Chapter 31: Pandora's Box

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"Am I your sex toy Jungkook? Is it because I let you fuck me most of the time we were alone?" Jimin chew the last piece of the fourth pancake his boyfriend cooked for him. The actor stopped moving his hands, he was about to wash the pan but his movements froze. He didn't have to answer like he did before because of Min Woo, but right at that moment he was traumatized. His walls for Park Jimin were breaking apart because he wanted comfort, something he should deserve (all human beings should) and at his weakest moment, the words rolled off his tongue. But it wasn't the answer to Jimin's question, instead he opened the lock of his heart; and he won't blame it on how he's not mentally stable at the moment.

"When I was eleven, he raped my mom in front of me. . ." Jungkook let the pan drop on the sink and he let his back face the writer's surprised expression. "Ever since then, my life became a fucked up memory." He pressed his hands against the sink for support and exhaled a breath for his next choice of words. "Jimin hyung, I watched him tear my mother apart yet I couldn't do anything to save her. That was the first time I heard her voice go above a whisper and all she could do was apologize." He still couldn't face his boyfriend. The shame was attacking him, the guilt was breaking a huge crack in his inner walls.

Jimin gulped the last chewed piece of pancake inside his mouth and paid attention to the unexpected revelation from his boyfriend. His anger from the hours prior was still there yet he was there for him. He stood up and approached the male. He circled his arms around his thin waist and leaned his chin on the muscle of his left shoulder. "My mother was deaf by birth, I don't remember what exactly was the cause but I think she once mentioned something about her genetics. She barely talked and then... he forced her voice out in front of me." Jungkook looked inside of himself and felt the strong urge to break down but he won't; at least he didn't want to cry in front of Jimin, but with closed eyes some slipped.

"After that, he took us to a basement and that's where I last saw felt her in my arms before..." Jungkook paused and felt himself low on air. The same dark dilated eyes haunted his mind in a black cloud letting thunder rumble all over his thoughts. "I woke up in another room chained against a bed with him waiting until I woke up." Jimin choked a sob. He was not expecting the actor to confess such a memory and it pained him how he had suffered more than he could've imagined.

"He made me into what I am. I'm a fucked up man that doesn't deserve you." Jungkook stared at the locked hands holding his waist and Jimin's eyes blinked tears when he heard the next words out of his boyfriend's lips. "Love and fucking are the same, he taught me. That's why I don't know what love is Jimin-ssi. I do know you're not a sex toy. I-I... I've hurt you in ways that you don't know." The arms on his body tightened on grip when the younger's chest began panting and bis body almost had another panic attack. It was at this moment that pandora's box was unleased.

"Shh... Calm down. Breathe with me." Jimin wanted to turn him around and he slowly did with Jungkook's eyes closed in guilt. The younger slowly copied his inhales and exhales for longer seconds until he had slowly calmed down. "Open your eyes and look at me." When the doe eyes stared right at him, he took a breath and voiced out "So, you lied to me?" he said.

"I... I did." Jungkook tried avoiding his gaze but a hand gently cleaned the tears on his cheeks through the black long sleeved shirt he wore below the bathrobe. "I'm completely pissed at you right now, you have no idea. You're an asshole you know that right?" Jimin's words were different, they sounded cold and unwelcoming. "But I'm your boyfriend and I'm here for you." The sentence could hint the bittersweet emotions entangled, yet Jimin meant his words.

"I... know." Jungkook still didn't cry in front of him.

"Do I make your heart race when I look into your eyes?" The writer asked softly now. The tone softened from Beethoven's Symphony 5 to the soft piano melody of Claire De Lune by Debussy. In such a simple question, the doe eyes staring right into his trembled.

"I'll teach you what love is Jungkook-ah." Jimin's hands cupped the younger's cheeks and even through anger he demonstrated the love he felt towards him. "Start by being honest with me from now on." Jungkook's lips closed tight and he looked down to close the space between them. Their foreheads touched and he gave in to the words.

"Why did he call you?" The writer lowly asked.

Jungkook bit his upper lip and let small breaths pass through it. The warmth provided was calming him down, and the dilated eyes of Min Woo were fighting a battle in his mind. "He wants me to prove to him that us being boyfriends is just a game to me." The truth of his words hurt Jimin, but it wasn't a game, at least not anymore.

"How?" The writer was afraid to hear the answer. He was holding back a lot of emotions to present himself strong in front of his boyfriend, but every single word that continued to be exposed from pandora's box was leaving him wanting to murder Lee Min Woo.

"He wants me to have sex with one of his sex slaves three days a week for two of them." It was a hard punch in his chest, Jimin's legs were quivering. "W-Why can't you disobey him? Accept our love Jungkook-ah." Jimin didn't want to know what would happen if the younger did go and succumb to Min Woo's orders. "It's not that simple! I-I told you... If I don't go he'll do it to me instead. Just like..." Jungkook took a breath and closed his eyes.

"Just like he did to me during the first week of January. I didn't leave to Tokyo, he forced the dominant part of me out and made it submit to his." Jungkook sighed and heard the small sniffles under him. "You're a fucking liar Jungkook. I knew I didn't give you that hickey." Jimin was so tired of hearing lies, and when the truth came out it was added to the anger he felt. His right hand was itching.

"I know... I can't control it sometimes." Jungkook admitted.

"What else did you lie to me about?" Jimin's voice hinted the coldness of his anger again, and it made the younger want to escape him, but he didn't. "I... cheated on you once." Everything flowing down the writer's eyes was full of disappointment, anger, there was disgust and he felt used.

"When and how?" Jimin's voice turned completely cold.

"The day of the poster shooting. I was jealous of you and Taehyung. You wouldn't go back to eat with me and... I called Min Woo. He brought someone and... before anything could happen-"

Slap!

"-you called me." Jungkook's head was forced to the right, his voice slowly broke in the end of his sentence. Their leaned foreheads were no longer touching and veins were popping onto the still marked skin of Jimin's neck. "You saw and touched someone else naked a-and then you touched me with those hands later? Jungkook that's sick." Jimin's warmth disappeared and he was really heartbroken. It felt like fire was burning inside his chest and his lungs were short on air.

"I didn't touch him! I swear, I stopped before anything could happen. I-I could only see your face Jimin!" Jungkook followed him to the living room. The guilt was eating him alive. "It's fucking Jimin hyung for you brat And a him?! You stopped because I called you. What if I hadn't? You would've really gone with someone-" The writer turned around and felt the actor's hands on his. "Damn it! Jimin hyung, please listen to me!" He stopped and raised his glare into the doe eyes.

"I payed him to keep silence because if I hadn't, Min Woo would've hurt both of us. I only want you Jimin hyung... Please forgive me for that." It was a sincere apology portrayed in the younger's eyes. He felt it inside his heart and said it to the older's face expecting something. Jimin bit his lips and the urge to slap Jungkook again was fighting in his mind, his left cheek twitched and his eyes almost closed when a set of tears escaped them.

"Then promise me that you'll listen to me from now on, not Min Woo." Jimin noticed the sudden fear flashing through the younger's eyes yet he nodded. "When does he want you to have sex?"

"Tonight." Jungkook answered.

"I'll get you the best lawyer in Korea, we're dragging Min Woo's ass to jail. But I need you to do something about tonight." Talking about the topic made Jimin's stomach twist. "Can you get the consent of the person he wants you to have sex with to testify against him?"

"I don't know... I... might be able to talk to one of them." Jungkook was perplexed, Jimin started acting different and his instinct told him that he still wasn't forgiven. But of course he wouldn't be, if Jimin forgave him with a simple sentence, then life on Earth would be so much different than what it is today.

"Why are you helping me after all I just confessed? You should leave me because I'm a pathetic excuse of human being for everything I've done to you." Jungkook searched Jimin's eyes and his heart skipped a beat when the chocolate eyes stared back at him with anger and-

"I told you. I'm teaching you what love is. I'm going to help you because this is what loving you does to me."

Yet, Jungkook still didn't tell him about the real reason why Min Woo ordered him to have sex for two weeks. Because if Jungkook was the lion that had mixed feelings for his prey, then Min Woo was the devil watching the lion's den.

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February 25, 2019

"I need your help." Jimin licked his lips for sugar crumbs and placed the half eaten Kkwabaegi on his plate and the three figures sitting on stools raised their eyebrows. "Which one of us?" Taehyung sipped on some iced tea while pointing at his left to Christy and Hoseok to his right. They were currently in the writer's apartment, where once again he had seeked their help. "Any of you. I need to get one of the best lawyers in Korea to put someone in jail."

"Did Jungkook hurt you? I'm going to kill him." Taehyung set the bottle of iced tea on the counter and grit his teeth certain to accomplish the task. "Babe, calm down." Hoseok brushed his hand down the actor's thigh trying to ease down the tension in his body; those two were officially dating. "Oh, you won't have to do that. I'll kill him myself once this is all over. I'm teaching him a lesson." Jimin forcefully cut another piece of the doughnut with his teeth and chewed on it before Christy took out her phone.

"As it happens, I know someone that may be able to help you. She's one of the best. Want her number?" Christy noticed the sparkle in the writer's eyes and took that as a yes. "I'll let her know that you'll call her."

"Actually, I don't have much time. Can you lend me your phone?" Jimin gulped the chewed piece of doughnut and extended his hand free-of-sugar towards her. "Oh, sure. I don't know if she'll answer right away because she might have a case." She pressed call on the contact and waited until it ringed.

"Hello sensitive sunray, did I interrupt you at work? No? That's perfect. I have a friend that needs your help now. Okay, let me pass you to him." The stylist passed him the phone. Jimin knows he'd seen the name Little Senpai on the contact flash on the screen once. "Park Jimin speaking."

"Mr. Park hello. I'm Han Me-Ji, CEO of Choi & Kim Lawfirm. What can I help you with?" The voice of a woman, strong yet a little high pitched, answered on the back of the line. Her tone was professional and her pronunciation close enough to a Busan satoori evolved in the city of Seoul. "I need a lawyer for my boyfriend. He wants to press charges against his stepfather for various things, but it won't be easy. Can you help us make him rot in jail?" Jimin heard the echo of a voice belonging to a little girl in the background of the call but soon he heard a reply.

"What kind of charges and do you have witnesses that can testify against him for the accused charges?" There was a hint of interest in her words, like she was already into the case. "I'd prefer not to say the charges over a phone call, but we have witnesses." He heard her smirk. "Since you're a friend of my best friend and it sounds very interesting, I'll accept the case. When can we meet with your boyfriend as well?"

"Does tomorrow sound good?" Everyone listened to the conversation the writer had going, they were curious but they knew better than to ask. If they needed to know something, he would tell them. "Yes, I'll arrange a few things. Come to my office. Christy can tell you where it is and send me your contact information."

"That is perfect. Thank you Ms. Han."

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February 26, 2019.

It was long as hell. Jungkook spent four hours explaining to Jimin and Me-Ji what happened in his past. But to the writer's surprise, the actor had opened up only to the lawyer and him, no one else. He was still pissed and disappointed with his boyfriend, but he helped him overcome the terrifying process.

To Jungkook, this wasn't easy. First, he had managed to avoid having sex with anyone. That day Min Woo called him, he followed Jimin's plan. The plan was to convince Seunghun to be a witness in order to testify against Min Woo, and he succeeded to avoid having sex. He convinced Min Woo that he'd always choose Seunghun, and when the time came he wouldn't have sex with the boy but get his confessions instead and if Min Woo wanted proof, Seunghun had to relieve himself alone.

And the hardest part of it all for a very sexually active male was that Jimin refused to have sex with him until he'd learnt his lesson. During the snow, a flower cannot bloom unless spring comes and as Min Woo kept haunting him despite all the tries the writer was doing, the actor had the date set. On March 8, his time would be up and Min Woo would explode in different ways.

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March 5, 2019.

"I don't fucking care! I need my fucking mint chocolate chip ice cream. Now get your ass up that couch and accompany me. Jungkook is giving me stress and as my best friend, you're not helping either." With a red-blue scarf wrapped around his neck, rosy plump lips hidden Jimin rolled his eyes and searched for his car keys. "Oh come on! Min, we ate doughnuts this morning." Taehyung grabbed a cushion from beside him and stuffed his face in it to groan and then get up.

"Don't argue with me or I'll punch you." With leather Chelsea boots already on his feet, Jimin had to stop before opening the door. "Ugh Tae, did you fart again?" He scrunched his nose and fanned the air around him with his right hand while holding his breath; a Metallic Interlocking Sterling Silver Bracelet from the brand Gucci made small sounds around his wrist. The air around him suddenly reeked when his best friend stood beside him with a hidden grin. "You pig! Go away!" He opened the front door and exited with the younger laughing behind him.

"It was a silent one. Give me credit- Hahahaha..." Taehyung's eyes wrinkled with his boxy smile letting out exhales of laughter. Jimin's eyes side glared at him while he locked the door and then pressed his palm against the door to hold himself. "Whoa, it didn't smell that bad!" The actor didn't stop laughing when he noticed how his best friend leaned against the door for support given how the writer is over dramatic. "Stop laughing, my head hurts. You made me dizzy." Jimin's voice was hoarse in tone, he wasn't scolding the male, but whining.

"You're serious?" Taehyung stopped laughing and placed his hand above Jimin's left shoulder. Maybe something was off with him, maybe Jimin woke up on the wrong side of the bed, he was debating in his head. "Yes, I'm dizzy. Let's just go buy my mint chocolate chip ice cream."

"Really Jimin-ah, we already ate doughnuts for breakfast. You'll need to start hitting the gym again if you keep eating so many sweets. You're usually more of a sour things guy." Taehyung walked with him towards the elevator and pressed the button to the parking lot instead of the lobby once the doors dinged. "Are you saying I gained weight?" Jimin's eyes blinked and he slapped the actor's arm before scanning his thighs and then touch his body over the clothes he wore. The thought of gaining weight was usually horrific for him.

"No, I meant you'll gain- hey hey. You're sweating. Take the scarf off." Taehyung worriedly began unwrapping the red-blue scarf around the writer's neck and cleaned the beads of sweat formed on his forehead with the same scarf. "You don't have a fever."

"I'm okay. I just want mint chocolate chip ice cream." When the elevator stopped they both walked to the underground parking lot in search for the writer's black K900. "You and your cravings. You sure you're not pregnant?" Before opening the passenger's door to the car Taehyung rolled his eyes because the cravings for doughnuts and ice cream was rare for Jimin, not for himself.

Clink!

Jimin's keys fell to the floor as soon as the sentence resonated in his ear and then brain. "Don't joke around with that. I haven't missed the pills, it's not possible." He crouched down and picked up the keys, unlocked the car and opened the door with Taehyung simultaneously following him. "Are you sure? What was it? Every Monday?" The younger buckled up while the writer started the ignition with the press of his finger in a button and foot on the breaks followed by buckling up. "Yes, every Monday morning. I've been doing it since Jungkook and I got together." With his right foot on the break pedal and right hand on the gearshift to pull it back on Reverse mode. He started driving in reverse while staring at the screen on top of the ventilation deck.

"And you didn't miss one single day? Are you sure? Those cravings can't be because of your man period." Something didn't fit in Taehyung's puzzle. It didn't make sense to him, and neither did it to Jimin.

"Tae- A man period is not a thing. I'm just craving mint chocolate ice cream. Stop worrying. I've taken the pill every Monday since December thirty-first of last year." The gearshift was now on drive and the writer held the wheel with both hands while explaining to his best friend. It wasn't weird. He hadn't missed the pill a single Monday, if he did then he'd remember it, he wasn't irresponsible.

"What about any days where you drank? You get some bad hangovers the next morning, what if you missed taking one because of it?" Now the actor was insisting and getting on his best friend's nerves. "Kim Taehyung. I've taken the pill for every single fucking Monday. I took it during the days where I had a hangover and even when Jungkook was-" The car abruptly and harshly stopped. The writer's hands began go shake and his eyes widened in fear. He didn't care if the car stopped before crossing the road out of his apartment complex, nor the cars that could be behind him. He was terrified right now.

"Jimin?!" Taehyung shouted in worry when his body suddenly jerked forward but got held back by the zip-belt. Once his eyes were on Jimin, he reached out to him with a groan because of his neck and heart almost beating out of his chest with adrenaline. "Tae... When did you call me to explain about Hoseok hyung and Yoongi hyung?" The writer searched for his phone in his inner pockets with trembling fingers. "The first week of February. Filming was cancelled the next day." Although Taehyung wasn't specific, it was to Jimin. It was enough for when he opened his phone and went through his camera roll, his index finger was trembling.

"Park Jimin, don't fucking tell me."

When the writer's eyes spotted a picture of a drunk Jungkook with an apple, he read the date and time of the picture out loud. "February four, two-wol ten-il." He exited the camera roll and entered Calendar into the month of February where he noticed the 4 under Monday with hazy vision. He closed his eyes and recalled how Jungkook woke up that day with his head against the toilet, and how he took care of him. "I'm not sure... Fuck!" It came in a rush, after staring at the picture, that's the only day he can't remember taking the pill.

"Am I forgetting something?" He mumbled, head aching and eyes wanting to sleep but he shook his head and walked over to his awaiting boyfriend with the glass of cold water.

"I'm going to kill you. Get out of the car, I'm driving." Taehyung unbuckled his zip-belt and opened the car carefully before a honk in the back made him flinch. Jimin opened his eyes and followed his best friend's words.

"Fuck your stupid ice cream. We're going to a hospital, convenience stores are too crowded and if we're seen, it's another scandal. Do you have any spare masks in here?" Even though he was asked a question, all Jimin could do was stare at the screen of his phone with a blurry vision.

This can't happen... Jungkook doesn't even know what love is right now.

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With a nervous foot tapping on the floor, a heart beating out of his chest, shaky fingers and a hazy vision, Jimin gulped an empty breath with nervousness. He was fatigued ever since they were in the car. Taehyung walked back and forth biting his right thumb's nail and exhaled long breaths for his best friend. Both of them were already inside an office waiting for the doctor. "Why the fuck does Jungkook not know what a fucking condom is?" The taller exclaimed.

"I was being safe. I took the pill and not wearing a condom felt more intimate and raw." Jimin's rosy lips were a bit pale now and his bouncing knee didn't seem to stop.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Park, Mr. Kim." A brunette woman in a doctor's gown greeted them with a bow after closing the door. A file was in her right hand. "Hello Doctor Kang, it's been a while." Jimin greeted with a half bow from where he sat while Taehyung bowed his head. "Doctor Kang, how are you?"

"I've been better, thanks Taehyung-ssi." She replied with a smile. Doctor Kang was their doctor, a very experienced woman in her late fifties and mother of an actress who's friend with Taehyung. "Because of the file in my hands, I assume Mr. Park is the patient here. What are you feeling?" Jimin was too stupefied to even respond again so he just stood up and let the doctor examine his vitals.

"We need a male pregnancy test as soon as possible." Taehyung answered for Jimin.

There may have been moments where Park Jimin has been on the verge of passing out from nervousness. The examples are when his first book was about to be awarded a Daesan Literary Award, the time he was nominated 5th of Korea's Top 10 Most Eligible Bachelors in their 20's-30's, the day he gave a speech in front of the President (he was invited to one of the award ceremonies, but that counts as well), but none of them would top the moment Doctor Kang exhaled a breath while holding a white pregnancy dipstick with the results. Taehyung's hands dropped to the side when he saw the result and looked at his best friend with worried eyes. He didn't have to say anything. With just the look on his eyes, it was clear.

"I'm going to be sick." Jimin covered his lips with the knuckles of his right hand and stood up from the chair he sat to look for the trashcan.

"Two pink lines. He's pregnant." Doctor Kang said and quickly gave the test to Taehyung in order to help Jimin.

No matter how much the truth hurt, in silence Jimin's heart wailed because if Jungkook did not know how to love him, then the unborn child he carried would suffer the consequences as well on a higher scale. How could he deal with this? No matter what anyone said to him right now, he was utterly terrified. Doctor Kang couldn't help him, Christy couldn't help him, Hoseok couldn't help him, Seokjin couldn't help him and neither could Taehyung. He had to help himself and be independent. Now he needed to take everything more than serious, more than ever as a responsible adult. This news was overwhelming on a different scale than before.

At this moment, the time where Jungkook told him how he never wanted to father a child was vividly replaying in his mind as well as all the fucked up confessions he told him in their kitchen.

Pandora's box was unleashed once and for all and the house of cards where he was just collapsed.

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