To Kiss An Idol

“Woah! What is all this?” Nivritti’s eyes were ready to fall out of her head. She already had big eyes and now they were at their biggest.

“Food?” replied Jae-Hwa, confused.

“Yes, I can see that but what is this?” shouted Nivritti.

“Oh, come on! This is nothing. We eat this every day,” Jae-Hwa dismissed Nivritti’s concern and went and sat on the couch. But Nivritti was too shocked to see the amount of food before her eyes. “What?” asked Jae-Hwa, annoyed.

“You eat this every day?”

“What? So Indians don’t eat some kind of curry or stew every day with rice and bread?” inquired Jae-Hwa.

“We eat dry veggies too,” protested Nivritti.

“Do you add spices to them?” questioned Jae-Hwa.

.....

“Right!” Nivritti came close to her and sat down on the couch. “So, tell me what all this is?”

“So that is sticky rice, that big, boiled chicken is Samgyetang, you know that bowl is Bibimbap, that is Gimbap, that is pork Galbi, and that is Cabbage Kimchi and that is Radish Kimchi,” quickly Jae-Hwa recited the menu. She then added, “and those two green bottles are Soju. I know you don’t drink so I brought a coke for you from the fridge.”

Nivritti was still in shock. Her eyes refused to go back to normal size. “What, now?” complained Jae-Hwa.

“You think, we two, we both, you mean us, we can finish all thhhiiisss?” asked Nivritti, shocked.

“Yes!” replied Jae-Hwa as it was the obvious answer.

“But you named only a few of these dishes. What are those?” asked Nivritti.

“Oh, that is just Banchan,” replied Jae-Hwa casually.

“Banchan! Banchan! These, one, two, three... seven, seven side dishes,” shouted Nivritti.

“How do you know the meaning of Banchan? Who told you it means side dishes?” asked Jae-Hwa surprised.

Nivritti slouched her shoulder and rolled her eyes at Jae-Hwa. Jae-Hwa facepalmed and laughed, “right! I forgot that you know Korean. So, that is a green salad, that is gamja jorim, those are made out of potatoes, that is radish salad, that is sigeumchi namul, it is made of Spinach, that is shiitake mushroom, that is broccoli and that is soybean sprouts.”

“And you eat this, everything that I see here, every day?” asked Nivritti.

“I mean, no. Okay, fine, I acknowledge that uhmma went a little overboard for you. She has been cooking since early morning after she heard about what you did for me,” replied Jae-Hwa.

“Since early morning!” shouted Nivritti.

“Chillax! We all helped. Ahppa too wanted to do something for you and Oppa too,” said Jae-Hwa.

Nivritti hid her face in her hands with embarrassment. “Oh my God! You guys did all this for me? You woke up early to cook all this for me?” Nivritti kept shouting due to shock.

“You think we cooked just this? I only emptied half of one bag, sweetie,” smirked Jae-Hwa.

“Half of one bag? You guys brought three bags? Jae!” shouted Nivritti.

“Hey! This is nothing. It’s just food. We had no idea how to thank you, so we thought this was the best thing we could do for you,” replied Jae-Hwa seriously.

“Jae! I love it. What I don’t like is you guys had to work so hard for me,” said Nivritti.

“Oh, uhmma wanted to cook lobster and prawns for you. And ahppa wanted to buy a year’s worth of cake. So, I think is far less than what they wanted to do,” Jae-Hwa rolled her eyes.

“Ha-ha,” laughed Nivritti out loud. After the whole night of crying, she felt relieved after laughing. “Well, in that case, this is better. So, what should I start with?”

“Hmm, let’s finish Bibimbap first,” said Jae-Hwa, excited.

Jae-Hwa picked up chopsticks and Nivritti picked up a fork and a spoon. They started with bibimbap and topped every spoonful with kimchi.

“Pick any side dish and eat in between,” suggested Jae-Hwa.

“You know what, I am going round the table,” said Nivritti and started stiffing her mouth with the delicious, sweet-smelling, mouth-watering food.

“How is everything?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“Yum!” replied Nivritti. Jae-Hwa grinned like a Cheshire cat. “So, what do you want to talk to me about?” asked Nivritti.

“Right!” Jae-Hwa poured the soju into the smallest cup she could find in Nivritti’s apartment. After a big sip, she looked at Nivritti. “You will not guess what happened to me yesterday.”

But Nivritti already knew what happened to her yesterday. “Then tell me,” she requested.

“Okay, what happened was,” Jae-Hwa gulped another cup of soju again. “Oh, I cannot tell you, you will make fun of me,” pouted Jae-Hwa.

“Oh, blurt it out,” scolded Nivritti.

“One came to see me in the parking lot,” Jae-Hwa blurted out, scared after Nivritti’s scolding.

Nivritti smirked mischievously. “And then, what did you say? What did he say? Tell me everything,” shouted Nivritti.

“Yeah, so what happened was... wait! Why aren’t you surprised? Why are you excited? This is not the reaction I expected,” said Jae-Hwa sceptically.

“Did you tell anyone else about this?” asked Nivritti.

“No,” replied Jae-Hwa.

“Then how do you know how I was going to react?” questioned Nivritti but she could not hide her smile. Her smile told everything to Jae-Hwa.

“Oh my god!” she stood up from the couch and shouted. “That’s why you were acting weird yesterday, just like the way you are acting right now. You sent him. You told him about my parking space else how would he have known where to find me.”

“Guilty!” said Nivritti sheepishly and pulled Jae-Hwa back to the couch.

“You idiot!” Jae-Hwa fell on the couch with a bounce. “Why did you send him to a public area? What if anyone would have seen us? Everyone was already talking about June and me. I am so angry at you,” she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

“He was concerned about you. He asked me about you, and I told him about your parking space. I didn’t tell him to go, I just gave him the address, he decided to go on his own,” Nivritti outsmarted Jae-Hwa.

“Oh really!” she was ready to scold Nivritti when she picked up a piece of gimbap and stuffed it in Jae-Hwa’s mouth.

“Just tell me you didn’t enjoy meeting with him,” teased Nivritti.

“That is not the point,” said Jae-Hwa with her stuffed mouth.

“Didn’t you like that your Bias was concerned about you?” Nivritti asked again.

“Ritti!” sulked Jae-Hwa and guzzled another cup of soju.

“You like him, he likes you, so what is the problem?” scolded Nivritti.

“Hey! Stop it! He is a world-class artist. Why would he like a common girl like me?” scolded Jae-Hwa.

“Okay, fine. Tell me what you guys talked about,” inquired Nivritti.

“Talked! You think we talked? I just kept screaming from the moment I saw him,” shouted Jae-Hwa. Nivritti facepalmed. “What? I was surprised, no, I was shocked. He had to cover my mouth to shut me up.” Nivritti smiled at her. “Don’t you dare smile. Do you have any idea that I could have died? You could have given me a heart attack,” complained Jae-Hwa.

“Is he that dreamy that you would have died with shock?” mocked Nivritti.

“Ha-ha, ha-ha, shut up!” Jae-Hwa laughed sarcastically and scolded Nivritti. Nivritti just sniggered. Jae-Hwa drank another cup of soju in anger.

“What happened after you stopped screaming?” Nivritti stuffed her face with rice and mushroom and kimchi.

“Someone came into the parking lot,” informed Jae-Hwa and cut off one chicken leg and stuffed her face with it.

“Oh shit!” Somehow Nivritti spoke as her mouth was full of food.

“Yeah, oh shit! We had to hide behind the car,” replied Jae-Hwa.

“Ohh... in confined spaces,” teased Nivritti.

“Shut up! You think it was romantic. Everything was scary. The only thought in my mind was that no one should see us. You saved me from one scandal and then send One to create another. What kind of friend are you?” pouted Jae-Hwa.

“The best kind,” smiled Nivritti.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Jae-Hwa and took out a big chunk of meat from the chicken leg.

Both the girls kept eating and drinking and eating the delicious food. Nivritti kept teasing Jae-Hwa and she in turn kept pouting and complaining to Nivritti. Hours went by. Slowly it was getting difficult to talk and sit after eating so much food. Still, a bit of food was lying on the plates, unfinished.

“What did you feel when June mistakenly locked you up with King? Huh? Huh?” Jae-Hwa demanded an answer.

“Right, you are right. I wanted to hit him on his head,” Nivritti thought back to the moment when she thought the very same thing after sending PJ to Jae.

“See, that’s how I feel,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Okay, then hit me on my head,” Nivritti gave her permission and closed her eyes to receive the punishment.