To Kiss An Idol

“Did you know anything about it?” asked Nivritti, shocked.

“No, we were busy since the morning as we had to come to your house,” replied Jae-Hwa. “You had no idea,” she asked Nivritti.

“No, you know I slept till afternoon and then you guys came to my house. I have been busy with you and have not checked any news nor there was any alert on my phone,” replied Nivritti.

Kyung-Soo now understood why Nivritti never asked about the actress or the scandal, not that she was not interested in him, but she had no idea about what had happened. It was true that she kept crying the whole night and then the whole day and night she was with Jae-Hwa. They were drinking and enjoying together. Jae-Hwa even slept at her home.

The whole world was buzzing with the news, but these girls had no idea. That shattered the notion of Kyung-Soo that everyone was involved in their life. To prove that wrong, three people were sitting right behind him.

“Me too. I knew that they would go on a live but I had to come to your house. And then we talked and drank and passed our time,” said Jae-Hwa.

“First time ever, this has happened,” sniggered Jae-Geun.

“What?” inquired Nivritti. Kyung-Soo too leaned backwards to hear what happened for the first time.

.....

“She chose you instead of ASD. Otherwise, storm, earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, no matter what natural disaster comes, she will watch their live. So many times, she forgot to eat food or ran to her room with munchies, locked herself and saw their live,” taunted Jae-Geun. Kyung-Soo smiled at his brightest. He had a fan working for him.

“Well, she loves Jeong-Eun. I think she only watches him,” teased Nivritti. Kyung-Soo smiled at her tease.

“Ritti!” shouted Jae-Hwa.

“Which one is Jeong-Eun?” asked Jae-Geun.

“What? He does not know who Jeong-Eun is. And what does he mean by ‘which one’?” mumbled Kyung-Soo.

“You really have no idea about ASD?” asked Nivritti.

“No.”

“He was too busy with his medical books,” teased Jae-Hwa.

“Jae! I said this to your brother, and I will say this to you too. Following one’s passion is good, just don’t berate each other for their choices. You love ASD and I hope that from now he will support you and the same goes for you. If he does not like K-pop, stop talking about the same in front of him,” explained Nivritti, calmly.

“What? He does not like K-pop? Oh, the difference between brother and sister. That’s why he has zero fashion sense, idiot!” muttered Kyung-Soo.

Servers returned to their tables and placed their food and drink.

“Have you ever watched any live?” asked Jae-Hwa. It was not clear who was she talking to but considering that her brother had no interest in K-pop, Kyung-Soo understood that the question was for Nivritti.

“I have watched their recorded session. I never logged in while they were live,” replied Nivritti. Kyung-Soo’s face fell with disappointment. He picked up his cup to take a sip but after hearing her answer he placed the cup back down.

“Then how did you find out about them?” asked Jae-Geun.

“I was aware of the K-pop scene but had never listened to any of the Korean songs. When I applied for the position of Scriptwriter at K&Q, I researched everything about them to prepare for the interview. I just went inside the rabbit hole of the K-pop frenzy. I learned about every group under K&Q as I had no idea for whom I would work. So, I looked up their most famous songs, some videos, some documentaries and learned the names of every artist in K&Q,” explained Nivritti.

“Wow!” exclaimed Jae-Geun. That was the exact expression of Kyung-Soo.

“So, you are not a fan of ASD or any other group? Yet you cracked this interview?” shouted Jae-Hwa, shocked.

“Do you really think that was a criterion for getting selected? It didn’t matter if I knew Nam Kyung-Soo or Shin Korain, all that mattered was if I could write beautiful scripts and churn out good ideas,” said Nivritti.

Kyung-Soo pouted at her reply. Why was she always dismissive of him? Girls applied to K&Q for a job so that they could catch a glimpse of him and his team members but this girl, she had no interest in any of them. She just came here to work. But now because of her, Kyung-Soo could not concentrate on his work.

“Nam Kyung-Soo? Was he the man who was speaking in the footage?” asked Jae-Geun.

“Yes!” replied Jae-Hwa.

“Strange!” exclaimed Jae-Geun.

“What? What is strange?” inquired Nivritti.

“I met with a man in the store. His name too was Nam Kyung-Soo,” replied Jae-Geun.

“What?!” shouted Nivritti. Kyung-Soo clearly heard the change in her tone. He pursed his lips and smirked. He could have given anything to see her shocked face. He wanted to see how she would get out of this situation. He was so glad that he gave his real name to Jae-Geun.

“Yeah, he helped me select the hanbok for Choi Chung-Ho ssi,” said Jae-Geun.

Kyung-Soo could hear Nivritti gulping hard with fear. He knew she must have licked her lips. Oh! What he would give to see her lick her lips again and again.

“Um... did you thank him?” gulped Nivritti.

“Of course!” protested Jae-Geun.

“Is Nam Kyung-Soo an uncommon name?” asked Nivritti.

“Where are you going with this?” muttered Kyung-Soo and took a sip from his coffee.

“No, no it is a fairly common name,” replied Jae-Geun. “Yeah, I know, your idol won’t come to shop at that store. He would go to a branded store and buy clothes worth hundreds of thousands,” said Jae-Geun.

“Clever girl!” smiled Kyung-Soo.

“Yeah, I think so too. Why would he be at that store and that too after a day of getting away with scandal?” commented Nivritti.

“Because I am not like you. I don’t run, I fight,” sulked Kyung-Soo.

“But poor King!” exclaimed Jae-Hwa. “Life of an idol is difficult. No matter what they do, everything is scrutinised. They can’t even sneeze without breaking the news.”

“Yes but that’s the life they chose for themselves. With one good thing comes a bad thing. They receive a lot and lots of love and among them are a few that would love to see their downfall,” commented Jae-Geun.

“Don’t say that, Oppa!” shouted Jae-Hwa.

“No, he is right. If you chose to be a public figure, you must sacrifice your privacy to a great extent,” nodded Nivritti. Kyung-Soo was taken aback. “I don’t say that you have to share every aspect of your life with them. But they love to know everything about you. Where you go, with whom you go, etc. I also feel that idols are held up to an absurd standard in this industry. They have to be slim, fit, have abs, must be beautiful, be polite at all times no matter how they are feeling, overwork themselves, can’t date, can’t fall in love, can’t marry, if any of those things happen, their career is over.”

Kyung-Soo felt every word coming out of her mouth. She was right. Since ASD was formed, a camera crew always followed them. Everything about their life was aired on television. Their mornings, their evenings, their breakfast, their dinner, every chore, even when they would sleep, everything was aired on television.

And why was the late-night excursion of the actress such big news? So what she was roaming the beach at night. That’s her life and that man’s life. They should be encouraged to live their life on their own terms not criticised for that. People should be happy that their idols, their celebrities found someone to spend their life but instead they would start trolling and verbal abuse.

“Yeah, some fans act like they own the celebrities. They will comment like ‘you are mine’ or ‘don’t even think about dating anyone’ or ‘if you date someone else, I will kill myself’,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Ew... that is wrong on so many levels. Let the idols, actors, public figures, live their life on their own terms. They too are human,” said Nivritti.

“Most fans are respectful and polite and loyal but you can’t control Sasaeng,” said Jae-Hwa.

“I hope ASD is fine and they are not concerned about this stupid news,” said Nivritti. Kyung-Soo smiled with gratitude.

“You helped them with one scandal, can’t you help them with another?” requested Jae-Hwa.

“I think NK handled everything rather beautifully. He was firm yet polite and extremely clear in his position. I just hope that the media would stop associating him with everything,” said Nivritti. Kyung-Soo just wanted to jump from his chair and hug her tightly.

He was using every ounce of strength in his body to stop himself from doing that.

“It’s getting late. We should leave,” said Jae-Geun.

“Yeah, right! We have to drop her off and then return home. Tomorrow is work, work, work,” spoke Jae-Hwa.

Kyung-Soo was sad to hear that they were leaving. He wanted to spend some more time with Nivritti. Hearing her voice, smelling her lavender smell, gave him peace. The moment he saw her in the changing room he completely forgot about the harassment he faced a few moments ago. Talking to her he forgot about the news that was in circulation.

“Excuse me!” requested Jae-Geun and a server came up to him.

“Yes, sir.”

“May we have the cheque, please?” requested Jae-Geun.

“Of course, sir. I will be right back,” said the server and walked away.

After a few minutes, the server came back with the bill and placed it on their table. They paid the bill and the rustling of the bags indicated Kyung-Soo that they were getting ready to leave. He too wanted to follow them but he had to pay his bill first.

Nivritti, Jae-Hwa and Jae-Geun walked out of the café and Kyung-Soo kept staring at them till they vanished before his eyes. He paid his bill and walked up to his car. Thinking about Nivritti, he drove to his mansion.