To Kiss An Idol

221 The Second Injury

It was a bad day for Dae. First, Chung-Ho scolded him and now Bong was doing the same. Everyone looked at him weirdly after Chung-Ho scolded him. He had no idea how others might react after Bong ripped him a new one.

“Is this how you train your people, Choi-ssi?” Bong berated Chung-Ho.

“Sorry, sir. I will make sure he does better,” apologised Chung-Ho, humbly.

“Are her numbers better?” Bong asked while pointing at Jae-Hwa.

“Yes, far better than him,” replied Chung-Ho.

“Make it quick, dear,” Bong said to Jae-Hwa. She nodded at him and urgently stood up. She attached her system to the projector and her file popped up on the screen. It was an Excel file. As Chung-Ho said, her numbers are better, and the format was the best. It looked much neater in an Excel sheet.

After she was done Bong looked at her and said, “that was good dear. Please sit down.” He then looked at Nivritti, “Ms. Rathod! Please send your file to both your team members and if you think of adding any more points for the next summary session, you are welcome to do that.”

“Yes, sir,” Nivritti bowed humbly at him.

“Any more questions, ladies and gentlemen?” he addressed the whole room.

.....

“Can you change the name of the ‘Nam Kyung-Soo’ folder to the ‘ASD’ folder? He alone is not reading the scripts, we are reading too,” protested Jung-Hwa.

Nivritti immediately covered her lips with her palm to hide her smile from everyone. Just a moment ago, everyone was berating Dae and she didn’t want to smile after that. It would look like she was heartless, and she didn’t feel anything while her senior was being scolded by everyone.

But to her surprise, Bong started laughing and ASD joined in. She moved her hand over her forehead and slapped it hard smiling at Jung-Hwa who again winked at her.

“You are an idiot!” scolded Korain, laughing.

“Fine! They will change the name of the folder,” smiled Chung-Ho.

“I have a question,” the person from the Location department raised her hand.

“Yes, Angela, ask away,” said Bong.

“As she said,” Angela pointed at Nivritti, “that an amusement park would be better. So, could she accompany us, of course after you guys have read and selected a few of the scripts? You know after 2 or 3 months, I think that will be ample time to read and find suitable scripts.”

“Huh!” just a sound escaped from Nivritti’s mouth. Her mouth fell open and she kept staring at Angela.

“Yes, and we would need your help in getting the description of the actors we would need to hire, so you will have to work with the casting director,” said the production coordinator.

“Huh!” said Nivritti, again.

“Not now, but after you have an idea about the locations, and you are right an amusement park would have a variety of locations we can use. So, could you accompany us as you are the one who would read the scripts and would have an inkling about the locations and who to hire as actors,” Angela explained further.

“Me,” Nivritti pointed at herself. “Me??”

“Yes, you,” shouted Young-Chul. “She is asking you.”

Nivritti looked at him. He was acting weird. For a minute he would act as if he didn’t know her and the next minute, he would act like she was her best friend. It was difficult to figure him out.

“But… why me?”

“Because first, that was your idea, second, she has no experience,” Angela pointed at Jae-Hwa, “and he is your senior,” she said about Dae. “He can do your job in your absence, but I don’t think a junior can replace her senior,” said Angela. “What say?”

“If she is going, I am going too,” announced Jung-Hwa without waiting for an answer from Nivritti.

“What?” shouted everyone.

“Of course, I would like to see the place I would shoot my video. What if she selects a ride that I am not comfortable with,” Jung-Hwa explained with his nose held up in the air.

Nivritti shook her head with disbelief. Jung-Hwa was trying to be sophisticated like Kyung-Soo but was failing spectacularly.

“Okay, I know he is just trying to be over-smart. He just wants to enjoy rides, but he is not wrong. If we are going for the idea of an amusement park, we have to make sure that everyone involved in the shooting would be comfortable with the rides. Like for a fact, I know Johan hates high rides, he hates heights. So, I think a few of us should accompany the location department if that’s okay,” Korain took Jung-Hwa’s side.

“But… you guys, in open, that would be a disaster. You will get mobbed,” shouted Nivritti.

“We will take precautions. Can we join?” asked Him-Chan and all looked at Bong.

“Okay, let’s keep the conversation to this. After 3 months of reading the scripts, if the Rencontre team and Location team, as one, thinks that an amusement park is the best option, four of you, no, three of you, can accompany them to find the best location. But if the plan changes after reading more scripts, we will drop the idea of a theme park, agreed?” Bong gave his suggestion.

“Agreed!” shouted ASD.

“Nivritti?” nudged Chung-Ho.

“But I don’t know anything about the parks in Korea,” she tried to wiggle out of the task.

“You don’t have to worry about that. We will take you to the best amusement parks. You just have to tell us which rides would suit the best for shooting,” replied Angela.

“Oh, this would be fun, say, yes!” Jae-Hwa whispered and kept slapping Nivritti’s thigh in excitement.

“Ow! Okay, fine. I will go with the location team if the need arises,” said Nivritti.

“Good, then everything is settled. The meeting is over. Seong-ssi, get to your seat and I will see you at 5.30 sharp,” announced Bong and stood up.

Everyone else stood up and bowed down to him. One by one everyone started walking out. Angela smiled at Nivritti and waved her hand in goodbye. Nivritti reciprocated her gesture. Him-Chan and Jung-Hwa ran to Nivritti and smiled at her.

“That was brilliant!” shouted Jung-Hwa.

“Oh, stop it! That was nothing,” smiled Nivritti.

“Who were you dreaming about last night, Jae?” teased Jung-Hwa.

“What?” Jae-Hwa screamed and froze after his question.

“What is wrong with you?” scolded Jeong-Eun. He didn’t like Jung-Hwa teasing Jae-Hwa.

“What! Her eyes are red, I was just teasing,” Jung-Hwa pouted.

“She was up all night getting ready for the meeting. Stop teasing,” rebuked Nivritti.

Kyung-Soo was dying to talk to her, but his stupid brothers left him behind and surrounded her before he could even approach her. All through the meeting, Jung-Hwa kept winking at her and he wanted to punch him in the same eye.

Dae kept taking every abuse, every scolding silently. But the location team asking her to help out was the last straw. Even his plan to humiliate her by deleting everything didn’t work. He had never felt so much anger in his life. He wanted to beat Nivritti to a pulp. He wished for a knife to appear in his hand and then he would stab her over and over again till he was free of his anger.

He shut the flap of his laptop and kept his head low. His eyes fell on her feet. Her toes were protruding out of the sandal, and he could see the band-aid on her little toe. He clenched his jaw, grabbed his laptop, moved a step towards the door but at the last second, turned towards Nivritti and without giving her time to move away, he stepped on her almost healed toe and put all his weight on it, crushing her toe, hard.

A loud cry escaped Nivritti’s mouth and she pushed Dae away. She stopped breathing. A sudden burst of pain ran up her leg. Her ears started ringing and everything started turning white. She was on the verge of fainting when Him-Chan grabbed her and supported her head.

Jae-Hwa pulled a chair and Him-Chan pushed her into the chair. For minutes, Nivritti’s breath kept shuddering and tears kept falling from her eyes. Jae-Hwa knelt down to look at her leg and saw that the band-aid had turned red.

Kyung-Soo was next to her in a flash. He grabbed Dae’s collar and shouted, “can’t you see and walk? You knew about her leg, still, you did this? How could you be so careless?”

“Kyungsoona!” Korain grabbed his hand and made him let Dae go.

“Sorry! Sorry! I just wanted to ask her to send me the file. I didn’t mean to hurt her. I didn’t… I didn’t… I am sorry,” yelled Dae.

“Yes, King, Seong-ssi cannot do that. It was just a mistake. Seong-ssi! Please leave. I will call the in-house physician,” said Chung-Ho.

“I think I will take her to the hospital. This is her second injury. I want to make sure everything is alright,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Okay, just tie the bandage and then take her to the hospital. Thank God! Today is Friday. She will at least get two days’ rest,” said Chung-Ho and ran to call the doctor.