To Kiss An Idol

134 The Accident

“Rencontre scripts judges have found cases of plagiarism. Please note that such tactics to win the contest will not be tolerated in any case. From now on, the judges will run the scripts through a plagiarism checker and if the plagiarised words are more than 40%, then the script will be rejected and the username will be banned from posting any more scripts.

We know the punishment is harsh but so is copying/stealing someone else’s work. There will be a few chances in servers so please don’t be disheartened if you could not log in or the server hangs. The proper time for maintenance of the site will be posted later.

Again, we would like to emphasise that you are welcome to post as many scripts as you want just don’t copy someone’s hard work. We know how much hard work and creativity go into the writing process. So, let’s be kind to one another and appreciate each other’s work. All the best to everyone participating.”

By evening this message was all over the world. The media was buzzing with the Rencontre news. Many analysts started comparing the scripts on live television and started bashing the usernames. It was a good thing that Rencontre sites only displayed the user name and not the real name. Mean comments started trolling the people who plagiarised the scripts.

Panelists were called on the news channels to discuss the issue of plagiarism and the way it affects the writer’s community. The spokesperson of K&Q addressed the media and asked everyone to be fair and abide by the rules of the competition. The Rencontre was the trending topic for the day.

After focusing on her work, Nivritti forgot about Young-Chul. A meeting with Hu Bong made her forget about her anger. Now she kept thinking about the summary she would have to prepare for the monthly meeting.

“Oh, what information he would ask in the meeting? Will he ask for every detail or just the gist? Should I make an excel sheet or just note down a few things on a Wordpad? Ahhh… why couldn’t he say what he required?” she kept pondering.

The clock struck 6. Nivritti immediately said goodbye to everyone and ran from the office as she had an appointment to keep. Jae-Hwa ordered her to call after she would be done with the meeting.

Walking briskly, Nivritti reached her house, freshened up, and changed into casual clothes from formal ones. She wore a navy-blue t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans and paired them with a blue woollen long shrug.

.....

While ordering a cab on her phone, she grabbed her purse and came out of her house. By the time she reached downstairs to the front of the building, her cab had arrived.

“Seoul General Hospital, please,” she gave the address to the cabby. The cab driver just nodded and turned the steering wheel to get into a lane. After about half an hour, she reached the hospital. She paid the fare online and got out of the car.

The big white building with a large plus sign at the front welcomed her. The cab left her in front of the emergency gate. The whole area was chaotic. Doctors and nurses were running around. Some were talking to the patients, some were listening to patients’ hearts, some were drawing blood, and some were standing with puke bowls near patients.

Everyone was busy. She had no one she could ask where to go. The cab driver left her at the wrong gate. She wanted to go to the main gate, but this was the emergency ward. A nurse crossed before her. She tried to stop her but was gone in a flash.

“Please make way,” a voice shouted from behind her. She looked around, two health service people were moving in her direction with a patient on a stretcher. Her eyes widened as she saw the bloody face of the man lying on the stretcher. Health service personnel were wheeling him in for emergency care.

It seemed that the man was in a bad accident. His whole face was oozing blood. One health service personnel had a whole bundle of cotton rags pressed against his face to stop the bleeding but the blood loss was way too fast for him to stop.

She looked carefully. The other health service personnel was pressing down at the elbow of the man. His whole neck to his shoulder till his elbow was red. It seemed as if someone spilled a whole pint of blood on that man. It seemed weird to her that his whole body was red but his hand below his elbow was white.

Why was it white? And then it dawned on her. She gasped with fear. Before she could react, another health service personnel came running inside the hospital with a severed arm in his hands.

Nivritti screamed loudly, hid her face in her palms, and turned away but she bumped into a wall. She was sure that the area behind her was open then how did she bump into a wall?

“Ritti!” a familiar voice called her.

She looked up and saw Jae-Geun standing before her with his arms over her shoulder.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Nivritti looked around again and the severed hand appeared before her. She again screamed and looked away. In her fear, she grabbed Jae-Geun’s coat and closed her eyes tightly. Jae-Geun acted on impulse and pulled her closer in his arms. He held her tightly as he knew that physical touch could help with fear and anxiety. It gives a sense of comfort.

“Let’s move away from here,” he said.

“Yes, please,” she pleaded. He wrapped his arms around her shoulder and walked her away from the emergency room. He took her to a secluded room and made her sit on a bunk bed. She kept fidgeting with her fingers and breathing heavily.

He grabbed a water bottle kept on the table in that room, broke the seal for her, and knelt down before her.

“Drink this,” he ordered.

Nivritti was on the verge of crying. Jae-Geun placed the bottle on the floor and grabbed her hands with his both hands. he was shocked to feel the cold fingers of Nivritti. He carefully looked at her face. Even though her eyes were slightly red, her whole face was white.

Her heavy breathing was landing on his hair making his hair move. To make her feel better, he had to make her warm. He pulled her wrist closer to his mouth and started blowing his breath on her hand. She kept shivering and he knew why. She was shocked to her core after seeing a severed hand.

For him, that was a daily routine. Blood, vomit, tissues, severed limbs, he had seen all. It was nothing for a doctor but a common person would be shocked to see such a thing. Moreover, the blood kept oozing out of his head. The whole scene of the entrance of that man was dramatic.

Even after blowing air on her hand, it was cold. He stood up and sat next to her. He grabbed her hand and made her turn towards him. He lifted his coat and pulled her arms under it. He wrapped his hand around her whole body and held her tightly.

Softly, she rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his warm body. Her heart close to his made him realise how fast it was beating. It was a good thing that she didn’t faint at the sight of the blood.

Slowly her breathing kept slowing down. Her shivering too dies down. Jae-Geun too relaxed after seeing that she was calming down. While taking care of her, he almost forgot that he was hugging her. The girl who made his heart jump out of his chest was close to him. He could feel her heartbeat.

He was too afraid to let her go. He thought she might again start to hyperventilate.

“Are you okay?” he asked again.

“That was horrible, it was so horrible,” she sobbed.

“I know, I know,” he comforted her. Tenderly, he loosened his grip and moved his hands up and down stroking her back, trying to calm her down.

For minutes, they remained in the same position. Jae-Geun savoured every second of it. He kept inhaling the sweet lavender smell from her head. She was in his arms, which he never even dreamed of. He had no idea that a girl could affect him to that extent, but here she was, making his heart beat like crazy just being close to him.

He kept praying to God that she would not observe the same.

Nivritti finally felt hot after being too close to Jae-Geun for long. She realised that she was hugging him tightly. With embarrassment, she broke the embrace and immediately stood up. She kept avoiding looking at Jae-Geun with shyness.

“Sorry! Sorry for the trouble!” she bowed down to him.

“Why sorry?” Jae-Geun stood up, confused and frustrated. He wanted to hold her longer but she abruptly broke the embrace.

“You were there to work, in the emergency room, but because of me, you had to come here,” replied Nivritti.

He scoffed, “Ritti! I had no work there. I was just passing by, and I saw you. To tell you the truth, I was expecting a call, not a scream.” He teased.

“Do you… do you guys see things like that every day?” asked Nivritti.

“Um… not every day. But accidents happen frequently, and we get bloody cases,” replied Jae-Geun. “Say, are you afraid of blood?” he asked.

“No, I am not. I never felt like this before in my life,” replied Nivritti, ashamed and afraid.

“Maybe it was the hand,” said Jae-Geun. After the mention of the hand, Nivritti visibly shivered with fear. “Hmm… it was the hand,” he observed. He again picked up the water bottle and gave it to Nivritti, “drink this. You will feel better.”

Nivritti took the bottle and drank the whole bottle in a single sip.

“Woah!” exclaimed Jae-Geun.

“Shit! My appointment! I am late!” shouted Nivritti.