To Kiss An Idol

202 The Worry of Parents

Nivritti kept thinking about the bizarre behaviour of Dae as it was getting difficult to understand which Dae was the real one. The one who smiled and cared for them or the condescending, misogynist ass. After a few minutes, she shook her head to discard all the thoughts and concentrated on the scripts.

She had to work harder as the update session was closing by. She only had two days, Wednesday, and Thursday as they had to present the update before the CEO. She made a point to work at home the whole night. She thought of ordering in as it would be difficult to stand up and cook for a long time and ordering the food in would give her more time to work on the scripts.

The time to end the day was approaching. As everyone saw that Young-Chul was getting tired, they thought of stopping the dance. The first ones to leave were the dancers. ASD had a feedback session with their choreographer, and he told them the steps everyone had to work on more.

Slowly, everyone left leaving ASD and the Rencontre team in the room. The boys walked up to the team and sat on the benches, tired. The Rencontre team pleaded with them to leave and rest but Kyung-Soo replied that their update session was coming on and he had to read more scripts so that Hu-ssi would know that he was doing his part too.

After an hour of reading the scripts and marking the favourite of the team members, it was way past the time of leaving the office.

“Oh, it’s late, we all should leave,” commented Him-Chan.

“Yeah, see you all tomorrow,” said Dae and started packing his bags.

“Let’s go Ritti, Jae, I will drop you,” said Thae and stood up.

“It’s fine, TK. I will take a cab,” replied Nivritti.

.....

“Will you ever say yes on the first try?” scolded Young-Chul. “Just go with him. Can’t even walk properly and would take a cab,” he rolled his eyes.

“Okay! Woah! Relax! Chill!” said Nivritti. Jae-Hwa too was about to say no but when she heard Young-Chul snapping at Nivritti, she pressed her lips tighter and kept her mouth shut.

“Just leave, I am too tired to fight with you,” snapped Young-Chul.

Nivritti didn’t want to overwhelm his emotions, so she kept quiet and gestured to Thae to move along with her. Jae-Hwa followed them. While all the other boys were grabbing their and Thae’s bags, finally, Dae left for the day.

“What happened to him?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“What do you mean?” asked Jeong-Eun.

“Jae! The soft-spoken one, who was afraid and shy to even open her mouth in our presence, almost burst at him today,” explained Kyung-Soo.

“Ritti explained it. It was some issue with the scripts,” said Korain.

“Yeah, she did,” Kyung-Soo bit his lips. He remembered the moment Nivritti licked her lips. Something bothered her, he just had no idea what.

“You think she lied!!” shouted Jung-Hwa. “You think she is hiding something.”
“Not sure!” replied Kyung-Soo and threw his bag over his shoulder. All walked behind him except Jeong-Eun. He kept staring at his big brother and thinking about the gestures and actions of Nivritti when Jae-Hwa was talking outside with Dae. Now, Kyung-Soo was not sure if she told them the truth. Cogs in his brain started turning.

Thae first dropped Nivritti off as her house was closer and then drove to Jae-Hwa’s house for the first time and dropped her off. She requested him to drop her a few metres away from her house as she didn’t want anyone to see her with him. He nodded and politely waited for her to get inside her gate and then he drove back to his house.

Nivritti could not talk to Jae-Hwa in presence of Dae and then before Thae. She checked her phone, but her sim was still not activated. She placed her things in their proper place, removed her bandages and went to the bathroom to freshen up.

She changed into a loose t-shirt and capri pants. She again applied the medicine and covered her injury with a bandage. She then wrapped the compression bandage and sat comfortably on her couch.

For a few minutes, she rested her head on the headrest and relaxed. She had her laptop and her phone near her. She knew she had to start the work soon, but she wanted to rest her eyes, her brain, and her leg for some time.

She had her leg safely on the table on a cushion. Her head was rested on the couch, and she kept her eyes closed. After a few minutes, her phone chimed. She jerked herself up and grabbed her phone. Her sim was activated now. She looked at the notification. It was a message from the network telling her that her sim was activated now.

She even forgot that she had Wi-Fi. In her tiredness, she kept waiting for her signal to be activated to download apps on her phone. She facepalmed and connected her phone to the Wi-Fi. She immediately installed all the apps that she had on her previous phone including the messaging app and video calling app. She downloaded her contact list from the cloud and updated it on her phone.

She knew all her messages would be empty as she deleted them the moment, she realised that she lost her phone. She again set up a lock screen for her phone and every app on the phone. The moment her video-calling app was ready, a message popped up, “I will kill you!!”

She scoffed and started laughing at the message. The sender of the message was “headache”. Nivritti instantly realised that Apeksha was trying to call her but as her phone was lost and not activated, she could not get through and now she was angry.

“Shit!” said Nivritti and closed her eyes. She immediately activated the VPN service and dialled Apeksha’s ID. Within a ring, she picked the call up.

“Are you out of your mind? Why were you not picking up the call? Are you alright? Are you okay? What happened? Where was your phone? Are you even alive?” Apeksha kept shouting.

“Calm down!” Nivritti barely got her word out, but Apeksha was not listening.

“Mom! Dad! She called,” Apeksha shouted and ran out of her room.

“Ape! Ape!” Nivritti kept shouting but Apeksha stopped when she reached near her parents.

“Where were you? Why were you not picking up the call? Are you okay? Are you running again?” shouted Sheela.

“Mom, calm down! Dad, control your girls!” yelled Nivritti.

“Let her speak, you guys,” requested Anil.

“What? What?” shouted Sheela at the phone screen.

“Sorry if you called yesterday…” Nivritti started explaining.

“Sorry!!?? Sorry??” but Apeksha interrupted.

“Will you shut up and let me complete my sentence?” reprimanded Nivritti.

“What?” Apeksha lowered her voice after a scolding from Nivritti.

“Yesterday, I lost my phone,” said Nivritti.

“What?” her family members shouted at once.

“Yeah, I dropped it somewhere, I have no idea where. I could not find it,” informed Nivritti.

“Did you call it?” asked Apeksha.

“Oh, no! I never thought about it. Shit! I am an idiot!” taunted Nivritti sarcastically.

“No need to be over-smart. You could have just said yes,” pouted Apeksha and rolled her eyes at her sister.

“Oh, dear! You are spending so much money there. You are in a new place, a new home and now you had to get a new phone. Why did you send her money? Why didn’t you keep it for yourself? Why did you send us gifts?” Sheela scolded Nivritti.

“Mom! Mommy! Relax! I didn’t buy a phone,” said Nivritti.

“You found your phone?” asked Apeksha.

“I just told you I could not find it, moron!” teased Nivritti.

“You didn’t buy a phone, you didn’t find your old phone, then how are you talking with us? Oh you are confusing me!!” shouted Apeksha.

“If you would keep your mouth shut for a minute and stop interrupting me, letting me complete my sentences, I will tell you everything in detail. Just shut up!” rebuked Nivritti.

“Sorry!”

“I didn’t buy a phone, my friends gave me a new one as a gift,” said Nivritti.


“Wow! Some friends you have,” smiled Anil.

“Yes, Dad. They are the best,” replied Nivritti.

“Ritti! Are you happy? Are you safe?” asked Anil, seriously.

“Yes, Dad, I am fine. Sorry, if I scared you all yesterday. Next time something like this happens, I will send an email to Ape. I will inform you all for sure. I don’t want you to stress about me. I am fine and away from everyone. No one knows where I am and I am free, Dad,” Nivritti replied with tiny drops of tears in her eyes.

“Don’t cry, dear,” sniffled Sheela.

“I am sorry, Mom, that I cannot tell you where I am or give you my number,” apologised Nivritti.

“It’s fine dear. If you are okay and happy, nothing else matters,” smiled Sheela.

“Did you find a therapist?” asked Anil.

“Yes, Dad, I did, and tomorrow is my first session,” replied Nivritti.