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

Chapter 111: Before the Break Becomes A Ruin

Kook was sobbing into Hobi's shoulder, and Hobi was holding him so tightly like he could physically stop him from unraveling.

When he looked up at me, his eyes were full of devastation.

"I remember the first time I saw you and Joonie look at each other," Hobi said softly.

"It felt like something holy. Like we were witnessing history still healing itself."

"I didn't know how much of it all meant,"
Jungkook whispered, lifting his head.

"I didn't know you'd been protecting us this whole time."

"It's not protection if it tears us apart," I said bitterly. "It's just delay. That fear-it's still here. It's always here."

Tae came closer, wrapping his arms around me from behind.

"But it doesn't define us," he whispered.

"You remember when you told me that my fear doesn't make me weak? Now it's my turn. It doesn't, hyung. It never did. It made you human. It made you the man we all love. And we're not scared of you, Jin hyung. We're scared for you."

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"No, hyung." Jimin shook his head, fierce through his tears.

"You don't get to take the blame for every wound in this house. This isn't your fault. It was never your fault."

"You've been protecting us all this time, hyung, You, Joonie hyung, Yoongi hyung, Y/N noona" Hobi added. "Protecting all of us. At your own expense."

The pain in his voice broke me.

"I couldn't let him hurt any of you" I said, and then faltered. "I couldn't... I can't lose any of you."

Jungkook sniffled. "I thought... I thought maybe we'd always be strong. That this wouldn't happen to us. But now I feel like we're all unraveling. Like we don't know how to hold each other without breaking."

"We're allowed to break," Hobi murmured.

"But we break together. That's what makes us a bond. Not perfection. Us."

Yoongi let out a breath and looked at the me and then the others.

"This fear it's rippling," he said.

"We're not just living separate lives. We're tied. And this-this break between Y/N and Joon-it's tearing all of us apart. But that doesn't mean that we'll allow this to fester. That we will give up just because it's hard."

Jimin nodded. "Y/N noona and Joon hyung are hurting. But so are we. And we need to hold each other while we figure out how to hold them."

"This doesn't break us," Yoongi said softly. "This won't break us."

We were a heap of hurt and hope.
Shaking and shining with love.

That was when we heard it again.

*Scratch* *Scratch*

Tannie.
Still outside Joon's room.
Whining now.

The silence from behind the door was heavy and hollow and wrong.

Yoongi turned, his hand falling away from my shoulder.

"I'll go to him," he said. "He won't open up to anyone else right now."

I hesitated.

"I'll go to Y/N."

Every eye turned to me.