To Kiss An Idol

163 The Grumpiness

Smiling and laughing with Jae-Hwa, Nivritti forgot about ASD. The whole day she just received messages from them, she never replied to anyone. She was afraid that Jae-Hwa might glance at her phone and find out who she was messaging and then she would bombard her with questions. She wanted to avoid that at every condition.

Even after they came to bed, they kept chatting about the emotional movie they saw. They forgot about other movies that they saw. They wished each other goodnight and turned away from each other to sleep.

As soon as they stopped talking, Nivritti’s mind went directly to Young-Chul. She knew that he was doing great and working well with his therapist, but he had a long way to go. He would need steady help. His physical symptoms were all gone after spending days in the hospital and his mental symptoms needed great care.

She knew Jae-Hwa was sleeping as she could hear her steady breathing and she had stopped moving. But Nivritti could not sleep yet. Her mind was inside the hospital near Young-Chul’s bed. She kept thinking about why he never replied to her. He treated her as his friend, he even smiled at her but why was he reluctant to have a chat?

It was not like she trying to flirt with him. She just wanted to help him, and he never replied. He even denied that he held her hand. That she knew why, he was not big on physical touch. He was a widely known introvert and he hated when anyone would invade his personal space.

She turned to be on her back and stared at her roof. Sleep was still elusive. She thought of counting from 100 to 1 so that she could bore her brain to sleep. Before she could do that, her phone chimed with a notification. She sighed as she knew it was a message from one of the members telling her about Young-Chul’s condition.

Without looking at the nightstand, she just grabbed her phone and looked at the message. It was from Kyung-Soo. He informed her that Young-Chul was doing great. Even his therapy was going well. The doctor had asked all the boys to join the therapy to make sure how could they help Young-Chul in his condition as well as understand his condition.

She felt relaxed after reading the message but was still angry at Young-Chul. She never replied to anyone the whole day but thanked Kyung-Soo for the update and wished him goodnight. He sweetly replied, “sweet dreams” bringing a smile to her face. She slightly pressed the power button and the phone locked.

She lay frozen for a minute in the same position, with her phone in her hand placed over her chest. Wait! Kyung-Soo didn’t inform her when Young-Chul would be discharged. If he was doing okay, it would mean that it was time for him to leave the hospital. ASD had already announced in the office that they will be on leave for a week. Were they going to extend it?

.....

She bit the inside of her lips contemplating whether she should send a message to Kyung-Soo asking the same. But that would be too intrusive of a question. Even if Young-Chul was better, it was the doctor’s decision if he should remain in the hospital. It was not something for her to imply.

Still, she unlocked her phone and opened the conversation with Young-Chul on her phone. It was all her messages, her jokes, her memes, and nothing from him. She pondered upon if she should send him another message. She always sent him goodnight and wished him good health. Thinking for about a minute, she sighed loudly and placed her phone on her nightstand, without sending a message to Young-Chul.

She closed her eyes wishing for sleep to come. When she fell asleep, she had no idea. She started turning and twisting when the morning light seeped through her window. She covered herself with the blanket to hide her eyes.

But that blanket was pulled away from her. She again pulled it towards her and again the blanket was pulled away.

“Ahh… Apeksha!” shouted Nivritti in her sleep and pulled her blanket.

“Let me sleep, Ritti. And who is Apeksha?” groaned Jae-Hwa.

“Right, Jae,” Nivritti realised who was sleeping next to her. She scratched her head, went inside the blanket and replied, “she is my sister, sorry.”

“Oh, right, right!” Jae-Hwa too covered her head with the blanket and both girls went right back to sleep.

Hours later Jae-Hwa finally woke up. Nivritti too groaned and opened her eyes but was not ready to leave the bed.

“Wake up!” Jae-Hwa shook Nivritti.

“Few more minutes,” yawned Nivritti.

“I am going to the bathroom and then the kitchen. What do you want for breakfast?” Jae-Hwa inquired.

“Anything!” moaned Nivritti and shifted to her side, covering herself with the blanket.

Jae-Hwa went out of the room leaving Nivritti to sleep some more. The moment Jae-Hwa went out, Nivritti grabbed her phone and brought it inside her blanket. She unlocked the phone and to her surprise, there was no message, no update.

She closed and opened the messaging app again and again to refresh it, but no messages appeared. She checked for the signal, and it was great. She restarted her phone thinking something was off, but nothing appeared even after restarting.

“Is he okay? Why did no one reply till now? Where is my morning update? Last night NK was there. Why didn’t he send me an update? Should I wait for a few more minutes? Maybe they are busy. Yeah, I should wait for a few minutes, then I will send a message to Kyung-Soo,” she mumbled to herself.

She closed one eye and grunted in frustration, “aishh… I am sending a message now.” She immediately typed in, “how is MY? Is everything alright? You didn’t give me a morning update.” And send.

She kept her phone close to her eyes waiting for a reply. Second by second the clock kept moving but there was no reply. Now even Kyung-Soo was not replying to her, great!

She threw her phone next to her pillow and turned away from her phone.

“Are you still sleeping?” shouted Jae-Hwa who came out of the bathroom.

“Yes,” shouted Nivritti in frustration.

“Okay, grumpy. Do you drink tea or coffee in the morning?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“Oh right now I am wishing for something strong,” she mumbled under her breath.

“What?” inquired Jae-Hwa.

“Tea! I want tea,” grumbled Nivritti.

“Okay, I am getting everything ready, now get up, big baby,” teased Jae-Hwa.

“I am not a baby,” screamed Nivritti.

“Right now, you are looking like one,” muttered Jae-Hwa.

Nivritti threw her blanket and looked at Jae-Hwa. “What did you say?”

“Nothing, nothing at all. Please get up,” smiled Jae-Hwa. Nivritti again covered herself with the blanket and looked away from Jae-Hwa. “What is wrong with her? She is back again to the mood she was in yesterday,” thought Jae-Hwa.

Jae-Hwa placed the kettle on for tea and opened the fridge to look for the raw materials, she would use to make breakfast. She had eggs, bread, fresh vegetables, pancake mix and kimchi that she brought.

She placed the bread in the toaster to toast and started working on kimchi fried eggs. While she prepared for the eggs, the water boiled. She took out two cups, placed a tea bag in one of them and emptied a cappuccino coffee packet in another one. All she had to do now was add the water and her tea and coffee would be ready.

She picked up the kettle and was about to pour the water when the doorbell rang.

“Ritti! Someone’s at the door,” she shouted.

“Ahh… please see who’s there. I think it’s your brother,” groaned Nivritti.

“Why would Oppa be here so early?” protested Jae-Hwa.

“Just open the door, Jae,” ordered Nivritti, frustrated.

“Aisshh… this girl. She’s my senior so she thinks she can order me around,” shouted Jae-Hwa.

“I can hear you,” warned Nivritti.

“I meant it for you to hear,” chided Jae-Hwa.

Fighting with Nivritti, she reached towards the door, turned the knob, and unlocked it. The moment she opened the door, a loud shriek escaped her mouth and she instantly shut the door with a bang.

Nivritti heard her scream and threw her blanket away. She jumped from the bed and came running to Jae-Hwa. “What? What? What happened? Are you hurt? Are you okay?”

But Jae-Hwa was frozen in time. She was staring at the door with wide eyes and an open mouth. She was breathing heavily, all most on the verge of hyperventilating.

Nivritti grabbed Jae-Hwa’s shoulder and made her turn towards her. She looked everywhere at Jae-Hwa to see if she was injured. “Jae! What happened? Why did you shout? Did you hurt yourself?”

Jae-Hwa just pointed towards the door. She was still speechless. “What? What? Did you hurt your fingers?” Nivritti immediately grabbed her hands and checked her fingers, they were fine. “What happened? Say something!” shouted Nivritti, worried.

“The door!” mumbled Jae-Hwa.

“What about the door?” shouted Nivritti.

“O… I… A…”

“Stop talking in vowels. What?” shouted Nivritti. But Jae-Hwa just kept pointing at the door.

“Who is at the door?” screamed Nivritti, shook her head, and opened the door. Her jaw too dropped to the floor. She was not expecting a guest in the morning. She knew it was not the time to freeze like Jae-Hwa. Foll𝑜w current novℯls on nov𝒆lb((in).(com)

“What are you doing? Get in, fast,” she commanded.