Chapter 69

69 The Good Night

Nivritti avoided looking at him when he was scolding her. He was right, about everything. She was ready to fight tooth and nail when it was about someone else but when it would be her case, she would just run away. A simple problem would arise, her solution would be to run away. As already established, she was an expert in running away.

“My mom says the same thing. I am good at running. Because when a problem came at me because of Ritvik, I chose to stay and fight back and lost the battle spectacularly. Now, it’s like my second nature, to run away,” Nivritti said while keeping her eyes lowered.

“Yeah, that’s why you always run away. Now I know the reason. If you find a situation hard to handle, you run away. When you can fight for others, why not for yourself?” questioned Kyung-Soo.

“I don’t know. My fight or flight response kicks in and I run,” she replied.

“That I understand. But why does your fight or flight response work differently in different situations?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“I have no idea,” replied Nivritti sadly.

“Girl! Get a therapist now,” shouted Kyung-Soo. “And stop treating all men the same. If one broke your heart does not mean every man will be the same. It pisses me off that you think that I am or anyone is anything like that asshole.”

“Once bitten, twice shy,” replied Nivritti.

“I understand that. I know how you feel, well to some extent,” replied Kyung-Soo. He went near her and knelt down. He took her hands in his and said, “Ritti! I am sorry that your life was tragic, and that you are still dealing with the repercussions, but you need to open your heart and fight for yourself as you fight for others. Everyone is here for you. Choi-ssi, Jae, my boys, even Hu-ssi, all love you. Don’t let a moron spoil everything. Now that no one knows where you are, discard him from your life. He never deserved you. Stop seeing the world from the tragic spectacles that he gave you. Remove your cynicism and you will find a world where you can again trust people. If you can protect people like Jae and JJ, then you can trust them too. I really hope that one day you again start trusting people.”

.....

Nivritti was smiling but tears were streaming down her face. She removed her hand softly from his hands and wiped her tears. “Thank you for being so supportive. It’s very late, you should leave. Your boys would be waiting for you.”

He looked at his wristwatch. It was 3 in the morning. He had no idea where the time went while she was narrating her story. She was an amazing storyteller. He felt every emotion that she experienced. “Those idiots! They must be snoring by now. They don’t even know that I left.” He pulled his ears and apologised to her, “sorry for barging in and forcing you to tell your story.”

“You must be sorry,” she teased. “But to tell you the truth, I feel better after sharing everything with you, thank you for listening and not judging,” she smiled at him.

“Yes, when you share your load, it feels better. And I did judge you, I am still judging you. Fighting for everyone else, not for yourself, you are an idiot!” he teased.

“Yeah, yeah. Now, leave,” she said.

“I will remember you, girl. You will be the only one who threw me out of her house at 3 am,” he teased her. His tease made her smile, and he was over the moon.

“Shut up, NK! Go home,” she stood up and pulled him up making him stand.

“You know you can call me anytime, right?”

“Okay, I will give you a call, if I feel like talking to someone,” she replied.

“Thank God! Tomorrow is no office,” he said while walking towards the door.

“What? Why?”

“Everyone would have been scared to see your swollen scary face,” he teased her again.

“I will kill you,” she shouted but a sweet smile was playing on her face.

“Good night, Ritti!”

“Good night, NK.”

Kyung-Soo opened the door and walked out leaving Nivritti alone. The first thing she did was touch her eyes with her cold fingers and tried to soothe her burning eyes. But the coldness from her fingers was not enough. She went to her bathroom and washed her face with cold water. The cold water on her burning face was like an elixir.

She dried her face and checked every door and window again and retired to bed. But her sleep was elusive. Her whole life story was playing on a loop in her mind. She was surprised that she told everything to Kyung-Soo. Why did she tell him everything? Why didn’t she reserve a part for herself? Why was she so truthful and open to him?

Lying on the bed, staring at the roof, she kept waiting for sleep to arrive. As Kyung-Soo said that it was a good thing that the next day was a weekend, and she had no worries about waking up early in the morning. She could sleep till noon and then meet with Jae-Hwa as promised.

Meanwhile, Kyung-Soo kept thinking about Nivritti all the way to his home. Her sad, red, swollen face kept flashing before his eyes. Now he understood everything about her. Now he knew why she was against a relationship. A burnt child dreads the fire, it was true in the case of Nivritti.

He vowed to himself that from this moment forward he will not pester her anymore. He would wait for her to open her heart again. All he can do is treat her with respect and show her some love and patience and give her time, a lot of time.

The road was almost empty, and it took him minutes to drive from her house to his. Quietly, he parked the car and switched off the engine. He punched in the code for the house and the lock beeped. He closed his eyes and prayed that no one heard it.

On his tiptoes, he entered the house and softly took off his shoes. Stealthily he moved towards his room when suddenly Thae appeared out of the kitchen in his pyjamas, rubbing his eyes with one hand and carrying a water bottle in the other hand, still trying to stay sleepy.

Kyung-Soo jumped behind the kitchen wall instantly and vanished before Thae’s eyes. Thae looked around with drowsy eyes and found no one so he moved to his room scratching his ass.

Kyung-Soo exhaled with relief. He started walking behind Thae and after Thae moved into his room, Kyung-Soo ran to his room. The moment he reached his room, he almost had a heart attack as his room was echoing with snoring sounds.

He moved towards his bed and under his phone’s light, he saw who was sleeping in his bed.

“Aishhh... this boy!” he exclaimed after he saw Jung-Hwa sleeping in his bed under his blanket. “What is he doing here? When I left, he was sleeping in his room,” thought Kyung-Soo. “Now what should I do? If I wake him up, he will ask hundreds of questions and if I sleep in his room, all the idiots will ask me hundreds of questions. I cannot tell them that I went to see Nivritti. Oh... what should I do?”

Kyung-Soo kept pondering on his new problem. He was standing at the foot of his bed staring at Jung-Hwa thing about what to do when his phone chimed with a notification.

“Who is sending me messages at this time?” he thought. He unlocked his phone and there it was, sitting on the screen, a message from Nivritti. He beamed with happiness.

“Did you reach home safely?” said the message. He was happy that she was concerned but was also disappointed that she was straight to the point. Not even a “hey” or “hi”.

“Yeah, reached a few minutes ago,” he replied.

Is everyone sleeping? No one saw you, right?

Everyone is sleeping and no one saw me, don’t worry.

Good@@novelbin@@

Why are you still awake? Go to sleep.

Was about to sleep. Just wanted to check on you. I kept you here late, sorry.

You didn’t keep me late. I barged in your night.

That is true. Should I tell people that an Idol blackmailed me tonight?

Ha-ha, sure go ahead and tell everyone.

Fine, I have a lot of interviews lined up tomorrow. See me on TV.

Ha-ha, okay I will. And I think it will be easy for you as you know Korean. By the way, why didn’t you tell us that you knew Korean? We have been talking in English with you. How many languages do you know?

Maybe 7 or 8. I know Hindi, English, French, Korean, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam and a bit of Bengali.

Wow!

I don’t like to advertise these things. Don’t tell anyone, only CH knows.

Why? You want to catch people saying bad things about you?

Ha-ha, that is one benefit.

Cunning girl! Now go to sleep.

I will. You too, go to sleep. Good night.

Good night.

His phone kept chiming with every message he received, and his keyboard kept making noises as he would type his messages.

“Stop it, Hyung! Chat with your girlfriend later on. Let me sleep,” groaned Jung-Hwa. Kyung-Soo immediately placed his phone in his pocket and looked at Jung-Hwa.

“And why are you sleeping in my room?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“There was a ghost in my room,” replied Jung-Hwa.

“Excuse me! Whose ghost?”

“Did I ask with whom you are chatting? No, right. I don’t ask you questions, you don’t ask me questions. Now sleep and let me sleep,” moaned Jung-Hwa and went back to sleep.

“Ghost?” murmured Kyung-Soo. He then shook his head in disbelief, went to the bathroom, changed his clothes, and jumped in bed with Jung-Hwa. Before sleeping, he again glanced at his phone and reread his messages with Nivritti. With a smile on his face, he fell asleep.