✔️ Unconditionally [Book 2] | Jeon Jungkook

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"You what?"

The already thick atmosphere became nearly impenetrable and it was a wonder that his whispered question even reached her. Eyes rounded in desperation pled with him, searching for his response to her confession, seemingly waiting for the reaction she was most afraid of.

It was a response that was still formulating, his mind having gone quiet as he processed her words.

"Why?"

His question, again whispered as his voice couldn't be trusted, made her wrap her arms around her middle.

"I thought my life was over. I thought my parents were going to give me hell because of it. Kick me out or..."

His gaze slowly fell to the floor. Even just imagining being in that situation made him empathetic to her reasoning. He could hear the desperation in her voice but all he could see was the face of his daughter.

His angel that he loved with his entire soul. His little girl for whom he would take the world's poison-tipped arrows was a gift from the universe. He may not have remembered her when he woke up, but now that she was here, there was no life without her.

The thought of her not existing left him feeling lost, as if his life's purpose had been drained away.

"You said almost. What does that mean? Like you... like you just thought about it or... D-did you try..."

"I went to the doctor and they gave me medicine to take but I couldn't do it. I didn't even want to. I just... I thought I had to.

"You called me right before I thought I was going to. You saved both of us again."

He nodded slowly, his heart rejoicing that she hadn't gone through with it.

"I was scared," she continued. "And I was alone, and I didn't want you to hate me—"

"Hate you? You didn't get pregnant by yourself. You weren't alone, Hyun-Ji," he pled. "You told me how you came to live with me. You didn't have to be scared. I was there with you through all of it."

Her silence coupled with her shift in gaze made his sinking heart accelerate into the pit of its despair. Swallowing hard around the lump in his throat, he whispered, asking for confirmation.

"Right?"

Her eyes grew watery as she looked up at him. He could see her facial features quivering as she withheld the information he could now see she was. She never said anything negative about him when talking about their pregnancy outside of explaining their breakup, despite the pregnancy being unintended.

His shoulders lowered as he prepared for the blow he could feel coming. "Right?"

Her lips parted yet no reason for her hesitation came for several seconds. Each one that passed made the ball of anxiety in his stomach intensify to the point of nausea. What was she hiding?

The smallest inhale was taken in before she exhaled her answer. "Yes."

"You're lying."

His voice trembled, proving to be just as unreliable as he expected. He hated it, almost as much as he hated her shielding him from learning exactly the kind of person he was.

"I'm—"

"What did I do?" He asked.

She couldn't even look at him now. He watched her withdraw, making herself smaller as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "It doesn't matter now."