Stigma Love's Algorithm [ A BTS x Reader Poly ]

Chapter 92: Every Version of Us

His jaw tensed, but his voice didn't waver.

"Because I was a child. Because they told me I was ungrateful. Because they beat me until I believed I deserved it. Because they made me sign away everything when I could barely stand upright."

Silence followed.
Thick and sharp.

The kind of silence that meant everyone was listening now.

Yoongi squeezed his hand under the table, his eyes shining with quiet pride.

Jin oppa finally leaned back, his tone unreadable but laced with something fierce.

"That," he said,

"is how you take control of the narrative. That's how you stand on your own."

Taehyung swallowed, nodding.

"It's still hard," he admitted, voice softer now.

"But I don't feel like I'm choking anymore. I feel... like I can breathe and speak at the same time."

Joon's eyes didn't leave him.

"Because you're not just surviving anymore. You're living. And they can't take that from you again."

Yoongi leaned in, smiling crookedly.

"You're killing it, baby."

And Jin-Jin oppa didn't say it, but the way his gaze lingered on Tae said everything.

His soulmate was rising. And he was ready to make the whole damn world listen.

Even now, though-Jungkook's absence clung to the edges of everything.

And though we tried not to talk about it too much, it lived in all of us.

Especially in Joon's quiet sighs. In Yoongi's soft eyes. In the way Oppa's hand always hovered-ready to support Taehyung first, but never forgetting the boy who walked away.

Still, today wasn't about what was lost.
It was about what we were fighting to protect.

Later, when the others had stepped out to grab food, I stayed behind with Tae, Joon, and Yoongi.

"You okay?" I asked him gently.

He looked down at his hands.

"Yeah. I just..."

He glanced at Yoongi.

"I don't want to let any of you down."

"You couldn't if you tried," Joon said instantly.

Yoongi nodded, his voice low.

"We love you. That doesn't come with conditions."

I stepped behind him, arms wrapping around his shoulders.

"Fifteen days, Tae. And you're not walking into that courtroom alone."

He exhaled slowly.

"I know. For the first time in my life-I really know."

And we stayed there for a moment, breathing in the quiet power of us.

____________________________

Hoseok's POV

The morning sky over Gangnam was a washed-out grey, smeared with clouds that looked more like bruises than blessings.

I sat behind the wheel of my Range Rover, parked just outside a modest glass building nestled between designer cafés and quiet clinics.