To Kiss An Idol

169 The Choking

Korain immediately choked on his coffee. Him-Chan’s hands stopped with eggs in his hands right before his mouth. Jung-Hwa and Thae spurted the coffee on each other’s faces. Kyung-Soo was still reeling from the fact that he couldn’t cook. And Jeong-Eun kept stabbing his eggs over and over with his fork. Only Young-Chul was unbothered by everything.

“Anh?” Nivritti looked at Jae-Hwa and started laughing. Seeing her laugh, everyone else started laughing except Kyung-Soo, Young-Chul, and Jeong-Eun. Jeong-Eun kept staring at Jae-Hwa with squinted eyes.

“What does she mean he is sexy?” Jeong-Eun gritted his teeth.

“What?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“You don’t know what you just did?” asked Nivritti.

“What? What did I do?” she asked innocently.

“You called SK, sexy,” sniggered Nivritti.

Jae-Hwa immediately choked on her food. She started coughing violently. Nivritti had to rub her back to slide the food down Jae-Hwa’s food pipe. “You, okay?” Nivritti offered her a glass of water.

Jae-Hwa gulped big gulps of water and looked at Korain. “Sorry… I… I… didn’t mean…” stammered Jae-Hwa. She would say one word and glance at Jeong-Eun, then another word and again look at Jeong-Eun. She saw his clenched jaw and gulped.

.....

Nivritti placed her hand over Jeong-Eun’s thighs but looked at Korain, “she was just complimenting your kitchen skills. We all know PJ is her bias.”

“Ritti!” shouted Jae-Hwa making everyone laugh at Nivritti’s tease. Even Jeong-Eun gave her a faint smile. Nivritti winked at Jeong-Eun making him blush with happiness.

“Why is she winking at him? She just winked at me, a few moments ago,” Kyung-Soo pondered with a clenched jaw.

“Oh, if you want to see sexy with knife skills, you should see MY hyung,” praised Jung-Hwa. For the first time, Young-Chul choked on his food.

“What is happening? What did you put in the eggs, Hyung? Why is everyone choking?” Him-Chan teased Korain.

In synchronisation, both Korain and Young-Chul hit Him-Chan and Jung-Hwa on the back of their heads, respectively.

All kept laughing, teasing, eating and enjoying their time together. Nivritti even forgot about her toe injury. After all were done eating, Him-Chan, Young-Chul and Kyung-Soo washed the dishes and placed them on the drying rack.

“So, while cleaning he is okay but while cooking he wreaks havoc?” asked Nivritti.

“You have no idea how many pans we had to sacrifice because he burned the food, how many waffle makers we had to throw out because he overflowed the batter and it went in every nook and corner and it was impossible to clean it,” Korain rolled his eyes.

Nivritti looked at Kyung-Soo and smiled at his cuteness. He was wiping the kitchen top and his hair kept landing on his forehead, troubling him.

“How is pain now?” asked Jung-Hwa.

“Huh?” asked Nivritti as she didn’t hear a single word. She was too busy staring at Kyung-Soo.

“Pain!” repeated Jung-Hwa.

“Oh, I totally forgot about it. It means it is all better,” smiled Nivritti.

“It is all better,” mocked Jung-Hwa. “Don’t even try to act smart. Don’t move for the whole day and don’t put pressure on it.”

“Yes, sir,” saluted Nivritti making everyone smile. “Oh! JH!”

“Hmm,” replied Him-Chan.

“Leave your coat. I stained it. I will wash it and give it back to you,” requested Nivritti.

“Oh, you cannot wash JH hyung’s clothes,” commented Jeong-Eun.

“Huh… why?” asked Nivritti, shocked. ƒ𝐫𝒆𝐞w𝗲𝚋𝗻૦𝘷e𝙡.c𝑜𝙢

“His clothes are the most expensive. He only wears branded clothes,” replied Thae.

“So, expensive clothes cannot be washed?” asked Nivritti, confused.

“No, expensive clothes are drycleaned,” replied Jung-Hwa.

“Then I will get it dry-cleaned,” replied Nivritti, casually.

“And you will fly to the dry cleaners?” taunted Kyung-Soo.

“What? Why would I fly?” complained Nivritti. Kyung-Soo said nothing, just pointed at her injured foot. She looked at her foot and exclaimed, “right! But I feel bad that I destroyed his coat.”

“Buy me a new one!” shouted Him-Chan.

“No!!!” shouted everyone at once.

“Never buy him anything,” yelled Young-Chul.

“Huh! Why?” she asked.

“He is so picky with colours, fabric, quality. He will fry your brain and never wear your gift,” Young-Chul stared at Him-Chan, angrily.

“Oh…” Nivritti’s mind immediately went to the scarf she gave Him-Chan. “I…”

Kyung-Soo looked at her sad face and lightning struck his mind. He realised why her face went sad. “Don’t worry, he loved the gift you gave him. In fact, we all loved it.”

“Oh, yes. I loved the scarf. It was soft, warm and in pastel colour, just the way I like it,” said Him-Chan.

“Really! You are not saying this for making me happy,” asked Nivritti.

“We all liked it, I guarantee it,” replied Korain.

“Then what should we do about his coat?” asked Nivritti.

“Nothing, he will get it washed,” said Kyung-Soo.

“NK!!” scolded Nivritti.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” said Him-Chan.

“Sorry!” apologised Nivritti.

“No worries,” Him-Chan smiled.

“I think we should leave. MY needs his rest,” said Korain.

“Yes, we should leave,” said Young-Chul and stood up.

Everyone smiled and said goodbye to both Jae-Hwa and Nivritti and moved near the door to grab their coats. All ordered Nivritti not to move even an inch. She kept sitting on the couch meanwhile Jae-Hwa went to the door to see them off.

“Wear your masks!” shouted Nivritti.

“Right! Right!” ASD exclaimed and took out their masks from their pockets. All the members started walking out but Young-Chul halted in his path. He went back inside and stood before Nivritti.

“Did you forget something?” she asked.

“Yeah. I forgot to say thank you,” he replied.

Nivritti sighed and smiled at him. “You don’t need to say that.”

“I don’t know if I held your hand. I cannot say I heard everything you spoke to me. All I know is I thought about everything you said regarding mental health and that helped me. Now I am getting help and my team is with me. I hope you can be with me like you said,” he said his words and started walking away but Nivritti grabbed his hands and stopped him.

“MY!” she said. He turned to look at her. “I am sorry for being angry at you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was being selfish. I was not thinking about you. I know it is hard for some people to talk on the phone, chat on phone or basically able to communicate with people. I know that if you reply, I will feel happy, but I am pressurising you in any way, you don’t need to reply to me ever. You should do things that you feel comfortable doing, not because people like me are pressurizing you. If you don’t want, I will never ask for a reply. But I would like to keep sending you messages if that’s not a hassle for you,” she politely kept the point.

“So, one should do the things they feel like doing?” asked Young-Chul.

“Yes, always. Until and unless you are creating a problem for others. If you are not creating trouble, one should live life as they want to,” she replied.

“Bye, Ritti!” smiled Young-Chul. She let go of his hand. Young-Chul looked at the door, his team members were standing at the door with Jae-Hwa smiling at him and Nivritti.