Chapter 11: How to identify a person(3)

“f*ck. Sloppy.”

“Hey.”

“Sloppy. Really f*cking sloppy. A guy who collapses after 5 minutes on a treadmill.”

“Hey hey hey. Stop.”

“You’re all bluff. Pfft.”

“Go ahead and do that. My fists don’t discriminate between women.”

“My fists don’t discriminate between women… huh. Aren’t you embarrassed to say something like that?”

Oh. This girl is really…

I remember my father’s words, who told me not to hit women no matter what.

However, when I see Yu-ah giggling next to me, I want to disobey my father’s advice.

I was about to raise my fist, but I barely held myself back when I saw her face, smiling mischievously.

Is it because I somehow saw Rikyuel’s face overlapping with her face?

……. can’t punch my favorite person.

Okay. Hold on.

The good me will hold on.

I console myself, boiling inside.

“So you admit it? Your defeat?

Treadmill 5 minutes cut, man, man?”

Shit.

The painful fact made me swear.

That shameful title of man, treadmill 5 minutes cut.

I didn’t want to accept that it was my reality.

But that was really my reality.

I tried to endure it by riding the treadmill for 5 minutes and my legs gave out and I fell down.

Yu-ah scolded me as I held onto my knees.

“That’s why I told you to slow down. You’re not listening to me. You’re dangerous.”

“…You have pride. You tell me to slow down more than me?”

“Does pride feed you? If you were unlucky, you would have really been in an accident. You idiot.”

“I don’t know. Be quiet.”

It didn’t matter if it was an accident or not.

At least it was ridiculous to ride the treadmill at a lower speed than Yu-ah.

Of course, that was just my arrogance.

There were times when men had to act arrogantly even though they knew it.

My knee, where I had fallen and hit it earlier, was slightly sore, but I kept a poker face.

Here, showing your pain is the worst as a man.

“Anyway, you admit it, right? Answer quickly.

Surely you won’t make excuses and say you don’t admit it here.

Yeah, yeah.”

“….Jeong.”

I admit it as if a rapper is humming so she can’t hear.

Then, Yu-ah grins and asks me again as if she’s happy.

“What? You spoke so quietly that I couldn’t hear you?”

“Admission.”

“What? I really can’t hear you. Why are you speaking so fast?”

“Admission. Admission! Admission! You punk! Admission!”

“Kyahahahaha!”

When I chase after her while yelling, she laughs and hurries away on her short legs to escape my touch.

She clearly ran for 20 minutes longer than me…

How does she have any energy left…

What the heck.

In the end, not wanting to cause a fuss and attract attention, I give up on catching her.

“Ah~ It must be delicious. Free food and free dessert from our Ji-bin. Hmm. Delicious~!”

Now I can see it.

In her teasing, I can see the bad streamer Rikyuel.

That kind of scratching is something Rikyuel used to do when she was harassing her viewers.

I cover my ears and let her mockery go in one ear.

The money and pride that have already been blown will never come back.

Like a loser, I don’t resist and quickly change the subject.

“…So what’s next? Let’s do something else now.”

“Okay. If I tease you any more, you’ll probably cry. Let’s move on. Okay.”

She giggled as if she was trying to tease me and led me into the real workout.

I thought she would do it moderately and took it lightly, but Yu-ah’s workout was much more serious than I thought.

“This is called a chest press. It’s an exercise that many men do. It’s perfect for women to create pretty chests and collarbone lines…”

Every move she demonstrated was neat.

It really seemed like she copied the moves that the trainer demonstrated.

Even I, who knows nothing about exercise, could intuitively tell that it was the right posture.

“This is leg extension.

That is hip adduction, but I’m going to do both anyway.”

She said that today was lower body-focused, and lightly showed me chest presses and lat pulldowns for her upper body.

She continued with leg presses, leg extensions, and hip adductions for her lower body.

“…Huh…uh…Huh…”

Since I didn’t know how to do it, I listened to her explanation and watched her movements first.

My eyes kept going to her more than the exercises themselves.

Her small chest and butt shaking every time she did it.

And the strange voice coming out of her small mouth.

She was just working out hard, but I felt strange for no reason.

“…Haa…. Haa…Why? Is something bothering you?”

Yu-ah asked me carefully, perhaps because she noticed my awkwardness.

“Huh? No. I just did better than I thought.”

“Hehe. Well, well. I worked hard for a year, but I should be able to do this much.”

Whether she knew my feelings or not, she laughed at my compliments and worked harder.

I shouldn’t think like this in front of someone who is seriously exercising.

Even though I felt a little shameless, my eyes and ears were moving only to find such cheesy points.

“…Haa…haa…isn’t it boring just watching?”

“Huh? No.”

Even while exercising like that, she seemed to be worried that I would get bored.

She asked me, panting, as she watched while sweating after finishing one set.

After all, all I did was ride the treadmill for 5 minutes and fall over.

If it was one-sided, I would have gotten tired of it.

But I wasn’t like that.

“It’s pretty fun, right? Just watching you do it?”

“…Whew… Really? That’s not easy… Don’t you like exercising more than I thought?”

“Maybe so?”

It was fun.

It wasn’t the kind of fun she thought it was, but it was quite a feast for the eyes in terms of being a pleasant treat.

…Yeah. Let’s admit it.

I’m a pervert.

Men are perverts by nature.

Since I’m a pervert, I guess it’s okay.

I enjoy this level of appreciation.

It’s a little uncomfortable because I’m a child, which I wouldn’t have cared about normally.

But a long tail can get stepped on.

After about three rounds of exercise equipment, Yu-ah suddenly stopped moving the equipment and stared at me.

Then, she drew a straight line in the air and followed the place where my eyes were lingering.

Her head naturally lowered and her eyes landed on my chest.

I felt something strong from that movement.

Yu-ah raised her head as if she had noticed something and asked me.

“…..Where have you been looking since a while ago? Is it right to watch me exercise?”

“Huh? What?”

I was a little flustered, but I was becoming more and more shameless.

For now, I tried to maintain a poker face as if nothing had happened.

“Your eyes are weird. Why do you keep doing different exercises but look at the same place?”

She looked at me with a sharp gaze as if asking me to explain myself.

I avoided eye contact and answered her as if I didn’t know.

“…That’s…I’ve always been interested in chest muscles.”

“Oh, really?”

“Of course. That’s why I liked gym class in high school.”

“…..You always get last place on PE performance assessments, and you got 50 points on PE theory tests.”

I could feel her earlobes getting redder.

I could tell.

It definitely wasn’t because she was exercising too hard and her blood was rushing to her.

An excuse that wouldn’t work anyway.

What good was I hiding this from Yu-ah?

I just blurted out the words that came to my mind.

“I’m sorry. I saw your chest just sitting there. That’s all.”

“What the hell are you talking about! You pervert!”

Yu-ah covered her chest with her jersey while yelling at me like that.

I could feel a bit of her femininity from her embarrassed look.

…No. She was originally a woman, wasn’t she?

It was a time for me to reflect on how I usually thought of her.

***

“No. I’m really not going to see you anymore?”

“No. No! I won’t do it. You’ll keep looking at me with lewd eyes.”

In the end, Yu-ah declared that she would give up exercising.

She wrapped her whole body tightly, even though she was soaked in sweat and uncomfortable.

I pretended like it was nothing, but I felt regretful inside.

But in fact, her exercise routine was almost finished.

She had already finished everything she told me she would do.

That must be why she quit without any regrets.

Yu-ah cooled down her still flushed cheeks by holding a water bottle from her duffel bag.

She soon looked around the exercise equipment and asked me.

“…So that’s okay. Was there anything you wanted to try? Since you’re here, you should try at least one thing, right?”

“I did look at it. To be honest, I don’t know much about posture or anything.”

I said to her while briefly looking over the equipment.

“That’s because I only looked at her chest, so I couldn’t see her posture properly… Haa…”

Yu-ah muttered as she sat down on the bench, lowering her head as if her head hurt.

“I didn’t just look at her chest. I saw other things too.”

Sorry, but her butt and thighs caught my eye.

But still, Yu-ah and I didn’t think much differently.

Anyway, since we’re here, I should try one.

I recall the exercise equipment she used and say the one that seemed the most worthwhile.

“Let’s do a let-fall down? That looked fun earlier, didn’t it?”

“Really? Then I’ll check your posture. Let’s do that.”

“Okay.”

I followed her and stood in front of the let-fall down machine.

Then Yu-ah urged me on.

“Sit down and get in shape.”

“Yeah. Like this?”

“Okay. And do you want to do one set?”

…What did you do earlier?

I recalled Yu-ah’s posture and tried one set of let-fall downs.

However, the exercise wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

I could feel that my strength was strange and I was sloppy.

After I finished one set in a strange posture, I asked Yu-ah.

“Is this right?”

“Phew. What are you doing? Are you doing tug-of-war with the ceiling?”

“…”

“Heh-ha-ha-heh. This is driving me crazy. Heh-heh-heh.”

When I made a rotten expression, she laughed at my awkward posture and slowly approached me.

Then she stood right next to me.

…Why does this smell nice when I’m sweating?

I looked at her, feeling something strange about her pores.

“Wait a minute.”

Yu-ah said as she put her hand on my arm and started to correct my posture.

Every time her hand touched my body, I flinched without realizing it.

“You’re not using your arm strength, you’re using your back muscles.

Like this. Okay?”

Yu-ah slowly lowered the bar while saying that.

She felt a soft touch on my back and tapped it.

As if telling me to put strength here.

“Put it down.”

“…..Uh. Okay.”

Without even concentrating on what was going on, I pulled the bar of the let-fall down.

I feel a different strength in the part of my back where her hand touched.

“How is it? Is it different? Does it stimulate my back?”

“…I think so.”

I haven’t exercised much, but my breathing is getting faster.

My face is getting hotter without me realizing it.

Soon, her hand is pushing my back, and her other hand is touching my chest.

And then she continues her explanation.

“…Push my back like this, and feel your chest going out to meet me. Okay?”

I have to exercise, but I can’t concentrate at all.

Her words pass my ears in a flash, and all my nerves are focused on Yua.

A slightly moist but pleasant scent.

The feeling of her soft and fluffy hand touching my body.

My heart is beating wildly because of her small fingers touching my chest.

Why is this natural contact for exercise making me tremble so much?

I couldn’t figure out why at all.

“Hey. Yoon Ji-bin. Your face is red. Are you tired already?”

… Seriously, why have you been like this since a while ago? Am I starving for s*x these days? I couldn’t give her any answer as she asked me with concern.