To Kiss An Idol

100 The Café

Kyung-Soo kept smiling from afar. All he wanted was to protect Nivritti and he did that just now. Somehow, she always ended up in his arms and he liked it. He was glad that he was following her. If he would not have followed her, she would have gotten hurt. And that would have caused him more pain.

He kept staring at Nivritti who was talking with the youngsters and calming them down. Suddenly she looked at the position where Kyung-Soo knelt down and her mouth fell open with shock. No one was there.

“Where is he?” she shouted. Kyung-Soo stifled his laughter. Jae-Hwa and Jae-Geun too looked around but found no one. It was such a chaotic moment when Nivritti fell that no one paid any attention to the man who saved her.

“He was just here,” shouted Jae-Hwa and kept looking all around.

“I didn’t even get the chance to thank him,” said Nivritti, sadly.

“Who runs away after saving someone?” commented Jae-Geun.

“Who was he?” asked Nivritti, confused.

“It seems you have a guardian angel looking after you,” replied Jae-Hwa looking all around searching for the man.

“Really!” replied Nivritti, sarcastically.

.....

“How else would you explain it? Who vanishes after doing a good deed? And none of us even noticed his clothes,” said Jae-Hwa. Kyung-Soo was loving this conversation. He liked the term Guardian angel.

“I saw!” shouted one of the girls for the youngsters group.

“What?” screamed all three at once. Even Kyung-Soo’s mouth fell open with shock.

“How is it possible that she saw me, even if she saw me I don’t think she recognised me. Did she recognise me? Oh no!” Kyung-Soo gulped with fear.

“He was wearing a mask and a black shirt,” replied the girl. Kyung-Soo immediately ducked behind a wall. He peeped after a second and saw everyone searching for a man in a black shirt all around them. Lucky for him, there were too many men in black shirts.

“Great! How will we know who it was?” screamed Jae-Hwa looking all around.

But Nivritti’s eyes were searching for someone special. When she felt the touch of that stranger, she somehow knew that the person was no stranger. She knew him. He was someone familiar. Kyung-Soo recognised that look in her eyes.

“Is she looking for me? Did she realise that I was there? No, that is not possible. I don’t have a distinguished smell like her,” pondered Kyung-Soo. “But what if she did? What will you tell her? Oh, she will kill you for following her. But I helped her, maybe she will be lenient. Oh, Jae’s brother was right, she is scary, even I am scared of her.”

“Okay, let’s not dwell on the things that we can’t control,” suggested Jae-Geun.

“Right! Thank you whoever you were and you guys, I am fine. Go enjoy your time,” said Nivritti.

“No need to say thank you,” commented Kyung-Soo from his position.

“Khamsahamnida, Khamsahamnida,” shouting all the kids ran away.

Kyung-Soo again started following Nivritti, Jae-Hwa and Jae-Geun. They all walked inside a café. The coffee house was hustling and bustling with patrons. The moment Kyung-Soo walked in, the strong smell of java and the sweet smell of cakes and other bakery products hit his nose.

The party of three saw an empty table and went and occupied the space. Kyung-Soo looked around. The table next to them was empty but he could not risk sitting next to Nivritti. She recognised him outside the changing room even though he was wearing a mask and now she knew what he was wearing after he spent a lot of time with her inside the room.

He kept looking around but there was no empty table. Suddenly the table right behind them opened up. Kyung-Soo jumped at the opportunity and sat in the chair right behind Nivritti. He could smell her lavender scent faintly. He closed his eyes and took in the sweet smell.

Two different servers approached both tables and asked for their orders. Kyung-Soo kept his ears open as he wanted to know her choice of drink. He knew that she drank tea and cola, and he wanted to know more about her.

“What can I get you, sir?” asked the server from Kyung-Soo. He looked at the server and kept his ears towards Nivritti.

“What can I get you guys?” their server asked them.

“I want an americano, he will have a cappuccino and you, Ritti?” inquired Jae-Hwa.

“I will have a mocha,” replied Nivritti.

“Mocha?” questioned Jae-Hwa. “You like tea.”

“Yeah, I like tea, but I love chocolate and you wanted to treat us to coffee,” explained Nivritti.

Kyung-Soo smiled at her reply. He learned something new about her. She loved chocolate. He realised that the server was standing before him waiting for his order. He signalled her to wait a minute while he pretended to read the menu.

“Anything to eat?” asked the server from Jae-Hwa.

“What is best here?” asked Nivritti.

“Well, we have a huge variety of cakes, muffins, croissants, doughnuts,” replied the server.

“Oh, so much sugar,” commented Jae-Geun.

“Hey! Fitness freak, just shut up and eat,” scolded Jae-Hwa.

“You can eat such things once in a while. Think of it as your cheat day,” suggested Nivritti.

“Fine, I will have a doughnut, if you insist,” said Jae-Geun.

“Oh, I asked and you said ‘so much sugar’ and she said and you are ready to break your diet,” rebuked Jae-Hwa.

Kyung-Soo was happy as Jae-Hwa scolded Jae-Geun as he too was thinking along the same line. How come when Jae-Hwa asked him he was like I don’t eat sugar but one sentence from Nivritti and he was like I love sugar? Kyung-Soo clenched his fists tightly.

“Jae!” reprimanded Nivritti.

“Okay, I will have a coconut doughnut,” ordered Jae-Hwa.

“I will take a slice of blueberry cheesecake,” said Jae-Geun. Kyung-Soo shook his head in disbelief.

“This idiot was not ready to eat any sugar but now he wants cheesecake,” thought Kyung-Soo.

“I will have a slice of chocolate truffle cake,” ordered Nivritti. Kyung-Soo immediately smiled. She really loved chocolate.

The server nodded at them and went away.