bombgyu [txt beomgyu]

yeoldul

i dialled the phone number and waited.

my room was dimly lit, curtains on, lamps off, the evening sky at dusk offering but little light to the world. it was quite the picture to admire, hadn't i had something else to mind about. the phone kept going, that dialing low ring still there despite the all black screen.

there was the possibility of him never answering. perhaps the call from earlier at work had been to weird, but then again i couldn't really answer him with sangjoon so close and so curious. not without having him bury me in questions and later in rumors about the whole thing. at that moment, playing dumb had been the better choice, yet winning that battle might as well have lost me the war.

i hated to admit it, yes, but i did want to talk to that person, to ask how he'd been and why he'd wanted to contact me.

my phone moved towards the phone, fingers wrapping around the small, rectangular frame. i was a moment away from ending it all when the screen lit up and the words ongoing call hit me in the face. a moment or so later, my frozen hand finally managed to raise the phone to my ear.

"hello," he started, just the way he had hours before. "who is this?"

i bit my lip, forcing myself to get it back together. "hello," i said, breathed in, breathed out, then continued, "forgive me, but i think i should be the one asking that. i was told to call this number." i spoke with pauses, enough to catch the moment he realized who i was. his breathing had changed, a barely audible chickle interrupting one of my words.

"i see," he answered. "thank you for calling then, anna." he mispronounced the name just like the first time i said it to him.

the corner of my mouth tugged upwards; neither could i stop grinning, nor did i want to. "try again."

"a-na."

i nodded my head instead of answering, as if he could see me. moments of silence later, did i confirm it, feeling him relieved despite the distance. he might as well have been in the next quarter of the city, might as well have been in a different city or maybe in a different country. sangjoon mentioned they were doing u.s. promotions at the time, vocalizing his surprise regarding the promotion the company gave them in comparison to how little even bts got back in the day when they had barely started their ascension. what a fanboy, this sangjoon.

so there was a chance i was going to have to give my salary to international call taxes, which that would have normally bothered me, and yet there i was. almost hoping this call would go on for a while.

beomgyu.

"how have you been?" he asked.

"good, i guess. not a manager anymore," i answered. i had long thrown myself in my bed, my back against the mattress, the phone close to my ear whilst my eyes were trying to find shooting stars on my ceiling. it was still too early for them, however. or maybe one had already passed and maybe some wish i didn't know i'd made, maybe somebody else's wish instead, whichever of those two, had come true. "and you?"

"i'm good too, thank you. just returned a couple of days ago to korea after conquering another continent." anybody could've felt him smiling that sunshine smile of his even through the phone. "i wake up crying and smiling to realize this is really happening to me."

i couldn't help not put a grin on too, despite the inevitable ache somewhere deep inside me. what was someone like me doing talking to someone like him? i really needed to focus, see what he wanted - maybe to complain about the service at the hotel, even though they could've gone straight to ms. kim and there wouldn't have been any need for me to even know about it. unless the complaint was about me and he really wanted to solve it out in person. even so, despite all those scenarios, people who wanted other people to lose their job didn't talk to them as freely and happily as he'd just talked to me. however much that went against all possibilities, it was above logical. "it's good to hear that. i need to ask you, though. what did you want to talk to me?"