Let's Work Out
"Here's the pasta and risotto you ordered."
The waitress set down the dishes Kim Hyunsoo and Kim Jiyeon had chosen, and both plates looked every bit as delicious as they smelled. Free food bought by a woman really was the best of the best. Everything tasted amazing when someone else was paying for it. Hell, he could probably wolf down a cup of instant noodles or a convenience store hot bar and still call it a gourmet meal. That was how powerful the word "free" could be.
Kim Hyunsoo reached for his chopsticks right away, ready to dig in, only to look up and find Kim Jiyeon staring at him with a puzzled expression. Reading the look in her eyes and wondering what on earth he'd done wrong, he asked, "Is something the matter, Noona?"
"No, it's just... I heard that guys always take photos of their food with their phones when it comes out. You're not going to...?"
Ah, that's what she meant. Kim Hyunsoo understood immediately. In this world, it was common for men to snap pictures before eating—especially back at the rental boyfriend agency where he worked. Whenever the men ate together, most of them took food photos as a matter of course.
But Kim Hyunsoo had never picked up the habit. Looking at pictures of food just made him hungry. There was no value in a photo like that. Now, taking pictures at an overseas destination or a famous tourist spot, he could understand—that was about preserving memories. Food was different. It wasn't like pasta or restaurant meals were once-in-a-lifetime experiences; even if he didn't eat them every day, they came around often enough. What was the point of photographing something you'd have again next week?
Kim Hyunsoo's answer was a firm no. If it were some exotic foreign dish or something he'd rarely get to see again, saving a picture would make sense, but a photo of ordinary pasta or of the restaurant itself? He simply didn't feel the need. So he shook his head and said, "I don't take food photos, Noona."
"Really?"
"Yep. Go ahead and enjoy your meal, Noona."
"Mm, you eat well too, Hyunsoo."
Unfortunately, today's menu was pasta and risotto, so the option Shin Yuna had once enjoyed—feeding him by hand—was off the table. That meant he'd have to settle for showing off just how delicious he found every bite. Kim Hyunsoo ate his pasta with evident relish, and watching him, Kim Jiyeon beamed with a happy, contented smile.
Just seeing him eat made her feel full herself. Was this what it meant to feed your boyfriend something delicious? She finally understood the handful of women around her who'd landed boyfriends and claimed that watching them eat was a meal in itself. Now she felt exactly the same way.
Seeing Kim Hyunsoo slurp up his pasta made her happy, plain and simple. Was this how a mother felt watching her child happily devour a meal she'd cooked with her own hands? She forgot all about the pasta sitting in front of her and just focused on his face instead. To think a man could look that cool doing nothing more than eating noodles...
Forget food photography—what she should have been recording was a video of Kim Hyunsoo enjoying his pasta. His mukbang was genuinely worth watching, that much was certain. Posted to NewTube, it would easily clear a hundred thousand views, no question. And so Kim Jiyeon spent the rest of the date in a warm glow of happiness.
The time flew by so pleasantly that she never even noticed the rental hours running out. It had been more than worth booking—and she'd absolutely be requesting him again. Until today, she'd never known that simply walking down the street, chatting one-on-one with a man, could feel this wonderful.
Beeeep-beep-beep—!
The phone alarm he'd chosen instead of an old-fashioned clock went off, and Kim Hyunsoo dragged himself out of bed in a rumpled haze. Come to think of it, today was a day off. He'd been too lazy to bother toggling his alarm, so he'd just left it set to ring every day; instead, he fiddled with his phone and set it to stay silent on holidays.
Then he flopped back onto the bed. Too late—the alarm had already chased the sleep right out of him. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to drift off anyway, but it was hopeless. Scowling, he gave up and opened his eyes. Lying there staring blankly at the ceiling, he grabbed the remote and switched on the TV, where a male weather caster was delivering the forecast.
The man wore clothes that left very little of his physique to the imagination, enthusiastically walking viewers through the week's weather. In his old world, this would have triggered a flood of viewer complaints. A male weather caster instead of a female one? Unthinkable. And that outfit was... a lot, too.
Still, it wasn't so outrageous as to be hard on the eyes, and Kim Hyunsoo counted that a mercy. The gender reversal hadn't changed how men dressed. If men had started wearing skirts or dresses in this world, the mere thought would have been horrifying. Men, in skirts and dresses...
He pictured it—hairy-legged men strutting down the street in miniskirts. A vision that made his whole body shudder just to imagine. Thankfully, it would never actually happen. Kim Hyunsoo studied the weather caster's body instead. The man was well muscled—clearly someone who worked out hard.
It wasn't the grotesque, bloated kind of muscle mass, either. His body was covered with lean, developed muscle built up over long hours of training. "Pleasantly fit" was probably the right way to describe it. Kim Hyunsoo climbed out of bed and walked over to stand in front of the mirror.
His own body was the very picture of an ordinary civilian. His face might have been somewhat handsome, but he'd never exercised a day in his life, so there wasn't a muscle to speak of. He lifted his T-shirt up over his chest. His stomach wasn't flat—it was, in fact, beginning to protrude.
He only had himself to blame. A month of working as a rental boyfriend meant a month of being fed by countless women—and not just any food, but the kind that packed on pounds. Eat out constantly, never exercise, and the bill comes due, cruel and swift. The weight was creeping on, bit by bit.
Five whole kilograms of it, in fact. Only now did a flicker of alarm take hold. No matter how favorable this world was to men, the women here still had two working eyes. Which meant they paid far less attention to fat, sloppy men.
Just as women back in his old world ignored men who were overweight and unattractive, the women here lost interest in men who let themselves go. Come to think of it, the Agency Boss telling him he'd looked like he'd gained a little weight hadn't been an empty remark after all. If someone who saw him regularly had noticed the change, who knew how quickly his clients might catch on? Women's instincts were sharp as blades.
Kim Hyunsoo resolved to exercise. He needed to lose the weight, first and foremost. His stomach had never stuck out this much before...
Step one was conquering the tadpole belly. He showered, got changed, and headed out with the vague plan of finding a gym nearby. Starting today, he would train hard—his goal was a body like the male weather caster he'd just seen on TV.
Besides, body maintenance came with the rental boyfriend job. This line of work was basically like being a celebrity; self-care was non-negotiable. If he got complacent and settled into his current comfort, his clients might one day take one look at the new, heavier Kim Hyunsoo and walk away. They loved him lean and manly—not fat and unmaintained.
Hat pulled low over his eyes, Kim Hyunsoo stepped outside.
He wandered the streets, scouting for a gym in a convenient location. Fortunately, he found one that suited him. From the outside, the facilities looked solid, and it seemed to have been open for quite a while.
That mattered, because brand-new gyms had a certain... problem. Fly-by-night operations, so to speak. They'd push personal training packages and various promotional deals to get members' payments upfront, then shut the doors and vanish a month or two later. It was basically a Ponzi scheme.
Gather as many customers as possible, collect the money, then pull a midnight vanishing act—leaving every member understandably furious. And worse, there was nothing they could do about it. All they could do was report it to the police and wait for the owner to be tracked down, and the odds of that were slim to none.
Kim Hyunsoo climbed the stairs. He briefly considered the elevator, but taking the stairs felt more natural—and who knew, maybe it counted as a warm-up. When he reached the gym, he threw the door open without a second thought. Inside, women were mid-workout, every one of them dressed boldly: tank tops and leggings that clung to every curve.
Surrounded by women with lean, sculpted muscle, Kim Hyunsoo felt something like an overwhelming, awe-inspiring presence bearing down on him. The man who had barged in so boldly now found his courage shrinking by the second.