A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body (3)
Good grief.
What the hell was going on?
Even I was caught off guard.
A girl with short black hair, wearing a black jersey.
That was the crucial part.
She was a beauty.
A different kind of beauty from Misaki.
Even Coach Shinsuke rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things.
But no matter how much he rubbed them, the real customer wasn't going anywhere.
Why would a girl like that come here?
The paint peeling off the walls, the dusty stairs, the window frames held together with tape.
The musty smell unique to old buildings, the stale air.
Just thinking about it, there had to be more than one or two filters to get up here, yet she'd somehow made it through.
And on top of that, she was asking to sign up after seeing this rundown gym?
“Ah! If you're not operating anymore……!! I'm sorry!!”
“No, no! We are operating. But are you sure about this?”
“Huh? About what?”
“Compared to other gyms, ours is pretty run-down…… I don't know if it'll suit a student.”
I liked that honest side of Coach Shinsuke.
Usually, the owners of shabby gyms like this either couldn't be bothered with anything or treated newcomers like easy marks.
But he was neither.
In fact, when he heard about my tight wallet situation, he'd even brought over a bunch of expensive supplements and training aids for me.
Yet despite his attempts to dissuade her, the girl shook her head.
“I-It's fine! I've never even been to another gym before.”
There was a subtle sense of kinship in those words.
She must've been looking for a cheap gym and ended up here.
Honestly, most students in the academy city were in similar situations.
Kenta was the exception, being the rich kid.
Most of us scraped by on meager allowances, and even that wasn't enough, so part-time jobs were practically mandatory.
“If you're that insistent…… I'll help you register. Now where did I put that form? Hey, Toya! Come over here and help her out for a bit!”
“Huh? But I'm in the middle of squats……”
“You said you were taking it light today! Rest is part of training too, you know!”
In the end, under Coach's nagging, I set the barbell down and headed to the counter.
It felt like he was using me as a trainer part-timer. At this rate, he should give me a bigger discount on my yearly membership.
He'd even made me handle regular customers last time.
“Um, as you can see, this is pretty much it. The women's changing room is over there, but since we haven't had any female members, it hasn't been cleaned in a while.”
“Ah……”
“Coach will probably clean it today, so you should be able to use it from next time. The uniform is free. You can take it home……”
“No way!!!! You little punk!! What are you saying!!”
“Even if he says that now, he'll probably allow it after about two weeks. And if you butter him up from the side, you might even get free PT—”
“Hey, you punk, Toya!!”
“Pfft!!”
At that, the girl burst out laughing.
“What? Are you two comedians or something?”
“I'm not, but Coach used to be……”
“Oh man, this is insane! Toya! Move it! Go finish your squats!”
Coach frantically grabbed the papers and rushed out of the storage room.
In the end, I got chased out to the free rack.
“That kid only joined recently, but he already acts like I'm his neighborhood big brother.”
“Ehh— really? You two seem so close, like family.”
“Family, my ass. Oh right, you said you're from Midorigaoka?”
“Yes, first year.”
“That's good. We actually have one more Midorigaoka student here.”
“Really!?”
With slight dark circles under her eyes, she looked pretty tired despite her round, cute impression.
For the first time, her eyes widened.
“Yeah~ Right in front of you.”
“In front of me?”
The girl started scanning the entire gym, left and right, front and back.
She didn't even glance my way.
“Uh, there's no one here? Besides, there aren't even any other members……”
At that moment.
Her head creaked around toward me.
“E-Ehh~ Coach, really~! You really are a comedian? That guy's a trainer, right?”
Zap.
My heart ached.
Was I really that old-looking?
These days I was putting on muscle instead of fat, and when I checked my face in the morning, it hadn't looked that bad.
Then Coach burst out laughing and added with a completely serious expression.
“No, there's no such thing as jokes in my dictionary.”
Thud.
I set down the barbell I'd been holding and walked toward the girl.
She flinched and took a step back.
“I'm Sido Toya.”
“Ehh, r-really?”
“Midorigaoka High School, first year, Class E.”
I drove the final nail into her disbelief.
“Fifteen years old.”
“Ehh— I had no idea. Your name did sound familiar, though.”
“You'd probably know if I said Ozawa Kenta?”
“Ahh! Ozawa! Then the friend who was always hanging around him was you, Sido?”
“Correct.”
Kenta really was the ultimate social butterfly.
I didn't know anyone, but everyone seemed to know the guy stuck to Ozawa Kenta's side.
This time was no different.
“Hmm, I see. You looked a bit different from the image I had in my head, so I didn't recognize you. Sorry about that.”
It made sense that I'd changed.
It had already been a month and a half since the new semester started.
Since I'd transmigrated four weeks ago, I'd lost a fair amount of fat and gained muscle in that time.
“I'm Hoshino Asuka. Nice to meet you. Sido.”
I lightly shook the hand she offered.
“Likewise. Hoshino.”
After registering, Hoshino Asuka started coming to the gym regularly.
Since we went to the same school and both stayed late, our training times naturally overlapped.
Of course, neither Coach nor I were the type to flirt with a girl just to score points, so we each stuck to our own routines.
Unlike us, whose main focus was weight training, Hoshino Asuka mostly did cardio.
Then one day.
While I was mixing my post-workout supplement, Hoshino sidled up and asked.
“Um, Sido…… could you teach me some weight training?”
“Weights? All of a sudden? Weren't you just doing light running before?”
“Ah……! It's not for any particular reason, but the new part-time job I got seems like it'll require some strength. I thought maybe building a bit of muscle would help.”
“!!!!!!!!!!!”
Dopamine flooded my system in an instant.
A newbie. A fresh, brand-new newbie!!
“Of course. Come on, this way. Let's start with some light lower body work.”
“Wait! Hold on!? Huh? Why are you so fired up……!!”
“Just remember this breathing. Exhale when you exert, inhale when you release. Hoo, ha. Hoo, ha.”
“Hoo, hoooo……!!!”
“Again, again! If you do it like that, your core won't engage! Your intra-abdominal pressure will drop!!”
“Hoooo, haaaaaah—!!!”
“Wrong way, wrong way!!”
“Hoo!! Haaaaah……!!”
“Okay, keep going just like that, push through! Ah! Nice! That's good! Delicious!! Next up, leg press!!”
“What do you mean delicious!! Augh…… It hurts, my legs won't move……”
That was how Hoshino ended up getting her muscles absolutely wrecked on the very first day.
I briefly wondered if I'd gone too hard.
But the next day, and the day after that.
Hoshino kept asking me to teach her weights.
My eye for people hadn't been wrong after all.
If someone walks into a coach-run gym without hesitation, they're clearly ready to train.
So sometimes Coach, sometimes I, would supervise her workouts.
“Toya, what are you doing today?”
“Lower body.”
“Ehh, you did lower body last time too.”
“You've been doing way too much upper body lately. Are you gonna keep whining like a weakling?”
“Ah, fine! I get it, really……”
Naturally, we started chatting and grew closer, eventually dropping formal speech without even realizing it.
Of course, we also started greeting each other casually when we ran into each other at school.
“Oh! Toya, heading to the school store?”
“Yeah, thought I'd grab a snack for once. My allowance came in.”
“Heh, I was wondering how someone could live on just chicken breast and eggs. So you eat this stuff too?”
“Could you not treat me like some weirdo……”
“Ahaha, you're hilarious. See you later then!”
“Later.”
Of course, Hoshino Asuka was undeniably beautiful no matter who looked at her.
So just talking to her in the hallways naturally drew attention.
For example.
“Sido Toya, you crazy bastard!!”
Like Ozawa Kenta stirring things up.
“Have you finally lost it? Don't tell me not hanging around Shinohara lately means……!!”
“I've told you a hundred times it's not like that.”
“Like hell it isn't! Toya-kun? How the hell did you even get close to her?”
“Is it really that big a deal that I'm friends with Hoshino?”
“There it is again, Hoshino. Dammit, Toya…… I don't have any secrets from you, so why do you have so many from me……!!”
Kenta shook his fist in frustration, then leaned in and whispered.
“So how far have you gotten?”
This lunatic.
Kenta dodged my swinging fist with a grin.
“Aah~ When you're lonely later, I'll have to ask you to introduce me to some girls.”
“Shut up.”
My body was fifteen, but my mind was that of a grown man.
Talking to girls my age wasn't unpleasant, but that didn't mean I felt anything romantic.
Keeping my distance from Shinohara Misaki was the same.
If I started getting all mushy, that would be a problem.
I was a guy too.
Hell, I was a lifelong single.
It was embarrassing to say out loud, but once I hit the gas, I had no idea where the brakes even were.
So the best move was to stay far away from the start.
“You should come to the gym too. You could get close to Hoshino. Wanna join?”
“Ah, no…… I'm good. If I go there, you'll probably kill me with training. Besides, Hoshino isn't really my type. I won't get in the way of your romance.”
“You're a real piece of work.”
I thought that would be the end of it.
But trouble always came from places I never expected.
“Hey, you're Sido Toya, right?”
“……Yamaguchi Ryuji-senpai?”
“Good that you remember my name. Then, junior, how about we have a little chat?”
Yamaguchi's crew dragged me behind the school while putting on all kinds of intimidating airs.
“What's your relationship with Asuka from Class B?”
A classic romcom development.
“You'd better stop hanging around her and back off.”
An unwanted love triangle event with a delinquent senior had been triggered.
Right.
I'd almost forgotten this was a messed-up romcom world.
