To Kiss An Idol

“Did they find anything?” asked Young-Chul.

“There is a lot to read but they did find one that looks promising,” replied Kyung-Soo.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” inquired Young-Chul, seriously.

“Do what?”

“Pile up upon your work? You already do so much, Hyung,” said Young-Chul.

“Young, I need the perfect script. I don’t want to shoot something I don’t want to. We will have to deal with people we don’t know. We trust our production team but there will be a stranger telling us what to do. So, I need a clean, non-controversial script. You know even our sneezes get analyzed,” educated Kyung-Soo.

“Don’t you think they will try for that too?” Young-Chul pointed at the Rencontre team.

“Of course, they will. That’s why they are doing the initial screening. But we have to be vigilant at every step. We have to face the scrutiny of society and our fans, not them. I am just taking care of my team,” explained Kyung-Soo.

.....

“You always do, that’s why you are the best leader,” Young-Chul patted Kyung-Soo’s hand with respect.

“Young!” but Kyung-Soo brought him close and gave him a side hug. He knew Young-Chul was not big on physical love and members had to force him to accept their love.

“It’s true, Hyung,” said Young-Chul, lovingly as Kyung-Soo’s hug melted him.

“Here, Kyungsoona, have some water and relax. They will do a good job, trust them,” said Korain.

“Thank you, Hyung,” replied Kyung-Soo.

Kyung-Soo gulped the whole bottle and exhaled deeply. After all were rested, the dance practice started again. The loud music was blaring and the sound of feet was raucous. The choreographer kept giving instructions, kept showing them moves. The backup dancers were matching the energy of ASD members.

The script team kept reading voraciously. Due to the language barrier, many scripts were lacking proper grammar and sentence structure. But as they decided if they liked the concept, they moved the script to a new folder to get approval from Chung-Ho. They knew if any of those scripts were to be selected, their work would increase as they would have to correct everything and rewrite the script completely.

The lunch hour was approaching soon. ASD had to halt their practice as Korain had a brand ad shooting, Young-Chul had to go to the recording studio for recording a new song for Rencontre and Him-Chan and Kyung-Soo had interviews. So, Young-Chul, Korain and Him-Chan took a shower and left for their destinations.

Kyung-Soo asked his manager to place a lunch order for everyone present in the practice room and went to take a shower as he too had to leave for an interview. Many backup dancers left as their shift ended and they went home. Only a few stayed behind. Thae, Jeong-Eun and Jung-Hwa were messing around and waiting for the lunch to arrive.

They kept teasing each other over their dance moves and Jeong-Eun’s crush on Jae-Hwa. But Thae had something else on his mind. He kept glancing at Nivritti. He wanted a chance to say sorry to her but had no courage to approach her. He was glad that she returned his greeting when she arrived, but he still had a long way to go.

He was still looking at the Rencontre team while Jung-Hwa was teasing Jeong-Eun.

“Aren’t they going to have lunch?” asked Thae.

“What?” both Jeong-Eun and Jung-Hwa looked at him.

Thae pointed at the Rencontre team and asked again, “won’t they have lunch? They have been here since morning. They must be hungry too.”

“NK Hyung ordered for everyone,” replied Jung-Hwa.

“NK Hyung! Since when you started calling him, NK Hyung?” Jeong-Eun was shocked.

“Since Ritti gave him that name. It’s easy and short,” replied Jung-Hwa.

But Thae was confused. He had no idea what anyone was talking about. “Who is NK Hyung? And who is Ritti?”

“Oh, you were not there. After you tested her, idiot,” Jung-Hwa rolled his eyes at Thae and then continued, “we all became friends. She gave us nicknames and suggested that we should call her Ritti. Just think, Kyungsoona Hyung, NK Hyung, which one is better?” asked Jung-Hwa.

“NK Hyung,” Thae’s face dropped with shame. His mind went to how he didn’t believe her and tested her for cynophobia. He was filled with guilt after that.

“See,” beamed Jung-Hwa.

“So, you all are friends and have nicknames?” asked Thae, sadly.

“Yes, I am PJ, he is JJ, NK, SK, MY and JH,” replied Jeong-Eun, happily.

“Ohh!” Thae’s head hung with shame.

“This is your chance Kat Hyung, bring them their lunch, talk to her, and apologize,” suggested Jung-Hwa.

“Oh, I’m nervous and ashamed,” replied Thae.

“Look at this idiot; he was not nervous when he was shouting at her but when he has to apologize, he is nervous,” Jeong-Eun facepalmed.

“Go,” pushed Jung-Hwa.

“Okay, okay,” said Thae. He exhaled loudly and gained some confidence. He looked at the food, grabbed three packets and three cups of cola and moved towards the Rencontre team.

The team was busy reading and discussing scripts when Thae approached them. He placed the food and drink on the table. With difficulty, he looked at Nivritti and offered one of the cups of cola to her.

He cleared his throat and softly spoke, “Please eat and drink something. You guys have been working nonstop.”

His voice made everyone look at him, but he was looking at Nivritti. She half-smiled at him as she was not sure how to react. She was still a little scared of him. She didn’t want him to shout at her. At the same time, Thae too was scared of her. He was worried that she might not forgive him.

As he was extremely nervous about talking to her, his hands were shaking with uneasiness. Before Nivritti could take the cup of cola from his hand, the cup shook hard and tilted all over her grey pant suit.

She stood up instantly with a sudden jerk making all the cola fall on the ground, in the process, she saved her trousers from getting wet. But her jacket and white shirt were all wet.

Thae panicked as soon as the cola spilled all over her.

He started apologising urgently, “I am sorry. I am so sorry. Oh my God! I’m an idiot.”

But Nivritti knew that it was not his fault. This could happen to anyone, so she tried to assure him, “it is okay, I’m fine.” She kept wiping cola from her shirt, but the cold wet shirt was sticking to her chest. The icy cola was making her shiver. Every single hair on her body stood up.

As it was a practice room, the AC was already cranked all the way up. In addition to that icy cold cola was poured on her. She kept pinching her shirt away from her chest, but it was wet all the way through.

“Are you okay, Ritti?” both Dae and Jae-Hwa asked. Jae-Hwa instantly offered her a few napkins, but Nivritti knew napkins would not help her.

“I am fine,” she replied.

As her white shirt was wet her grey bra started showing through her shirt. Thae’s eyes fell on her chest and immediately lowered his eyes with respect. Nivritti noticed that and looked at her chest. She could see her cleavage and the grey bra. She clutched her jacket tightly over her chest.

Jeong-Eun and Jung-Hwa were staring at Thae as he went to say sorry to Nivritti. They were excited to see how she would react but facepalmed the moment he spilled cola all over her. They came running.

“Mr Kang, where is the bathroom?” requested Nivritti.

But Thae was too stunned to answer her because of his mistake. He had no idea how to look into her eyes or how to answer her. Immediately Jung-Hwa replied, “that’s the bathroom.” He pointed at a door that was on the west end corner of the practice room.

“But...” Jeong-Eun was about to say something, but Jung-Hwa held his hand tightly and signalled for him to stop. Nivritti instantly ran in that direction while buttoning up her jacket all the way up. She was extremely embarrassed by the situation.

While she walking toward the bathroom, Jung-Hwa shouted, “Ritti!”

“Hmm...” Nivritti halted in her path and turned halfway to look at him. She hid her chest by tightly clutching her jacket.

“Bathroom doesn’t lock from inside so I’ll lock it from outside, when you are done you can knock, and I’ll open the door. Okay?” informed Jung-Hwa.

She awkwardly smiled at Jung-Hwa and entered the bathroom. Jeong-Eun was perplexed at Jung-Hwa’s behaviour, but Jung-Hwa kept his hand in a tight grip not making him move even an inch. Jeong-Eun had no idea what was going on in Jung-Hwa’s mind.

Jung-Hwa moved to lock the bathroom, but Nivritti’s head popped up through the door and she said, “JJ, there is a bag here. Whose is it?”

“Oh, someone must have forgotten. Let me take it out,” said Jung-Hwa. He went inside the bathroom, took out the bag and locked the door from outside.