The Approach
Ra-hee, tapping through her tablet as she checked things off, looked up at me and smiled, soft as anything. It was the kind of smile you give a student you're proud of—but, well. She wasn't wrong.
"Close as it was, you've already broken eighty on the bench. The rate you're adding weight is honestly incredible. It's only been a little over two weeks. I think we can call you advanced now."
"Yeah? I only got it up once."
"Even as a one-rep max, eighty kilos with the bar is huge for an ordinary man. That's top one percent. From here on, safety matters more than the weight. Until I say it's all right, you don't go any heavier than this. We build it evenly."
"Got it. It's just a shame. Another twenty kilos and I'd be in triple digits."
"...Shinwoo. If a man at a neighborhood gym got trained up to a hundred-kilo bench, it wouldn't be strange for a pro weightlifting team to come calling. Even women can't lift that without years of training. Right now you're about at my level."
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes. That's about my limit too. My body weight's low. I got a bit of confidence after putting on five kilos recently, but looking at you, I feel like my pride's about to die."
"It's not that serious. Then since I weigh more than you, shouldn't I be lifting more?"
"No. What you're doing already is genuinely impressive. So don't get impatient. You understand, right? Please trust me. If you get hurt doing this, I will actually cry."
"Ah, all right. Of course I trust you. Anyway, I should go pick the kids up soon."
"Yes, Shinwoo."
"Hm?"
I was sitting there wiping off sweat when Ra-hee leaned quietly down and stroked my cheek. It felt like the first time she'd come on this forward, so I simply offered my face. It wasn't only affection in her eyes, though. There was a look how well you've done in them that I didn't entirely love.
"...Thank you. For always working so hard."
"What are you talking about. It's because you look after me so well."
"Even so. You grumble, but I can feel how hard you're really trying."
"Spare me the extra. I just don't want to embarrass myself in front of you."
"...Shinwoo."
There was no missing it. The whisper, as she looked at me, was full of the urge to kiss. I shook my head, slow.
"No. People are watching back there."
"...Maybe I should just stop taking regular members."
"When you open your own gym someday, do it then."
"...M-my gym...?"
"Of course. You think I came to help Yewon for no reason?"
"...Ah."
Go Yewon was my woman now, so of course I helped her—but that hadn't been how it started. Friend of Ra-hee's or not, the reason I was going this far was obviously Ra-hee. Her pay was one thing, but she needed to know how a place was actually run if she was ever going to open a gym and do it well. I wanted to learn a bit myself, too. Pick up the training, help Yewon, take a little credit while I was at it. The benefits stacked up too nicely to ignore. And life had a way of surprising you. Someday Ra-hee might be the one running a big gym.
"...Shinwoo..."
"Work hard, and don't just practice coaching. Learn how to run the place too. Sure, once Yewon opens her Pilates studio this gym will basically be yours to operate, but strictly speaking it isn't yours. Nobody knows what's coming."
"...Yes..."
"Well. Now that Yewon's my woman too, that's part of it."
"I know. I can feel everything you're thinking..."
I held Ra-hee's warm gaze, and the air between us was just starting to go soft and heavy.
"Hyung! Let's get going!"
"...Coming."
"...Chang-soo has no sense of timing."
"He's always like that."
I snorted at the grumble and ruffled her hair.
"Where's Eunchae?"
"She just clocked in. She's in the locker room."
"Then I'll head out. Still not sure it's fine, mixing the kids in with adult members. There aren't many of them, but it bothers me."
"...Once we build the yoga room and reorganize, it should be all right. I'm planning to push all the equipment toward the inside."
"That'd be better. Means we can't go on a date this weekend, though."
"...We will. Even if I stay up all night, I'll move everything myself..."
"Don't do that. Doing it together counts as a date."
"...I don't want to. I want to go shopping with you."
"Then we'll all do it at night. That works."
"...Okay."
"Ah, hyung! Hurry up!"
"I said I'm coming! I'll be back. See you tonight."
"Yes. Hang in there."
"All I'm doing is driving."
I waved at Ra-hee and walked over to Chang-soo, who was still hurrying me along. Grumbling the whole way, the two of us left the gym, climbed into the van, and started making the rounds of the neighborhood.
"Take care."
"Yeah. See you tomorrow. Hello, Hyunwoo's mom."
"Oh, Instructor Shinwoo. Thank you for working so hard today, too."
"Instructor, please. I'm just the driver. Oh—Hyunwoo worked really hard in yoga today. Hyunwoo, was yoga fun?"
"Yes. Moving my body was fun."
"Good. Hyunwoo's flexibility is excellent, so if he just keeps at it, I think he'll grow quite a bit taller."
"You watched that closely? I always said our boy was special."
I hadn't so much seen it myself as softened what Eunchae had told me. At that age, poor flexibility would have been the stranger thing. According to her, Hyunwoo only liked yoga and had no talent for actual training—so I was dressing it up a little.
"Director Yewon, Instructor Ra-hee, and Instructor Eunchae all teach well. We'll keep taking good care of Hyunwoo, so please trust us with him."
"Of course. Thanks to you instructors, things have been so much easier for me lately. I don't have to worry about my child, so my work's gotten more efficient too... And these days he greets people properly, and he's brighter. Exercise really must be good for a child's mood. Our boy..."
The child-bragging went on from there. I listened with a quiet smile until the kid, mortified, begged to go home, and only then did Hyunwoo's mother finally head off. I wasn't unaware that she'd wanted to advertise how well she was raising him. It had all come through in that hot, cloying look. Only after Hyunwoo and his mother left my sight did I let out a long sigh. From the passenger seat, Eunchae stared at me like I was some new species and muttered.
"...Oppa, you were this smooth with people?"
"You didn't know? I chat just fine with strangers."
"With me you were a rock every single time. In the club, too. Like you were carrying all the suffering in the world."
"...There were reasons back then."
"Even so, do you have to go this far? The moms are the same. I'm busy enough to die."
"Hey. That's all wallets—no. Customers. What are you saying? Fix that mindset. In service work, mindset is everything."
"Even so... When I was just training, I didn't have to do all this."
"We're only at the beginning. If a rolling stone wants to settle in properly, it has to twist itself up and suffer. And depending how you look at it, this isn't a gym, it's a daycare. Later we're opening a Pilates studio here too, so we have to manage our reputation. Also—why does one neighborhood have four Pilates studios?"
"...I feel bad for Yewon, but the competition looks rough."
I agreed. I knew Go Yewon specialized in Pilates and yoga, and as things stood it was hard to bring Pilates equipment in, which meant filling that whole wide third floor with yoga alone—and that was unrealistic. To turn a profit that way they'd need hundreds of members. Even running Pilates and yoga side by side might not be enough, and the Pilates competition was no joke. They were free of rent, so if she wanted to run it as a hobby I had nothing to say.
"Yewon will think it through."
"She will... Yewon's got a lot on her mind, too."
"Anyway, we just do our part. All right, then."
Today, as I'd told her ahead of time, I was sending Ra-hee home first. Disappointment had been written all over her face when I told her to rest quietly, but push any further and it really would be a trip to the hospital. I also needed to show Eunchae the route.
"Switch seats."
I had to go out tomorrow evening for Hyunji's performance, and I'd be gone all of next week, so I wanted to drill Eunchae ahead of time. Her schedule was awkward too, which left only the late hours free. And I had a promise to keep with her. Two birds.
"I told you I know how..."
"Quiet. You said it's your first time driving in years. You memorized the route?"
"Yes."
Sharp as she was, one loop beside me and she'd memorized the whole thing. Still, just in case, I started with the navigation. I'd registered the stops in order, so one look ought to be enough. But Eunchae's driving put a tension into my loose mood that I hadn't asked for, and before I knew it my hand was on the passenger-side handle.
"Hey, speed! There's a camera!"
"Ah—yes."
"You gonna slam the brake like that?! There are kids in this thing!"
"I know, okay..."
"Speed bump! I told you it's high he—ghk!"
"Ah, are you okay?"
I'd bitten my tongue. I clamped a hand over my mouth and rode out the pain. The way she asked, perfectly casual, sent a flash of heat through me before I could stop it.
"...Hey."
"...Yes."
"You going to do this properly?"
"...Ah, okay..."
The problem was that even under my growl, her face was flushing. Her thighs were twitching, little by little. She wasn't even wearing the mask in front of me anymore. So this was it.
"You know I can tell you're doing it on purpose, right?"
"...I-I'm not..."
"Sure you're not. Not even managing your expression anymore... Hey! Speed! This is a school zone!"
"Yes, yes."
"Right turn! I said come to a full stop before you turn right!"
"...But what does a momentary stop on a right turn even mean? How many seconds is 'momentary' supposed to be?"
"If your light was red, you stop. If you see a person, you stop. Once the wheels are completely still, that's a momentary stop."
"...If you can explain it like that, why did they make the official explanation so complicated? They should just say that, instead of a bunch of useless examples..."
"Fair. It took me a long time to get it, too."
"Your explanation is better. If they'd just said it that simply..."
"Probably all thanks to YouTube."
"Even so."
I sighed as the van's speed crept down along with her grumbling. Well. She was so competent that unless she did this on purpose, there wasn't even anything to scold her for. I'd felt it building the day we met at the gym, but I hadn't expected her to provoke me this openly.
"Forcing it like this isn't fun for you, either."
"...You knew?"
"How wouldn't I. And who told you to be born that outstanding?"
"...I honestly have no idea what I'm supposed to do."
"Same here. I need something to scold you for before I can scold you."
Eunchae swallowed hard at that. And just like that, her driving turned obedient—so she really had been doing it on purpose. I rubbed my chin, thinking. If she was getting her pleasure from a slightly different angle, the usual method wouldn't be enough. She'd need something else. Stimulation from the situation, or from words, was the likely thing.
"...Has it built up a lot?"
"...I'm going crazy. Just smelling you, right now..."
Smell. The word caught, and for a moment I turned it over. Better to approach it plainly first and see whether Eunchae could feel it some other way, too. Training, if you wanted to call it that. Or maybe correction was the better word.
"I've been thinking about it, too."
"...Yes..."
"Because you're so good, there really isn't much to scold you for. And you know I only ever scolded you for being rude."
"You did..."
"But at the gym, aside from Chang-soo and me, everyone's younger than you, so there isn't anything rude to pick at. You seem to get along fine, too."
"You told me never to do it at the gym..."
"You listen to that part well enough."
"..."
Eunchae swallowed in silence, glancing over at me as she drove, and I sank into thought. The obedience, the slightly unusual proclivity—she was every bit a masochist, and yet it didn't feel like that was simply all she was. So maybe it leaned fetish. Smell. That was the moment. Eunchae's face, stealing those glances, overlapped with Ra-hee's and with Hyunji's. That pure air of someone who had never known a man. She even looked innocent—and at the same time I felt it. There was something wrong with my approach.