Even If It Hurts

Little Agust, Sugar, and Mr. Jimin

With the chaos swirling around them, Jimin does his best to comfort and keep Agust calm.

"Shh, shh, it will be alright. Look how brave Sugar is." Jimin lifts Sugar and has the stuffed kitty wiggling under Agust's chin for kitty kisses, and the stuffed toy's smiling face seems to soothe Agust. 

"Sugar is brave. The big noise didn't scare him. You can be brave, too." reassures Jimin after feeling Agust tremble.

"I, I heard my mommy yell, no more. Is the bad man going to be put in time-out?" He fiddled with Sugar's ears, waiting for Jimin to answer.

Confidently, he tells little Agust, "You have a good mommy. I bet she did. Does she ever put you in time out?"

"Only if, if I do something, she told me not to," he confesses in a soft voice, gazing up at Jimin.

"Oh? What did you do that your mommy told you not to do?"

"She, she said I couldn't go with the man."

Confused and very concerned, he asks Agust, "What man?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know . . . You didn't know the man?" Jimin says, beginning to understand what he means. "He was a stranger?"

Agust nods his head as he pets Sugar. "But he was nice."

Jimin ruffles his hair and tells him, "He was a stranger. Your mother was only trying to protect you from a stranger."

"You mean she was not mad at me?" Agust eyes seem sleepy, and he yawns.

Jimin hugs him, "No, she was not mad at you. She was mad at the man."

"But Mr. Jimin, Mommy didn't make him go to timeout," he pouts at Jimin, yawning again.

He can't help but chuckle at Agust, "I bet when he got home, his mommy put him in time out, too."

Accepting this answer, Agust leans into Jimin, nestling his Sugar in his arms and resting his head on Jimin's chest. He quickly falls asleep. Jimin kisses the top of his head, wondering what kind of life Agust and Dae will have.

He turns his attention toward the house. He wants to run to you, being taken to the ambulance on a stretcher, but he doesn't want to wake Agust and have him see the blood or see his mommy being taken to a police car in handcuffs.

Dae looks at Jimin, holding her son safely in his arms, asleep. She smiles at Jimin and mouths, "Thank you." Jimin nods in response.

Mark walks with the ambulance crew as they take Seok and load him up. He is not expected to live.

Yoongi is glued to your side, and no one, not even Mark, can make him leave. He climbs into the back of the ambulance with you.

Once the ambulances pull off, Mark walks over to Jimin with a grim look on his face.

He asks Mark in a softer voice so as not to wake Agust, "So what happened? Is Jinah okay? I heard a woman scream and then a gunshot."

Mark's adrenaline quickly leaves his body, taking his strength with it. He sits beside Jimin. With the noise of people around them and ambulance sirens blaring as they pull off, Mark notices that the little boy is asleep, oblivious to the noise. He feels it is safe to speak with Jimin.

Mark talks in a lower voice, "Jinah was hurt." 

Jimin eyes fill with tears. "Oh my God, how badly?"

"I will tell you more later about that, but . . ." He is interrupted as a black car pulls up. A well-armored man gets out, pulling a long rifle with a scope.