175 The Flights of Stairs
Nivritti kept staring at Kyung-Soo. He threatened to carry her for the whole day. It was difficult to get her shoes on and after his warning, she was fumbling with her shoes even more.
“No!” shouted Nivritti and gulped in fear. She immediately pushed her feet into the shoes and was ready to go out. Kyung-Soo lowered himself slightly to lift her up when she shouted, “wait! I have to lock the door.”
Kyung-Soo exhaled in frustration, “fine!” He was dying to lift her, but she kept delaying. He wanted to feel her close. “Wait! Your door automatically locks when you shut it close.” He placed his hands over his waist and looked at her. “Trying to make a fool out of me?”
Nivritti placed her tongue between her teeth and lowered her head to avoid detection.
“You!!” shouted Kyung-Soo and pulled her close to his chest. Nivritti gasped as her hands landed on his chest. His beautiful face was so close to hers. She kept blinking, taking in his beauty. Her eyes scanned all over his face, his forehead, his nicely shaped eyebrows, his monolids, his beautiful eyes, his smooth nose, his high cheekbones and finally landed on his lips.
Her lips automatically parted when she saw his lips. She blinked once slowly, and her mind automatically started thinking about how it would feel to kiss him. She knew that it felt warm while kissing him and it was enough to calm her racing heart. On the thought of kissing him, her lips started getting dry, her throat started closing up. Her tongue automatically came out and licked her lips and she gulped, hard.
Kyung-Soo’s heart was ready to jump out of his chest the moment her hands landed on his chest. Her braided hair was tucked between her coat and his hand. He was lost in the white ocean that had two brown islands staring at him. Every time she would blink, he would lose the island and when she would open her eyelids, the beautiful islands would stare at him.
His heart stopped when he saw her licking her lips again. He immediately let her go and turned around. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Why do you always do that? See this!” he grabbed her palm and placed it over his heart. His heart was beating way too fast for a normal human being.
“You remember what I said last time, what will happen if you lick your lips?” whispered Kyung-Soo. Nivritti widened her eyes as she recalled what Kyung-Soo said inside the hospital room. He warned her that if he would again see her licking her lips, he would kiss her.
.....
She pushed him away and instantly moved out of her house. “Jae!” she shouted. “Wait for us.”
Kyung-Soo exhaled loudly to calm himself down. “One day! One day for sure she will give me a heart attack.” He placed his hands over his waist and exhaled again. He shook his head to get rid of the feelings that he was feeling for Nivritti and came out of her house.
The door locked after Kyung-Soo. Nivritti was avoiding looking at him.
“Come fast!” shouted Jae-Hwa.
“You… really… don’t have… to pick me up,” muttered Nivritti. Kyung-Soo sighed loudly and the next second lifted her in his arms. Nivritti lowered her eyes and looked away from him.
“Get my mask on my face,” he commanded.
“What?” asked Nivritti.
“Do you want people to see that I am carrying you in my arms?” he teased.
“No!” she answered without wasting a single moment. She took the mask from his hand and covered his face. While she was placing the hooks on his ears he kept staring at her red face. She was turning into a tomato because her face was so close to his. He kept smirking at her and finally, his smirk hid when she covered his face with the mask.
“Woah! You are heavy!” teased Kyung-Soo.
“Then you should put me down, now,” replied Nivritti.
“You really are crazy. Other girls would have pouted after being called heavy, but you want me to put you down,” observed Kyung-Soo.
“Oh, this is so embarrassing,” cried Nivritti and hid her face with her palms.
“Hey! World famous idol is carrying you and is going to drive you around. Do you have any idea how many people would kill for something like this?” said Kyung-Soo with pride.
“Then kill me!” sulked Nivritti.
“Being in my arms is so bad?” asked Kyung-Soo, sadly.
Nivritti immediately removed her hands from her face and looked at Kyung-Soo who kept climbing down the stairs carefully. “What? Are you out of your mind? What the hell are you even saying?” she scolded him.
“You said this is embarrassing,” said Kyung-Soo.
“Of course! It is embarrassing. How would you feel if you get yourself injured and your team members have to carry you around?” she asked.
“When you say it like that, I guess, it will be slightly embarrassing,” replied Kyung-Soo.
“You think I said that because it’s you?” asked Nivritti. Kyung-Soo nodded. “NK! You know why it’s not okay for me?”
“Tell me!”
“Because you have to walk all these flights of stairs with someone heavy like me in your arms when it is not even your work. I feel bad that I am causing trouble for you,” said Nivritti.
Kyung-Soo scoffed, “you think you are trouble for me? Do you have no idea that I am dying to have this trouble for my whole life?”
“NK!” Nivritti was flustered. “What did he just say about his whole life? Did he say that he wants me for life? Did I hear right?” she kept thinking. Her heart started racing like crazy.
She gulped and shouted, “put me down! Put me down, NK, NOW!”
Kyung-Soo bounced her in his arms to adjust her and without answering her or acknowledging her demand, he just kept climbing down the stairs.
“Why are you shouting? You are almost down. Why do you want to get down from his arms?” scolded Jae-Hwa. “Stubborn, just like Oppa!” she commented.
Finally, they reached the car and Jae-Hwa and Young-Chul went to the back of the car to place the bags in the boot.
“Open the door,” commanded Kyung-Soo. Nivritti didn’t look at him, just reached for the door lock and opened the car door. He placed her inside the car in the back seat.
He leaned in further to grab the seatbelt when Nivritti snapped, “I can do that on my own.”
“I just said my thoughts out loud, as if you had no idea. Don’t you know how I feel about you?” commented Kyung-Soo and got out of the car leaving Nivritti stunned by his reply.
She froze with the seat belt in her hands. Her breath shuddered. Her heart started racing with fear. The thing she feared was happening. The thing she wanted to avoid at every cost was happening again. Again, a boy younger than her was falling for her. No, no, that could never happen.
She tightened her grip on the seat belt and dug her nails into her palms. She didn’t realise but tears started streaming down her face. All those years of pain started flooding before her eyes.
The door next to her opened and Jae-Hwa jumped in the car. After her, Kyung-Soo and Young-Chul sat in the car.
“Ritti!” shouted Jae-Hwa. “What happened? Why are you crying?”
Both the boys instantly turned around to look at her.
“Huh!” exclaimed Nivritti as soon as she heard Jae-Hwa’s voice. She realised that her face was wet. She let go of the seatbelt and immediately wiped her tears.
Kyung-Soo’s heart dropped when he realised that he made her cry. “Shit! You idiot!” he cursed himself. He clenched his fist and with a clenched jaw looked at her stopping his own tears from flowing.
“What did you do, Hyung? Did you hit her leg?” shouted Young-Chul.
“No, no, I am fine. Just a little pain,” sniffled Nivritti.
“I told you to take the medicine oppa gave you. Where is that?” shouted Jae-Hwa.
“It’s okay. I will be fine in a minute,” replied Nivritti and clicked the seat belt in its place.
“Ritti!” said Kyung-Soo.
“Please, just drive!” snapped Nivritti but didn’t look at him. She kept her head lowered. He wanted to look at her face, but it was not possible now.
Kyung-Soo turned back and grabbed the steering wheel. He tightened his grip till his knuckles went white with pain. “You idiot! Why did you have to tell her that? You know she is not yet ready. She is reeling with the after-effect of what that asshole did to her. And now you forced your feelings on her. You made her cry. You know everything about her. She trusted you and told you everything and this is how you repay that? I cannot even say sorry to her as Jae and Youngie are with me. I am a stupid, stupid, idiot!!”
The whole way he kept glancing in the back mirror to see if Nivritti was again crying. Jae-Hwa had her hand in hers and was trying to comfort her. Every time he would glance at her, he would clench his jaw in anger. He was angry at himself.