Kyungoh, who moved behind Sangho just like that, grabbed Sangho’s waist and lightly pressed his lower back with his thumbs. Then the ambiguously rolled waist went in smoothly.
“Try coming up slowly like this.”
“Hhng.”
“Good.”
When Sangho straightened his upper body and stood up, the soft chest muscles touched slightly from behind. Then Kyungoh quickly backed away and said.
“Try it one more time.”
“Ugh…”
“Very good. Just do it like this. Try twenty reps, three sets.”
At Kyungoh’s satisfied expression, Sangho felt proud. When Kyungoh lightly lifted the barbell onto his shoulders again and got into position, Sangho also clasped his hands together and spread his feet shoulder-width apart as he’d learned. After confirming Sangho was in position, Kyungoh started squatting while slowly counting numbers.
“One. Two…”
“Huff… huff…”
“…Nineteen, twenty.”
“Kkgh, huff… huff…”
Crazy. From around when the number passed ten, Sangho’s thigh muscles started trembling like crazy and he was already at his limit. But Kyungoh watched Sangho while waiting for him to complete the full squat count. Unable to interfere with Kyungoh’s exercise, Sangho desperately repeated squatting and standing to match Kyungoh’s pace. After passing fifteen, his breath rose to his chin and blood rushed to his face to the point of agony. Kyungoh lowered the exercise speed and stubbornly completed twenty.
“Huff… huff… I, I can’t do it…!”
“Two more sets left.”
“Hh, hhng.”
“Rest for 1 minute and we’ll go again.”
Crazy. Crazy bastard!
Sangho scrunched up his face and poured out curses inwardly. Having never exercised this hard before, Sangho couldn’t come to his senses at the harsh taste of his first strength training.
“You’re doing well for a first time. If you do a little more, you’ll be able to add weight too.”
“…R-really?”
At Kyungoh’s subtle praise, Sangho glanced at the giant barbell. To be able to do it with that on your shoulders. Could this scrawny anchovy-like body also change into a muscle man? Even if it might be difficult to reach Kyungoh’s level, wouldn’t a firm body like Wonha’s be achievable? As that thought occurred to him, Sangho’s desire to run away immediately subsided a bit.
“1 minute’s up. Going again.”
Kyungoh’s sharp voice rang out. Suppressing his trembling eyelids, Sangho gritted his teeth again and started squatting.
***
I thought I was going to die.
With a haggard face, Sangho collapsed onto his studio apartment bed with a thud. Having barely managed to shower, Sangho didn’t even think about drying his wet hair and went straight under the blanket. The part he’d washed earlier was ambiguously not fully dry and felt damp, but there was nothing he could do.
Kyungoh said he was doing lower body exercises and taught him how to use squats and various equipment. It was interesting that when using equipment, he could exercise more stably than with bodyweight exercises. It was a bit embarrassing when he finally couldn’t overcome the weight on the inner thigh machine and floundered with his legs spread wide open…
With such a scrawny body and no strength, it would be worth getting laughed at once, he thought, but Kyungoh just silently taught him exercise methods. Come to think of it, Sangho had only helped a bit when Kyungoh was doing shoulder exercises, and didn’t think he’d been of much help. Rather, Sangho was the one who received help in various ways. And Kyungoh seemed to quite enjoy teaching him exercises.
Is this what it is? A veteran taking in a newbie…?
Ding-dong.
Sangho, who had been chuckling at the silly thought, half-sat up when he saw a message notification on his phone. It was a message from Kyungoh.
[You need to eat protein.]
[How much do you weigh?]
Sangho tilted his head at the two messages that came in succession. Suddenly asking about weight… As Sangho, who felt a bit embarrassed to state it clearly, hesitated to reply, the phone rang.
“H-hello?”
— Hyung.
“Yes, yes.”
— How many kilos?
“What? Why…”
— You need to eat protein according to your weight. If you don’t do that, today was just manual labor.
Ding, his head rang. After all that suffering today, it was just manual labor!
“Ah! U-uh, how much? The last time I measured was 45kg. I think I’ve gained a bit lately though…”
— Then eat at least 100g.
“Um, mmm. Okay.”
How much is 100g? I have two eggs left at home…
When Sangho trailed off ambiguously, a sigh could be heard from the other end of the phone.
— What do you have at home? To eat.
“Two eggs and… canned tuna?”
— …
“Oh, and… instant ramen…”
— You haven’t had dinner, right? Come over here. Building 120X, unit 140X.
Click.
At the phone that hung up just like that, Sangho stared at his phone with a blank face.
Having no choice but to head back to Kyungoh’s house, Sangho hesitated for a long time at the apartment common entrance, then when someone going out looked at him strangely, he quickly came inside the entrance. Taking the elevator and pressing 14, Sangho hesitated for a few more minutes in front of Kyungoh’s house before pressing the doorbell.
Click.
“Come in.”
Inside, Kyungoh opened the door holding tongs. His hair was wet and sticking out in all directions as if he’d showered.
“Hello…”
Bowing in greeting and entering inside, Sangho made a surprised expression at the pork belly piled high on the dining table. Whether he’d simply set the table, vegetables and kimchi were laid out, and at Kyungoh’s seat, rice was piled like a mountain in a soup bowl.
I should have ordered two bowls of sundae-gukbap.
Next time I’ll definitely order two bowls. No, three bowls. Sangho thought that as he sat at the table.
“I’ll eat well.”
Without much to say, Kyungoh diligently grilled and cut the pork belly. Perhaps he was hungry too, as he was grilling and devouring meat at an incredible speed. At the feast that unfolded as soon as he entered the house, Sangho sat awkwardly before picking up the chopsticks in front of him and starting to eat the pork belly. Since it had been a while since he’d eaten grilled meat, it went down his throat smoothly.
“You need to eat half a geun.”
When Sangho, having eaten a couple of rows of pork belly, moved his chopsticks slowly with a full expression, Kyungoh said something. I feel like I’ve eaten a ton though… Entering the house, greeting, eating without a word, and the first thing he says is ‘eat more.’ It’s quite different from Wonha in a rough way.
Still, it’s comfortable. I don’t feel like I have to force conversation.
In the meantime, Kyungoh moved a few more pieces of grilled pork belly in front of Sangho. It was meat accompanied by well-ripened kimchi grilled together. Sangho stared at the pile of meat in front of him and pressed his lips tightly shut as if troubled.
“Eat just a little more. You can’t eat all 100g in one meal anyway and have to divide it… but you need to eat as much as your weight or you’ll lose muscle.”
I don’t think I can eat any more, but the kimchi looks delicious. Sangho gripped his chopsticks tightly and diligently put meat in his mouth again.
***
Unexpected things always happen in the world.
Like, a company that delivered sand to the wrestling arena ignoring safety rules and stacking dozens of sandbags by the entrance. Or the cornered center director just happening to push a scrawny janitor with those sandbags. Or the wrestling team ace watching that throwing his body to save the janitor.
Anyway, thinking about such things, getting indigestion from overeating is a situation with a clearer cause-and-effect relationship than expected, so it’s not surprising.
“Ugh…”
“A-are you okay?”
If only Han Kyungoh, completely stripped, wasn’t rubbing my stomach with an expression like he needed to use the bathroom.
Clearly, up until the pork belly, there was no problem.
Though he’d eaten a bit more than usual, his stomach was just very full but didn’t seem to be at the level of indigestion.
After eating a bunch of greasy food, Kyungoh started boiling several spicy ramens. Sangho’s mouth felt slick, so he ate a bit more of the ramen with its spicy aroma. Even then it was fine.
When his mouth tingled from the quite spicy ramen, Kyungoh took out a tub of vanilla ice cream from the freezer. That seemed to be the problem. Greasy, spicy and stimulating ramen, and dairy products. His stomach already felt like it would burst, but Sangho gulped as he watched Kyungoh scooping up ice cream. And he couldn’t resist and ate one scoop of ice cream himself.
With food filled almost to his throat, Sangho panted and rested sitting in the chair for a moment. After that, Kyungoh rustled around as if something was lacking and took out several pieces of bread. Crunch crunch, after demolishing several bread bags, when Kyungoh held out bread to Sangho, Sangho barely shook his head to refuse.
And a little later, Sangho’s complexion turned pale and he started breaking out in cold sweat.
It feel like the protagonist is flirting with people for free food