taehyung to Jungkook always hit a soft spot. "What if this person one day shows up and badly hurts your Taehyungie hyung, and you were the only person who could have warned him, but didn't?"

Jungkook backed out of Namjoon's grip and buried his face into the blanket sobbing. Namjoon had to grab the trash can that was by the nightstand because he thought his maknae was going to cry so hard he would make himself sick. And he was right, his maknae did get sick into the trashcan. Namjoon rubbed his back and told him he needed to take deep breaths or he'd pass out. Namjoon leaned over and rested his forehead on Jungkook's shoulder, feeling terrible that the poor maknae was dry heaving.

Namjoon hadn't meant to scare him that badly.

Namjoon ran his fingers through Jungkook's hair. "I'm really sorry."

After a few minutes Jungkook turned his beat red, tear stained face to him. "Don't be sorry, because you're right."

--

After about another half an hour, Namjoon finally made his way out of Jungkook's room. He gently closed the door behind him. He couldn't get the tears to stop. They flooded out of his eyes faster than he could wipe them away. He eventually gave up trying to wipe them away and just let them crash to the floor. He stumbled to the kitchen and needed to take a seat, he was breathless from crying so hard. He sat on a stool at the kitchen counter. The members had heard Jungkook's door open and came running into the kitchen to find a sobbing Namjoon. None of them had ever seen him cry this much.

"Joonie hyung? What happened? Are you okay? Is Jungkookie okay?" Jimin asked while patting the leaders back.

Yoongi grabbed Namjoon a water bottle out of the fridge and handed it to him. All of the members felt anxious and tensed up wondering what on earth had happened and if Jungkook had finally admitted anything.

"Aish..." Jin whispered. He definitely knew he didn't like the looks of this. Hobi and Taehyung both looked around at everyone nervously, waiting for more to be said.

"Did he tell you anything? Did you find out what happened?" Yoongi asked hesitantly.

"W-we have a p-p-roblem," Namjoon finally said, he was hyperventilating badly.

"Oh, no. Namjoonie, did he say if it was...you know...our manager? Did he say if manager Shik had anything to do with him getting hurt?" Jin asked.

Namjoon sat silent until he began to cry even harder, which seemed like it would have been humanly impossible.

"Is it Shik?" Yoongi asked. His skepticism was fading when he saw how upset Namjoon was. A new fear spread through his chest when he realized something he had denied might actually be what was happening.

Namjoon's shoulders were heaving up and down as he tried to catch his breath.

"Namjoon-ah?" Hobi asked with a bit of impatience in his voice.

Namjoon took a deep breath before saying the one thing he hoped he'd never have to say or be a reality. "Yes. It's manager Shik...

And he's been hurting Jungkook for a long time."