Call My Name by the Stars

CHAPTER 19 pt.1- Voice Lies, Lines Tells

<2021>

Jooah threw the empty mineral water plastic bottle into the trashcan as she stepped in her house, massaging the back of her shoulders and rubbing her neck, "I really drank more than usual today," it felt stuffy outside without her camera, a missing piece in her definitions.

"Is Park Jaeryeong really getting it fixed? Should I try to call him?," she searched for his name in his contacts, "Gosh I actually feel like a creditor now. He makes himself sound like he's in an actual debt. Christ," she shook her head to herself and put her phone on her ear as it tried to connect her to Jaeryeong.

"The number you are calling is...," Jooah stared blankly at her screen as the automated voice popped out, and went into her very minimalistic room with only small frames of films and dramas she's worked for on the walls. They were the opposite of her Thurzday and photography teenager room.

She sat before her computer desk, clicking the mouse towards a fan discussion forum site of Thurzday. It was the fastest way to know what they were doing. It had been way too long since she went back there, it actually sent cringe shivers down her spine as she remembered the old her scrolling on the site from time to time, as her eyes skimmed through the fan comments, as they were straining themselves from shutting out. She made another attempt to call him while she's at it, and there were still no answers.

"It's kind of empty now. Are their fans more chill?," she noticed a comment that went, "Our dazzling fox is live!!"

Jooah snickered, "No wonder... Who's fox? Chunyoung?" She used to think he was as playful and cute as a fox, especially paired with his endearing sharp appearances, until she realized he's just the prickliest porcupine to exist.

"I was gross," she thought as she dialed Jaeryeong once more at the same time that she clicked on the external link the fan provided, redirected to a live of... Park Jaeryeong...?

"What? Why is he here?," she said out in confusion, but she was even more confused when she saw how he placed his phone ringing from her call at the center of a table. He used one finger on the phone flat on the table and accepted her call, but she heard nothing before from the live lag.

"Hello?," she lowered her voice and asked cautiously, but as she watched the lagged live, he put a metal bowl over his phone with her in it, and a spoon on his right hand.

She didn't know what he was intending, "...Bruh, what's he trying to-"

"KLONGCHENGKLONGCHENGKLONGCHENG!!," came deafeningly from the other end of her call, it startled her so much that no shriek came out of her and she simply yanked her phone away from her ear.

She gasped and caught her breath from the mini heart attack when she finally saw from the lagged live that he was hitting the metal bowl over his phone call with the spoon, "What the-," she said out loud, unaware.

She finally heard his voice before the live show, "Consider this your warning. Stop calling me, or I'll have to use the legal way to handle this."

"Huh? Are you se-," she took too long to realize she was still just an unidentified number from his phone, "Gosh, I'm so stupid. He thinks I'm his obsessive fan. I even called him thrice. ...This is stupid."

"Hey! Park Jaeryeong! It's me!," she quickly yelled to her phone before he could end the call, her voice already sounding irritated to begin with from all the time lost, and for all her eardrums sacrificed.

There were short silences from the other end momentarily, Jooah had to check and see if she was already blocked. The live broadcast showed him stopping as he looked like he's trying to wonder whether it was a prank or if it's really someone he knew.