To Kiss An Idol

The view count started at 0 and by morning the number was hundred-thousands. Missmatch was sleeping with a smile on her face. By morning the whole world was buzzing with the news. As everyone thought that the scripts would be finalised by the Script department or the Production department, but everyone was going crazy after knowing that Kyung-Soo was going to finalise the script.

Fans were going crazy to know that their scripts were being read by their idol. The excitement and shock were running amok. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone was writing about it. Everyone was discussing about it.

PR of K&Q was sweating from every orifice, biting their nails over what to do, and how to contain this. All woke up early after their phone kept ringing in the middle of the night. The PR people were on the conference call all night, and all morning, thinking about what to do. Yet they could not think about anything.

Should they deny it? Should they put out an announcement saying it was true? Should they ask Kyung-Soo to give out a statement? All they knew was they had to wait for Bong to give the final idea.

Nivritti had a peaceful night all thanks to the medicine she had. She woke up only after the alarm rang twice. Yawning she woke up and got out of her bed. The first thing she did was check her sheets for any stains. Everything was okay so, she moved towards the bathroom, scratching her scalp.

She chose a dark-coloured dress for the day. Due to all the medicine, her toe as well as her stomach was doing much better. She cooked her breakfast and chose to drink green tea to avoid bloating. Dressed in a black dress and grey overcoat she ordered a cab and was ready to leave for the office.

She climbed downstairs when she received the notification that the cab had cancelled her ride.

“What?” she was shocked. It never happened to her before. She again ordered a cab and within seconds, it was cancelled too. “What is happening?” she thought. Defeated, she decided to walk as waiting for another car would make her late and it was not a guarantee that the taxi would not cancel again.

.....

Slowly she kept walking towards her office, taking quick breaks in between. Of course, she had no place to sit, so she would stand in a corner, resting her injured foot that was neatly wrapped in a compression bandage. The cold was numbing her toe making her free of every pain.

She was about to cross the road when she suddenly halted in her path and her eyes widened with shock. A huge crowd was cheering and shouting outside the K&Q building.

“We love you.”

“Thank you for taking so much interest in us.”

“You are the best leader one can hope for.”

“East or West, King is the best.”

And more slogans were being chanted by the crowd. There were posters in their hands, all were happily waiting for one glimpse of their favourite leader.

Nivritti took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. She had to navigate a sea of eager, chirpy girls and guys who were excited to show their love for their leader. She walked towards the building door, but it was hard to get in.

Everyone thought she was one of the fans trying to barge in. But she showed her badge and pleaded to everyone to let her pass as she worked in that building. Finally, the guard saw her and came running towards her. He grabbed her by the arm and helped her cross the sea of fans and brought her in.

“Thank you, thank you so much,” Nivritti thanked him.

“It’s my duty, Ms. Nivritti. Sorry for all that,” said the guard.

“No, no, it’s not your fault,” she cried and suddenly her eyes fell on the big clock in the lobby. “Oh, I am late. Will talk to you later. Thank you again.”

“Any time, miss,” smiled the guard.

Nivritti walked fast towards the lift. “Wait! I should have asked why the crowd is here.” She reached her department where almost half the people were already in the office huddled together, gossiping with each other.

Nivritti again slowed down and tilted her head after looking at them. “Am I the only one who does not know what is happening? Oh, what ASD have done now?”

A sudden tap on her shoulder made her turn behind her. Jae-Hwa was smiling at her. “Are you okay now?”

“And good morning to you too,” smiled Nivritti.

“Yes, yes, good morning, now answer,” said Jae-Hwa and they both walked towards their seats.

“Yes, I am fine. I told you last night, I was fine, I am fine, but I think I will get pain soon,” replied Nivritti.

“What? Why?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“Well, I couldn’t get a cab, all the cabs kept cancelling on me and now I know why. The whole road is blocked by the fans, so I had to walk all the way. What I don’t know is why they are here?” questioned Nivritti.

“What?” Jae-Hwa’s mouth fell open with shock. “Do you live under a rock?”

“What? What?” inquired Nivritti.

“Girl! You really need a google alert about ASD on your phone. Set it up!!!” exclaimed Jae-Hwa.

“What did they do now?” asked Nivritti.

“It’s not something they did. It’s something that was published about them,” replied Jae-Hwa.

“What?” gulped Nivritti. She was getting herself ready for a piece of tragic news. Did the news find out about Jung-Hwa’s violence? Did they find out about Young-Chul’s medical emergency? Wait! The fans were happy. They were praising King. It meant something good happened, some good news was out in the open, but what?

“Well, Missmatch published a blog last night…” said Jae-Hwa.

“Woah! Who?” interrupted Nivritti.

For a minute Jae-Hwa kept staring at Nivritti with shock and disgust. Her mouth was open, and her lips were tilted to one side. She squinted her eyes and kept staring at Nivritti. After a minute, it got uncomfortable for Nivritti.

“Okay, what is happening?” asked Nivritti. “What is happening with your face?”

“Why is no one working?” shouted Chung-Ho the moment he walked in. Everyone ran to their seats but not Jae-Hwa. She kept staring at Nivritti. Chung-Ho noticed that and came over to Nivritti. He stood behind her and kept looking at Jae-Hwa. He grabbed Nivritti’s shoulder from behind and moved her from left to right.

“What are you doing, CH?” asked Nivritti, annoyed.

“Shh, shh, shh… don’t think about that. Tell me why she is staring at you with such a scary expression?” asked Chung-Ho.

“Yeah, that I don’t know. I asked her but she just froze,” replied Nivritti.

“Jae! Jae!” Chung-Ho snapped his fingers before Jae-Hwa’s face.

“I am not frozen, I am shocked, shocked to my core,” replied Jae-Hwa still staring at Nivritti.

“Okay, this is getting spooky,” said Nivritti.

“She doesn’t know who Missmatch is,” shouted Jae-Hwa. Everyone from the department heard her and looked at Nivritti with judgy eyes. Nivritti noticed that. She looked at everyone and gulped.

“Is that a bad thing?” asked Nivritti.

A few of the people came running towards Nivritti and stared at her.

“Okay, you all are scaring me. Who is Missmatch? And why do I need to know her?” asked Nivritti.

Everyone threw their hands in the air collectively.

“Missmatch is a famous entertainment blogger. She is GOAT when it comes to news about Korean celebrities,” replied Do-Yun.

“So, what does a blogger have to do with the crowd downstairs?” asked Nivritti.

“Oh, you do not know?” asked Do-Yun.

“Oh, my god! Know what? Will someone tell me?” shouted Nivritti.

“She posted on her blog last night that King is the one who will finalise the scripts,” said Chung-Ho.

Nivritti looked at Chung-Ho with an open mouth. Words stopped coming out of her mouth. She glanced at Jae-Hwa and then looked at Chung-Ho, “but… how? How did she know this?”

“That King is reading the scripts and said that he will finalise the scripts?” asked Chung-Ho.

“Yes!!! But that was something he said behind those doors,” she pointed at the conference room. “Only a handful of people know that we are going daily to their practice room.”

“Yeah, we know. PR is handling all that,” replied Chung-Ho.

“I am really an idiot. Have I been living under a rock?” asked Nivritti and scratched her head.

“Are you really their fans? PJ and JJ were right. You don’t deserve to be their friend,” Jae-Hwa whispered in Nivritti’s ears.

“He-he,” Nivritti laughed sarcastically at her.

“Okay, okay, everyone go back to your work. Rencontre team get ready for your update session, it’s tomorrow,” said Chung-Ho and went back to his seat.