To Kiss An Idol

196 The Harassment

Nivritti was silently listening to Jae-Hwa’s story. Jae-Hwa had her head lowered with shame. She was unable to look Nivritti in the eyes. Nivritti held her hand while she was telling her everything. She was shocked to know that Dae kept asking about her.

Why was he trying to turn Jae-Hwa against her? Why he kept asking about her? What did he mean by presenting Nivritti’s ideas as hers? Why was he jealous of her? Why was he asking Jae-Hwa to be smart? Was he biased towards her? Did he want her to succeed or Nivritti to fail?

But Nivritti never did anything to him, so why was he against her? He always talked to her nicely, she never got the vibe that he didn’t like her. So, why was he pitting Jae-Hwa and her against each other?

According to Jae-Hwa, he touched her twice and asked her about her friendship with Nivritti. Why? What was his end game? Did he hate Nivritti too much or did he like Jae-Hwa too much? But Dae was married, yet he was interested in someone else. Was what Nivritti thinking, true? Was he interested in Jae-Hwa or something else was going on here?

No matter what he was thinking, all Nivritti knew was Jae-Hwa felt uncomfortable with his touch and his words.

“He kept saying my name, but my brain was fried with his touch. For minutes, all I could hear was ringing in my ear and my vision went white. So, he shouted my name, and I came back to my senses. Finally, he removed his hand from my thigh. And he asked me about plagiarised scripts. He asked if I found any new ones. I replied yes and again he pointed out your name. He said that your idea about dealing with plagiarism didn’t work at all. He kept taunting that your idea didn’t work, and people were still posting copied scripts,” continued Jae-Hwa.

Nivritti just kept looking at Jae-Hwa and hearing everything coming out of her mouth. Jae-Hwa was venting and Nivritti was letting her vent. She had so many questions, but she kept her mouth shut.

“I don’t know why but I saw his face change expression. He looked annoyed when I said that your idea was good and that writers were responsible for posting copied scripts. All we could do was ban such people. I think he wanted me to take his side and bash your idea, but I took your side, and he was annoyed. Finally, he dropped me outside my house and drove away,” Jae-Hwa completed her story.

“Are you okay?” asked Nivritti.

.....

Jae-Hwa hid her eyes with her palm and started crying. Nivritti dragged her chair next to her and wrapped her arms around her body and hugged her tightly. She didn’t say a single word, just let Jae-Hwa cry her heart out.

After a few minutes, Jae-Hwa raised her head and looked at Nivritti. “You know I didn’t talk to anyone after that. I could not speak or look anyone in the eyes. I just jumped in the shower and kept scrubbing my thigh where he touched me. After scrubbing and applying soap hundreds of times, I came out of the bathroom. JJ created the group and the boys kept messaging. I was waiting for your message. I knew that if your name popped on my phone that would give me courage but you never replied.”

“Sorry!” apologised Nivritti.

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault,” sniffled Jae-Hwa.

“It’s neither yours,” comforted Nivritti. “Then how you came back to your senses?” she asked.

Jae-Hwa took out her phone and showed a message to Nivritti. It was the message Dae sent her. “I feel like you were uncomfortable in my car. Sorry if I did anything to make you feel like this. I would never do anything to make anyone feel uneasy, please forgive me if I was in wrong.”

“Did he say something when he first touched you?” asked Nivritti.

“The first time, I was about to fall when he saved me and grabbed my waist. He then touched my cheeks and asked if I was fine. But I was too shocked to reply. What he did next was shocking. He knelt down and apologised to me. At first, I thought that he tripped me on purpose, but he apologised for that too he said his foot touched my foot by mistake. I felt bad that a senior was kneeling down and apologising to me. And his apology seemed genuine,” replied Jae-Hwa.

“So, he touches you and then apologises to you?” asked Nivritti.

“Yes, immediately. He never even gives me the opportunity to tell him that I don’t like his touch. He does that and the next moment apologises for his mistake. Why does this keep happening to me? Remember when he grabbed his laptop by reaching after leaning on me?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“Yes, I do, and I also remember that you told me about he fired a lot of girls and one resigned. Do you think they did that because he was harassing them?” asked Nivritti.

“But he again apologised to me in front of you and Choi-ssi. I never said anything to him yet he himself volunteered the information to you guys,” said Jae-Hwa.

“That does not mean that you didn’t feel uncomfortable with his touch. What you felt was genuine and right. Never discard your feelings. Talk to him, tell him what you felt no matter if he apologised. You need to confront him,” suggested Nivritti.

“And tell him what?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“Whatever you felt at those moments. What your body felt. Tell him if you accept his apology. If you do, it’s good, if not, that should too be acceptable to him. He expressed his feelings, you should too do that. If his feelings are valid, yours are too. Tell him that such things must never happen in future. If he felt bad, he should stop doing such things,” said Nivritti.

“I… I can’t. What if he retaliates? He is my senior,” stammered Jae-Hwa.

“So, if he is your senior, he has the licence to harass you. What you felt and what he did comes under sexual harassment, you know that, right?” asked Nivritti.

“Ritti!” tears again streamed down Jae-Hwa’s face.

“Jae! I am not asking you to file a report with HR. I am just asking you to confront him and tell him about how you felt. If he really felt bad for making you uncomfortable, if he is a good person, he will definitely understand your point of view. I like to think he is the nice person who saw me in distress and allowed me to go back home. I like to think that he is the senior who tried to look at my leg when he found out that I was injured. Even though he is an elder, he didn’t hesitate to kneel down to take a look at my leg. He has been guiding us since the beginning during all this Rencontre competition,” reassured Nivritti.

“Yeah, he knelt and apologised to me, and it is a big deal in our culture. Maybe you are right. I should try to talk to him. But I am scared. Will you be there with me?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“Always!” Nivritti kissed Jae-Hwa’s temple and comforted her.

“But one thing keeps disturbing me,” said Jae-Hwa.

“What?”

“Why does he keeps asking about you and keeps putting you down? He never does any of that if he is before ASD or Chung-Ho. But when he is alone with me, he always tries to get me to say something bad about you,” sighed Jae-Hwa.

“That I cannot tell you. Maybe he does not trust me as I am new. Maybe he will open up to me after some time,” suggested Nivritti.

“I really need to find out what happened with those girls,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Okay, fine, I will ask CH. He must know everything.”

“But you hate gossip,” said Jae-Hwa.

“This is for you. You need the answers, and I will get them for you. In the meantime, be ready to talk to Dae. Tell him never to touch you,” said Nivritti.

“That’s why I sat next to you today,” pouted Jae-Hwa.

“I know,” Nivritti patted Jae-Hwa’s back. “Don’t worry, I am here for you and sorry you could talk about this with me before.”

“Not your fault. On the contrary, when you didn’t reply, for the time being, I forgot everything about Dae. All I could think was why were you not replying and if you were okay. I was so scared that you might be hurt that I didn’t even think about what Dae did to me. Thank you for that. It was a good thing in hindsight that you lost your phone,” Jae-Hwa urgently hugged Nivritti.

They remained in that position for long, hugging each other adoringly.

“Thank you Ritti, for hearing me out,” said Jae-Hwa and broke the embrace.

“I will hit you on your head,” scolded Nivritti.

“What? Why?” protested Jae-Hwa.

“Stop saying thank you, you idiot! You came running in the middle of the night to check if I was doing okay. Should I say thank you?” rebuked Nivritti.

“No.”

“Because that’s what friends do. They listen to each other, they worry about each other, they care for each other, they love each other. That’s what friends do,” scolded Nivritti.

“And apparently one scolds the other,” teased Jae-Hwa.

“Ha-ha,” Nivritti laughed sarcastically. “Let’s go, Dae would be waiting for us.”