To Kiss An Idol

192 The Vibe Check

All reached the parking area and as usual, the girls sat in the back seat and Thae and Dae in the front. No one talked during the whole journey. Thae could not ask about Nivritti’s phone in front of Dae. Nivritti could not ask about Young-Chul or How Jae-Hwa was feeling in front of Dae. She just held Jae-Hwa’s hands the whole way.

After a few minutes, they reached the practice room. The whole way Nivritti was on the lookout for her phone. But she knew that no one would leave a phone lying on the floor alone, they would definitely pick it up. The moment all entered the room, all greeted Dae and the girls.

Dae moved towards the working station and as usual, Nivritti was walking slowly.

“How’s your foot now?” inquired Korain.

“Better,” replied Nivritti.

“Liar!” interrupted Jae-Hwa.

“What?” asked Young-Chul and stared at Nivritti.

“She is joking, chill!” smiled Nivritti, awkwardly.

“No, you were in pain in the morning,” protested Jae-Hwa.

.....

“And you were not speaking a few minutes ago,” Nivritti gritted her teeth.

“Ritti?” emphasized Young-Chul.

“It just tingled after I took a bath. But now see it’s all fine,” explained Nivritti and wiggled her toes. “Jae-Geun checked my wound again and he said everything is okay. It’s healing nicely.” A smile flashed on Young-Chul’s face.

“He also told you to take medicine if pain increases,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Yeah, if pain increases. It’s fine because of the compression bandage, relax,” replied Nivritti.

“Fine, next time if you ask me how I am doing, I will give the generic reply that I am doing fine,” warned Young-Chul.

“MY!! I didn’t give you a generic reply. I told you what I was feeling at that moment. When it ached in the morning, I told Jae-Geun about that,” replied Nivritti.

“And after that, you didn’t let him check on your wound,” pouted Jae-Hwa.

Nivritti stared at her and snapped, “what will it take for you to shut up?”

“Fine! I won’t say a thing,” sulked Jae-Hwa and walked towards the working station. Today she made sure that she would not sit beside Dae. She chose to sit in front of him. Dae noticed that. He wanted to say something to her, but he knew that would blow the matter out of proportion and he wanted to be in the good books of everyone.

He wanted everyone to like him. If everyone would like him, then no one would doubt him in future when he would destroy Nivritti’s future. His one plan failed but he had other tricks up his sleeves. The moment they left their department today a new plan formed in his mind. The new plan was going to destroy her reputation in front of the CEO. But for that, he needed to be extra careful.

He made a point to stay away from Jae-Hwa for time being. She was acting weird before him and now Chung-Ho and Nivritti knew what he did. Even though he apologised for his behaviour, everyone saw how Jae-Hwa acted in his presence and that would attract attention towards him.

He glanced at Nivritti, she was still talking to the boys and Thae had her bag in his hands. “What are they talking about?” thought Dae.

“Did you guys find any phone when you arrived at the venue?” asked Nivritti.

“You think you lost your phone here?” asked Him-Chan.

“Last I saw my phone was in this room and then I have no idea. If it would have fallen from my pocket when JJ was carrying me upstairs in my building, we all would have heard the noise of a falling phone. I also checked my stairs but nothing. So, most probably my phone is somewhere in this building, or someone picked it up,” explained Nivritti.

“What did the police say?” asked Korain.

“They asked for my phone number and said that they will try to trace the sim. If they could not trace it, they will trace the IMEI number. But if the phone is switched off, nothing can be done. Once anyone switches on the phone and if something pops up on their radar they will inform me,” replied Nivritti.

“Wait!” said Korain and dialled her number. The automated message told Korain that Nivritti’s phone was switched off. “This says that your phone is switched off.”

“No problem! Jae will go out during lunch and will buy me a new phone,” smiled Nivritti.

“That’s good!” Korain raised his eyebrows, awkwardly.

Nivritti smiled at everyone and slowly moved towards the working station. She looked at Jae-Hwa sitting away from Dae and sighed. “What happened that she is so afraid? Even after Dae apologised, she is acting worried and afraid. I have to find out,” thought Nivritti.

Thae walked with her and placed her bag next to her.

“Thank you, TK,” smiled Nivritti.

Thae gently placed his hand over her head and patted it with a cute smile on his face. “You are welcome.” Thae reached near his brothers who were talking about Nivritti’s phone.

“When is it arriving?” asked Jeong-Eun.

“By noon,” replied Kyung-Soo.

“But how will we give her the phone in front of Seong-ssi? He doesn’t know that we know about her phone and that we visited her house last night,” inquired Young-Chul.

“Oh, right! He does not know and if we give her the phone before him, he will ask questions,” said Jung-Hwa.

“I don’t like him. He never passed my vibe check,” said Thae.

“Yeah, you didn’t like Ritti at first but now she is your friend,” said Jeong-Eun.

“I made a mistake and she was new. I didn’t have time to check her vibes. But he has been with us for years, I never got any good vibes from him,” protested Thae.

“Wait! Why is Jae sitting next to Ritti and not in her usual seat?” observed Jeong-Eun.

“What do you mean?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“She always sits next to Seong-ssi and today she is sitting next to Nivritti,” explained Jeong-Eun.

“Maybe she too got a negative vibe from him,” replied Thae.

“Okay, we are getting off-topic. How are we going to give her the phone? How are we going to stop Jae from going to the market to buy a phone for Ritti?” asked Korain.

“You tell us, you are the intelligent one,” mocked Him-Chan.

“What about Kyungsoona? He has the highest IQ among us,” protested Korain.

“He is book smart, you are street smart. Think of something,” scolded Young-Chul.

“Okay, give me some time. You all should think too,” snapped Korain.

“Annyeonghaseyo!” the dance teacher entered the room and greeted everyone. “Why are we standing and not warming up?”

“Where are the dancers?” asked Him-Chan.

“They will be here in five minutes. As you said you will be late, I informed them to arrive late too,” informed the choreographer.

“Okay, sir!” Him-Chan bowed down to his teacher.

All boys started warming up and the Rencontre team started reading the scripts. Every half hour they would take as Young-Chul needed to take it easy.

The boys were sitting next to each other with Young-Chul laying flat on his back. Jung-Hwa was sitting in front of Korain who was massaging Jung-Hwa’s shoulders. Suddenly, Korain gasped.

“What? What?” asked Jung-Hwa.

“I know what we can do,” replied Korain. All looked at him and Young-Chul sat up with a jerk.

“About?” asked Thae, innocently.

Jeong-Eun rolled his eyes and stared at her. “He is talking about Ritti’s phone,” Jeong-Eun explained.

“Oh!!” exclaimed Thae.

“Tell us, Hyung,” pleaded Him-Chan.

“Kyungsoona! Call Manager Park and tell him that he has to come and take everyone to lunch,” said Korain.

“What will that accomplish?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“Let me finish,” scolded Korain.

“Sorry, hyung,” Kyung-Soo lowered his head and shut his mouth.

“Tell him that he has to bring our food here. As Ritti is injured, she will not go to lunch, she will prefer to eat it here. Jae too will say no as she would not want to leave Ritti alone. We cannot go to any restaurant without informing the company, so we will also have to stay here. The only remaining person is Seong-ssi, we will have to persuade him to leave with the dancers for lunch,” explained Korain.

“That can work. The phone will arrive close to noon. No one will be here except us, and we can easily hand her the phone. She can also shout at us without anyone knowing that we are being scolded,” said Kyung-Soo, excitedly.

“You think she will scold us?” gulped Jung-Hwa.

“Definitely!” replied Young-Chul as if that was the obvious answer.

“Okay, I will call Manager Park and tell him our plan. But what do you guys want to eat, I will have to tell him that,” said Kyung-Soo.

The boys told him what they wanted to eat, and he added two more portions of noodles and rice for Nivritti and Jae-Hwa and gave instructions to his manager.

The day went by, and lunchtime arrived. Before the manager’s arrival, the delivery boy arrived and he almost fainted when he saw the members of ASD. They had to make him drink water to make sure that he would stand upright.

The delivery boy could not talk or walk, he just kept smiling like an idiot. He calmed down after ASD took a photo with him. He shook hands with everyone and then left, happily, jumping all the way.