Three Days Off and a Pink Dumbbell
I managed to score three full days off from the gym. I flopped onto the sofa for a moment, staring blankly at the ceiling. What should I do?
It was a peaceful Monday, and there was absolutely nothing to do. Maybe announcing the break had been a mistake? Ha-im was at her university lectures, Mrs. Kim was out chatting with her friends, and Manager Lee was at the office. I was the only one home.
Should I just start streaming?
At first I'd been thrilled and immediately slapped up a break notice the second I won, but the moment it went live, I suddenly felt like streaming more than ever. The problem was that I'd already announced the hiatus—if I turned the stream on now, I'd feel too guilty toward the working members of the Gojadan.
This won't do. I should at least go outside.
Lately my stamina had been complete garbage after every stream. This was the perfect chance to build it back up. I might as well go for a run along the Han River. I threw on some comfortable sweats and headed out.
The Han River hasn't changed at all….
It looked exactly the same as it had eight years ago. For some reason, that gave me a strange sense of familiarity. I did a few light stretches and prepared to run.
Alright, let's do this!
The wide-open Han River. People out for the same reason I was—building stamina. Sure, there were some annoying couples here and there, but that was no big deal. My willpower was at maximum! Nothing was impossible for me right now!
Ten minutes later.
“Haa… haa… what the hell is this…!”
My breath was ragged, my sides were killing me, but the worst pain was in my chest. Damn these lumps of fat! No matter how much I ran, the end never seemed to come. It felt like thirty minutes had passed, but only ten had actually gone by.
“Huk…! Was my stamina always this bad…?”
I knew I was out of shape, but I hadn't realized it was this bad….
“Kgh! I can't give up here…!”
I turned back to the straight path and sprinted with everything I had. I was the fortune teller who had slain the Demon King—this was nothing!
Five minutes later.
“I… I give up….”
In the end, my body gave out completely and I collapsed onto the pavement. The fortune teller who defeated the Demon King had been defeated by twenty minutes of jogging along the Han River. What a pathetic ending.
A few seconds passed like that.
“E-excuse me, are you okay?”
“……?”
Suddenly someone spoke to me. I turned my head to see a woman in leggings addressing me with a worried tone.
“Haha, I'm fine. I just pushed myself too hard….”
For some reason I felt embarrassed. I definitely couldn't admit I'd only lasted fifteen minutes. I quickly brushed off the dust and stood up.
“Thanks for worrying about me. I should get back to running—”
“Running too hard isn't good for your body. You should rest a little first.”
Rest. It was a powerful temptation, but I would never fall for such a devilish—
“…Y-yeah, maybe I should?”
Taking a short break couldn't hurt. Right?
We sat down on a nearby bench to rest. I leaned my exhausted back against it and let out a long sigh.
“What's your name? I'm Choi Su-ha.”
“Ah, I'm Lee Sung-a.”
We started with some light small talk.
“I'm twenty-four. How old are you?”
“Oh, I'm twenty-two.”
So she was younger than me. And yet she took such good care of herself.
“Since you're older, you can speak casually to me.”
“Hmm… alright. I'll do that then. Do you work out a lot normally?”
“Yeah, my family runs a gym.”
No wonder she had those defined eleven-pack abs. Her family owned a gym.
“Is this your first time exercising?”
“Well, I've been feeling like my stamina is way too low lately, so I came out for a run….”
My stamina was even worse than I'd expected. Maybe I really did need to start going to the gym….
“In that case, I know a good gym…”
“The one your family runs?”
“I-I'm not advertising it! You don't have to come!”
Su-ha frantically shook her head back and forth, desperate to explain herself. It wouldn't have bothered me if she was promoting it, though….
“Sure, why not. I was thinking about joining a gym anyway.”
“R-really?”
Besides, I'd been worried about the weight I'd gained recently. This was perfect timing for a diet too. We headed straight to the gym.
The clear sound of a bell echoed through the gym in the heart of Seoul, accompanied by an atmosphere of peaceful emptiness.
“There aren't usually customers at this hour?”
“Our gym gets rented out entirely by one person.”
“One person?”
“Yeah, they said they don't like working out where there are lots of people….”
Renting out an entire gym just because they didn't want to exercise with others? How much money did this person have to burn?
“Is it okay for me to use it now?”
“They said they'd be late today. Should we start by changing into leggings?”
“Leggings?”
I gave the leggings Su-ha was wearing a quick once-over. No, wearing something that skin-tight on a body like mine…
“C-can't I just stick with the sweats? Leggings seem way too revealing….”
“These are surprisingly comfortable. You should definitely wear them for workouts. Plus…”
Su-ha proceeded to list two hundred and fifty advantages of leggings. But my opinion didn't change.
The moment I put on clothes like that, I'll turn into a total pervert!
Look at them—my belly button would be completely exposed, and the lower half would be so tight it might as well be nothing at all. Su-ha eventually sighed, exhausted by my continued refusal.
“Fine. Everyone has their own preferences. Then let's start with an InBody scan. Just step on the scale.”
“Got it.”
I felt relieved that I didn't have to wear the leggings. I stepped onto the scale and grabbed something that looked like a remote. The results came out in less than five minutes. Su-ha's expression darkened dramatically as she read them. Was there a problem?
“Unnie, isn't this too extreme? Can you even lift chopsticks?”
“Is it that bad?”
“Yes. How can your weight, skeletal muscle mass, and body fat percentage all be below standard? That's impossible for a human being….”
Su-ha's face grew deadly serious.
“Well, it just kind of happened…”
The job of fortune teller didn't exactly require exercise, so I'd naturally grown further and further away from it.
“You eat properly, right?”
“Of course I eat well. I eat so much five-grain rice.”
Thanks to Mrs. Kim's constant nagging that breakfast was mandatory, I made sure to eat at least three meals a day.
“Five-grain rice?! Unnie, that's not what you should be eating right now!”
“……?”
Wasn't five-grain rice supposed to be healthy? Because Mrs. Kim cared so much about the family's health, five-grain rice had become our household staple.
“From now on, eat plenty of white rice with lots of carbohydrates! Eat lots of snacks and order delivery food too!”
“Uh… okay, got it.”
I wasn't sure if Mrs. Kim would allow it, but Su-ha was so passionate that I just agreed for now.
“I can't make you do any intense exercises in your current condition.”
Su-ha looked around and picked up a pair of pink dumbbells nearby, bringing them over.
“Which one do you want?”
She held one in each hand. I couldn't tell what the difference was.
“The right one is 1kg and the left is 2kg.”
For a moment I was speechless.
“Are you underestimating me? You can give me the metal ones.”
“In your current state, even these will be hard to lift.”
Crack! My pride was wounded. No matter how weak I was, it couldn't be that bad. I'd have to prove it with actions again.
“Hmph! Watch this carefully.”
I walked over to where the dumbbells were gathered. My eyes landed on a 5kg one. I bent down with a confident smile. Su-ha would regret it just like Ha-im and the viewers—
Huh? Why isn't it lifting?
I looked down. No matter how hard I pulled, I couldn't straighten my back. Using both hands didn't help either. The 4kg was the same. No matter how much I tried, it wouldn't budge. Finally, the 3kg. Thankfully, with both hands I could lift the 3kg. I couldn't hoist it dramatically, but it was practically on the level of humanity discovering fire for the first time.
“See? I lifted 3kg! This is pretty impressi—”
“Unnie.”
“……?”
Su-ha walked over, took the 3kg dumbbell from my hands, and placed the 1kg one in them instead.
“Even 2kg seems like it would be too much.”
“…….”
In the end, I lifted the 1kg pink dumbbell with tears in my eyes. It was so unfair. If I'd still had a man's body…!
Ding!
“……?”
Suddenly someone entered the gym. Who could it be? There shouldn't be anyone—
“Unnie?”
“Rona?”
The moment we saw each other's faces, we both froze in shock. Why was Rona here?
“What's going on? Is someone here? Huh? Hyung?”
Ha-im followed right after, stepping into the gym. Don't tell me the person who rented the entire place was—
“Rona! Ha-im! You're here?”
Su-ha greeted the two with a bright smile. Since they were both twenty-two, they were probably college classmates.
“Didn't you say you'd be late today?”
“The professor ended lecture early. But why is she here?”
“Ah, I ran into her while she was jogging along the Han River. Sorry. I'll go work out on the second floor.”
“No, it's fine. This person is Ha-im's older sibling.”
“Huh? Older sibling? What are you talking about? She's a woman?”
“…….”
I had no idea how to explain this. Hyung but also a woman—the words completely contradicted each other.
“Well, it's like…”
Rona, who knew I was a Returnee, looked completely lost. I quickly sent her a look that screamed Don't tell her I'm a Returnee! Rona's body grew even more tense, and Ha-im had no choice but to sigh and step between us.
“Sigh, it's just a nickname, so don't worry about it.”
“Oh, is that all?”
Luckily, Su-ha didn't seem particularly suspicious. Rona and Ha-im walked over to me.
“Have you two become close?”
“Yeah! She said she wanted to work out, so I brought her along.”
Su-ha explained on my behalf. I continued diligently lifting the pink dumbbell. Lifting a pink dumbbell in front of my little sister's friends felt strangely embarrassing.
While I worked out, the two went to the changing room and came back in leggings. Their conversation drifted over to me.
“I got a request from the guild today, so I have to leave soon. Let's just quickly check my 3-rep max.”
“Wasn't it 800?”
“That was half a year ago. It's probably gone up since then.”
“You're right. I should check mine too while we're here. What was mine last time?”
“You were at 750.”
800 and 750? I was speechless. Here I was struggling with a 1kg pink dumbbell. If I'd been an Awakener, I would've been way stronger than—!
“You guys are all amazing.”
“Come on, you're the amazing one. You're not even an Awakener but you can do a 3-rep max of 1000, right?”
“Wasn't that also half a year ago? What's it now?”
“I don't know. I haven't measured since then because it was too much hassle.”
“…….”
The three of them kept talking only about workouts, so I couldn't join in. For some reason, I felt an inexplicable sense of alienation.