And we Bid Farewell to the Last of our Youth

IV

    Min Soo smiled down at the maknae. "Oh Jeonggukie, how kind of you to remember me," He said as he watched Jeongguk cower away from him. "Why are you here?" Taehyung growled, eyes filled with fury as Namjoon moved protectively in front of the singers. "If you dare hurt Jeongguk again you won't get away with it this time." Namjoon barked, "I won't let you hurt my family." Jeongguk didn't know if it was Namjoon's tone of voice or his words that made his eyes tear up. 'Family,' he thought. 'Yes, I'm family.'

      Jeongguk remembered the tear streaked faces of his hyungs after they found out about the abuse, all the bruises and scrapes in his back, purples and greens on his thighs, the handprint marks, all of it. He remembers the words, "you're our family, Jeonggukie, we won't let you go," and the warmest hugs he'd ever felt in his life. Though a part of his youth was taken, he would survive. At least, right in that moment, he would survive. Now, he wasn't so sure.

     Min Soo looked down at Jeongguk. "I must say, you've grown up quite a bit since I last saw you, seems some of my advice did stick with you after all." They way Jeongguk seemingly hunched in on himself caused Namjoon to glare at Min Soo even fiercer, which had seemed almost impossible."Hitting him and making him feel insecure was not advice!" Min Soo just sighed, "I was just doing my job Namjoon, something you, as a leader, should know, yet here we are." Namjoon said nothing, but the look of utter disbelief and pain crossed his face.

   He then made to reach for Jeongguk, who whimpered and scooted back even further, burrowing into Namjoon as best he could, however, his efforts made no difference as he was forced to a stand, and the familiar strong arm that used to make him cry himself to sleep was wrapped around him again, and he felt trapped. Namjoon made to stand, though there wasn't much he could do with his hands behind his back. Min Soo shook his head. "Namjoon, calm down, I don't plan on killing your cute little maknae, although he's not so little anymore," Min Soo continued, "he does have a cute face, and he's definitely seemed to have grown," Jeongguk could feel the man's breath hush over his neck, and it made his skin crawl. He felt the man's eyes rake over him, and felt hands moving all over his body, getting closer, closer, closer, "Stop!" He screamed. Min Soo frowned. "Oh come on Gukkie, there's no harm in a little touch, I wasn't going to do anything to you, but we can later if-" "Like hell you will!" Namjoon managed to choke out. Seeing his maknae so uncomfortable and scared and small while Min Soo touched him made the bile rise in his throat. "No worries Namjoon. He's just a toy to help me with my real purpose. But don't be fooled, if something fails, I'll kill them both." Jeongguk's whole body stiffened at the word kill, and it was almost like a blast to the past, though a rather unfortunate one.

    One that came with a warning of, "tell anyone, and I'll kill them along with you."

"Them?" Namjoon question. Min Soo chuckled. "Did you really think I wouldn't have a target?" Jeongguk felt his body start to tremble, because of course Min Soo has thought this through, the man was a genius.

   
    Too caught up in a memory, Jeongguk didn't even register the tears streaming down his face and the screaming of his name as he was carried out the door and down a different corridor with the all to familiar feeling of a gun against his head, numb to everything else around him.

    The harsh grip around his waist felt the same as the harsh grip that would pull him away from the others. The state, the smile, the fear, hell, even the hands felt familiar, like the last day with Min Soo, right when he'd almost...

     Jeongguk shook his head, reminding himself to forget about that certain incident. He just needed to breathe. He was alive, he wasn't touched anywhere beneath what the eye could see, and he was thankful for that, thankful Namjoon was able to distract him, but he was scared. He was scared for himself, and he was scared for his hyungs. The thought of losing any of them just made his breathing pick up, and the world faded to black as he went limp in Min Soo's arms.