Barely
"Aigoo, sir... I was so worried, thinking you weren't coming."
"...What?"
The manager's reaction was nothing like her usual self—so different that I tilted my head and asked—but she only bent lower at the waist, her face genuinely sorry.
"I'm truly sorry. I failed to train my staff properly..."
"..."
I still didn't know what had happened, so it was hard to say anything at all. Behind her, Rahi had appeared at some point, hands gathered in front of her, head bowed. The manager treated that as only natural. Something was wrong.
"I know I ought to apologize right this moment, but... I'd like to speak in the office. Would that be all right?"
She lowered herself and offered it cautiously, and I nodded. My eyes, though, were fixed on Rahi. The shoulders of the woman bowing to me were trembling, just barely. She wasn't crying. Fear. She was afraid of something. Of what?
"...All right."
At my answer the manager hurriedly cleared the space in front of me, and her arm bumped Rahi's shoulder. Rahi lost her balance, staggered, then stepped aside and straightened. The manager, as if an apology had never even crossed her mind, looked only at me and smiled, bright and bright. A mask. I'd done my time in the working world. I wasn't going to miss one.
Steering me toward the office meant there was something that had to be settled where no one else could see. I was no different. The instant Rahi was struck, irritation surged; I covered it and slipped on a light mask of my own.
No way.
I'd only turned my head without thinking as we passed the front desk. Inside was a monitor split sixteen ways. No matter how I turned it over, that was the only thing that caught.
"Ah, p-please don't worry. We've already copied the file... We'll do whatever you wish. If you'd just hear what we've prepared to say first..."
The manager hurried up beside me and whispered, very small. At those words I understood. Past her anxious shoulder I looked at Rahi, still clasping both hands, shoulders shaking.
...That's all?
It was nothing. A guess, yes, but the odds were very high that I was right. If the cameras were involved, it could only be yesterday. Rahi simply hadn't finished cleaning up the footage I'd asked her to take care of, and she'd been found out.
It was her fault for not listening to me, but I could understand it well enough. How happy must she have been, when I said we should go together, to let it slip like that? And it had suited me. Or it was going to. I could have used it as an excuse to torment her further.
"...Let's go in."
I looked once at the manager urging me on, then walked into the office. The moment I passed Rahi I saw her shivering in fine tremors. What on earth was she so afraid of? The manager probably hadn't meant to hit her, and still—after being struck—Rahi hadn't managed a single word. She'd even swallowed her breath.
It stung. Was this what it felt like when a child came home after being hit? She could have just used me as the excuse. This bear of a girl had clearly swallowed the whole of it without saying a word.
She must have done it for me.
I wasn't blameless either. Getting carried away somewhere we could be seen was mostly on me. I'd been sure I could handle the fallout. Rahi hadn't. A sigh nearly slipped out before I knew it, but I sat on the office sofa first. The manager followed and sat across from me, and Rahi stood beside the table with her hands behind her back, head bowed.
"I apologize with complete sincerity. As the person responsible, I am truly sorry that something so unpleasant occurred."
The bow was by the book. On those words alone, the apology was precise enough that it would be hard to find a crack in it. I wasn't particularly interested in that kind of apology.
"Show me the CCTV first."
"Ah, yes. You. Bring it."
"...Yes."
The moment she spoke to Rahi that way, I thought sparks were about to fly from my eyes. An image of coercion couldn't be allowed to take root like this. If pressure was going to stir excitement and pleasure, I had to be careful never to plant anything unpleasant—and I had been trying so hard at exactly that.
I quietly rubbed my eyes between thumb and forefinger, then opened them. Rahi set a laptop down in front of the manager and me. I could feel her looking at me. I had no intention of looking back. I didn't want her to see my eyes.
"Press it."
"...Yes."
At the manager's next word Rahi hit the space bar, and at that tone irritation surged again as the footage began to play in front of me. I nearly snorted, it was so absurd. I could see why not a scrap of suspicion had pointed my way, and why the thing had rolled out like this.
...Rotten luck, start to finish.
Of all things, the camera angle was so perfect that my movements hardly showed. On top of that, the machines hid both my hands with an accuracy that was almost uncanny. Because of it, Rahi as she appeared in the footage looked as if—
"...I'm so sorry we put you through something like this..."
I raised a hand and stopped the manager as she began to speak, and watched the video in silence. Anyone would have misunderstood. Rahi took one step toward me and started whispering something, and the way I looked up at her made it seem as if I were being cowed.
Worse, as she drew closer and laid a hand on my shoulder, it looked as if she were whispering at my ear—or, stretched a little, kissing my ear or my neck. And the moment someone came in, she seemed to tear herself away from me in a panic.
"..."
"S-so I'm truly sorry we made you go through this."
"...How did you handle it?"
"Thank you so much for talking it through so calmly. First, this..."
I looked down at the white envelope she held out to me.
"This is compensation from the gym, to console you for the hardship. Would you check it first?"
At that I reached out and took the envelope, and I could see Rahi trembling even more finely. I looked inside as if it were nothing. Five checks, a million won each. Large, if you called it large—and for a gym whose business hadn't been good lately, a sum that felt like they'd done everything they could to settle.
"Your personal-training fees and gym dues have already been refunded in full. Please come work out whenever you like. You're welcome any time. And as of today, Trainer Oh Rahi has been dismissed from our gym. If you wish to pursue a civil claim, please direct it not at the gym, but at Trainer Oh Rahi herself..."
"What? She's already been fired?"
If the dismissal was already done, there was no reason to be sitting through this. I'd been holding it in so Rahi wouldn't take the loss. At my question her shoulders flinched, and she kept her head sunk, staring only at the floor. The manager, though, smiled and nodded, leaning a little closer as she spoke.
"O-of course. We already gave her notice this morning. This incident, really..."
"Then why are you standing there like that?"
I had no intention of listening. I cut the manager off and spoke to Rahi, and strength flooded into Rahi's arms. I set the envelope down and pushed it toward the manager.
"I don't need the money. You don't have to worry about a settlement. So this gym and Trainer Rahi are finished with each other, then?"
"...? Y-yes. Of course."
"And her wages and severance?"
"...I-it's a disciplinary dismissal, so..."
"If you're about to tell me you'll cut it by half, I'll be at the Ministry of Employment and Labor tomorrow with a labor attorney."
She had been staring at me as if she couldn't understand a word, but the moment the Ministry came up she went pale and waved her hands.
"W-we will certainly pay the full amount, but...?"
"Then I'll be going. What are you doing over there? This isn't your workplace anymore."
"...Ah."
Only then did Rahi part her lips. Even a sound had been locked in her throat. I rose from the sofa, took the hand of the woman standing there like a criminal, and walked straight out of the office. I could feel the manager staring blankly after us, but she was only a stranger now.
"...Shinwoo..."
Rahi followed without strength and called my name, and her voice was thick with tears. My eyes, though, were on her reddened shoulder. Irritation surged again. I nearly snapped, but it wasn't something I could turn on her.
"Why didn't you say anything? Did you think I'd be happy if you did that?"
The moment we came out into the lobby I spoke, and watching her shrink, thoroughly cowed, I let out a sigh.
"Get your things. We're going home."
"...Yes."
Rahi answered, wiped her tears across her forearm, and slowly lifted a black long puffer from the back of the lobby, and the sports bag that had been lying beneath it. She'd already finished packing, by the look of it. From the strengthless way her arms moved and the tremble in her fingers, I could tell well enough what kind of ordeal she'd been through while she waited for me.
From what the manager had said, it must have blown up that morning. In those few hours, how badly had they ground the girl down to leave her this beaten? Thinking it through calmly—my ass. I was about to explode.
"...Is that everything?"
"...Yes."
"Let's go."
People working out glanced our way and murmured about what was going on, but I didn't look at them. I walked straight out of the gym, pressed the elevator button, and stood with my arms folded, watching the numbers change.
A wet sniff.
"Don't cry. What did you even do wrong?"
"...I'm sorry."
"You should have just said something."
"...I didn't want to use you as an excuse, Shinwoo."
"What kind of excuse is that? That I touched you is just a fact."
"...I wanted it too. It is my fault."
"If we enjoyed it together, then all the more reason we should take the responsibility together."
"I don't want that. Even the thought of something like that falling on you... I hate it. I could have handled it myself."
"And handling it yourself looks like this?"
"...I'm sorry. If I'd just done as you said... if I'd deleted it, it would have been over."
"That stubbornness. Honestly."
"...I'm sorry."
And at that moment the elevator arrived. I stepped in without a word, and Rahi followed, head deeply bowed. Then, as the doors slowly closed in front of us, I pushed her straight against the wall.
"Ah...!"
Startled, she let out a sound and looked up at me. Those pretty eyes were swollen red. Without a moment's hesitation, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, I covered her lips with mine.
"Mm—chup..."
Rahi, as if she had never been flustered at all, dropped her bag the instant my mouth touched hers and wrapped her arms around my neck. The force of her pushing sent me into the opposite wall. I turned her sideways again and kissed her. It was a more passionate kiss than any we'd shared.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
Neither of us spared a thought for breathing as we sought each other's lips, and then we slowly drew apart. A silver thread stretched between our mouths and snapped, but neither of us looked away. We only looked into each other's eyes.