Summer Camp (Taegi)

10$

Today we had dance with Jimin.

He walked us out a little ways past the lake to a small shed. It had mirrors lining the entirety of the left wall and a cooler in the corner for water. Jimin allowed us to pick which songs we wanted to dance too and the class would have been actually enjoyable if I wasn't so worried about Kim Taehyung.

After Jungkook had ridiculed me with questions about how Taehyung turned blue and why he was screaming he kicked me from his cabin and sent me to bed. From there I ran straight for the guys at the treehouse and told them what happened. They weren't too happy about it. They knew Taehyung better than I did. They called him a freak and told me I should stay away from him if I wanted to continue being their friend.

Now I'm conflicted. Do I continue to pursue Tae, the weird kid who writes on his arm and screams at his own reflection. The boy who claims we were alike, at the bottom of the food chain. Or do I distance myself from him, this tiny acquaintanceship we built overnight and run off with the group of boys who held all the power. Video games and comic books.

I clamp my hands down on my neck and groan loudly. Holly pads her way over to the foot of my bed and yips at me. "What do we do Holly? Its barely been a week and I'm already starting wars!"

She hops up onto the bed with much effort and flops down into my lap. Her puppy eyes speak volumes " do what your heart tells you to do."

I frowned at her " Holly that is bullshit advice! I want to be friends with these guys!"

"Are you sure you're not just pushing this so you can play videogames?" Her nose scrunch says.

"No!" I explained throwing my arms up "look, I already failed my initiation! I don't need to give them anymore reasons to not accept me."

Holly and I lye in silence for a while. This all seems way too complicated. Was this what it felt like to want to be friends with people? To want human interaction?

"Why did I not have friends before this~" I whined sliding off the sheets until my head smacked the floor with a thud.

Holly jumped down too and proceed to bound away and under Taehyungs bed. She liked it under there for some reason. But it felt wrong with him not being here. I stretched my free hand out to fill the space and grab her, but instead my hand brushed up against something steel and cold.

"Holly! What's under there?" I asked, curiosity smuthering my earlier worries. How did that saying go again? Curiosity killed the cat?

Holly pushed a metal box out from underneath Taehyungs bed towards me. I sat but upright.

It was a lunch box, one of those old ones that came customized with a thermus and everything.

The cover was sleek and brown. A cartoon face printed on it. Huge rosy red cheeks clownish nose and black ovals for eyes. Anpanman!

"Woah~" I gasped in awe. I remembered reading the old comics with Holly a few summers ago, I never thought Taehyung would like such things.

The latches for the box were silver and rusting ,but otherwise it was in good condition. In excitement I flipped it open.

Papers. Lots and lots of papers. Some being newspaper clipping and others just scrap notes with Taes familiar handwriting.

January 7 2016
An elderly couple is found dead in their household. Leading cause seeming to be carbon monoxide poisoning.

May 17 2017
Tragic ferri accident totals up to a death count of eighty passengers. The authorities are still searching the waters for any possible survivors.

June 9 2018
A family goes missing on a camping trip, only the body of the little girl found.

There were lots of others accident headlines, but these three were stapled together and littered with sticky notes. Lists and lists of different states and locations with times and seasons. Half hearted descriptions of the crime scenes that matched perfectly with the news reports.

"What are you doing?"

I jumped, banging my knee against the side table.