"Hongbin."

 

. . .

 

"LEE HONGBIN."

 

Hongbin jumped and looked around.

 

"Sleeping on the job again I see." Seokjin grinned, inches from his co-worker's face.

 

"Creep." Hongbin flinched and pushed his square frames up his nose. He worked a double shift today and had the right to be tired.

 

"You need something to lift your spirit." Seokjin said purposefully. "You should come out to the club after work."

 

Hongbin yawned and checked his watch. "I don't think I can. I have the early shift tomorrow."

 

Seokjin rolled his eyes. "All you do is work in tech support and nothing else. Where's the fun?"

 

"At home. On the computer." Hongbin said flatly. His friend snorted and Hongbin glared at his dirty thought.

 

"I meant real fun." He slid closer to Hongbin, whose shoulders tensed uncomfortably. "There'll be girls~"

 

"Real ones?" 

 

Seokjin nodded. "Tons. Including ones that dig nerds."

 

Silently, Hongbin agreed on the outing.

 

 

 

He began to regret his decision as he stood in the crowded club. The music was so loud that it made ripples in his cup of seltzer water.

 

"If you don't have a real drink I will dump that on your head." Seokjin glared at him. He was already a little buzzed and they'd hardly been there twenty minutes.

 

Hongbin shrugged and would have said something if two women hadn't come up and flanked his friend.

 

"Jinnie." One in a bubbly pink dress cooed. "Who's your cute friend?"

 

"What cute friend?" He smirked. Hongbin's eyes narrowed at him.

 

"He seems a bit tense." The blonde at his other side looked him up and down. Hongbin took the chance to do the same to her. She was nice to look at. Her white dress fit her like a glove.

 

"He doesn't get out much." Seokjin shook his head solemnly. "Tiffany should help him loosen up while Jessica and I go way over there."

 

Hongbin opened his mouth to protest but was quickly interrupted by the girl in the pink dress who clapped her hands and practically bounced. "That sounds great!"

 

He watched in despair as Jessica pulled his lifeline away, disappearing into the sea of dancing people.

 

"So how do you know Jinnie?" Tiffany asked, her chin resting on her tiny fists.

 

"We uh- we work together." He watched the bubbles in his cup shakily rise to the surface and pretended that it wasn't at all like the feeling in his stomach. "In tech support."

 

"I see." Tiffany nodded and raked her thoughts. "I bet that means you're super smart, right?"

 

Hongbin merely shrugged.

 

"You're too smart for your current occupation, am I right?" Her dark eyes glinted in an odd light. "You're wasted sitting behind a desk like that all day."

 

She placed one of her delicate hands on his arm and leaned in close, whispering in his ear. "You desperately want to prove that you're superior, don't you? I know a way that you can."

 

He shifted away from her, uncomfortably. She sighed and tossed her hair.

 

"I need a drink."

 

He watched her retreating form melt into the crowd and swirled his cup, creating a tiny vortex.

 

"Intriguing."

 

Hongbin jumped, startled, causing the contents of his cup to fly out and soak the front of his shirt. He looked up at the one who disrupted his focus.

 

"Sorry about that." She said, pushing her short hair behind her ear and grabbing a tissue out of Hongbin's pocket. "Let me help you."

 

He was so surprised by her straightforwardness that it took him a moment to regain his thoughts.

 

"It's fine." He managed to stammer and took the tissue from her. "I can do it."

 

She leaned back and sighed as he feebly blotted his shirtfront.

 

"It's too loud here."

 

Hongbin agreed mentally but countered her. "Then why are you here?"

 

"Why are you here?" She pursed her red stained lips and folded her arms across her chest. His eyes couldn't help but to grace her figure. He was too distracted by the way the the cobalt blue satin of her dress fell about her hips and the length of her slender legs.

 

She stuck her hand in his face and literally snapped him back to reality.

 

He shook his head to clear it. "I needed a change of scenery."

 

"And this was the best place you could think of?" She chuckled lowly. "You and I both know that you're smarter than that, Hongbin."

 

"How do you know my name?" He gulped. Her attractive appearance was already making him nervous enough. Now he felt like he was being attacked.

 

"I know things." She shrugged. "I know your talents are wasted at your tedious job and that you secretly wish you were elsewhere."

 

As the second stranger in a day to tell him that, Hongbin wasn't sure to be flattered or thoroughly offended by the blatant intrusion of his personal life.

 

"I also know that you really don't want to get mixed up with the wrong people." She turned his chin, with two fingers, to view Jessica and Tiffany on the far side of the dancefloor. Seokjin didn't notice that his partner's attention was on the other girl as she explained something with a serious expression.

 

She turned his face back toward her own. "I'll be in touch."

 

With that, she her heel and left. He raised an eyebrow at her open-backed dress and the binary code tattooed down her spine.

 

Tiffany bounced back into his view, a bright expression plastered onto her face. She teetered slightly and Hongbin stuck his arm out to steady her.

 

"Maybe I had too much to drink." She giggled. "Silly me."

 

He knew she was lying.

 

He craned his neck to look for the mysterious girl in the blue dress. "I think I have to go."

 

"But you can't!" Tiffany shrieked, flailing her arms in a little tantrum. "I need you here."

 

"I don't think you do." He pressed his lips together and sidestepped away from her.

 

"You think too much." Tiffany grabbed his forearms and pulled him back. She was strong for such a small girl. "Do you ever just do something without thinking?"

 

"Never." He said monotonously while trying to locate the nearest exit.

 

"Well you should start." She pressed her slim body against his own and directed him to look at her.

 

He shoved her away and darted for the door. Ignoring the screaming that was soon drowned out by the loud music, he stumbled out into a dark alley and made for the street. Confident that he wasn't being followed, he stuck his hands in his pockets and started to walk along the sidewalk.

 

It was oddly quiet. Usually cars were rushing up and down this road but Hongbin was lucky to see one pass. Overhead, a streetlight flickered until it went out. One by one, the other lights on the block winked out. A payphone rang, startling him.

 

Curiosity got the better of him and he slowly picked it up the receiver. "Hello?"

 

"Hongbin," a familiar voice purred. "Just the man I wanted to hear from."

 

---

||Author's note: This is very different from my usual writing so I hope you like it! If not...well it's 4am orz

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-Mickey