Chapter 51

51 The Annoyance

Nivritti’s heart was ready to jump out of her chest. It was thumping loudly, so loudly that she could hear her own heartbeat. She could feel Kyung-Soo’s warmth through her shirt. He was leaning over her to get the cup. His warm fingers were touching her cold ones. That sent a shiver down her spine. Even her towel dropped to the floor leaving her wet hair uncovered.

She wanted to turn around and embrace the warmth completely. The water was boiling vigorously but all she could think about was her hands in his, his body close to hers. She wanted him to hold her close but suddenly he grabbed the cup, placed it on the counter and moved back.

His actions annoyed her to her core. She closed her eyes and cursed herself. When she was adamant about not caring for him or his actions then why was she praying for him to embrace her? If she wanted him away from her then why did she like the closeness?

After clenching her jaw, she placed tea bags in the cups and poured the boiling water into the cups.

“Here,” she handed him the cup, violently. A few drops of hot water splashed near his feet. She bent down and picked up the towel.

He was taken aback. She was fine a few seconds ago, what happened suddenly? Why was she so angry? “Um... thanks?” said Kyung-Soo.

Without looking at him she went and sat on her couch. She threw her towel on the headrest of the single couch before her. After dipping her tea bags a few times in the water to infuse all the flavours, she brought the cup near her lips and sipped the hot, orange-flavoured tea. She licked her lips to get rid of the extra water in her mouth.

Kyung-Soo was still standing in the kitchen and kept staring at Nivritti. She was angry and sad. He had no idea why. She was alright after coming out of the bathroom then what happened within minutes? He kept staring at her to figure it out. Then suddenly she sipped the tea and when she removed the cup her upper lips were wet with the tea. He lost his mind when she casually licked her lips.

“Shit, this girl! She will kill me one day,” he shook his head and started smiling as the picture of him touching her lips flashed before his eyes. He calmly walked over to her and sat next to her.

.....

The heat emanating from his body hit Nivritti like a storm. She immediately jumped away from him to the far end of the couch and asked, “What are you doing?”

Confused, Kyung-Soo replied, “um... sitting.”

“No, I mean why are you here?” she asked. “That too at this time. Didn’t your teammates ask you where you were going?”

“No, we value each other’s privacy. We just live with each other, we don’t tell everything to everyone. Something needs to be private,” replied Kyung-Soo.

“NK! Why are you here? What do you want?” Nivritti stared into his eyes, firmly.

“Why can’t I come to visit you?”

“Um... no. No, you can’t,” replied Nivritti, decisively.

“Ouch! That hurts,” Kyung-Soo teased.

“NK!”

“Fine, I am here for the story,” answered Kyung-Soo.

“Story! What story? JJ and I told you everything that happened in the cafe. You even saw the video,” said Nivritti, confused.

Kyung-Soo rolled his eyes. “Not that story, your life story.” He picked up his cup and took a sip of the tea.

“Excuse me!” Nivritti immediately placed her cup on the table as she didn’t want to spill the tea all over her.

“What happened to you in India? Why do you always run away? Why do you get so angry and sad at even the thought of dating someone younger than you? What did your ex-boyfriend do?” asked Kyung-Soo politely.

“Are you out of your mind? That’s literally none of your business. Get out,” instantly Nivritti jumped from the couch and pointed towards the door.

Kyung-Soo coolly and calmly stood up and moved towards her. His face was blank, not even blinking. He just kept looking at Nivritti. His expressionless face made her gulp with fear. Was he angry because she shouted at him? But it was his fault. He kept talking about privacy a moment ago and now he was barging into her private matters.

Kyung-Soo took a step forward staring at Nivritti. Involuntarily, her feet stepped backwards. He would take a step forward and she would take a step back. They kept mirroring each other’s moves. It looked as if they were engaged in a slow waltz, a very boring slow waltz.

Slowly Nivritti reached the end of the room. She stopped when a wall crept behind her. She turned around to see what made her stop and the moment she looked back, Kyung-Soo was standing before her, towering before her. She gulped, hard.

He lowered himself down and brought his mouth near her ears, “no one shouts at me, Ritti!” he softly placed his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to his chest. “If you want to shout, I can make you shout, easily,” he teased her. A gasp escaped Nivritti’s mouth. Kyung-Soo smiled at her reaction and sweetly removed his hands from her waist.

His erotic sentence fired her brain. Her eyes kept blinking vigorously. She had no answer to his comment. The quick-witted girl was outwitted. She pushed him away from her and moved away too. She turned away from him and kept breathing heavily.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Who says such things casually? Who talks like that?” she shouted back.

“I do,” smirked Kyung-Soo.

“Please leave,” she said firmly and looked at him.

Kyung-Soo raised his eyebrows and warned, “fine, I will get out of your apartment, but I am going nowhere until you tell me the story. So, it is your choice, I can wait outside your apartment, without a mask and greet everyone, where people can recognise me, or I wait inside your apartment till you are ready to share your story with me. I will keep sitting at your door.”

She squinted her eyes and scrunched her nose with anger. “Do whatever you like, I don’t care. Keeping sitting there for eternity, see as if I care.”

“Fine!” shouted Kyung-Soo.

“Fine!” Nivritti shouted back and went back to the couch and picked up her tea. Kyung-Soo followed her, grabbed his cup of tea, and went back to the door. He folded his legs and sat on the floor, sipping the tea.

“Stubborn!” she murmured but Kyung-Soo heard it.

“Keep your commentary to yourself,” taunted Kyung-Soo.

“Keep your ears to yourself,” shouted Nivritti.

They both went back to sipping tea. After their tea was finished, Nivritti stood up and went near him. Without saying a single word, she picked his cup up and placed them in the kitchen sink.

Completely ignoring him, she took out her laptop and started working on her scripts. Kyung-Soo for a few minutes tried to sit silently and work on his phone but then he thought of a way to annoy her. He started calling all his friends and family and started talking to them at full volume.

She would try to read a script, but Kyung-Soo would talk at the top of his lungs or laugh out loud. He thought that her not knowing the language would annoy her but her knowing the language was annoying her more. She knew what he was talking about and who he was talking about. He was indirectly telling everyone that he came for a meeting but the person he came to meet was rude and stubborn and was not ready to give time to him.

She kept fuming with anger, exhaling loudly as he called her names, but he thought his loud voice was annoying her. Violently she closed her laptop and looked at him. He fell quiet instantly after she gave him a death stare. She looked at the time, it was 10 p.m. Her stomach too started grumbling with hunger.

She looked at him and then bit her lower lips. With a deep sigh, she stood up, plated food on two plates and came out of the kitchen.

“Come, eat!” she ordered. But Kyung-Soo looked at her and turned to his side pouting at her. She closed her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. “Ahhh...” she shouted in frustration. Angrily, she picked up both plates and placed them before him. She too sat down in front of him and commanded, “eat, it’s late.”

He saw the beautiful colour of the gravy plated with plain white rice and cut-up cucumber placed in a corner of the plate. The mouth-watering smell of the curry hit his nose and his stomach grumbled loudly. Nivritti placed the back of her palm over her mouth to hide her smile.

“Stop laughing,” he grimaced after realising that she heard the grumble.

“Who is laughing? I am not laughing,” she lied but could not stop smiling.

“I will eat on one condition,” Kyung-Soo folded his arms over his chest.

“What?” Nivritti rolled her eyes.

“You will tell me everything I ask.”

She looked at him and said, “eat.”

“Fine!” he picked up the plate and lifted the spoon. The first bite he took was of curry. The flavours, the spices, the taste blew his mind. He closed his eyes with pleasure and munched the soft potato.

Nivritti glanced at him and smiled at his reaction. She loved that he loved her food.

“You made this?” he asked.

“Who else?”

“Wow! This is amazing,” he said and stuffed his mouth full of rice and curry.

“Oh, this is nothing. My mom is the better cook. All I know, I learned from her,” she said proudly.

“You miss India, don’t you?”

“Who wouldn’t miss their country, their family?” she said with a sad smile on her face.

“You ran away from there, didn’t you?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“Shut up and eat,” replied Nivritti, annoyed.