The Moment His Hands Touched the Woman Who Wanted to Ruin Even the Self-Defense Gym
From middle and high school on, she had never once surrendered the top rank in her class. Those grades carried her straight into an elite American university. The moment she graduated, a foreign conglomerate snapped her up. She was beautiful on top of all of it, so even with her cynical, blunt personality the line of men chasing her never thinned.
That was Cheon Dohwa.
A woman that perfect had found the existence of a rootless hapkido gym that had opened near her father’s Taekwondo dojang deeply offensive.
I told him to expand ages ago. It’s so irritating… Every year people ask if the spot next door is free, so why didn’t he just do it? Ugh… Dad’s the type to just muddle through and let things slide, so I handed it to Jihoon, but if he can’t even handle something this simple, how does he expect to inherit the director’s seat later?
For all his stern exterior, her father—Director Cheon Junghyeon—was soft-hearted to a fault, the kind of man who believed “good enough” was good enough for everything.
Which was why she had been certain he would never bring himself to drive the hapkido gym out of the neighborhood. She had entrusted the dirty work to one of the instructors who had worked at the dojang for years instead.
Whether it was her father’s quiet influence or the fact that living under such a gentle master had rubbed off on the man, the instructor had done nothing but look into it. Nothing moved forward.
When word reached her that children had already started drifting over to the hapkido gym, Cheon Dohwa’s temper had boiled over even from America.
Does that director over there have zero business ethics? He knows full well there’s a Taekwondo dojang right there and he still crawls in? Fine. You want a fight?
Competition? She welcomed it—if they truly believed they could beat a Taekwondo dojang that had held that corner of the neighborhood for more than a decade.
Cheon Dohwa decided she would punish the hapkido gym herself, in place of her soft-hearted father and instructors.
So before her studies abroad ended she slipped back to Korea and got to work at once. She finalized the purchase of the small building her instructor had been dithering over, summoned disciples who had grown up under her father from every corner of the country, and filled out the instructor roster. Then she had those instructors casually suggest to the kids that it might be more fun if their friends came along too.
The result: on the day she returned for good to start her corporate job, she received the delightful news that the hapkido gym was completely empty.
Hmph. Of course. Who did they think they were…
In truth, Cheon Dohwa had never particularly liked her father’s Taekwondo dojang. Even as a child she had hated the way the rowdy neighborhood boys gathered there and made chaos, and even grown she still couldn’t stand the noise of children yelling. The Taekwondo her father had endlessly pushed her to learn was something she had genuinely loathed. She had stuck it out long enough to earn a black belt, then quit immediately afterward. If it hadn’t been her own house she never would have gone near the place, and even now she was looking for a studio apartment just so she wouldn’t have to watch kids running around.
And yet.
It was still the place her father had poured his entire life into. It was the reason she had been able to study in peace and even go abroad. Something like love-hate—not quite hatred, but plenty of irritation mixed with lingering affection. Like family.
That was exactly why she could not tolerate the new hapkido gym. Could not forgive it. She had done everything in her power to eliminate the place that threatened her starting point, her nest.
In the end the hapkido gym collapsed, and only then could Cheon Dohwa smile and throw herself into the crushing busyness of company life.
It’s not even an expensive neighborhood for rent. Even if they go under they’ll figure out how to feed themselves.
The moment she returned to Korea, a decade of pent-up frustration had melted away. For a while she forgot the hapkido gym entirely. The foreign firm she worked for paid well, but the workload was brutal. She no longer had the energy to spare on something as trivial as a hapkido gym.
And so several months passed with her completely buried in work—until that same hapkido gym, with outrageous stubbornness, changed its name to a self-defense gym and reappeared right in front of her like a cockroach that refused to die.
"Hello! I’m Ju Seonghyeon, director of the self-defense gym operating in the three-way alley!"
Pretending indifference, Cheon Dohwa followed Director Ju Seonghyeon while staring at her smartphone.
A self-defense gym? Not a chance. I’m not letting this slide.
In reality there was no longer any need to care. They had changed the name and shifted their target from children to adults, so they posed not even a speck of threat to the Taekwondo dojang. Even so, Cheon Dohwa could not leave that self-defense gym—or its director, Ju Seonghyeon—alone. The simple fact that they had once tried to invade her territory made their mere existence grating. And if the Taekwondo dojang ever showed the slightest wobble later, they might instantly change faces and try to carve out another piece of the pie.
So the moment she stepped inside the gym she began with a snort of laughter at the empty interior.
"……Pfft."
Even while laughing she felt a prickle of caution.
It’s clean. Looks like he’s running it alone, but at this level… yeah, I really can’t let him keep operating.
The treadmill and strange punching bag in the corner were a little random, but everything else was remarkably tidy. Anyone walking in would at least not leave with a bad impression, equipment and headcount aside. That only made Cheon Dohwa harden her resolve further. She deliberately scraped at Ju Seonghyeon’s pride.
"Looking at the size of this place, though, I figured you’d go under on your own once we expanded as planned, so when I came back briefly before finishing my studies I just bought the building right then and expanded. Spread the word so the kids would want to hang out with their friends and bring them along."
"I figured as much…"
"Figured what?"
"Ah, after talking with the director earlier it didn’t seem like he was the type to push something like that. So it was you, Dohwa-ssi."
"That’s right. So? Are you mad?"
"……."
"Well, I don’t care how you feel about it. Just take the registration fee as compensation and call it even."
It wasn’t heavy cursing, but coming from the very person who had ruined his gym, the words were guaranteed to get under anyone’s skin. No matter how fine things were now, how much money had gone into opening the place, how much had been spent keeping a dying gym afloat? What had it felt like watching members disappear one by one? No human could listen to that being pointed out and mocked without reacting.
And that was exactly what Cheon Dohwa was aiming for—the moment Ju Seonghyeon couldn’t hold back his irritation and showed even the slightest threat.
Of course she hadn’t provoked him because she was confident in her Taekwondo.
Just take one step closer.
She kept her body tensed, ready to slip a hand into her handbag at any second, and watched him. Inside the bag was a powerful stun gun capable of dropping even a sturdy adult man in an instant. Not the garbage toy you could buy in Korea that required a possession permit—this was a real, proper stun gun she had bought in America for self-defense.
The Taekwondo she had learned might not be enough to beat a grown man in a fair fight, but it had at least given her the nerve to move without freezing completely when someone made a move. And no matter how angry he got, the odds of him suddenly swinging a fist out of nowhere were low.
The second he tries to intimidate me even a little… the second I see that vibe, I fry him, then bring in a lawyer and take it to public opinion. I win for sure.
She had zero doubt she would win. When she entered the office she had casually scanned the place and confirmed a small CCTV up in the corner. She had expected there would be at least one in the office even if the gym floor itself had none. If Ju Seonghyeon took even one step toward her and the camera caught her backing away, the alibi would be perfect. He had every reason to hold a grudge—she had ruined his gym, after all. She could just casually claim he seemed to be nursing a grudge over it. And in present-day Korea, a woman claiming she felt threatened held an enormous advantage.
Even if a court somehow decided she had overreacted and hit her with a fine, it wouldn’t matter. The mere scandal would make it impossible for that director to stay in this neighborhood. In the end she would be the one who won.
So while she kept her face carefully blank and her insides wound tight—
Ju Seonghyeon simply said,
"…Dohwa-ssi."
"What."
"Shall I calculate the registration fee assuming once-a-week visits? That comes to six hundred thousand won total."
"……."
He reacted as if nothing had happened. Not the slightest hint of anger. He simply sat down in the chair as if it were the most natural thing in the world and asked her for the registration fee.
"…Hmph. Fine. Card."
"Thank you!"
Cheon Dohwa was left utterly deflated.
…Irritating. Call yourself a man and you don’t even have a spine.
The man in front of her genuinely pissed her off.
Director Ju Seonghyeon had brushed off her baiting and provocation with ease, but Cheon Dohwa still refused to give up.
"This is the changing room. You can change here."
"Change into what, exactly."
"Ah! Let’s see… this one… hmm, maybe this is better? Here. Please change into these."
"…Dolphin shorts?"
"Yes. Since you’re a woman, covering up with only something thin would probably make you self-conscious. You might sweat during the massage and soak your underwear, so I’ll give you these cotton panties as well."
"And up top?"
"We’ll do the upper body completely bare. Looking at you, your shoulders must be terribly stiff because of your chest, so today I’d like to focus on loosening your upper body."
"Hmph. Fine. Give them here."
"You can use the locker right in front of you."
No matter how snappishly she answered, trying to get under his skin, he kept smiling and responding the whole time. The unexpectedly considerate way he made sure she had proper bottoms only made her guts twist harder.
Push it toward sexual harassment after the massage and… tch, that’s too risky. Or I just take it today, then spread the word that his skills are garbage…
She bit her lip, racking her brain for any way to bring the director down. At the same time she naturally began stripping off her clothes, suit and all.
Director Ju Seonghyeon stood behind her, but of course the director would be in the gym’s changing room. If her father the director had stood there the same way at the Taekwondo dojang she would have screamed, yet that thought never even crossed her mind now. She simply undressed in front of him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Rustle, thump… slide…
Jacket off. Shirt off. Suit skirt off. On top she had been wearing a black bra supporting her large breasts; below, black pantyhose that covered her all the way to the hips. She peeled those off next. The matching black panties and her beautiful legs came into view.
"Oh… her a…ss is pretty…"
The director muttered something behind her, but his voice was too low for her to catch clearly. Ignoring it, she was about to remove the slightly sexy black panties that already showed the line of her mound when—
She froze for a second, suddenly conscious of Ju Seonghyeon’s presence.
…Hmph.
On second thought, there was nothing to complain about in the director seeing her body in the changing room. And she had no desire to look embarrassed in front of him anyway. So she boldly pulled the panties down.
Slide!
She had kept herself in shape with home training; her firm, lifted ass was put on full display for the director. Bent over like that, he might even have glimpsed her pussy, neatly waxed for cleanliness. But Cheon Dohwa no longer cared about any of that. She pulled on the white cotton panties he had given her, then the black dolphin shorts.
The size is… no, this is better.
The dolphin shorts were tight enough to cling to her thighs and let a hint of underbutt peek out, but that was preferable to something loose that might ride up and expose her during the massage.
Finally—
Slide… thump! Sway…!
She unhooked the bra. Her large breasts bounced free under gravity.
"Hoo…"
At the same time Cheon Dohwa felt like she could finally breathe. Breasts that big meant the bra’s pressure was considerable; the difference in comfort between wearing the undergarment and taking it off was enormous.
She folded her clothes neatly into the locker, then spun toward Ju Seonghyeon.
Sway…
She presented her body, clad only in the dolphin shorts, for him to see. Milk-white glowing skin. A slender neck and shoulders. The large breasts that were the main culprit behind her chronic shoulder pain. Medium-sized pink areolae and nipples. A toned stomach with the faintest abs and a narrow waist. Gracefully curved hips. Long, well-proportioned legs.
She planted her hands on her hips in a confident pose and faced him, everything bare.
"I’ve changed. Now what? This tiny gym doesn’t look like it has a separate massage room."
Her naked breasts—something she had never shown any man—were laid completely bare before Ju Seonghyeon.
She was already twenty-five and had spent several years in the relatively open atmosphere of America, yet Cheon Dohwa had never once had a boyfriend. The reason was simple: no man had ever measured up. Fundamentally she preferred Korean men to foreigners. So he had to be Korean, of course handsome and intelligent. His job needed to be at least on the level of a major corporation comparable to hers. And on top of that—
A man should at least be manly.
He needed a solid, well-built physique like her father’s, but a personality nothing like her father’s. A masculine temperament, the kind that could lead a woman a little forcefully. Cheon Dohwa believed that any man who wanted her had to clear every single one of those conditions. Of course no such man had appeared yet. But that was fine. Her philosophy was that it was better not to date at all than to settle for someone who fell short. She simply never felt the need to date while nursing regrets.
For all those reasons Cheon Dohwa had never dated, and she wasn’t the type to enjoy one-night stands either, so she had never slept with anyone.
Which meant—
"……."
The only man staring so openly at her large breasts, freed at last from suit and shirt, was this director.
After frankly raking his eyes over her body for a moment, the director eventually gave a small smile and guided her outside.
"This way, please. The gym floor has mats laid out… ah, I’ll put down a fresh one for you and we’ll do it there."
"What kind of massage happens on a floor mat… Hah, fine. Go ahead. Try it."
The gym itself was kept clean, but when it came to massage the start was already thoroughly unimpressive. She had half expected it walking in, yet she still hadn’t imagined there would truly be no separate massage room or massage bed.
Cheon Dohwa had lived her whole life with chronic shoulder stiffness thanks to her large chest. From the age of twenty she had regularly visited massage shops, so she could judge Ju Seonghyeon’s massage with an even stricter eye.
The beginning was the absolute worst.
He’s seriously going to charge money for a massage with no massage bed…
The basics weren’t even there.
Whump!
"Hup… The one I usually use is drying right now. Could you sit here?"
"…Ha."
As far as she could tell he hadn’t prepared any oil either, which meant he intended to massage with nothing but his bare hands. At this rate it would probably be no different from getting a shoulder rub from her dad at home. She was so dumbfounded a hollow laugh slipped out. If the massage shop she usually went to had prepared like this, she would have cursed them out on the spot and demanded a refund. Heat started rising to her head.
But Cheon Dohwa held it in.
I won’t even need to spread rumors… a place that operates like this will go under soon enough on its own.
In a way it was actually convenient. A place this sloppy would collapse without a trace if she just added a little seasoning to the story and let it circulate. So she obediently followed his instructions.
She plopped down on the mat. Ju Seonghyeon settled in behind her.
"I’ll begin, then."
"……."
Starting in this position was already so ridiculous that fresh irritation welled up. She considered saying something, then shut her mouth. The level was so low she couldn’t even be bothered to speak.
He’ll probably give up after about thirty minutes. Haa… what a waste of time. I’ll just endure this half-heartedly and then ask the shop manager to free up one slot for me today.
She sat still, already planning to wash away the garbage massage she was about to suffer with a proper one that cost well over a hundred thousand won a session. She was absolutely certain that whatever Ju Seonghyeon did would be trash not even worth looking at.
And then—
Onto those shoulders of hers—
Slide.
"……!"
The moment a large man’s hands settled on her, an unbelievably pleasant warmth and coziness spread from her shoulders through her entire body. The absurd sensation that her body was already relaxing made Cheon Dohwa’s eyes fly wide open.
Knead… squeeze!
And when his hands pressed firmly into her shoulders and worked them—
She flinched hard!!
From that single knead alone came a release so refreshing, so good, such a strange ticklish melting of knotted muscle that it could not be compared to any massage she had ever received. Cheon Dohwa’s body trembled, and from her lips slipped—
"Haaeuu…♡"
—a melting, syrupy voice she had never once let out no matter how expensive the massage.