Chapter 23

23 The Morning Chaos

Nivritti was watching him walking towards her. No matter how hard she tried she could not move even an inch. Tears started streaming down her face. She wanted to shout, she wanted to scream but she lost her voice.

He was mere inches away from her. She wanted to again push him away, but her hands refused to move. His hands were getting closer to her face. He had a devilish smile on his face.

Inch by inch he kept moving forward, teasing her with his smile. She could not take the torture any longer and screamed loudly and threw her arms around.

The book on her nightstand fell with a loud thud and she woke up with a jolt, screaming her head off.

She jumped from her bed and realised she was nowhere near the wall. She was standing in the middle of the room.

She kept breathing heavily. She was covered in sweat. Her face was wet with tears. Her arm was asleep. All the sensation in her arm was gone. She immediately reached out and switched on the lights. She looked around but she was alone. There was no one else in the room.

She placed one hand on her waist and the other on her forehead, exhaling loudly. She breathed in and out for 5 minutes and calmed herself down. She picked up the book and reached for her phone. After looking at the time, she went to the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water.

She looked at herself in the mirror and reflected, “what the fuck was that? What the fuck was that?? God! I am losing my mind. I need to find a therapist. Why the hell did I dream about Kyung-Soo? Why I dreamed about my past, I get that but why Kyung-Soo? God!!”

After coming out of the bathroom, she emptied a whole water bottle and slept with the lights on. She tossed and turned and when she was finally falling asleep, the alarm on her phone chirped loudly making her groan with frustration. Since the day she arrived in Korea, she didn’t sleep soundly. Her sleep was always disturbed by one thing or the other.

.....

But she had no time to sleep in. She had to reach early today. With a loud grunt, she removed her blanket and got out of bed. She peed, pooped, brushed her teeth, and took a shower. After getting dressed, she stood inside her kitchen for a minute or two deciding on what to make for breakfast.

But she was in no mood to cook anything, she was too tired. Her eyes were still droopy. She took out a loaf of bread and a stick of butter. She didn’t toast the piece of bread and applied the frozen butter somehow to it. With a sickened face, she ate two pieces of bread and left for work. She decided to get a coffee from the café near the K&Q building.

The cold morning air hit her face and she inhaled deeply. The soft sun rays lifted her mood a little bit. She kept praying to the god that Kyung-Soo must not appear before her under any circumstances. She did not want to see him at any cost. Her mind was still reeling with the nightmare and did not want to relive it.

She had no idea why she dreamed about him, and that dream changed into her nightmare. She was running away from the past but that past kept chasing her.

She still had time, so she went to the café and quietly enjoyed her coffee. The hot coffee warmed her up and she was ready to face everything life was about to throw at her. She reached the office where people had started coming in.

Chung-Ho was seated in his seat. She went in and greeted everyone. Jae-Hwa gave her a sweet smile which brightened her day.

Chung-Ho came to her seat and scolded her, “I told you to rest.”

“I rested,” protested Nivritti.

“Your face doesn’t say that,” chided Chung-Ho.

“Oh. it’s not because of the work,” Nivritti exhaled deeply. “I am just having trouble sleeping. New place, new bed and all,” she lied.

“Really?” But Chung-Ho could detect that something was off.

“I am telling the truth. I retired early last night, just couldn’t sleep soundly,” emphasised Nivritti.

“Okay, I believe you,” he softly placed his hand over her shoulder to comfort her. “Now, fire up the laptop, these are the email IDs. Send everyone a soft copy and get the hard copies ready. Give the hard copies to Ryan he will distribute them to everyone.” He pointed towards Ryan, who was an intern in the script department. After hearing his name from Chung-Ho’s mouth, he looked in their direction and nodded. Both Chung-Ho and Nivritti returned the nod.

“Okay,” complied Nivritti.

She took out her laptop and placed it on her table. She pressed the power button and the laptop chimed. She inserted the ID and password and opened the proposal file. After opening her email, she typed in all the email IDs that Chung-Ho gave her and send the proposal.

She then hit the print command and printed around 10 copies for every department. She arranged all the copies, put them in separate folders and handed everything to Ryan to distribute.

The morning in the ASD mansion was a chaotic one. Korain slept early and woke up early to work on his idea. He preferred pen and paper over technology, so he jolted down every point in pencil first and then edited his work and completed it in pen. He placed the papers in a file and started getting ready for his meeting.

Kyung-Soo and Him-Chan were making breakfast, but everything was wrong. Kyung-Soo burned the eggs, forgot to add the kimchi whereas Him-Chan could not find Gim and decided to make noodles but the water boiled over and the kitchen was overflowing with noodle water.

They had no idea what to do next so they just kept cursing the utensils, gas stoves and food too. Young-Chul came out of his room after hearing all the cursing from the kitchen. She rolled his eyes hard and facepalmed.

“Oh my god! You guys are idiots,” he shouted. “Why do we ask you to prepare meals? Kyungsoona Hyung, you are the worst,” Young-Chul was frustrated with both of them shouting early in the morning.

“What is happening?” Thae said while rubbing his eyes. He too jumped out of his bed after hearing all the loud cursing.

Young-Chul said nothing, just gestured towards the chaos in the kitchen with his palms. Thae understood everything. She shook his head with disappointment.

“We are sorry guys,” said Kyung-Soo and Him-Chan in unison.

“Clean everything up,” commanded Young-Chul. “Thae and I will cook the meal.”

“Oh no! Kyungsoona Hyung, what did you do?” Jung-Hwa shouted and started laughing. Jeong-Eun joined in.

“Where is Korain Hyung, he cooks the best,” said Jeong-Eun.

“He is working on his idea about Rencontre. Leave him alone,” scolded Young-Chul.

“Sorry, Hyung,” apologised Jeong-Eun.

Young-Chul tied an apron and ordered everyone around, “Okay One, place the plates on the tables, Thae, chop the veggies, Kyungsoona Hyung and Johan, clean up your mess and June, prepare coffee for everyone. I will take care of the kimchi eggs.”

“Sir, yes sir,” everyone saluted him and started laughing loudly.

Korain came downstairs after taking a bath and saw the chaos, “don’t tell me Kyungsoona Hyung and Johan were preparing breakfast.”

“Right on!” said Young-Chul.

“My god!” Korain rolled his eyes. He then asked Young-Chul, “Do you need any help?”

“Please look after the noodles till it is cooked, we all will take a quick bath and come,” requested Young-Chul.

“Go, be fast otherwise we will be late. I have a meeting with IT and marketing and Johan and June have their interview,” notified Korain.

“Okay,” all shouted and ran to their rooms.

As promised, everyone took a quick bath and came back running. Korain had finished cooking the meal by then and had plated the food. They poured themselves a cup of coffee and sat down to eat. Korain kept looking at each of them, savouring their food.

“Are you kidding me? Eat fast, you morons,” screamed Korain.

“Sorry.” They all gobbled their food and were ready to leave for the K&Q building within minutes. They took two cars and reached the K&Q building.

After reaching the lobby they pressed the button for the elevator.

Suddenly, Korain shouted, “Oh, I forgot my file in the car and I have a meeting with IT and marketing in 15 minutes. Okay, I will get the file from the car but can anyone of you go and get a copy of the Rencontre proposal from Ritti? Bring it to the 4th floor.”

Immediately Him-Chan beamed up, “I’ll go”.

Kyung-Soo’s heart stopped beating. He was uncomfortable just thinking about Him-Chan meeting with Nivritti again. He instantly looked at Jung-Hwa and asked for help with his eyes.

Jung-Hwa came to his help. “Johan Hyung, we need to hurry for our interview. We still have to go for our hair and makeup. We will be late if we don’t hurry,” he tried taking him away.

“But Korain Hyung needs help,” protested Him-Chan.

“Um... Kyungsoona Hyung, you have nothing on your schedule for another hour, please go and help Korain Hyung,” signalled Jung-Hwa.

“Yes, this will be great. Kyungsoona Hyung, you get the copy of the Rencontre proposal and Johan and June will leave for their interview. Meet me on the 4th floor,” said Korain and started walking toward the stairs to go to the parking lot.

“Okay, give me 10 minutes,” said Kyung-Soo and looked at Jung-Hwa.

Jung-Hwa winked at Kyung-Soo and they both smiled at each other.