To Kiss An Idol

43 The Footage

Jung-Hwa could not look at Kyung-Soo. He knew what he was feeling. Even he could not look at Nivritti’s arm then how would Kyung-Soo look at it. He liked that girl. Kyung-Soo on the other hand was overwhelmed with emotions. He was feeling sad as the two people whom he loved were hurt, he was feeling angry that Jung-Hwa didn’t intervene fast, he was furious that Nivritti let those men go free.

All others were concerned after looking at Jung-Hwa’s hand.

“Does that hurt?” asked Young-Chul, sad and concerned.

“A little. Moreover, she applied some antiseptic lip balm over my hand,” said Jung-Hwa sweetly and proudly. He was happy that she was not angry at him anymore for the bathroom incident. Now she was angry at him for a whole new reason and that reason was that he tried to help her. She was really crazy.

“Huh!” all were confused.

“She said it would keep the infection at bay,” Jung-Hwa explained.

“We need to take you to the hospital to check for fractures. Your knuckles are red and swollen,” noted Lee.

“Okay, let’s go to the hospital and then I have to talk to her, in detail,” barked Kyung-Soo. Everyone was now afraid of Kyung-Soo. He rarely got upset and angry and when he would get angry, they all tried to avoid him as they didn’t want his wrath.

“I know,” muttered Jung-Hwa. He glanced at Kyung-Soo but averted his eyes immediately as he noticed his furious face. He was right if Kyung-Soo would have seen Nivritti being bullied, he would have killed those men.

.....

They collected their things and started moving out when suddenly Kyung-Soo’s phone rang. He put his bags down and took out his phone. The phone display read “Hu-ssi”.

He exhaled with despair as he knew that his boss would want to know everything in detail which would mean that he would have to delay meeting with Nivritti.

“Annyeonghaseyo, Hu-ssi.” Everyone looked at Kyung-Soo. “Yeah, we were about to take him to the hospital. Okay, fine we will be there in a few minutes.”

“How did he know?” asked Young-Chul.

“You know K&Q is a gossip hub,” Korain rolled his eyes.

“What did he say?” asked Jung-Hwa, scared, and concerned.

“He wants to meet us as soon as possible. You all go to him, I will take JJ to the hospital,” announced Kyung-Soo.

They all went down to the parking lot and entered their car. As Kyung-Soo ordered everyone else went to the K&Q building and he took Jung-Hwa to the hospital with their manager Lee.

After a few tests and an X-ray, the doctor was happy to inform them that his hand was alright. It was just swelling which would subside in a few days. Kyung-Soo was still angry at him and was not talking to him. He just asked a few questions to the doctor about what to do about the swelling and how long should they apply the ice pack. The doctor patiently replied to his every query and after Kyung-Soo was satisfied, they left.

Jung-Hwa’s hand was carefully bandaged to hide his swelling from the world. He never took out his hand out of his pocket after that. After the doctor’s visit, they started their journey towards the K&Q building. Kyung-Soo was impatient to see Nivritti.

Even before the car stopped, Kyung-Soo jumped out of it and ran towards the lift.

“Go to Hu-ssi. I will meet you there,” he ordered Jung-Hwa. Jung-Hwa knew where he was going. His Hyung waited so long for him at the hospital but now he could not wait anymore.

“Go,” shouted Jung-Hwa back.

Kyung-Soo walked into the lift and kept looking at his watch. For him, even the lift was moving at a slow pace. The lift reached the 11th floor and ran out of the lift. When he reached the door of the script department he stopped, took a deep breath, and calmed himself down. He didn’t want to look agitated.

After taming his hair with his fingers, he opened the door. Chung-Ho looked at him, surprised. Kyung-Soo just bowed down to him from distance and walked up to Nivritti. He didn’t care what anyone would say, he had to talk to her. Everyone lifted their head like a meerkat but went back to their work as soon as they saw Chung-Ho staring at them.

Kyung-Soo went and stood near Nivritti’s chair. His shadow on her screen made her look at him. She gulped. She knew why he was there. Jung-Hwa told him everything. Her tongue automatically came out and licked her lips.

“We need to talk,” he ordered and started walking towards the conference room. Before he could enter, he turned back and shouted, “and bring your phone.”

Nivritti closed her eyes and sighed, “shit!”

Chung-Ho saw everything and was sceptical. He knew something was up but was concerned that Kyung-Soo was going to scold her. He walked up to Nivritti and asked, “is everything alright?”

“Don’t worry, CH. Everything is fine,” assured Nivritti.

“What are you not telling me? What happened in that restaurant? Why is he here?” he whispered.

“I can’t tell you,” she spoke softly so that no one could hear their conversation.

“Nivritti!”

She took his hand in hers and squeezed it hard. “Please trust me. It is better that it remains a secret. You saw what happened to Jae. If the truth comes out, it will be bad.”

“Bad for whom?” inquired Chung-Ho.

She bit her lips and answered, “Uhh... JJ.”

“What? So, what they are saying is true?” he asked in a hushed tone.

“What? No, no. it’s something else,” she immediately shut him down. “CH, please trust me, what I am doing is for the greater good.”

“He won’t scold you?” he asked.

“Come on! Never.”

“Okay, go.”

She again squeezed his hand and reassured him, “I will be fine, I promise.” He nodded and signalled her to go to the conference room.

She glanced a look at Jae-Hwa who was looking at her with concern, but Nivritti blinked at her and smiled. With every eye on the floor following her, she entered the conference room.

Kyung-Soo was pacing inside the conference room waiting for Nivritti. She opened the door and saw him. He instantly stopped moving and looked at her. His eyes immediately fell on her arm. It had four black marks on it. He gritted his teeth with anger.

“You are hurt,” he noticed.

“It’s just bruising, I am fine,” she replied.

“I need to see that footage,” he commanded.

Nivritti gulped. She now realised that she should have deleted that footage from the face of the earth. “But,” she protested.

“JJ told me you have the only copy. Nivritti, show it to me,” he ordered again.

“Fine.”

She unlocked her phone and moved to the folder that had that video. She rotated her phone and faced the screen in Kyung-Soo’s face. He glanced at her and took the phone from her. With one touch, the video started playing.

There was no audio, yet he could tell the whole restaurant was buzzing with conversation. He moved his fingers across the screen and scrolled the video forward. He stopped when he saw Nivritti and Jae-Hwa eating their food. He again pressed the screen and fast-forwarded the video. Again, he stopped when Jae-Hwa was paying the bill and four men arrived.

They started touching Jae-Hwa improperly. With a clenched jaw, he glanced outside the room and his eyes fell on Jae-Hwa. he felt bad for her. He again fast-forwarded the video, he stopped when he saw Nivritti coming back. After that, his fingers froze. He saw every second of drama that unfolded before his eyes.

He could see her standing up to the men and Jae-Hwa running and standing behind her. The moment he saw the man grabbing Nivirtti’s arm he kicked a nearby chair so hard that it flew all the way to the back wall of the room.

Nivritti looked at him, scared. But no one spoke. Kyung-Soo kept looking at the phone’s screen. He kept looking at how she was trying to get out of his grip. Then that man twisted her arm and pulled her closer. Kyung-Soo closed his eyes and shouted loudly.

“Ahhh...”

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Shh... shh... shh...” Nivritti moved towards him and covered his mouth with her hand. “Everyone will hear you and would like to know what is happening here.” But he was not listening to her. His eyes saw the black marks and he forgot everything.

He softly grabbed her arm and ran his fingers over her soft, injured arm.

“I am fine,” she reassured. With her arm in his hand, he went back to the footage. He saw that she twisted his finger and came out of his grip, and he was somewhat relaxed. The next moment he saw Jung-Hwa entering the restaurant and punching the daylights out of the man.

After seeing the bulky, fit, bodyguards, the men retreated and ran out of the restaurant. He closed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment.

“Why did you let them go? I would have killed those guys,” he gritted his teeth. “I am so happy that JJ hit him. Just look at your hand.” He lifted her hand up and showed her the injury.

She smiled and tried to calm him down. “No, he did a bad thing. Only the presence of his could have done the job he didn’t need to hit them. That’s what I mean when I say you all are children, not every matter needs to be solved by aggression and violence.”

“Yeah, but few situations need a firm hand. I hate to see you get hurt,” he said and closed the distance between them. Nivritti had no answer after that. She neither could open her mouth nor could close it. Her lips kept quivering. Kyung-Soo looked at her and brought her arm closer to his lips. Delicately he placed his mouth over her marks and planted a kiss.