To Kiss An Idol

74 The Care of Jae-Hwa

Nivritti clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the blow to land.

But Jae-Hwa snaked her hands around Nivritti’s shoulder and grabbed her by her neck and brought her closer to her. “No, I cannot hit you,” she kissed Nivritti on her head. The free-flowing hair of Nivritti went inside her mouth, and she started spitting instantly and let go of her. Nivritti fell to the side of the couch laughing.

And Jae-Hwa continued, “you are my best friend. I never had such a friend before who took such great care of mine,” hiccupped Jae-Hwa. Nivritti understood that slowly the alcohol was getting inside her system and working its charm. She was under the influence of alcohol.

“You helped me first,” praised Nivritti.

“What? Just by talking to you?” scoffed Jae-Hwa.

“Yes, when no one talked to me, you did. You took me in on my first day,” said Nivritti with gratitude.

“I was just being nice, and you looked like a sad puppy,” mumbled Jae-Hwa.

“Great! Thank you for calling me a dog,” taunted Nivritti.

“Oh sorry, no dog, you are afraid of dogs,” hiccupped Jae-Hwa, again. “Why are you afraid of dogs? They are so cute, so loyal, so bugffh...” her words started slurring.

.....

“Okay, you are officially cut off.” Nivritti tried to grab the soju bottle.

“No,” but Jae-Hwa grabbed it first and ran away from the couch with the bottle.

Nivritti too stood up from the couch and ran behind her. “Jae! Give that to me,” she shouted.

“No! This is mine,” said Jae-Hwa and she downed all the liquid within a minute.

“Woah! Woah! Woah! Slow down,” screamed Nivritti and grabbed the bottle.

“Ha-ha, I finished it. There is nothing left for you,” Jae-Hwa let go of the bottle and started jumping with happiness.

“Okay, Okay, Jae! Come on, come with me,” Nivritti pulled and pushed Jae-Hwa to the couch and made her lie down. But Jae-Hwa would pop up like a mole and sit up. Nivritti would push her down and she would again sit up, grinning like an idiot. Nivritti was playing a real-life Whac-a-mole.

“Lie down, Jae. You will hurt yourself,” scolded Nivritti. Finally, Jae-Hwa listened to her and lay flat on the couch.

Nivritti dampened a paper towel and wiped Jae-Hwa’s mouth and hands and covered her with a blanket. The golden light outside was changing into a greyish purple. Jae-Hwa had already started snoring.

Leaving her on the couch, Nivritti cleaned up the table and placed all the food in containers and boxes to eat later. Jae-Hwa took out too much food so, it was impossible for anyone to finish it. She also emptied all the containers that the San family brought.

She washed every utensil and packed the bags to return them. She glanced at sleeping Jae-Hwa with a smile. Finally, she looked around her house. There was nothing to do and Jae-Hwa was sleeping. She too wanted to go and rest as her eyes were still burning. She needed more sleep.

But she could not leave Jae-Hwa alone in unfamiliar surroundings. What if she wakes up and doesn’t know the way to the bathroom, or she gets sick after drinking so much? She had to stay awake for her sake. So, she decided to work on the scripts.

She brought her laptop to the living room. Placing her feet on the table she sat comfortably in the single chair of the couch set. She fired up her laptop and inserted her credentials. The front page of the Rencontre opened for her. She pressed on her server and the unread scripts came highlighted before her eyes.

She opened the oldest of the unread script and started reading it. The script was meant for Kyung-Soo. Her mind raced back to the last night. “Oh, what he would be thinking about me? Why did you have to tell him everything, you fool?” she scolded herself.

“Okay, enough. Stop thinking about him, concentrate on your work,” she said to herself and started reading the script. It started with a kiss scene, fuming with anger, she immediately rejected it.

“What the hell? We clearly said that there must not be any kind of intimate scene. That will be the ground for rejection, still, some idiots write exactly that. Why can’t people follow simple instructions?” she gritted her teeth. She was furious. She told herself that it was because people ignored her instructions, but she knew that the reason was something else.

The moment she read about someone else kissing Kyung-Soo, that made her mad. But she was not ready to acknowledge that.

Hearing her complaint, Jae-Hwa groaned in Korean, “uhmma, shh... I am sleeping.”

“Do I sound like her mother?” pondered Nivritti. “Sorry!” she apologised to Jae-Hwa who went back to her sleep.

She opened the next script which was meant for Korain. She smiled at the script. Korain was the water god and slowly he was building the world. Everywhere he dropped a waterdrop, life started. He created all kinds of mythical creatures. The last creature was a special being. It had the upper body of a human but had two eighth notes for legs. His whole body was covered with musical symbols and when he spoke music came out. The whole world was filled with sweet music after that. There was peace and harmony in that world.

She loved this concept. Immediately she moved it to Kyung-Soo’s folder.

One by one she kept reading the scripts, many of which she rejected. There were a few that had bad grammar but had good concepts, so she moved them to a different folder. Her tired eyes and heavy stomach were making her drowsy.

Yawning, she kept reading the scripts. Her eyes would fill with tears after every yawning, but she would wipe them and start reading again.

Finally, she thought of resting her eyes for a minute. She placed the laptop on the table and let her head fall on the headrest of the couch. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “Just for a minute,” she told herself.

But her tiredness took over and she fell into a deep sleep. First Jae-Hwa came to visit her in her dream. They had coffee together. Then the scene shifted to the practice room, and she met with all the seven boys. Immediately the scene shifted, and she was in a boat with Korain. He was the water god and he kept creating creatures.

“Wow, SK, that is so good,” exclaimed Nivritti.

Korain opened his mouth but instead of words, a sound came out of it. “Ding, Dong!” Nivritti looked at him, funny. He again opened his mouth, and the same sound came out. “Ding, Dong!”

“What is happening?” she asked Korain. The sound repeated, “Ding, Dong!” and with a sharp exhale she woke up.

“Shit!” she shouted and ran to the door. It was her doorbell that kept ringing. She wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and rubbed her eyes. With a loud exhale, she opened the door. Jae-Geun stood before her.

He looked at her drowsy eyes and understood that she was sleeping. “Oh, I am sorry that I woke you up,” he apologised.

“No, no, no worries. I thought I was just shutting my eyes for a minute, but I fell asleep,” she replied smiling.

“Sorry, for coming here like this. But that idiot said that she would call me, and she didn’t. And when I called, none of you answered,” explained Jae-Geun.

“You called?” asked Nivritti, confused.

“Yes, on her phone,” replied Jae-Geun.

“But I heard nothing. Wait! Why are we talking at the threshold, please come in,” she invited him in.

Jae-Geun smiled, took off his shoes and went in. He facepalmed the moment he saw his sister snoring loudly on the couch. “Aishhh... this girl. How much soju did she drink?” he inquired.

“Um... two whole bottles!” replied Nivritti sheepishly. “I tried to stop her, but it was too late.”

“What? She drank all soju on her own. She didn’t give you any? She needs good scolding from Uhmma,” Jae-Geun gritted his teeth.

“She didn’t give me any because she knows that I don’t drink,” explained Nivritti.

“Excuse me! You don’t drink?” shouted Jae-Geun.

“What?” asked Nivritti sceptically.

“She said that she wanted soju for you because you wanted to taste it. You were bored of drinking scotch and wine,” said Jae-Geun. He looked at Jae-Hwa and placed his arms on his waist.

Nivritti threw her head behind and started laughing out loud. Jae-Geun let out a gasp and his hands fell to his side. He loved the way she looked while laughing. Her closed eyes, her pointed nose, the fine lines on her cheeks and her beautiful, long neck were tugging at his heartstrings. Her hair was still open and flowing at her back.

Jae-Geun could not keep his eyes away from her. Unwittingly, he walked near her and asked, “what?”

Nivritti stopped laughing and wiped the corner of her eyes that were tearing up because of laughing hard. “Nothing, nothing. You said that she wouldn’t shut up about me, yet she withheld information. And then made a fool out of you all, saying that she wanted to make me drink. Do you guys stop her from drinking?”

“With good reason. See what happens after she drinks too much,” Jae-Geun pointed at Jae-Hwa. Nivritti again laughed. Jae-Geun was loving the sound of her laugh. He smiled at her with all his heart.