Your heart sunk.

He was in a horrible state. 

His eyes were barely open, cheeks swollen, bruised, cut... everything.

You were horrified.

Heartbroken for him.

Tears started pooling in your eyes, but you quickly wiped them away.

You couldn't cry. You had to be strong for him. Jungkook.

"Oh no...." You breathed, rushing over to him.

You crouched beside him, catching his attention.

"N-noona..."

"I'm here Kook, I'm here now it's okay... noona's here..." You reassured him, slowly unpacking the first aid kit.

Jungkook was a mess. Physically and emotionally.

But fortunately, being a mafia all your life, you had dressed plenty of wounds. You would be able to help his physical state, but mentally... you weren't quite sure.

You quickly got out some cotton, dampening it with water before passing the bottle to him. "Here, have a drink while I clean you up, then we can talk."

He just nodded, and you started cleaning the dried blood off his forehead.

As you progressed through the process of cleaning and dressing his many wounds, you realised that there was a lot you needed to know from him.

And considering he had finally admitted to needing your help, you had a feeling you were going to get the answers you were looking for.

Jungkook winced as you slightly pressed on his forehead, trying to clean the last of the blood from around the cut. "Sorry... nearly done, I promise," you apologised.

Though it was now clean, the gash in his forehead was still weeping, so you put some antibacterial cream on it before covering it with a gauze and bandage. You quickly cleaned his other cuts and put cold cream on his bruises, and then you sat back and studied his face.

A few moments of silence passed, and Jungkook's eyes dropped from yours to the ground. He felt... embarrassed.

"I'm done now... you wanna talk?"

Jungkook and since calmed down from his little panic when he had called you, and you could sense his hesitancy to start sharing.

You put your hand on his knee and sat down next to him, watching the bees float from flower to flower. Direct eye contact was usually more threatening, and you knew he would be more comfortable if you weren't watching him. "Hey, I won't tell anyone. I just want you to share everything with me so you don't keep the burden upon yourself anymore." You paused, then added, "I won't even tell Tae."

You spoke gently, not wanting to pressure him but also keeping in mind that you needed to know what was going on to help him.

As if that was all he needed to hear, Jungkook sighed heavily and began to speak.

The floodgates open, and he didn't beat around the bush.

"My stepdad... hits me and eomma... We don't do anything wrong- well she doesn't, but he drinks a lot and then takes it out on her.... and I can't stand it..."

You just listened, because you knew that's all he wanted you to do.

"I hate seeing eomma hurt, so I always catch him when I hear it start and take the hits for her... it's not a big deal because I'm used to it by now...  but whenever I'm not there she gets beaten twice as worse and I can't do anything to protect her..."

He paused, biting his lip. You knew he was trying not to cry. Once he had gathered himself, he continued.

"I don't fight back to him because I know it will only end up worse... he has a lot of money, a lot of power... I don't want to imagine what he could do to eomma if I pushed his limits..."

Taking a deep breath, he spoke again. "But today, I snapped. He went overboard... a-and... n-noona, he knocked her u-unconcious with a metal b-bat..."

He voice began shaking, and out of the corner of your eye, you noticed a lone tear run down his bruised cheek.

Grabbing his hand, you gave it a little squeeze in reassurance.

"I wasn't thinking- I was so angry and worried about eomma I just stood up and punched him... h-he looked like he wanted to kill me he was so mad- then he pushed me and I fell over, smashed my head on the corner of the table-" he gestured to his bandaged forehead, "-and I nearly blacked out. But he didn't stop. He just kept on kicking me, hitting me with that bat, cursing at me.... and then he just suddenly stopped... and without saying a word, he left with eomma.... I don't know where s-she is.... and she's with h-him..."

"Hey, deep breaths, okay?"

"N-noona, eomma regretted leaving appa after the divorce, but then appa was killed suddenly and she had to stay with my step-dad... she didn't have money, b-but she need to provide for me.... this is all m-my fault..."

You shook your head. "No, no it's not, Kook. She wouldn't have known this was going to happen..."

"I m-miss a-appa so much, noona... he was a good man..." His voice continued to break as his tears kept falling.

You hummed, rubbing his back. "I'm sure he was. How long has this been happening, Kook? And why didn't you tell anyone?"

He sniffed, squeezing his hands nervously. "I d-don't know... three years, I think..."

Your eyes widened.

This had been going on for three years and you hadn't noticed it?!

Jungkook saw your reaction, and quickly tried to justify himself. "I just didn't want you guys to worry about it when nothing would be able to be done anyway... it's not like I'm dead, and I've managed just fine these past years..."

You frowned, turning to him. "You could have died, Jungkook! This is serious, not just something you can deal with by yourself. Did you see what happened to you today?! Once we're done here, I'm taking you to the hospital to get treated properly.... I don't even want to know what's under that hoodie."

He shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere... I have to find my eomma, because for all I know, h-he could b-be-"

"Don't think about that right now, Koo. It's best not to think about what could be happening, when we don't actually know and things may not be as bad as you think. Right now you've got to focus on getting better, then we can worry about your eomma."

While you were saying this in comfort, you were probably the biggest hypocrite alive.

You were, indeed, thinking of all the negative outcomes of everything right now. 

All the 'what if's.

You were worried about Yoongi.

Now Jungkook and his mother as well.

Not to mention Taehyung. 

And the entirety of Bangtan.

If you were being honest with yourself, you would probably benefit from taking your own advice and trying not to worry about the possibilities, and focus more on what you know you can do.

Jungkook's voice took you back to the current predicament. "N-noona... can you help me, though? You said you could b-but... to be honest, I don't know what you can do..."

Right.

To help Jungkook, you would first have to find his mum. 

But you could do that, right? You were the Blackrose. 

You nodded reassuringly. "Of course I can help, Kook. Why else would I offer?"

He cracked a wobbly smile. "Because you want to make me feel better?"

You smiled and squeezed his hand. "Well, there is that too. But I'm gonna get your eomma back, alright? Trust me."

Jungkook looked at you, skeptical. "How are you going to do that?"

Winking, you replied cheekily. "My secret. I have connections with people, you know? They're very good at finding people."

"Can I help? It is my eomma."

You slowly nodded. "I'll see what I can do. Actually, you could help right now. Do you know the license plate of the car your step-dad took?"

"Yeah... why would you need that?"

You just insisted that you needed it, and eventually he gave it to you. Giving him a gentle hug, being mindful of any injuries he might have on the rest of his body, you said, "You'll be okay, alright? And so will your eomma, trust me. For now, let's get the rest of you fixed up at the hospital, then we'll figure out where to go next. Sound like a plan?"

Sighing, Jungkook agreed. "Thanks Noona... I really do appreciate it.... I just have one question. Where will I go after the hospital? There no way you expect me to go back to my house."

You shook your head aggressively. "No, no, never. You can come back to me and Tae's house, if you want. I'll make up some excuse to tell him, like your parents kicked you out for not cleaning your room or something."

He scoffed, raising his eyebrow. "As if he'd buy that. How would you explain the bandage around my forehead?"

Shrugging, you replied, "You feel out of a tree while chasing a squirrel. Simple."

He sniffed, giggling and shaking his head. "Alright, I'll come with you... only because I've got nowhere else to go."

Smiling, you wiped the tears off his cheeks before taking his hand and exiting the secret garden. "Just remember, you're welcome anytime, Kook."

[A/N]

Aight guys, well this is just a really quick note. This is a bit of a longer chapter this time, so I hope you enjoy it!! School is going to come back in a couple of weeks, so I was just giving you the heads up. I'm going to be trying to write as much as possible in the next few weeks, and the aim is to have a couple chapters written and ready to upload as the term starts as I'm a year away from graduating, so the workload of schoolwork is about to increase dramatically. Other than that, I hope you guys are enjoying!

Until next time,

Your Author <3