✔️ Unconditionally [Book 2] | Jeon Jungkook

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She looked so cute when she slept.

Jungkook gently brushed unruly strands of hair away from Hyun-Ji's face while she slept on her side next to him, pausing when she readjusted and smiling at how her plump lips pursed together for a few moments. He didn't want to wake her. She had been through so much over the last 48 hours that he imagined she needed every moment of rest, both physical and mental.

For a while, he continued to watch her sleep, savoring the borrowed moments of peace that remained, not wanting to let go just yet. Watching her chest rise and fall and feeling the soft puffs of air against his skin. Watching her eyes move beneath softly closed lids, indicating she was currently dreaming.

Hoping that her dreams were pleasant ones. The kind that would allow her to escape from the nightmare she had lived through.

His eyes drifted down to the cut marring the corner of her mouth, red and in the first stages of healing. Varying shades of faint purple that lie beneath the skin of her puffy cheek was a stark contrast to the deep bruising on her forearm. The area, the size of her palm, was dark and raised and would probably take weeks to fade.

The emotional damages would take much longer.

His brow drew together at the thought, and he hoped that he could help her get through this the way she had helped him for so long. He owed her that at minimum.

He exhaled a long sigh as his internal clock told him that their moments of calm were no longer borrowed but stolen and he needed to begin his series of difficult conversations with their parents. Carefully leaving their bed, he stepped into a pair of boxer briefs and walked across the hall to their bathroom to procrastinate the inevitable for just a while longer.

A heart of water-warped sticky notes surrounded his reflection, and a bruised and beaten hand pushed long hair away from his face.

He looked down at his hands, their appearance being the only obvious evidence of his actions. The knuckles of both were swollen, his skin torn in some areas where his fist had come in contact with teeth and scraped in others from the rage-filled struggle.

He went too far. Had Taehyung and Jimin not shown up when they did, he could have killed him.

But the scarier thought was that in that moment, he wanted to.

He wanted him dead and he didn't care about the consequences. It was psychotic to feel that way in the first place, to not care about taking a life, even one that had caused all the harm that Kwan had. But Jungkook was a parent now with another life depending on him. Hyori needed him and his losing control could cause her to lose her father for a very long time.

This would be his second strike. The first was forgiven because he was essentially a child and defending the life of another. Committing the same crime could make the judges feel a lot less lenient toward him.

The same crime or worse.
Now that he had time to ponder, he didn't even know if Kwan was alive.

His tongue slowly moistened dry lips, the lower one taking its place between his teeth again. It was still raw and this rate, stress would cause him to wear it down to the muscle.

He could have actually committed murder.
Dread ran down the length of his spine as he disrobed and started to shower.

Ignoring the slight burning he felt, he lathered his hair with raspberry scented shampoo and attempted to calm his rattled nerves. It couldn't have been likely that Kwan had sought police assistance. He had abused and tried to abduct Hyun-Ji. Surely an investigator would see through his potential lies and inquire about the entire situation, leading Kwan to expose his own guilt.