Sunrise [Yungi FF]

3. Night Shift

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.