Gathered in the van, the members  started talking about their feelings on Mr. Hoon.

"I mean he seems stern, but he's nice. He cares about hard work which could be good for us," Jin explained.

Jimin spoke up, "I like him! Maybe he could teach me his workout routine, the man is BUFF! Right Jungkookie?"

"Yeah, he could could probably bench press like 6 Jiminie's," Jungkook teased.

Namjoon turned to Taehyung, as he noticed he'd just been quietly looking out the window. "What about you Tae? Do you like him?"

He was caught off guard by the question, "Huh? Oh yeah, yeah he seems nice," he lied. He seemed to be the only member who thought Mr. Hoon hadn't been all that nice, and for good reason. "I miss Sejin though." He looked back down at his wrist that he still had covered by his hoodie sleeve, it was still throbbing.

Yoongi put a gentle hand on Taehyung's shoulder. "We all miss Sejin, but he'll be back. We just have to keep working hard in the meantime."

Taehyung turned to Jungkook who had fallen asleep in his seat, he started feeling anxious. If Mr. Hoon doesn't like how I act and is mean to me, what if he sees Jungkookie and is mean to him too? Am I really a bad role-model? His heart hurt at the thought of Mr. Hoon being mean to his maknae.

They finally arrived back at the dorm, and were excited to just lay around and do nothing for the rest of the night. Jin and Yoongi were picking out things to cook for dinner, the two oldest enjoyed cooking the most.

Namjoon and Hobi lounged around on the couch in the living room, talking to fans on Weverse.

Taehyung decided he was exhausted and just wanted to go take a nap, with Jimin and Jungkook joining him. The three of them shared a room together.

Jungkook immediately passed out in his bed, while Taehyung lay in his own bed staring at the wall. Jimin decided to join Taehyung in his bed and he wrapped his arms around him, he was in a cuddly mood.

"Ew Taehyung your sweatshirt stinks." Jimin scrunched his nose. He got up and grabbed a new one and handed it to Taehyung. "Here, you should change into a clean one."

Taehyung thought about his bruised wrist and how he didn't want Jimin to see it. "I'll change later."

"But you stink right now." Jimin plugged his nose to over-exaggerate.

"I'll go take a shower." Taehyung grabbed the hoodie and a new pair of sweatpants and headed to the bathroom.

He stared at his bruised wrist as he watched the shower water hitting it. It stung. The bruises had grown worse than before, and it was now a very noticeable dark handprint wrapping around his entire wrist. He wished the shower would wash it away so he could forget the things his new manager had said, but that's not how bruises worked.

After his shower he gathered with the other members in the kitchen for dinner. It was a normal night of laughter, he had eased up and felt better after the members had made a ton of jokes that were making him laugh.

Jungkook was taking straws and putting them in his mouth pretending to be a walrus, Hobi was in stitches on the floor from laughing so hard.

Taehyung looked around and saw how playful everyone was and decided his new manager had been wrong about him, he wasn't a bad role-model. His members all had playful sides to them and it was okay to express that.

Suddenly Jimin got out of his seat and tackled Taehyung to the floor, the two started wrestling and tickling eachother. Jimin sat on top of Taehyung and grabbed both his wrists to pin him to the floor, but jumped off him when Taehyung let out the loudest scream he'd ever heard.

"Tae! Did I hurt you?! I'm so sorry!" Jimin felt terrible.

Taehyung was clutching his wrist in his hand, "No it's okay, it's nothing."

Namjoon got up and bent down towards Taehyung. "Let me see."

Taehyung backed away. "No, I'm fine. I promise it was nothing."

He got back in his chair and everyone stared at him, a little concerned but they decided not to press on the matter. Bedtime came quickly for the members and before they knew it morning came and it was time to head back to the studio for more schedules.

Today they had recordings they had to do for some behind the scenes video footage. The members had gathered in the dressing room to change into hair and makeup. Taehyung requested to get dressed himself without assistance from a stylist, and thankfully his outfit today was long sleeved.

The members were all recording their individual scenes and some group scenes when Mr. Hoon had decided to come join them to monitor some of the recordings. The members bowed and greeted him, even Taehyung. Taehyung already talked himself out of his fear. What's the man going to do anyway? We're surrounded by a ton of people.

They carried on with their shoots, and when certain members weren't recording they would be playing and fooling around with eachother.

Jungkook and Jin were the worst, the two couldn't stand next to eachother without it resulting in some kind of playful bickering. During one of the group scenes the members had to do a dance number that they'd practiced a million times, however Taehyung had become a little bit distracted by Mr. Hoon standing off to the side watching him. It's okay, he can't do anything.

Unfortunately this was causing him to mess up some of the dance steps, but Hobi was still reassuring him that he was doing a great job and that he'd get it no problem after a few more takes.

The guys stopped for a water break when Mr. Hoon approached Taehyung again. "Can I speak with you privately?"

Taehyung tensed up and looked around at everyone else who seemed to be in their own little world. "No. I'm busy right now. It wouldn't be good for you to pull me from my hard work," he said sarcastically. If I refuse to go with him, it's not like he can just drag me out. He won't do anything in front of all these people.

He was wrong. Mr. Hoon leaned in to Taehyung's ear and whispered, "I said I need to speak with you privately, boy." He grabbed Taehyung's bad wrist and started dragging him, it hurt too much to pull away so he just followed the man, terrified.

He looked back to see nobody was even paying attention to them. Mr. Hoon opened a door to one of the dressing rooms and pushed Taehyung inside it. He walked over and immediately smacked him across the face, causing Taehyung to stumble backwards and land on one of the couches.

"So now you want to test me?!" Mr. Hoon screamed as he stood above the singer. He grabbed Taehyung's face and forced him to look up at him. "You've got quite the mouth, don't you?" he yelled. He took his other hand and smacked Taehyung on the mouth with it. Taehyung tried to force back his tears but they silently came. He had talked himself out of his fear earlier, but it had come back now. So he would hurt me with other people around?

"I'm sorry," was all he could find the courage to say. He honestly didn't know what he had done wrong to deserve this, but he felt the need to apologize anyways.

The manager continued to grip Taehyung's face firmly in his hand forcing him to look up. "I don't know if you know this, but you're terrible at your job. I don't understand how you're in the biggest boy band in the world when you can't even dance."

Taehyung felt his heart sink, the words hurt. "That's not true, I can dance. Ask Hobi-hyung."

Mr. Hoon smacked Taehyung in the mouth again, causing his lip to bleed. He let out a small whimper.

"So are you saying I'm a liar? I don't like being called a liar." Mr. Hoon let go of Taehyung's face and started taking off the black belt he was wearing.

Taehyung frantically stood up from the couch and started backing up. "Woah, hey, what are you doing?" he tried reaching for the door but Mr. Hoon blocked it.

"What am I doing? I'm doing my job. And apparently that requires me teaching you a lesson in respect."

Taehyung started backing away again. "You can't hit me with that! They'll know! You don't want them to know, right? If I go out there hurt they'll notice!" He was panicking and trying to think of anything he could that would make his manager reconsider possibly beating him to a pulp.

"No, they won't know. You know why they won't know? Because after I beat some sense into you, you'll go out there and act fine. And if they notice anything, you'll lie straight to their face. Got it?"

Mr. Hoon ran towards Taehyung and caught him, pushing him to the floor. Taehyung landed on his stomach and Mr. Hoon placed his foot on his back, pinning him to the ground. He started hitting Taehyung's back with the belt. Taehyung let out a pitiful scream every time he got hit, but nobody would hear it because the dressing room was far away from everyone else and it was noisy out there anyway.

"I told you I don't like being called a liar!"

SMACK!

"And you really don't care for authority, do you?!"

SMACK!

"I've worked with spoiled little brats like you before. You don't understand how worthless you really are!"

SMACK!

Taehyung was trying to pry free from the mans foot, but couldn't. "STOP! Please stop! I'm sorry! You're not a liar! And I do respect you!" His tears were forming a puddle on the floor.

Mr. Hoon beat him a few more times before finally stepping off of Taehyung and putting his belt back on. Taehyung curled up into a ball on the floor, crying.

"That should do for now. Good. Take all the time you need, I'll tell them you went to the bathroom and don't feel good." Mr. Hoon walked back towards the door and stopped, "Oh and Taehyung?" Taehyung looked up at him with broken eyes but didn't say anything. "Remember, when you do go back out there, you're fine. They don't need to know about this. It would be a shame if I had to beat someone else too. Maybe that little one? Jung  whatever- the- hell his name is." He smirked before walking out the door and closing it behind him.

No. Don't you dare touch Jungkook.

Taehyung dug his face into the floor and cried harder, his back was on fire. He lifted his shirt to see red and purple marks left behind from the belt, thankfully there was no blood. How was he expected to go back out there and act like that didn't just happen? He knew he had to if it meant keeping Jungkook safe.