To Kiss An Idol

89 The Payment

Nivritti calmed Jae-Geun down and then shifted her attention to Man-Shik.

“Mr Kim Man-Shik, may I bother you to return these clothes to their right address?” she requested. Jae-Geun looked at her dubiously.

“You don’t want to buy this?” he questioned.

“No! This is the pile I want to buy,” she showed him her other hand.

“Very well, ma’am,” he humbly bowed down and took all the rejected clothes from her. He ran away from her and stopped before another man who was standing in one of the aisles. He handed him all the clothes and started walking towards Nivritti.

Meanwhile, Jae-Geun looked at her cynically and asked, “Okay, why did you want him to walk away?”

“Because I didn’t want to tell you before him that we have an offer of a 75 percent discount on every piece of clothing,” replied Nivritti.

“What?” he asked, shocked.

“Yes,” she went near the basket and dropped all the clothes in it. She saw her hand purse lying in the basket and she knew what she was going to do with the blue shirt. “I did not want him to feel bad, you see.” And then she repeated every word of what happened to her. Of course, after hiding the fact that Kyung-Soo was inside her changing room. “An employee came at my door. She was looking for a man, a handsome man. Then she started peeping in my room looking for the said man.”

.....

“What?” exclaimed Jae-Geun.

“Yep! There was a commotion after that. Everyone came out of their rooms after hearing our voices.”

“Yeah, I saw him running inside but paid no attention to it. I thought there was some problem with someone’s dress or something like that,” said Jae-Geun.

“So, Man-Shik came, I told him everything, he scolded the girl and then offered us a 75 percent discount. Jae too was with me there and I told her to get more dresses. That’s why she took another bundle,” recalled Nivritti.

“Wow! You are so lucky. First a bonus and then a discount,” said Jae-Geun.

Nivritti shook her head and smiled at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Your sister said the same thing,” she giggled. Suddenly her smile faded after she noticed that he was empty-handed. “Hey! You said that you would find something for CH. You just kept sitting there, didn’t you?” she scolded him.

“Oh right! Sorry, I forgot. I will get something for him right away,” said Jae-Geun.

“I will go look for your sister,” offered Nivritti.

They both nodded and went their separate ways. Nivritti lifted her basket and moved to the changing area. She looked in every direction and when she was alone, she took out Kyung-Soo’s shirt and stuffed it in her purse. She made sure to take out her wallet and her phone. After closing her purse, she dialled Jae-Hwa’s number.

“Where are you?” she asked after Jae-Hwa picked up her call.

“Trying... a... dress... but... zip... won’t work,” she said with difficulty.

“Which room you are in? Let me help,” said Nivritti.

“Uh... no, this dress is not for me. I made a mistake in choosing the size. I am getting fat, I need to diet,” said Jae-Hwa, defeated.

“Shut up! Just come out or let me in,” scolded Nivritti.

“Okay!”

Nivritti lifted her head and looked at every door waiting for one to open. A door nearby opened a man appeared out of it. She moved out of his path and again looked around for a door to open. After waiting for several minutes, Jae-Hwa came out of a door with two baskets in her hands. One basket was overflowing with dresses, and another had four dresses in it.

“Selection done?” asked Nivritti.

“Yeah, I want these,” she gestured towards the four dresses.

“Good, let’s pay for it. Did you get something for your brother?” asked Nivritti.

“Yes, I did,” she said smiling. She raised the overflowing basket and immediately her smile faded. “I chose a t-shirt for him. It is somewhere in this pile.”

“Jae!” sulked Nivritti. Jae-Hwa placed the basket on the floor and started looking for the t-shirt. After a minute or two, she pulled out a t-shirt that had a diamond pattern in blue, pink and white.

“Here!” said Jae-Hwa and handed the shirt over to Nivritti who loved the colour combination. “Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful. So beautiful that I might keep it for myself,” replied Nivritti while admiring the pastel colours of the shirt.

“Then keep it. You don’t have to get him anything, you know,” teased Jae-Hwa.

“Jae!” laughed Nivritti. “Okay, let’s go. Your brother is getting furious with every passing minute.”

Nivritti placed the t-shirt in her basket. They both lifted their baskets and moved out of the changing area and started looking for Jae-Geun.

“Where is he?” asked Jae-Hwa.

“I asked him to find something for CH,” replied Nivritti.

“Oh, there he is,” shouted Jae-Hwa and started running towards him. “Oppa! Oppa!”

He crossed a few aisles and came towards the girls. He was holding an olive green Hanbok shirt.

“I think your CH will like this,” said Jae-Geun and extended his arm towards Nivritti.

“What say, Jae? You have worked longer with him. You must know him better than me,” Nivritti asked for an opinion.

“This is nice. I think he will like it,” said Jae-Hwa.

“Okay, then it’s official. The choice of both brother and sister is on point,” she smiled at both of them. “I think we are done. Should we go and pay?”

“Let’s,” chuckled Jae-Hwa. She handed the overflowing basket to a worker nearby.

They walked towards the checkout area where they saw Man-Shik. As soon as he saw them approaching, he whispered something to the checkout employee.

“Please ma’am, come to this aisle,” he requested. They all went to the area he asked them to.

“Mr Kim Man-Shik, I would need the boxes for every clothing item in my basket. You can put the clothes in her basket in a bag,” she ordered.

“So, these are for gifts?” inquired Man-Shik.

“Yes, except these,” she took her clothes out of the basket along with her purse.

“Certainly ma’am. We will do that for you,” smiled Man-Shik and called another employee. He ordered the new employee to get the boxes out of storage.

Everything was packed as per her needs. The clothes she was going to gift everyone were placed in paper boxes and her clothes as well as Jae-Hwa’s clothes were packed in simple paper bags.