To Kiss An Idol

75 The Prejudice

Jae-Geun was looking at Nivritti, admiring her beauty. Even with her dishevelled hair and droopy eyes, she was looking beautiful. The whole day he kept thinking about her. Even his friends teased him about daydreaming, but he could not concentrate on a thing.

The only thing he eagerly waited for the whole day was for his phone to ring. He waited for Jae-Hwa to call him so that he could again go and meet with Nivritti, but his sister never gave him a call. Finally, he had to barge in.

“So, how was the food?” asked Jae-Geun.

“It was awesome and thank you for waking up early and helping your mother in preparing food for me,” she expressed her gratitude.

Jae-Geun scratched the back of his head, sheepishly and smiled, “she told you?”

“Yes, she did. Thank you,” Nivritti bowed down to him.

“Please! What we did is nothing compared to what you did,” said Jae-Geun.

“It’s not a competition, you know.”

“Okay, noted,” smiled Jae-Geun. He realised that he had no more reasons to stay at her house and he must leave. “I think I should leave now. I will take her and get out of your way,” said Jae-Geun. He moved towards the couch and started removing the blanket from over his sister, but Nivritti held his hand and stopped him.

.....

Jae-Geun froze when her hands touched his wrist.

“Leave her be. She can stay here tonight. You can take her away tomorrow. It’s Sunday after all,” requested Nivritti.

She let go of his hand, but he could still feel her soft touch. He touched his wrist with his other hand to make sure that Nivritti really touched his hand. He exhaled loudly and calmed himself.

“But...” he protested.

“If you want to help just, help me carry her to the bed. I cannot let her sleep on the couch for the whole night,” she suggested.

He smiled at her thought. “She was right, you are a good friend,” praised Jae-Geun.

“Again, it’s nothing. It would be problematic to carry her on the stairs. What if you both get hurt? How will I carry both of you to the hospital? In short, I am thinking about myself,” teased Nivritti.

“Yeah, right!” he laughed. “Okay, I will take her to bed. Our house will be calm and serene for the first time since she was born,” commented Jae-Geun and they both started laughing.

“Is she that naughty?” asked Nivirtti.

“Oh, you have no idea,” scoffed Jae-Geun.

“But in the office, she is silent and more of an introvert,” noted Nivritti.

“Yeah, she shows her real face in front of us only,” Jae-Geun shook his head in frustration.

“She is the younger kid, of course, she is pampered,” smiled Nivritti.

“Right. That’s why when I saw her crying yesterday, and after she told me everything, I wanted to kill every one of those men,” he suddenly became sad and furious.

“Why do men resort to violence,” murmured Nivritti as she recalled what Kyung-Soo said after hearing that she was hurt.

“What?” asked Jae-Geun.

Nivirtti realised that her mind suddenly went to Kyung-Soo. She shook her head and said, “nothing, I said that I can understand. I too have a younger sister and she is annoying as hell.”

“Ha-ha,” laughed Jae-Geun.

Jae-Geun then removed the blanket and lifted his sister in his arms. Nivritti pointed towards her bedroom and followed Jae-Geun with the blanket. Softly, Jae-Geun placed Jae-Hwa on the bed and Nivritti tucked her in. After making sure that Jae-Hwa was comfortable, they came back to the living room.

Jae-Geun looked around for Jae-Hwa’s purse and fished for her phone in it. It was on silent. “This idiot! She kept her phone on silent,” he shook his head in disbelief. “What if she was with someone else, how would I have reached her? It’s a good thing she was in your house. Sometimes I feel like hitting her on her head,” Jae-Geun gritted his teeth.

“Woah! Calm down.” She hesitated for a minute and then said, “well, if you want, you can take my number. You can call me if she is not picking up the phone. She always spends all her time with me anyway.”

“Your number?!” Jae-Geun’s heart started beating fast. He gulped and shook his head in yes. With trembling hands, he took his phone from his pocket and gave her his phone. She avoided touching his hands and received the phone. Instantly, she inserted her number into it.

“And don’t worry about her. I will take good care of her,” assured Nivritti.

“You don’t have to say that. I know you will take good care of her,” smiled Jae-Geun.

“And thank your parents,” she smiled and spoke. The moment she mentioned his parents, she remembered that she had to return the bags. “Oh wait! The bags. I have emptied the bags, you can take them back,” Nivritti ran to the kitchen and brought all the containers and the bags. “I will not have to cook food for a century now,” teased Nivritti. Jae-Geun laughed at her.

“Yeah, uhmma went a little overboard. She didn’t know how to thank you,” said Jae-Geun, awkwardly.

“Mr San... I mean Ahjussi, already thanked me. And stop with all these thanks, thank you. I did nothing,” said Nivritti.

“Your arms tell a different story,” he pointed at her arm.

“I don’t know what to say. But I will say this if you think you guys are in my debt for saving Jae, then your debt is officially paid by this century’s worth of food,” she teased again.

“Ha-ha, okay I will inform my parents,” scoffed Jae-Geun.

“Thank you for letting her stay,” said Jae-Geun, seriously. “Thank you for being her friend. She told me what you said to her when she informed you about her nepotistic position.”

“I just told her the truth. One of the ideas that CH liked was hers. She has talent and no one can deny that. I know that’s why she received so much hate yesterday from her own team members. They think that it comes easy for her, and they are wrong. She is hardworking and I have seen it. She is learning the craft extremely well. She even found quite a few good scripts all on her own. She will soon rise in the department; I know that for sure,” she praised Jae-Hwa.

“Thank you for saying that. It means a lot to her that she is working under you. She told us about your idea, and she was excited, happy, impressed and a little in love with you,” mocked Jae-Geun.

“Oh, stop it!” shouted Nivritti.

“No, really and the way you talk to the members of ASD, she cannot shut up about that. You are not influenced by them, you are not afraid of them, you are not mesmerized by them, she is in awe of that. You know she is a fan of ASD, right?” asked Jae-Geun.

“Yeah, I know. And One is her bias,” notified Nivritti.

Jae-Geun rolled his eyes after hearing the name ‘One’. Nivritti noted that.

“You have anything against One?”

“Not One, I think I have this problem with the K-pop culture,” said Jae-Geun.

Nivritti was taken aback. “What? Why?”

“Young girls and boys concentrate more on them than their studies. They spend so much money on their merchandise and for what. You should see her room, full of their posters, and their albums and their things. Everything she owns has ASD on it. These fandoms act like crazy when they see them. Do you have any idea how many times injured peoples have come to the hospital because they got injured while waiting for the idols in a crowd? And then they spent thousands and thousands of Won for their fan meets, they gift them expensive things. Now, Jaehwa has started earning money, before that she used to spend all the Ahppa’s money. And because she is the favourite one, she always got her way,” chided Jae-Geun.

“Ohh, now I understood. You are jealous,” said Nivritti.

“What? No!” screamed Jae-Geun.

“I am teasing, relax!” said Nivritti. “You know that not only young girls and boys are in idol fandom, right? All the idol groups have diverse fans. They belong to different countries, different cultures, different races, different demographics. A big chunk of Korea’s GDP comes from idol culture. It’s not like the idols woke up one day and rose to fame, they worked hard. They had to practise dancing, singing, rapping, acting, and whatnot every single day. And then the stupid beauty standards. Do you have any idea what they have to go through every day? They are in front of the public 24×7. Even if they sneeze, it becomes news. They have to leave their homes at a tender age to train. They sacrifice their childhood. Yes, people spent their money on them, but everyone does that on the things they like. I ask you when you were studying to be a doctor, didn’t you want the best books, didn’t you follow the best doctors in your field, didn’t you read up on all the researchers in your field? Don’t you want a shiny new stethoscope or comfortable scrubs, or high-end machines?” lectured Nivritti.

“I...”

But she didn’t wait for his answer. She continued, “then how is their passion different to yours? Just like treating people, curing illness, and playing with fancy machines is your jam, listening to their music, and watching their videos, is their jam. By spending money on them they feel like being close to them. Their music has deep meaning, and catchy beats which make them happy. You are a doctor, I am sure you know the benefits of listening to music. They trigger your pleasure centres thus reducing anxiety, blood pressure, stress, it enhances mood, improve mental alertness, and boost memory. Tell me I am wrong.”

“You are right,” said Jae-Geun, guilt-ridden.

“So, what is wrong with rewarding those who provide happiness in our life? Think of it this way, in ancient times, kings and queens used to reward with money, jewellery and many more things to court jesters, musicians, dancers, and performers with. That is what is happening in today’s world too. But now those performers had become king and queen and common people reward them instead,” said Nivritti.

“Sorry! Maybe I was prejudiced. I never thought like that. Thank you for explaining,” Jae-Geun’s face had guilt written all over it.

“You are welcome.”