The next day, Taehyung allowed Seokjin to get back in the Kims' car to go to school, as he used to do. Arrived near the school, Seokjin said to him with an uncertain air:
"Maybe I should come down here, so we don't get seen together?"
"Don't talk nonsense, I want us to be seen together."
"Really? You are not ashamed of me?" Seokjin asked, unsure.
"Of course not, what is this question?"
He had said that with obviousness but it didn't seem like an incongruous question from Seokjin's point of view. However, he gave up pointing it out, deeming it unnecessary, judging that the deep conversation they had had the day before t the hospital had come back enough to that. Instead, he clarified his question:
"Aren't you afraid of others saying bad things about you if they see you being friend with me?"
"They would never dare," Taehyung said simply. "I'm not ashamed and even less afraid by anyone in this school, so stop."
"Okay," Seokjin said, admitting defeat.
When they arrived at their destination and got out of the car, Taehyung urged Seokjin to stay close to him like Namjoon had done with him when they were in first year to signify that Seokjin was under his protection. He observed with satisfaction the dumbfounded gaze of the other students. With a look, he challenged them to say anything inappropriate, which of course no one dared to do.
Instead, some students who did not belong to their class reached out to Seokjin and asked in a friendly way how he had been since the previous day's game, with others even congratulating him on playing so well and for having fought to the end for the victory of their school. Dae-Ho even came to assure him that he didn't blame him for their team's defeat, but seeing the dark look Taehyung was giving him, he hastened to apologize towards Seokjin for having played so badly and for having caused the team to lose as it was all his fault.
The world seemed to have turned completely upside down and it was dizzying for Seokjin who could only stammer words of thanks for everyone and hand out a few hesitant handshakes.
"Wooow, what do I see?! I'm not dreaming, am I?!" Jimin exclaimed as he emerged from the car that had just dropped him off and hurriedly joined Taehyung and Seokjin. "So it's true what Taehyung told me, the war is finally over? It means that we can finally be friends, since time, isn't it beautiful, Seokjinniiiiie?!" he cooed with his singing voice.
He gave him an accolade but accustomed to being hit by him, Seokjin tensed which Jimin sensed.
"Oh you don't need to worry, I won't beat you up anymore. After all, there's no reason you and Taehyung are friends again, that means we're friends too, I like that! Besides he won't let me hurt you anymore, right?" he asked, questioning Taehyung with a look.
Taehyung nodded and Seokjin seemed relieved. He nevertheless waited politely for Jimin to remove his arm from his neck, because even if he had the unpleasant feeling of being caught in the deadly nets of a spider and wanted to run away; habits die hard. Thus, he was afraid of upsetting the one who had been his tormentor for too long, who had enjoyed calling him his punching bag and who would certainly not apologize for it.
Satisfied with how Seokjin was greeted, Taehyung walked to his classroom, leaving Jimin to drag Seokjin along with them without worrying about anyone, as if Jimin were now Seokjin's bodyguard.
"I would like to go see Mr. Choi before going to class," Seokjin interjected to Taehyung. "I want to tell him that I've been accepted into Whimoon."
"Oh wow, you succeeded despite everything? That's impressive, congratulations!" Jimin said with a bright smile.
To Seokjin's surprise, he seemed sincere so he said:
"It's nice of you, thank you. So, Tae-"
"No, you'll go see him after, there's something important I need to do first and I need you to be there," Taehyung replied, without leaving a choice to Seokjin who sighed.
"I thought I was finally free from this tyranny..." he mumbled.
"What did you say?" Taehyung asked turning around, frowning.
"Uh, nothing," Seokjin lied.
"Jimin, what did he say?"
"Something about being free from you and your tyranny."
"My tyranny?" Taehyung repeated. "I woke up at dawn to study because of you and I'm the tyrant?!"
Jimin looked at him stunned as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard but before he could ask for details, Seokjin shouted at him:
"Why did you tell him?! I thought you had become nice to me but I was wrong, I don't want to be friends with you!"
"Oh don't be like that Seokjin, I was just doing you a favor!" Jimin assured him with a smile.
"No, you're not, betraying someone is not doing them a favor!" Seokjin sulked.
"In your case, it was. Taehyung knew you were lying, your nose gets longer when you lie, it's useless, I already told you, didn't I? " Jimin said widening his eyes while staring at Seokjin's nose before bursting out laughing when he saw Seokjin instinctively bring his hand to his nose to check.
"Stop with that!" Seokjin said, uspset to have been tricked by Jimin again.
"But I like playing with your, you're the cutest," Jimin exclaimed, pinching his nose.
"Enough," Taehyung annoyed seeing Jimin having fun with Seokjin in such a familiar way.
"Okay!" Jimin exclaimed, before whispering discreetly to Seokjin: "I think he doesn't really want us to have fun together."
"I don't want to have fun together either," Seokjin replied, trying unsuccessfully to remove Jimin's arm from around his shoulders.
"Ouch!" Jimin said, holding his chest with one hand, pretending to have a heartache. "You're so direct, it hurts me.
"Stop making fun of me!"
"Stop making fun of him," Taehyung replied and Seokjin gave him a grateful look.
"That's so funny," Jimin chuckled this time making fun of Taehyung's strange attitude.
"What is so funny?"
"Don't you realize the comedy of this situation? Last time we saw you were asking me to hit him, today you're asking me to stop making fun of him, you have become so sweet," Jimin said, laughing even harder.
"Shut up or I'll show you if I'm sweet!"
Entering the classroom caused a sensation, even more than entering school. Yoona, who was already slumped on her table and nonchalantly letting Haneul paint her nails, jumped up when she saw the trio arrive.
"What does it mean? Taehyung, what's going on, why didn't you come to class yesterday and why did you come together today, you and Jin the moron?" she asked briskly, frowning, because Taehyung had only vaguely replied to her texts since he had disappeared during the match before the previous day at the same time as Seokjin.
Seokjin avoided the look Yoona gave him when she referred to him by the degrading nickname she had chosen for him but Taehyung looked at her with a disgusted look and instead of addressing her, he addressed the class:
"No one has the right to call him "Jin the moron" anymore. Haneul and Seng-Ho!"
"Yes?" The two asked hesitantly, after seeing Taehyung's annoyance towards Yoona.
"Since you're the ones who defaced his desk, chair and uniform, you'll be paying to replace them. Today, not tomorrow, is that clear?"
"Okay Taehyung," they said without arguing, even though they didn't understand Taehyung's reversal.
While Seokjin, looking at Taehyung, was both amazed like the others, and relieved to know that his mother would not have to pay for the degraded material, Taehyung nodded appreciatively and continued:
"Seokjin has to work hard to pass his exams, he only has a few weeks left to catch up so I ask you all to help him however you can. From now on, ou are forbidden to attack him from now on and if he doesn't pass his exams, I'll make sure you do too. Did I make myself understood?"
Seokjin was so grateful he nearly burst into tears and went to thank Taehyung for keeping his word but was cut short.
"Taehyung, what's going on?" Yoona repeated, as the others nodded slowly, albeit perplexed.
This time, Taehyung replied directly to her, to silence any possible protest coming from his other classemates after that.
"Exactly what I just said Yoona. You no longer have the right to take it out on him. I want you to be nice to Seokjin."
"You want me to what?!"
"Don't make me repeat it, I know you're not deaf."
Astonished, the girl shouted :
"All this just because he went to the hospital?! Is that why you got nice to him again? He doesn't deserve your compassion, Taehyung, we don't care about him, remember? You know he's just a beggar, he could have died, what would that have changed in our lives? He was in the way for too long and we didn't want him here; he never had his place among us anyway."
She shot Seokjin a vicious look. Although Seokjin was used to being looked down upon, the cruelty of Yoona's words hurt him : she preferred him dead to alive and who would not have been moved to know he was dead. Despite himself, the terrible images of the day he had decided to take his own life came back to his memory and made him shudder: so she would have been delighted to see him dead that day?
He tried to repress his memories and remember that he didn't care what Yoona thought of him: that shouldn't matter to him, only the words of those who cared about him mattered. And there was just one person with him who cared about him. Then he felt his confidence returning. So, he succeeded to hide his suffering as usual like he always did and gave her a small smile.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Yoona, but I survived," he apologized defiantly.
"Stop smiling at me, you moron, you are pissing me off!!" she yelled, slapping him.
Taehyung's reaction was immediate and he returned Yoona the slap she had just given Seokjin, causing the whole class to gasp in amazement. Yoona's anger quickly replaced her amazement, even hotter than her cheek.
"HAVE YOU GONE CRAZY?!!" she yelled at her boyfriend.
In order to model their behavior on Taehyung towards Yoona, he other students looked at him, wondering how he was going to react facing Yoona's refusal to comply with his decisions and what she had just said about Seokjin.
Taehyung was glaring at her fiercely. He no longer found anything beautiful in her, he hated her suddenly more than he had hated Seung and more than he hated his brother. Because even if these two had been hateful to him, at least they loved Seokjin and they tried to protect him and make him happy when they were at school with him. As for Yoona, she despised with her whole being the person he loved the most and that, not because he asked her, but out of sheer disgust for what Seokjin was. And that, he could no longer tolerate.
"The only crazyness I've ever done was letting you think you could get the better over me," Taehyung retorted with calm coldness, who confirms to Seokjin that his attitude was modeled on that of his father because the resemblance was striking and Seokjin knew he would have been crushed it was him to whom Taehyung had spoken like that.
On the same tone, the rich heir ordered Yoona :
"You are going to apologize immediately to Seokjin."
"And you, did you apologize to him?" Yoona replied defensively. "I guess not! And I don't want to either so stop humiliating me for him! What the hell is your problem today Taehyung?!"
Taehyung's eyes gleamed with a malevolent gleam that made Yoona slightly doubt her ability to stand up to Taehyung suddenly but she had always been able to influence him to put him on her side so she insisted:
"Taehyung, you were shaken by what happened to him, I can see that even if I don't understand after everything you did to him without hesitation, but don't put it on me ! I'm not going to apologize to a nobody like him! Besides, you're the one who hates him the most you shouldn't encourage him to expect an apology from us otherwise he will think himself important!!"
"When did I say I hated him?" Taehyung replied curtly.
Yoona suddenly looked flustered and the others were thinking too, realizing that maybe Taehyung had asked them to do whatever they could to make Seokjin's life hell, he never said he hated him, had ever hit him himself and before all that, he even seemed to like him particularly : he had been friend with him when only and his brother knew he was the son of a maid. It meant that unlike them, he had never really despised Seokjin for his origins.
So had Taehyung decided to reconcile with him now, after all this time? If so, that would mean that Seokjin had gone from being the weakest student in middle school, the everyone's whipping boy, to the most powerful boy in middle school? Because it was not Yoona, his girlfriend who could actually guide the actions of the powerful Taehyung according to his wishes: mysteriously, it was Seokjin. Everyone was almost beginning to regret being so openly dismissive of him, fearing that after Yoona, Taehyung will take revenge on them if Seokjin asked him.
"Now get a move on and apologize, my patience has just reached its limit and who knows what I can do if I don't get what I want," Taehyung said, threatening.
"I refuse," Yoona spat, "do you suddenly take me for one of those sheep who obey your fingers and eye?! You're wrong, and I won't change who I am for your pretty eyes. So now, if you don't want me to break up with you, stop being friends with that beggar for good, throw him out of your house, him and his family, you'll see how pathetic he is without your family!"
The classroom was immersed in an almost religious silence witnessing this surreal scene of conflict from the school's most powerful couple. Were they really going to break up? Wasn't Taehyung going to do anything to hold Yoona back? Was he really going to choose Soekjin over Yoona? Everyone hung on Yoona's lips and Taehyung's.
Worried, Seokjin turned to Taehyung. The day before, Taehyung told him that he mattered more to him than Yoona and told him to stop doubting him. Yet, how could he alienate Yoona, whose family also had some weight in their closed world, just for him, who was nobody like Yoona reminded him? Was he really going to reject her for him? He waited with concern and Taehyung gave him a quick look before grinning evilly at Yoona.
"You think your threats scare me? You would have to be important to me for that, which is not the case. I've played with you enough; I do not want you anymore ."
Yoona's eyes widened in amazement, like Seokjin, who continued to stare at Taehyung, but with a different feeling that was no longer distrust. Taehyung was getting rid of the snake that had been whispering all kinds of bad things to him for too long to inflict on Seokjin. He had kept his word. Seokjin then understood that he no longer had to doubt Taehyung : he had proved to him that he could have confidence in him.
"Stop laughing at me, Taehyung, it's not funny," Yoona told him, composing herself and tucking a long lock of hair behind her ear, aware that the whole class was looking at her. "I got carried away talking about breaking up with you. If that's what makes you happy, I'll be nice to Seokjin no matter how I feel about him, because I love you too much to give up on you only because of him."
"You love me?" Taehyung repeated in a flat voice. "Or do you like the power in your hands when you're with me?"
"I-I love you of course!" Yoona stammered, nervously and without realizing it handling a bracelet that Taehyung had given her.
"You're just a snake Yoona," the boy said looking at her, realizing that she had no affection for him. Namjoon had been able to see it probably from the beginning and he himself had seen nothing but fire. He felt so stupid that he was enraged at the time. "You and me, it's over so get off my back."
"No, please, Taehyung!" Yoona exclaimed grabbing his hand.
Taehyung looks at her hand with disgust. Seeing Yoona clutching Taehyung's hand, Jimin roughly grabbed her wrist to force her to let go, squeezing a cry of pain from her.
"Get off me, Jimin!" she yelled at him, trying to get out of his grip.
"You'll have to learn to obey again now that you're not a queen anymore," Jimin scoffed.
"Taehyung, tell your dog to let go of me!" Yoona ordered him, angry.
"Naa, Jimin is right," Taehyung said thoughtfully with a smirk. "You have to understand where you belong and it's not by my side, let alone as my equal. Listen to me everyone!!" he ordered the whole class. "From now, you'll all make Yoona's life hellish, don't spare her, it's an order."
"My pleasure!" Jimin exclaimed happily as he roughly pushed Yoona who crashed hard to the ground with a scream.
This scene, if it amused the class, even Haneul, who suddenly didn't seem to be Yoona's friend anymore, hurt Seokjin's heart. Shocked by the attitude of others, he rushed to help Yoona straighten up, extending a helping hand, pleading:
"No, please Tae, don't ask them to hurt her, she learned the lesson!"
What he had experienced at school, he didn't wish it on anyone, not even on Yoona and he would have preferred that by being nice to him again, Taehyung wouldn't pour out all his resentment on Yoona in his place. It wasn't good at all.
"Don't touch me with your filthy hands, beggar!" Yoona spat, pushing away the hand he offered her.
"Obviously, she dosen't," Taehyung told Seokjin, "don't defend her, I made up my mind. She will experience suffering and humiliation."
"But-"
"Don't."
Taehyung gave him a pointed look that made him understand not to contradict him in front of the others and out of habit, Seokjin immediately fell silent.
"Haneul," Taehyung called Yoona's best friend. "Come here with your nail polish, I think you hadn't finished doing Yoona's nails."
Puzzled, Haneul took the nail polish and joined Taehyung in front of the whiteboard.
"Now that I think about it, it's not just her nails that deserve a new color, I don't like her hair color anymore, what do you think?" He asked Haneul.
Suddenly, Haneul understood what Taehyung wanted and she had a big smile. Yoona, who had just understood, yelled:
"NO, NO, DON'T- !"
But it was too late. Ha-Neul had just emptied the contents of the pot on her hair, squealing in surprise as the cold liquid ran down his face. By wanting to wipe off the red liquish that smeared her face and was already starting to stain her uniform, the girl only spread it more in the general hilarity.
"If you keep laughing, I'll kill you all!" she screamed, wanting to sit up to grab her things and leave the classroom. But Taehyung and Jimin weren't done with her.
"This color suits you so well!" Jimin scoffed. "But I think we could still improve the style. Hey!" he said to one of his classmates sitting in the front row, "lend me a pair of scissors!"
Understanding what Jimin was about to do, Yoona widened her eyes and wanted to move away from him. But Jimin grabbed her by the hair to stop her.
"AAAh!" she cried.
"Don't leave before the haircut."
She screamed:
"LET GO OF ME! I SAID LET GO!" she repeated, grabbing hold of Jimin's wrist and starting to scratch him for him to let her go.
Yoona was a girl who had two prides in her school life: her position as Taehyung's girlfriend who had just been snatched from her and her physical appearance which she cared for with great attention to remain the most beautiful. Cutting her hair was probably more painful for her than getting slapped by Taehyung or seeing her best friend turn on her.
"Alright, I'm letting you go," Jimin said with a smile before clumsily but confidently cut Yoona's beautiful hair that remained in Jimin's clenched hand.
Yoona screamed in spite seeing her hair in Jimin's hand. She got to her feet and turned to Taehyung, her face contorted with shame and anger, her eyes shining with tears. With a contrite face, Seokjin had his hand clapped in front of his mouth. No, definitely, seeing the suffering rather than experiencing it didn't hurt him any less.
"I like your new haircut better," Taehyung said to Yoona with a fierce smile. "Maybe it'll make me fall in love with you this time if I don't look too closely."
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT TAEHYUNG, I SWEAR! YOU TOO JIMIN! MY DAD WILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO ME!"
"See if I care," Taehyung said shrugging the shoulders.
"Yeah, go tell your daddy," Jimin scoffed to a Yoona who seemed to have used her last trump card and who was now defenceless.
Seokjin was heartbroken because he saw that many people kept laughing at Yoona even though she had tears in her eyes. Even if this girl had humiliated him and had been cruel to him, he couldn't bear to see her in this posture, alone in front of everyone. No one should be there. It was not through injustice that one repaired another injustice, it was his belief and he was going to have to convince Taehyung that he shouldn't do that.
Surprising the expression on Seokjin's eyes, Yoona was seized with even greater rage.
"I DONT NEED YOUR PITY, BEGGAR! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT IF TAEHYUNG HAS CHANGED, I'M GOING TO GOUGE OUT YOUR EYES!"she yelled.
Seokjin had a good reflex but unfortunately, he was too close to Yoona and didn't have time to step back, his hand with long nails lacerated his face. He cried out in pain as he felt the fingernails dig into his flesh and run down his nose and cheek.
"Jin!!" Taehyung exclaimed seeing him hold his face.
Jimin immediately grabbed Yoona to stop her from throwing herself at Seokjin again because she was like a fury and looked like she was really ready to rip his eyes out of their sockets.
Taehyung pulled Seokjin towards him, removed the hand he had slapped on his face, and grabbed his chin to observe the damage on his face. Fortunately, his eyes had been spared, but five bloody lines disfigured his face and blood was starting to drip from it like Yoona's nail polish had previously dripped down her face. They were like a distorted reflection of each other. The one who had suffered and the one who had made him suffer. The one who had suffered, the one who suffered now.
After the surprise, Seokjin realized that it wasn't that bad and that it shouldn't be very serious. His relief was short-lived, however, when he realized the rage that distorted Taehyung's face. He was staring at the blood that had gotten on his hand when he touched his face.
"T-Tae?" he stammered, frightened.
But quickly, he realized that it wasn't him Taehyung was angry at. It was against Yoona.
"This time, I'm not going to hold back," Taehyung growled, ready to pounce on Yoona. "I'm going to kill her."
Seokjin's eyes widened upon hearing that.
"No, Tae, it's nothing! She just scratched me because she feels hurt, I'll be fine, it doesn't even hurt!" Seokjin whispered grabbing his arm to hold him. " It's fine."
"It's not fine," Taehyung replied angry. "Jimin! Get him out of here to treat his wound and while I think of it, tell Mr. Cheon to wait a little longer in the hallway before coming in, I still have one thing to do."
"Okaaaay!" Jimin sang. "Come on, Seokjinnie, let's go!" he said grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the classroom.
"No, I'm fine, I want to stay," Seokjin protested trying to resist Jimin, because he knew Taehyung was going to go after Yoona and that given his rage, he was capable of doing serious regrettable things. He had to stop him. "Please, I said I'm fine, I swear!"
Taehyung waited for the door to close on Jimin and Seokjin to tell Yoona in a voice that sounded more like a rumble of thunder:
"You have no idea what you just did."
Eyes widening Yoona began to tremble with a feeling still unknown to her: fear. Taehyung was wrong, she had just understood what she had just done: she had just pushed Taehyung to make the only person capable of holding back the beast inside him leave.
"I hope it doesn't leave permanent marks, your face is too pretty to be disfigured forever," Jimin regretted applying a compress soaked in disinfectant to Seokjin's face, which stung him painfully. "No wonder Taehyung is so angry."
Seokjin gritted his teeth so as not to moan in pain or put his hands on his face which would prevent Jimin from finishing his work.
"Wow, you're really resistant to the pain. I don't want to speculate, but I guess I can say that you must have received quite a number of blows in your life to withstand the pain so well!" Jimin quipped.
"Please, leave me alone," Seokjin grumbled.
"Don't get mad, I'm having fun. I always like having fun with you, you know that," Jimin chuckled, squeezing a moan out of him as he rubbed more vigorously at his wounds which were deeper than Seokjin thought.
He was sitting on a stool in the infirmary and since it was still early and the nurse wasn't there yet, Jimin had taken the liberty of rummaging through the cupboards and finding something to heal Seokjin's wound himself. But much to Seokjin's annoyance, seated on a stool in front of him, he was so conscientious that he was particularly slow when all Seokjin wanted was to get back to class as soon as possible.
"Can you hurry please? We need to get back there soon before Taehyung goes too far with Yoona!"
"No, we can't hurry, we can't take the care you need lightly or Taehyung will kill me," Jimin replied, being particularly gentle in his gestures.
"Are you really afraid of Taehyung?" Seokjin asked.
"Are you kidding?"
"So why are you bothering to heal me? I can do it on my own, give me the compress. I'll tell him you did it. With me, you don't have to do what you don't want to do."
"Who said I don't want to?" Jimin laughed.
"Because you usually prefer to hit me?" Seokjin ventured.
"That time is over, wasn't that clear?"
"Won't you change your mind? Never? I don't really trust you and I'm afraid you miss hitting me some day."
"Are you offering me your body so that I let off steam?"
"No!" Seokjin exclaimed trying to back up.
"Relax ! I'm making fun of you, definitely, you are really the funniest for me. Now stop moving, I have to finish," Jimin ordered pulling him towards him and going back to treating his wounds.
"You know, I could've just gone to the bathroom and splashed water on my face, it's just as effective!" Seokjin said, rolling his eyes, overwhelmed by the preciousness of these young heirs.
"No, you never know what germs a bitch can carry under her fingernails, so don't take the risk," Jimin replied.
"Don't call Yoona that, she suffered enough for you to insult her again," Seokjin protested, waving his leg impatiently, eager to leave this room and join their classroom.
Jimin briefly stopped patting the compress on Seokjin's face and gave him a curious look.
"You realize that Yoona called you every name under the sun, and insulted you in the worst ways, right?"
"I do know that," Seokjin replied.
"Does that mean you already forgave her, just because she made you feel sorry for her?"
"Of course not!" Seokjin defended himself. "I haven't forgiven her but just because she hurt me and our positions are now reversed doesn't mean I'm okay with doing the same to her!"
"Wow, I don't even know what to say to that, you are so different from me that it's beyond my comprehension!" Jimin said, shaking his head. "So you will continue defending Yoona after everything she did to you?"
"Yes, I will," Seokjin affirmed.
"Taehyung is trying to right his wrongs towards you in front of everyone, it's obvious that it costs him a lot, and you are trying to stop him, do you also realize it? I have the impression not since you seem to be on Yoona's side and not his"
"You don't understand, I'm neither on Yoona's side nor against Taehyung. I am aware of what Taehyung is trying to do and I also know it's hard for him, I am not an idiot, contrary to what you think," Seokjin defended himself, "but he's doing it the wrong way and I have to tell him! I have to show him how to really change for good and not change to become worse. If I had known he was going to be nice to me again only to become cruel to someone else, I would have preferred to remain his victim!"
"Are you trying to change Taehyung?"Jimin asked, taken aback. Nothing was wrong with Seokjin's speech in his eyes but of all the nonsense he had just heard, that part was the worst.
"I am," Seokjin replied. "And if he's already broken up with Yoona, he's started to change, he makes an effort so I'm not going to let up on my efforts either. I will stop him from continuing to harm Yoona or anyone else and little by little, he will become a better person, I'm sure of it."
"Wow, wow, wow, pause!" Jimin stopped him. "Let me stop you from chasing your false hopes and avoid being disappointed or hurt than you have already been: Taehyung will always be Taehyung, there may be a phase where he will try to please you because he likes you, but in the end, it's always what he wants that's important, not what you want. He's the most selfish person I know."
"How can you say that? I thought you were his friend!" Seokjin exclaimed, outraged.
"I am, I spent all my time with him during these three years and that's what allows me to say who he is. These are facts, Seokjin, you have to realize it once and for all : you thought he was capable of being like you, but you were wrong. You're just being gullible and it will end up ruining you."
"You still talk to me like I'm an idiot!"
"Honestly, that's not how I would talk to an idiot," Jimin said without smiling, "for your information, I don't think you're an idiot. I never thought so."
Seokjin looked at him like he didn't believe. However, he said :
"Then believe me : you think you know Taehyung but you don't really know him like I know him. Taehyung is he's not inherently bad, I'm sure of that. And he could become a good person if he weren't surrounded by his profiteers who claim to be his friends!" Seokjin said, glaring at Jimin.
Stunned, Jimin burst out laughing.
"Taehyung, a good person?! And besides, are you making him a victim and me, his corrupter? Wooo, I know you're funny but this is too much for me!"
"It's not funny!"
"Yes it is ! Wow, when I think it should stay between us, what a pity! Seokjin," he added with a serious tone, "don't tell anyone else what you just said to me."
"Why, because it's humiliating for him?"Seokjin retorted, sulky. He was tired of everything being about pride. Yoona was too proud to accept his help, Taehyung was too proud to accept that people say good things about him and Jimin was probably just as much.
"Exactly. In fact, you have no idea of the person Taehyung should become," Jimin added, suddenly more somber. "But I'll give it to you: even if he wanted to, he it is not in his interest to become a person like you, nice and honest. If he does that, he will lose all credibility in our society, of which you have no knowledge. That's how it works for all of us, everything is a question of power and appearance. Show that you are a good person? It is condemning ourself to being crushed by others. So stop trying to change him in yourself when you don't know what it's like to be an heir!"
Amazed by Jimin's fiery speech when he so rarely saw him serious and crossed by a thousand and one thoughts, Seokjin expressed the first that came to mind:
"Jimin, are you talking about Taehyung or about yourself?"