Irresistible
Lee Deokhwa shook his head as he watched the mutuber on screen.
He wanted to tell him to shut the broadcast down right then and there, but he decided against it.
The man looked half-mad. No matter what he said now, there was no chance he’d listen.
Of course he wouldn’t.
He’d just received a ten-million-won donation out of nowhere.
And nobody even knew whether that was the end of it. If anything, the mood suggested it probably wasn’t.
At a time like this, what good would it do to tell him to quit streaming?
He wouldn’t just ignore him—he’d probably make a laughingstock out of him instead.
So Deokhwa tried a threat instead.
“I’d appreciate it if you’d stop mentioning me on your broadcast from now on. If you continue, I’ll take legal action.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?”
He didn’t even listen. Instead, he thanked the bastard who owned Uto Gym.
Deokhwa tried to issue one more warning.
-Gwaaah! Our kind and brilliant Mr. Uto Gym just donated five million won... ahhh, I’m dead.
What a lunatic. Only now did he fully grasp it. He really had picked the wrong target.
A law firm meant at least tens of millions of won.
The problem was that it didn’t sound like a bluff at all—it sounded sincere.
And how could it not?
He’d already donated fifteen million won. Why would he lie about spending a few more tens of millions?
“Ahem. In any case, I warned you. I’ll be going now...”
He turned to leave.
-Y-you’re serious? Our boss has totally lost it!
Was he really just burning money for fun...?
Who exactly had he been competing against?
How much money would you need to act like this?
Could the money he’d spent in Jeju Island have been...
Not some excessive splurge from the excitement of starting a business, but merely his everyday spending?
He couldn’t take it anymore.
Without another word, he left the broadcast.
After that, he sank into thought.
“What am I supposed to do now...?”
No answer came to him. What was he even supposed to do now? If he’d been going to do something, he should have done it much earlier.
He even considered apologizing, but...
He shook his head.
At this point, even if one side backed down, there was nothing to gain.
As long as Uto Gym didn’t close, he wouldn’t get his money back—instead, he’d be buried under debt.
And apologizing wouldn’t make them shut the gym down for him.
As for shutting Neo Gym down himself...
“It’s the same either way...”
Being reduced to a debt-ridden wreck didn’t change a thing.
He felt like he was going insane.
If he kept competing, there was no guarantee he could win.
To be honest...
He could no longer even see a thread of hope.
That last donation—if that money had gone into the competition, he still would’ve been beaten.
To spend that kind of money on donations...
That meant he still had plenty left to spend on the fight.
Only now did the detective’s warning come back to him: don’t try to compete with money.
What he had seen, perhaps, had been nothing more than the tip of the iceberg.
In the end, he couldn’t make a decision.
One day passed, then two.
It didn’t matter.
Even if he didn’t decide anything himself...
The conclusion was already closing in on him. The video on Mutube had blown up, and the backlash against his gym had already begun.
There was no way to endure it.
***
I got a PT session.
For the first time in a while, I let my older sister put me through my paces. Working out while trying to calm my swollen cock had been rough.
Of course, it had also been insanely exciting and fun.
When I came out after showering...
“Boss.”
“Yes?”
The manager came looking for me.
“It seems Neo Gym has gone out of business.”
“What? That suddenly?”
“Well... after becoming a hot topic on Mutube, people started vandalizing the gym. Breaking windows was just the beginning; some even pissed on the place, and in worse cases...”
“Jeez, people really can be awful.”
After everything that happened on Mutube, I figured something would go wrong somehow. The chat during the broadcast had been anything but normal.
I hadn’t expected it to get this serious, though.
“Apparently the owner of Neo Gym vanished without paying back the members, let alone the trainers’ wages, and now people are even carrying off equipment. The staff say they’re preparing to sue...”
“He turned out to be even worse than I thought.”
“Honestly, if he had any common sense, he never would’ve picked a fight with you, boss. The fact that he couldn’t even see that much...”
“Hmm...”
Something about it felt off if it ended like this.
More than anything, though...
There was a trainer there who looked pretty good.
Among the new trainers at Neo Gym, there’d been one who was exactly my type.
If Yujin noona looked like someone who obviously worked out, then the new trainer at Neo Gym was healthy-looking but, in a way, seemed delicate.
She had a lean, toned body with no unnecessary flesh on her.
“At the very least, it’d be nice to leave things cleanly. Sure, this was supposed to be fair competition, but since their boss ran off, there are a lot of people who ended up getting hurt.”
“I suppose that can’t really be helped. You don’t need to worry about it yourself, boss...”
“No, I just want to. I’m sure the landlord over there is having a rough time too. If the vandalism keeps going, the building’s image will go downhill. Honestly, it’s probably already taken a huge hit.”
“I’m sure he’s under a lot of pressure.”
“Could you go meet with the landlord and make him an offer? Tell him we’ll take over Neo Gym without any key money, and rename it Uto Gym instead. Make it our second branch.”
“We might be able to talk to the landlord, but I don’t know whether the staff will accept that. In the worst case, they might just occupy the gym themselves...”
“If it becomes our second branch, I’ll take responsibility. Members who already signed up can keep coming, and I’ll handle the staff too. And as for the rest... I’ll be the one to handle any legal battle on behalf of the staff and customers.”
There was nothing wrong with that. If anything, it was fun.
I didn’t know where the boss had run off to, but...
Unless he vanished completely from Korea, it would probably be hard for him to make a comeback.
He’d have to go through a legal fight with me, after all.
Before the day was even over, the manager brought back the landlord’s answer. He said he understood and asked us to take it over as quickly as possible.
“Shall we go together?”
“Yes, boss.”
I headed to Neo Gym’s second branch with the manager. By now, Neo Gym was gone.
When we arrived, the building’s exterior looked as filthy as the manager had said.
Group attacks really were something ordinary people couldn’t withstand. It’d be hard to identify every single culprit one by one, too.
As for me, since that donation had improved my image...
If people heard it had become Uto Gym’s second branch, they’d probably applaud.
And if I added that I was taking responsibility for the members and staff too...
Then no one would dare vandalize the place.
They’d get dirty looks from everyone else.
When I stepped inside the second branch, I saw an unexpected person.
It was the owner’s nephew.
“What are you doing here—”
“What do you mean, ‘you’? Show some respect to the boss. More importantly, why are you here? Shouldn’t you have run off with your uncle?”
“...Quit talking nonsense. Why would you be the boss? If you want to be treated like one, go strut around at Uto Gym.”
“How unfortunate. This is Uto Gym too.”
“...”
As we talked, the other employees gradually gathered around us. Every one of them had looks of emptiness, disappointment, and anger in their eyes.
Seeing me seemed to make their anger grow even stronger.
The nephew seemed to draw courage from that, because he raised his voice even more, as if he were speaking on everyone’s behalf.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You think we’d accept that? This all happened because of you.”
“Why us? Sorry, but everyone except you will be working under much better conditions than before. And I’ll cover the wages you didn’t get this time, of course. Still, if there’s anyone who feels the same way as you... I won’t stop them from leaving. Is there anyone here who feels that way?”
No one answered.
Their anger quickly disappeared, and in its place, I could see hope flickering to life. Along with expectation.
They’d all heard the news already.
They knew how Uto Gym treated its employees.
For people who’d been left unpaid and effectively thrown out of work, this was a chance to become employees of the best gym in the industry overnight.
Who in their right mind would kick that away?
“What will you do?”
“I-I’ll handle it. If that bastard’s going down, then you’re the one who should go down with him.”
“Who do you think caused all this? Have some shame! You think it’s our boss’s fault? What nonsense. This is all because of your irresponsible uncle!”
“Get out right now! Don’t make our boss uncomfortable!”
He looked ready to swing a fist at me on the spot.
Thanks to that, he didn’t dare make another peep and ran off with his tail between his legs.
It wrapped up more anticlimactically than I expected.
Well...
I wasn’t a chaebol; I was just competing with a neighborhood gym owner. There was no reason to be nervous.
In capitalism, I was basically an apex predator.
Among the staff, I spotted the female trainer I’d had my eye on.
A smile crept onto my face.
“Should we do the interviews one by one? If there’s anyone who wants to quit, you don’t need to do it.”
“N-no, sir! I definitely want to do it!”
The interviews began.
***
Once the interviews were underway, most of them said they absolutely wanted to stay.
Near the very end, a trainer came in. I checked the paperwork.
Lee Miso. Twenty-two years old. One year younger than me.
“Hmm... you haven’t been here very long, but you already have quite a few members. Looks like there’s quite a bit of unpaid money too...”
“I know it’s shameless, but... if you could help me even a little, I’ll make sure I repay this kindness.”
“Hmm...”
“I rushed to find a nearby studio apartment so I could focus on the gym, and I don’t even have the money to pay next month’s rent yet. Rent’s due soon, but...”
“You don’t have any savings?”
“I put everything into the deposit...”
This was too good an opportunity.
“Kindness, huh... How far are you willing to go?”
As I let my eyes travel over her body from head to toe, she visibly flinched.
“I think I’ll need to see whether you’re really cut out to be a trainer first... Would you mind if I touched your muscles to see how hard you’ve been training?”
“...”
She looked like a rabbit standing in front of a lion.
“If you pass, I’ll give you a special raise to your base salary and hand over your entire PT cut. It would be nice to have a promising trainer at the gym, after all. Of course, I’ll make sure the members benefit too.”
I dangled the carrot.
Irresistible.