moonchild // namjin

27

namjoon pov

"i-i worked in the labs," dad says.

"i-i, w-what? b-but yo-"

"i know what i said and i'm sorry for lying. i worked there before you came to us and continued to because my contract didn't end until you we're 5. i stole a lot of information so that i could give you a good life. i-i'm sorry namjoonie, i should've been honest," he cuts me off and his eyes start to fill with tears, "and i'm sorry to everything i did to you jackson."

the room goes silent as i try to process everything i just heard. my whole life i've been under the impression that he'd never hurt a moonchild and that he never worked in the labs. he lied. a tear roles down my cheek as i think about what he did.

"i-i, i don't know what to say," i whisper and jin rubs my back.

"i-it's o-ok, i f-f-forgive you for w-what y-you did to m-me," jackson stutters, being scared out of his wits.

"b-but you shouldn't," dad says quietly, "i did the most to you, i put you through the most pain. it was me that hurt you more than anyone and i shouldn't be forgiven."

"e-every one s-should be given a
c-chance at forgiveness. y-you had no
c-choice," jackson replies.

"thank you jackson, if there's anything i ca-"

"you don't have to do anything, the past is the past and we can't change that, we can only move forward," jackson cuts him off.

"h-he's right, it hurts that you lied but i understand why you did it i forgive you dad," i add and he sighs in relief, pulling both me and jackson into a hug.

"c'mon, let's go eat," he says while drying his eyes after he releases us from the hug.

we walk over to the table and sit down, starting to eat almost immediately. all of us start talking except for jackson and sejun, they look at each other like they're communicating with their eyes.

"you guys can talk y'know," seokjin says after a while with a smile.

"sorry, it's a habit," jackson apologises.

"don't apologise, it's fine. was that a rule?" i ask and they nod.

"it was probably the one that they were most strict on. if you spoke you got tazed. we all figured out how to communicate with our eyes though and we didn't get caught," sejun says.

"we did actually, it was the night when you left and everyone was devastated. one of the girls said that she felt like she was going to cry and a group of people surrounded her. there was no way of telling whether she was going to cry or not just by looking at her so they knew instantly. we all got starved for a week and the experiments were 10 times harder to endure, some kids ended up dying because of it," jackson says and sejun looks down.

"d-did any of them find out the truth?" he asks and jackson nods.

"a couple of kids wanted to escape so they spoke to andre about it, he told them about how you did it and that they can try if they wanted to. none of the scientists or supervisors found out though, it was just the people that knew you best," he replies.

"have you had any near death experiences jackson hyung?" jin asks.

"not me but this one has," he replies referring to sejun.

"i also died once," sejun says simply causing us both to choke on water.

"excuse me what?" jin asks in shock that he didn't know.

"ok so when i was 13, a new scientist was hired. he was a sand stormer. basically i woke up and he said that i couldn't eat until he told me to which was weird because i wasn't allowed to be starved until i turned 14 or 15. there was a common area where basically everyone hung out so we sat there when we hear a scream coming from the hallway. basically the new scientist was dousing this kid in sun crystals for no reason. he said that if i didn't go with him, he'd do more to him. i went so that he wouldn't die," he replies, "w-we went into a room where he had me get naked and sit in toxic waste before he left the room. turns out while i was in there, he got arrested and told everyone that no experiments were going on. 5 hours later another scientist found me and they raced to keep me alive but they failed. just as they were about to pronounce me dead, my aura came back a little bit. i couldn't walk for a while but other than that i was completely fine and got everyone dismissed from experiments, a longer curfew and more time outside. i told andre to tell you that i almost died and not that i did die so you wouldn't stress out that much."

"sejunnie, i'm sorry that happened," jin says with a sad smile.

"don't be sorry hyung, there's nothing we can do about it. it hasn't caused any long term damage and that's the only thing that matters," he replies with a smile.

the rest of the meal is spent having small conversations and before we know it, we've finished eating. we all decide to go to bed as it was late already and we're all tired. jin and i go to my room and get into bed. i lay my head on jin's chest and he plays with my hair.

"hyung?" i asks after a while and he hums in response, "i think i might go to school without the foundation tomorrow."

"do you want to take it just in case you feel like you need it?" he asks and i nod, cuddling into him more, "i'm proud of you baby."

"t-thank you," i reply and he kisses my head, "i love you."

"i love you too joonie, forever and ever."