To Kiss An Idol

Kyung-Soo let out a yelp and jumped away from the door. He ran towards Nivritti, grabbed her shoulder from behind, and hid behind her back. The whole scene was incomprehensible. A man of large stature was trying to hide behind a small girl.

“Um... what are you doing?” asked Nivritti.

“Shhhh...” rebuked Kyung-Soo. “Don’t let her find out that I am here.”

“Okay, and who is she?” Suddenly Nivritti felt a wave of jealousy.

“Some employee who has been roaming around me. When I was trying on my clothes, she was peeping in. So I had to lie about finding more dresses and I ran away from her,” explained Kyung-Soo.

“What?” shouted Nivritti, angrily.

“Shhh...” shushed Kyung-Soo.

“What, shhh...” reprimanded Nivritti. “You have to complain about her,” she ordered.

.....

“And tell everyone that I was here. It’s a weekend. Do you have any idea about the frenzy that would cause?” educated Kyung-Soo.

Nivritti realised that he was right. But she was not ready to let the woman go punishment free. She gritted her teeth and spoke, “I will show her. No one should go unpunished after invading someone’s privacy.” She removed Kyung-Soo’s arms from her shoulder and started walking towards the door.

But Kyung-Soo pulled her back and pleaded, “hey! Where are you going?”

“Oh, come with me,” she chided.

He was not ready to let her go. “No, no, what if she sees me?” he asked.

“Hide behind the door,” she answered casually.

“Mirror!” said Kyung-Soo in a sing-songy tone.

“Oh right! She can see your reflection in the mirror. Sorry, was not thinking about it. Oh my God! You were hiding and running from her, that’s why you kept knocking at the door like a maniac.

“Yes and then you pulled me in,” scolded Kyung-Soo.

“I... I panicked. I heard Jae’s voice and I panicked,” Nivritti scratched her head with guilt. Both of them for the time being forgot about her revealing dress. They had more pressing matters to attend to. They had to get rid of the woman standing at the door.

“You know that I would have just collected my clothes and walked right past Jae and she would not recognise me,” said Kyung-Soo with his arms over his waist.

She too placed her arms over her waist and replied, “you don’t know that.”

“And even if she would have recognised me, she would not have announced it to the world,” screamed Kyung-Soo in whispers and went in Nivritti’s face.

Nivirtti too took a step forward and faced Kyung-Soo. Their noses were almost touching. “What if she would have found out about us?”

“About us?” Kyung-Soo raised his eyebrows.

“I mean that you were at my house,” rebuked Nivritti.

“How? How can someone figure that out?” asked Kyung-Soo frustrated. “I was almost out of her grips and now she is standing outside and I have nowhere to go,” he pointed at the door. They both kept whispering to each other but still kept screaming angrily at each other.

“Right! I said I am sorry. I was not thinking. I panicked,” snapped Nivritti. “And you should hold Jae responsible, if she would not have come, I would not have pulled you inside.”

“Really? It’s Jae’s fault?” asked Kyung-Soo with a tilted head.

“Yes?” replied Nivritti, confused.

“Leave that,” Kyung-Soo raised his palm. “Now, how will we get rid of her?” he chided.

“Hello, Sir!” said the woman from outside.

“What?” shouted Nivirtti.

Kyung-Soo immediately moved his hands towards her face and closed her mouth. Nivritti swatted his hands away from her mouth.

“What are you doing?” scolded Nivritti.

“What are you doing?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“Replying to her,” said Nivritti, casually.

“What if she finds out I am here?” questioned Kyung-Soo almost on the verge of crying.

“How? Genius?! The door is closed. She can’t see in. And if she gets to know that a woman is inside she will go, she will leave,” she explained. “Huh... holding me responsible for his troubles,” she murmured.

He suddenly stood upright realising that she was right. “Oh, you are so right. Sorry, carry on.” He pushed her towards the door.

She looked around the room for a while and then ordered, “hide behind the bench and cover yourself with all these clothes.”

“What?” asked Kyung-Soo, confused.

“Just do what I say,” snapped Nivritti.

“Fine, chill!” Kyung-Soo crouched behind the bench and Nivritti picked every piece of clothing lying on the floor and dumped it over Kyung-Soo to hide him. After making sure that not even a hair of Kyung-Soo was visible under the clothes, she moved towards the door.

Authoritatively, she opened the door and stared at the beautiful, slim woman who was of average height with squinted eyes. She hated that she was harassing Kyung-Soo. The gasoline to the fire was that she was a beautiful woman. The wave of jealousy that she felt intensified. She was wearing a tight shirt, a brown pencil skirt, and a mustard scarf around her collar. Her eyes landed on her chest where her nameplate was pinned. It read “Park Da-Hee”.

“What the hell is your problem? Why are you disturbing me, Da-Hee?” Nivritti looked at her name badge closely and shouted at her.

The woman was taken aback. “You... you can read Korean?”

But Nivritti was too angry to reply. “Who are you? Why are you disturbing me?” rebuked Nivritti.

“Sorry, my name is Park Da-Hee, as you can read and I am an attendant in this mall. I help customers to find suitable clothes. I just wanted to ask if are you alone, ma’am?” asked Da-Hee.

“What are you insinuating?” shouted Nivritti. “Of course, I am alone. I am not having a party in the changing room. What the hell do you want?”

“Sorry, ma’am,” Da-Hee bowed down to her. Then lowered her eyes due to shyness. He bit her thumbnail and cutely said, “I am looking for a cute, dreamy, handsome man. I was helping him but he vanished.” And in between sentences, she kept trying to stare inside the changing room.

Hearing all the adjectives for Kyung-Soo from her mouth Nivritti saw red. Smoke started coming out of her ears.

“And you think I am hiding him inside this room?” Nivritti shouted at the top of her lungs. The whole changing room thundered and shook with her voice.