Fitness Wife
I had become one.
Though an eight-hour cooldown stood in the way, by acquiring the ability to make any food taste however I wanted, I had transformed into an invincible gym bro who could tear into raw chicken breast with zero cooking and have it taste better than anything else on earth.
And the chicken breast I actually ate would taste like the single most delicious thing I had ever put in my mouth.
This is so damn half-baked.
It was clearly an incredible ability — no question — but that eight-hour cooldown was a serious obstacle. When I first tried to predict what the trait could do, the ideas that came to mind were all commercial. Naturally, the first thing I thought of was opening my own restaurant. Taste was guaranteed, so as long as the plating looked decent, success was basically a given.
Then I learned about the penalty after the fact. Running a high-end strategy of seating only one table every eight hours was useless when I had no way to prove the quality beforehand. So commercial use was on hold for now. If a good idea came along later, I could always put it to work then. For the moment, the only real benefit was that the food I ate myself would taste amazing.
Of course, treating guests to a meal someday sounded nice too — if I ever had anyone to bring over.
I couldn't put it to any spectacular use right away, but I still felt like I owned the world. My daily routine hadn't changed, but the me living through it had.
I stepped out of the house headed for the gym, and sure enough, there she was — the delinquent-looking woman, smoking as always.
"Excuse me."
"What?"
Ah.
I was so high on life that I'd spoken to her without thinking. She looked annoyed the second she saw me and immediately turned her head away. I winced, but since I'd already opened my mouth, I decided to push one more line.
"You can't smoke here."
"Okay."
"…Okay?"
"…"
A short answer, then nothing. She'd complied, but it didn't exactly feel like the message had landed. Still, she didn't keep smoking just to spite me either. It was less genuine agreement and more like she wanted the whole situation over with as fast as possible.
…
She still wouldn't answer or look at me. After waiting a moment and realizing I had nothing else to say, I moved on.
Is she actually a decent person, surprisingly?
Either way, the fact remained that she'd listened right away. Or maybe she was so used to this that she just wanted me gone so she could light up again.
And if she does it again… ah.
I fretted over what I'd do if she smoked again even after I'd spoken to her directly — then a brilliant idea hit me.
Don't Smoke vs Poop-Flavored Cigarettes
I should make sure she got to participate in the Balance Game too.
I arrived at the gym and worked out with Ajeong again. We'd only been training together for a week, and already our chemistry was locked in tight. The male staff member who'd been so aggressively on guard around me seemed to have decided I simply didn't exist. Whenever I stepped away for even a second, he somehow knew and drifted over to Ajeong with a line or two — then vanished like a ghost the instant I was about to return.
"Haa…"
"What did he say this time?"
"Asked what I was doing this weekend… said we should hang out…"
"Did he now?"
It soured my mood a little, but the thought that Ajeong would never take him up on it settled me almost immediately.
"Yeah… I told him I'd think about it and get back to him."
"That's rough."
Her excessively kind nature made it hard for her to shut people down cleanly.
"So… about that favor I mentioned last time. Can I ask now?"
"Huh? Oh."
Right — she'd said she had something to ask me today. I'd packed so much into the past day that the little things had slipped my mind.
"Can I tell him we're dating?"
"Dating me?"
"Yeah… It'd be easier to say, and he'd give up faster…"
"Still, lying about something like that is a bit…"
Even so, this was a hard favor to grant. I'd finally gotten a handsome face and was dreaming of a real, happy relationship — taking on a fake girlfriend was like telling people you already had a job while you were still hunting for one.
"Please… It's not like I'd ever run into him outside the gym anyway…"
Sensing I was about to refuse, Ajeong wrapped both hands around mine and pleaded with desperate eyes.
"Ahem… Fine."
It wasn't the physical contact that got me. It was the earnest look in her eyes that melted my resolve.
"Thank you! I promise I won't let it cause you any trouble!"
She looked so relieved she might start bouncing on the spot. Come to think of it — I wasn't even talking to any women right now, let alone dating. What relationship was I protecting?
Of course, I hadn't completely ruled out something with Ajeong either. We had a standing workout commitment, and we'd even gone on a weekend date. The reason I still kept my expectations so conservative was that she was exactly the type of woman men misread with ridiculous ease. She never meant anything by it, but that was the fate of a kind-hearted beauty. Having already made that mistake once myself, I was being extra careful. If I jumped the gun and caught feelings alone, I could lose a connection that actually mattered.
A surefire plate-loading buddy beats a low-probability girlfriend any day.
Ajeong stuck deliberately close to my side until the workout was over. In the end, the male staff member only managed to approach her again while I was in the shower. I didn't see it happen, but one look at Ajeong glancing at me apologetically and the staff guy shooting me an especially intense glare told me everything I needed to know.
"Did you tell him?"
"Yeah… He kept asking since when, so I said it'd been a while."
"Good. Better to say you started coming here after we started dating."
"Ah, okay… Thanks."
Surprisingly, she seemed embarrassed by the whole situation too — her face flushed pink. The way she fidgeted with her hands and mumbled was almost cute.
Whiiir—
"Have a good—… day…"
Ajeong reflexively called out a goodbye at the sound of the automatic door. The male staff member was already gone before she even finished.
"Hoo…"
"Isn't it better that he left so fast?"
"Heh… Yeah, you're right."
She always looked so bright that I hadn't noticed, but clearly the whole thing had been stressing her out. I only managed to get up after listening to a full thirty minutes of her venting.
"Ah! I've been talking about myself the whole time… Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Good thing you won't have to deal with that anymore."
"Heh… Thank you."
"Alright, I'm heading out."
"Okay! See you tomorrow!"
With her problem solved, her smile climbed to a whole new level of beautiful. The thought that a woman like that was — at least inside the gym — my girlfriend made me puff up a little with pride.
The walk home felt great. And what made me even happier was the grand banquet waiting for me at home.
Two slabs of chicken breast and a bowl of brown rice. Brown rice was already delicious on its own, so the target for my ability was obvious.
The chicken breast.
Today, I was making Hwanggung Olive Chicken–flavored chicken breast.
Ajeong had been working the front desk at the gym for nearly half a year now, and lately she had a problem that was only getting worse.
Im Taeun — a full-time staff member who worked alongside her. He'd always seemed interested, but ever since she'd shifted her workout schedule and started running into him more often, it had gotten out of hand. That schedule change had happened because she'd matched her training times to Jung Woohyun, her new workout partner.
Woohyun…
Honestly, his looks were so striking that her eyes had gone to him first — that much was true. But becoming his training partner hadn't been about his face alone.
I'm not the kind of person who only cares about looks…!
She knew better than anyone how much trouble men who only chased beauty had caused her. After suffering through so many of them, the last thing she wanted was to become the same kind of person herself.
The reason she'd agreed to train with Woohyun was purely his passion for working out. Plenty of guys were overflowing with gym enthusiasm — but almost none of them kept that fire going with a woman like her standing right next to them. This was nearly a first. The way he reset the plates between sets so the flow never broke was especially decisive.
After that, they'd met up on the weekend, grabbed a meal, and talked — and aside from being a little eccentric and being an Arsenal fan, he was basically perfect.
I just need to convert him on the team he roots for…
Fortunately, his love for Arsenal didn't seem that deep. Keep working on him steadily and she could definitely drag him over to Tottenham.
For the first time since elementary school, she'd made a male friend. Having someone to talk to about her hobbies — lifting and soccer — made her genuinely happy.
But following Woohyun's schedule meant running into that full-time male staff member constantly. It wasn't Woohyun's fault, and yet some petty impulse had made her throw a mischievous request at him.
"Can I tell him we're dating?"
…
It wasn't even a real confession, and still her heart was pounding ridiculously fast.
"That's…"
Not a firm answer, but the vibe said he was about to refuse. It wasn't a real rejection either, and somehow that still stung.
"Please…"
At first the request had been half a joke — partly just to watch him fluster. Not anymore. She wanted Woohyun to take her at her word and drive off the male staff, and every other guy while he was at it.
There might be more of them later, that's all this is…
She'd gone as far as grabbing his hands and begging, and she didn't care. Right now, she just wanted to hear him say yes.
"Ahem…"
Please…
"Fine."
"Thank you!!!"
One short word from him, and her mood flipped instantly. No more putting up with the male staff. No more exhausting herself turning down members who wandered over. Because the handsomest man in the entire gym —
at least inside these walls — was her boyfriend.