Your voice - A Jikook story

Your laughter

"Mr. Jeon?"

"Yeah! What do you want?"

The voice on the other end of the line sounded a bit unnerved, maybe even a bit sour. But the politely smiling man, holding the grey telephone handset in one of his small hands, just continued with a calm, friendly voice.

"You are Mr. Jeon Jungkook? Member of the SC Credits bank in Seoul?"

"Huh?" Quiet. And then a low growl. "Yes ... why? Who the fuck are you?"

The blonde-haired male leaned back to the headrest of his uncomfortable chair, his eyes diverted to the boring grey ceiling of the huge open-plan office. He was used to someone like his Mr. Jeon. Unpolite. Maybe even rude. And not patiently at all. This would be fun .... not.

"Mr. Jeon, there are some irregular debits made from your credit card, and we, the SC Credit bank, wanted to check in with you. Solve this problem as fast as possible." His words seeped away into the dark endlessness of the phone line, his fingers tapping on the sticky plastic cover of his desk rhythmically.

"Irregular debits? The fuck do you mean by that?"

His voice slipped into dangerous waters. Angry almost. But this didnt make the small male nervous in the slightest. He just nodded with a certain routine, his eyes wandering over to his coworker Hoseok, looking at him with an attentive smile.

"Well. For example, we have a debit for expensive jewelry from one of the luxury stores in the Cheongdam-dong district. Did you purchase something there around..." He leaned forward, pressing some keys on his almost antique computer and searching for the credit card statements of his customer. "... eight days ago? 700.000 won?"

A little noise, close to someone choking rang out of the phone, followed by a very quick inaudible conversation between the customer and someone.

"Mr. Jeon? Are you still present?" There was a slight tension, creeping up with this simple question and the male really had to hold everything together, not to groan loudly. Why was this person that difficult? He could just ... answer and get this over with?

There were more voices and noises of doors opening and closing. And quite a bit of rustling. "Mr. Jeon!" He tried it again, this time almost sounding a bit cocky. Hoseok looked over the thin wall separating their office booths with a questioning look, a phone jammed between his head and shoulder. The blonde flinched when he locked eyes with the redhead, but returned the other's look with just a wry shrug. Hm, he had sensed the distress in my scent. Sorry to confuse you, Hobi.

'What's happening?' The other tried to mouth to him, but suddenly the grumpy voice was back, almost barking into the phone.

"You want to say some is using my freaking card to buy some useless shit? Are you kidding me?" The disbelief and maybe the slight hope, that this would be a weird joke, was clearly audible in his voice. But what could he do? The blonde man just sighed, leaning on his elbows and looking at a photo, the only photo, pinned down next to his screen.

"I am sorry to inform you, Mister Jeon. But sadly this is no joke. This is reality. But we want to help. I ... want to help." Please, please ... bite. Help me to help you, you dumb idiot.

"O-okay." Finally. The man sounded much calmer but also ... defeated. "Sorry. I am a bit on edge at the moment. I just had a client and she was a bit ... difficult to begin with ... so ... hm ... sorry ..."

"It's okay, Mr. Jeon. I just want to do my job and help you. I don't want to bother you any more than I have to." He was relieved. This sounded like this idiot would at least try and cooperate now. And he could get this over with faster.

"So, I want to go through all of the debits made in the last few weeks, one by one. Make sure that we can differentiate between your expenditures and the thieves. And maybe get a clue where they are to give a hint to the police."

"Hm. Sounds ... good I guess. But ..."

A noise interrupted him, sounding like a door opening and someone coming into the room. Back with the mumbles again, hm? The blonde man leaned back again, rolling his eyes and clenching his fists. This was fucking annoying. There were at least a dozen more calls on his lists and he had to be quick to get paid appropriately. His patience was on the brim of breaking and Hoseok already shook his head furiously, knowing him and all the indicators for one of his rage outbursts.

"Mr. Jeon?!"

Hoseok sighed in defeat. Oh, not again.

"Mr. Jeon. I know you are probably a very fucking busy man, but I fucking need your attention now, because I also have a life you know?! And rent to pay! So suck it up and maybe just tell me a freaking time we can talk in peace again, without you shutting me up every other second. This would be a damn dream. Thanks."

His chest rose up and down very fast, his head flushed from anger. His eyes were burning and piercing through the computer's screen, the numbers and words on it becoming blurry in his sight. Then he heard someone clear their throat and his head shot around. Hoseok looked at him scoldingly, shaking his bright orange hair and throwing a rainbow pencil at him. This woke him up and he realized what he did. Again. His eyes widened and his cheeks reddened. Damn. His boss would kill him. He just wanted to apologize furiously, when loud laughter sounded out of the speaker, dumbfounding the small man completely. It sounded ... beautiful. Bright, a bit raspy, and very melodic. He was mesmerized, all his anger and rage forgotten in an instant. His hand flew to his strongly beating heart and his torso jolted forward, this weird feeling suddenly shooting through his veins with an intensity, he never felt before. The laugher died down, bit by bit, followed by some very cute, very quiet giggles.

"Hahaha ... you are a feisty one, aren't you?" He sounded almost bubbly now. Happy. "I tell you what, hot head, we can do this the way you want to. But just not now. I have to finish of this client. But how about..." The still startled man heard some soft ruffling of paper and an absent-minded humming, which shot through his brain and destroyed everything on its way. Beautiful ... so beautiful.

"...how about tomorrow around 8 pm? My last client comes in around seven, so it should be fine."

"S-sure..." He managed to answer. Somehow. His eyes glanced over to his best friend and coworker helplessly, but the redhead just answered with a grin. This is your own mess. Deal with it.

"Alright, hot head." He chuckled. Deep, Raspy. Damn.

"D-don't..." The man blinked. One time. Two times. His mind completely blank. "Don't call me that, Mr. Jeon."

Another row of chuckles, shooting through his body like pure electricity. "Jungkook. Call me Jungkook."

"Oh, I cant call customers by their – –" He tried to carefully intervene, but he was cut short.

"And what I should call you, hot head? If I can't call you that?"

His voice was so different now. Playful. So far from sour or unnerved. The blonde hands slightly trembled, the effect this person had on him, making him nervous and confused. Without thinking he answered like it was an urge or a task he had to do.

"Jimin. My name is ... Jimin."