Ares Garden’s ban on the attacker

Ares Garden’s ban on the attacker is a practical exclusion imposed by Chen after Jungkook attacks the man responsible for sending Shelby to the hospital. Rather than allowing Jungkook to continue the beating, Chen takes control of the scene, orders the man away from the club, and makes clear that returning would put him in danger. The rule is enforced through Chen’s authority and the credible threat of renewed violence, not through any formal procedure shown in the story.

Cause and Enforcement

The confrontation begins when Jungkook learns that Chen has gone to see the man. He rushes out of the changing rooms and finds Chen with him at the bar. Without stopping to question him, Jungkook grabs the man by the collar, smashes his head against the counter, and follows with repeated punches. Jungkook’s attack is driven by the man’s prior violence against Shelby; in his fury, he threatens to send the man to the hospital as the man had done to her.

Chen intervenes before Jungkook can resume the beating. He seizes Jungkook’s arm, pulls him away, and helps the injured man back to his feet. He then orders the man to go home and never return to Ares Garden. Chen’s warning is conditional but unmistakable: if the man comes back, Chen will let Jungkook finish what he started, while making no promise that the result will stop at hospitalization.

Scope and Immediate Consequences

The man leaves at once, frightened, and promises himself that he will not return to Ares Garden. That departure is the rule’s immediate, practical outcome: the attacker is excluded from the venue, and the threat of renewed violence is presented as the means that secures his compliance. The scene does not establish a written policy or a broader disciplinary process; it shows Chen issuing and enforcing this particular ban in response to the assault.

Jungkook obeys Chen’s separate order to return to the changing rooms without arguing. Shelby sees the blood covering Jungkook’s knuckles but does not speak to him; when he goes to wash, she turns away and closes her eyes at the sound of the water. The man’s removal therefore ends the immediate confrontation, but the violence leaves a visible aftermath inside the club.

Narrative Significance

The ban draws a boundary around Ares Garden through an act that is itself violent. Chen prevents Jungkook from continuing the beating, yet secures the attacker’s departure by threatening that Jungkook may do so if he returns. The exclusion protects the venue from the man’s reappearance without resolving the conflict through a process beyond the people present.

The episode also makes Chen’s authority distinct from Jungkook’s rage. Jungkook supplies the immediate force; Chen interrupts it, gives the attacker the order to leave, and defines the consequence of disobedience. The resulting ban is effective in the moment, but its enforcement remains bound to the threat that produced it.