Chapter 24

24 The Copyroom

The lift arrived and all entered. Him-Chan and Jung-Hwa stopped at the 2nd floor while Kyung-Soo kept climbing till he reached the 11th floor. He was excited to meet Nivritti. He looked in the mirror of the elevator, straightened his shirt and ran his fingers on his hair. He wanted to look his best.

He was nervous to see her again. His heart was pounding in his chest. After taking a moment to calm his heart down, he opened the door and entered the script department with a smile on his face. Many people looked at him and smiled. He nodded to everyone, greeted Chung-Ho, and then went up to Nivritti.

She was done with the Rencontre work so Chung-Ho gave her to proofread some scripts. She was too deep in the reading when Kyung-Soo came and stood next to her. The tall shadow attracted her attention.

She turned around and stood up in shock. Even after praying to God multiple times, Kyung-Soo was standing before her. She wanted to avoid him at all costs but there he was, standing in front of her. Her mind went back to last night when he was inside her house, inside her mind. She gulped with shame.

“Hi!” exclaimed Kyung-Soo.

His voice made her jump with surprise as she was still in her bedroom. His voice brought her back. She tried creating more space between her and Kyung-Soo, but she bumped into the chair and stumble. Before Kyung-Soo could touch her, she regained her balance and stood straight.

“Careful,” cried Kyung-Soo.

“What are you doing here?” snapped Nivritti.

He was unable to understand her anger. He was meeting for the first time since morning, he did nothing then why was she angry. He stared at her closely, her anger was mixed with a little guilt. He was sure that it had nothing to do with him. She was projecting someone else’s anger at him.

.....

“Um... Korain sent me here,” he informed, softly. He carefully navigated the waters as he didn’t want her to bite his head off. “He urgently needs a copy of your final proposal for Rencontre. He has a meeting with the IT team,” he explained, sweetly.

His voice, his demeanour, and his composure made her realise her mistake. It was her brain that created all the scenarios so why Kyung-Soo was being blamed? She closed her eyes and exhaled loudly, “you are a little late. I just sent the copies to the concerned people. I’ll have to print a new one. That will take time if that’s ok.”

Kyung-Soo looked at his wristwatch and said, “We have 15 minutes.”

“Okay.” She sat back in her seat and opened the file. She gave the command for print and stood up from her seat. “Wait here, I will get the copy for you.”

“It will be fast if I leave directly from the copy room,” he rejected her notion.

“Right!” she knew he was right, but she was not ready to be with him in confined spaces. Alas! She had no choice. She started moving towards the copy room and he followed her. When they reached the copy room, the printer was in the process of printing.

Nivritti went close to the printer and stood next to it. she felt Kyung-Soo staring at her. She looked at everything except Kyung-Soo. She was actively avoiding his gaze. On the other hand, Kyung-Soo could not understand what he did to make her uncomfortable. Was she conscious of her look? He was ready to tell her that she was looking beautiful in her pink shirt and black pencil skirt. The tight-fitted skirt was accentuating her curves.

The silent gaze was getting awkward for Nivritti. She initiated the conversation, “It will take a few minutes. I really hope it’s okay.”

Kyung-Soo smiled, “It’s fine.”

Again, the silence enveloped the copy room. The only sound was the screeching sound of the paper coming out of the printer. “So are you going to check SK’s work too?” asked Nivritti to break the silence once again.

Kyung-Soo smiled at her use of the nickname she gave everyone. “No, he is an expert in these things; he is literally a marketing genius.”

“Oh really!! Wow!!” Nivritti beamed with happiness. For the first time, they were talking about someone else and not focusing on each other.

“Yeah, few of his ideas have even blown the marketing team’s mind,” educated Kyung-Soo.

They were happily talking to each other when suddenly the printer stopped with a loud beep.

“Oh no, not now,” cried Nivritti.

“What happened?” asked Kyung-Soo, concerned.

“This idiot machine always does this. Again, with the paper jam nonsense,” she gritted her teeth. “I am sorry this will delay you for another minute.” While apologising, she switched off the printer, opened the printer’s side door, got the jammed paper out and again shut the door with her hips unconsciously and switched on the machine.

Kyung-Soo’s heart jumped out of his chest after seeing her hip movement. Her tight skirt made that move even more sensuous. His jaw fell to the floor, he puffed his face, blew the air out and shouted, “What the hell?”

“What happened?” Nivritti was frightened by his sudden outburst.

“What the hell?” he ran his fingers in his hair and again shouted.

“I told you it’s just a paper jam. It is okay,” she tried reasoning with him.

“Are you out of your mind?” he gritted his teeth.

“Excuse me!” Nivritti was shocked.

Kyung-Soo moved toward her, but she stepped back.

“What are you doing?” asked Nivritti.

“Are you really out of your mind?” Kyung-Soo shouted at her. She kept looking at him, surprised and shocked, not able to comprehend what he was talking about. Kyung-Soo was about to move forward towards her when suddenly two men barged into the copy room. Kyung-Soo turned towards them and stared directly into their soul. The men stopped in the doorway and saw the angry look on Kyung-Soo’s face. They could not move further. They just kept looking at angry Kyung-Soo.

Kyung-Soo shouted again, “get out and close the door.” The moment the men heard him, they ran back and closed the door behind them. Kyung-Soo without wasting any time instantly looked at Nivritti and screamed, “and you, I asked you a question.”

The two men were feeling sorry for Nivritti.

The first man said, “Poor Nivritti, she can’t catch a break.”

“Yeah, every member of ASD keeps scolding her,” nodded the second man.

“Should we tell Choi-ssi?” the first man was in a dilemma.

“I am not going to tell him. I am scared of him,” said the second man.

“Me too.”

“Let’s just concentrate on our work.” They both nodded and went back to their seats.

Meanwhile, inside the copy room, Nivritti was still trying to figure out the cause of the sudden change in Kyung-Soo’s behaviour.

“I don’t understand what you are trying to say.”

Kyung-Soo exhaled like a bull and moved toward her. As he kept moving closer to her, she kept taking steps back but unfortunately, there were copy machines and printers everywhere so after a few steps she bumped into a printer and Kyung-Soo stood tall and caged her with his body.

Nivritti gulped due to the closeness, “What are you doing? Please back off.”

Kyung-Soo scrunched his nose, gritted his teeth, and chided, “Why do you keep doing things that make me lose all control over myself?”

“I don’t understand what you are saying?” She was breathing heavily unable to look into his eyes.

Kyung-Soo breathed deeply and with patience said, “replay your actions in your mind. Tell me everything that you did after we entered this room?”

“Huh?” she looked at him with shock.

“Just replay your actions.”

She looked at him and replied, “Well, we came and had few words about SK... and then paper jammed in the machine, and I unjammed it. It’s printing now.”

Kyung-Soo snapped at her, “You child! Think about your every action, every gesture you did.”

She took a deep breath, reversed her mind to a few minutes ago and said, “um... I opened the printer door, took out the jammed paper,” and her jaw fell to the floor. With difficulty, she completed her sentence, “and closed the door... with... my... hips.”

She facepalmed hard and shook her head in disbelief. The anger of Kyung-Soo vanished. He smiled at her cute reaction.

“Shit! Don’t tell me that was distracting for you and that forced you to come close to me,” chided Nivritti.

Kyung-Soo smirked at her, snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. He lowered himself and placed his mouth near her ear. He seductively whispered, “You have no idea about the things I want to do to you after watching that.” He looked at her face.

After hearing his tease, a loud gasp escaped from her mouth. She gulped hard and licked her lips. Kyung-Soo saw that and moved away from her in frustration.

“Oh, God!! Just stop my heart once and for all, why do you keep giving me mini heart attacks with your unconscious moves?” he reprimanded her and said through gritted teeth.

Nivritti closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. “I licked my lips again, didn’t I?”

Kyung-Soo kept blowing air out of his mouth. He kept clenching and unclenching his palms to calm himself down.