Jongin could say a lot of things about his part-time job, but surely it was never boring.

Yeah, he had to work at odd hours every other month, he had to spend hours talking in a low voice, whispering and when appropriate and that, more often than not, left him with a sore throat, but when at the and of the month he had money for rent and bills and then some there was really little he could complain about.

He had also nice co workers, like his nice cubicle-neighbor, Chanyeol, with the deep voice and the weird fixation for Polaroids, or the guy of the coffee machine, Kyungsoo, who came in every Thursday morning and slipped them free coffees and snacks.

All in all despite being a gay hot line office it was pretty normal.

They even had a nice Happiness Tree in a corner, Norman they had called it.

Anyway, Jongin worked from Wednesday to Sunday, either in the morning or in the evening shift, rarely in the night shift since he was only a part-timer. In his cubicle he had a computer, a board with a magic marker, random stationery (all with the logo of the company, probably to discourage stealing) and a phone, plugged to headphones and a microphone. He could work even from home if so he wished, but he didn't want any evidence of his part-time occupation on his computer. His hyungs had already a lot of teasing material as it was, thank you very much.

So, it was one of the rare nights where he had to take the late night shift, when the worst erted of the country emerged and clogged their line to moan in a stranger's ears their deepest fantasy and then come, alone and untouched by anyone but themselves in the span of a phone call. It was even rather instructive, despite being in his twenties and with a nice drive, some of the things those people said had never crossed his mind. Not that he would have had someone to actually try them with, but this was another story.

Well, it wasn't that he hadn't got opportunities, he had plenty of those, and he did take some, but he didn't really feel like being too adventurous with a one night stand, he needed trust for that and, sure as hell, he wasn't letting some random guy he met in a bar tie him up to the bed and then have his way. Totally not his thing. And it wasn't like he hadn't got someone in mind that he would have gladly let tie him up and have his way, if that person was ever going to notice his huge crush.

Anyhow, he had just ended a call with a man with a very breathy voice that probably spit-talked and had a thing for guys in stockings and lacy , nothing too out of the ordinary, when Chanyeol had called a break. He needed coffee and he was about to get up when his phone rang, or rather flashed since none of their phones had a tune, but a only a red light. For a moment he thought of just letting it ring and get his well eared break, but instead he sat back down, put his headphones on and answered as he usually did.

“Hi, how can I help you tonight?” he had come up with that question after a lot of serious thinking. He wanted something easy, that could have a very long list of double meanings, but didn't really jump right into the action as some men where shy about it at first. He was very proud of himself.

Nothing like Chanyeol's I'm your dream tonight, honey. Disgusting. But callers couldn't actually see Chanyeol, munch on his ramyeon with his feet propped on the table and broth dripping from his chin.

On the other end no one said anything at first, but there was a lot of ruckus, and giggling and catcalls. A party. Jongin scoffed. He hated those kind of calls, a bunch of drunk guys huddling over a phone to call a night gay hotline just for the heck of it. It was always hard to handle those, to remain calm and not tell them to just off.

Then someone coughed in the receiver, making Jongin winch. “I'm sorry... ” the voice said and Jongin swore he had heard it somewhere.

“No need to be sorry, darling” he said, he knew he sounded ridiculous with all the whispering and cheesy phrasing wasted on a prank call, but it was his job and he was going to do it right.

“I don't really know what I'm supposed to say now...” there was a bit of background noise and then a Go for it Yixing-hyung! reached Jongin's ears and it was then that he started to panic.

He should have just hung up. But he didn't, he was stupid like that.

“There is nothing right or wrong...” the noise diminished then and there was another cough, now clearer, Jongin shivered, the speaker had been switched off. . “...you just have to tell me what you like” he added in a breathier voice.

“J-Jongin?” Yixing whispered on the other side.

Of all the things Jongin had thought could happen when he applied for the job, his utterly helpless crush calling was really at the bottom of his list. (yeah, he had thought about it). He could hear exclamations of disappointment and very obscene comments that he wold never admit storing for future reference, then the noise disappeared when a door clicked.

“I'm sorry if I'm mistaken, but is that really you?”

There was one thing to be said about Zhang Yixing, he was a very kind person that rarely made fun of people disgraces, but it was sort of a Russian roulette and Jongin was not sure that was safe to admit that yes, he was indeed Kim Jongin the math-impaired monster Yixing tutored in first year and wasn't over him yet.

“Yeah... it's me” he said then, in his normal voice and shut his eyes waiting.