...................hi

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"RM was never real."

Agust heard him, but it took him a few moments to actually process what the boy had said.

RM.

His RMie baby.

Had never existed.

Was a lie from the very start.

His favorite person in the whole world, Min Namjoon, had lied to him for a year.

He felt like two people had been ripped away from him; his RMie, who never existed, and Namjoon, because the Namjoon that Agust had grown to love and respect, would never have done this to him.

There was silence from the others as well, but Agust took no comfort in the fact they hadn't known either. He could only repeat the same thought over and over.

RM never existed.

The boy he taken to his special, secluded spot on the roof, the boy he had bared his soul too multiple times, the boy who he wanted to make everything right with...was just a lie.

Finally, Jungkook spoke.

"Namjoon...why?" He asked softly.

So Namjoon started from the beginning.

"It all began last year..."

And then Namjoon came back into the room, blinking dazedly as he pressed his hand to his head again.

"Are you alright, Namjoon?" Yoongi asked, concerned.

Namjoon looked at him.

"Who's Namjoon?" The boy tilted his head.

"My name is RM."

"Agust had already taken Yoongi's life, got him fired, hurt Tae and...hurt me worse." Namjoon said, looking at the ground. "And even though we managed to have a happy ending, I knew it wasn't over just yet. Agust wouldn't stop trying to hurt Yoongi, hurt all of us. I wanted to keep us safe, I had to do something to keep us all safe! He would only escalate, would only do worse and worse things...so I came up with a plan to stop him."

Yoongi looked at his husband as they headed into the psychiatrists office. "You okay?"

Namjoon just shrugged.

Mentally, he was fine.

But emotionally, he couldn't stand lying to Yoongi, the man he loved more than love itself.

But it was for his husbands own good, and their boyfriends.

And hell, it was even for Namjoon's own safety too.

After a short session, Namjoon lied his way perfectly through her questions, and walked out of the building with a bottle of blue pills that he knew he didn't need.

"The whole point of doing this was because Agust wouldn't just go away. He was a bad guy who wouldn't be stopped, and I couldn't risk doing anything and getting Yoongi or any of the others hurt. I had to find a way to stop him, and I thought, 'what if we got him to change?'. Because the only thing that could stop Agust D was Agust D himself."

Jungkook couldn't believe he hadn't known about this. He had outsmarted Namjoon more than once, and then to suddenly hear about this, knowing Namjoon had been going through this all on his own...Jungkook didn't know how to feel.

"It was only a matter of time before he came out again, and he did. He could take over whenever now, and I knew I had to go forward with my plan then. I thought maybe part of why Agust was so angry was because he felt he couldn't relate to anyone here. We all had each other to go to when we had a problem or concern, but Agust had no one. So, I decided to give him somebody, another alter who he could relate with, a friend even. I thought if he had RM, maybe that would help him talk out his anger and frustrations, and calm him down."

"But...that one day," Taehyung said, his voice soft. "When we were all in the bedroom..."

"You left us and went to Yoongi's room!" Jimin's eyes were wide. "How could you hurt your own husband?! Don't you love each other?"

"Of course I love Yoongi!" Namjoon exclaimed. "I know not all of you will agree with me on this but hurting him was the only way I could save him. It killed me to attack him like that, but Agust was watching us all 24/7, so I couldn't tell Yoongi my plan without it all getting ruined. And I figured if Yoongi didn't know, then it would be safer for him since it would be more believable if he was reacting genuinely and not acting. I didn't want Agust to hurt Yoongi for thinking Yoongi was in on my plan." He looked down at the ground. "I know what I did isn't excusable and I know I really betrayed Yoongi, but it was with the best intentions, please just remember that. I never did this for fun or just to play around. I only purely did it to stop Agust and save my family."

Seokjin looked at his boyfriend, who looked so small and scared admitting this. He wished he had known about this all so he could have helped in some way. And maybe it was possible he couldn't have helped at all, but he still would have liked to know what was going on. But then again, what if Namjoon did tell him and Seokjin fucked it up somehow? He couldn't live with himself if his mistake led to someone getting hurt. He was so torn.

"I'm not asking for your forgiveness, I know that will happen on your own schedule, if you ever even decide to. I'm just asking you to hear me out now and think about my side and why I had to do this." Namjoon pleaded.

They were all silent and Namjoon continued.

"The threat of Agust was serious, he could come out whenever now, take over without anyone even noticing. He could just get into the car and drive it off a cliff and we would never know the truth of who was behind the wheel. He could just randomly grab a knife and stab one of you, or Yoongi himself. I was so on edge and paranoid, and I couldn't tell anyone about it. I was alone and scared and I felt like I had no other option but to make RM and use him to try to get close to Agust and change him."

"If you hurt my boyfriends I'll hurt you worse." Namjoon warned him. "Even if you're hiding in Yoongi's body, he would rather himself get hurt than have you hurt anyone else."

"Nah, I'm not after your gay boys," Agust shook his head. "Although, I still want to fuck Jimin broken, and I can't stop thinking about all the things I want to do to Jungkook in the dark."

"Don't talk about them like that!" Namjoon was enraged, and he balled his fingers into a fist, ready to break the mans nose.

"Easy, kid." Agust raised his hands defensively. "Like I said, I'm not after them either. I'm sure you and I can have a civil conversation. That's what you smart types like, right?"

There came a knock on the door.

"Namjoon?" Seokjin asked. 'What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Tell them everything is fine." Agust whispered, smirking. "Unless you want pretty little Jinnie to get an alter too. Apparently I can make them as easily as I can be created."

Namjoon stared, trying to think. He was still confused and his fear wasn't helping to clear his head.

"Tick tock, kid." Agust took a threatening step closer and Namjoon tensed, ready to scream for Seokjin.

But then he remembered the pain he felt when he realized RM had hurt Yoongi.

He wouldn't wish that kind of mental torture on anyone, especially not kind, caring Seokjin.

He wouldn't even wish that pain on Agust.

"I knew my plan wasn't perfect, and that it was going to hurt a lot of people. But I didn't have unlimited time to come up with the worlds most perfect plan, assuming one even existed, and do a bunch of test runs. All I knew was that someone wanted to hurt the people I cared about and here was a way to stop it."

"What do you want me to do?" He mumbled.

Agust grinned and patted his head. "What a good boy you are for me. That's what I like to see."

Namjoon resisted the urge to bite his hand.

"Today, I want you to act like normal. If I even think I see you trying to tell someone about me I will take Yoongi's car and drive it off a bridge." Agust warned.

"Fine." Namjoon snapped. "Just give me Yoongi back!"

"I'm not done, sub." Agust continued. "Then, I want you to set an alarm for 2 A.M. That's when I'll come back and we'll try attempt number one."

"I had gotten his attention with RM, and now Agust wanted to meet him. There were so many times I wanted to tell you what was going on, but I just couldn't risk it all falling apart. I just...couldn't."

"Kook?" He mumbled.

Jungkook sighed and released him. "You okay? You were having a nightmare."

Namjoon sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Almost four." Jungkook answered.

Namjoon sighed. "Is Yoongi home?"

"Yeah, everyone is downstairs."

"Can you send Yoongi up here?"

"He's about to have Yoonie take over so he and Jimin can play together." Jungkook explained.

"Oh." Namjoon looked down.

"Is everything alright?" Jungkook tilted his head.

"Mhm." Namjoon laid back down. "Tell Yoonie I said hi."

"You should tell him yourself. He loves you the most." Jungkook reminded him.

"I know, but I gotta sleep." Namjoon shoo'ed Jungkook off the bed so he could pull the blankets back up.

Jungkook frowned. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Namjoon closed his eyes.

"Namj-"

"Goodnight."

Jungkook made a face. He stalked to the door. Turned back.

"You can always tell me anything, Joonie." He said softly. "I hope you know that."

"I know. I'm sorry." Namjoon whispered.

"I figured I could let Agust and 'RM' meet, and then guide Agust in the right direction. I could see he was fascinated by RM, and thought maybe I could slowly put thoughts in Agust's head to start changing. Especially after I saw how much Agust liked RM. He wanted to get to know him, took RM to a place Agust felt was his own, called RM his baby. I knew it was working, and I thought maybe everything could work out- but then Agust developed a crush on Jimin."

Jimin walked into the room, rubbing his eye with his little fist.

"Yoongi? Namjoon? What are you two doing in the kitchen this late at night?"

"Jimin..." Agust breathed.

He suddenly kicked at RM, shoving the alter away a few feet, before swerving to stand in front of the small pinkette.

"What are you doing up?" Agust asked him, ignoring RM's grunt of pain from behind him.

"I heard voices." Jimin yawned. "Someone moved me from Namjoon's room." He pouted, flapping his sweater paws angrily. "I was cuddling!"

Agust grinned. "You can come to bed with me, Pink."

Jimin giggled. "You're so cute, Yoongi. Pink is such a cute nickname, I love it!"

"Do you? Then I'll call you it more." Agust ushered Jimin up the steps and back to the doorway of the younger boys room.

But Jimin stopped, refusing to go in. He tilted his head back and pouted at Agust. "Wait, you said I can sleep with you tonight!"

Agust blinked. "You...actually want to?"

Agust went to Google, typing how to cuddle someone into the search bar and reading the few articles that popped up. Sure it seemed simple in his mind, but what if he did something wrong and Jimin didn't want to lay with him anymore?

He told himself he had to do it the way Yoongi would do it, so Jimin wouldn't get suspicious.

"Come to bed already, I'm tired." Jimin whined, reaching out and grabbing the hem of Agust's shirt, tugging on it with a pout.

Agust's heart spiked at the action and he set his phone aside, crawling beside the small boy.

Agust didn't know what to do with his hands. He hesitantly wrapped one arm around the boys body, holding him close. His other hand slowly reached out to Jimin's face, taking a few moments to decide he really had the courage to cup the boys cheek, caressing it gently.

Was he doing this right? Fuck, he was so nervous.

"I had hung out with Agust enough as RM to deem him changed enough to go on a date with Jimin, and I thought maybe RM could be a stepping stone to having Agust change, and Jimin would be the final piece. Love conquers all, and loving Yoongi totally changed me, so I thought it could work for Agust too. And through all this, Jungkook had found out something was going on, so I had bring him slightly into it."

"I could tell something was up with you, and at first I thought it was just the news about Yoongi's dad. But then I woke you up from that nightmare, and I knew it had to be about Agust. You asked for Yoongi then, remember? You were going to tell him something about Agust, weren't you?" Jungkook asked.

"We both agreed Agust and Jimin should go out because we both thought he had changed and that Jimin would make him happy. We installed cameras to make sure we could observe everything and keep an eye on things. Everything was looking great for the future. We were ready to accept Agust into our group and tell everyone."

Namjoon opened Jungkook's door and stepped inside the dark room.

Jungkook was sitting at his computer, his face lit by the blue glow of the screen, which showed the feed from the security cameras they had installed a few days ago.

Jungkook said nothing as he approached, the smile on his face was all the communication they needed.

Wordlessly, the two high fived.

Their plan was working.

"But then the date went bad."

Jimin gasped, his hands flying up to cover his mouth as the second boy collapsed as well. "Yoongi!"

Agust was breathing hard, coming down from his red haze. He threw the broken skateboard to the ground, and faced a scared Jimin.

"I'm not Yoongi, Pink."

Jimin was confused. "Y-Yoonbi? What are you...saying?"

Agust ran a hand through his hair, feeling more like himself after the scene of violence.

"I'm Agust D. And I've been Agust- for a while now."

Jimin stared at him, now seeing the dark eyes and sharp smirk. This was not his sweet Yoongles, his calm and collected teacher, his protective boyfriend.

The shocking realization he had been hanging out with Agust smashed into Jimin's brain and he whimpered in fear, his eyes rolling back as his knees gave out.

"He came back and almost killed Jungkook because he thought we had lied to him. He tricked you three into hurting me."

No one said anything as they all remembered that night. No one wanted to remember it.

Namjoon sighed. "And...throughout all this...I was using RM for another purpose. I was so angry over what Agust did to me last year, and I never got over it. I used RM as a metaphor for my unresolved feelings, saying I would never forgive Agust for what he did. I selfishly used him to emotionally and physically hurt Agust as payback for what he did. I shouldn't have, I was abusing RM's real purpose, but I couldn't help it."

He finally raised his gaze to look at Agust, who had been silent during all of this.

"Agust...I hurt you the most with this lie, and I can't even put into words how sorry I am. In the beginning I wasn't thinking this far ahead, and I didn't care about your feelings. You were just a bad guy I had to stop, but then you changed and I realized the weight of what I was doing. I'm sorry for lying to you, I'm sorry for hurting you, and I'm extremely sorry for taking RM away from you."

There was silence as everyone looked to the alter, wondering how he would react.

Finally, the alter stood, and Jimin slid off his lap, his little hand reaching out for him.

"Agustie-"

The alter walked out the front door without saying a word, the door slamming shut behind him.

And Namjoon wondered if he had done more harm in telling the truth than keeping it hidden forever.