Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Another one? That's our third manager that's quit in less than a year." Jimin was resting his head in his hands while seated at the conference table. The members were all gathered into a room to receive the news that, yet again, another manager had quit.

Evidently, the group was too much for many people to handle. Their success meant a lot of publicity and scheduling, which became too much work for the last three hires. The previous managers had all been very loving and kind to the group, and they were sad each time one left, but unfortunately those managers had been way over their heads in what they could actually manage. 

BTS was too much work.

"However, I have someone who will be great. I looked at his resume and it would appear he's exactly what you need. A man with experience and talent. His name is Mr. Lany. I already had a video call with him earlier, and if I get the yes from you guys, I'll go ahead and sign him on." All of this information was coming from a worker on the company's hiring team. They had searched for a new manager as soon as the other one had quit.

Namjoon dropped his head in defeat. "Yeah, sure. Whatever. Just hire anyone at this point. They'll probably quit in a damn month anyway."

Everyone could hear the sullen tone in Namjoon's words. They all understood, because they all felt the same way. They didn't understand why they seemed to be the only group that managers couldn't handle. They were humble, supportive, understanding, and kind to everyone who worked for them. They were hard workers. It seemed like managers just couldn't keep up with the fast paced job.

"Well, since Joonie hyung said to go ahead with it, I'll just agree with him. Bring on Mr. Lany." Jungkook looked around the table to see if the rest of his hyungs would agree to that as well, and they did. They were all feeling pretty bummed about losing yet another manager, so their hopes weren't too high that this one would stick around long either.

The day that Mr. Lany showed up to introduce himself and begin his work, the members were a bit thrown off by how...assertive...the man was. He immediately started listing off different schedules the members had and all of his conversations were solely business based. He didn't seem to care about their personal lives. He didn't seem like he wanted to get to know them as people. He was only there to do his job and that was that.

One thing that became noticeable within the first week of Mr. Lany being hired was that he and Jimin seemed to butt heads quite a lot. Jimin was pretty outspoken, and had no problem speaking up when he disagreed with something Mr. Lany was saying or trying to get them to do. The other members were a bit more reserved, especially after one night when Mr. Lany and Jimin had actually gotten into a pretty bad argument and Mr. Lany screamed his head off at him. It had something to do with him packing their schedules too much, and out of concern for the group, Jimin told Mr. Lany to remove some of their practices to give them time to rest.

Mr. Lany didn't like being told what to do. The manager had not only screamed at Jimin to never undermine his authority again, but then started screaming more personal attacks at him such as calling him a bad worker, a bad dancer, a disappointment to the group. He even scolded Jimin, telling him to apologize to the entire group for doing such a shitty job representing the team. Jimin had gone home that day a mess of tears. He didn't eat dinner and remained in his room, curled up under his covers. He was disappointed in himself for acting the way he had, and truly was sorry to his group. Yoongi and Hobi both tried cheering him up by telling him that everything the manager had said was bullshit.

Jin, Taehyung, and Jin had been worried about him not eating dinner so brought food to his room and left it on his nightstand in case he felt like eating later in the night. However, he never touched it.

That was only the beginning of what would soon turn into the biggest downward spiral Jimin had ever seen. 

Mr. Lany was overseeing dance practice one day, and was again berating Jimin for messing up some of the dance moves. Hobi had tried coming to his dongsaeng's defense. "It's a new dance. That's why we practice. He has plenty of time to-"

"-Was I speaking to you?" Mr. Lany crossed his arms and eyed the dance leader up and down. The man made Hobi nervous as hell, so he gulped and shook his head no.

"That's what I thought. No sense in speaking unless spoken to. Show some manners." Mr. Lany then turned to Jimin. "Let's go speak in my office. It's not fair to your team for you to embarrass them again with whatever stupid words come out of your mouth."

Taehyung and Jungkook both looked at each other with expressions of guilt in their eyes. They wanted to say something to defend Jimin just like their hyung had, but they didn't want to make the situation worse.

Yoongi didn't give as much of a shit about speaking up, though. "He's not an embarrassment," he lowered his tone to a whisper, however he purposefully made it loud enough to still somewhat be heard, "you on the other hand are a different story."

Jin, who had been standing right next to Yoongi, nudged him with his elbow and gave him the side-eye.

Mr. Lany eyed him as well, but didn't say anything. He looked back at Jimin, who was standing there. "Didn't I ask you to go to my office?"

Jimin hesitated. He didn't want to speak to Mr. Lany alone. He preferred to not speak to him at all. The man had already proven to be quite mean when it came to anything he did. Jimin noticed the way Mr. Lany treated him versus the others. He heard Yoongi's whisper. He saw the way the manager hadn't really reacted. But he knew if it had been him who made that statement, all hell probably would have broken loose. He didn't understand what he did that triggered the manager's hatred of him, but it did ruin his confidence quite a bit. That's part of the reason he kept messing up the dance moves while the man was watching. It was too much  pressure. 

Namjoon patted Jimin on the back. "It's okay, Jimin-ah. It's just a quick chat."

Although it was evident Mr. Lany was a jerk, the members trusted him, at the very least. They didn't expect the manager to ever hurt any of them or do something drastically terrible. He hadn't shown himself as that kind of person.

So to Jimin's surprise, when he entered into Mr. Lany's office and was immediately smacked in the back of the head, he had no clue what to do or how to react. He clutched the back of his head while tears glistened in his eyes. He wanted to escape, but Mr. Lany was blocking the door. He didn't understand what he'd done wrong. He had followed the manager to his office without even saying anything.

"Do you enjoy making a fool out of me, Jimin? Huh? Do you?!" Mr. Lany's face was beat red and Jimin could see veins popping out of the mans neck.

"I-I didn't say anything. I didn't-"

Mr. Lany stepped forward, causing Jimin to back into the office wall. "-You're right. You didn't," he interrupted, "you didn't listen to me when I told you to speak to me in my office."

Jimin looked around, still holding his head. He wanted to completely break down because he still didn't understand. "I-I am in your office."

The manager lifted his hand and gave Jimin a swift back-handed slap across his face. Jimin felt the sting and his free hand had reflexively shot up and cupped his now burning cheek. Before he could say anything else or react further, Mr. Lany pinned Jimin against the wall by his chest. He got right up in Jimin's face. "Watch your fucking mouth, kid. Do you take me for an idiot?"

Jimin could feel his heart thudding in his chest. He knew that Mr. Lany could feel his rapid heartbeat as well, and that only added fuel to the fire. There was no hiding the fact he was terrified. He stared into the man's face with absolute terror behind his eyes, not even knowing what to say to get out of this situation. He could feel beads of sweat begin to drop down his forehead, and he began to feel like he was overheating and was going to pass out right there.

"I asked you a fucking question," Mr. Lany spat.

"N-No...I d-don't think you're an idiot," Jimin gulped, "sir."

Mr. Lany didn't back off. He kept Jimin trapped against the wall. "Well, then, good. Now when I ask you to do something, you do it! Do you understand me? That means when I tell you to improve your dance steps, you improve. When I tell you to meet me in my office, you do it right away. What authority do you have to hesitate and make me look like I have no authority? Whose in charge here, huh? You or me? Me, kid. So the next fucking time I tell you to do something, " he grabbed Jimin's shoulders and shoved him to the ground, "you better fucking do it! Do I make myself goddamn clear?!"

Jimin was a sobbing mess on the floor. He gripped his chest as he hyperventilated. He wished another member would hear all this yelling and run in and save him, but the manager's office was far from their practice room so nobody was going to hear the commotion. His mind was reeling as he still tried to make sense of the situation. He got this angry because I hesitated coming here when he asked me to? I know I'm not crazy. He's the one being absolutely insane!

"Namjoon is the leader of this group, correct?" Mr. Lany asked.

Jimin felt his heart sink out of his chest as he wondered what Namjoon had to do with any of this. "Y-Yes, sir." He hated calling the man sir, but he figured doing this would hopefully ease some of the man's damn hate towards him. The two had clashed from the beginning and he didn't know what the guy wanted from him in order to make things right, so he was doing what he could.

"It sounds like I should have a chat with him about showing you a little more discipline. It's time you learn some damn manners and learn how to respect your elders," Mr. Lany walked to his desk and grabbed a handful of tissues out of a box, "now get yourself together and then go tell Namjoon I'd like to see him."

As Mr. Lany was handing Jimin the tissues, the boy still crumpled up and crying on the floor, he begged for him not to hurt Namjoon. "P-Please don't hurt Namjoonie hyung."

"Hurt him? Now why would I go and do a thing like that?" Mr. Lany smirked. "You're the only one I don't like." He nudged Jimin's side with his foot. "Now hurry up and stop crying like a baby. I know you're pathetic but at least try to act composed, will you?"

Still trembling, Jimin slowly got up. He felt the headache that was creeping in from being hit in the back of the head, and he could still feel the pain from the smack across his face. He wasn't sure what to do from here. Was he supposed to tell the others? But that would cause so many problems. That'd mean another manager gone, well, hopefully. And he didn't want to do that to his team. They were already so stressed out, plus Mr. Lany's words echoed through his brain. You're a disappointment.

He finally composed himself as the manager silently watched, and he decided to finish drying his tears in the bathroom. He needed air and this office was doing nothing but suffocating him. He ran out while he still had the chance and booked it down the hallway, locking himself into the bathroom. He looked at his face in the mirror and saw how disheveled he looked. His hair was clinging to his forehead from the sweat. His cheek was red, surely it would bruise. How do I tell my members about this? He glared at his own bloodshot eyes and narrowed them in disgust at himself.

Pathetic...

He poured cold water from the sink and splashed it onto his face. He needed to hurry up and get Namjoon before Mr. Lany decided that once again, he was disobedient.

After looking somewhat put back together, he left the bathroom and went back to the dance studio. The members were doing some practice without him and they were excited to see him return. Jungkook ran over and asked what had taken so long and what they had talked about. "I had to use the bathroom," Jimin lied, "sorry. And he just talked to me about putting more effort into practice." He then turned to Namjoon and let him know that the manager would like to see him as well. "Like, right now, hyung."

"Oh, okay. Yeah, sure." Namjoon departed swiftly to the manager's office. When he got there, Mr. Lany greeted him warmly. "I'm going to cut right to the chase here. You're the leader of this group, and I want you to discipline Jimin for his actions."

Namjoon was caught off guard by the wild statement. "I'm sorry, what? Discipline him for his actions? What did he do? And honestly I'm not really one for all that kind of stuff. Usually Jin hyung is-"

"-No," Mr. Lany interrupted, "You're the leader. So lead him. He's so disobedient, Namjoon. He doesn't listen. He talks back. He's lazy during practice. He needs consequences for the way he's been talking to me. Do something about it. Do something about him."

Namjoon furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't like the way this man was speaking about his best friend, but also didn't have the energy to argue. He already saw first-hand between the manager and Jimin what arguing would lead to. Nothing but a screaming match back and forth, and frankly, the leader didn't have the energy for it. "Yeah, sure. I'll talk to him."

Namjoon went to leave the office but Mr. Lany got his attention one more time. "Namjoon, I'm not asking you to talk to him. Clearly that hasn't worked. I'm asking you to do something."

Namjoon didn't quite understand what the manager was asking of him. Do something? Like what? Ground him? Take his phone? I'll figure something out. "Okay."

Namjoon left it at that. He didn't feel like being in that office anymore. He got bad vibes from it. He made his way back to the practice studio and it seemed like everyone had exhausted themselves. Understandably, Hobi decided to end practice for the day and said it was time to get going. Everyone asked Namjoon what Mr. Lany wanted. Everyone except Jimin. He was too afraid to know the answer. Thankfully, Namjoon came back okay. He didn't seem shaken up or anything, so Jimin could only assume that the manager really hadn't hurt his hyung.

"Just about some leadership stuff," Namjoon mumbled. He didn't want to make it a bigger deal than it was. He also figured this whole thing was between him and Jimin, so he brushed it off to the rest of the members.

Back at the dorm, Jin and Jungkook were busy getting dinner going. Hobi, Yoongi, and Taehyung were in the living room playing some video games while Jimin remained in his room. Something he'd been doing quite often. Any time someone tried to hang out with him he said he just wanted some space. Everyone was worried, but they didn't want to annoy him by prying.

Namjoon stepped into Jimin's room and sat on his bed. "Can we talk?"

"Okay." Jimin felt his throat go dry. He was absolutely terrified to hear what happened with Namjoon and Mr. Lany.

"I guess I'll just tell you what he said. I don't know what you two discussed when you saw him, but when I talked to him he told me I need to discipline you for the way you've been acting towards him."

Namjoon saw the immediate remorse in Jimin's expression. He knew his dongsaeng's body language, and he knew the boy was on the verge of tears. He reached his hand out and squeezed his shoulder. "I'm not going to do that, Jimin-ah. You're my best friend. I don't know what he expects of me, but I know you. I know you're not a bad person. He's just...strict."

Jimin avoided Namjoon's eyes. That's one word for it.

"Hey," Namjoon cupped Jimin's cheeks in his hands, and wiped the tears away that had fallen down his cheeks, "don't stress about him too much, okay? Just...I don't know. Agree with whatever he wants? I know that's shitty advice but honestly I just don't want to see you get in trouble with him, even if that means you have to bite your tongue sometimes. I'm sorry I can't offer much else."

"So I'm not in trouble with you?" Jimin felt his heart lighten up a bit. He was glad he had both a leader, but also a caring big brother, that he could depend on.

"Of course not." Namjoon was still holding Jimin's cheeks when he noticed one seemed a bit deeper red than the other. He turned Jimin's face in his hands to get a better look. "Did something happen to your face?"

Jimin felt his heart seize. Suppressing his sudden panic, he shot out the quickest lie he could think of. "I've just been scratching at it. Uhm..dry skin and all, you know? This winter air..."

"Would you like some face lotion?"

"No, it's okay hyung. Thanks." Jimin pulled his face away and pretended to scratch his cheek. "It's not as bad as earlier."

"Okay, well, let me know if you do. I know Jungkook and Yoongi have that really good lotion they use when the weather gets like this."

"I will. Thank you."

Namjoon grabbed Jimin and pulled him into a strong hug. Jimin melted into it, feeling the safest he'd felt in quite a while.

That feeling of safety quickly vanished when a week later Jimin found both himself and Namjoon in Mr. Lany's office. Jimin had found himself in trouble once again. It wasn't really his fault though. The manager had been giving Jungkook a stern talking to about how he had been acting towards Jin, but what the manager didn't know was that Jungkook was just being playful and not actually arguing with the eldest. The two had been playing. Everyone was defending Jungkook, and Jimin did too. Even though he was terrified of the manager, he would defend Jungkook with his life against anyone. And he knew what Mr. Lany was capable of when he was angry, and he could not dare to see that man get angry at his maknae.

Mr. Lany decided to target Jimin once again, and the man was scolding Namjoon for the way the younger had acted. "I told you to discipline him."

Namjoon gulped. "I did." Well, I talked to him, anyway...

"Did you now? So then why is he still being such a disrespectful little shit?" Mr. Lany scoffed.

Jimin was sitting in a chair while Namjoon stood next to him. He let Namjoon take the lead. He knew anything he had to say wouldn't end well anyway.

Namjoon was speechless after hearing the way this man was talking about Jimin. Who was this man to speak in such a way about one of his members? Even more than a member, but one of his absolute best friends - his family?

Namjoon now felt the need to defend Jimin with everything he had. "He was just defending our maknae. We all were. So why are you calling Jimin out on it? Jungkook didn't deserve for you to yell at him like you were. He and Jin hyungie always mess around."

Mr. Lany pretended to ponder the thought for a moment while he gently grabbed at his own chin. "Jimin was the most disrespectful."

Namjoon didn't see it that way. He didn't say anything out of line. Nobody had been disrespectful.

"How did you discipline this boy," Mr. Lany gestured to Jimin, "when I had asked you to?"

"I-" Namjoon felt a lump in his throat. He decided to just be honest. "I had a good talk with him. Right, Jiminie?"

Jimin nodded but remained speechless.

Mr. Lany walked over and stood beside Jimin. The singer felt so small sitting in a chair as the manager towered over him. The man's very presence felt threatening. Being around the guy was sure to bring sudden doom. 

At the very least, he had Namjoon.

"It would appear I have to show you what discipline means." Mr. Lany didn't waste another second. His hand flew up in the air and he punched Jimin right in the mouth. Jimin screamed in pain as he felt a tooth cut into his lip. He instantly noticed the metallic taste of blood on his tongue.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Namjoon screamed. Instinctively, he shoved Mr. Lany backwards. "Get the hell away from him! Are you fucking insane?!" He turned to Jimin, who had started crying and holding his bleeding mouth, and pulled his face into his chest. "Oh my god, are you okay? Are you okay?"

Jimin couldn't take it anymore. He stood up, shoved Namjoon aside, and made a break for it. He needed to get out of there. His spirit had been completely crushed.

Namjoon could feel his eyes stinging as the tears quickly formed. He couldn't believe what he'd seen, and didn't know quite how to react. He did know one thing for certain, though. "You're done! You're done here! I'm making damn sure the company fires you! You never, ever, put your hands on my family!"

Namjoon ran out of the room after Jimin, who he heard run into the bathroom. He dove in after him and found him curled up on the floor with some paper towels to his mouth, bawling his eyes out.

"Hey, hey, shhh. Let me see." Namjoon gently took a look at Jimin's lip. His tooth didn't go in deep enough for him to need stitches, but once it stopped bleeding it'd definitely hurt for a while.

Jimin curled up into Namjoon's chest. "Make him leave. P-Please make him leave. H-He keeps...he hits me." He didn't have it in him to keep it a secret anymore.

"He's done this before?" Namjoon felt his heart break. How could something like that have happened and I didn't know about it?

"Y-Yeah," Jimin sniffled. His whimpers remained muffled by Namjoon's chest.

Namjoon kissed the top of Jimin's head. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I didn't know. He's fired. I'll make damn sure of it. He will never touch or hurt you again. I can promise you that."

Jimin took both of his hands and clutched them around Namjoon's shirt. His entire body gave out as Namjoon held him against him. Although hurt and upset, he couldn't help but also feel relieved. Relieved that now someone knew. And now something could be done about it.

Namjoon rested his chin on top of Jimin's head and let out his tears. He was still trying to make sense of it. He knew the two clashed, but he had no idea that Mr. Lany was physically hurting the boy. He remembered something from about a week ago. "Your cheek..."

He had believed Jimin when he said it was red from scratching. After that first day, it had bruised slightly, but Jimin insisted it was from scratching his face too hard.

"Yeah," Jimin whispered. "I'm sorry I lied to you."

"Don't be sorry. I know you were probably really scared. I'm sorry for not knowing." Namjoon felt like a failure of a hyung.

"You couldn't have known. Nobody knew."

"Is that why you started keeping to yourself at night?"

Jimin nodded against Namjoon's chest.

Namjoon sighed, frustrated at himself for not recognizing the very evident signs that something was seriously wrong. "I'm so sorry," he repeated.

"Hyung, please just make him leave," Jimin begged.

"Oh, he'll be gone before the sun sets."

Namjoon was a man of his word. And not only was Mr. Lany gone before the sun set, but the man was in jail before the sun set because Namjoon didn't only tell the company what Mr. Lany had done, but he called the police himself. He was not about to let that man simply get away with hurting his brother.

Paramedics came and checked on Jimin right at the company, but he didn't want to go to the hospital. He simply wanted to go home where he knew he'd be comfortable, and rest.

When the rest of the members found out, Hobi and Jungkook had both burst into tears and hugged Jimin with all their might. Jin, Yoongi, and Taehyung felt the same shame that Namjoon had initially felt about not knowing and not being able to help. They were absolutely devastated and couldn't stop kissing Jimin's cheeks and telling them how much he didn't deserve that and how much they all loved him.

All the legal battles would come later, but the members were confident that Mr. Lany would spend a ton of years behind bars for hurting one of the members of literally one of the most famous groups in the world. He basically committed a national crime.

After the entire ordeal with the police was over and the members had gotten Jimin home, they helped him get comfortable and then tucked him under a blanket on the couch. Taehyung asked him if he'd like him to cook his favorite meal, and for the first time in weeks, Jimin actually had an appetite and wanted to eat something. Yoongi was sitting at the end of the couch with Jimin's feet stretched over his lap as he gave his dongsaeng a foot massage. It was hard for him to look at Jimin directly, because that meant seeing his swollen lip, and it broke his heart every single time. He kept his focus on the television.

Jungkook had Jimin's head in his lap as he played with his hyung's hair. "I love you," was all the maknae kept repeating. He was still too hurt to be able to say much else. Jimin grabbed Jungkook's hand and squeezed it. "I love you too, bun."

After the food was done cooking, the members gathered around Jimin in the living room to eat. "Order's up," Taehyung said as he handed Jimin his plate.

"Thank you."

Everyone stared at Jimin and waited for him to take a few bites first before any of them started eating. Hobi reached his hand out and placed it on Jimin's knee. "You went through a lot. Please, if you need to, you know you can talk to us about how you're feeling. I mean if you want to talk to a therapist or anyone, just say the word and we can get you what you need. We all just want you to be okay."

Jimin could feel his eyes start to water over. At least this time, they were tears of joy and not fear. "Thank you, hyungie. I will keep that in mind. But, now that he's in jail, I do feel better. I feel safe again."

"I'm not going to sit here and say you should have told us, because I know how hard that would have been," Jin started, "I guess I'm just upset with myself for not noticing anything. I'm the oldest one here. I'm supposed to look after you all..."

Jimin could sense Jin's sadness. "It's not your fault. It's nobody's fault. I hid it from you. You couldn't have known."

"Please never hide anything like that ever again," Yoongi said.

"It's never going to happen again. I'll make sure of it!" Jungkook said with confidence. He knew from that point on that he was going to be extremely more diligent about how all of big brothers were being treated by people.

"I suppose now isn't the time to speak about the fact that we have once again, lost a manager," Hobi said.

"We didn't lose a manager," Yoongi looked at Hobi, "we got rid of an asshole." He then turned to Namjoon. "Well, our leader got rid of an asshole."

Everyone was smiling as they looked at Namjoon, and the leader felt his cheeks start to turn shades of pink with embarrassment.

"Aish, of course. It wasn't a loss," Namjoon replied. "I'd do anything for you guys."

Jimin was smiling the brightest. "I owe you a big thank you for everything you did to protect me."

Namjoon was still blushing. "Aish, it was nothing..." He honestly felt like he didn't protect Jimin enough, really. He figured all he did was call the police. I guess that's something?

Everyone turned their attention to the TV and enjoyed the movie Jimin had picked out for them to watch. Despite the shitty last couple of weeks, Jimin was in good spirits. He knew no matter who or what circumstances came into his life, he had a group of loving brothers that he could always count on.

I'm not pathetic.

I'm not a disappointment.

I'm not disobedient.

I'm loved. 

[The End]