Notebook

Chapter 5

Note: Today is a special day in TaeJincember. This date Dec-17th falls exactly between Jin's and Tae's birthdays.

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Enjoy your read!

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The weekend glided by. It was Monday and as usual Taehyung was in the classroom with the children. He heard some sounds and voices outside and decided to take a look through the window. He sighed deeply and shook his head in disappointment after seeing Jiho.

Jiho paid the canoe taxi and told the operator "Please make sure to come back at 6 PM to pick me up". Saying this he walked towards the cabin.

"Why even agree to breakup if one always decides to make up?"

Taehyung assigned tasks to the children and walked out of the classroom to meet Jiho. They both sat comfortably facing each other, leaning on the wooden wall behind them. They were comfortable only by their sitting positions, but there was a heavy awkwardness in the air.

"I am sorry Tae, I acted on a whim. It was all because I was worried for you. Still, whatever the reason I shouldn't have been harsh with words. I now realize how much it must have hurt you. Please forgive me, I would not repeat it again. Hmm?" Jiho spoke sadly and was looking at Taehyung with hope.

Even though how much Taehyung wanted to move on from Jiho, he could not, he cannot. Afterall Jiho is Taehyung's only friend on whom he could lean on. So, staring seriously into Jiho's eyes, he slowly broke into a smile nodding his head in agreement to forgive him.

Jiho's eyes shined bright with elation as he clapped like a seal with a huge grin on his face thanking Taehyung. j-hope and Joonie came out of the classroom and stood near the door watching Taehyung and Jiho talking to each other. Taehyung noticed them, raised his eyebrows and asked j-hope softly "What do you need?". j-hope blinked and asked Taehyung "Teacher, may I go to the toilet?" to which Taehyung nodded and said "ok, you may go." Saying this Taehyung looked behind j-hope at Joonie and said "You also need to go to the toilet?". Joonie titled his head and smiled sheepishly with his dimples on full display and nodded his head in a yes. Taehyung permitted him to go too. He then turned back to Jiho and both of them chuckled at the cuteness of the children and continued to chat away.

Taehyung and Jiho flinched when they heard j-hope screaming suddenly. Both of them ran towards the toilet and saw a scared and trembling j-hope who stood outside the toilet. Taehyung asked worriedly "j-hope? What happened? What's wrong?". Seeing j-hope frightened badly, Taehyung knelt down before j-hope, hugged him tight and patted his back while whispering "Don't be scared. I am here with you. Calm down and just breathe". By the time he felt j-hope calming down, the other children came out and stood around both of them.

Once, j-hope calmed down completely, Taehyung separated from the hug, held his arms, looked softly at j-hope and asked "Are you alright?" and j-hope nodded a yes. Taehyung softly asked again "What happened? Why did you scream?" to which j-hope trembled again and pointed his index finger towards the toilet and mumbled "Inside the toilet...there's...there's...", Taehyung worriedly looked up at Jiho and Jiho nodded to him and stealthily moved towards the toilet. Once, he peeked inside the wooden toilet bowl, Jiho's eyes widened seeing a rotting corpse's face inside it and he hurriedly came out panting and looked at Taehyung with wide eyes.

Jin who was reading this sitting on the toilet seat, stood up with wide eyes and looked inside the toilet bowl immediately. He saw nothing, but still came out of the toilet, shut the door and exhaled loudly. He walked and continued reading.

The school was visited by the local police officers later that day. 3 officers took with them a covered corpse in one of the motor boats that they arrived in. The inspector along with one other officer came to Taehyung and Jiho and told "Thank you for informing us immediately, sir. Incidents like these happen rarely around here. He must be someone who drowned himself in the waters a long time ago and his corpse might just have bloated and flowed all the way till here. We will investigate the information about that person and hand over his body to his family. We will take our leave now. If there's anything else, feel free to reach out to us. Take care".