tae blinked his eyes open, realizing he was still on the couch, yoongi sleeping close beside him.

nausea and a pounding headache hit him almost immediately. he quickly ran to the bathroom, covering his mouth and clutching his stomach.

he flung the toilet seat open and fell to the floor, expelling all the alcohol he had drank from the night before.

a few minutes went by and he finally felt like his stomach was empty. he weakly wiped off his mouth and flushed the toilet, struggling to stand up.

the night before was pretty much a blur, but he did manage to remember the one thing that he tried so hard to forget.

his conversation with jungkook.

it had hurt him a lot more than he cared to admit. the fact that jungkook didn't want to see him anymore was almost impossible for him to come to terms with. it was so painful and he honestly didn't know how to deal with it. he had really only gotten to know the boy for about a week, but for whatever reason he couldn't let him go.

he liked him.

he really liked him.

and it was a terrible feeling knowing jungkook didn't feel the same. knowing jungkook wasn't thinking about him all the time or wishing he was with him.

tae walked back out the the couch and was suddenly hit with a realization.

it was court day.

he pulled out his phone and checked the time.

one more hour.

tae ran over and grabbed a bunch of hangover medication, quickly heading back over to yoongi.

"yoongi!"

the boy blinked his eyes open, immediately putting a hand over his forehead and groaning.

"here, take this," taehyung said, handing him some pills.

"what's going on?"

"the hearing. it's in an hour."

yoongi's eyebrows furrowed, trying to remember what the hell happened the night before.

"i-i thought we weren't going?"

tae just sighed, shifting eye contact.

"well- we weren't..."

"...but?"

"but... i think we should just go anyways."

"...really? after everything?"

"...just one more time. i have to see him one more time- be there for him. if it doesn't work out, then i'm done. i swear."

yoongi just sighed, thinking it through. he was still so spaced out and disoriented, he didn't even know what he wanted.

"you said they didn't want to see us anymore. you said they don't want us there."

"i know..," tae said, more memories coming back, "i just wanna try one more time. if we just show up and be there for them... then maybe they'll realize we're not just gonna walk away. maybe they'll realize how much we actually care about them and apologize or something."

"are you sure that's a good idea?''

"well... i don't know what else to do, yoongi. do you just want to never see to hoseok again?"

yoongi shook his head, quickly, the thought of never seeing the boy again scaring him to death.

"no... you're right. we should at least figure out why they're acting so weird and talk to them about it."

"yeah... i'm sure there's some sort of explanation."

yoongi just nodded, still lost in thought.

"do you think they're gonna be mad if we go?"

"well... they're already mad. what's the worst that could happen?"

-

jungkook sat at the prosecution table, practically shaking from nervousness. his lawyer and hoseok were sitting next to him, encouraging him to calm down and breathe.

since hoseok's case didn't have any hardcore evidence, he would be considered a witness in jungkook's case, meaning he got to sit by him and tell his story, but wouldn't have his own trial.

you would think having hoseok there would make him feel at ease, but it really didn't. actually, it made it so much worse. the whole reason he agreed to take the issue to court was to take down jimin so he and hoseok could move on, but now jimin had hit him with the truth. he wasn't raped at all. he came. it was consensual. and now jungkook had to tell the truth. he was going to ruin everything.

hoseok was going to hate him.

jungkook was just looking down, not daring to look over at the defense table where jimin was sitting.

jungkook was quickly broke from his thoughts when he heard the sound of the judges voice.

"all rise."

jungkook looked up, not being able to move. it was like he was glued to the chair.

"come on, get up," his lawyer said, grabbing onto his arm and helping him.

jungkook managed to stand, knees almost buckling, feeling slightly like he wanted to throw up... or faint.

"thank you. you may be seated."

jungkook sat down, quickly, looking down at his lap.

"it's gonna be okay, kook. we've got this," hoseok whispered, smiling to him.

jungkook just nodded, not having it in him to return the smile.

"good afternoon. today we are gathered for the court hearing of jeon jungkook and park jimin. if i could please have each of the parties identify themselves for the record," the judge said.

"your honor, my name is lee sang and i'm here on behalf the people seated with me on the defense table, jeon jungkook and jung hoseok."

"thank you."

"your honor, i am han myung and i'm here on behalf of park jimin."

"thank you."

after that, jungkook honestly just spaced out a little. there was a bunch of mandatory statements being made and jungkook was way too nervous to pay attention or try and understand what was happening.

he knew that in the end, all of this would be for nothing, anyways. jimin would be released and he would get away with everything he did to hoseok. that was it. that was the only option.

-

what felt like hours went by and jungkook still hadn't taken the stand and given his statement. not that he was looking forward to it, though. he just wanted to get it over with.

that is, until he heard his name and immediately looked up.

he was being called to the stand.

hoseok just patted his back, assuring him that everything would be fine.

jungkook couldn't even muster up a response. he couldn't even breathe, actually.

he had to practically force himself to stand up. it was like his body was moving, but his brain was still. he couldn't feel anything.

he made his way to the stand and sat down. he looked all around the courtroom and saw many faces staring at him. he noticed jin and namjoon in the front row, smiling and giving him thumbs up. all jungkook could manage was to tear his eyes away and look down at the floor.

"jeon jungkook."

jungkook looked up and was met with jimin's lawyer.

the man went on to ask him a bunch of ridiculous and useless questions, until he was hit with the one that he had been dreading for days.

"were you or were you not raped by park jimin?"

jungkook's breathe hitched. he didn't know what to say. he was frozen in place, not being able to look anyone in the eye.

that is- until he saw jimin.

upon seeing his face, he immediately got chills all over his body.

all jimin did was smirk, raising his eyebrow in an almost challenging way.

and it scared jungkook more than he cared to admit. truthfully, he was terrified of jimin. he was terrified of jimin ever touching him again. he was scared that he would let it happen again and he was willing to do anything to be sure that it wouldn't.

"...no."

the whole court room was completely silent for a moment. everyone was obviously shocked.

jungkook couldn't bare to look up and see the looks on his friends faces, so he didn't. he just maintained looking at the lawyer in front of him.

"excuse me?"

"no... he... he never raped me."

the lawyer was clearly astonished.

"so... the sexual devices found in park jimin's office with your dna, the missing footage from the security tapes... all of those things were results of consensual sex?"

jungkook hesitated for a moment.

"yes."

he felt tears come to his eyes, quickly blinking them away.

"how many times would you say you and park jimin had consensual sex?"

jungkook stopped for a moment, finding it was getting harder and harder for him to answer the questions.

"a lot... i don't know exactly."

"would you say closer to three or twenty times?"

"uh..," jungkook's heart was racing and his palms were sweating, "probably twenty."

"and all twenty of those times were consensual?"

"yes," jungkook said, finally breaking eye contact with the man and looking forward.

when he did, his mouth fell open in shock.

taehyung was just standing there, staring at him with disgust in his eyes.

yoongi was standing behind him, with a similar look on his face, mixed with shock. they were standing right in front of the door, probably from just coming in a minute ago.

tae just shook his head at jungkook, turning around and walking out the door, yoongi following.

and they definitely weren't the only two boys to leave jungkook that day. in fact, by the time the hearing was over, he was alone, crying his eyes out in the back of an uber, having no idea what he was gonna do.

because, on top of ruining pretty much every  relationship he had,

park jimin was now a free man.

______________________________

this chapter was so hard to write djdjdjdndn. sorry if all my law stuff was wrong lmao idk how court works, but i tried.

also i left a few things out of this chapter (like why all the boys immediately jump to thinking jk lied about being raped instead of thinking he was just scared to say the truth in court) - that probably made no sense ndndndndjdnd srry. JUST KNOW MORE THINGS WILL BE EXPLAINED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!!