Chapter 90

90 The Grilling

That night Kyung-Soo slept with Jung-Hwa. Why he kept talking about a ghost, he had no idea. He was glad that Nivritti told him everything. He was more glad that she messaged him and asked about his whereabouts. She wanted to know if he reached home safely. Before sleeping he opened the messaging app and reread all the messages, he exchanged with her. With a smile on his face, he fell asleep.

As he slept late, it was afternoon when he woke up. He opened his eyes and looked to his side. Jung-Hwa was gone. He groaned when he realised that Jung-Hwa knew about his late-night excursion. He knew Jung-Hwa would bombard him with questions.

What was he going to tell him? How was he going to escape the curious child?

He let out a loud groan and got up from the bed. He ran his fingers through his hair and pulled them a little with frustration. Walking like a drunkard, he walked to the bathroom. He sat on the toilet and then brushed his teeth.

His stomach grumbled with hunger. He wanted to run to the kitchen but knew the moment he would go outside, Jung-Hwa would jump at him. He was sure that by now he must have blabbed about him to everyone, and everyone was ready with their questions.

He cracked his knuckles and got ready to go to battle. For a second he hesitated to open the door but slowly turned the knob. He peeped outside, the whole house was silent. The chaotic house was silent. Before he could open the door, his phone chimed loudly.

He jumped with a yelp. He clutched his heart after realising that it was just his phone. His phone kept chiming loudly. He went and grabbed it. It was slowly a reminder. After switching off the alarm, he opened up the note. It said that they had to go on a live saying thank you to all the ASDians who were participating in Rencontre and give them an update about the same. Maybe all were busy preparing for that and would not pay any heed to him, he thought.

Placing the phone in his pocket, he stealthily opened his door and walked on his tiptoe. No one was in the corridor, no one was in the living room. Looking in every direction, he moved towards the kitchen. Before he could enter the kitchen, two heads popped from behind the wall.

“What?” shouted Kyung-Soo and jumped away in shock. Slowly, everyone started coming out of the kitchen, one by one. Kyung-Soo moved back a little with an awkward smile on his face.

.....

“Sit down!” ordered Korain.

“Hyung!” gulped Kyung-Soo and stepped backwards. But his back bumped into someone. He turned around to see that Young-Chul was standing behind him, cracking his knuckles. Kyung-Soo gulped again and looked at Korain who said nothing, just signalled at a chair.

Kyung-Soo smiled uneasily and went and sat in the chair. Korain then signalled Him-Chan who placed a big bowl of jajangmyeon and a plate of Korean fried chicken before him.

“Eat,” ordered Korain. Kyung-Soo gulped and looked at everyone. All were standing before him and staring down at him.

“Why are you guys staring at me like that?” asked Kyung-Soo, uncomfortably.

“Where did you go last night?” asked Young-Chul who was still standing behind him, hovering over him, making Kyung-Soo shiver with fear.

“Just for a walk,” lied Kyung-Soo.

“By your car?” asked Thae.

“I meant I went for a drive,” smiled Kyung-Soo but one look from Korain and his smile vanished.

“Where did you go?” asked Jeong-Eun.

“Nowhere just driving around on the roads of Seoul,” replied Kyung-Soo.

“Don’t lie, NK,” shouted Korain.

He was not able to even take a single bite of his food and others started grilling him. He realised that something was wrong. Something had happened, that he had no idea about. Did they know that he went to meet with Nivritti? No, that cannot be. It was impossible to find that out.

“Okay, what has happened?” inquired Kyung-Soo.

“He doesn’t know,” murmured Jung-Hwa.

“JJ!? What?” Kyung-Soo inquired again.

“Keep eating. It’s already afternoon and we have to prepare for the live show,” commanded Korain.

“But Hyung, what is the problem? Why are you guys grilling me?” asked Kyung-Soo and placed a mouthful of noodles in his mouth.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” asked Jeong-Eun.

Kyung-Soo coughed hard and the noodles came out of his nose. He ran to the sink and washed his face. He came back to the table with a kitchen napkin and wiped the table. After throwing the paper towel in the dustbin he shouted, “excuse me!”

“I told them, it could not be you,” said Jung-Hwa.

“What could not be me?” Kyung-Soo was losing his patience.

“A famous actress, Soon Myeong was seen late last night on Eurwangni beach with a masked man. He was wearing a mask, but people said that he was of your height. They speculated that it was you. We knew it could not be you and then JJ told us that you returned late at night. You didn’t tell anyone and went outside,” explained Korain.

“Eurwangni beach! Soon Myeong! Really! You guys think I have a girlfriend and you guys won’t know about it. And where was it that I met with Myeong first? How did our relationship start? I have literally never met her. Who starts such stupid rumours?” shouted Kyung-Soo.

“Calm down! We just wanted to ask where you were,” said Young-Chul.

“I cannot believe that you guys would doubt me,” screamed Kyung-Soo.

“No, we never doubted you. We just wanted to confirm,” said Jung-Hwa.

“Did anyone see the face of the man? How can they say that it was me? That is absolutely absurd. How are we tackling the situation?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“Well, the company has issued a statement that you have never interacted with Myeong and ASD has nothing to with her. No member of ASD was present anywhere near that beach last night,” informed Him-Chan.

“Good!” said Kyung-Soo. Now he was in no mood to eat. His mood was spoilt.

“Yeah, this is what our PR team sent us. You can read from it during our live,” informed Korain.

“Where is the setup?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“Near our pool area. The cameras and lighting have arrived. Sound will be arriving shortly,” replied Him-Chan.

“Eat!” shouted Korain.

“Hyung!” complained Kyung-Soo.

“I know such news spoils the appetite, but you need to eat,” said Korain.

“Who told you guys that I went out?” asked Kyung-Soo and stared at Jung-Hwa.

“Yeah, you know the answer to that,” said Jeong-Eun.

“And did you guys ask him why he was sleeping in my room?” pointed out Kyung-Soo.

“Oh, right! We never asked him,” Young-Chul noted.

“Why were you sleeping in his room, JJ?” asked Thae.

“Um...” hesitated Jung-Hwa.

“Don’t tell me you saw the ghost again,” Young-Chul rolled his eyes.

“What?” a few of them shouted at once.

“What ghost?” asked Korain.

“You know about the ghost?” inquired Kyung-Soo.

“He has slept a number of days with me because of the ghost,” Young-Chul informed.

“Where did this ghost come from?” shouted Korain angrily. “Since when you started believing in such nonsense?”

“He was doing his live show one day and some ASDians played a prank on him. They kept saying that they see a woman in white standing behind him and his stupid ass believed them. He has this notion that a woman lives in his room,” facepalmed Young-Chul.

“JJ!” all shouted at once and shook their head in disbelief.

“You are a well-educated person. How can you believe in such nonsense?” scolded Kyung-Soo.

“I don’t know,” Jung-Hwa lowered his head with shame.

“JJ! It’s all psychological. There are no such things as ghosts,” Korain placed his hands over his shoulder softly and assured him.

“JJ, why didn’t you come and talk to us? We could have helped you or if you need to talk to someone about your fear, we could have arranged that,” said Kyung-Soo.

“I thought you guys would make fun of me,” said Jung-Hwa, ashamed.

“We would never do that. You are so scared that you refuse to sleep in your room. We need to talk about that. And you are our muscle man, you could punch the daylights out of a ghost if you want,” said Thae.

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“Just like you punched the man in the restaurant,” praised Jeong-Eun. That made Jung-Hwa smile. With the mention of the punch and restaurant, both Jung-Hwa and Kyung-Soo thought about Nivritti.

“I wonder how she is,” said Jung-Hwa.

“Who?” asked Korain.

“Ritti! My swelling has subsided. I keep applying ice packs and hot packs. Is she applying something on her bruises?” Jung-Hwa expressed his concern. Kyung-Soo recalled everything that happened last night. Last night she was concerned about her bruises, she was busy telling her story and crying her eyes out. He thought of calling her but discarded that idea. He knew that she needed to sleep after the events of last night.

Suddenly a thought appeared in Jung-Hwa’s mind. “Did Hyung go to see her last night? He went to her house one time before. Did he go again? Is she the reason he acted weird when we asked him about last night?” he squinted his eyes and looked at Kyung-Soo. Kyung-Soo noticed his expression and immediately looked away. He was afraid that Jung-Hwa might figure out about his activities of last night.