The Right Number

1. Wrong Number

[XXXXXXXX98: How can you do this to me?]

A message popped up on Ohm's screen, and he scrunched his brows.

He kept his file aside and looked at his phone, confused.

[Ohm: What did I do?] He replied. The problem was that his phone fell from the tenth floor on the ground yesterday, and he somehow lost all his contacts. Now he was not sure who was texting him when he saw an unknown number.

It could be anyone. His social network, his professional network, and even his personal network have no ends.

And the worst part is that his memory doesn't help when it comes to recalling phone numbers.

He has kept both his parents, his two friends, his boss, and his lover... no actually his ex on speed dial. It's that bad.

So now he was tapping his fingers and waiting for the text response.

"What are you doing?" Rob said, taking a seat next to Ohm in his cubicle. Rob knows how to read Ohm's face very well because if you look at a face for more than ten years, you kind of start reading it automatically because Rob is not just a colleague, but one of Ohm's speed dials.

Ohm turned his phone screen toward him. "I received this today morning."

Rob scrunched his eyes and looked at the phone screen. "So?" He shrugged, getting back to his laptop instead. "Did you finally delete Nancy's number?"

Ohm smirked. He was a bit confused, but the way Rob asked made sure that it was Nancy. His ex.

"I did not delete it. My phone broke, and I have lost all contacts." Ohm replied absentmindedly.

He started typing again on the phone. [Ohm: Why do you blame me always?]

He then saved the number in his phone book, Annoying-N.

"Sucks to be you." Rob duly replied. "Tell me you are not replying to her."

"I am."

Rob sighed and got up from his desk. "I need coffee." He walked away.

"HEY, feed your number into my phone before you go." Ohm yelled behind him, but Rob was out of the door.

Ohm grimaced and kept his phone aside. He decided to concentrate on his work instead.

But before he could press a single letter, his phone buzzed.

[XXXXXXXX98: Really? Look who is talking.]

Ohm gritted his teeth and picked up his phone, pressing his fingers harder on the screen than necessary.

[Ohm: I am talking. Anyway. I am not in a mood to waste my time on you. Tell me why you texted me.]

[XXXXXXXX98: You made it complex. It was fine before. But now I can't deal with this shit.]

"Ha!" Ohm smirked. "She decided to break up, saying I was good for nothing, and now she is behaving toxic."

Rob slammed his cup on the table. "You can talk to yourself on mute, you know?"

Ohm did not pay heed to his usual sarcasm because he is now used to it. Instead, he tapped on the screen again. This time a bit lightly, though, [Ohm: I am fine now, though. So go to hell.]

Ohm chuckled at his little victory, making Rob turn to him dully. Ohm looked at him. "What?"

"2 words of code since the good 40 minutes you came into the office; I am just appreciating the productivity." Rob gave him a sarcastic sneer.

Which Ohm returned. "Fuck you."

"No thanks. My boyfriend does it well."

"CAN I GET THAT SHIT DONE TODAY?" A voice resonated from within the cabin to the entire hall, making Ohm and Rob turn to look at their boss's closed cabin and then at each other's faces. "Boyfriend or not, we are fucked." Ohm said, and they both got back to their screens this time, keeping everything else aside.

"This guy is asking me to go to hell?" Nanon scoffed, annoyed. "For a computer code?" Nanon mumbled, confused.

Ryu exhaled. "I told you. You cannot rely on Oat for the code. He will ditch us at the last minute."

Nanon turned to him with disbelief. "But he has also invested in this. How can it not affect him?"

"We knew this, didn't we?" Ryu eyed Nanon.

Nanon turned to look at his incomplete application, which he needs to present in a week to the sponsors to be able to start his own start-up with Ryu.

Despite his friend's continuous warnings, he decided to give a chance to Oat, who was famous in their college days for ditching people in the end.

The problem now is that Nanon doesn't even know any other way to contact him except for this number that he got from his building watchman's entry register.

It seems like Oat gave Nanon the wrong number, but now that he is responding to the texts on the number received from the watchman's register, it should be the correct one.

"Now what do we do?" Ryu asked Nanon.

Nanon was clueless, but he had to take responsibility. So he smiled assumingly at Ryu.

"Give me a day. I will get him to complete this on time." Nanon said.

"Don't forget that we are still losing a day." Ryu warned before packing his bag and getting up after working the whole night. "I'll go home, get some rest, and come back after lunch. You, too, go to sleep. Ok?" Despite his anger, Ryu knew that Nanon was also in a puddle, so he was concerned for his friend too.

Nanon nodded and smiled at him, briefly waving him good-bye.

Nanon sighed and closed the laptop. He brushed his teeth and took a bath. His head was feeling heavy from the lack of sleep, but he decided to have some cereal for brunch before going to bed. Just before going to sleep, he took out his phone and quickly drafted a message.

[Nanon: Mr. Despicable O, when nobody believed in you, I did. So you better come back to me.]

He woke up to the sound of his phone vibrating. He picked it up and opened it to check the message.

[Despicable O: You Annoying-N, I am tired of this. I don't have time to waste on you anymore.]

Nanon gaped. He got up from the bed and called Ryu.

[Hello?]

"Don't come home. I am going to meet Oat." Nanon said while wearing his jacket.

[Nanon, you know how he is. Trust me. You will lose it. Let me meet him.]

"No. I decided to involve him in this project, so I will be the one dealing with the consequences. I am leaving now. Bye."

[But...]

Before Ryu could say anything more, Nanon disconnected.

He instead texted Oat.

[Nanon: Come and meet me at the mall in 30 minutes.]