𝟐𝟕 𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 | 𝘫𝘪 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘮𝘪𝘯

📁

"hey changmin, isn't this your old phone?"

changmin turned around in his chair from his laptop. there stood chanhee holding something in his hand. immediately, changmin recognized it and stood up, walking over, "woah! where'd you find this?! i thought it was stolen over a year ago."

chanhee pointed behind him, "we were cleaning the place just now and pulled the furniture away from the walls. this was in the space behind the couch."

handing the phone to changmin, chanhee looked around the room, "where's the charger? let's see if you have any embarrassing old photos on it!"

changmin put a palm to his face, "chanhee! why is that your first thought? but i'm interested too. the charger's on the table."

the two boys walked over to the small nightstand beside the bed and plugged the phone in. to their surprise, after a few moments, a light turned on. the phone was coming back to life. a smile found their way to both of their faces as they excitedly bounced in their seats.

waiting a few minutes, the phone finally rebooted itself and changmin's old lockscreen flashed.

"aw! isn't this a photo of you and your dog? you both look so young!" chanhee said, cooing over the image from over a year ago. even changmin smiled shyly.

after a few password attempts, changmin unlocked the phone. it was like a portal back in time. he scrolled through the pages of apps, opening a few along the way. however, what caught his eye first wasn't the photos app, it was his voicemails.

it had 108 notifications.

"damn changmin. how many people have been trying to call you? someone's popular." chanhee said, eyes wide seeing the number.

changmin rolled his eyes, "probably from all of you guys since we thought my phone was stolen. since i never picked up my phone and you guys yelled at me."

chanhee laughed, remembering that day well. changmin opened the app, scrolling through the missed call list. however, the most recent missed calls were all from the same unknown number. the most recent call being only 5 months ago.

finding this as strange, changmin kept searching. his brows furrowed and his face became concentrated, not recognizing the unfamiliar number at all. even chanhee saw this and asked, "who's number is that?"

changmin shrugged. eventually the missed call list started to have familiar contact names, all his friends from the dorm. the unknown number wasn't seen again. feeling slightly relieved, changmin let out a sigh. until we went to check the voicemail tab. there it was again, that same number leaving a voicemail each time they had called.

although changmin had an affinity for the creepy and supernatural, this one hit a little too close to home for him. this was just unsettling. chanhee even seemed to get a bit nervous next to changmin. changmin's thumb hovered over the play button and chanhee smacked his hand, the phone went flying.

"don't play it! what if it's a spam caller?! or... or..." chanhee persisted, thinking hard about the strange situation. changmin got up to get the phone once again, "spam callers don't usually leave 27 voicemails from themselves. this seems like it's probably from someone i would've known. maybe it was a project partner and they were pissed i wasn't picking up my phone. that seems more likely."

chanhee nodded, agreeing with the logic, "that's true. i can't say i remember any of your project partners being especially happy to have you as their partner for assignments." he joked, but it earned him a hard slap from changmin.

immediately, chanhee cried out in pain and changmin's thumb had been hovering over the play button again. he took a deep breath and looked over at chanhee. he gave a small nod of encouragement. with that gesture, changmin hit play.

at first there was no sound other than an inhale but then, a voice spoke.

it was only a word, but changmin's thumb hit stop just as fast as hitting play.

chanhee's eyes were wide.

changmin's stomach sank.

they looked at each other.

"no way..." chanhee said, his face as pale as a sheet. changmin swallowed, hard, and nodded, "you heard it too right?"

"this is some sort of cruel joke right? she-

"i know." changmin said, cutting him off mid sentence.

the two boys sat in solemnity. a hushed silence fell over the room. the air felt thick. chanhee got up and walked around, "it's not like anything can change now right? we might as well play it."

"are you fucking crazy? do you not watch horror movies? that's the exact stupid sentence every dumb bitch says that doesn't make it past 2 minutes." changmin said, eyes glaring at chanhee.

he ran his hands through his hair, "of course you'd know. well, it's your phone man. toss it out a window and lose it for good for all i care. but if it came back into our lives, maybe there's a reason?"

"yeah. the reason being, you pigs finally cleaned up around here." changmin scoffed. chanhee smiled, "no shit i mean, something in the universe forced us to clean today. maybe it was your phone's cause."

changmin stared at the screen, the long list of voicemails all from her. chanhee took a seat next to changmin once again. the two sat in silence before changmin scrolled down the list, all the way to the first voicemail nearly a year and a half ago.

for reassurance, changmin glanced over at chanhee once again but he nodded, just like before. with reluctance, changmin hit play.

the two waited for the voicemail to begin and once it had, changmin closed his eyes.

it was his first time truly remembering her voice in over two years.