Chapter 31

31 The Bathroom

Jung-Hwa closed the door and looked at Jeong-Eun. He had a mischievous smile on his face. His face was dripping with a roguish glow.

Both Jeong-Eun and Thae came running at him.

“What the hell are you doing, June?” Jeong-Eun gritted his teeth.

“What do you mean?” asked Jung-Hwa innocently but had an impish smirk on his face.

“You very well know NK Hyung is inside taking a shower and you send a girl inside,” scolded Jeong-Eun.

“NK Hyung?!” teased Jung-Hwa. He was amused to see that the name was catching on.

“Don’t change the topic. Tell me what in the hell is going on in your mind?” inquired Jeong-Eun.

“You don’t know the things that I know,” simpered Jung-Hwa.

“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Jeong-Eun. Jung-Hwa was making him scratch his head.

.....

“Oh, you are a kid, you won’t understand,” mocked Jung-Hwa.

“Hey! I’m literally older than you,” Jeong-Eun hit him on his head, playfully.

Thae was listening to them bickering at each other, but his head was still hung low with shame.

“Uff... you guys just don’t observe things, NK Hyung likes Ritti,” educated Jung-Hwa.

“What?” shouted both Jeong-Eun and Thae, together.

“Really!?” Jung-Hwa was disappointed. “You guys have not observed the change in his behaviour. When has he ever cared about what scripts we get? When has he worked so closely with the script department? When has he walked away from the dinner table? He could have sent any driver to get the team, but he sent me,” he clarified everything to them.

“Whoa!!” exclaimed both of them.

Abruptly Jeong-Eun said, “but you kept staring at her when NK Hyung went to read the scripts.”

“I was enjoying the view of Hyung literally being captivated by her,” Jung-Hwa could not hold his smile anymore. He grinned from ear to ear.

“Oh shit!! You locked them together in the bathroom,” suddenly Thae blurted out.

“His slow ass figured it out so fast, congratulations. Guys, I’m trying to create a romantic moment for them,” said Jung-Hwa.

“Pray to God that doesn’t turn into a disaster,” warned Jeong-Eun.

“I forgot about the music,” shouted Jung-Hwa and slapped his forehead, hard.

“What music?” Thae was confused.

“Loud music, so if they knock, we can’t hear them,” Jung-Hwa rubbed his palms together, mischievously and kept flashing a devilish smile. He ran to the music station and played a song. He turned the volume all the way up.

Jae-Hwa’s eyes followed Nivritti to the bathroom. She was worried about her. The cola was dripping from the bench to the floor. She took a few paper napkins and wiped Nivritti’s seat.

“Poor girl!” exclaimed Dae.

“Will she be alright?” inquired Jae-Hwa.

“The drink was cold. I hope she would not catch a cold,” replied Dae.

“Why always he has to hurt her?” Jae-Hwa glared at Thae and gritted her teeth.

“It was a mistake, Jae-Hwa,” consoled Dae.

“I know but why always she gets hurt,” Jae-Hwa sat down, defeated. She was feeling sorry for Nivritti.

“She will be fine,” comforted Dae and patted her hand.

“Send her home, Seong-ssi. She needs to change her cloth. She can clean her dress, but it will still be wet,” pleaded Jae-Hwa.

“You are right. Let her come out, I will ask her to leave,” replied Dae.

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“You are the best, Seong-ssi,” Jae-Hwa beamed with happiness.

“I know, now eat something,” requested Dae.

“Let her come. I will eat with her.”

“You said to send her home and now you want to eat with her,” mocked Dae.

“Right, sorry,” Jae-Hwa bit her tongue.

Nivritti heard Jung-Hwa locking the door after him. She took a deep breath and unbuttoned her jacket. She again pinched her shirt and pulled it away from her skin. After placing the jacket on the sink, she removed her shirt and washed the cola away from both pieces of clothing.

She wrung the clothes and got rid of all the water from her clothes. She looked around and there it was, a hand dryer. She placed her clothes under it to dry them fast so that she could wear them. Her bra was still wet, but she was not ready to take it off. She just wanted opaque clothes. It was enough that Thae saw her bra, she was not ready to show it to the world.

Kyung-Soo was done with his shower and was drying himself with a cotton towel. He always carried two towels with him. One for his body and another for his hair. He was still patting himself dry when he heard the hand dryer.

He closed his eyes with anger as he gave explicit instructions to everyone to let him take a shower in peace and not disturb him. But someone entered the bathroom and was disturbing his peaceful time. He knew it only could be Jung-Hwa. He was the naughty one and always gained pleasure by teasing others.

He came outside his stall while wiping his hair with one towel and another towel was wrapped around his hips.

“I told you to lock the door...” he shouted but stopped mid-sentence. A shockwave ran all over his body. He lost his voice.

He could not believe that Nivritti was standing before him. She was dressed only in her bra and her low-waist grey trousers. His mouth fell open with shock. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The smooth curves of her waist made him bite his tongue. Her belly button was making him lose his mind.

As soon as Nivritti heard his voice, she immediately covered her breast with wet crumpled clothes that were in her hand. Kyung-Soo realised that he was staring at her. He instantly lowered his gaze and turned in the opposite direction. The hand dryer went silent.

Nivritti started breathing heavily as she could not breathe properly. She was cursing herself thinking about why she always landed in such situations. And why such situations always happened before Kyung-Soo. Without thinking further, she ran towards the door and shook it hard. She even tried knocking it hard.

After hearing all the noise, Kyung-Soo turned around and looked at her. He realised what she was trying to do. He knew her attempt was futile. With the blaring sound outside, no one would be able to hear her. He carefully approached her, covered her bare back with the towel that was around his neck and immediately moved back. He kept his gaze lowered.

“They can’t hear you over the loud music,” informed Kyung-Soo politely. “We need to wait a bit.” He paused for a minute to give her time to relax and then asked, “What happened? Why are you inside the bathroom in this condition?”

She turned to face him but didn’t look at him. Still standing close to the door, she replied, “Mr Kang spilled cola on my dress.”

Her sentence made Kyung-Soo look at her. His eyes burned red with anger. “He did what?” shouted Kyung-Soo angrily.

His angry voice made her raise her head and look him in his eyes. She realised that she made a mistake. The framing of her sentence was wrong. The way she said it made it clear that Thae purposefully spilled the cola, but it was a mistake and she had to correct her sentence.

“It was a mistake, he was offering us lunch, but this happened,” she cried trying to make him understand. “Please don’t be angry at him. He said sorry.”

That calmed him down. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “You got cola spilled on your dress which means your dress is wet,” inquired Kyung-Soo.

“Yes,” she replied. Again, she lowered her eyes with embarrassment.

“Then why the hell are you clutching your wet clothes close to your chest? Do you want to get sick? Put them down and wrap towel nicely,” he ordered.

“What?” Nivritti again looked at him with surprise.

“They are wet, you could fall ill. So, do as I say. Wrap the towel,” he emphasised. She just nodded.

After giving her order he again turned around to give her privacy. Nivritti hesitated for a minute but knew that Kyung-Soo was right. She must not wear wet clothes, that could make her fall ill. She took a deep breath and let kept her clothes on the sink. She grabbed the towel and started wrapping it around her body.

But Kyung-Soo intervened, “take off your bra too.”

“Excuse me!!” shouted Nivritti.

Kyung-Soo knew she would resist so he again turned towards her and looked into her eyes firmly. With a firmer tone, he inquired, “Are you telling me that piece of your clothing is dry?” but she said nothing and kept on looking down. She knew he was right. Her bra too was wet.

“Yeah, I thought so. Please remove all wet clothes and wrap that towel around you,” commanded Kyung-Soo.

“But your towel is wet too,” contrasted Nivritti.

“Yeah, but compared to your dress, it’s dry,” counterpointed Kyung-Soo.

She shook her head in defeat and said, “fine.”

“Good,” said Kyung-Soo and turned away from her. He kept looking in all directions as had no idea what do to. It was unbelievable for him that Nivritti landed in the bathroom in that condition when he too was inside.

Suddenly his eyes fell on the mirror. He turned around to give her privacy, but she was still visible in the mirror, he instantly closed his eyes with his hands and stood motionless.

Nivritti removed all wet clothes and wrapped the comparatively dry towel around her and looked at him. Her face instantly broke into a smile at his respectable behaviour.