Three days later, Hongbin wakes up to his phone ringing in the middle of the night (12.27 AM, to be exact).

He reaches to the nightstand, almost knocking the bedside lamp over, not even bothering to look at the screen before he answers the call, turning onto his other side while slurring: “Hello?”

There’s some fumbling and whispering on the other side.

“He picked it up!”

“I’m not going to talk to him!”

“You have to!”

“Why?”

“Because he already answered it!”

“Why are we ing calling people in the middle of the night, anyway?”

“Not people, only him.”

Hongbin blinks a few. It’s definitely very strange for him to receive calls so late in the night from people other than Wonshik, and whatever’s going on on the other end of the line sounds even stranger. He tries to wake himself enough to be able to be bothered about the whole thing, but fails.

“Hello?” he asks again.

“Jeez, can you hear that? His voice is all raspy and deep, it’s pretty hot, isn’t it?”

“He’s probably still half-asleep for God’s sake! Okay, give me that .”

Another session of prolonged rustling, probably a door closing, and then throat clearing.

“Uh, hello?”

“Who’s that?” Hongbin inquires, now fully awake and trying to comprehend what’s going on.

“Sanghyuk,” the answer comes, and Hongbin’s eyebrows move up on his forehead. “Look, sorry to wake you up, I didn’t even want it, actually.”

“Hakyeon and Jaehwan?”

“Yeah…” Sanghyuk chuckles, making Hongbin remember the way his nose wrinkles when he does so. “Um…”

“How did you get my number?”

“Well, Hakyeon’s good at lying and the secretary’s weak to smiles and tear-jerking stories about students leaving their stuff behind, so he sort of convinced her to give out your number and… here we are.”

“I see,” is all Hongbin is able to utter. “So… do you want something from me?”

“Right now or in the long run?”

Another small laugh, and for some reason the corners of Hongbin’s lips curl up as well.

“Both.”

“Right now they just wanted me to talk to you, because…” Sanghyuk stops for a moment. Hongbin finds himself holding his breath. “Well, I guess, it was pretty obvious that they like to fool around and the teacher gave them the opportunity by asking you and me those questions, so–“

“You shouldn’t have told them about it,” Hongbin cuts in, just to keep things clear.

“Do you think so?”

Hongbin doesn’t know what the undertone of Sanghyuk’s question suggests, and he sincerely wishes he could see Sanghyuk’s face now so as not to reply in a dumb way. He laughs nervously in the end, saying: “Not really.”

“I’m glad,” Sanghyuk answers, and Hongbin can almost hear his smile.

“So what about… the long run?”

A small sigh and another tiny titter. It feels like half of their conversation is composed of that.

“We could grab a coffee sometime? I mean, outside school, because that coffee was pretty much grounds and stale hot water.”

“I don’t like coffee.”

“Oh, right, lemon tea,” Sanghyuk says. “So, what do you say?”

“I… okay,” Hongbin replies quietly.

“You’re paying, though.”

“I am.”

“Nice. Tomorrow at 3, maybe?”

“Today tomorrow or tomorrow tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“There’s a nice coffee place a few blocks away from the language school. Meet you there?”

“Sure.”

“Awesome. Then, good night, and sorry for disturbing you.” Before Hongbin could say goodnight to him, Sanghyuk quickly says: “Oh, and Hongbin?”

“Yeah?”

“Your voice really sounds great at this hour of the night.”

Hongbin’s breath hitches and he almost chokes on his own saliva, but eventually manages to stay alive.

“Thanks, uh… yours too.”

The sound of a grin.

“See you tomorrow tomorrow, then.”

“Yeah.”