✔️ Unconditionally [Book 2] | Jeon Jungkook

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The car ride was long with only the soft music coming through the surrounding speakers breaking the silence. From his father's and Noona's reactions to him coming, he mused he should feel more than he did when in reality he felt nothing.

That wasn't exactly true. He felt curious. If the accident left him near death and in a state of amnesia, it must have been a horrible one. Lack of emotion concerning the accident aside, from what he was told of it, he was thankful to be alive and walking again.

A warm hand rested on top of his, pulling him from his internal rumination, coffee and onyx connecting with chocolate pools deep enough to drown in. She offered him a small smile of empathy for things he just didn't feel but he returned the smile anyway, lifting the corner of his mouth. His heart raced as his father pulled into the impound lot where the car was located, but it wasn't because of their location nor because he was about to get a glimpse of what happened to him.

She was still gently holding his hand.
Lucky nerve endings fired off, sending a tingling sensation up his arm and straight to his brain, alerting that this was real as if he hadn't realized it already. He rotated his hand slightly to hold hers back, and the ever-present burn of his cheeks intensified.

He really needed to stop blushing so much. He hated wearing his feelings on his face for her and everyone else to see. At least he had the cover of the dim cloudy day to hide behind.

"We're here," Jungseok quietly announced, getting out of the car with a sigh.

Another squeeze of his hand and then they separated to follow his father, the gravely road crunching beneath their steps.

Jungseok walked ahead of them holding a small box, head lowered as he absentmindedly twirled his old set of keys around his index finger. His head occasionally lifted to look at the set of numbers scribbled on car doors and windows in yellow that corresponded to those on the keyring tag. Looking for the car based on appearance alone was pointless: The lot was vast and the cars covered with dust and debris from the gravel kicked up by heavy tow truck tires and carried by the wind. One passed them by, to prove the point, carrying a car with a smashed front end and deployed airbags, leaving a cloud of dust and questions of the cause of the crash in its wake.

Questions of if the occupants had survived like he did.

Jungseok stopped suddenly, making the pair come to a halt behind him. Jungkook looked down at his father, the elder's reaction making his stomach twist into a ball of anxiety.

The twirl of the keyring ceased and shoulders dropped as aging eyes scanned the remains of the vehicle his son drove every day.

The driver door was concave, smashed inward from the impact and taking the shape of the tree trunk he was told the car collided with. The driver window was shattered, the fragments held in place only by the special coating that prevented the pieces from flying free and slicing the occupant's bodies. The front end charred in places where the flames escaped from beneath the hood, which were numerous.

The crash was deemed caused by an Act of God, absolving Jungkook from any personal responsibility and ruling out suspicions of foul play.

Noona inhaled slowly exhaled shakily at the same rate as she assessed the external damage. She was in the crash too, only she remembered it. If anyone needed support and empathy, it was her, not him. His amnesia was a comforting blanket that surrounded his mind, while hers was left open and exposed to the painful memories. His fingers brushed against hers and she readily accepted his request, holding his steady hand with her trembling one.