0112.

iv.

iv.

"You've reached Kim Jongin. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you soon."

It's been a week. The phone stopped ringing eventually. There were occasional messages on the answering machine but he stopped trying to go through them after a while. Text messages weren't as frequent as they used to be. There were still stares at the back of his head. He could feel them looking at him. He could feel their eyes on his back, burning holes through his skin like they could see through him—ever so curious, so thirsty for knowledge. Then, he stopped going to work altogether. He shut everyone else away from him.

"Hey," A breathless voice comes through the speaker and Jongin looks up from his book to stare at it. "Just thought I'd leave you a short message."

There was a breathless laugh and a long pause, like he didn't know what to say next. But that was okay with Jongin because he doesn't exactly know how to react. "Your friend—Sehun, was it? He gave me your number. I didn't really know why. But you stopped coming here altogether, so I'm curious."

There was a soft thud in the background and the sound of him breathing. When he spoke again, his voice cracked and he cleared his throat. "It's Kyungsoo," His voice was almost like a whisper, sounding distant. "I hope you didn't forget."

The machine makes a soft click and Jongin drops his gaze to read the next passage from the book. But the sound of his voice still rings in his ears and suddenly the words in front of him turned into hieroglyphics. He couldn't understand anything. Jongin hesitantly closes the book and leaves his index finger at the page he was reading before grabbing his bookmark. He sighs deeply. Maybe he should visit Kyungsoo tomorrow. 

Bookmarked.