Taehyun was startled by the distinct ringing by his head, but he just the light and grabbed his phone, expecting to be counseling whatever midnight crisis Jinwoo had. Contrary to expectation, it was an unknown number calling him. As he began to draw the connection together, Taehyun realized that there was a possibility that he knew who was calling. Not wanting to take any chances, he answered the call.

It's got to be him, Taehyun told himself as he picked up the phone. "Hello?" he asked, his voice slightly shaking in anticipation.

"Hey, it's Seungyoon," the other voice responded.

Taehyun's eyes grew wide with happiness. Sometimes leaving a number was an empty gesture, as in he was not expecting an immediate response any time, but it turned out that Taehyun was wrong. "Oh, I wasn't expecting you to call back," Taehyun said, nervously giggling in his bed.

"I was just about to go to sleep, and I needed someone to talk to."

"Honestly, I was just sleeping when you woke me up with your call," he replied sincerely.

"Oh, I'm sorry for waking you," Seungyoon said with a bit of guilt. "I should let you go back to sleep, then."

"No no no," Taehyun protested as strongly as he could. "I don't mind talking to you. What's on your mind?" he asked.

"I've just been working on my album today. I'm not sure if I'm doing the best that I can, but I hope that it'll turn out well anyways."

"Anything that you sing will be fine, honestly," Taehyun bluntly said. He could hear a low-pitched laugh from the other side, and again he felt his heart jump another hurdle.

"Thanks, Taehyun. It's nice to know that I gained another fan," Seungyoon responded sweetly. "So how'd it go with your job?" he then asked.

Taehyun paused when he heard the question. When he had returned to the company earlier, he bluntly lied to the faces of his bosses and said that they came up with nothing, and Jinwoo corroborated his story as well. Somehow, it ended up that he took the full responsibility of the loss and he was temporarily demoted to normal press releases and news until he could "act professional when it was needed". Jinwoo looked at him with sympathy, but Taehyun should have known that this would have happened in the tense company that they were under. His company, DiaDetails, was always desperate for clicks and readers, as it always lived in the shadows of Dispatch.

So when Taehyun tried to put a condensed version of this account into words, all he could say to Seungyoon was, "Not good."

"I'm sorry..." Seungyoon's voice resonated, and Taehyun didn't like the thought of Seungyoon feeling bad for something that he did not do.

"I mean, I guess it was a pretty bad thing to do as a worker, but I got what I deserved. You don't have to feel bad about anything," he tried to assure the other.

"Thanks, but of course I still feel bad since something bad happened to you instead. Why don't we meet up someday? It'll be my treat," Seungyoon offered.

Taehyun grabbed his pillow so that he wouldn't freak out, clutching it with all the energy he had. He replied calmly, saying "Of course we can. Where do you want to go?"

"Wherever you want, since I dragged you to the last place," Seungyoon chuckled. "Just text me the place and time once you have somewhere in mind, okay?"

"Yeah, maybe we can go somewhere this weekend," Taehyun said with silent joy.

"I'll look forward to it. Anyways, I don't want to keep you awake any longer. Sweet dreams," Seungyoon responded soothingly.

"You too." As the call ended, Taehyun felt that he was dreaming this entire fantasy that had just happened. Maybe when he woke up, he would have no recollection of this Kang Seungyoon he met. Yet when he saved Seungyoon's number and recalled the exact calm tone of his voice, it was clearly real to him. He cheerfully dropped his phone onto his pillow and closed his eyes, happy that he got some comfort that night.

~~~

The next day brought more emptiness than he was accustomed to. Without being sent out on his photography assignments, Taehyun remained back at the office, typing articles and doing paperwork. It was such tedious work that he sighed, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes. He glanced to the right of him in hopes of someone to talk to, but Jinwoo was still gone trying to snag pictures of Lee Jong Suk on a date or something. "I'll let you know if he's good-looking up close," Jinwoo had said cheerfully before he left, leaving Taehyun simultaneously jealous and curious.

Taehyun slid back in his chair and stood up, ready to go on lunch break. As he walked towards the elevator, he yawned with exhaustion. At least when he got to do field work, he was able to move around. Waiting for an assignment in the office completely drained his energy more than his job normally did. But consequences were consequences, he told himself. Pushing the button for the first floor, Taehyun sighed, knowing that he still did not regret withholding Seungyoon's pictures.

When the elevator doors opened to the lobby, Taehyun exited sluggishly. He had to take a few moments to pull out his phone and recheck his appearance, taking into account that he looked like he came out from a cave. His skin was sickly pale, his bags were darkened, and his hair was all disheveled. Taehyun almost laughed aloud at what a visual nightmare he was, but he decided to spare everyone around him the show. Instead, he dragged himself to leave the building and headed for lunch.

Because of his weariness and bad mood, Taehyun somehow ended up inside a barbeque place during the lunch hours. He was the only customer there, eating at his table alone, but the loneliness didn't seem to register at all. The onl