Chapter 107

107 The Troublesome Hair

The faint light of the sun streamed inside the room. The almost dark and warm room was extremely comfortable. Nivritti was tucked in her blanket when her alarm rang. But she was in deep sleep. The alarm rang completely and stopped. She didn’t move even an inch.

The last few days were tiring for her. The constant tsunami of emotions wore her out. As always, she was healing slowly. The finger marks over her arm were fading. Her eyes were better. She was in deep sleep without any nightmares.

After ten minutes, the alarm rang again. She groaned slightly and reached for her phone. After snoozing the alarm, she dunked her head inside the blanket and went right back to sleep.

The alarm screamed loudly after another fifteen minutes. Without taking her head out of the blanket she pulled the phone inside. She was too cosy and comfortable and didn’t want to come out of the blanket.

The moment she saw the screen of the phone she screamed loudly. “Shit! Shit! Shit! No, no, no, I am late.” She threw the blanket away and jumped from the bed. She raced to the bathroom and just pushed the door shut. She had no time to waste on locking it.

Within seconds she brushed her teeth and jumped into the shower. She would not get time to dry her hair, so she avoided washing it. She came out of the bathroom in a towel and ran to the kitchen. She placed the kettle on the stove and quickly threw two pieces of bread in the microwave. She had no time to toast them.

Leaving the water to boil and the microwave to do its job, she again ran into her bedroom and opened her closet. She took out her undergarments and threw the towel on the side of the bed. She had no time to be modest. She placed one foot in one of the openings of the panties and hurriedly placed her other foot in another opening.

It is said that if you are in a hurry, the universe will conspire for you to be late. Nivritti tried getting her leg out of the opening of the panty when her foot was caught in the fabric, and she stumbled. She could not control herself and she fell on the floor face down with her leg still caught in the fabric.

“Great! I am already late. Oh! Why? Why?? Why can’t I have a day in peace?” she shouted frustratingly.

.....

Luckily, she was not hurt. She just got up and with patience wore her clothes. She chose a full-sleeve, slim-fitted, brownish-orange formal suit. She instantly braided her hair and ran to the kitchen. She shoved a tea bag into her cup and poured the water into it. While the tea seeped into the water, she took out the bread and released that her butter was in the fridge. She forgot to take it out.

Groaning loudly, she grabbed the stick of butter and rubbed it all over her heated bread. As the bread was hot, the butter slightly melted, and she instantly dumped the pieces of bread in her mouth. She took out her traveller mug and poured her tea into it.

She looked at the clock. “OH, GOD! Run, Ritti, run.” It would take her 15 minutes to reach the office if she walked. But if she could pick up the pace, she might reach within 10-12 minutes. She was about to exit her house when she remembered that she had to get the gifts too. “Oh, Shit! Ahhh... why did you have to sleep more, you idiot?”

First, she ran to her balcony to get Kyung-Soo’s shirt and Jae-Geun’s handkerchief. She had to return both items. She folded the shirt as small as she could and placed it in her purse. She dumped the handkerchief in her pocket. After grabbing all the bags of gifts and her tea mug, she ran out of her house.

She was walking and running towards the K&Q building, trying to juggle all the gift bags, laptop bags, her purse, and her mug in her hands. She was sweating profusely and breathing heavily. She ran inside the building. A big obstacle was in her path, the turnstile.

“Ohh,” she groaned, placed every bag on the floor and fished her ID out of the purse. The turnstile opened. She looked at the lifts. One was on the verge of closing. “Please hold the elevator,” she shouted.

A hand appeared through the lift door and stopped it from closing. Nivritti ran to the lift and entered. Breathing heavily, she lifted her head to say thank you to the person who helped her.

“Thank you,” she said and looked at the person. She shouted immediately, “JH!”

“Good morning!” he smiled. He carefully took in the view before him. With a black t-shirt under her orange suit, she looked like a lily flower. Tiny drops of sweat on her forehead were glistening in the bright light of the lift. A few strands of her hair were stuck to her cheeks. “11th floor?” he asked.

“Yes, please!” she smiled at him. His heart started racing with her smile.

“What is all this?” he asked and pointed at all the bags in her hand.

“Oh... um... I can’t tell you,” she had no idea what to say to him. The gifts were a surprise so she could not divulge the information to him. That would have ruined the surprise.

“Okay,” said Him-Chan. “But you can let me help you carry them.”

“Wait! You too are going to the 11th floor?” she asked.

“I am your designated driver for today. Please to meet you,” he bowed down to her teasingly.

“Ha-ha, okay Mr Driver!” she teased him. “But aren’t you here early?”

“No, you are late,” he said.

Nivritti lowered her eyes and looked at the floor. “You are right. I am late today,” she said sadly.

“You are allowed to be late once in a while,” assured Him-Chan.

“I don’t think...” Nivritti started speaking when instantly she froze with shock.

Him-Chan kept staring at her face and his eyes were following the strands of hair playing on her cheeks. He was jealous of them. He wanted to touch her cheeks. He wanted to feel her smooth skin. He kept talking with her, but his eyes kept following her hair. Involuntarily, his hands moved. He raised his arm, traced his fingers along her cheeks and tucked her hair behind her ears.

Nivritti was motionless. She had no idea what just happened. Her brain stopped processing every piece of information. She had no idea how to react. She stepped back and her back landed on the wall of the lift.

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to startle you. You have so many things in your hand, and you are not letting me help you with that. So, I thought my hands are free, let me help you with your hair problem,” apologised Him-Chan.

Nivritti never said a word, she just smiled faintly at him. Him-Chan realised that he did something wrong. He was feeling guilty. He cursed himself for not asking her permission beforehand. “Are you alright? I am sorry.”

Nivritti looked at him and saw that he was distraught. She felt bad for him. “It’s okay, JH. You just took me by surprise.”

“You don’t like being touched, do you?” asked Him-Chan.

“No, no, that is not the case. It’s just I was not expecting that.”

“Sorry again, I just saw hair all over your face and thought that you need help,” said Him-Chan innocently.

“Okay, apology accepted. So, now you can stop apologising. If you stop, I will let you carry a few of these bags, what say?” she teased.

“Done!” smiled Him-Chan. Nivritti handed him half the bags and the lift chimed. The doors opened and they both walked together to the script department.

“Now they will gossip about you and me,” commented Nivritti.

“Oh yeah, right. You cannot control every mouth,” said Him-Chan.

“Yeah, I know.” As she predicted, the moment she entered everyone stared at her and Him-Chan. Everyone had their jaws on the floor. They were looking at both of them with widened eyes. Slowly the surprise changed into a murmur and that murmur changed into full-on gossip.

Him-Chan looked at their expressions and started laughing.

“Shut up!” murmured Nivritti.

“I can’t help it, they are idiots,” whispered Him-Chan which made her smile.

“Why is no one working?” shouted Chung-Ho. He then looked at Nivritti, “you are late.” And then addressed Him-Chan, “and what are you doing here so early?”

“Sorry!” replied Nivritti.

“Didn’t NK Hyung call you?” asked Him-Chan.

“No,” replied Chung-Ho.

“Well, it is their time to work with him. He sent me to bring them to our dance practice location,” replied Him-Chan.

“Very well, Rencontre team, pack your bags and go with Johan,” ordered Chung-Ho. “Rest of you, shut up and concentrate on your work.”

“Mr. Choi! May I talk with you in the conference room?” requested Nivritti.

“Okay,” he replied politely and stood up from his seat.

“Please wait here,” said Nivritti to Him-Chan. She looked into the bags and picked the one with hanbok in it. She followed Chung-Ho and moved towards the conference room. On her way, she glanced at Jae-Hwa and winked at her which made Jae-Hwa grin from ear to ear.