Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The Confession

Kyung-Soo went away laughing after seeing her choke. He loved teasing her just because of the expressions she gave. Her every facial expression, her every unconscious gesture, her sweet anger, her soft aggression would tug his heartstrings.

He went to his team with the scripts. They rehearsed and shot the video. It was time to retire for the day. All the team members went to their mansion, took a bath and instead of cooking food, chose to order in.

It was a pleasant evening. All were finally sitting, relaxed in their pyjamas and bare face. Korain and Jung-Hwa were in the kitchen emptying the packed food into plates. Thae and Jeong-Eun were carrying those plates to the dining table out by the pool.

When all the food was served. All sat down together to enjoy the meal. The talk started with their funny video they shot early today. It then moved to their rigorous practice for Rencontre and then moved to the meeting of Rencontre.

Suddenly Jeong-Eun started laughing like a maniac.

“What happened? Is the food funny?” asked Young-Chul, sarcastically.

“Oh, I am so happy that Thae got a taste of his own medicine today,” laughed Jeong-Eun.

.....

Korain was about to put a bite in his mouth, but he stopped and sided with Jeong-Eun. “Yeah! That was awesome, the way she scolded him I fell in love with her.”

Kyung-Soo’s eyes widened for a second, but he controlled himself. He knew Korain was teasing Thae.

“You all know, I am not scared of anything or anyone but when she started shouting at Thae, I got scared and then she shut him up for good. His sixth sense failed him for the first time,” teased Young-Chul.

“And he had to test the theory, idiot!” taunted Jung-Hwa.

They all keep laughing, giggling and teasing Thae except Kyung-Soo. He knew that Thae was feeling guilty about what he did.

“Stop it,” shouted Thae. “I already feel guilty, and you guys are making it worse. I admit I was wrong. My person’s radar was wrong. I misjudged her. It broke my heart after seeing how she was shivering with fear and holding tight to Kyungsoona Hyung. Now we will see her every day for Rencontre preparation, how am I going to face her?” he hid his face in his hands.

“Kyung-Soo was sitting next to him, placed his hands around his shoulder and assured him, “just say sorry Thae, it will be fine. Didn’t you notice how welcoming she was when you gave her the idea? Yeah, sure she answered sarcastically first, but she praised you for your thought.”

“Yeah, and she smiled at me when I proposed my idea,” Jung-Hwa beamed with happiness.

“Yeah, she is kind and welcoming, she will forgive you if you genuinely say sorry. I believe that you should too,” reassured Kyung-Soo.

“Yeah, she is something else, she is just amazing,” blurted out Him-Chan. He was smiling like he was in a trance. All he could think was about Nivritti, her smile, her hip movement, her helping nature.

All shouted in unison, “what?”

Everyone shouting together broke his trance. He immediately changed his tune. “Yeah, the way she shut Thae up made my day,” but again his mind raced to Nivritti. “And then she smiled at me and that took my breath away.”

He started recounting everything that happened in the morning, but he was not looking at any of his team members. He was looking up at the moon. It was trying to find her face on the moon. It was as if he was reliving his sweet morning.

“Next, I jammed a paper in the copy machine, she helped me, and she shut the copier door with her hips... with her hips which was a killer move.” He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head with disbelief. She was something else. He realised that he was rambling on. He looked at everyone and said, “I am using that move in a Music Video.”

“Really?” teased Korain.

“Yeah, I forgot how to breathe after that. I have not been able to catch my breath till now,” exhaled Him-Chan.

“Looks like Hyung got a crush on her,” teased Jeong-Eun.

“Yeah, looks like love at first sight,” mocked Young-Chul.

Everyone started laughing except Kyung-Soo. He was fuming with jealousy.

“Stop saying such things guys, it’s not funny,” he shouted. He pushed his chair back and stood up. Without finishing his dinner, he left in anger.

“What happened to him?” pondered Korain.

“No idea,” said Young-Chul.

“Maybe he is tired,” suggested Jeong-Eun.

“Maybe,” exhaled Korain. “Let’s eat everyone up. It’s Young’s and Thae’s turn to clean the dishes. All others, go to sleep early. We all need our rest,” ordered Korain.

But Jung-Hwa was feeling bad as his favourite Hyung didn’t finish his meal. Everyone respected Kyung-Soo as a leader, but Jung-Hwa treated him like his big brother. He saw how Kyung-Soo took care of every team member every night and day without caring for himself, so Jung-Hwa always tried to take extra special care of him.

All finished their dinner and placed the plates in the sink. Young-Chul was cleaning the plates and Thae was drying them and placing them in their positions. While they were cleaning, Jung-Hwa prepared noodles for Kyung-Soo and took them to his room.

Kyung-Soo had his computer on and was staring blankly at his screen when Jung-Hwa pushed the door open. He had a tray in his hands with a bowl of soupy noodles and a can of soda on it. Chopsticks were neatly placed over the bowl.

“What are you doing?” asked Jung-Hwa.

His voice brought Kyung-Soo back from his thoughts. He lied, “working.”

“By staring at screensaver,” teased Jung-Hwa.

“What do you want, June?” he snapped at him.

Jung-Hwa understood that something was disturbing his Hyung. He calmly showed him the tray and said, “you didn’t finish your dinner and came here, so I brought you noodles.”

Kyung-Soo closed his eyes and exhaled. He knew he was wrong for snapping at Jung-Hwa. It was not his fault that Him-Chan kept talking about Nivritti. He smiled and said sweetly, “Thank you, Jungie.”

Jung-Hwa softly placed the tray on Kyung-Soo’s table. He dragged a chair near him and sat down. Kyung-Soo picked up the chopsticks and gave the first bite to Jung-Hwa.

“I am full. This is for you,” protested Jung-Hwa.

“Jungie! Eat,” pressured Kyung-Soo.

Defeated, Jung-Hwa took the bite. Kyung-Soo then started eating the noodles with a smile on his face.

He was drinking the soup from the bowl when Jung-Hwa blurted out, “You like her, don’t you?”

Immediately Kyung-Soo coughed and choked on his noodles. A few pieces of noodle landed on his monitor. Jung-Hwa stood up and patted his back. He offered water to Kyung-Soo. After he was done with coughing, he drank the water and was all better.

He noticed Jung-Hwa was still looking at him waiting for his answer.

“What are you talking about?” asked Kyung-Soo to try to avoid the topic.

“Come on Hyung, I know you better than everyone. And everyone saw how close you were holding her. What all saw and what I saw were very different things,” Jung-Hwa pointed out.

Kyung-Soo raised one eyebrow and asked, “and what was that?”

“Oh, you want to do this?” challenged Jung-Hwa.

“Yes, I do,” Kyung-Soo accepted the challenge.

“So here it is. Everyone saw a man consoling a scared woman. But I saw how sweetly you caressed her hair, how beautifully you kept holding on to her, and the concerned look you had on your face when she got scared and kept crying in your arms,” Jung-Hwa kept going on and on.

“Okay, that’s enough,” interjected Kyung-Soo.

But Jung-Hwa was not done. “And now you got angry on just a mere thought that Johan Hyung might have a crush on her.”

Kyung-Soo was shocked as to how Jung-Hwa was on point in his observation. “Aren’t you getting mature day by day, you are the youngest so be the youngest, don’t try to become our Hyung,” teased Kyung-Soo and smiled at him. Jung-Hwa smiled at him too.

“Tell me, do you like her?” inquired Jung-Hwa.

Kyung-Soo sighed, closed his eyes for a minute and then answered, “as Johan said, she has the power to make you forget how to breathe. From the moment I kissed her I have not been able to do anything. I am a lost cause Jungie.”

Kyung-Soo blurted out about the kiss without realizing what he said. Jung-Hwa had his head tilted and was sweetly smiling and listening to Kyung-Soo. But the moment he dropped the bomb, Jung-Hwa straightened up his head. His jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes kept blinking non-stop. He was shocked to his core.

Kyung-Soo looked at his expression and was not sure why Jung-Hwa reacted like that. “What?” he inquired.

Jung-Hwa dragged his foot on the floor making his chair travel with him. He went in Kyung-Soo’s face and shouted, “You already kissed her. When? Where? How?”

Now it was Kyung-Soo’s turn to be shocked. “What? There was no kiss. Who told you about that?”

Jung-Hwa facepalmed. “You did, just now; oh, she really made you lose your mind.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“Shit!!” shouted Kyung-Soo.

“Tell me, tell me. I’m so excited,” Jung-Hwa started clapping like a toy monkey.

“Fine, yesterday, after Thae scolded her, I went to console her, but I don’t know how I ended up kissing her,” answered Kyung-Soo.