Chapter 77
* * *
Tap tap.
I felt light taps on my shoulder.
I didn't react.
Then I felt the touch again.
“Seungho.”
I flinched at the soft voice calling my name.
“···Ah.”
My eyes flew open.
I looked around blankly. This wasn't my room; it was a café.
‘···Ah, I fell asleep.’
I didn't even remember when it had started.
Maybe it was because I'd fallen asleep in an uncomfortable position, but my neck felt stiff. I rubbed it and lightly stretched.
“···What time is it···?”
My voice was hoarse. A rough rasp came out.
“They say it's almost time to close. We should get up now, too.”
So much time had already passed. I must have slept for over an hour.
“Here.”
Isol held out a cup of water to me.
“···Uh, thanks.”
My throat felt scratchy, so I gulped it down.
I was grateful for her thoughtfulness.
We gathered our things and left the café.
— Whoooosh.
As soon as we stepped outside, the chilly night air brushed against my skin.
Only then did I feel like I was finally waking up.
I remembered the studying we hadn't finished. It bothered me that I hadn't been able to help her properly.
“Let's make up for what we couldn't study today later.”
I wanted to do at least that much.
Isol gave a faint smile when she heard me.
“We study together every day anyway. And exams are the week after next.”
“···Right.”
I nodded, my face stiff.
Come to think of it, she was right.
There was no spare time to make up for it. We studied together every day, and the exams were right around the corner.
When I looked apologetic, Isol smiled softly.
— “···Should I bring it up once?”
Minimi fidgeted its fingers as if pondering something.
Then it took a deep breath and continued.
“Instead··· though I don't know if you could call it that···.”
“?”
I waited to hear what Isol was trying to say.
“Summer vacation is coming soon, right···?”
Isol looked at me with a nervous gaze—
* * *
Tick— Tick—
“···.”
How much time had passed?
I didn't know.
“···.”
Jinuri lay on the clubroom sofa, merely blinking. Blink, blink. She did so several times.
Up and down, left and right. Her gaze moved little by little, following the pattern carved into the ceiling.
After doing that for a while.
“···Ah···.”
A brief cry quietly slipped between Jinuri's lips.
‘I'm bored!’
She suddenly came to her senses and shouted the words inwardly.
She was incredibly bored.
‘There's nothing to do.’
One might wonder why she didn't study for the exams at this hour.
She had finished all that long ago.
Besides, Jinuri placed more emphasis on practical work.
She had focused on that and finished everything she needed to do today.
And there was still time left over.
‘···These days, the others won't play with me.’
Jinuri was dissatisfied about that.
Just look at this. There wasn't a single other second-year student in the clubroom. Not Shin Ayoung, not Isol, and not Lee Seungho. They were all busy.
They were in the middle of busy schedules.
It wasn't as though she could pester the third-year seniors, either.
Just look at them.
“Aaah··· That was wrong too···?”
“The method itself is correct, but you made a calculation error. This part here.”
At the voices coming from inside the counseling room, Jinuri pressed her lips tightly together.
They were seniors who were extremely busy preparing for the CSAT. That was why she couldn't interrupt them.
The others were the same.
The final exams were coming up soon.
‘Everyone's working hard···.’
Isol, in particular, was visibly working hard, saying that she had to get results on these final exams.
She was working so hard that Jinuri wondered whether she had ever seen her like this before.
Lee Seungho was busy helping her with that.
Shin Ayoung also seemed busy because of filming.
“···.”
Because of that, Jinuri had often found herself alone after school lately.
Hng.
She hated being alone. She needed someone to talk to.
With nothing to do, she ended up fiddling with her phone for no reason.
As she aimlessly browsed Insta.
“···Oh.”
A picture caught Jinuri's eye.
[You got this today, too!]
It was a story Shin Ayoung had posted.
It was a picture of a hand gripping a dumbbell tightly. She had uploaded something like that.
“Here···.”
The gym in the background looked familiar. She had seen it somewhere before.
The location of that water dispenser, the air conditioner, and all the equipment.
It was the same gym she used to attend.
Although she had quit not long afterward, she remembered it clearly because it had been her first and last gym.
‘···Come to think of it, what I got last time···.’
Ah, there it is.
After searching through her phone album, she found the one-day free-use coupon she had taken a picture of before.
It hadn't expired yet, either.
“Hmm···.”
Jinuri moved her lips as she looked at it.
It felt wrong to interrupt their studying.
But this was a gym, after all. It should probably be okay.
······.
“···.”
Jinuri stopped in front of a shopping center.
In the end, she had come to play.
It was a strange way to put it, coming to a gym to play, but Jinuri was that bored.
She needed someone to talk to.
‘···It's been a while since I've been here.’
Since she had quit, she rarely had any reason to come near this place, so the changed scenery felt fresh.
“Hmm-hmm.”
Jinuri hummed as she got into the elevator.
— Ding.
After a brief wait, she got off on the floor where the gym was located.
The scenery was still the same: an array of equipment visible from the entrance.
···But.
“?”
Jinuri noticed a girl loitering up ahead.
She had short black hair and a vaguely familiar look.
“···That's Seungah?!”
“Huh.”
“It is!”
Jinuri grabbed her hand excitedly.
“Ah, wait, it's just···.”
She fidgeted and glanced around in every direction.
Was something going on?
Lee Seungah looked somehow desperate.
As the question arose in Jinuri's mind.
“Hey, Lee Seungah. What are you doing here?”
“Ghk.”
Lee Seungho walked out from the entrance.
“You're not trying to run away again, are you?”
“No, it's not that···.”
Lee Seungah hurriedly pointed at Jinuri.
“I found Nuri unni here···!”
“What.”
Lee Seungho made an incredulous face, then.
“···Huh, what?”
After realizing that it really was Jinuri, his expression changed to one of surprise.
“Do you come here?”
Jinuri shook her head at the question.
“···It looked like Ayoung worked out here. I was bored, so I just came to take a look.”
“···Hmm.”
Lee Seungho nodded.
His gaze said that this was exactly what he had expected.
At that perfectly natural reaction, Jinuri bristled without meaning to.
“I work out, too. I just don't go to a gym.”
“Who said anything?”
“···.”
Jinuri closed her mouth again.
Put that way, he really hadn't said anything.
“If you came to see Shin Ayoung, she's inside.”
Lee Seungho pointed farther in.
Then he took Lee Seungah and moved away. It looked like he was going to use a different piece of equipment.
Seungah was practically dragged away. Their eyes met for an instant, and Jinuri could see her grievance.
“···.”
Jinuri deliberately looked away.
Pretending not to notice, she walked inside with light steps.
Just as he had told her, she found Shin Ayoung lifting a dumbbell farther inside.
“Hi, Ayoung~”
Jinuri waved lightly.
“Huh···?”
Shin Ayoung's eyes went wide as she lifted the dumbbell.
For a moment, her eyelashes lowered slightly.
Rather than happy or surprised, she looked almost flustered and wary.
‘Hmm?’
Jinuri blinked.
This wasn't the reaction she had expected.
“···What? You startled me.”
A moment later, Shin Ayoung greeted her with a bright smile.
It must have just been her imagination.
Tap– Tap–
Shin Ayoung set the dumbbells on the floor and asked,
“But how did you know to come here···?”
“I used to come here, too. I recognized it right away.”
Jinuri grinned.
“But do you two work out together?”
“It just happened.”
Jinuri nodded at the answer.
Well, there weren't many gyms around here, after all.
“But···.”
Jinuri's gaze traveled over her from head to toe.
“Your clothes··· Well···.”
They were embarrassing.
She was wearing clothes that clung to her entire body···.
And she was confidently wearing them in front of a boy from her class.
Wasn't she embarrassed?
“W-when you work out, you're supposed to wear things like this.”
Shin Ayoung noticed her gaze and raised her voice.
Her face was strangely red even as she spoke.
“···.”
Jinuri tilted her head.
That was the first she had heard of it.
“Look, everyone wears things like this.”
Shin Ayoung gestured with her chin, telling her to look around the gym.
“···I guess they do.”
Most of the women in the gym were wearing outfits similar to Shin Ayoung's.
Apparently, it wasn't that strange.
‘···Was I the only one wearing the clothes they lent me?’
They lent me clothes, too, so I naturally changed into those.
“Are you going to start working out?”
Shin Ayoung asked while drinking a sports drink.
“I had been thinking about it.”
She felt as though she had gained some weight lately, and her shoulders ached, too.
She had been wondering whether she should exercise.
‘···Though I only kept thinking about it.’
She really should do it.
Summer was coming soon, too.
It was time to start before she put it off any longer.
“I probably will.”
“I see···?”
Shin Ayoung nodded with a humming sound.
Her eyes quietly studied Jinuri.
“?”
Why was she looking at her like that?
Jinuri awkwardly scratched her neck.
“···Since you're here anyway, want me to teach you how to work out?”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I'd love that.”
Jinuri smiled brightly.
This was basically the same as getting free personal training. I guess this was why making friends was important.
“It's your first day, so I'll go easy on you.”
Shin Ayoung smiled faintly and seated her at a piece of equipment.
Jinuri loosened up with a confident expression.
‘Should I work hard starting today···!’
Burning with determination, she stretched out her arms.
······The next day. Jinuri did not come to the gym.
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(!Sign!)
(AI illustration if you scroll down!)
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(Jinuri's Gym Clothes)
(The Better One)