Nari slowly opened her eyes the next morning and saw with relief that she was exactly where she last remembered: Namjoon's bed. She inhaled deeply and pulled the covers up to her chin. Her mind flashed back to last night, prompting a shudder. It seemed lately that she couldn't sleep in her own bed without having them. She felt bad for always interrupting the boys' sleep schedule (especially Namjoon and Taehyung), but they were the only thing that helped her feel safe.

The girl's eyes traveled to the other side of the room where she saw Namjoon completely passed out on Taehyung's mattress. He didn't even get to change out of his skinny jeans from yesterday. Nari got out from underneath the covers and made her way over to his bed. She brushed a gentle kiss on the side of his head while he slept as a smile stretched across her lips.

"Good morning." Nari whispered, "I love you, Namjoon."

She made her way downstairs and was was greeted by Taehyung, Suga, and Jimin, who waved at her from the kitchen table.

"Mornin' sweetheart," Jimin called out and rose to give the girl a hug, "How are you feeling?"

Nari hugged him back and stood on her tiptoes to quickly kiss the boy's cheek, "All better. What's for breakfast?"

"Just some noodles," He answered, "Is Namjoon up yet?"

"Not yet-"

"Who cares about Namjoon?" Taehyung interrupted, "Where's my hug? I'm very very sad that I didn't get the first hug of the morning."

Nari laughed and eagerly embraced him, "Good morning, Tae. Thank you for helping me last night."

"Now that's more like it!" Taehyung exclaimed and dotted the girl's face with little kisses, "And don't worry about it, I love you and I'm here to help. Anytime, day or night."

She thanked him again and hugged him a little tighter before letting go. No matter how much love she gave, Taehyung returned 10 times more. It was one of the things that she loved the most about him.

"Good morning Suga, Shu-ger." Nari wrapped her arms around the curly haired boy's shoulders and kissed his cheek.

Suga smiled and squeezed her hands from his position at the table, "Good morning to you too, lovely. Did you sleep any better?"

"Yup," The girl sat down next to him and took the bowl of noodles that Jimin handed her, "Thank you for reading to me. It helped a lot. Oh also Jungkook bought me another book yesterday, can we read it together when we're done with this one?"

Before Suga could answer, thumping noises came from the stairwell and a tall, drowsy boy appeared in the kitchen doorway. Nari waved excitedly, "Good morning, Namjoon!"

"Morning, darling." Namjoon shuffled over to the table and kissed the top of her head before going to the fridge, "And good morning to the rest of you too. Hey Tae, thanks for letting me steal your bed."

Taehyung handed him a bottle of juice, "No problem, man." He cleared his throat, "Uh, so we're still going through with the plan for today right?"

"What plan?" Nari asked and shot a worried glance at the two boys. By the way they were talking it sounded like something bad was going to happen.

"Oh yeah, that. Don't worry," Namjoon reassured the girl, "We're not going to do anything scary, I promise. We're going to a therapist today to see if they can help you with your bad dreams."

Nari paused, a forkful of noodles halfway to her mouth, "A therapist?"

"Therapy isn't a bad thing, it just means that you need a little extra help." Suga replied cheerfully, "Namjoon and I have been seeing a therapist for a few years now and Jimin used to see one too."

"We want to help you," Taehyung said softly, "You don't want to keep hurting, do you? In order to stop your nightmares we need to understand them first."

The girl nodded slowly, "Okay. But you guys are coming with me, right?"

"Of course!" Jimin ruffled her hair, "We'll be with you every step of the way."

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"It's good to see you boys again!" A middle aged woman greeted them, "I've been keeping up with the news lately and it makes me so proud to see you all doing so well." She turned to the small girl who stuck herself to Namjoon's side bashfully, "And you're Nari, right? It's so nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Kang."

Nari cautiously accepted the woman's handshake, "It's nice to meet you too."

"Shall we head over to my office? Namjoon, Nari, please follow me."

Nari and Namjoon followed Dr. Kang into her small office a few feet away and sat on the surprisingly comfortable couch. The boy held Nari's hand securely, allowing the nervous butterflies in her stomach to subside.

"Alright Nari, why don't you start by telling me about yourself and your relationships with the boys?" Dr. Kang asked and looked at the girl expectantly.

"Uh, okay," She started, "I'm Nari, I'm 11 years old, and I like books. Namjoon adopted me about 6 months ago and I've been living with him and the rest of the boys ever since then."

"Do you like living with them?"

Nari nodded, "Yes of course, I love it. They're like family."

"That's really good to hear." Dr. Kang replied, "Out of all of the boys, who are you closest to?"

"Uh," The girl paused, "Namjoon probably. And Tae and Suga too, but I trust him the most."

Namjoon would never admit it, but he felt his heart swell with pride at that very moment. He was so happy to know that she truly did love him just as much as he loved her. "I love you too, darling," He mumbled quietly and kissed the top of her head.

"I can tell that you two care about eachother very much." The woman smiled, "So Nari, Namjoon told me that you've been having nightmares. Can you tell me when they started and what happens in them?"

"Okay," Nari started, "I probably had the first one a few months ago but they didn't start getting bad and reoccurring until like a month ago." She paused, "And in the dreams I'm always being held down so I can't move and it's hard to breathe. I feel so panicked and useless."

Namjoon nudged the girl's shoulder, "I need you to tell her everything, okay? Just like how you told me last night."

Nari took a deep breath and nodded, "And it hurts everywhere.....especially inbetween my legs."

"What happens when you wake up?" Dr. Kang asked as she typed notes in the computer.

"Well I'm usually crying and I'm really scared. Then one of the boys comes into my room and they help calm me down." Nari said, "And then I go to Namjoon's room and sleep in his bed."

"They make her sick too," Namjoon added, "She's vomited the last few nights after waking up."

The woman nodded, "I see. Dreams are often made up of our unconscious thoughts and fears, and to understand those we need to get them right from the source. Nari, what is your earliest memory?"

"Uh, let me think," The girl paused, "I don't really remember much from when I was little, so my earliest memory is probably when I first met Namjoon when I was five. I remember his purple hair."

"And you don't have any memories earlier than that?"

Nari shook her head, "I don't think so. Sorry."

"It's okay," Dr. Kang assured her, "I also read that you broke your arm when you were a toddler, do you remember how you broke it?"

"I broke my arm?" Nari asked, obviously confused, "I don't remember any of that. Are you sure that happened?"

Dr. Kang nodded, "Hmm, I see. Would you mind stepping out for a bit, Nari? There's something I would like to discuss with Namjoon in private."

"O-okay." She stuttered and quickly left the office, with the door shutting securely behind her.

The woman turned to the lone boy sitting on the couch, "Namjoon, there is no easy way to say this, but I strongly suspect that your child was a victim of human trafficking."

"H-Huh?"

"Have you ever heard of the Sunshine Children?" Dr. Kang said, "It was the siege of a human trafficking ring about 6 years ago and most of the victims of this particular group were children. That name was given to the kids that were recovered because the building that they were kept in had a large mural of a sun on of it."

"Alright," Namjoon said slowly, "And what does this have to do with Nari?"

"Most of the children that were recovered were between the ages of 2 and 7, very young." Dr. Kang handed him an article, "They didn't know where they came from or who anyone was, which led investigators to think that most of these kids were either born from mothers who were also in the sex trafficking industry or kidnapped before they turned a year old."

"Okay, where are you going with this?"

"When it came time to place these children in either adoptive families or orphanages the government decided that it would be best for them to be given different names and have all the files connecting them to the case encrypted." She continued, "When you first sent me Nari's information I thought that it was odd that I couldn't find any medical records before she was 5 years old, the only thing I could find was the entry about her broken arm. For a child that was supposedly abandoned as an infant and bounced around orphanages, there should be more records. Her birth certificate was also officiated about 5 years after the day she was born. It's not all too uncommon, especially for orphans, however, it struck me as odd that the document was signed that long after her birthday. I would expect a few months, maybe a year even, if we keep with the timeline that she arrived at the first orphanage before she turned one. But a whole five years? That's a lot longer than normal."

"Five years," The boy repeated, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the side of the couch, "What if the orphanage was just slow? That's a possibility, right?"

The woman shook her head slowly, "Technically yes, but it's not likely. When an undocumented child first comes to an orphanage the first thing they do is assign them a birth certificate. Legally, according to these records, Nari didn't exist until her 5th birthday. The years before then have been completely lost. She was in a place where it was crucial that she didn't have an identity or be counted as a citizen. The only situation that fits that criteria is in a human trafficking ring. I'm sorry, but it's the only conclusion that I can come to."

Namjoon's blood ran cold, "Oh god. Do you really think....."

"I'm afraid so." Dr. Kang nodded, "When I asked Nari about her earliest memory, she couldn't go back any father than age 5. A common coping mechanism for young children who go through severe abuse like that is to develop a sort of amnesia surrounding the event. Their brain isn't capable of handling that kind of trauma, so it becomes locked away until the child is older and in a headspace where they can properly understand what happened. Dreams are often the first step to recovering those memories."

"Oh my god." Namjoon buried his face in his hands, "It can't be true. No, it can't be. How could anyone do that to her? She's so young and so quiet and innocent. When I first met her...yeah, she was beat up a little, but it couldn't have been because of something as bad as that? God, please tell me that it's not true."

The woman placed a supportive hand on his shoulder, "Namjoon, I know this is hard for you, and I know how much you love her, but you need to accept it. Her path to recovery can't start unless you are willing to help her down it." Her voice softened, "Just the fact that she's retaining these memories means that you're doing a good job, you know? Nari feels safe enough with you that her mind is telling her that she's ready to see the darkest parts of herself. She loves you so much that even her subconscious knows that you will be there to protect her from the evils in her past."

Namjoon nodded and took a deep breath. How could anyone do that to an innocent child, and how could the government just cover it up and act like nothing happened? Nari was hurting for so long and no one knew, not even herself. He didn't even want to begin to imagine the atrocities that were forced upon her. She was going through all this pain and she didn't deserve it, not at all. No one deserves those awful things.

"Okay," Namjoon said shakily, "Now what?"

"First we need to get everyone on the same page." Dr. Kang said, "I'm going to ask Jimin, Yoongi, and Taehyung to come in so I can explain this to them and then we all can decide where to go from here."

Quiet laughter turned into deafening silence as the four boys crammed together on the couch and listened attentively to the psychologist. It seemed like all the air had been sucked out of the office, leaving only an impending sense of despair.

"Who was it?" Suga finally said, "Who was responsible for hurting her?" He clenched his teeth, "I swear I'm going to find them and I'm going to fucking kill them."

"I know that you're upset, that's a completely understandable response," Dr. Kang responded calmly, "But there is no benefit to getting angry at the people who hurt Nari. They're all in prison now and your own personal vengeance will get you nowhere. You need to focus on helping her get better."

Suga nodded, "You're right. I'm sorry...it's just..."

"It's okay." Taehyung placed a supportive arm around his friend's shoulder, "I'm just as angry as you are, trust me. But we need to be there for Nari first."

"So what should we do now?" Jimin asked, "Should we talk to her about it?"

Dr. Kang shook her head, "No, not directly. If you rush it could end up repressing her memories even further. For now you just need to make sure that she feels loved and comfortable. So let her sleep in your bed, spend time with you, and whatever else she needs to do to feel close to you boys. She'll come to you when she feels ready."

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i know it hasn't been a week yet. but yall make me rlly happy so im publishing this early 💜

also after like 3 entire months, i finally chose my favorite song off of mots7. UGH! just hits different. the rap line rlly went all the way off with that one. i also rlly like inner child. what's your favorite song off the new album?