Compression Wear
Compression functional wear. Compression? Compreshun? I hadn't quite caught the word, but I figured I'd look it up on the PDA later as Dahyun handed me the clothes.
Soyeon was a busy person. She was already the one overseeing this whole place, and now she had to gather everyone's opinions, draft contingency scenarios, and lay out plans on top of it all. Of course she didn't have time to supervise something as minor as a workout meant to build a little stamina.
"...J-just this...?"
Dahyun nodded with perfect natural ease. It was the same clear, matter-of-fact certainty as when she'd told me water flows downhill.
The garment in my hands looked less like everyday clothing and more like something I'd only ever seen on old variety shows from a bygone era—a full-body spandex suit. No wonder I was thrown.
It felt a little tough, sure, but the weight of it in one hand was absurdly light. The texture was closer to underwear than actual clothes.
"...Th-this is too..."
I spread it open with both hands. The empty full-body suit hung there in that awkward, half-stretched way only a wetsuit can, greeting me. Naturally the size was small—so small it looked almost like children's wear next to my body.
"Hm? Ah. It's fine. We're both girls."
"...C-can't I just wear regular clothes and—"
"Then I can't see properly. And from what I heard, most people are voting to go that way, right? You'll be wearing this when you go there, too."
Dahyun was already in one of those suits herself, her tight muscle laid bare without a shred of shame. She casually pulled a hair tie from the bag she'd brought and held that out to me as well.
It was touching that she'd even packed something she didn't need herself... but marching in this?
"It's functional, that's why. Going in a sealed suit is out of the question, and going too comfortable could be dangerous."
"......"
So this was already a decided future, then.
...Everyone wearing clothes like this.
Dahyun stretching in front of me had a body that was easy on the eyes, no question. A little muscular, paired with that short cut—it gave her an untouchable kind of air.
But the others? Especially the Intersex ones in something this tight—it would show. That. It would show way too much.
"..."
My mood soured.
Because I'd already pictured it.
"......"
"Ah, embarrassed? Want to step out and come back?"
Dahyun asked. She must have taken the full-body shudder of physiological revulsion for simple shyness about undressing in front of her.
"No. I-it's, f-fine. Just..."
I didn't have the courage to tell her the truth, so I stripped quickly instead. Top and pants off, I rolled the suit up and stepped in from the feet, hauling it up in one long pull.
"...Nngh, nn..."
I could feel it clearly—the tight compression locking onto my muscles as the fabric climbed, holding them steady. But it was. Too much.
Once it cleared my stomach and reached my chest, the way the fit put every muscle on shameless display was just. Too. Too...
Wasn't this lewd?
"..."
I carefully glanced at Dahyun. Sure enough she was looking my way—but contrary to what I'd expected, she strode right over, caught the zipper at my back, and drew it up.
At least a regular spandex suit left a little give under the arms or at the crotch. This thing clung to every inch of me—
I couldn't bring myself to look down. Looking at Dahyun's body was fine, but something about knowing it was my own made it different.
It was that stuck on. At this point it might as well have been paint brushed over bare skin. If anything, the way it exaggerated every curve made it more obscene than being naked.
The bones jutting at either side of my hips, the slight swell of my lower belly, the split of my abs and my navel—
Even my small chest was compressed tight enough to feel the pressure. If I hadn't been wearing underwear underneath, it would have been embarrassingly obvious.
"......"
"Heh. Shy?"
"Ah, a little..."
"It's fine. You're wearing underwear anyway, and this is how you actually see the muscle. If you just slap weights around like some primitive, you don't build stamina—you wreck your joints. Cartilage you can refill, sure, but still."
...Refill cartilage? Was that even possible?
"Try flexing your arm for me?"
Dahyun asked. The soft command was gentler than anything I'd heard in a long time.
So, well. Going all the way to a bathhouse just to scream "how barbaric, undressing in public" would have been the strange part, wouldn't it? Bikinis and the like were no different from underwear if you took them out of their proper place.
...Maybe there was no real need to be this embarrassed.
And fretting too hard in front of another woman (technically the opposite sex, if you wanted to get pedantic) would look weird in its own right. So I pretended it didn't bother me and put strength into my arm.
"See? Heh. Right? Shows up nice."
"...Ah."
Well. She wasn't wrong. The science here was already so different from the world I'd lived in—of course it would outperform plain old leggings.
"Muscle mass is a bit low, though."
Once she'd checked that far, at least the embarrassment seemed to ease a little.
I turned my head to the side and nodded. I couldn't keep my eyes forward no matter what. Looking down put my own body on full display, and looking ahead meant I wouldn't be able to tear my gaze off Dahyun's chest staring back at me...
Once something like a medical procedure starts, shame becomes hard to hold on to.
Urology, proctology—same idea. Hair removal, too.
At first you're mortified about exposing parts of yourself you never show anyone. But the moment treatment begins, every single person is just grinding their molars to dust.
"Hah, hhaah, euh...!"
"Mm..."
"Hyat, hyak...!"
A treadmill was a machine that existed for the sole purpose of running. Unless you lived in a world so advanced that wasting energy had become a form of etiquette, the basic shape stayed the same.
The belt moved, a person ran on top of it, and a monitor or something sat up front to kill boredom or adjust the speed.
The way it mimicked uneven terrain and scattered rocks was a little impressive, sure... but even the technology from my old world could probably have managed it. If the STEM types wanted to build it, they could.
"...That's enough for now. Mm."
"Hah, hhaah. Heeh...! Hic...!"
"Ahem..."
Dahyun cleared her throat and scanned the room. Maybe she was surprised my stamina was lower than expected.
Sweat poured off me, and somehow that felt incredibly refreshing. I braced my hands on my knees and dragged in rough, ragged breaths—only to realize the gym (I didn't know the exact name) had gotten a lot noisier than before.
I looked around. Every time my eyes landed on someone, their gaze flicked away as if they'd been watching me.
Well, it was probably a spectacle. Compared to everyone else I was running much slower, and I'd only been at it maybe ten minutes—not long at all—yet I was already gasping like this.
"Mm... s-should we rest a bit? Start with your breathing."
"Yesh...! Hhuup...!"
My arms and legs were screaming, but I still felt good. How long had it been since I'd sweated this cleanly? Even in my previous life it had just been company, home, company, home, over and over...
"Huu..."
"Sooo. Yeoreum."
"Ah, yes...?"
"A little quieter on the breathing. That..."
I was still catching my breath with that pleasant burn when Dahyun spoke up, a little hesitant. Only then did it hit me—ah, I must have been too loud—and I covered my mouth and looked around.
Sure enough, everyone had been staring. The second I turned my head, a dozen other heads and pairs of eyes turned away in perfect sync...
......
...
"...Okay..."
"Yeah. Sooo. Mm..."
I started breathing as quietly as I could. My oxygen-starved lungs howled, but I gritted my teeth and ignored them—
and covered my chest and hips with my arms. Every single one of them had a bulge out front, no, the exact shape of it showing through.
Some had angled the swollen thing upward; others had tucked it down between their legs... I really didn't want to know that even this came down to personal preference.
To put it more bluntly, a rotting kind of disgust and a wave of shame rose up at the same time.
"Mm... anyway. So, um. Your endurance is pretty low. We can't really control what you eat, so muscle is one thing, but..."
Add the sweat soaking the fabric until it clung even tighter, and the shame doubled. Standing there in wet, painted-on clothes, making breathing (moaning) sounds, I'd walked straight into other people's lust...
"Are you listening?"
"Ah, ah...! I'm sorry...!"
"Heh. No. This is how you get your head back in the game. Mm..."
Dahyun looked me over from head to toe in one long sweep. My body flinched a little, but there was none of that other feeling in her eyes the way there was in everyone else's. And if it was Dahyun looking, that felt... okay.
"We should work on your endurance. Right?"
"Ah, y-yeah..."
"There are drugs like ketone drives and so on, but it's better if you walk on your own stamina as much as you can."
"..."
I had no idea what that meant, so I stuck to silence. Dahyun snorted a little laugh and ruffled my hair.
"Stuff that makes you insanely hungry but lets you walk forever... there's a lot of that kind of thing. But every single one has nasty side effects."
"Ah..."
I wished she'd keep petting my head a little longer.
"Most of them make you collapse, or get ridiculously hungry, or hurt like hell, or go completely blank. They don't damage the body, supposedly, but still."
"R-right..."
"Well then. No choice."
Hearing my answer, Dahyun planted her hands on her hips. The soft flesh there shifted with the motion.
"How about we do what you just did ten more times, then call it?"
"...What?"
That was the start of the real workout. Dahyun kindly explained that everything up to now had only been a warm-up—
and that night, the bathroom's overnight usage rate hit an all-time high. Hyejin was the only one who got woken up to go fix the pipes, so you could call it a bolt from the blue.