To Kiss An Idol

“What?” Jeong-Eun asked.

Kyung-Soo immediately widened his eyes to warn Jung-Hwa not to speak. Jung-Hwa gulped with fear. “Nothing! Nothing!” lied Jung-Hwa.

“You said, what,” said Nivritti. Jae-Hwa was still too overwhelmed to speak in presence of ASD, so she was silently listening to everyone. She was more concerned and was rendered speechless after Jeong-Eun sat next to her. He was sitting too close to her which was bad for her heart as it was ready to jump out of her chest.

“I thought Seong-ssi said something,” lied Jung-Hwa.

“Since the moment I arrived, I have literally not spoken a single word,” said Dae, condescendingly. No one understood his taunt. Everyone was talking to Nivritti only and was ignoring him. No one paid any attention to him when he walked alone towards the workstation. And now suddenly Jung-Hwa used his name that too when she asked him a question. He was liking Nivritti less and less with every passing minute.

“Enough chit-chat, let’s work,” said Young-Chul.

“Should we start with our senior?” suggested Nivritti.

Smoke came out of Dae’s ears. “Oh, right! First, all ignored me, paid no attention to me and now suddenly everyone wants to start with senior. Hypocrites!” she murmured to himself.

.....

“Yes, Seong-ssi. Let’s start with your server,” said Jeong-Eun.

“Why don’t we do this, we have three laptops. JJ and TK can look at Ritti’s server. JH and MY can look at Jae-Hwa’s server and we three will take a look at Seong-ssi’s server,” suggested Korain.

Finally, Dae was getting some footage, that too Korain snatched away from him. He gritted his teeth.

“As usual, amazing idea, Hyung,” smiled Young-Chul.

As per Korain’s idea, all three fired up their laptop and opened the folder of the selected scripts. Jeong-Eun, Korain and Kyung-Soo who were sitting next to each other started reading on Dae’s computer. But Kyung-Soo’s attention was on Nivritti.

Nivritti showed Thae and Jung-Hwa the best script and they kept screaming ‘ohh’ and ‘ahh’ and ‘wow’ after every sentence.

Jung-Hwa wrapped his arms around Nivritti’s shoulder and said, “this one is amazing.”

“I know. That’s why I star marked this script,” replied Nivritti.

“You are too good,” said Thae.

Dae rolled his eyes at Thae’s comment. Those two idiots were acting as if she herself wrote the scripts. She just read them and selected them. Everyone was reading silently except those two. They kept praising Nivritti for things she didn’t even do.

“You know I just selected it, right?” educated Nivritti.

“So what? Selecting proper scripts is a really hard job. You will have to read millions and millions and then select seven. That is going to be a bonkers job,” replied Thae.

“You are too sweet,” Nivritti patted Thae’s head tenderly.

Kyung-Soo clenched his fists, angrily. First those two idiots sat next to her and now they kept touching her and she kept touching them. While Korain and Jeong-Eun were reading the scripts, Kyung-Soo was again staring at Jung-Hwa. Jung-Hwa knew that Kyung-Soo liked her but still he was not helping him. He could have offered to exchange the seats but no, he had to sit next to her, idiot!

Jung-Hwa felt a pair of eyes staring at him. He slightly lifted his head and was shocked to see that Kyung-Soo was still staring at him. Jung-Hwa innocently looked at him and gulped with fear. Kyung-Soo signalled at his hands and tilted his head, signalling him to move his hand away from Nivritti.

Jung-Hwa slowly and steadily removed his hand and brought it by his side. Kyung-Soo clenched his fists above the table and gestured towards Jung-Hwa. Jung-Hwa understood that his Hyung was going to beat him up when they would reach house, his mouth went dry with fear.

Because finally, he understood why Kyung-Soo was staring at him angrily. It was because of Nivritti. His Hyung was jealous of him as he was sitting next to Nivritti and was touching her and was talking to her, in short, was near her. He understood that he wanted to be close to her. Alas! He understood late.

“Jae-Hwa! Could you please come here,” said Young-Chul. She gulped with anxiety and looked at Nivritti. Nivritti knew that she was always overwhelmed in presence of ASD. She looked at Jae-Hwa and nodded sweetly. That gave Jae-Hwa a little courage.

“Go,” mouthed Nivritti and finally Jae-Hwa stood up and walked behind Young-Chul and Him-Chan.

“Yes, sir,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Sir?” teased Him-Chan. “We are not your sir. Do we look like a sir to you?”

Jae-Hwa didn’t understand that he was teasing her. She was worried that she might have offended him.

“JH! Hyung!” shouted Nivritti and Jeong-Eun together.

“Jae, he is teasing,” explained Nivritti and smiled at Him-Chan. Kyung-Soo was burning with unbearable jealousy. Finally, Jae-Hwa started breathing again.

“She is a little overwhelmed because she is ASD’s biggest fan,” said Nivritti.

“Ritti!” shouted Jae-Hwa. She turned red as a tomato after Nivritti revealed her secret.

“What? Was that a secret?” she teased.

“Oh, nice to meet you, biggest fan,” smiled Korain.

“Thank you, sir,” she replied.

“Jae-Hwa! Ritti is our friend, and you are her friend, so indirectly you too are our friend, right guys?” asked Jeong-Eun.

“Great! Now she too is their friend. Am I invisible to them? Everyone is nearest and dearest to them, except me. They know me better than these two rookies,” Dae rolled his eyes, hard.

“Right! Right!” all cheered together. Nivritti kept smirking at Jeong-Eun, trying hard to control her laughter. She even glanced at Jae-Hwa and winked at her. No one, no one except Kyung-Soo saw that. He followed her eyes and saw that she would once look at Jeong-Eun and then at Jae-Hwa.

“What is going on in this girl’s mind? What is it that she is seeing but no one of us is aware of?” he pondered.

“Which is your favourite song, Jae-Hwa?” inquired Korain.

But she could not speak. “Speak up, girl!” nudged Nivritti.

“Well... second chance,” spoke Jae-Hwa, softly.

“Ohh... Jeong-Eun’s song!” commented Nivritti. Jae-Hwa immediately looked at her with a frightened expression. Was Nivritti going to reveal another secret? Was she going to tell everyone about the parking lot? Well, it was her own design. She was the culprit. Jae-Hwa never asked Jeong-Eun to approach her, it was Nivritti.