Jumma-Run
Nietzsche once said:
"I am body entirely, and nothing besides."
What he meant, I suppose, is that the soul, the spirit—all of it—is nothing more than a fragment wrought by this body of ours.
In my case, I was hardly in a position to agree with him completely. After all, my mind was the one that had taken up residence inside Jeong Eun-gyeol's body.
And yet, at the same time, I found myself thinking he might be right.
My mind could control Jeong Eun-gyeol's body to a certain extent, but the instinctive parts of it remained beyond my reach. The body's instincts held dominion over my mind.
When Jeong Eun-gyeol's body grew hungry, my mind wanted to eat. When Jeong Eun-gyeol's body ached, my mind felt the pain as well. Which meant that if Jeong Eun-gyeol's body were frail, my mind itself could be eaten away. Conversely, if her body were healthy, my mind could exert a greater degree of control over it.
I forget the name, but some poet of ancient Rome put it this way: a sound mind dwells in a sound body.
Even if body and mind belonged to different masters, what ultimately mattered was a healthy body.
A veteran racer in a junk car still doesn't win the race. Before you need a good driver, you need a good car.
Not that I'm claiming to be a veteran racer, mind you…
Either way, the conclusion was the same. I needed to exercise. Exercise!
I opened my eyes at nine in the morning—far earlier than usual. Ordinarily I wouldn't have stirred until past noon.
I barely managed to wrestle down the urge to burrow deeper into the blankets and dragged myself out of bed. I put on the same form-fitting athletic wear I'd worn last time.
…I should buy something baggier when I get home today.
My destination was the lakeside park where, last time, I'd collapsed after a single minute of jogging.
Once I arrived, I started into a light warm-up. Nothing elaborate—just some simple stretches. When I finished, I stepped onto the running path.
Unlike last time, I wasn't going to simply tear off at full speed. I needed to manage my pace. Today's goal was roughly half a lap of the park—about two kilometers, by my estimate.
"Hoo…"
I took one deep breath and set my foot lightly forward. No matter what, I was finishing this. Even if I had to walk the rest of the way.
Five minutes later.
"Hah…! Hah…! Hah…!"
I'd adjusted my pace as carefully as I could, and still my heart felt ready to leap out of my mouth. A metallic sweetness filled my breath; my legs trembled like a newborn fawn's, threatening to dump me on the ground at any second.
But I couldn't stop yet. I hadn't hit my limit.
I was gritting my teeth and forcing myself onward when it happened.
Tap, tap, tap.
Light, cheerful footsteps approached from behind. Someone was catching up to me.
Whoosh.
A figure slipped past me with casual ease.
F-fast…!
Young people really were something else—
No. Not young at all.
It was an old man with hair gone completely white. At a glance he looked to be in his late sixties or seventies. And he wasn't even running. He simply power-walked past me as though I were standing still.
He glanced back, clicking his tongue with something like pity.
"Young lady, you're already gasping like that? At your age? Don't push yourself—just walk nice and slow~"
With that single parting shot, he drifted away. Walking.
Urgh…
Humiliating. I wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the nearest bench, but pure stubbornness dragged me back into a run. I was going to overtake that old man no matter what.
My body, however, refused to keep pace with my will. Before long my lungs were screaming at their limit, and I had no choice but to plant my hands on my knees and gasp for air.
I was just catching my breath and trying to get my feet moving again when—
"Oh my~ Look at that young lady~ She's so pretty~"
"But her form is terrible~"
"Young lady~ Over here~"
A noisy cluster of voices rose behind me. What now?
Still heaving, I looked toward the sound and found a pack of middle-aged women. Every one of them wore neon-bright running clothes, a wide-brimmed hat, and arm sleeves—five living embodiments of the word ajumma.
They caught up to my shambling walk in no time, then fanned out around me and fell into step at my pace.
"Young lady, I saw you running earlier—you'll wreck yourself going at it like that. Here, follow Auntie. In-in, out-out. Nose twice, mouth twice!"
"And straighten that back! Aigoo, how are you this thin? Nothing but bones!"
With that, she slapped my back.
Smack—!
"Hah!"
My rounded spine snapped upright on pure reflex.
"Shoulders back! Chest out! Come on, walk with us. One, two! One, two!"
Before I knew it, I was surrounded, being frog-marched into a power walk at their merciless stride.
"Hah—khah!"
"Don't breathe like that~ Come on—in-in! Out-out!"
"Don't swing the arms hard—keep it light. Make a fist like you're holding an egg. That's it, just like that!"
"Come on~ You can do it! Go!"
One woman shoved me along from behind while the others launched into coaching.
"Young lady, is this your first time working out? Your form looked exactly like someone who'd never set foot in a park before."
"Hah… hah… Yes…"
"Oh my~ You're pretty enough to be a celebrity! And that skin—how is it so nice? Isn't it boring, exercising alone?"
"Hah… No. I-I'm fi—"
"Exercising alone gets so dull you can't keep it up~"
"How old are you, young lady? Student? Working? At this hour it's probably not a job, so student? On break?"
"Hah…! Um, I—"
"Aigoo! The more I look at you, the prettier you get~ Are you a model or something? I feel like I've seen you on TV."
"Oh, please. Why would someone on television be jogging around this park? Anyway, young lady—do you have a boyfriend? Looking like that, of course you do, right?"
"Haa… No, I don—"
"Oh my! She doesn't! Her standards must be sky-high. Well, with a face like that, of course she can't just settle. My oldest nephew just started at a bank—tall, and his personality is pure gold. Want to grab a meal with him sometime?"
"Hey, what are you doing matchmaking a girl who came out to exercise? Young lady, are you tired? Here, put this in your mouth first. Red ginseng candy. You don't want your blood sugar crashing mid-walk."
"Mmph?!"
A candy was shoved into my mouth, and a bitter-sweet taste flooded over my tongue.
"Try these too. Grown in my own garden. Organic!"
Another woman pressed two cherry tomatoes into my hand.
"Alright, no questions, no arguments—from today on, you're the youngest of our 'Jumma-Run'! Exercise alone and you'll get bored and quit in a few days. I'll add you to the group chat. What's your phone number?"
Oh no…!
Trapped in the vortex of their overwhelming energy, I couldn't find a way out.
"I—I, um, I didn't bring my ph—"
I answered in a rush, but—
"Oh my, isn't that a phone bulging in your pocket? Hand it over. I'll just call myself real quick!"
Not even a single second was granted for refusal. Questions, answers, and actions all proceeded under the ajummas' absolute control.
Th-this is…!
Herd mentality! The very law I had lectured my viewers about yesterday—and now I was the one being swept away by it. Was I no more able to defy that law than anyone else?
Caught in the current of the moment, I exchanged phone numbers before I knew what was happening.
"There we go—in-in! Out-out! Our little maknae, chatting while you walk keeps the breathing steady and makes it less boring, doesn't it?"
No…
Please, someone, anyone—get me out of this merciless ajumma hell…!
"Aigoo, look at her getting all shy. Come on, swing those arms big! Maknae, lengthen that stride!"
They were already calling me the maknae.
"One, two! One, two!"
How much time passed, I couldn't say. My legs had long since stopped answering to me. With an ajumma linked arm-in-arm on either side, I shambled along like a zombie.
I… I can't walk anymore…
I looked at them with naked desperation.
"Excuse me… I can barely breathe… I need to…"
"There we go, almost there! Final spurt!"
Almost there?
In my lurching vision, the clock tower that marked our starting point drew steadily nearer. One full lap of the lakeside park—how many kilometers was that again? Three and a half, if I remembered right.
I'd had the ajummas' help, yes, but I had completed a full circuit of the park.
The moment we reached the clock tower, I collapsed onto a bench. My head spun; I felt as though my soul were trying to leave through my mouth.
"Aigoo, our maknae did so well. You kept up beautifully."
I lay sprawled across the bench while the women fell into gossip among themselves.
"I heard Young-a's mom in Building 103 put her place on the market yesterday? Apparently her husband wiped them out on stocks."
"Oh my, how awful. Really, husbands are a curse, a curse."
"My oldest just made assistant manager, you know. Yesterday he got his bonus—guess how much allowance he gave me?"
"How much?"
"…This much."
"I'm so jealous. Sons really are the best. Oh, by the way—your boy still isn't married, is he? Why don't you introduce him to our maknae? Good job, and last time I saw him he was quite the looker. Someone like your son might just clear her high standards."
"Oh my, you're right! I've been looking for a nice young lady for him anyway, since he never dates! Maknae, want to go on a blind date with my oldest?"
"Ah—hah… khah… No."
I answered so fast I choked on my own spit. I was already dying for air; the coughing fit nearly finished me off.
"Kack! Kack-kack! I—I'm not interested in… dating."
That particular brand of steamrolling, at least, I had to stop even if it killed me.
"Aigoo, why is this girl so shy? Anyway, I bought joint supplements at Costco yesterday, and everyone says they work like a charm."
"Really? I should get some too. Oh my goodness! It's almost eleven already! Unni, we should get going."
"Let's go, let's go. Alright, our maknae! I'll post the notice in the group chat, so don't be late tomorrow or the day after! Got it? Jumma-Run, fighting!"
"Fighting!"
"Good work, maknae~"
The women scattered and went their separate ways.
In the wake of the storm, I lay limp on the bench and muttered,
"I… I thought I was going to die."
…Maybe tomorrow I'll just do home training.
When I got home, I collapsed onto the bed without even showering. I was going to need an hour or two of this, at minimum…
Kotok!
My smartphone buzzed. With a trembling hand I unlocked the screen and found a CocoaTalk notification waiting.
The welcome messages kept rolling in without end.
I briefly considered simply leaving the group chat, but that felt too coldly inhuman, so I answered as I did. A flood of messages followed about how polite I was, how well my manners matched my looks, and so on.
Once the conversation drifted away from me, I muted the chat notifications and flipped the phone face-down.
This club…
Would it be all right to keep going?
Well…
As the ajummas had said, it was better than running alone. And gatherings of young people always risked attracting the wrong sort of flies.
Not every day—but every once in a while, running together wouldn't be so bad, would it?
While I was still thinking that over, sleep took me without my noticing.