✔️ Unconditionally [Book 2] | Jeon Jungkook

• Epilogue •

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August 14th

As the sun rose over the horizon, Hyun-Ji was gradually lured from her peaceful sleep by birdsong drifting through her open window. For once, she didn't mind the combination being her alarm clock. The sunlight pouring in was not the annoyance it usually was, not on a day like today. It gently warmed her body, almost mimicking the warmth of the one usually by her side when she awakened in the morning.

Along with the amber rays streaming through the curtains, his place was filled by a marshmallow-cheeked koala and her newest furry friend. Sleeping upside down and wrapped around her calf was their beautiful little girl dressed in a white onesie covered with rubber duckies, and sandwiching Hyun-Ji in the middle was her floofy Little Brother. He resembled a tightly coiled storm cloud, his head resting against her stomach. Their collective snores said that they found their current situation comfortable no matter how awkward a position they put her in.

Hyun-Ji smiled down at her current predicament and silently chuckled. Hyori's cheek was smushed in, making her lips pucker. She looked just like a baby Jungkook with messy bean sprout pigtails and the sight made her miss him that much more. The bed felt crowded but still incomplete without him.

He was only on the other side of the house but why did it feel like an ocean separated them?

Sighing, she reminded herself that she would see him in a few short hours, although it felt like a few short eternities would pass until then. At Rose's insistence, they'd parted ways after dinner and were forbidden from seeing each other until the ceremony the next day.

The wait was to build anticipation, she said.

The theory sounded fun and reminiscent of the days long since past where a bride and groom didn't see each other until their wedding day but the practice was one they ironically struggled with. They could easily spend time apart when she was at school and he at work but once told they couldn't see each other for a day, there was nothing else they could think about. They had managed to behave, however, and secluded themselves from each other as directed despite the increasing difficulty.

Until they snuck away from their respective groups late in the evening, inadvertently starting the biggest and most exciting game of hide and seek Hyun-Ji could ever remember playing.

The last night of their engagement replayed in her mind like a movie. Memories of meeting in secret and running hand in hand through the halls of her father's estate made her smile. Subsequently running into said parental figure and remembering the look on her fiancé's face as he fudged through an explanation as to why he was dashing through his home with his daughter in tow made her bury her smile into her pillow. The echo of softly spoken sentiments when they both should have been asleep made it widen even more until a soft knock broke her out of her love-struck daze and Akuma out of his slumber.

"Come in." She knew it wasn't him but she couldn't prevent the tiny glimmer of hope that he'd managed to sneak away to see her one more time.

Mija's smiling face peeking through the partially open door. "The bride is awake," she sang.

Her heart fluttered at the title. "Good morning," Hyun-Ji beamed.

The sight of breakfast on the large tray Mija brought with her made Hyun-Ji's painfully empty stomach grumble. Both she and Akuma had their noses lifted in the air, trying to decipher what treats awaited them.