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

Chapter 92: Every Version of Us

I looked at her.

"What do I do?"

Her smile was sad.

"I don't want you to get hurt,"

Noona says quietly, the warmth in her voice coiling like a fragile thread around the cold metal lodged in my chest.

Her hand reaches across the space between us-gentle, grounding-her palm folding over mine.

It's the kind of touch only a sister can give. Not clinical. Not professional. Just... love.

"But maybe you already know the answer and you're just too afraid to face it,"

she continues, her voice almost a whisper.

"Its okay to be scared hobi, but don't let that stop you from confronting the truth."

I don't answer.
I can't.

My throat tightens like it's closing in on itself, like any sound I try to make will shatter under the pressure.

The ache in my chest-low and dull at first-has become a thunderous roar.

It's louder than my thoughts now.

Louder than reason.
Louder than ten years of love, and also ten years of fear.

What does trusting my heart even mean, when it feels like it's splintering?

Noona doesn't push.
She lets the silence stretch.

Outside the window, Seoul keeps moving-cars blurring past, people walking in pairs, the golden sheen of late afternoon light sliding across her office like a promise.

But inside, it's just us.

Me and my grief.
My shame.
My longing.

And her quiet knowing.

"They're good people, Hoseok," she says after a while, still holding my hand, as if afraid I'll slip away otherwise.

"I've seen that. All of them. Not just Taehyung. The whole circle that's holding each other up right now. They're scared, yes. But the kind of bond they have-it's rare. It's something to be celebrated, not mourned."

My jaw clenches. I blink hard.

But what about what we had? Just us?

What about everything we built, everything we protected, alone?

Because if I admit that their bond is beautiful...

If I accept it...

What does that make me?
What does that make me to Jungkook?

Am I still the center of his orbit, or just one of many stars now?

And what if I'm not even one?

What if I'm just a black hole trapping him from the light?

And yet-when Noona speaks of them, there's no judgment.

Only awe. Reverence.

She looks at me like she knows I'm barely holding myself together, and still... still, she dares to say-

"The trial for Taehyung's case is in a few days."

The shift is gentle, but pointed.
Her hand releases mine.

Now she's giving me space again-space to decide.

"You don't have to face them or speak," she continues.

"You don't have to do anything. Just come. Sit in the back, if you want. Watch. Listen. See him for who he is, not just as one of Jungkook's soulmates. See them-all of them-for what they're building together. For what they've survived. See them for who they are."