Eight
Eight
I stopped by a gym near my house after work.
The day after my first time having sex with Seo Se-na, I didn't show it in front of Se-na, but I had to endure pain in my lower back, buttocks, and hamstrings from the intense movements after such a long time.
I visited the gym because I felt a crisis coming on.
"I'm here to sign up as a new member."
I entered the nearby mixed martial arts gym, finished the simple registration process, and put gloves on my hands.
Then, I hit the punching bag in front of me.
Jab, jab, straight, slip, jab, jab, straight, uppercut, hook.
Hitting the punching bag at the gym for the first time in a while, I can feel my stamina failing.
It's a natural result since I've barely exercised since getting a job.
Back when I was a college student, I had decent stamina, but as I approach thirty, I felt my physical performance dropping little by little, which is why I sought out the gym.
"Member-nim, have you done martial arts before?"
The gym owner asks me.
Ah, that's right.
This is a gym I registered at for the first time today.
I didn't have an interview with the owner for registration, but handled it with the office staff, and it's only natural for them to be interested when a new member has good form.
"Yes. I did it for about two years."
"Your form is quite extraordinary. Is your base boxing?"
"It's Taekwondo, but right now, my stamina is a bit lacking for kicks."
"Don't worry. A person's body will return to its original condition once you exercise. It just so happens we didn't have many people good at kicking in our gym, so this works out well!"
"Ah, yes."
Even knowing it's a sales pitch to keep a newly recruited member, people really do need to exercise.
If only to survive.
If only to avoid creating an embarrassing situation at night.
After about forty minutes of basic exercises based on my memory, I took a light shower, got in my car, and headed home.
The reason the gym is near my house is that I didn't want to drive home along the commute route after exercising and having my stamina drained.
"Oppa! You're late! Did you work overtime today?"
"Uh, well. Something like that."
I didn't really want to say that I registered at a gym right after spending the night together.
Is this just useless male pride?
She hugged me, saying "Itcha!", then buried her nose in my chest and sniffed around.
"Oho, what's this smell?"
Did she find out?
My heart is pounding.
I prepare an excuse for what to say in this situation where my pride as a man might collapse at any moment.
"Haa, the wild man who devoured me the other night-!"
And when I pushed Se-na's face with my hand for spouting nonsense the moment I arrived, her voice, which had been shining with anticipation, distorted funnily.
"Go put on some pants so we can eat. If you don't wear them, you don't get any food."
"Why, Oppa. We did everything there is to do. You even touched my breasts wildly and poked around down there."
"That doesn't mean I allow you to walk around completely naked in my house."
"I'm wearing panties!"
Se-na lifted the T-shirt she was wearing and proudly showed me her underwear.
She was trying to confirm that she wasn't completely naked, but still, lewd is lewd.
"I get it, so just go sit down."
"Okay!"
Seo Se-na sits on the sofa.
I change my clothes and rummage through the refrigerator. Is it because I don't have the energy to cook today?
I boil a single pack of ramen to go with the leftover side dishes in the fridge and share it with Se-na.
"Thanks for the meal!"
After finishing dinner, Se-na pats her perfectly flat stomach and expresses her satisfaction by saying, "Ah, that was good."
"As expected, Oppa's cooking is the most delicious in the world."
The sound of clattering dishes and running water can be heard.
It seems Se-na doesn't think much of what happened two days ago.
I wondered if she might like me, but what she said back then probably wasn't empty words.
'If you were going to say some old-fashioned thing like, "People should only do it if they love each other," that's the wrong answer.'
'We're just doing it because we look at each other and get fucking horny.'
Lounging on the sofa, I'm web surfing on my tablet when I suddenly burst out laughing.
Seriously, Seo Se-na is too honest for her own good.
Yeah.
Let's not attach meaning to what happened back then for no reason.
The moment I make that resolution, Se-na, who had finished doing the dishes, suddenly thrusts her face over the tablet.
"Eek!"
"Why are you so surprised? You were looking at something fun by yourself... Ah, you were looking at something lewd!"
"I was surprised because you suddenly shoved your face in. I thought my liver was going to drop out."
"Oppa, these days, Gumiho (nine-tailed foxes) steal other things instead of livers, so don't drop it, keep it attached well."
Se-na makes an aegyo-filled expression, makes a flower-cup with both hands under her face, and wiggles her hips.
The moment I thought about whether she wasn't embarrassed doing things like that, Se-na stopped being a clown, sat next to me, and fixed her gaze on the tablet with me.
"Ugh, you work even after coming home?"
Did the internet site with prices for various computer parts look like work to Se-na?
"It's more of a hobby than work."
"Aha! I have something to tell you too, Oppa."
"Something to talk about?"
"I'm going to a part-time job interview tomorrow. A hair designer! Or to correct myself, a hairdresser!"
Se-na makes a V-sign with her index and middle fingers as if to show off.
I didn't know she had that kind of talent.
"So, Oppa, I need to appeal to the director tomorrow, so do you happen to have any photos from when you went on that blind date? One where your hair looks good."
I scratch the back of my head.
Of course, I wouldn't have my own photos.
"Ah, I guess you wouldn't have photos of yourself. You probably don't have a hobby of taking selfies."
".....Wait a second."
I contact Ye-seo Noona, and she readily sends the photos.
Ignoring her comment from the side, "Oho, you call her Noona quite well, don't you?", I send the photo where my face looks good to Se-na's phone.
To be precise, it's a photo taken with Cha Ye-seo in the lobby before entering the art museum, though.
I send a few more besides this, and Seo Se-na makes a satisfied expression.
"Is this enough?"
"Hmm, it's good. With this quality even under such trash lighting, I don't think there will be any problem proving my skills. By the way, it came out really well. Well, it had to come out well since who did it, right?"
As she says that, Se-na looks closely at the photo I sent.
On Se-na's face as she looks at the photo, there is a hint of worry somewhere.
"This unni is pretty. No matter how I look at it, she doesn't seem like someone who would get involved with our homebody Oppa."
"Se-na, what was the meaning of that just now?"
"It means this person is that pretty. Even though it seems like she lives in a different world than someone like me who's a bit loose, I'm jealous because she's pretty."
Looking at the photo, Seo Se-na puffs out both cheeks as if upset.
"But where are you going?"
"Over there at Idam Hair next to the subway station!"
"Ah, that's nearby. Alright, do your best. You'll probably have a hard time if you need to pay 800,000 won next month."
"Ugh, instead of encouraging me to work hard, you attack me with reality. That's too much."
Seo Se-na expressing her dissatisfaction is so cute that, without realizing it, I place my hand on her head.
It must be dyed hair, but her hair is so soft.
Then, seeing Se-na looking at me with surprised eyes, I realize I made a mistake and quickly take my hand off her head.
"Uh, uh Se-na. That, sorry..."
"It's okay. What can I do when I'm so cute."
Instead, Se-na, who said that, looks at me with an expectant gaze.
When I carefully raise my hand and place it on her head, she smiles bashfully and quietly accepts my touch.
"You know, I usually really hate it when others touch my hair, but strangely, it's not like that with Oppa's hand."
The hand that swept down her hair one last time returns to the side of my thigh.
"Oppa, can you see my eyes?"
"Yeah."
Seo Se-na's dark brown eyes are those of a Korean.
However, her hair is hard to see as that of a Korean.
"If my eyes were blue, I would have been treated like a foreigner entirely, but since my eyes are brown, I've lived my whole life being treated like a delinquent who dyes their hair. So, even when I was in school, weird guys would keep hitting on me."
This is the first time I'm hearing Se-na's personal history.
Perhaps noticing my gaze, which she is focused on, she says, "Ah, it's embarrassing when you look at me like that..." and covers her cheeks with both hands.
The sudden girlish behavior is awkward, but it must be her own way of wit to lighten the mood that was about to get heavy.
"Now, I don't think it's bad since it adds glamour to my face, but at one time, I hated my hair color so much. So I tried dyeing it brown and things like that, but that's all in the past now."
"Are you mixed-race? You don't look like it when I look at your face."
"That's right. That's probably why I was misunderstood even more. As you can see, my face shape isn't one that would come from mixed-race genes. Still, I'm glad it shows mixed-race traits here."
The hands that were covering her cheeks now emphasize her breasts.
Ahem, I clear my throat and turn my gaze back to the tablet.
"Anyway, do well on your interview tomorrow."
"Of course! I'll definitely pass."
As it got late, we went into our respective rooms, and without realizing it, I looked up the job posting that went up for Idam Hair.
The many reviews displayed on the computer screen along with the job posting seem to warn in advance that if Seo Se-na interviews tomorrow and gets hired, her future will be rough.
Having many reviews means business is good, and that means there will be a lot of work.
At the same time, I also have this question.
She could definitely do work like modeling using her appearance if she wanted to, so why doesn't she?
Seo Se-na says with her mouth that her appearance is glamorous, but it seemed like she didn't really like her own face.
Many people might call it a spoiled complaint if they heard it, but I guess that she has her own severe hardships.
'I don't know as much about Se-na as I thought.'
Even though we started simply as roommates and are now in a relationship where we can satisfy each other's lust if we want, all I know are the fragmented sides she has shown me so far.
It's not a deep relationship like lovers or anything, but a shallow relationship where we simply share a space, so it's natural, I suppose.
I had always held the thought that there must be a reason for a girl who is only twenty-three to end up drifting into a place like this to live together.
I know that being a busybody for no reason just makes things tiring, and it's just a relationship that will end once the need is over.
However, after hearing her talk about her appearance today, I became a little curious about the person Seo Se-na herself.
Tomorrow.
Hoping that Se-na will deliver the news that she passed the part-time job interview, I went to bed with a slightly excited heart.