To Kiss An Idol

“You look happy today,” said Myung-Ok.

Dae softly wrapped his arms around her waist and twirled her around, laughing loudly. “My dear wife! Today is a good day,” chuckled Dae.

“Wow! Such good spirits on Monday! Oh, are you getting a bonus today?” she smiled, excitedly.

“Something like that,” smiled Dae and twirled her around again. He lifted her in his arms and the whole room filled with laughter.

“Okay, okay, put me down, put me down, getting dizzy,” shouted Myung-Ok and laughing, Dae softly placed her on the ground. “I will get your breakfast. Get ready!”

While Dae was getting ready, his wife placed all the food items on the table. Smiling and skipping, Dae came to the kitchen to have his breakfast.

“You are never like this? I like this. You look good when happy,” commented Myung-Ok.

“Thank you, dear wife. But I can never look as beautiful as you,” replied Dae and stuffed his mouth with soup.

.....

Happily, he reached the office and after greeting Chung-Ho, he went to his seat. He just had to look for an opportunity when Nivritti would leave her phone alone and the world would be his. He kept waiting for the girls to arrive, but the office timings started, and both were not in the sight.

“Seong-ssi!” said Chung-Ho.

“Yes, Choi-ssi!” Dae stood up.

“Go to the dance practice room. Girls are on their way, they will directly go to that room. They are not coming here. Take the video script for ASD with you,” announced Chung-Ho.

“They are going there directly. Why?” asked Dae.

“You will soon find out. Please go, ASD is waiting for you,” said Chung-Ho.

“Yes, Choi-ssi!” said Dae. He grabbed his laptop and placed it in his bag. After collecting the daily video script for ASD, he moved towards his car.

“She is directly going there, why? Oh, why she always gets special treatment? I never received anything like that,” groaned Dae and kept walking towards his car.

He forgot that not only Nivritti, but Jae-Hwa too was getting the same treatment. But in the fog of his jealousy, he went completely blind. He even forgot that no one in the history of Rencontre worked so closely with ASD, so it was impossible for him to get the same treatment before. He forgot that it was because of Nivritti that the script team working for Rencontre were getting special treatment. All he remembered was how to get his revenge.

He drove his car to the practice room and with a big smile on his face he entered the room. He saw that everyone was standing close to each other except Him-Chan, he was near the girls. He greeted everyone and everyone looked at him.

Happily, he asked why the girls chose to come to the dance room directly and avoided going to the office. Young-Chul started explaining but Nivritti interrupted him in between and finished his sentence for him.

“Did Young just say ‘we’?” he pondered. “I heard the word ‘we’. Another secret? But what? No worries once I get a hold of her phone every secret will reveal itself.”

“Oh my! Show me. What happened?” shouted Dae and ran to Nivritti. He knelt near her and tried to grab her leg. But Nivritti never let him touch herself. He jumped away from him shouting not to touch her feet. “Why? Do I have thrones sticking out of my palms? What the hell does she think of herself, I can’t even touch her? This filthy girl! She thinks she is superior to me?” Dae clenched his jaw in anger.

But he saw that she flinched in pain after standing up in a hurry. He had to show concern for her. He asked sorry for causing more pain, but she assured him that she was doing fine.

“Yeah, keep doing fine. By tomorrow, you won’t be fine,” he laughed at the back of his mind. Another crazy thought flashed in his mind. He wanted to make everyone believe that he was a sweet, sweet man. And to do that he would have to make them believe that he was the best friend they would ever have.

Sweetly he pouted and complained that why everyone called him Seong-ssi. They all that nicknames for each other so why not for him? Everyone settled on the name ‘Dae’. He wanted to know more details as to why the girls came together.

Nivritti informed him that Jae-Hwa spent her weekend with her and they enjoyed the days watching movies and doing work. He somehow sensed that Nivritti was being extra rude to Kyung-Soo. While replying to him, she was fine but while talking to Kyung-Soo, she would keep snapping at him.

“What happened there?” he pondered.

All started working and suddenly Nivritti’s phone chimed. Dae glanced at her phone and smiled. That phone was the key to his happiness, and he was getting it today at any cost.

Suddenly the choreographer came in and in came a busload of kids shouting, giggling, smiling, and laughing. Dae rolled his eyes at the sight but saw that Jae-Hwa and Nivritti were happy. He faked his smile. He kept looking at Nivritti’s face who was sitting before him and kept smiling after he would see her smile.

He noticed that today ASD were taking breaks frequently. He found that bizarre. ASD were known as dance machines, they could dance for hours without break, then what happened today?

“Why are they taking so many breaks? They never used to do that,” said Dae.

“No idea, Dae,” replied Jae-Hwa.

“Maybe they are thinking about the kids. They don’t want to tire them soon,” suggested Nivritti. Dae just nodded and they went back to their work. While ASD were dancing and Nivritti and Jae-Hwa were talking, his eyes were fixed on Nivritti’s phone. It was silently lying on the table in front of Nivritti’s laptop.

His attention broke when a delivery man arrived. He had a lot of packets in his hands. He found out that they were chocolates that Nivritti had ordered for everyone.

“This is how she gets everyone on her side. She bribes them. She thinks kids will love her just because she gave them chocolates. And why only kids? She only gets gifts for everyone else, except me. Am I invisible to her?” Dae clenched his fists in anger.

Finally, she revealed that she bought chocolates for everyone present in that room. Dae was surprised. For the first time ever, she got something for him. “She thinks I will forget about revenge just after getting these cheap chocolates, she has another thing coming at her,” Dae Gritted his teeth.

He didn’t mind when the kids called him uncle but after Jae-Hwa kept pouting, he thought he could act like he too was offended, that would make him appear as human as possible. He had to plan ahead so that no one could doubt his intentions.

Everyone was happy to receive the chocolates except Jung-Hwa. Everyone was eating but not him. Nivritti opened her bag of scolds and insults and started dumping everything on him. She gave him an earful for going on a diet on his own.

“Why is she so nosy? It’s his wish. Let him do whatever he wants,” Dae rolled his eyes at her. “Just because she is fat, she does not others to look beautiful, jealous girl!”

Then something happened, what, he had no idea. All he saw were tiny drops of tears in Nivritti’s eyes. “Oh! Now what? Is this another plan to get ASD care for her? Why is she crying now? Drama Queen!”

She excused herself and ran away from the room. She said that she was going to the washroom, but it was clear to Dae that she was again hiding something. “How many secrets this girl has?”

Kyung-Soo went to the bathroom after a few seconds, but Dae paid no heed to that. Finally, the choreographer called them to continue the dance practice. Him-Chan said that he will go out and bring Kyung-Soo. The rest of the ASD went near the dance team and started warming up.

Dae looked at the table. The table was filled with chocolate boxes and the bags they came in. Nivritti’s phone was hidden behind one of the packets. Jae-Hwa was still stuffing her face with chocolates and kept reading scripts.

Suddenly her phone rang, and she picked up the phone.

“Yes, Uhmma!” she chimed on phone.

This was the moment Dae was waiting for. Jae-Hwa was distracted by the phone call. No one else was near the table, no one was even paying attention to the Rencontre team. Dae stood up and started placing all the boxes inside the paper bags, showing off that he was cleaning the table.

“Dae! Leave it, I will help you,” shouted Jae-Hwa.

“No, it’s fine. Go talk to your mother,” requested Dae.

“Yes, uhmma I will come home tonight,” Jae-Hwa said on the phone.

Dae kept cleaning the table and finally, his eyes landed on Nivritti’s phone. He placed his palm over her phone and covered it completely. He glanced around, no one was looking at him. He opened the phone immediately and placed the phone on silent, he even turned off the vibrating mode and placed the phone in his pocket.

Within a second he cleaned the table and neatly placed the chocolate bags in a single line. He was grinning from ear to ear as he was successful in getting the phone.