Wrong Number || BBK

The One Who Calls Back

It's needless to say that Jinae oversleeps the next day, only waking up to the sound of her ringing cellphone and the feeling of sunlight slithering through her closed blinds. She doesn't need to check the time to guess that she's already late to class, and one glance at her device indicates her classmate's name glowing on the screen, further confirming her deduction about the situation.

She makes a grab for her phone, swiping the green call button before pressing the device to her ear.

"Where the heck are you?" a voice explodes at the other end of the line. Chaemi is someone who Jinae had considered her friend until the end of the last semester, when she realized that the said girl had been distributing her notes to her other classmates with the excuse that Jinae's notes are the best she had seen, and that knowledge should be shared among the people fighting the same battles.

Jinae hadn't been completely comfortable with the idea, but she'd clamped her mouth shut at the retort that clawed away at her throat, instead giving the girl a tight-lipped smile.

From that day onwards, Jinae had learnt not to trust too easily, not to fall for people's kindness when it's readily available.

"I'm sick." Jinae lies smoothly as she runs a hand through her messed up bed hair, "Won't be coming today. See you."

And before she can hear Chaemi's response, she cuts off the call and falls back onto the bed.

Memories of last night float up through her mind, which is the reason as to why she has overslept and has practically wrecked her sleeping schedule. It'll take her approximately two days to get back to routine if she manages to go to bed early tonight, but something tells Jinae that she'll be calling an all-too familiar number soon. The conversation she's had with Baekhyun is still fresh, impregnated in her memory like a permanent engravement. While he's a practical stranger, he has made her feel so much better than her boyfriend ever did during these few weeks.

Balancing her phone with one hand as she brings it up to her face, she catches sight of a familiar name on the screen.

Taehyung, she mouths softly as if it's a prayer that she shouldn't be saying out loud. She opens the message and the words pop up on the screen. It reads:

I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you about my medical conference. My phone battery died and we're practically in the middle of nowhere, but I managed to charge it when we reached the hotel yesterday night. I'm sorry, can I call you later?

Jinae's nose wrinkles up in part annoyance and agitation. Is he even for real? She thinks to herself as she locks her screen and tosses her phone aside, a dead weight of frustration building up inside her stomach at the thought of being placed on the back burner all because of his career. It's always about his career, always about himself and what he wants that are placed first. Jinae fully understands his responsibilities and had been fully supportive of his decisions at first. But she can't seem to feel as though he's throwing everything away just for that. And if that's the type of person that Taehyung is like, then clearly she doesn't seem to form part of his important circle of priorities anymore.

The day crawls by at an uneasily slow pace, but it's mid-afternoon when she receives a message from an unknown number. Momentarily pausing in the middle of folding her clothes, she picks up her device and reads the message with a growing sense of recognition.

Hey, it's Baekhyun. Hope you're feeling better after last night. Just wanted to say that I had a nice talk with you.

A small smile impulsively curled her lips upwards. That is indeed sweet of the familiar stranger. She can't seem to put a face to his name, but those words are enough to make her feel warm with slight happiness. At least there's someone that cares enough. It gives her hope that there's someone who wants to listen to her problems, even when she barely even knows him.