Chapter 48

48 The Grid 5Jae-Hwa was sceptically looking at Nivritti, but all Nivritti did was smile sweetly at her. No matter how many times Jae-Hwa asked her, Nivritti would reply that she was tired so was behaving irrationally.

Finally, Nivritti exited the lift in the lobby and gave a final smile to Jae-Hwa. Jae-Hwa narrowed her eyes and shouted, “what the hell are you hiding?”

But Nivritti just blew a kiss in her direction and turned around smiling like a maniac. The lift door closed, and Jae-Hwa started going down the floors.

“Wait! Why am I excited? PJ is going to meet Jae, he was concerned about her, he likes her. Oh no! I never checked if he likes her or not. What if he was asking about her because of his good heart? Did I make a fool out of myself? Shhhiittt! I told him six o’clock. What if he is late? Then she will leave, no worries. Oh, then he will think I lied to him. And she won’t know that he came to meet with her. What if other people would see them? Oh, that will be a disaster. But what if he is early? Uh... well he is her bias, but what if she doesn’t like him like that. Oh, God! What have I done? Should I go and tell her to leave? No, then he will come and see that she is gone and that will be bad for me. Why do I have to meddle in things.” She facepalmed.

But had no idea what to do. All she could do was take a deep breath and let life take its course. She did exactly that. She took a deep breath and exited the building. In her mind, she kept praying that nothing would backfire.

Jae-Hwa was busy thinking about Nivritti’s strange behaviour. She never acted the way she was acting now. The nonsensical smile, the urgency to leave for home and her abrupt talking about her parking area was strange.

Nivritti’s house was within a walking distance, so she never accepted Jae-Hwa’s suggestion of dropping her home. Today too she was not coming along with her but was eager for her to reach her car. Why? Did she play a prank on her? No, they both experience the same trauma today why would she want to traumatize her further? Or maybe she was thinking that a prank would cheer her up. Jae-Hwa kept pondering about what was going in on Nivritti’s mind.

Finally, the lift reached her destination. Carefully, she stepped outside. As it was on time to leave work, only a few people were leaving the office. Extremely rarely people would leave right at six o’clock. They tend to leave half an hour later or so. The parking lot was packed with cars with only a few spaces vacant.

Slowly, while looking around, keeping an eye on everything and on high alert, she moved towards her car. She turned towards the corridor that read “GRID 40-60.” She crossed 50, 51 and reached 52. Everything was normal. Her old, red car was parked the same way she left in the morning.

.....

This confused her further. Everything is the way it is supposed to be then why was Nivritti acting like a moron. The moment she came from the CEO’s cabin, she was behaving strangely. What the hell happened there?

Jae-Hwa scratched her head and moved towards her car. With a single press of her key fob, she unlocked her car. After opening the back door, she chucked her bag on the seat and with a thump closed the door.

The moment her hands reached the car door handle, a soft voice greeted her, “Hi!”

“Hi!” she replied and turned around to see who greeted her. But her “Hi” changed into an ear-piercing shriek. Jeong-Eun was standing before her looking handsome in his over-sized white cardigan. Jeong-Eun urgently closed his ears with his palms and closed one of his eyes.

But Jae-Hwa never stopped screaming. Her mouth fell open and her larynx kept working on its own. Jeong-Eun looked around for people but luckily there was no one. But he was aware that soon everyone would start flooding the basement level to get to their cars.

He ran to her and placed his palms over her mouth to make her shut up.

“Shh, shh, shh... why are you screaming?” she whispered. His mesmerizing voice shut her up. Her eyes widened and she kept staring at him. “I am moving my hand, okay? Don’t scream, promise?” inquired Jeong-Eun.

Jae-Hwa just nodded her head. Slowly, Jeong-Eun moved his hands away but to his surprise the moment he removed his hands, Jae-Hwa started screaming. She wanted to talk but what came out of her mouth was a scream.

Jeong-Eun wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her in his arms and again placed his palm over her mouth. “What the hell? You just promised you won’t scream,” complained Jeong-Eun. She looked sheepishly at him and shrugged her shoulder. Jeong-Eun started smiling at her.

“Promise you won’t scream,” ordered Jeong-Eun. Jae-Hwa again nodded. Delicately, he removed his hand, and this time Jae-Hwa was quiet. She lowered her eyes with embarrassment.

“Am I so ugly that I made you scream?” taunted Jeong-Eun. Still unable to talk she just shook her head vigorously in no.

“Then why were you screaming?” asked Jeong-Eun.

“I... I...” she started speaking but made a mistake. She looked into his eyes, his twinkling eyes, his smiling face, his long, beautiful lashes and forgot everything she had to say.

“Yes,” encouraged Jeong-Eun.

Ding! She heard the faint sound of a lift opening in a distance. “Shit!” she cursed loudly. Jeong-Eun started laughing at her crass reaction. Jae-Hwa knew that she had to act fast and hide Jeong-Eun. She was already associated with Jung-Hwa all day and didn’t want any more drama in her life.

She grabbed his hand and started pulling him away.

“What?” he protested.

“Someone is coming, get down,” she whispered and took him between the bonnet of her car and the wall. She made him crouch down and kept stretching her neck to see if anyone was coming their way.

A man came near Grid 45 and within minutes left with his car.

“Phew!” Jae-Hwa relaxed. She looked fiercely at Jeong-Eun and gritted her teeth, “what are you doing down here? Do you have any idea what would have happened if someone saw you with me, in this parking lot, alone?”

“Woah! You were not able to talk to me a second ago and now you are scolding me?” teased Jeong-Eun.

“Listen to me! The whole day I have been teased and mocked and harassed and I am in no mood to experience the same, again,” she muttered, angrily.

Jeong-Eun grabbed her shoulder and made her look into his eyes. “Relax! I didn’t come to create a problem for you. I am here to just make sure that you are okay,” Jeong-Eun expressed his concern. “I saw the video, I am sorry that happened to you.”

“Oh sorry! I am just not in the right state. If Nivritti and June would not have been there... Wait! You came to check up on me?” she first felt guilty over scolding him and then she realised that he was worried for her.

He just smiled at her and nodded. “Why? Can’t I show concern for you?”

“Yes, you can. You can do anything you want. But Ritti is your friend and June is part of your team, I am... I am no one to you,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Maybe from my point of view, you are my friend. I am hurt to hear that I am not your friend,” pouted Jeong-Eun.

“I didn’t mean it that way, sorry,” apologised Jae-Hwa.

“I am teasing. Three people were involved in what happened today, I saw two of them and had to see you. I had to make sure, you were doing alright. I heard that you were crying, sorry that you had to shed tears. I am sorry that those men mistreated you, I am sorry that everyone is K&Q gossiped about you. I hated that they associated you with JJ. How can they do that? Don’t they have eyes? Just because his bodyguards came to drop you off, you must be dating him. What if my bodyguards come to drop you off, they will associate you with me, well that won’t be so wrong, he-he,” joked Jeong-Eun. He didn’t realise that he blurted out how he felt about Jae-Hwa.

But Jae-Hwa understood everything. “What?” she was shocked.

By her expressions and her reaction, Jeong-Eun realised that he said something wrong. He instantly lowered his eyes and started looking in all directions except at Jae-Hwa. He removed his hands from her shoulder too. Abruptly he stood up and looked around. “I should leave. You, take care,” he stammered and started creating distance between himself and Jae-Hwa. “Go home and take care of yourself. Say thanks to Ritti,” he kept screaming and walking away.

“I already said thanks to her, everyone did,” Jae-Hwa shouted back.

“Not for that,” replied Jeong-Eun and vanished immediately. She ran after him to get one last look, but he was gone.

“What? What did he say? He wants his name associated with me?” she started jumping up and won like a child. She threw her hands in the air and yelled, “Yay!” Her cheeks turned red due to shyness.

Giggling and smiling and dancing she opened the car door and sat inside. She turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared. She was still smiling thinking about what Jeong-Eun said, then his voice echoed in her ears, “Not for that.”

“Wait, what? He wanted me to thank her but for what. Oh shit! I am an idiot. This was the reason she was acting weird. How else would Jeong-Eun know my car parking spot? She definitely told him. She knew he would come to meet me. This was her setup. Ahh... annoying girl! Well, it did cheer me up. I will deal with her tomorrow,” pondered Jae-Hwa and backed her car and turned it on the path.

One last glance at the lift and she drove her car out of the building. Her heart was still beating fast thinking about the fact that Jeong-Eun was worried about her. Her frown turned upside down and now she was happy. Again, thanks to Nivritti.