To Kiss An Idol

140 The Physical Touch

Kyung-Soo was listening to Nivritti’s opinion silently. He had forgotten about the fact that her hand was still in Young-Chul’s grip. He smiled at the fact that she was such an active advocate for mental health problems.

“You think people will understand his plight?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“You have no idea how many people are affected by such issues. Some know that something is wrong with them, some ignore them. Now you guys know all the symptoms and the diagnosis, it will be easier to understand and make others understand. I know that does not make you an expert but at least you can care about that,” replied Nivritti.

“And what if Young does not want to talk about that?” inquired Kyung-Soo.

She sighed, thought for a moment, and then replied, “then it should be his decision, not yours, not your company’s. He should decide if he wants to talk about his condition with fans. It should depend on whether he feels comfortable doing so. This is about his problem, his diagnosis, his health, I don’t understand why the company is involved in that.”

“Because they are paying for it,” replied Kyung-Soo.

“As they should. A company should take care of the health insurance of an employee and mental health comes under that. You work day and night for that company, why won’t they pay for your health issues? Suppose it was an accident. Would you guys have hidden that too?” chided Nivritti.

“No.”

“He fainted because he could not sleep well. What if he would have fainted near the stairs or any other place more dangerous? Don’t you think he would have gotten help sooner, he would have avoided all these?” questioned Nivritti.

.....

“I understand what you are saying, and every word is right. But we have many seniors talking about mental health and their fans bashing them, calling them weak and slowly they faded away I know the climate has slightly changed and you are sitting here in front of me because of therapy,” sighed Kyung-Soo. He looked at her and continued, “believe me, Ritti, I want to champion every single cause there is in the world, whether its mental health issues, LGBTQ rights, environmental rights, human rights, but not everything is possible.” He lowered his head, ashamed and sad.

Nivritti patted his hand and reassured, “NK! I know you guys do great work. You guys donate to every cause that comes across you. All I am saying is, you need to stop thinking about others, think about yourself. Hiding things, keeping secrets to make others happy, to avoid scandal, I think that will take a much bigger toll. Won’t it be easy to talk these things over with executives of the company and come out with the truth? You have helped so many fans with your music, your words, your beautiful lyrics, why don’t you trust them for once?”

Before Kyung-Soo could reply, there was a knock at the door. Nivritti immediately removed her hand from Kyung-Soo’s hand. She even tried to pull her hands from Young-Chul’s grip but it seemed as if he was drowning and her hand was the last straw he could find.

“Please come in,” said Kyung-Soo.

The door opened and a doctor came inside. Both Kyung-Soo and Nivritti stood up and bowed down to him. The doctor froze in his path after looking at Nivritti. There was an unknown girl standing before him. He was given the instructions to not let anyone get in and there she was standing in the room in front of Kyung-Soo.

Wait! She was standing before Kyung-Soo and he was not saying a word to her. Who was she? Why didn’t it bother to Kyung-Soo that a stranger was inside? He carefully looked at her and saw that one of her hands was placed on the bed. He clearly looked and his jaw dropped as he saw her hand in Young-Chul’s hand.

“What…? Who…?” the doctor forgot how to form sentences.

“Doctor Oh! What is it?” asked Kyung-Soo.

His voice brought the doctor back to the land of the living. “Um… nothing, just his hourly check-up.” He gulped and moved forward. He stopped near Kyung-Soo and whispered in his ear, “who is she?”

Kyung-Soo jumped in surprise and let out a soft yelp at his sudden question. The wind in his ear tickled him and he immediately rubbed his ear. “She is Nivritti. She is our friend,” replied Kyung-Soo.

Nivritti instantly stared at Kyung-Soo and gasped at his answer. She was shocked with happiness as he didn’t introduce her as someone he worked with but introduced her as his friend, no, their friend. He called her ‘our friend’. Nivritti’s heart was filled with warmth after his reply.

“Okay, but is she allowed inside?” asked Doctor Oh.

“What do you think? Nivritti, meet doctor Oh Dak-Ho, Doctor, Nivritti,” introduced Kyung-Soo.

“Wait! She can understand Korean?” asked Doctor Oh, surprised.

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Doctor Oh.

“Nice to meet you too, Doctor,” replied Nivritti.

“By the way why don’t you let his hand go and sit comfortably,” said the doctor.

“Look carefully doctor, she is not holding his hand, he is grabbing her hand,” informed Kyung-Soo.

“What? That is impossible. He is sedated,” shouted the doctor in shock. He ran to Young-Chul and first looked at the monitor displaying his vitals. “His heart rate and BP are normal. He looks like he is calm now. So, the sedative is working but how is he holding your hands?”

“You are the doctor, you tell me,” said Nivritti.

“Some are resistant to certain sedatives. He looks like he is under, but he might be conscious, just too tired to open his eyes,” speculated Doctor Oh. “We will have to do a further test to determine what is causing it. But looks like your physical touch is calming him down which happens with depressed patients quite frequently. His system was all haywire when I checked him an hour ago. Hope he remains the same. I will come to check on him later.” He looked up to check the IV and said, “I will send someone to get another IV. He needs nutrients. King, when he wakes up, make sure he eats something.”

“Yes, doctor,” replied Kyung-Soo.

“See you guys later. I will keep you posted,” said Doctor Oh and left the room.

Nivritti immediately hit Kyung-Soo on his arm and shouted, “see I told you, physical touch does wonders.”

“Ow! Okay, okay, chill!” shouted Kyung-Soo and smiled at her. “So, you think he heard everything we talked about?”

“No idea. All I know is he is in control of his muscles. Whether his hearing is working, I have no idea,” replied Nivritti.

“Hmm…” replied Kyung-Soo.

They both sat back down and exhaled together. No one said another word for some time. The whole room was peacefully quiet. All one could hear was three people breathing and machines beeping.

The silence broke when Kyung-Soo’s phone rang. He looked at Nivritti and said, “Korain Hyung! Calling for an update. I will be back.” She just nodded at him. He grabbed his mask and his cap and went out of the room to talk with his team member and give them an update about Young-Chul.

Nivritti exhaled loudly and placed her other hand back on Young-Chul’s hand. “See, all are worried about you. I won’t tell you to get better soon. No, take your time, all I ask is you recover fully and never get ill. Take care of your health and make your family and friends happy with your sweet smile. Do you hear me?”

Nivritti kept talking to him sweetly and kept patting his hand tenderly. Kyung-Soo gave the update to Korain and was back within a second. He stood at the door and heard almost every word that Nivritti said. He smiled at her after seeing how good she was with Young-Chul. Being a big sister to her sister, made her experienced on how to take care of someone.

“Sir!” said a voice outside the room. He turned and saw a nurse standing behind him.

“Yes,” said Kyung-Soo.

“I am here to change his IV,” replied the nurse.

“What? Are you allowed here?” asked Kyung-Soo.

“Don’t worry I have signed the confidential agreement. No one will know that I treated a member of ASD,” she whispered and winked at him. Kyung-Soo was taken aback at her wink.

He instantly ran inside the room and stood near Nivritti. “What?” asked Nivritti.

“Nothing!” replied Kyung-Soo. He didn’t want to tell her that he was signalling to the nurse that he was interested in only one girl.

The nurse came inside and looked shockingly at Nivritti. “Oh, I had no idea someone came to visit,” she bowed down to Nivritti. Nivritti too returned the gesture. “Have you signed an NDA too?”

“What?” asked Nivritti.

“Nothing! Nothing!” shouted Kyung-Soo and removed his mask and cap. He knew how she felt about hiding the pain of Young-Chul and if she knew that company was making everyone sign an NDA, she would again snap at him. “You, please do your work.”

“What did she say?” whispered Nivritti.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” laughed Kyung-Soo awkwardly.

The nurse kept changing the IV and kept glancing at Kyung-Soo. He was visibly uncomfortable. Nivritti noticed both of them. She squinted her eyes at the nurse and stood directly in front of Kyung-Soo trying his hide his gigantic body with her tiny one. But the nurse understood what she did and lowered her head with shame.

Kyung-Soo beamed with happiness at her gesture.

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