My Seven Stepbrothers

Chapter twenty three

Jia's POV.

"Good morning, everyone!" I skipped into the dinning room, a smile still plastered on my face. I had one of the best weekends ever. Not only did I visit my cousins and uncle, but my brothers and I had never been closer. So far, our relationship was going down a strong path. If we stayed on this path, I was absolutely positive I wouldn't have any problems telling them my secret.

"Who are you and what have you done with my daughter? She is not a morning person." Mom asked in a teasing voice.

"Ha ha ha, you're so funny." I playfully glared at her.

"Mom's right, Jia. We always have to drag you out of bed. We have a literal schedule of who has to go. J-hope got saved today." Jin laughed lightly, handing me a plate of food.

"Should I go back to sleep then? Because it won't be that much of a struggle for me." I started taking steps backwards.

"Don't even think about it." J-hope grabbed my hand and playfully pushed me into my seat.

"You're lucky that I'm hungry." I gave him a teasing look before munching down on my food.

"You're always hungry." Taehyung muttered, playfully looking at me.

I stuck my tongue out at him and continued to enjoy my food. Conversation flew around the table as everyone was in a good mood today. I looked at dad and also at my brothers, Jiwoo's words echoing in my head.

You have a great new dad and seven amazing brothers. Don't let your past ruin this. Her voice echoed.

They love me, they won't leave me, they won't hate me, I repeated to myself pushing down all the negativity I had. I mentally pictured a chest and pushed all the thoughts I had into it, locking it and throwing away the key. I know it wasn't good to lock these things away but for now that was what I was going to do.

"Jia, sit with us at lunch today." Namjoon suddenly spoke up over the car radio.

I tilted my head at him. "Huh?"

"At lunch today, sit with us." He repeated.

"But why?"

"Do brothers need a reason to sit with their sister?" Jimin asked from his seat in the back.

"When they don't usually, yes." I looked at him before turning back to Namjoon

"Your friends can sit with us if you'd like." Yoongi offered.

"What?!" Jungkook and I spoke at the same time.

"Hyung!" Jungkook started whining before receiving a stern look from Jin.

"As much as I love you guys, my friends aren't exactly your number one fans and I don't think you are either."

"Jia, listen to us, okay? You and your friends can all sit with us." Jin looked at me through the mirror.

"We promise that we won't do anything to them." J-hope added, hoping to persuade me.

I sighed. "Alright, fine. They're not going to like this."

I could tell that all three maknaes wanted to respond but held their tongues. It was smart on their part to not do anything to upset me. I guess they had also realized how fragile the path we were on was and how easy it would be to stray.

The usual sea of girls crowded around us and I did my best to ignore them. Since I was ten years old there has always been a camera to my face and people watching me. The only reason for Jiyoung's existence was to give me a break from all the eyes. But here I was, in the same situations but as Jia. A part of me died realizing that from now on, I would never have a moment without eyes trained on me. I decided to look up and see how my brothers were taking in all the attention. Although they pretended to hate it, I could immediately tell that a part of them liked all the attention. They bathed in the glory they had while I recoiled away from it. They hadn't had the same experiences as I've had. They just had all the attention at school while I had it my whole life. I was positive they would hate it as much as I did if they lived how I had to.