17. My Buff is a Drug
17. My Buff is a Drug
"Mm... why?"
"You'll end up doing it too eventually. Think of it as mental preparation. Learn by watching."
"Fine. Got it."
And so I ended up tagging along to watch Choi Ah-young work out.
Past the first floor, packed with treadmills and exercise bikes, and up to the second floor.
Unlike the somewhat open first floor, the second floor had a lot of individual rooms.
[ In Use ]
As I walked past, signs above the doors glowed red to indicate they were occupied.
'That obviously means someone's inside.'
[ Available ]
Available was a green light.
Choi Ah-young opened a door marked Available.
"Whoa..."
The room was efficiently packed with all kinds of strength-training equipment.
So you could do weight training in a private room like this.
'The training facilities here are actually well-organized. I guess that's what you get from an Awakened training institution.'
Yeah, this level of infrastructure definitely seemed necessary to let students train comfortably.
"You're starting now, right?"
"Yeah. But knowing you're watching is making me kind of nervous."
"Just pretend I'm not here."
"Alright."
Choi Ah-young started her workout.
First up: dumbbells.
She grabbed ones that looked incredibly heavy in both hands and pumped them up and down with focus.
After doing enough of those, she moved on to squats.
She rested a barbell on her shoulders—one I was pretty sure I couldn't even lift—and smoothly repeated the motion of sitting down and standing back up.
"Haah... Hoo!"
Ah-young was definitely struggling, because I could hear her breathing getting rough.
'Ohhh, ohhhhh...'
Sitting there quietly watching, sure, thoughts like 'she's working hard' and 'that looks tough' did cross my mind.
But the most overwhelming thought was: this is hot.
Watching her stick her ass way back in those short shorts was an absolute feast for the eyes.
I had to force myself to think about other things just to keep the lower half from reacting.
'She's doing all that weight training and doesn't have a muscular build. You literally can't explain that except as pure fantasy world logic.'
I kept watching, all the way through her bench press, until a sweat-drenched Choi Ah-young walked over to me.
"Don't you get bored just sitting there watching?"
"Huh? I'm good."
I was enjoying the view. How could I possibly be bored?
I actually wished she'd shown me a little more of the bench press, at least.
"You should try it. The bench press. You said you're here to experience things, right? There's a saying: doing it once beats watching it a hundred times."
"Should I? Want me to give it a shot?"
"I'll help you with your form. Lie down here."
I lay down on the exact spot where Choi Ah-young had been bench-pressing moments before.
A faint warmth and dampness against my back.
The traces she'd left behind.
I felt a little tense.
"It's your first time, so let's just try this much including the bar. You're a guy and an Awakened, so you should be able to handle at least this."
Was it heavy?
Hye-yong had no baseline sense whatsoever for barbell weights.
Clatter-clank!
Choi Ah-young removed and reinserted the weight plates, then stood to the side.
"Alright, grab the bar."
At her prompt, I reached up and gripped it.
Right then, Choi Ah-young's upper body came directly into my line of sight, looming over me.
"You can't grip it like that. If your wrist is bent like this, it can be dangerous. You want to support it with the heel of your palm, like this. Here."
Choi Ah-young physically adjusted my hand position, but Hye-yong was absolutely in no state to be paying attention to that.
A sweat-soaked tank top.
A vivid Y-shaped valley right before my eyes!
The scent of a woman's sweat—not unpleasant, somehow stimulating the nerves—brushed past my nose, and a single droplet rolling down Choi Ah-young's chin fell right onto my face.
In that moment, one physiological phenomenon I'd been suppressing until now decided to express itself emphatically.
No way I could hold this back.
As if saying exactly that, I felt the thing down below shove its way up with full force, pitching a tent through two layers of loose fabric.
'Sh- shit. Shit, not right now!'
But the damage was already done.
Hye-yong glanced down to check the state of his lower body.
'Wow. Standing tall and shameless as hell.'
And the position couldn't have been worse.
Lying on my back with my legs spread!
If you had to rank positions that make a lower-body tent stand out, this had to be top five at least.
'Clueless little bastard!'
Though what was the point of cursing my own dick?
It was just faithfully obeying the signals from my brain.
The priority right now was finding a way to hide it somehow.
Before Choi Ah-young saw!
"Grip it again the way I just showed you."
"Uh... Ah-young. Could I do it a little later?"
"Huh? Why?"
"I, uh, now that I'm about to actually do it, I'm a little scared..."
Choi Ah-young let out a small laugh.
"You're more timid than I thought. Relax. I'm right here watching over you."
And that's exactly the problem: you watching.
"No, I mean, that— well, it's more like I want to get mentally ready first..."
This was unavoidable now.
I had to buy time and let the erection die down. No other choice.
"Also my stomach kind of hurts a bit..."
"...Are you really that scared?"
"Y-yeah! Totally. It's, y'know, first time in my life doing this. I could get crushed to death, you know?"
Choi Ah-young narrowed her eyes.
She'd clearly noticed something was off.
"Something's weird... Did something happen?"
"No! Nothing happened! I just suddenly need the bathroom, I guess I'm nervous!"
"Oh? Hmm... alright."
It seemed like I'd glossed it over for now, but Hye-yong was deeply anxious.
There was no telling when Ah-young's gaze might drift downward and spot the mountain peak standing tall.
'O- okay, it's probably gone down by now, right? It has to be. Just one last check, then slide myself off and stand up!'
Hye-yong's eyes carefully flicked downward.
"Why do you keep looking down..."
"No, hold—"
A jolt!
"Oh..."
She turned her head and saw it.
Choi Ah-young froze solid, her gaze locked onto the tent pitched over Hye-yong's lower half.
Hye-yong gave up on everything and clasped his hands neatly over his solar plexus, staring up past the barbell at the ceiling like a man preparing for his final moments.
"...Ah, um. Sorry. I didn't think about that."
Choi Ah-young turned her head the other way and apologized.
Hye-yong turned his own head the opposite direction from her.
"No, I'm the one who should be sorry..."
One minute passed in that state.
Neither of us spoke, faces burning red.
If there was ever a moment you could actually die from awkwardness, this was probably it.
Thinking that, Hye-yong forced himself to slide off the bench and stand up.
"Uh... I'm gonna head out first. Keep up the good workout."
"Mm..."
Even after Hye-yong left the room, Choi Ah-young stayed put for a while, still gripping the bar.
As some time passed, her thoughts began to churn.
'That was... that, right...?'
Proof that a man was sexually aroused.
'Looking at me...'
It was unmistakable, no matter how you looked at it.
There was no room to consider any other cause.
Choi Hye-yong had gotten turned on by looking at her body, and as a result, blood had surged heavily into a certain area.
Thump.
Her startled heart began to pound.
She was surprised, but she didn't feel any particular emotion about it.
He'd been stammering and desperately trying to hide it, so it was clearly unintentional.
She was just curious.
As an Awakened, even if he felt that way, he should've been able to suppress an erection. So why couldn't he?
At the same time, a strange thought crept in.
'If he goes back like that... is he going to...?'
No particular emotion, but she couldn't help being preoccupied by it.
If he was sexually aroused, he'd have to relieve it somewhere, right?
'Thinking of me...'
Ah-young kept repeating it silently to herself.
No particular emotion.
She was just extremely curious.
Would Choi Hye-yong go back to his room and masturbate while thinking about her?
Thinking that he might make her feel strange.
But then, thinking that he might not make her feel strange, either.
'I should just ignore it and finish my workout.'
That turned out to be a hard thing to do that night.
"Ah, seriously."
After showering and collapsing onto his bed with his legs kicked out, Hye-yong was hit by a wave of restlessness.
It wasn't like he was drowning in self-loathing or anything, but regardless, something about all this was just... ugh.
He couldn't put into words exactly what that "ugh" was.
Maybe because it was the first time in his life he'd experienced something like this?
Hye-yong stood at a fork in the road.
Tomorrow when he sees Choi Ah-young: apologize, or pretend nothing ever happened?
'The right move is... to pretend nothing happened, right?'
Things were already awkward when they parted ways. Pointlessly bringing up the topic again might make things even more awkward.
'Yeah. Choi Ah-young will pretend nothing happened too.'
If it was Choi Ah-young, she'd do that.
Hye-yong had faith in that.
BWEE-REEK!
Just as he thought that and lay down to sleep, his terminal chimed.
[ Choi Ah-young : Hey. ]
He checked it without much thought, wondering what it was, and saw Choi Ah-young's name.
'Hk.'
His breath caught in his throat.
This was the moment just before Hye-yong's faith was about to shatter into pieces.
[ Choi Ah-young : I thought it over, and I think it's better if we skip the raid tomorrow. Trying without a ranged dealer is still too rough. I'm going to look for a new one while Geon-hu is out. ]
"Phew!"
A deep sigh of relief escaped him.
'That's Choi Ah-young for you! I believed in you!'
[ Choi Ah-young : I want to discuss the new ranged dealer with you, so could you come to Cafe Furuccia tomorrow morning by 11? ]
A new ranged dealer, nice.
'I've gotta push hard for a girl, no matter what!'
The gender ratio was two guys to eight girls. Honestly, a guy getting in would be practically impossible anyway.
[ Choi Hye-yong : Got it. See you tomorrow. ]
Still, now I could relax.
With this, I could sleep easy—
[ Choi Ah-young : But hey. ]
'It's not over?'
A sense of foreboding crept back in.
'But hey what! Just say what you want to say!'
[ Choi Hye-yong : What's up? ]
[ Choi Ah-young : Never mind. ]
Hye-yong was certain.
She had been about to say something and stopped herself.
What on earth had she been about to say?
I felt like I knew, but I really didn't want to know.
10:48 AM
Cafe Furuccia
'A morning cafe is pretty quiet.'
Actually, up until 9, there had been plenty of people stopping by for a light breakfast.
But Hye-yong, arriving at the awkward time of 10:48, perceived it as quiet.
'Today, I'm the first one here.'
I'd never been late, but I was always the last to arrive. Just for today, I wanted to be the very first one here.
So I'd arrived at the cafe a full 12 minutes early.
I figured I'd find a decent spot to sit and wait, and started scoping out seats.
Then I spotted a girl sitting quietly in the corner.
'Wait, that's...'
Seo Ha-yoon!
How long had she been sitting there waiting?
Scrape.
I pulled out the chair across from Seo Ha-yoon and sat down.
"You got here pretty early."
"Yeah. We made plans. Can't be late."
"Still, this feels way too early. Wouldn't it be fine to just show up 10 minutes before?"
"You never know what unexpected thing might happen. I don't feel at ease unless I arrive 20 minutes early."
Hearing that, Hye-yong was genuinely impressed.
'She's for real. How can someone be this artificially good-natured?'
Sure, she actually was artificially created, but regardless, it was almost admirable.
Seo Ha-yoon had to be the living definition of "the type who can't say no if you push an unreasonable request on her."
"This great one makes her entrance!"
"Hwa-ra. We're in a cafe. Tone it down a little, please."
After about three more minutes, Chae Hwa-ra and Choi Ah-young arrived as well.
It was time to properly discuss the new ranged dealer.