Chapter 3
The most important thing in a conversation is the topic.
Even with my shitty English, if the topic was right, I could chatter away with my Dominican mercenary buddies for an hour or two.
“Ah, hello, Ms. Seo Ha-eun. We meet again today. Is this the third day in a row?”
“Haa⋯.”
“I don't care whether you dislike me, but sighing so blatantly in front of someone is a bit much, don't you think?”
“Then I'll say it outright. You're annoying. Seriously.”
Even with someone who openly hated me, having a pretext and a shared topic made it easy to keep the conversation going.
It wasn't so embarrassing that I'd have to brazen it out.
Honestly, I don't give a fuck how that woman looks at me right now.
First impressions are as important as anything when you're trying to win someone's favor, but difficult things have a flavor of their own.
I like getting cheers from people who hate me.
“Don't just find me annoying. When are you going to give me the autograph you said you'd give me?”
“She's busy. She's not someone with enough free time to drop everything for you whenever you want.”
“Ah, true. This is a busy time for her, after all.”
In that sense, not getting the autograph today was actually a gain.
I wasn't going to leave just because I'd gotten one autograph I didn't even need, but this made it easier to brazen it out.
If she blew me off completely, there'd be nothing I could do, but unfortunately, Seo Ha-eun wasn't good at handling things that way.
If someone picked a fight with her, she wasn't the type to avoid it.
“I don't have anything to say to you today, so get lost. Please. And didn't I tell you not to talk to me?”
“You're not going to make that kind of excuse and quietly pretend it never happened, are you?”
“Ah, seriously, you're noisy.”
The longer I looked into her eyes as she muttered under her breath as though I were pathetic, the more her hostility struck home.
Even reactions like hatred or contempt were better than indifference.
Her answering me meant she was willing to engage as long as I didn't cross the line.
This woman knew how to spit in a smiling face, but had no idea she could simply avoid looking at me.
Whether they like me or not, there's no one easier to get close to than someone who dutifully answers every time you talk to them.
“Don't get angry. Then could you tell me when I might be able to get it?”
“I'll hand it over when I have time, so please don't talk to me first, and stop paying attention to me. It's annoying.”
“When will that be, exactly? If you suddenly stop coming to the gym, I don't even know how to contact you.”
“Even if you say something like that, I'm not giving you my number, so wake up from that dream.”
“I have no intention of getting your number, either. If it's such a hassle, let's do this. Hold out your hand.”
“What is it?”
“Give me your hand. Hurry.”
“⋯Why?”
“Take it.”
See? She held out her hand so easily.
Of course, if I actually grabbed her hand, she'd have a fit and scream, but she couldn't react that way just because I lightly placed a business card from my pocket in her hand.
“I had these made when I was a player, so I don't really have any use for them anymore. You can see my phone number here. If you're going to give me the autograph, call me. I won't bother you otherwise.”
“⋯I don't need it. You can just tell me here.”
“Yeah, yeah. Got it. Just in case, take the business card. I might not be able to make it, you know? My body is in this condition.”
“⋯.”
The way to keep hold of someone waiting for me to cross the line and shove me away isn't to keep my distance because it's dangerous; it's to tightrope-walk right along the line.
If she crosses the line, I plan to swat her away. So when she hovers right on the verge of crossing it, that means she's focusing on me.
The more focused we are on each other, the closer our physical distance becomes.
And without fail, when bodies draw closer, hearts do too.
If you didn't want your heart to grow closer, you should have kept your body far away in the first place.
But even though this woman hated me, she wasn't pushing me away physically out of some pointless competitive spirit.
She must believe there was no way she'd ever be affected by a man like me.
But who knows.
Seeing how fiercely she glared into my eyes,
it seemed she was bound to be affected somehow.
***
A liar and a con artist differ in a subtle way.
A liar is someone who lies often,
whereas a con artist is someone who lies well.
Surprisingly, con artists don't lie all that often.
They even keep their promises.
Until they run a con.
“⋯.”
March 7.
The seventh day since reuniting with Seo Ha-eun.
Unfortunately, she hadn't contacted me, but she'd shown up at the gym without fail.
I kept my promise to her as well and didn't say a single word to her.
Just running into me at the exact same time every day was enough to put pressure on her.
Communication isn't limited to conversation.
Personally, I'd come to realize that far more communication happens through the eyes.
When I looked at her with a gaze that grew more vicious by the day, she would almost let the fear escape, swallow it back down, and run on the treadmill with her head held high.
“Hoo⋯.”
Our words didn't get through, but our bodies were close.
If we were aware of each other at the same time every day, at least neither of us could forget the other.
Even the promise was something she'd been the first to mention, not me.
Just because I glared at her a little fiercely, she had no excuse not to meet my gaze.
“Ah, my shoulder. Fuck⋯.”
I waited for her to look at me, weighed down by that gaze, then rolled up my T-shirt sleeve and fiddled with my left shoulder.
A shoulder with a prominent surgical scar, all ragged and worn.
Every time I looked at it, I found it amazing that it had become such a mess in just one year.
“Sss, haa⋯.”
I took several short, pained breaths, then packed up, making it clear I couldn't go on.
I didn't even look in her direction out of the corner of my eye, so I couldn't tell whether she was still watching me.
But I was certain she was.
Whether Seo Ha-eun was human or demon, there was no way this wouldn't bother her.
“This is no good, fuck. Hoo⋯.”
After muttering a quiet curse, I clutched my shoulder and left the gym.
I carefully calculated how many days I should wait for the timing to be right.
If I rested too long, our bodies would grow distant. X.
If I rested for too short a time, there'd be nothing to gain.
Would five days or so be about right?
Was that too long?
Well⋯,
unless dogs had stopped shitting altogether,
it definitely wouldn't be too short.
***
March 10.
Three days was long enough to count as waiting.
In the meantime, just in case, I'd asked around among players I knew, but unfortunately, I hadn't learned anything useful about Seo Ha-eun.
If she'd worked for the club that long, shouldn't there have been something to find out?
Aside from the fact that everyone had learned to grovel after word got out that she was the general manager's daughter, I couldn't learn a thing.
I searched her name too, but she didn't seem to use social media.
It would have been nice if I could at least make her phone buzz.
For lack of anything better, I stepped into the gym.
When I looked inside, she was walking in the same spot as usual, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Her clothes were almost exactly the same, except that she'd put on an outer layer over her tank top.
“⋯Ah.”
She shook her head as sweat dripped down, then gave a small gasp when she spotted me.
⋯It seemed the timing wasn't bad.
If she'd happened to witness the scene, it would've been a pain to deal with, since we weren't particularly close.
“Hello.”
“⋯Ah, yes.”
I greeted her boldly, and although she only looked uncomfortable, the fact that she answered confirmed that her attitude had changed.
The reason was obvious.
I could tell just from the way she kept glancing around this place crawling with male hormones while answering me amicably.
“Did something happen? Why are you looking around so much?”
“Ah, well⋯.”
“Did a trainer try to talk you into signing up for PT?”
“⋯How did you know?”
Of course, the moment a woman with that figure and outfit wandered around a gym, guys like me would start hitting on her.
A PT trainer in particular, who could hit on her legitimately, was practically guaranteed to do so.
If she were only moderately hot, maybe not, but considering the size of this woman's breasts, they probably kept trying to sweet-talk her with all sorts of flowery words the moment I disappeared.
They hadn't approached her until now because I'd been the one pestering her.
“That's because they do that every day. Still, I haven't heard of them digging through members' addresses and contact information.”
“⋯.”
I planted an extra dose of anxiety in her, already irritated as she was.
That wouldn't raise her opinion of me, but it could lower her relative dislike.
My not hating this woman that much was for a similar reason.
If I had to rank them, I hated the coach and general manager more. Seo Ha-eun was at least easy on the eyes.
If I'd happened to run into the general manager, I'd have switched gyms first thing; he would've pissed me off too much.
Besides, he wasn't someone I could play tricks on, anyway.
“He isn't good at teaching people how to work out, so don't take PT from him.”
“⋯Even without your advice, I don't take that sort of thing.”
“You'd be better off asking other people. You can tell just by looking at their bodies who knows what they're doing.”
“I have no intention of getting serious about working out, so don't worry about it.”
“I get aches if I don't take it seriously.”
Unlike him, this pathetic-looking woman was prey far too easy to toy with.
I set down my outer layer and naturally began stretching, showing her the scar on my shoulder.
That alone was enough. I didn't need to tell her why I'd taken three days off, and she had no reason to ask.
If I lied for no reason, it could become troublesome later.
If I let her jump to whatever conclusions she wanted, she'd grow subdued on her own.
Which meant she couldn't push me away as forcefully as she had a few days ago.
The fact that a worse man would start pestering her if she pushed me away also helped.
“Anyway, that's beside the point. ⋯I thought you'd contact me, but you didn't.”
“Pardon?”
“I wondered if you were going to keep your promise.”
“⋯Ah. I did get it, though. I was going to give it to you when you came by, but I forgot.”
“That's too much. I spent my time off looking forward to finding out when I'd get the autograph.”
“Ah, sorry⋯? ⋯No, it's not like I need to apologize. Do you want it now?”
“I didn't bring my bag today. I just came to loosen up a little. Could you give it to me when you leave?”
Taking advantage of the opening, I shrugged my empty hands and made a casual appeal while she rummaged through her bag.
The unsettling thing I'd said earlier had also been part of the setup.
Normally, that line would never work, but now that I'd been promoted from the worst option to the second-worst, it would sound reasonably plausible.
The timing would have been better if she'd worked out at night, but⋯.
Well, whatever.
I could always have dinner with her sometime.