Reunion (2)
The most important thing when starting a fight is knowing exactly where the line is. Cross it with a man and it’s nothing more than a signal to throw hands. Cross it with a woman and you get slapped with labels like stalker that are a massive pain in the ass.
“Tsk.”
The woman who had been pounding the treadmill for thirty minutes, ponytail whipping behind her, finally stopped. Sweat poured down her skin as she shot me a sharp glare, then started gathering her things. The way she rose to even that mild provocation told me she might be easier prey than I’d expected. Of course, her body was anything but easy.
“…God, you’re annoying.”
Her grumbling attitude right to the end was genuinely irritating, but one look at that figure and the irritation melted away. Her chest? Without question the largest I’d ever seen in the flesh. Her ass? Maybe not quite as impressive as her breasts, but the way those leggings clung to it made it look perfectly spankable. Her thighs? Thick enough to strain fishnets, yet her ankles and calves stayed elegantly slim. I wasn’t exactly a novice, but I had rarely even met a woman built like her, let alone slept with one. The celebrities who occasionally showed up for ceremonial first pitches were all stick-thin. Glamorous types were rare.
And the more I watched that defiant attitude, the more her hidden merits rose in my mind, pushing past the resentment. The striking beige-colored long hair that had turned heads even back when she worked for the club. Those sharp eyes that seemed to ask whether I could actually bring her to her knees. The tear mole beneath her left eye paired perfectly with her rebellious gaze and hit every one of my preferences.
Her mindset was attractive too. Working out in a gym full of men, wearing nothing but a white tank top and black leggings while drenched in sweat—she knew exactly what she was doing. Women with sky-high guards are difficult to seduce anyway. A woman who takes care to dye her hair nicely and maintain a body like that communicates much more fluently. Body to body.
…Can I reel her in?
After she left, I finished my own workout not long after and headed for the showers. Standing under the pounding water, I used the sharpened senses I’d developed as a player to carefully map out how to hunt this particular prey.
The disappointing part was how little I actually knew about her. The only personal details I had were that we were the same age and she’d joined the club in 2016. Oh, and that she was General Manager Seo’s daughter, plus her younger sister was an idol. I knew the sister was ridiculously beautiful and popular; she was famous enough that pretending otherwise would be impossible. I had never bothered digging up anything beyond that, nor had I wanted to. I didn’t even know whether she had graduated high school or college. Well… judging by her age, high school was the safe bet.
Of course, what kind of life she had lived or what circumstances she was in was none of my concern. There was only one thing I hoped for.
What… what do you want… What did I ever do…
I wanted that trembling look in her eyes from earlier to be her true face. I didn’t dislike women with strong personalities, but ones who stayed prickly even in bed were hard to break. Whether you boil or grill it, tender meat is simply easier to cook. People with rigid principles and solid mental fortitude aren’t easy to strip bare and devour.
But in my experience, those who put on that kind of front usually had soft insides. If their core was truly tough, they wouldn’t need to walk around with thorns raised all the time.
If I can just get our palms to meet, I can grab hold and shake. So please—just come out already. Making the body submit isn’t difficult. Making the heart submit is even easier.
March 2nd, the next day. The gym.
The only difference from yesterday was that I had lightly tousled my hair. That was it.
“Hello, Seo Haeun.”
“…Hello.”
The same woman drinking water at the same time hadn’t changed either. When I greeted her with a completely shameless face, she frowned as if she found it absurd but still returned the greeting.
…She seemed to have a stronger ego than I had anticipated. I had expected her to ignore me completely.
“You came again today. I thought you might not show up.”
“Excuse me. Why are you acting like we’re close—”
“We’re former coworkers. Can’t I act a little friendly? You’re being awfully cold just because I retired.”
“…You know perfectly well that I hate you. Stop talking to me.”
“I hate you too. But even though I say that, you keep showing up at the same time, so I can’t exactly ignore you.”
To anyone watching, it would look like childish bickering. While I scratched at her nerves, I tried to set up the ridiculous frame that running away meant defeat. In the end, it all came down to emotion. No one enjoys having their life disrupted by someone they despise.
“Haah… If you’re at the gym, why don’t you just work out, Kang Juhyuk?”
“I’ll do that without you needing to worry about it. I was just stretching and got bored, so I thought I’d talk to you.”
“Ha, seriously. So annoying…”
“If it’s annoying, you don’t have to come at this hour. I’ve been coming here longer than you have, so you should be the one to leave.”
“What are you, a child…? I paid my own money to register at this gym. Why should I leave?”
“If you don’t want to leave, you can just work out while talking to me like this. Honestly it’s a little uncomfortable for me too, but I want to exercise in a place with strong air-conditioning during bright daylight hours, so I’ll endure it. You endure it too.”
“Haah…”
There was no need to analyze the face glaring at me with eyes full of irritation. The sheer malice she felt toward me was overwhelming, but I could just as easily read the angry refusal to lose.
At the very least, this woman would never run away when I picked a fight. She would keep clashing with me until I was the one who whimpered and backed down.
“How are things at the club these days? I haven’t been back since I retired.”
“Excuse me. Stop acting friendly and stop talking to me. It’s annoying—”
“Seeing you work out with me at this hour, it looks like your schedule is pretty flexible. Isn’t the season opener coming up soon?”
“It has nothing to do with you, Kang Juhyuk.”
“Why wouldn’t it? It’s the team I spent six years with. Seeing an employee slacking off like this actually makes my old company loyalty flare up again.”
“…I quit, so I wouldn’t know.”
“Ah, I see.”
By continuing the conversation in a sly, mocking tone, I was able to pick up pieces of information I hadn’t known before. At least until the day I was released, she had definitely still been with the club. Well, there’s nothing more painful than being forced to keep doing a job you hate, so her quitting wasn’t strange. I didn’t know exactly how she had been treated afterward, but given how the rumors about me had spread, she probably hadn’t been treated like a princess. If she had been, she wouldn’t have quit and be working out in the middle of the day. It wasn’t certain, but her smooth skin didn’t suggest night work, so she was most likely unemployed. A comrade. My comrade.
“You quit your job and moved here?”
“…Yes.”
“Housing prices in Mokdong are expensive. You must have quite a bit of money.”
“It’s none of your concern.”
“You quit your job, so why did you come to Mokdong? If you were still working for the club, maybe, but…”
“I said it’s none of your concern. …Stop talking to me and mind your own business.”
Still, that raised a question. An unemployed woman who had quit a decent job moving into expensive Mokdong definitely implied something. Even if I had originally lived here, she had quit a job located in Mokdong and still chosen to move to Mokdong. Where had a woman who had worked for at most three years gotten that kind of money? The logical assumption would be that her parents had bought it for her, but since she had quit the position her own father had arranged, the pieces didn’t fit. And thinking she was doing something risky didn’t suit a golden spoon like her. If I erased the unnecessary parts and looked at what remained…
“Then do you live in that apartment over there? The new building that just went up…”
“Where I live has nothing to do with you. Haah… I’ve already gone along with you enough. Please just disappear. How long are you planning to stretch, exactly?”
“You’re supposed to loosen up your body properly. Besides, mine isn’t in the best condition.”
“Excuse me, Kang Juhyuk. What exactly are you scheming—”
“I told you there’s nothing like that. I’m just talking because I’m bored.”
“…Do you have no sense at all?”
“Of course I do. That’s why I’m talking to you. I figured if I got close to Seo Haeun, some nice crumbs might fall my way.”
“…Crumbs?”
“Well, you know. If you’re friendly with a celebrity’s family, you can get autographs and stuff. I’m actually a fan of your sister.”
It had to be that woman’s younger sister. Seo Jia. The fact that I even knew her songs meant she had earned a considerable amount of money. Appearance-wise, it looked pathetic—an older sister leeching off her celebrity younger sister—but it wasn’t unusual. On the contrary, I earnestly hoped this woman was living a pathetic life.
“…You talked to me because of that?”
“Not only because of that, but it’s not like the reason is completely nonexistent.”
“Go away. Please. Stop saying things that make me uncomfortable.”
“What’s uncomfortable? I’m telling you I’m a fan of your sister.”
See? The moment her sister’s name came up, her face crumpled. That wasn’t an expression born from simply hating me. It was a wound carved into her pride. Was there anything more confidence-destroying than living in the shadow of a successful younger sister? From what I had heard, the two sisters had appeared on an audition program together, but only the younger one had been scouted by an agency. If it were me, I would have been so furious I’d rather sit on the ground than ask my sister for help. Of course, this woman…
“Haah… Excuse me, Kang Juhyuk. You have no intention of listening to a word I say, do you?”
“Nope.”
“…If I give you Jia’s autograph, will you stop talking to me if I ask nicely?”
“Sorry?”
“I’ll give you the autograph you want, so please get away from me. From my side.”
“Ah, well… If you’re offering, I’ll gratefully accept and leave.”
“I’ll get it for you when I have time, so please don’t speak to me anymore. I’m begging you.”
She seemed surprisingly easy to open up. Her sister’s hand, at least.