Phase 1. That Slut Hui-gyeong (12)
The days were getting longer, sunrise and sunset stretching out as summer crept closer.
Same as always, when I opened my eyes in the morning Hui-gyeong was dead asleep on my chest.
While she was out like that she looked so cute and pretty I kissed her forehead, carefully slid my arm out from under her head, and swapped it for a soft pillow.
“Mmnh.”
The second my body left the bed she sensed it like a damn ghost and opened her eyes too.
“Oppa, where are you going?”
She asked through a yawn, all bed-headed and puffy-faced. I ruffled her hair.
“Got tutoring today.”
“That’s way too early.”
“Gonna work out first.”
“The gym?”
“Yeah.”
“I wanna go too. The gym.”
“You’re banned from going out.”
“Still, a girl’s gotta take care of her body.”
“Do home workouts. Home workouts.”
“There’s a whole different flavor to actually lifting heavy, you know.”
Her cheeks puffed out and I wanted to kiss her for it, but we’d both just woken up so I held back.
Anyway, the whole conversation was pure gym-bro energy. For all the crap she talked, Hui-gyeong’s love of working out was the real deal. She never bragged about it, but she put in at least an hour every single day, no exceptions.
When I asked her why she went so hard, this was the answer I got:
“A healthy body, a body that makes people horny, a body you want to knock up, a body that still looks fuckable after giving birth—all of that comes from consistent training.”
Sounded like total psycho talk, but her eyes were dead serious, so I just nodded like I believed every word. Working out is good for you, so I told her if she really wanted a gym membership to just say the word. She immediately got a quote and signed up.
And within a month she’d started dating the trainer there for real.
So I switched gyms.
…Fucking hell.
“No. Gym’s off-limits for you.”
“Why?!”
“You’ve got a track record!”
“Are you jealous?”
Same exact provocation she’d thrown at me yesterday morning at the hospital. That mischievous face of hers made it clear she wanted to hear something embarrassing come out of my mouth, but this alpha male Jo Gyeong-hun had built up serious game from underworld side gigs and dating manuals. I was a goddamn legend.
“I’m just worried some guy’s gonna put his hands on you.”
“Euh…!”
Dodge the word “jealous” and answer like that and it’s no big deal. The unexpected counter hit her hard; her face went red, she looked away, and muttered sulkily,
“Then just take me with you today and watch.”
“Watch what?”
“Whether I behave myself so you don’t have to worry.”
“Hmm…”
Making her exercise was fine. Hell, if she burned all her energy at the gym she might even stay quiet at home. But given her history I couldn’t just say yes.
The longer I hesitated the more she decided I didn’t trust her. She got all huffy and snapped at me.
“What the hell do you think I am? I even gave you a fucking massage and you still think I’m the type to go grab some other guy’s dick?”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“Say something already.”
“Jo Hui-gyeong.”
“Yeah.”
“Why’d you give me that massage?”
“What?”
Ha. Did I really have to say this out loud myself?
“You’ve got a thing for me, don’t you?”
That was all the opening she needed. Hui-gyeong grinned wide.
She kicked the covers off and sat up—nothing under her top, white breasts fully on display.
“Come on, I’m not a little kid…”
She sidled closer, melted into my arms, and looked up at me.
“Well, if I felt nothing at all I wouldn’t have done that for you, right?”
I never thought I’d hear those words. She actually likes me!
She had a point. Strip away all the little stuff and would a man and woman jump each other’s bones this fast if there wasn’t any attraction?
We hadn’t gone all the way yet, but I figured we were heading in a very positive direction.
…Wait. At this point weren’t we just straight-up into each other?
“Hey, Jo Hui-gyeong. If it’s like this we clearly like each other, so why don’t we just date?”
“What? You fucking bastard?”
“Why the hell are you swearing, you crazy bitch?!”
“Just date? What the fuck are you talking about. You only ever think with your dick. Are you and I strangers? Get a grip, Jo Gyeong-hun.”
She’d kiss me nonstop and grind her pussy on me whenever she felt like it… then suddenly pull the moral high ground the second it suited her!
Hui-gyeong was seriously underhanded. If she came at me fair and square how the hell was I supposed to win?
“Whatever. Just take me to the gym. I need to burn off some stress.”
“What stress? You’ve been cooped up at home.”
“Oh my.”
She unwrapped her arms from my waist and clamped a hand straight onto my balls. My cock flinched so hard it tried to crawl back inside me.
“Who’s the one who gets me all worked up every night and then fucks around at the critical moment so I’ve never even come once? I’m sexually frustrated as hell. That’s the stress. I’ll lift weights, cool off, and go straight home. Just take me.”
“Hmm…”
Hearing “sexually frustrated” made it even harder to say yes. But if I kept shutting her down completely there was no telling where she’d snap, and that only jacked up the anxiety. Complete lose-lose.
“Oppa, I’ll behave. If you don’t even trust me this much, how are you planning to date me later? You gonna keep me locked up forever?”
There she went again, cheating with actual logic!
She was right. Completely right. But she’d just said she didn’t want to date five seconds ago, and now she was hypothetically talking about us dating?
I couldn’t lose to this pure free-spirit version of Hui-gyeong. I furrowed my brows hard and glared at her.
“Hmm~?”
She just smiled at me, totally at ease.
I lost.
Completely lost.
I never saw the kiss coming. Fresh out of bed or not, the second she hit me with last night’s tongue technique my brain melted and I heard myself saying okay before I even realized it.
“Pretty decent size.”
And now here we were, arriving at the gym together. Just like she’d said, it wasn’t too small or too big—just right.
Even at six in the morning there were a solid number of men and women already staking out machines.
“Hey, the locker rooms are that way—”
“Hello, ma’am!”
I was about to tell my little sister to go change when a male trainer walked right up and greeted her like they knew each other.
Not me. Hui-gyeong.
“Hi! It’s my first time here. I just wanted to try it out for a day. How much is a day pass?”
“No problem. Since it’s your first visit, today’s free.”
“Really? Thank you so much~!”
Not a hint of fluster. Hui-gyeong just smiled right back and answered. She looked way too happy chatting with a well-built guy.
It pissed me off.
I couldn’t tell if she was doing it on instinct or deliberately putting on a show for me.
“Did you bring workout clothes?”
“Yes!”
“Change and come out—I’ll check your form for you.”
“Wow! Perfect, my lower body’s actually pretty weak.”
I’d been a regular here for years and this bastard had never once offered to check my form.
The damn male trainer used his broad back to shoulder me out of the way and kept talking to Hui-gyeong. And she just ate it up, happily keeping the conversation going longer and longer.
Between the trainer treating me like I didn’t exist and my little sister playing along, the irritation and anger passed into something bitter and hollow.
Of course. Jo Hui-gyeong was still Jo Hui-gyeong. What the hell was supposed to change in that short a time? It wasn’t even jealousy anymore—disappointment just took over.
Up until we got to the gym she’d been chattering away at me nonstop. The second a new guy appeared she glued herself to him.
Our eyes met for a second. She gave me a sly little eye-smile.
Sorry. I didn’t feel a thing. Not even anger.
Unconsciously and consciously, I’d gone completely blank.
So I ignored her smile and walked straight into the men’s locker room.
“Huh…?”
I thought I heard a startled voice behind me, but no way. Must’ve been my imagination. I didn’t care. I just kept walking.
I opened a locker, stripped, and put on the workout clothes I’d brought. Normally I avoided tight stuff, but baggy clothes or anything with sleeves got in the way during lifts. Had no choice.
Same reason women wear leggings—when you’re training, clothes that cling are best. Outside the gym? Never in a million years.
I stepped out of the locker room and there was Hui-gyeong already talking to another guy. She’d changed too—dark sports bra tank and leggings that both did excellent work highlighting her chest and ass. Especially that well-shaped ass. Anyone would stare.
Her eyes were busy, scanning other men besides the one in front of her.
Then she spotted me and her eyes went wide.
What? Did my nipples poke through the tight shirt or something?
She lifted a hand a little like she was trying to signal me.
But the one who actually walked over was that same male trainer from earlier. The muscled giant’s appearance made the guy she’d been talking to flinch and back off.
The trainer started chatting her up again and Hui-gyeong smiled smoothly and took it all in stride once more.
Enough of that. I came here to work out, so I was going to work out. I shoved in my Bluetooth earbuds and looked away.
I felt someone’s eyes burning into the back of my head, but I ignored it.
I stepped onto a treadmill and lightly ran for twenty minutes.
Weirdly, I usually blasted upbeat tracks when I trained, but today only slow, emotional songs kept coming up.
“Hoo…”
Without realizing it I’d cranked the speed and was just running in a trance. I wanted to keep going until my head was completely empty.
Only after the playlist cycled three or four times could I stop.
Warmed up enough, maybe.
I moved over to stretch before weights, standing in front of the mirror, lengthening and pulling my body through a proper warm-up.
This body was my only real bragging right—decent definition, good shape. Shame about the face, though. Still had to take care of what I had.
Even for warm-ups I was careful with every position, loosening everything properly.
But while I watched myself in the mirror, Hui-gyeong’s reflection kept catching my eye again and again.
It was pure annoyance.
I finally couldn’t take it and turned left so I wouldn’t have to look at the mirror.
“Kyaa!”
I almost crashed into a woman in workout clothes training next to me. She jumped so hard she dropped the dumbbell she was holding.
If it hit the floor someone could’ve gotten their foot smashed, so I snatched it up fast. Not that heavy, but I still put more force into the catch than I meant to.
“Sorry.”
“No, I’m the one who should apologize…”
She barely acknowledged the apology, just staring at my arm muscles with big rabbit eyes.
Feeling awkward, I set the dumbbell down and relaxed.
When I looked around I realized every woman in the nearly empty gym was watching me. Especially Hui-gyeong—her eyes were narrowed into a full-on glare.
The male trainer next to her was still talking his head off, but she wasn’t answering a single word. Just staring.
The awkwardness made me scan for an escape and I spotted an empty bench press. I hurried over and claimed it.
I deliberately loaded the plates one by one with care—forty on each side for a clean hundred-kilo bar.
Luckily people went back to their own workouts while I did that.
“Hoo…”
One hundred kilos. Deep breath, then I pressed the bar up. Even after a few days off, it rose steady.
Inhale again, lower the bar, lock out one clean rep of the hundred-kilo bench.
I felt eyes again but ignored them. This was training time. Treat it with respect, Gyeong-hun.
Focusing on my breathing I kept pressing. With every extra rep it felt like every nerve in my body woke up.
Yeah, this is it! Chest, shoulders, arms all pumping hard.
I already had natural upper-body genetics; Gyeong-jun always used to gawk at how fast I pumped up and filled out when we trained together. Face might not match, but Mom and Hui-gyeong both had killer chest development, so it had to be family genes.
I needed to take good care of this.
How many times had this muscle and strength gotten me through underworld side jobs?
“Member! Long time no see~. Wait, what happened to your eye?!”
“Hey. Just got a little banged up somehow.”
Someone came over all friendly and then nearly had a heart attack looking at my face. It was a female trainer I knew. Early on she’d helped with form, so we made small talk sometimes.
“You should be more careful. Anyway, how come I never see you these days?”
“I’ve been coming pretty often?”
“Caught me~. Actually I was on a trip with my boyfriend for about a week.”
Of course she had a boyfriend. That was exactly why I could talk to her with zero ulterior motives.
I kept benching while we chatted.
“Where’d you go?”
“Yangyang!”
“Hot spot, huh.”
“For real, Yangyang is popular for a reason.”
For real, I was in the middle of a hundred-kilo set—could she maybe stop talking for five seconds? I wasn’t even joking; I could’ve lost the bar and died mid-sentence.
I was already past twenty reps. The heavy fatigue was about to hit.
“You should go too, Member. So many pretty girls!”
“Me… Yangyang…?”
“Pfft! The way you say it is so funny!”
I was just out of breath from lifting.
“Our gym family’s planning a trip too—if you’re free you should—”
“Hey.”
Right as my teeth were grinding at the oblivious trainer, Hui-gyeong appeared. Damn it, why’d she have to come over too…!
“What…!”
I had no choice but to rack the bar for a second and met a pair of blazing eyes.
Why the hell was this crazy girl standing there with her arms crossed, looking at me like that?
All the high I’d built up from the workout started crashing hard. I just gritted my teeth and pressed the bar again.
“We’re going home.”
“Home…? Why…?”
“I said let’s go!”
She suddenly raised her voice and I almost dropped the whole bar. I sat up angry, but she was already halfway across the floor.
A bunch of guys including the male trainer trailed after her like eunuchs, but Hui-gyeong didn’t say a single word—just cut straight through them and vanished into the locker room.
“Oh my, your girlfriend looks mad.”
I sighed at the still-clueless trainer and denied it.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”