To Kiss An Idol

Young-Chul rang Nivritti’s bell like a maniac. He was not sure if he even heard a voice from inside. But Kyung-Soo was losing his patience. He was terrified of things that could happen to Nivritti. He just threw Young-Chul to the side and absentmindedly punched in Nivritti’s code like a reflex.

He pushed the door open and ran inside. His jaw dropped the moment he saw the scene before him. Nivritti was standing in front of them, rubbing her eyes and looking at them shocked. She was dressed in a red camisole and black shots. As two men barged into her house, she stared at them for seconds and then a loud ear-piercing scream escaped her mouth.

Young-Chul jumped at the door and shut it closed so that her neighbours would not hear her scream so late at night. Meanwhile, Kyung-Soo jumped near Nivritti and placed his palm over her mouth. Nivritti tried to step back but he placed his other hand on her waist and pulled her closer to make her stop screaming.

No one could tell who was more shocked, Nivritti, after seeing Kyung-Soo and Young-Chul barging in, or Young-Chul, after realising that Kyung-Soo knew Nivritti’s passcode, or Kyung-Soo, after seeing Nivritti safe and sound before him but screaming her head off.

“It’s us, please stop screaming,” requested Nivritti. She nodded. Kyung-Soo slowly removed his hand and let her go. She immediately jumped away from him.

She opened her mouth and shut it again, her jaw kept moving but no sounds came out. After the reality set in, Kyung-Soo immediately lowered his eyes with respect, but Young-Chul just moved near her in anger.

Looking at Young-Chul walking towards herself, she came out of her shock. “Wha… what are you both doing here?”

Young-Chul grabbed her shoulder, turned her around and pushed her, “cover yourself and then we can talk.”

.....

She immediately looked at him and asked, “what?” Young-Chul just lowered his eyes at her exposed neck and cleavage. Nivritti lowered her gaze to see what he was pointing at. She again let out a scream and covered her chest with her hands and ran towards her room.

The door of the bedroom shut with a bang and a series of profanities and ows and ouches were audible all over the house. Young-Chul shook his head in disbelief and sighed loudly.

“Who would say that sometimes she thinks like a genius?” he rolled his eyes. He then turned and faced Kyung-Soo who awkwardly grinned at Young-Chul. He crossed his arms over his chest and asked Kyung-Soo, “tell me this, how do you know her passcode?”

Kyung-Soo’s eyes widened. It seemed as if he saw the angel of death staring at him. He gulped hard as his mouth went dry. He opened his mouth, “a… ah… the… I mean… what…” not a single word from his mouth made sense.

“Don’t tell me about vowels. Give me an answer. How do you know her passcode?” repeated Young-Chul.

“Now tell me what are you two doing here?” shouted Nivritti and walked into the living room.

Both Kyung-Soo and Young-Chul looked at her. She threw a white t-shirt over her red camisole as the red was still visible under the white t-shirt. Kyung-Soo was glad that she barged in at the right moment as he had no answer for Young-Chul regarding her door’s passcode.

Young-Chul squinted his eyes and moved close to her. He raised his hand and hit her on her shoulder.

“Ow!” cried Nivritti.

“Why didn’t you message me? Why weren’t you replying to any of our messages?” shouted Young-Chul.

“MY…” before Nivritti could reply, Kyung-Soo too approached her and slapped her on her other arm. “Oowww!!!” she screamed.

“Do you have any idea how worried we were?” shouted Kyung-Soo. “Answer him! Why didn’t you reply to any of our messages?”

“Sshhhh…” she placed her forefinger on her lips and shushed Kyung-Soo.

“Are you shushing us?” scolded Young-Chul and again hit her.

“Ow! What? No! tell me this, did you tell Jae that you guys were coming here?” she asked.

“No,” replied Kyung-Soo, confused. “Why do you ask?”

“1… 2… 3,” she pointed at her door. The very moment a loud knock and continuous ringing of the bell hit their ears. All that noise was accompanied by the shouting of Jae-Hwa.

“Open the door now,” shouted Jae-Hwa.

“You both are telling me, you couldn’t hear her screaming while she kept climbing my stairs?” Nivritti rolled her eyes. “Please open the door before she wakes up the whole building,” she requested Kyung-Soo.

Kyung-Soo moved to the door and opened it. Jae-Hwa was still shouting, “I will kill you the moment you open the door. How dare you ignore me? Open the do…” Jae-Hwa lost her voice when she saw Kyung-Soo standing at the door.

“King?” she mumbled.

“Just get in before my neighbours kick me out,” shouted Nivritti. “Why did you come alone at this time of night, you idiot!”

“She is not alone,” said Kyung-Soo and opened the door completely. Jae-Geun was standing at the threshold smiling awkwardly. Nivritti facepalmed and shook her head in disbelief.

“You dragged him here at this hour,” shouted Nivritti. Kyung-Soo immediately pulled Jae-Geun inside and closed the door.

“You!” shouted Jae-Hwa. “You have no right to shout. Come here,” yelled Jae-Hwa and jumped at Nivritti. She started hitting Nivritti on her upper arm and back.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop it,” shouted Nivritti.

“No, don’t stop. Keep hitting her,” said Kyung-Soo.

“What?” screamed Nivritti.

“Do you have any idea how we felt?” Young-Chul again hit her.

“We thought something happened to you,” Kyung-Soo too again approached her and raised his arm to hit her but stopped himself.

But not Jae-Hwa, she kept hitting her. “Do you have any idea how many times I called you? How many messages have I left you?” Jae-Geun immediately ran to his sister and lifted her in one arm and pulled her back.

“Yeah, she chewed my ear off. She even asked me to call you,” said Jae-Geun.

“All are waiting for news about you. No one in the ASD mansion has slept till now. JJ made a group as he told you, but you never send any messages. I didn’t reply to you, and you were all angry. Do you have any idea what happened to me when I didn’t receive your goodnight message? What do you have to say about yourself?” scolded Young-Chul. “Look at NK hyung, he is here in his pyjamas. He didn’t want to waste time changing clothes. We came here running. And you were sleeping, peacefully, without thinking about your friends.”

Nivritti kept staring at him, blinking her eyes profusely. She never heard Young-Chul talk so much in so little time. He was a man of few words. Yet he sent her a page long message and just monologed before her.

“Answer him!” shouted both Jae-Hwa and Kyung-Soo.

“Um… I lost my phone,” replied Nivritti.

“What?” all shouted at once.

“When I left in the morning, I had my phone with me. I remember as I chatted with CH in the practice room. But after you dropped me off, I checked my pocket, my bags and could not find my phone. Maybe I left it in the practice room or dropped it somewhere, I am not sure,” explained Nivritti.

“Oh, no, no! you lost your phone?” shouted Kyung-Soo.

“Why are you worried?” she asked.

“What if someone found your phone and read our chats? They will know that Young was in the hospital,” cried Kyung-Soo.

“Shit!” said Young-Chul.

“What? No, that’s not possible. First, they will have to crack my code, next my messaging app is double-locked, and I never saved your names. It is all NK, MY, JJ, etc. And don’t you think if someone would have cracked my phone, everything about Young would have been in news by now?” assured Nivritti.

“How are you so calm?” asked Young-Chul. “You just lost your phone. Don’t you have important information on your phone?”

“I back up everything. Everything is floating in clouds. I logged in to all my accounts through my computer, made a copy and deleted every piece of information, every message from my phone,” replied Nivritti.

“What about photos, videos?” asked Jae-Geun.

“There was nothing on my phone. I don’t take photos and since I came to Korea, I have been busy with my work. The only places I visited were with you guys and we never took any photos. I don’t have any social media accounts, I just have a few online payment apps and messaging apps. I blocked every payment app and deleted messages from the messaging app. Simple!” smiled Nivritti.

“Wahhh!!!” clapped Young-Chul. He grabbed her head and started rotating it in every direction.

“What?” she slapped his hands off.

“Do you really have a brain inside or a computer?” he asked, impressed.

“Ha-ha,” laughed Nivritti.

“You should complain to the police,” said Jae-Hwa.

“About what?” asked Nivritti.

“That you lost your phone,” said Jae-Hwa.