The office was quieter on night shifts.
Yunho emptied his cup of instant coffee and returned to his seat, ready for the last hour of his shift. So far, nothing has gone wrong yet - meaning, he hadn't had to rush to the toilet with his head down - but no callers were as nice as the one he had yesterday, either.
It was looking more and more like a typical day, except for the fact that the sun was down.
"Hello?" Yunho spoke into his microphone with a smile on his lips, an aftereffect of the compliment he received, despite it being from a day ago, delivered by a complete stranger.
Knowing someone liked him gave him confidence that he was doing his job well. He finally found someone other than Jongho who thought of him in a similar way he thought of himself - maybe he was nice, after all.
That was why a tingle of excitement went down his spine when he heard the husky voice through his headphones. He recognized who it was immediately because while the person's name slipped his memory, the sound and the sensation of his voice never left him after that call; they lingered in his body, waiting to be called upon again.
"I stopped receiving my monthly statements."
Yunho thought the voice sounded even deeper than last time but marveled again at how it felt like someone was talking right next to him.
It wasn't professional to point out that they have talked before, and the caller didn't show any sign of remembering Yunho's voice, so he assisted the client like he would with anyone else.
"You might want to check your junk or spam folder in your registered email," said Yunho, knowing a lot of users had the same problem.
"I checked already," the client snapped, "Do you think I wouldn't have known to try?"
The buzzing of bad audio quality pierced Yunho's ears. No one was talking to him anymore; it was just him and his pair of cheap headphones.
A little voice in his head mocked him until he realized the disillusionment pinching the edges of his heart. What were the chances that the same man would be connected to his channel two days in a row, anyway?
He was talking to a very different person.
When that finally registered in his mind, Yunho straightened his body, his neck stiffening in the process.
It took him another two seconds to realize that his client was rambling on about his missing monthly statements.
"Sorry, sir," Yunho said, unsure whether the man could pick up his apology amidst the shouts. "I will check your account from here and see if it's a problem on our end."
"Right about time!" The client yelled flippantly. He then fired out a string of numbers in rapid succession, the syllables connecting together into one slurred garble.
Yunho's experience in this field was the only thing that saved him from another scolding. His fingers clicked loudly on the number pad as he listened to the credit card number and, to his relief, the database displayed a user profile on his monitor.
"I hope you got that because I don't have time to repeat it."
Yunho heard the man talk but the words got lost somewhere between his ears and his brain because he was staring at the bold words on his screen, sitting at the first line of the profile.
Name Song Mingi
The name rang a hundred alarm bells in Yunho's head. He felt both his heart and his brain grind to a complete halt as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. This reaction could only mean one thing, and part of his memory came back to confirm that.
He was right the first time - it was the same person who called yesterday, who thanked Yunho for doing his job, who told Yunho he was nice.
"Hello?! What the f**k is taking you so long?!"
The swearing snapped Yunho out of his trance as his natural instincts urged him to curl into a ball, to hang up, to do anything to stop the cage slowly shrinking around his heart.
His muscles pulled taut to fight those instincts, and now Yunho sat rigid in his cushioned chair. It was starting to feel more like two slabs of stone.
"Sorry," Yunho managed to say. He had to hold his breath to prevent stuttering. His eyes were fixed on the sea of information on the screen, scanning desperately for the answer he needed.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he found it, the cold air tickling the back of his throat.
"We updated our online banking system a few days ago, and there might be a few bugs. I have already reactivated your monthly statements. You should receive them again starting the end of this month."
"Great! Maybe you should release a statement somewhere to let people like me know then," said Mingi.
Yunho didn't bother to mention that there was a statement - he was supposed to avoid arguing with clients anyway - because no matter how hard he tried to deny it, his heart kept telling him he was talking to the same person from yesterday.
It occurred to him then that two people could share the same name, but the spark of hope that came with that thought dissolved when Mingi spoke again.
"Just so you know, I'm filing a complaint right after this. Can't believe this took me ten minutes." Even though the voice was filled with venomous contempt, Yunho could still hear the familiar deep huskiness underneath it all.
He felt his heart squeeze tight. The cage was locked shut now. It didn't know how to react, because Yunho didn't know what to think. How could one person act so differently? He didn't want to just think of it as a prank - it wasn't funny at all.
Yunho wasn't sure if Mingi said anything else after that, but when he came to his senses, the line was already dead.
"I don't understand. There's got to be something wrong with me. Or him. Or both of us," said Yunho.
He was on his bed, under warm layers of blankets, with a phone in his hand. The clock on his bedside table read 00:56. Yunho wished the thoughts in his head were as clean and simple as the minimalistic font.
"It's not that hard, Yunho," said Jongho wearily. All he wanted after a night of partying was eight hours of sleep. "He's a stranger. You barely know him, even if you've talked to him twice, and you don't even know if it was the same person. Just sleep and forget all about it."
"I can't." The words came out absently.
Jongho sighed, and that was when Yunho realized he had no idea why he said that.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's bothering you," Jongho said, suppressing a growing irritation. He should've expected this to happen; he shouldn't have told Yunho to take up his night shift.
"I just told you."
"Yes, but you're acting differently. You're not bothered by being called incompetent, because you would be crying if you were, like always. It's something else."
Yunho fell silent as he pondered what that "something else" might be. He chewed the inside of his cheeks and shuffled in his seat, hoping, for every passing second, that Jongho hadn't fallen asleep on the other side of the phone.
Finally, he accepted the fact that he wouldn't get an answer tonight. "I'll see you on Monday. Sorry for calling so late."
Jongho hung up after a very sleepy "goodbye". The phone went quiet and Yunho was left alone with his thoughts.
It took an hour for the raging storm in his mind to calm down, and another fifteen minutes before he finally fell asleep.
Sleeping did a good job at resetting Yunho's brain, and he was able to focus on other things during the weekend. He took Jongho's advice and put the confusing phone calls behind him.
Then Monday came by again and with Yunho's clean state, it would have been yet another typical day. Except his manager called for him first thing in the morning and assigned a special task to him.
"Manager Park is short on men today. He wants someone from my team to help him," Hongjoong told Yunho in his office. "You're experienced and I trust your abilities, so I'm sending you."
Manager Park's team also worked for customer support. Only they worked behind counters, not phones. Which meant Yunho had to see clients face to face, and he hated that.
Despite his demanding instincts, though, he forced a nod.
He was allowed to leave but he stood frozen in front of Hongjoong's desk instead, his shoulders stiff and aching from something other than annoyance. It was from wariness too, because if his voice alone could reveal so much about him, what would his face and body gestures do?
-
Poor Yunho...he just went through the night shift and now he has a "special task". How will it turn out?