Azalea's, Camelia's and Rhododendron's: Chapter 6
Summary: Life always seemed to throw bullshit your way. A bullshit childhood, a bullshit family with the exception of your older brother, a bullshit bodyguard team because of aforementioned older brother… To say you were tired of it would be an understatement. You just wanted to bask in your self-made richness as a bestselling author, all by yourself being the key point, and pretend you’re not doing it to avoid your trauma. But now you have to deal with seven incredibly hot, stubborn and frustrating men forcibly barging into your life against both of your wishes and ruining your peaceful silence. So, if they were going to be hardheads, you’ll be one right back.
Pairing: BTS x reader, featuring older brother Bang Chan.
Warnings: Mentions of abuse, mentions of forced marriage.
Word Count: 3k
Surprise!!! Sorry I've been MIA for so long, graduating college is no jokes my peeps, and adulting is even worse. I go to bed at 9PM like an old lady and eat cereal out of a Tupperware container bc I'm too lazy to wash a bowl. Enjoy this chapter and I hope to keep updating more for you guys.
Jungkook nervously picks at the fingerless glove that hides his hand tattoos, sitting idly in the living room. It's been a couple of hours since you left the manor with Yoongi and Jimin in tow and he regrets not taking advantage of the opportunity to make up with you sooner.
Mira is skirting around the house doing her normal cleaning activities and he can hear her placing heavy tomes back on the wide bookshelves in your office. She's been eyeballing him all morning in what he assumes is irritation... or dislike... or probably both, he deserves it.
He moves to stand outside the door frame of your office, staring at the floor and scuffing his foot on the floor like a child, stealing glances at the woman every few seconds.
"I can feel you burning a hole in the back of my head child, spit it out."
Cheeks burning a fiery red upon being caught by the woman, he feels like he's back in training and should be standing at attention right now.
"I just, umm... I'm sorry about the things I said the other day." Scratching the back of his head in embarrassment and shame, staring down at his shoes again.
Quirking a brow at him, she begins placing the disheveled papers on your desk into a neat pile. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, though I appreciate the sentiment, I'm also not the one to give out your forgiveness either."
Nodding in understanding, he lets out a quiet sigh, beginning to turn around when he hears her speak up.
"I spent over twenty years caring for her as if she were my own, and not once did I ever suspect something was wrong. I failed her as the only mother figure she had in her life, and I'll never let it happen again. I will protect her at all costs, even from you." There's an unbreakable fierceness in her eyes, and Jungkook can tell that biological or not, it's clear as day how much she loves you as a daughter.
"I understand. I promise I will never do anything to hurt her again, and I will do my very best to protect her from others." Going into a deep bow out of respect and apology to the caretaker before him.
She locks her eyes on him when he lifts his head, holding him to that promise in her heart.
Her words about you piqued his curiosity and as he's about to ask about your real mother, the alarm system beeps to the opening of the front door, signaling your arrival home.
"We're back!" You yell, Jimin and yourself carrying drawstring bags, and Jungkook observes his second eldest hyung stumble his way through the entryway like a newborn calf.
Catching his breath, Yoongi whips his head at you and your partner in crime. "I told you to never do that while I was in the car, are you trying to give me a heart attack!?"
The two of you are cackling in delight, it was Jimin's idea to switch the car to manual on the way home; you had taken full advantage of your six-gear V10 engine.
"Hey Mira, Hwasa is coming over later, so she'll be here for dinner" You call out to her. The three of you moving to your office with the drawstring bags.
Jimin watches you walk behind your desk and crouch down to press a false panel in the baseboard of your bottom shelf, making the entire section slide out like a drawer, revealing a safe as well as a packed duffel bag behind the backboard. You place the bag in your hands next to the duffel bag and turn to grab the others from Jimin and Yoongi, placing them in and sliding the shelf back in place with a click.
"I'm not gonna lie, that's some spy-type shit and I used to work at the NIS." Yoongi pipes up behind you, leaving you and Jimin to start giggling at his comment.
You get up and move to sit down in your desk chair, "I promise I'm not a spy, Namjoon should know about it if my brother was detailed enough in the information he provided to you guys."
Confused, Jimin asks why your brother would include the location of your safe to bodyguards. It would make sense to know about it if they were home security guards but knowing where your safe is does nothing to help them protect you personally.
You go on to explain that it's not the safe but the compartment itself that's important to know about. The duffel inside is a go-bag for emergencies that require your swift evacuation from the manor, containing everything you would need in the event you need to go into hiding.
The two continue to stare at you like you've grown a second head until Yoongi breaks the silence. "Ya know this doesn't help your case on the spy thing." Jimin nods in agreement, "Yep definitely think you're a spy now."
Rolling your eyes, you shoo them off with the agreement to sort through the bags at night, eyes following them out the door. Turning your attention to your computer, you begin skimming through your emails, noting the file from your lawyer with the restraining order paperwork against Shin. There's also an email from his lawyer with the paperwork for the compensation the judge ordered him to pay you. Forwarding both to Chan you check your work email, finding that Hwasa had already sent you drafts of your return announcement and a tentative schedule for your book promotions to be approved by you.
With your eyes trained on the promotion dates you don't notice the figure standing in the doorway. Jungkook stands timidly much like the same way he did with Mira earlier. Finally swallowing down his fear, he knocks lightly on the doorframe to get your attention. Acknowledging him with a hum, you stay focused on the screen in front of you. When you don't hear any movement or response, you look up to lock eyes with him.
"Come in Jungkook, take a seat." You say, moving your eyes back to your work. The youngest slowly makes his way over to one of the guest chairs sitting in front of your desk, timidly sitting down like it was going to bite him in the ass. He sits for a few seconds, waiting for you to ask him what he wants or lock your eyes back on him, and when it becomes clear you aren't going to initiate this chat with him, he prepares himself to bite the bullet. Yoongi had told him that you'd offered forgiveness after he had promised to put effort into fixing the situation (of course leaving out the part about the 'effort' being absolutely destroying your abusers' reputations). He knows he'd been harsher than Yoongi, and he hopes he can repair the damage he caused as his brother had.
Taking a deep breath he begins his apology, "I'd like to say that I'm very sorry about what I said, it was uncalled for, and I shouldn't have judged you based on my past client's behavior or projected my frustrations on you." He finishes with a silent exhale of relief for getting that off his chest, watching as you stop typing and quirk an eyebrow, looking at him over the glasses on your nose like a judgy librarian.
"Did you think it would be that easy? A few heartfelt words and then all of your guilt can melt away."
"O-of course not!" He stutters out, "I know I have to make the effort to fix this. I crossed a line, not only professionally but personally, and doing so caused you harm. I would like to genuinely make this up to you."
Placing your glasses down on the desk, you lean back to take in the man sitting before you. "And how exactly are you going to do that? I may have been able to strike a deal with Yoongi, but that doesn't mean I've forgiven him yet either. He knows he has to meet my expectations to fix this, but what do you have to offer? What do you have or what can you do to prove to me you mean it?" Crossing your arms, you wait for his response.
"Anything and everything you want from me I'll do; I promise I'll protect you and not just in the scope of my job but emotionally too."
You narrow your eyes at his response, "What makes you think I want anything from you? Much less your protection over my private emotions?"
He knew this wouldn't be easy, earning just a minuscule amount of your trust to begin repairing the damage he's done. But he feels the resentment in your words, and he feels the pain he caused you within that resentment. He wants to heal it, he needs to heal it, if not for himself but for you. A woman who has been hurt by this world far too many times, a woman who is so headstrong despite being torn down so many times. He needs to heal the hurt that he has caused because he took away the little trust you had left in the compassion of human beings.
"I know you don't trust me; I know you resent me for the things I said. I won't try to deny that fact, or that you have every right to deny me the trust to fix the pain I have caused you. Words from people like me probably mean nothing to you, which is why I want to do everything I can to show you that I can be trusted with your safety. I want to do everything in my power to earn your forgiveness, even if that means I have to resign, or wear a carrot costume around Seoul, or drink the most disgusting concoction you can come up with."
You have to hide your desire to crack up at imagining him walking around in a carrot costume, straightening your expression as he looks at you in desperation as he continues to list out even more ridiculous punishments you could put him through. Coming closer to slipping into giggles the more he continues.
He cuts himself off when you raise a hand to stop his rambling, taking a deep breath before you begin to speak.
"Okay, I get it. I'm not going to make you do any of those ridiculous things, but I'll admit I don't know what I could have you do that could fix this either." You take your glasses and put them back on, refocusing on his face.
"Instead, I want you to be the best damn bodyguard you can be without me asking for it. You want me to tell you anything and everything I want from you but I'm not going to do that, if you want to fix this then you're going to have to figure out those things on your own. I want you to impress me, okay?"
Nodding eagerly at your conclusion, he nearly throws the chair back from the force of standing up. Bowing down multiple times as he thanks you relentlessly while vacating your office, excited to go tell his brothers and come up with a plan to accomplish the task you have given him.
You'd think you'd just told an intern that you would let him proofread your drafts, but you can't help the quirk of your mouth into a smirk at his enthusiasm.
Later that night Hwasa came to the manor to finish setting your comeback into stone for the announcement the next morning, staying for dinner as expected, and then left some cardboard file boxes that you'd texted her to bring.
She had pestered you on why you needed them nearly the whole time she was there, and all you'd supplied her with was that they were for your next book. Once everyone else had headed off to bed for the night; Yoongi, Jimin, and you spent hours on end sorting each envelope by date, opening them up, and then filing them away in the boxes.
Working well into the early hours of the morning, when they finally left you to get a few hours of sleep in, you sat looking at the completed file boxes containing the horrors of your childhood.
You hadn't let yourself cry looking at the images, having long since shed your last tears over the pains your monster of a father caused. But you had caught the tears the two men with you had tried to hide, the almost silent gasps of mortification every time they opened up a new envelope.
It made you feel like you had become too numb to the atrocities that had been committed against you, and their anger and sorrow also made you feel relief in a way as well. There were people near you willing to feel the pain and sorrow you could no longer take on, and for that, you felt grateful.
A buzz from your phone pulls you out of your thoughts, and you check it to find the announcement from the company of your return from hiatus. You shoot Chan a text that you need to see him today, and he responds almost immediately with a time to meet at his office.
The anticipation and anxiety sit heavy in your gut. You've quietly held your career outside of the Chaebol world, true identity unknown to the tabloids and all of your father's past business partners. He never let you out in public much regardless, but this is going to bring a whole new spotlight onto you and your family, and Chan has the right to know before shit hits the fan.
Your Louboutin's click menacingly down the silent hallway of your brothers company, Jungkook and Yoongi flank you a few steps ahead while the rest of the boys follow behind. You probably look like something straight out of a mafia movie, and with the impending hellfire you're about to rain down on your family, you feel the sentiment is appropriate.
The employees of Chan's company always go silent when you appear, the hushed whispers of gossip passing around. Most of his employees theorize you're something akin to a Black Widow, a terrifyingly powerful mistress to their goofy CEO, and then there are those that know you by your Pen Name, who think the reason you went on hiatus was to be with Chan.
The two of you have laughed at the gossip Felix has passed on from the employees over the years, and you have no desire to correct them either. Doing so would allow for people to dig more into your brothers background, which would lead to your true identity, defeating the purpose of going by a Pen Name in the first place.
So, yes, you pull a little bit of enjoyment out of scaring the shit out of his employees by looking like a widow on her 5th husband all dead by mysterious natural causes. Life as an author can be a bit boring sometimes, sue you for having a dark sense of humor, you gotta find entertainment somewhere.
Jungkook holds open the door to Chan's office for you and as you step into his office, the heaviness of the situation settles in the room. His gaze meets yours, filled with concern and curiosity. Without a word, he gestures for you to take a seat opposite him. You sink into the plush chair, the weight of the world resting on your shoulders.
The boys take their places around the room and when your brother moves to dismiss them, you pipe up.
"Jimin and Yoongi stay."
He shares a confused look with you but doesn't protest, and Jungkook looks like a kicked puppy with his big doe eyes watching you as he files out the door with the rest of his hyungs.
"I see you're getting along well with the team I hired you." He says, bringing your attention back to him.
Snorting, you deadpan back, "Not at all."
"O...Kay?" He looks at your two remaining bodyguards for answers only to find none. "Anyway, what's going on? Why did you need to see me? You should be focusing on your comeback promotions."
"I've finished the Map of the Soul series, and I'm going to start on a new book."
"That's great-"
You cut his response short, ripping the theoretical band-aid off. "A book about Father... About me."
His shock is evident on his face, and he quickly clears his throat, looking at Yoongi and Jimin in mild panic. "Bug, I think we should have this conversation in private."
Any other bodyguards would take that as their cue to leave, but they simply look to you for direction on the issue, and you can tell your brother notices it.
"They already know about it, about all of it."
Your response has him whipping his head back in your direction so quick you're surprised he didn't pull a muscle.
"They WHAT!?"
If this wasn't such a heavy topic, you would chuckle at his reaction.
"It's just them, that's why I had them stay. They're going to be kept in the loop while I'm writing the book in order to discretely keep an eye on any potential threats to its release."
You watch as he takes in this information, leaning back in his chair in deep thought, occasionally looking up at you and then the boys.
Finally he settles his gaze back on you, "You're sure about this? This won't just stir up our family it'll stir up the conglomerate world too."
"Absolutely positive. I trusted in the justice system and they failed me, I won't give them the chance to fail the next person who gets sold off like a peace of meat for the benefit of corporate gain."
You can see the wince Chan tries to hide at your words, you know he has a lot of guilt at not seeing the truth behind your engagement sooner. Not to mention the treatment you suffered at the hands of your Father.
"You know I will always support you, no matter what." He looks you dead in the eyes, "But there's one problem..."
Maintaining eye contact, you wait for him to finish his words.
"Mother called me, she's coming back to Korea."
And just like that, everything comes crashing back down again.
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