To Kiss An Idol

201 The Condescending Apology

But Dae knew he would have to wait as it would take days to get his card. The moment he would leave the practice room, all banks would be closed for the day and that would delay his process. And he didn’t want to send more information to Missmatch without being paid upfront.

He knew that everyone had to give an update to the CEO in a few days and if such news would leak before that, the whole Rencontre team will be under surveillance. He knew that there will be so many people in that meeting and giving out the information after that would be a more intelligent thing to do.

That way all the team present in the meeting will too be under scrutiny and not just the Rencontre team. He didn’t want everyone to find out about the account so soon. He wanted to make money first and then dump the blame on Nivritti. He would kill two birds with one stone.

Also, one simple leak was not enough to get rid of Nivritti. He had to leak a lot of information to Missmatch so that he could prove that Nivritti bought the expensive phone with that money and that she bought it on EMI to avoid suspicions. Oh, he was in seventh heaven after looking at her expensive phone.

“Sorry to lecture you, Dae. I just spoke from my heart, sorry if you were offended,” apologised Korain.

“No, no, Coin, you are right. No need to be sorry. What you said is absolutely right. I have to teach them politely,” smiled Dae.

“Let’s go back, Choreo sir is waiting for us,” said the dance leader of the group, Him-Chan.

“Here, Ritti, here is your laptop,” Young-Chul who was reading on her laptop, pushed it towards her. She looked at the screen, a notepad was open, and a message was typed on it, “send a message as soon as your sim gets activated.” Nivritti looked at him and just nodded with a sweet smile on her face.

All the boys left the Rencontre team alone and went back to practice. Nivritti looked at Dae and Jae-Hwa to see if everything was alright but they both avoided looking at each other. Nivritti didn’t say a single word and closed the notepad before anyone else could see it.

.....

The music started blaring loudly and finally, Dae broke the ice with a loud sigh. “Ritti!” he said. Nivritti looked at him and waited for him to speak again. He kept exhaling loudly, opening his mouth to speak but would close it at the very last moment.

“What is it, Dae?” nudged Nivritti.

“I know Jae will need time to forgive me. I have apologised to her, and I really want to give her space. I have even promised her that no matter what I won’t even shake hands with her. I will not even invade her personal space. If she wants, I won’t even initiate talk with her. I am going to respect her wishes. I know women can feel awkward with certain touches, and it is not their fault, it is the fault of their brains and their hormones, and I will respect that,” said Dae.

Nivritti was taken aback. What was he talking about? Jae-Hwa told him about her feelings and the emotions she went through after he touched her, and he was being all condescending and mansplaining her own feelings to her. And what did he mean by fault of brains and hormones? What kind of idiot was he?

“Now, I also want to apologise to you,” continued Dae.

“Excuse me!” exclaimed Nivritti, shocked.

“If I ever did anything to feel you like that, I apologise, I never meant to offend you. If I ever said anything to you, I apologise from the bottom of my heart. I will again apologise to Choi-ssi. I know sometimes I don’t think things and just act. What would be a friendly act for me could offend someone. Sorry, girls, very sorry,” Dae joined his hands and lowered his head in apology.

Nivritti kept staring at him without any expression on her face. She knew what he was doing. Years of her therapy had taught every male tactic to her. He was gaslighting Jae-Hwa’s feelings. He was making her believe that even though he did touch her, her feelings were mistaken, what she thinks happen, didn’t really happen.

“Was he like this from the beginning or was I not paying any attention to him? But he was caring and a good mentor. Was that the real him or this man, sitting before me, lying through his teeth is the real one?” pondered Nivritti. “Now I know why he told everything to CH. Working in this industry for years taught him to get in front of the scandal, tell everything to the media first and spin the news as you want. He wanted to be the one to narrate his own story. He didn’t want to give any chance to Jae. First, he touched her and now he is making feel her bad by saying that he will never touch her again not even shake hands with her. What a manipulative bastard!!”

“Ritti!!! Do you forgive me?” questioned Dae again.

“You really don’t have to say that. You wronged Jae, not me. That’s a good thing that you said sorry but don’t try to portray yourself as some saint, that will confuse her further. Be real, be human. Believe me, if you would have done anything like this to me, I would have broken your nose,” Nivritti flashed the brightest of her smile at him.

Dae was shocked at her answer. He didn’t really expect this answer from her. He thought she would simply accept his apology, but she barked at him that too with a smile on her face. The restaurant manager’s words rang in his ears. Nivritti twisted the bully’s finger and got out of his grip by herself.

He even remembered how she fought for her idea with Kyung-Soo and then fought with her whole department for Jae-Hwa. No matter how much he wanted to touch her smooth skin again, he was glad that he chose Jae-Hwa as his prey and not Nivritti.

“Woah!” he exclaimed and leaned away from her.

“I am sorry but when someone tries to be over smart with me, I tend to be rude. I don’t like anyone bullying anyone or mistreating someone,” Nivritti looked him into his eyes and replied.

“I understand. I will keep that in mind, I will never cross paths with you. And thank you for saving me from ASD. Thank you for lying for me,” smiled Dae, awkwardly and immediately lowered his eyes to focus on his work. But all he could do was curse Nivritti. “This wench thinks she can intimidate me. I will show you. Just a few more days and you will be thrown out of the company. Now I want to throw you in jail. I want legal action against you. I will make your life a living hell, mark my words.”

“By the way how did you come up with that lie?” he again raised his head and inquired.

“I don’t know. They kept asking what the matter was, and I had no answer. Suddenly you two fighting with each other came out of my mouth. And something regarding the scripts popped into my mind,” replied Nivritti.

“Thank you, Ritti for all your help,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Oh, shut up!” Nivritti rolled her eyes at Jae-Hwa.

“No, really, thank you, Ritti,” said Dae. “And Jae, I am sorry again.”

“You are welcome, Dae,” replied Nivritti.

“This ugly wench! Just get lost so that I can return back to my life. Just look at me, thank you, sorry, thank you, sorry, these are the only terms I keep repeating. Is the money worth it? Well, if not money, getting her fired is worth it. If she would get fired from K&Q, it would be difficult for her to get a job in this industry, ever again. Oh, I love this idea. How I wish, K&Q did a dishonourable discharge just like the military,” Dae gritted his teeth but kept a smile on his face.

“It’s okay, Dae,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Let’s concentrate on scripts. We have to give an update to Mr. Hu this week,” said Nivritti.

“Yeah, right!” said Dae. “Do you guys know what you have to present to him?” he asked.

“No! I have never given such an update,” said Nivritti.

“Well, you will have to tell him, how many scripts you have received till now in your server, how many scripts you have read, how many are rejected, how many are selected for King, did he like any of them, what kind of scripts he likes, what genre of scripts we are receiving, something like these. I have a template for me, I will share with you guys, Choi-ssi gave me and I forgot to share it with you guys, sorry. I think you also have to show your folders to him,” explained Dae.

“Oh, okay,” said Nivritti.

“I will send the template on your mail IDs,” said Dae.

“Thank you, Dae,” smiled Nivritti.

“You are welcome,” replied Dae and all went back to their work.

“What the hell? What was that? He was again, polite, a teacher, a mentor. Does he have mood swings? Or he just puts on an act?” contemplated Nivritti.