Jungkook's childhood abuse by his father

Jungkook’s childhood abuse by his father is shown through a flashback in which an eight-year-old Jungkook breaks away from his older brother, Ye-jun, and runs toward a familiar scene of violence at home. His attempt to protect his mother, Min-ha, ends with his father turning the attack on him, leaving the child injured, frightened, and apologizing as Min-ha holds him.

The Childhood Incident

The flashback takes place in the family’s home in Gangnam, Seoul, where Ye-jun tries to keep his younger brother from intervening in the parents’ argument. At eight, Jungkook is furious and distressed by the shouting downstairs. Ye-jun holds him close, knowing that their father will hurt him if he gets involved, but Jungkook struggles free and runs toward the kitchen. His resistance is not ignorance of the danger: he says he is tired of his parents fighting, yet chooses to face what he already fears rather than remain hidden.

In the kitchen, Jungkook sees his father holding a glass of whiskey in one hand and a belt in the other, while Min-ha sits on the floor looking down at the tiles. She looks up when she hears her son approach and tries to stop him. His father orders him back to his room; Jungkook refuses and tells him to leave Min-ha alone. The father finishes his drink and throws the glass across the room. A shard strikes Jungkook’s face, and before he can react, his father grabs him by the collar and slaps him repeatedly. The violence leaves the boy caught between fear and rage, unable to make sense of the feelings pressing in on him.

The Rule of Silence and Its Afterlife

The kitchen assault is not an isolated childhood memory in Jungkook’s later life: it becomes part of how he understands fear, anger, and what a boy is permitted to show. In another remembered encounter, Dong-hyun tells his son that a man never cries and must behave like one. Jungkook nods, unable to answer. The command gives words to the lesson enforced by the earlier violence: vulnerability is not met with comfort but suppressed under a demand for obedience. The frightened child who cried in Min-ha’s arms is thus also taught to hide the very distress his father has caused.

Years later, Jungkook describes the childhood demons in his thoughts as something he had hoped to drive away by learning to love Shelby. He admits that this has proved difficult, and recalls how news about the reopening of Ares Garden drew him back toward the ring and its familiar vice. The connection does not make his later choices inevitable, but it shows that the abuse remains active in his own account of his struggles: anger and self-destructive behavior are not presented as simple signs of strength, nor is intimacy an instant cure.

His later gestures with Shelby offer a quiet contrast to the force that shaped the childhood scene. When she is upset, he approaches and places a hand on her knees as she seeks comfort; another morning, he intertwines their fingers and gently strokes her back, asking her to stay beside him. These moments do not erase the past. They show a different use of touch—one grounded in closeness rather than restraint—and make tenderness a form of conduct Jungkook can practice rather than the weakness his father’s rule taught him to fear.

Later Responses to Vulnerability

The novel places Jungkook’s childhood experience of being seized and struck beside later scenes in which another person’s fear demands a different response. In the university locker room, he finds Shelby trembling and crying under the running shower. He turns off the water, crouches in front of her, and remains nearby without knowing what to say, waiting until she calms. The scene does not state that his childhood determines this response; instead, it gives his quiet presence a sharp contrast with the violence and helplessness of the kitchen flashback.

That contrast becomes more visible when Shelby has a panic attack. After Madison reports what is happening, Jungkook runs to her and draws her against him; she recognizes his familiar spring scent, puts her arms around his neck, and rests her face against his shoulder as he strokes her back. The scene makes her recognition and acceptance of contact central to the comfort he offers. Earlier, Cassiopée’s hands on Shelby’s shoulders had made her cry out and recoil, showing how touch can intensify panic when it arrives unexpectedly. Jungkook’s presence is not presented as a universal remedy: its meaning depends on Shelby’s ability to recognize and accept him.

The same attention to consent appears when Shelby tells Jungkook that Kayla kissed him without his consent and that this was sexual assault. Jungkook says he recognized her but could not move or speak, and stresses that she did not touch him further; Shelby nevertheless identifies the kiss itself as a violation. He takes her hand, and they sit together with the distress of the video still between them. In the larger arc of Jungkook’s childhood abuse, these scenes complicate the lesson imposed by his father: vulnerability is not proof of weakness, and protection need not mean control. They do not undo the violence of his childhood, but they show him participating in a language of care that makes room for fear, bodily boundaries, and another person’s choice.

Confronting Violence Beyond the Family

As an adult, Jungkook also confronts violence outside his family. When he challenges Robert Jefferson, he rejects the claim that Jefferson has done nothing wrong, invokes Shelby’s account and Madison’s statement to the police, and argues that wealth cannot protect him indefinitely. Jungkook frames the prospect of Jefferson going to prison as a source of relief for Shelby and the other young women he has traumatized. The exchange does not establish that Jungkook’s childhood abuse caused this confrontation; rather, it places his opposition to another man’s violence alongside the earlier memory of a child who could not protect his mother without becoming a target himself.