✔️ Unconditionally [Book 2] | Jeon Jungkook

• 21 •

--  ∞  --

"The house looks so pretty, mom!"

Haneul looked away from the mistletoe she was in the process of hanging and smiled at Hyun-Ji. "Thank you, honey!"

Haneul had singlehandedly transformed the house into a Christmas festival complete with a tree almost as tall as the ceiling, all decked out with lights, garland, and shiny ornaments. The room smelled of cinnamon and pine, and Hyun-Ji couldn't wait to dive headfirst into the cookies and cocoa they planned to make later.

"Do you need help with anything?" She asked.

"I'm just about done. Actually, can you put the photos in that box on the mantle?" Haneul nodded towards the box of framed photos sitting on the coffee table.

"Sure!"

Hyun-Ji finished descending the stairs, her hand running along the white-tipped garland and fairy lights that spiraled around the railing, and opened the box. She carefully lifted the first framed 5x7 and took a glance at it before bursting into laughter.

"What is going on here?" She asked Haneul, showing her the photo.

Haneul stepped off the step ladder and rolled her eyes as she folded it back up. "He does this every year no matter how much I threaten him! If it were up to me, every last one would go in the trash."

In Hyun-Ji's hand was a Christmas photo of the Jeon family. Haneul, seated in front of her husband and teenaged son, smiled gracefully at the camera, her hand touching her husband's which was placed lovingly on her shoulder. Jungseok's smile was a little larger than hers, his eyes almost disappearing in mirth.

Jungkook, on the other hand, was making the derpiest face Hyun-Ji had ever seen him make, and he'd made quite a few in her presence.

Derp face and all, he was still adorable.

"Seok condones it!" Haneul complained. "I just want a normal, regular Christmas family photo to put in my living room, but no. That's too much to ask for."

Hyun-Ji's laughter only increased with each year's photo. In one iteration, the camera captured Haneul staring murderously at the back of comedically panicking Jungkook's head. Sometimes Taehyung would be in the photo as well, the both of them seeming to compete on who could look worse, with Jungseok poorly containing his laughter each and every time.

"This is great!" Hyun-Ji laughed while holding up one where a 12-year-old Jungkook sat with his eyes crossed in front of his loving parents.

"He'd better not do it this year. This is the first year we have you and Hyori here and I just want one nice photo of everyone."

"But it's a tradition now," Hyun-Ji laughed while placing the photo on the mantle.

And she knew all too well how Haneul felt about tradition.

"Not you too," Haneul grumbled. "Us girls are supposed to stick together."

"I won't make any faces, mom. Promise," Hyun-Ji smiled.