update! (because i kept getting requests for it since yesterday) enjoy reading! ❤️✨

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a tear rolls down aera's eyes, hugging jungkook as she woke up again, earning a sigh from the brother whose arms are wrapped around her trembling body that feels too warm against his. he pats her back slowly, she was supposed to be playing around, laughing, hunting for her presents and fighting him to let her have the whole cake because it's her birthday, not his. but instead she's in her room, failing miserably when the brother tries to put her to sleep, just being woken up by the same dream again since the last two nights.

"it's okay" jungkook whispers, "don't cry"

"jungkook?" he lifts his head up, looking at the door on hearing the elder brother's voice. "is she sleeping?"

jungkook sighs glancing down at aera and shakes his head, mouthing a silent 'no' to jimin who sighs as well, entering the room with a cup of milk.

"aera," jimin calls, "get up, drink your milk"

"she's crying, hyung" jungkook says, "...had another nightmare"

"ah my baby," jimin shakes his head, keeping the cup on the nightstand and sits on the bed near aera. "let's get up, okay? jinnie is cooking in the kitchen, we'll go and help him yeah?"

aera shakes her head, sniffing softly as she rubs her eyes, "why not?" jimin asks, again an attempt to get her to speak which has been a constant failure in the past two days.

"n-no" she mumbles, pointing at her head.

"your head hurts?" aera nods to answer his question, having him staring at her with empathetic eyes, knowing it was because of the lack of sleep, nightmares, fever and frequent crying. "finish the milk first, then i'll give you the medicine and you can sleep, alright?"

"oppa..." aera's voice is soft between hiccups, earning nods from the brothers gesturing that they're listening, as she pulls herself to sit up.

"yes, baby?" jimin speaks, stroking her hair, although she says nothing again. "you have to speak honey, only then oppa will understand what you're trying to say right?"

after a moment of silence, jungkook sighs and decides to speak, knowing aera isn't in the mood to talk much, "alright, let's go downstairs okay? you can sleep after having lunch."

"koo" she mumbles, "...my- my birthday"

the boys stare at her with soft eyes, thinking what to say now as they knew she won't really be a part of the celebration even if they plan something, and not doing anything will make them upset that their sister's birthday is ruined because of some nasty old freak.

"yeah, we'll get riri's favourite cake and ice cream, is that all or do you want more?" jungkook asks, waiting for her to add on the list. however his soft smile dies down gradually when the girl just shakes her head.

"uhm then how about we watch iron man?"

"...thor"

jungkook smiles, nodding his head, "ah alright, thor is great too. let's go then."

he gets up first while aera takes her time, closing her eyes again as jimin hands her a hoodie to wear. he sighs, exchanging glances with jungkook who looks equally disturbed about the situation as even after two days aera wasn't ready to change her shirts on her own. she would close her eyes to avoid looking at her body, and jimin had to help her through. even though the brother didn't mind helping as she was still his sister and just a child, but the fact that she didn't like to see her own self was making his heart ache.

"done" jimin says, "open your eyes."

aera looks at him and then at jungkook, getting up from the bed. she holds jungkook's hand, tugging gently for him to go first and she'll follow. so the brother leads the way, heading down the stairs, finding the boys some in the kitchen and some on the couch.

yoongi glances at them, smiling as his eyes land on aera who came out of the room for the first time after her return from the hospital. she keeps her eyes low and quietly follows jungkook to the kitchen. the boy takes a seat on his regular chair while aera looks at him and decides to sit on his lap, having her left arm around his neck as she sits sideways.

"sit there, aera" jungkook says, nodding towards the chair next to him, earning a frown from the girl. "why?"

aera whines and hugs him tightly, shaking her head that says she doesn't want to sit alone. jungkook sighs and pats her back, not arguing more and lets her sit the way she wants.

"where's jimin?" yoongi asks, "there was a call from the police station, we might need to go later."

"ah did they find him?"

"trying" the elder says.

"crap" taehyung mutters, "they can't find a goddamn rapist in two days?"

"mind your words tae" jin shoots a strict glare as the younger seemed to have forgotten about aera's presence with them.

"he's not wrong though" jungkook cracks his neck.

"what?" jimin enters noticing the thick environment in the kitchen despite the mouth watering smell of the food being cooked.

"we need to go to the police station" yoongi says. jimin nods in response and glances at aera, deciding to save the conversation for later when she's not around.

they sit on their respective places as the dinning table is set. jungkook pulls a chair next to him and pats aera's back, "sit here," she shakes her head, pouting at him for making her sit a few inches away from himself. "please princess, how will we eat like this? sit on your chair for now. you can come back to me when we're done alright?"

the girl lets out another whine, earning soft looks from the boys as they see how her eyes begging jungkook to let her sit with him, which jungkook notices too and sighs, wiping the tear that just left her eye and kisses her cheek, "i'm sorry," he says.

_____

"i told you i want that man as soon as possible" yoongi grits out, maintaining an eye contact with the commissioner general who sighs, loosening his neck tie as a bead of sweat trickles from his grey-ish side locks.

"we're working on it, sir." the man says.

jimin scoffs, leaning forward on the table and says, "don't even think you can fool anyone here. either you don't love your job as much, or you just want your ass to be stacked up with money. i can fucking buy this whole department in a blink, and you won't be left to do any good, so know your place and better stop slacking off."

with that said, jimin stands up, cracking his neck as his eyes throw a few hard glares at the commissioner and his corrupt department members, before walking out of the room.

"get him by evening," yoongi declares, "by hook or by crook. if you fail, all of you are in trouble."

_____

"happy birthday..." jungkook sighs, glancing at the cake that sat untouched on the table. aera hasn't even seen it, she cared less if her birthday is happy or not, in fact after practically crying on even the smallest things, not speaking and eating, having a fever and a headache, being half covered in bruises that hurt even on laying down, it was anything but happy for her.

the boys stay quiet, staring at the kid who is asleep on the couch, cuddled close to jungkook while a marvel movie played on the television. namjoon turns it off, not wanting aera to wake up again, and let her have a peaceful nap without any hindrance.

"you should sleep too" jin says almost like a whisper to jungkook who nods, letting out a yawn in need of some sleep for himself too, that both the brothers couldn't get due to taking care of aera and staying up at nights to make sure she wasn't crying alone.

jungkook lays down carefully, still holding aera in his embrace and closes his eyes, sighing deeply. just when he thought he was close to having a good nap, aera's grip on his shirt tightened, he glances down at her, noticing the sweat forming on her forehead and her eyes shut tightly.

a faint whimper leaves her lips before she finally jolts awake, gasping and hastily looking around to spot her brother which she does eventually and cries holding jungkook.

"oppa..."

"yes, kiddo, i'm here." jungkook pats her back, "don't cry, you don't wanna have a headache do you?"

aera shakes her head slowly, earning a soft smile from jungkook. he wipes her tears and kisses her forehead, "that's my girl. look, we've got aera's birthday cake here. do you wanna eat it now?"

aera lifts her head up, looking over jungkook to see the cake and for a moment the boys relax in their places seeing the girl smiling for the first time. she nods to jungkook's question, sitting up and extended her hand out for the white and baby pink colored cake with a few strawberries on top, probably decorated by jin.

"jimin oppa..." her voice mumbles, staring at the cake and then at jungkook who smiles at her.

"he's coming" the brother tells her, "you can cut it."

aera shakes her head giving it back to the nearest person and lays down next to jungkook, resting her head on his chest, listening to the calm rhythm of his heart almost as if singing her a melody. she opens her eyes, frowning a little as the beat gets lost between jungkook's chuckle.

"nooo..." she tells him, placing her finger on his lips, making him quiet and watch her fondly, as she goes back to closing her eyes and rests her head on his chest again, letting out a tired yawn.

jungkook shifts a little, bringing aera to lay on top of him, gently patting her back, hoping she'd get some sleep. he closes his eyes too, his hand gradually slowing down and rests on her back, still and calm as the two fall asleep.

"if anyone wakes them up, i'll personally kick you out of the house." jin threatens the rest of the boys, before quietly gesturing them to go do whatever work they have, and not disturb the younger siblings.

namjoon smiles at the two, sitting on the other couch with his laptop while hoseok, taehyung and jin went to their rooms. it was barely half an hour into working, when a sound of a car stopping in front of the house. namjoon looks up from his laptop, seeing jimin and yoongi coming back.

before the two say anything, namjoon is already on his feet, grabbing the two and shushing them down, "they're sleeping! keep it down if you wish to live"

yoongi's response is a confused frown, followed by a scoff until he realised what namjoon is talking about. jimin stares at his siblings, smiling softly on seeing the two sleeping peacefully, cuddled together.

"how long has it been?"

"half an hour maybe?" namjoon shrugs, "both of them were really tired"

"hm they needed a sound sleep" jimin nods, "let's go from here, or they'll wake up like this"

____

"mr jeon, we've got him"

"i'm on my way"

yoongi looks up from his phone, seeing jimin springing up in his feet, motioning his hand that they need to go, "they found him" those words were enough to have the elder into motion.

grabbing their keys and wearing a resentful look, they head towards the front door, only to be stopped by a soft voice of the girl who was suffering between all this, when it wasn't even her fault. jimin looks at her, seeing her rubbing her eyes as she just woke up from her almost-five-hour nap, along with jungkook who shifts in his place, opening his eyes quickly to look at his sister if she had another nightmare.

"hyung?" jungkook grumbles in a raspy voice, stretching his body as aera sat by herself now. "when did you come back?"

"uh when you were sleeping," yoongi answers, "and we're heading out now. might take some time."

"where?"

'police station' the elder mouths, gaining ful attention from jungkook who is not sitting up, "did they find him?" yoongi only nods in response. "that bastard needs to see me, i'm coming with you"

"where?" it's aera who questions this time, her hand weakly clutching on jungkook's t-shirt.

"just to show someone that doing bad and hurting others is not acceptable."

aera frowns at him not understanding which direction he's talking in. the rest of the boys come down, feeling the thickness in the air as yoongi tells jungkook to stay at home with aera.

"but where are you going now?" jin asks.

"okay let's do this at once" yoongi breathes in deeply, "the commissioner called, saying they found seong and we're going to see him"

"what?" the boys utter,

"finally!" taehyung exasperates and declares, "i'm going with you,"

"yeah, me too"

"me too"

"same"

"then should we leave aera here?" jimin finally speaks, sounding pissed and impatient as his eyes shoot a cold glare, wanting to reach the police station and show that guy how wrong he was when he thought he could use his sister against him.

"jungkook will stay" yoongi states, earning an instant questioning look from the youngest boy, "because aera needs you here, we're not leaving her alone."

jungkook sighs deeply, not having a strong point to convince the elders. so he finds himself nodding in agreement, his eyes lock once with jimin, walking over to him and pointed his hand towards their sister, "remember her cries, and please hit him hard."

jimin follows the younger's hand, looking at aera's doe eyes that looked tired due to all the crying the past two days, lips still appeared tinted like before, but not smiling like always. the brother is pulled out of his trans when jungkook hugs him tightly;

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a/n- heyyyy it's not friday, but my readers were anticipating this chapter, so here we are! 😄😄😄 now you all have to vote and comment lol.

take care, stay safe and stay healthy!
love you!!❤️