Namjoon walked back into the living room where the others were hanging out. "So, I'm worried about him," he informed the group.

"What happened? I mean aside from him pushing Jungkook to the floor," Jimin asked the leader.

Jimin was mad at Taehyung. He had only mentioned a therapist because he was trying to help. And if Taehyung was going to start being mean to the youngest for no reason then maybe therapy was exactly what he needed.

"He, um, for some reason he thought I was going to smack him or something."

Jin sat up on the couch. "What, why? I mean you were mad but he knows none of us would hit him."

"I don't know. I went to help him off the bed and he threw his hand up to block me thinking I was going to hit him. I don't know why he did that."

"I'm telling you he's having anxiety! I don't know why, he wouldn't tell me. But he needs therapy!" Jimin was persistent. He knew how anxiety worked and knew Taehyung would only get worse if he didn't get help. "All he told me was that he really missed Sejin."

"We all miss Sejin," Yoongi started, "That's no reason to develop anxiety. Unless it's like separation anxiety or something but he never really gets that either."

Yoongi pulled out his phone and decided to look up the symptoms of separation anxiety and he read the symptoms out loud to the members.

"Hmm let's see. Seperation anxiety..it says.... common symptoms include anxiety, depression or fear, crying, nightmares, palpitations, rapid breathing," Yoongi stopped, " Hm..That has to be it then. He seems to be having all those symptoms." All the members hearts broke a little bit. If that was the problem, why didn't Taehyung want to tell any of them about it? They would love to try and help.

The doorbell rang, everyone forgot that Mr. Hoon was stopping by today. Hobi ran over and opened it and everyone greeted him.

"Wow, this is a cute little place you guys have here! How is everyone?" Hoon asked.

"Not that good," Jimin confessed, "We're a little worried about Taehyungie."

"Why?" the manager asked, "Is he still sick?"

"We think he needs to go to therapy. We think he's experiencing seperation anxiety from Sejin and it's sort of manifesting itself in his behavior," Hobi told his boss.

"Oh really?" Mr. Hoon was starting to feel angry, but tried to keep a friendly voice, "How has he been behaving? Not causing anyone too much trouble I hope?"

"He's been having a lot of anxiety lately and is starting to have nightmares. Do you think we could set him up with a therapist? He seems a little against it right now, but we think it'll help him. Maybe you could talk to him about it?" Jimin just wanted the best for his best friend.

"Absolutely. Where is he? I will speak with him privately and see if there's any way I can help him."

"He's in his room with Jungkook right now." Jin pointed down the hall to the room with the closed door.

Mr. Hoon made his way to the room and stepped in to find Taehyung and Jungkook sitting on the bed watching something together on Taehyung's phone. Taehyung looked up to see Mr. Hoon standing in his room and his entire body froze. He could feel his heart start to race. He looked at Jungkook with an internal panic.

"Oh hi Mr. Hoon! I forgot you were coming today!" Jungkook stood up and bowed.

"Hi Jungkook, is it okay if I speak with Taehyung alone for a moment? I hear you're all a little bit worried about him, I'd like to speak with him about it."

Taehyung wanted to evaporate. No. No no no no.

Jungkook left the room and Mr. Hoon closed the door behind him and walked over to Taehyung who was still frozen with fear on the bed. He was staring at the floor.

"Look at me," the manager demanded. Taehyung slowly looked up, tears already falling from his eyes.

"I hear you've been acting up now? You're making everyone suspicious. I don't like that, you little brat."

"I..I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," he choked on his tears. Mr. Hoon grabbed Taehyung by the neck and started choking him.

Of course. I can't scream for help if I can't even breathe.

"Whatever game it is you're trying to play, I suggest you knock it off right now." Taehyung was trying to pry the mans hands off his neck.

"I don't need them starting to ask questions. You're doing a hell of a job lying. Do better. However you're acting around them, fix it before I fix it for you. I won't hesitate to go beat that other one."

Taehyung was seeing spots. He was able to let out a small plea, "Let go...o-o-or they'll know," he managed to choke out.

"How will they know ?" the manager got right in Taehyung's face.

"Bruises," Taehyung whispered. He knew this would make his neck bruise. He wouldn't be able to hide those. Although, maybe that was a good thing. I shouldn't have warned him.

Mr. Hoon let go, "Ah, good call. Yes. Don't need that happening."

Taehyung was clutching his neck gasping for breaths. He started wiping the tears off his face but couldn't finish before Mr. Hoon pushed him backwards onto the bed and held him down. He held Taehyung's mouth shut so he couldn't make any noise. "But you know what they won't know about?" The manager lifted Taehyungs shirt and started pinching his stomach as hard as he could. Taehyung tried to scream with every pinch but couldn't get any noise out when his mouth was being held shut.

"They won't know how much I hate you. You've been nothing but a burden to me since I started here. And now you're being a burden to them. You'll tell them you don't need therapy. You're fine. You're just seeking attention because you're a little brat. Do you understand that?"

Taehyung was still trying to scream, Mr. Hoon pinched him harder, "I SAID do you understand that?" Taehyung instantly started nodding his head yes, he understood.

"Good then," Mr. Hoon stood up and pulled Taehyungs shirt back down. "My work here is done. I trust you'll fix yourself now. Figure it out."

He gave Taehyung one last harsh smack across the face before heading out the door and closing it behind him. Taehyung clutched his face in pain and looked at his stomach, the red and purple bruises forming practically matched the ones on his back. He clutched his stomach and curled up into a ball, sobbing into his pillow.

My own house. I'm not even safe in my own house.

Mr. Hoon went back out and greeted the rest of the members. "I spoke with him. He opened up to me a little bit. He does miss Sejin a lot but I don't think therapy is needed at this point. I think our little talk helped him out, he should be alright. I have to get going but let me know if anything else comes up. I will try to help the best I can. I would give him some space for now, he is a little emotional."

All the members thanked Mr. Hoon and said goodbye to him, all sitting back around the living room after he left.

"Well, hopefully that talk was helpful. I wonder why he would open up to him though and not one of us, he barely knows him," Hobi complained.

"Maybe he reminds him of Sejin?" Jungkook suggested.

"I want to go check on him," Jimin stood up.

"Mr. Hoon said to leave him alone for now," Yoongi demanded.

"Frankly, I do not care. I'm checking on him."

Jimin walked into the bedroom to find Taehyung under his blanket sobbing into his pillow.

He ran to him. "Jesus Taehyung, are you okay??"

Jimin was extremely concerned. He didn't expect the talk with their manager to make him THAT upset. Taehyung grabbed Jimin's shirt and pulled him closer, burying his face into his hyungs chest, crying hard.

"P..please j-just hold m-me," he cried. Jimin wrapped his arms around him tightly, "I'm right here. I'm right here. What happened?"

Taehyung was crying so hard that he was actually starting to choke on his own spit and started gasping for air.

"Woah okay, calm down," Jimin started patting him on the back, "Hey calm down, you're okay. That must have been quite the talk yeah? You're alright, Hyungie is right here. You don't have to go to therapy if you don't want to. We won't force you okay?"

Taehyung still wasn't replying, he was too busy balling his eyes out and soaking Jimins shirt. Jimin was getting a little too concerned, why did a talk with the manager make his dongsaeng so upset?

"Should I get hyungs? Do you want another hyung? Or Jungkook? Do you want Jungkookie? I want you to calm down but I don't know how to help you right now. You're scaring me."

Taehyung finally got a word out, "Jungkookie."

Jimin called for Jungkook and the maknae ran in to meet them. Taehyung held his arm out gesturing that he wanted to hug the youngest. He couldn't get the statement out of his head.

I won't hesitate to go beat that other one.

He hugged his maknae tightly. "Are you okay?" he asked through tears.

"Uh, yes? Why are you asking ME that? Taehyungie are YOU okay? You're a mess." Jungkook was also extremely concerned. Jimin and Jungkook's hearts were breaking. They didn't understand why Taehyung was so upset. And they were confused that he'd asked Jungkook if he was okay. Why wouldn't Jungkook be okay?

Jimin stood up because he planned to go get the other members. He tripped a little bit and put his arm out to catch himself on the bed when suddenly Taehyung threw his arm up in defense again.

Jimin and Jungkook shot eachother another concerned look. "Taehyung...why did...I'll be right back.." Jimin left the two alone in the room as he ran out into the living room.

"Hyungs! Yoongi hyung can you look up why someone would keep flinching?"

"He did it again?! Why??" Namjoon asked with panic in his voice.

"I don't know! I tripped getting up and went to catch myself on the bed and he thought I was going to hit him too! He's also a complete mess in there right now! And for some reason was worried that Jungkook was hurt. I have no idea what that was about!"

Yoongi pulled out his phone and googled it. Links to various subjects came up and he read through them.

"Alright, why someone would suddenly start flinching. Let's seee...

Trauma

PTSD

Physical Abuse

Childhood Abuse

Neglect/Maltreatment

Yoongi stopped, " Well none of this makes sense. He's not going through any of that. "

"Well click on one of them and see what the other symptoms are maybe?" Jin suggested.

Yoongi casually clicked on the physical abuse one," Okay well nobody is physically abusing him but the symptoms of that are..

Changes in behavior.

Depression, anxiety, or unusual fears.

Withdrawal from friends.

Nightmares.

Bruises/ Broken Bones

Yoongi stopped, "Okay well he has some of these symptoms but half of these are the same as the seperation anxiety ones."

Jimin was starting to feel nervous, "I don't think the way he's crying in there right now is a result of seperation anxiety..are there any more symptoms under that one?"

"Why? You think someone might actually be abusing him? He doesn't have any bruises," Hobi tried to make sense of it, "And he's only ever with us. None of us would ever hurt him."

Yoongi scrolled down on the page when something caught his eye, "What's thi-? Uhh, okay. It says sudden flinching that results later in adulthood may be caused by sudden emotional or physical stresses such as newly acquired emotional abuse. Or..." Yoongi started to feel a bit nervous, "Or being mistreated and persistently hit."

"Okay well it can't be that though, we don't hit him. I mean we hit him playfully sometimes but we don't beat him. That wouldn't make him flinch right?" Hobi didn't think there'd be any possible way Taehyung was being hit by someone. "And like I said he doesn't have any bruises."

"Well how do we know he doesn't have any bruises? He's worn nothing but those oversized hoodies lately. Maybe a staff member at the shooting did something. He was gone for a long time.." Jin was also now feeling nervous. No way someone was hitting Taehyung.

"Well, instead of speculating , why don't we just go and ask him?" Namjoon suggested.

The members figured that was really their only option. They all walked together and gathered in the the maknae's bedroom. Taehyung was sobbing into his pillow while Jungkook played with his hyungs hair. Jungkook looked at all his hyungs who were now in the room, " I don't know. He won't stop crying. I don't know what happened or how to help him," Jungkook wiped his own tears from his face. Everyone went and sat on Taehyungs bed, surrounding him.

"Uhm, Taehyung. We would all like to ask you something. Please be honest with us, we can only help you if you're honest with us. Okay?" Hobi tried to sound as friendly and gentle as possible. Taehyung got nervous, he didn't want them to ask what he figured they were going to ask.

"Taehyung is somebody hitting you, or hurting you, at all in any way?" Typical blunt Yoongi asked the question.

Jungkook looked at them confused, "You think he's getting hit?!" Jungkook looked down at Taehyung with scared eyes. Taehyung didn't lift his head from his pillow, he just kept crying.

"Taehyung? You need to tell us. You won't be in trouble or anything at all. We just want to help you. Has someone at the company been hurting you now that Sejin left?" Jin asked.

Jimin was starting to panic and turned to Namjoon, "Hyung why isn't he answering us? Why isn't he saying no?!"

Namjoon went to put his hand on Taehyung's back but again with his reflex, Taehyung quickly pushed it away. He continued to cry into his pillow. They know. They all know. And now Jungkookie is going to get hurt too.

"Check him for bruises," Hobi demanded.

Yoongi went to lift Taehyung's hoodie but without saying anything Taehyung grabbed the bottom of it and held it down so nobody could lift it up.

Everyone's hearts broke. Taehyung didn't realize by doing that he was telling them he did have bruises. Namjoon pried the boys hands from the hoodie and Yoongi lifted it up to unveil a canvas of purple and blue marks all across his dongsaengs back.

Taehyung cried harder and kept trying to pull the hoodie down, but he knew at this point there was no use. Everyone broke out in gasps and began to cry.

From where Jungkook was sitting he could see marks on Taehyung's side too, and slowly tried turning Taehyung over, although his hyung tried to fight it. "Please stop," Taehyung begged through his tears.

Ignoring his plea, everyone pushed Taehyung onto his back to now unveil a canvas of purple and black welts all over Taehyungs stomach. Jimin ran into the bathroom and started throwing up.

"What...who....Taehyungie who..." Jungkook could barely talk through his tears. Yoongi noticed something on Taehyungs neck too and pulled the hoodie down to reveal finger shaped purple bruises across his little ones neck as well. Taehyung was a mess. He knew it was over. First Mr. Hoon is going to murder me, and then he's going to murder Jungkookie.

Jungkook grabbed Taehyung into a hug and sobbed, " Who is hurting you?!"