015. One Week
015. One Week
Song Jae-pil hung up the phone, unable to hide the smile on his lips.
Then, he accessed Novel World on his computer and clicked on the new work registration button.
[Title: Everyone Lives Hiding Their Desires]
He entered the title, selected the genre, and uploaded the manuscripts for chapters 1 through 3 in order.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
He knew it hadn't even been five minutes since posting, so there shouldn't be any change, but for some reason, he kept refreshing the page.
Views: 0. Comments: 0.
Refresh again. 0. 0.
Another refresh. 0. 0.
After refreshing about three times like that, he set aside his anticipation and opened the word processor.
"Might as well use this time to write the new chapter 4."
The important thing is to write steadily. One chapter a day.
.
.
.
.
.
The night grew deep. Song Jae-pil turned off all the fluorescent lights, filling the room only with the glow from the monitor.
"Unnngh...."
Song Jae-pil let out a long groan as he stretched out his heavily hunched back.
"Done."
Looking out the window at the darkness where the sun had already set, he reflected on his day.
He had finished chapter 3 all through the dawn, registered at the gym, and uploaded his work to Novel World. And now, he had just finished chapter 4 too.
It felt like a pretty productive day, didn't it?
"Haaam...."
And now, perhaps because he had stayed up all night, sleepiness was gradually starting to creep in.
He lay down on the mattress and opened Novel World.
"Huh...?"
[Chapter 1 Views: 742]
[Chapter 2 Views: 738]
[Chapter 3 Views: 721]
"What's with these views...."
It hadn't even been five hours since he posted the work. It was already nearing 1,000.
[LOL what is this, why is it so fun? When's the next chapter coming?]
[Wow, damn... Was this author always this good at writing? This new work is insane.]
[The title's a bit of an error, but the content is insane.]
[Why did I have to see this now....]
As he looked at the comments lining up one after another, laughter kept bubbling out of him.
"Good start. Should probably conquer the next Catalogue soon, huh...."
Song Jae-pil read all the posted comments over and over before turning on the Catalogue app.
[5 Days 23 Hours 14 Minutes 52 Seconds]
Time was flowing calmly.
6 AM.
Kang Seul-gi's eyes snapped open even before the alarm rang.
Kang Seul-gi yawned and lifted her body from the bed. A thin line of dawn light was tracing the floor through the gaps in the blackout curtains.
It should have been a refreshing morning to greet. The weather was good, her body felt light, and she had slept well the previous night.
However, the name that popped up on her phone screen, which she habitually picked up, instantly plunged her mood into the mud.
[Min-jun: Seulgi-yah, can you not wear those leggings today and wear something looser? Last time at the center, all the guys were only looking at you. I was so bothered I couldn't even sleep.]
"Haa...."
A sigh burst from her mouth first.
It was her boyfriend of two years, Choi Min-jun. A manager at a major corporation—salary, position, future. Everything was solid.
The kind of qualifications that would score a perfect 100 out of 100 if introduced to her parents. A spec her friends would envy. A safe man you could even picture marriage with.
But that safe man, who was more obsessed with Kang Seul-gi's toned body than anyone in bed, couldn't stand that same body being exposed to others' gazes outside.
To hate the fact that the trophy he brought sparkled in others' eyes too...
'What kind of contradiction is that...'
He wanted Kang Seul-gi to lose muscle, hide those voluptuous curves under loose clothes, and become a more docile, fragile woman.
"Damn tightwad."
But Kang Seul-gi had not a single speck of desire to do so. She tossed her phone onto the bed and stood in front of the full-length mirror.
Just in her underwear, under the fluorescent light, she scanned her own body from top to bottom.
The straight, vertical line of her 11-pack abs, the C-cup breasts that wouldn't lose to anyone, and as she turned to see her back, the deep grooves of her erector spinae muscles from the muscles were visible.
And below that, what was commonly called an apple-bottom and the thighs that looked ready to burst continued under her underwear.
It was all the result forged with blood and sweat. Waking up at dawn to exercise, managing her diet. It wasn't like she didn't want to tear into chicken and drink alcohol herself.
It was her everything, something she had no reason to listen to anyone telling her to reduce.
Kang Seul-gi stripped off her underwear too and turned on the showerhead. As the warm stream of water flowed down her shoulders, steam rose on the mirror.
Choi Min-jun's text message surfaced again amid the sound of the water, but she consciously pushed it away.
As she dried off after the shower, a subtle thrill was felt every time her hands brushed against her chest and buttocks.
Even in her own eyes, this body was voluptuous. And how this voluptuousness drove men crazy, she knew very well.
Her hand paused for a moment in front of the wardrobe. Her fingertips touched the loose training wear Choi Min-jun had mentioned.
As Choi Min-jun's text came to mind, she shook her head and defiantly picked up the tightest black leggings she had.
On top, she put on a white bra-top that showed her cleavage and loosely threw on a hooded zip-up.
But the morning schedule she faced the moment she arrived at the center was the absolute worst.
Even the name alone made her sigh involuntarily, but it was an unavoidable VVIP member.
From Seul-gi's perspective, he was the pillar of the center's revenue—unfireable—and a quintessential lecherous pervert.
"Come on, hang in there, hang in there! Go for it!"
However, from the very start, that resolve nearly shattered.
"Instructor Kang, your condition looks great today? That back view is really... wow, it's really giving me full-body exercise motivation from head to toe?"
A disgusting joke came flying from the get-go. Throughout the session, the member let his gaze wander over Seul-gi's body as if it were appetizers.
When she demonstrated a squat, he blatantly fixed his eyes on her buttocks; when she corrected his posture, he shoved his face toward her chest.
Kang Seul-gi knew the real reason he had signed up for personal training. Not for exercise, but to buy the legal right to voyeuristically watch, up close, the body of a female trainer he considered up to his standards.
She endured the hour by putting on a professional mask, but inside she felt tattered like a worn-out rag.
After the member left, as Seul-gi was tidying up the equipment, a bitter taste rose in her throat.
"Sick of it... really."
A boyfriend trying to cage her, and perverts trying to consume her.
The suffocating feeling that her life as a trainer, her life as a woman, was entirely placed under someone else's gaze pressed down on her chest.
Clearly, today was just not her day.
Ding-dang—
Right then, the center door opened and Song Jae-pil entered.
"Welcome, member-nim."
"Yes, hello."
When Seul-gi greeted him and her eyes met Song Jae-pil's. A natural smile found its way onto her lips.
He was different from other men. His gaze was always fixed on her eyes.
He never stared fixedly, wondering if perhaps the lines of her abs were visible through her leggings, nor did his eyes ever slide down to the cleavage swaying above her sports bra.
"Don't forget to do your stretches thoroughly from the start."
"Yes, if I don't want to get hurt, I need to properly warm up my body first."
It was hard to believe he was the same kind of man as the morning's VVIP.
To her, who had just been tormented by eyes licking her entire body barely two hours ago, the existence of a man who only looked at her eyes gave a strange sense of relief.
"Really, member-nim, your flexibility must be innate. I don't know how such flexibility is possible."
"Right. I find it surprising too. I think it's something I was born with."
Song Jae-pil's workout began. Warm-up, stretching, and then the main exercise.
Though his movements were still those of a clumsy beginner, he desperately tried to follow each point Kang Seul-gi had taught him.
Far from letting his eyes wander, the way he furrowed his brow to correct his own posture in the mirror looked strangely sexy, even.
"Is something not going well?"
It wasn't a PT day, so she had no obligation to watch him, but Seul-gi's feet started moving toward Song Jae-pil.
"Member-nim, straighten your back more. Push your hips further back."
She stood next to Song Jae-pil, who was practicing deadlifts with an empty bar, and checked his form.
"Hmm, like this?"
"That's a bit better than before. Especially be careful with your lower back."
Song Jae-pil silently corrected his posture without a word. Seul-gi viewed his quiet, sponge-like absorption of feedback favorably.
"Hold on, stop. Try holding it right there."
But a beginner had his limits. Seeing his posture subtly falter, Seul-gi reached out and placed her hands on Song Jae-pil's back and pelvis to adjust him.
"Like this."
Right then, her wristwatch vibrated.
[Min-jun: Are you working? Why aren't you replying?]
Perhaps because she hadn't replied to the morning message, a follow-up text had arrived.
Annoyance instantly surged. She had deliberately ignored that morning text because she had no desire to reply, and now he was chasing her like this again.
"Are you okay? Your expression doesn't look good."
Song Jae-pil asked, tilting his head. His still-honest gaze, fixed only on her eyes, made Seul-gi give a light laugh.
"No, it's nothing. Next is the leg press, right?"
"Yes."
Seul-gi tried to focus again, moving along with Song Jae-pil.
"Shall I take a look? With the leg press, the area of muscle stimulation changes slightly depending on foot placement."
As Song Jae-pil sat on the machine, Seul-gi reached out to check the muscles on his inner thighs.
And the moment her hands settled on his thighs, Kang Seul-gi's movements halted.
Through the thin fabric of his workout clothes, something heavy and solid brushed against her fingertips.
At first, she thought it was part of his thigh muscles. But no. The location was wrong, and the inner thigh muscle alone couldn't protrude like this, could it?
'Don't tell me... it's that size in a semi-erect state? It looks like at least 10 centimeters, minimum?'
Five years as a trainer. She had touched countless male members' bodies. While correcting their posture, helping with stretches, or with men she'd met before.
'This guy... what is he?'
Muttered words swirled in her mouth. Seul-gi struggled to hide her flustered expression, withdrawing her hand and averting her gaze.
Then, she guided him to the next movement as nonchalantly as possible. Her voice was slightly higher than usual, but Song Jae-pil didn't seem to notice.
No, she prayed he hadn't noticed.