Chapter Text
“Taehyung! We’ll be late for school again, hurry and get your shoes on.”
Taehyung heard Jungkook call from the door and turned round the corner to see him ready to leave and holding his belongings.
“You don’t have to pick me up from school every morning, you’ll be late too.” He frowned, fixing his shoe laces.
“If I don’t you’ll miss your whole first class. Did -”
Taehyung sighed and spoke before the younger boy could even finish his question. “Nope, I didn’t forget anything.” He closed the door behind him and runs ahead of Jungkook, grabbing his hand and pulling him without warning.
“We might make it before the bell if we sprint.”
___________
Jungkook walked in on Taehyung as he was memorising and rereading the notes he’d jotted down in his lecture that day. Or he was meant to be reading and understanding instead of writing names and staring at them expectantly.
“Hyung, why are you staring at my name?”
Taehyung jumped at hearing the sudden noise and shut the book close forcefully.
“You could have told me you were coming in.” Taehyung said quickly feigning annoyance. “You could have told me you were coming.”
“I did, I just didn’t wait for your reply.” he says dropping his bag and moving to sit on the mattress. “You weren’t listening anyway, or looking at your texts.”
He watched as Taehyung moved the paper on his desk to find his phone and sighed long at the neglected desk.
“I forgot to charge it.” He explains sheepishly, gesturing to the device in his hand.
“So why is my name written in your book?”
Jungkook made an effort to reach for the book, failing when Taehyung slammed his hand on the cover with a dusted pink face. “Y-you read wrong, it wasn’t your name.” he spluttered hastily, turning away as Jungkook’s heart almost sank from disappointment after hearing the lie. He stared at Taehyung who refused to turn around and began doubting the words he had spewed out seconds ago as a smile etched his face.
“If you say so.”
___________
2358 Wednesday, August 31st.
2359 Wednesday, August 31st.
‘Just one more minute…’ Taehyung thought as he watched the digits on his phone screen change.
0000 Thursday, September 1st.
To Jungkookie:
Happy Birthday to you!~
12:00 am
Taehyung checked the text a second time and threw his covers over his head after switching his phone off once he was satisfied.
___________
“Oh, Jungkookie are you writing?
Jungkook looked up briefly at the curious face displayed on his laptop screen before returning to his open book. “Yeah.”
“Homework due tomorrow, crammed into one night by any chance?” Taehyung tutted and leaned back on his seat while crossing his arms thoughtfully. “You’re already a high school senior, how are you going to get through college if you don’t do your work.”
Jungkook rolled his eyes but smiled regardless. “I’m writing a log.
“So, a diary? How long have you been writing one?”
“Since I was a freshman in high school.”
Taehyung breathed out a sound of slight surprise and observed Jungkook’s moving pen over the monitor.
“Hey, hey.” Taehyung called in a whisper. “Can I read it?”
“Maybe."
“Really? I thought diaries were meant to be secret or something.”
Jungkook finished writing his last sentence and dropped his pen, closing the book before looking up to see the hint of amusement on Taehyung’s face. “I don’t have secrets.”
Taehyung’s suspicion grew on the words of denial that came out of the younger boy’s mouth. He let out a wary hum and made a face of disbelief. “Is that so?”
Jungkook frowned and walked away from his desk to come back with another book in his hand. “I’ll give you last year’s,” he says slumping into his chair and waving the book’s cover in front of the camera. “Because you won’t believe me.”
“Jungkookie.” Taehyung starts in a tone of understanding. “We all have secrets, even if we don’t write them in a ‘stack of opening paper that could possibly tell everyone about your life’, aka diary-BUT,” He beamed at him and Jungkook swore he could feel the ‘idiocy of an A student’ over the screen. “I’ll borrow your book anyway.”
___________
Taehyung had resorted to hanging out with only Jimin during the weekends and the rest of his break after Jungkook had told him, ‘I’m going away with my family for 2 weeks, so basically the whole between school term holiday.’
He sighed aloud to himself as he recounted the days since Jungkook left. Even after telling the younger boy to text or call him during his stay away from home, he received no mail or call whatsoever. He had sent at least five texts to Jungkook a day and no reply was given since they had texted two days into their break.
He frowned, sighing once again and went to pick up a certain book before forgetting halfway. Taehyung walked from the door to his desk and rested his hand on the cover of a random book.
Taehyung stared blankly at the book soon in his hands. Opening it he realised he had forgotten it was the photo book he had made with Jungkook and Jimin, although it wasn’t the same book he’d planned to take. ‘How could I have forgot, they even put my baby pictures in there.’ He frowned, scrunching his nose at his toddler self and slammed the book close, opening it at another page to see photos of his two best friends. He found himself staring at specifically Jungkook. ‘When did he say he was coming back..?’
___________
“Hey hyung.” Taehyung started as he stared idly at the pen in his hands. “Do you ever feel like something’s missing? Like missing from your life.”
Yoongi looked up from his phone and raised a brow. “That was pretty deep. Weird sort of deep. Shouldn’t your weird be ‘nonsense weird’?” Worry was hinted in his voice and Taehyung couldn’t decide whether to feel thankful or offended.
“Something doesn’t feel right. It’s like…an empty feeling.” He groaned as if he were whining and made wild hand gestures trying to explain the feeling.
Yoongi looked at him with question trying to decipher the words and sentences that were hardly finished. “You sound pretty lonely even though you have my company, kid.”
“Don’t pretend you’re offended, you know I didn’t mean it that way.” Taehyung gave him an unamused expression. “And stop gluing your eyes to that midget screen, you’re meant to be helping me with this essay.”
___________
Taehyung unconsciously reached out to his book shelf and stopped himself, realising when he touched the spine of a book. He pulled it out nevertheless and inspected the cover. ‘No author.’
He skimmed through the first few pages and noted the initials at the bottom of every page and the handwritten paragraphs. It was clearly a diary that was of course not his.
‘Where did I get this book?’