Chapter 231: Taking a Breather (2)

Kang Ra-Eun successfully completed her first day of judo lessons with a national representative.

She changed back into her regular clothes and said to Jung Hun-Seong with a smile, “Thank you for the trouble today.”

Hun-Seong laughed awkwardly in response. It had not been any trouble at all in a physical sense, but he was mentally exhausted from trying his absolute best not to excessively touch her body.

“I hope you’ll give me the same treatment next time as well,” Ra-Eun remarked.

“Understood. I’ll make sure to have a judogi your size by then.”

If not, Hun-Seong would be the one to collapse from mental exhaustion. Only after Ra-Eun had left the training gym was Hun-Seong finally able to sigh in relief and take a break.

Ring!

Hun-Seong’s phone chimed around ten minutes after Ra-Eun had left.

One of his juniors shouted, “Sunbae! I think you’ve got a text.”

“Really?”

Hun-Seong got back up to check the contents of the text, and then dropped his smartphone. The display would have cracked if there had been no mat under them.

“What’s wrong, sunbae? Are you exhausted from teaching Miss Kang?”

“N-No, not that...” Hun-Seong stuttered and double checked his text while blinking repeatedly. He then called to his junior, “Ji-Seok.”

“Yes?”

“Could you check this number for me? I think I’m seeing things.”

The text that Hun-Seong had checked was a statement of Ra-Eun’s lesson fee deposit into his bank account.

“One, two, three, four, five, six... S-Seven zeros... F-Fifty million won!”

It was an absurd amount of money in their perspective. Hun-Seong’s legs gave out once again after getting confirmation of Ra-Eun’s deposit amount.

“Now that I’ve been paid this much, I guess I can’t half-ass it.”

He reflected on himself for not taking the lesson seriously.

***

Ra-Eun continued to go to the fitness center to work out even while taking judo lessons from Hun-Seong, because she believed that improving basic fitness was crucial above all else. Ra-Eun had a fitness partner that she met frequently at the gym.

“Good morning, sunbae.”

Je-Woon, who had been focused on pumping weights with headphones on, stared at Ra-Eun, who had greeted him first.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I’m sorry? What do you mean?”

“Your left arm. It looks bruised.”

Je-Woon had not seen it wrong; there were pinky-sized bruises not just on Ra-Eun’s arm, but on various parts of her body. She had also put on athletic tape that she rarely used.

“I’ve been learning judo from Jung Hun-Seong sunbae lately,” she answered.

“Judo? Why out of the blue?”

There weren’t any action scenes for Ra-Eun in Spokesperson, the film that she was starring in right now, so there was no particular reason for her to learn judo.

Ra-Eun answered as she put down her sports bag, “It’s just a personal desire.”

Ra-Eun was willing to use as much time and money as possible to fulfill her very own selfish revenge. As someone who had known her for a very long time, Je-Woon often thought that she was a woman with many secrets. Thinking that she must have her reasons, he decided not to ask any further since it might make her uncomfortable.

“Could you help with my workout, sunbae?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yes. This much is fine.”

Je-Woon had no choice but to comply when Ra-Eun was this strongly motivated.

***

Ra-Eun continued to do several activities that were taxing on one’s body, such as film shoots, fitness and judo.

‘It would be weirder if my muscles weren’t sore.’

Thankfully, her clothes in Spokesperson did not have a high degree of skin exposure; if the film had been about swimming, then she would have been in quite a predicament since she had several pain relief patches plastered all over her body.

‘But at least most of my bruises are gone.’

It was the only fortune amidst the misfortune. Ra-Eun couldn’t have cared less about how bruised up she had gotten in her male body, but even the tiniest bruise was an eyesore after becoming a woman.

‘This won’t do.’

Ra-Eun came out of her room and went to Seo Yi-Jun.

“Are you busy?” she asked him.

“Me? No.”

“Then give me a massage. I’ll pay you.”

Yi-Jun’s shoulders flinched violently. Although he had been given permission to touch her body...

“A massage is a bit...” he expressed reluctance while avoiding her gaze.

“Why not? I said I’ll pay you.”

Ra-Eun was considerably magnanimous. The amount that she would pay him was worth a salaryman’s monthly salary. It was a great opportunity for Yi-Jun, who was preparing for employment. However, if that opportunity was giving Ra-Eun a massage, he couldn’t help but stomp on the brake like a vehicle racing toward a speed bump; it was because of the moans that Ra-Eun made whenever she received massages. Unfortunately, Ra-Eun still had no idea of how much the noises that she made during massages stimulated men.

“Can’t you just use the massage chair that you’d bought?” Yi-Jun suggested.

“That’s too weak. Also, nothing beats human hands.”

“...”

Yi-Jun pondered over what to do, and then came up with a compromise.

“Okay, I’ll do it. But allow me just one thing.”

“What?”

Yi-Jun replied while picking up the earphones that were on his desk, “Let me put these on.”

He assumed that it would be fine if he blasted music through them, under the premise that Ra-Eun allowed it.

“I don’t really care,” Ra-Eun replied.

Yi-Jun sighed as if he had lost ten years of his life.

The massage operation commenced; Yi-Jun gulped as he looked at Ra-Eun’s back as she laid down on her stomach. He wondered if there was a back more beautiful than this whenever he saw it. He certainly felt far more at ease now that he was wearing earphones.

Yi-Jun pressed on Ra-Eun’s shoulders, back, waist, thighs, calves and other areas while controlling his strength as much as possible. Although he was not a certified massage therapist, his hands and their warmth were enough to relieve the fatigue concentrated in her body. This was why she had insisted that Yi-Jun give her a massage instead of using the massage chair.

Yi-Jun continued the massage session for twenty minutes. Ra-Eun got up in the middle of it and moved her mouth while smiling. However, Yi-Jun could not tell what she was saying because he had music blasting through his earphones.

“What did you just say, noona?”

Ra-Eun slightly sulked and took out one of Yi-Jun’s earphones.

“I said, you can stop now.”

Yi-Jun took out the other earphone and expressed as he reviewed the sensation of Ra-Eun’s body still left in his hands, “Your muscles were really tight.”

“Yeah, because I’ve been using them a lot.”

“You said you’ve been learning judo, right?”

“Yeah. I’m learning from Jung Hun-Seong himself.”

“Why are you learning judo all of a sudden?”

“Just ‘cause.”

Ra-Eun decided to give a vague answer because telling the truth might put Yi-Jun in danger.

“Why? You don’t like me learning judo?” she asked.

Yi-Jun answered honestly, “Yes.”

“What don’t you like about it?”

“How should I put it... I don’t know if it’s related to you deciding to learn judo, but I get this feeling that you’ve been high-strung lately, as if you’re being chased by something.”

It had been quite a vague statement, but it had been extremely sharp and accurate from Ra-Eun’s perspective. She had always thought that she was the one doing the chasing, but that was not how it had looked to Yi-Jun. It looked to him that she was the one being chased. The pressure that she was under from feeling a necessity to fulfill her revenge no matter what was forcibly pushing her.

‘Being chased, huh...?’

Yi-Jun might have simply expressed what he had felt, but it was enough for Ra-Eun to think very deeply about it.

***

Ra-Eun was absorbed in judo with Hun-Seong yet again today.

Having noticed that she had improved far beyond her initial skills, Hun-Seong remarked, “You could even become a judo athlete.”

It was not lip service; Hun-Seong was not good at that sort of thing in the first place. The praise had been from his heart. That was how much Ra-Eun had improved in such a short period of time.

They decided to take a short break. Ra-Eun plopped on a bench in the training gym and was handed a sports drink by Hun-Seong.

“Thank you,” she expressed.

She cooled down her heated body with the cool drink. Ra-Eun simply drinking a canned beverage was photogenic enough to be put in a commercial. Hun-Seong stared at her in a daze.

He did his absolute best to keep his red face hidden and asked, “How is judo?”

“It’s great. It’s all thanks to having an amazing teacher like you.”

“I’m glad. I’ve been worried that I haven’t been teaching you properly because you’ve had an anxious look on your face from time to time.”

Yi-Jun’s words popped into Ra-Eun’s head. He had said that it looked like she was being chased by something. The anxiety that came from it had also been visible to Hun-Seong.

“I don’t know what you’re going through, but I think that you push yourself too hard sometimes,” Hun-Seong remarked.

He could tell even without Ra-Eun telling him that her current state was very unstable.

“It’s good to have a goal, but you’re bound to run out of steam sooner or later if you push yourself too hard to reach it. I experienced the same thing last year.”

Hun-Seong had ultimately reached his limit after tirelessly pursuing his one desire of winning an Olympic gold medal. However, he had successfully accomplished his life’s goal after managing to overcome his limits. Ra-Eun also desired his advice besides his judo lessons.

“What should I do, then?” she asked.

Even if that was the case, it was not an option for Ra-Eun to give up on her goal. However, Hun-Seong’s answer was more simple than she had thought.

“You need to take a breather every now and then. Once you do, your head will naturally become clearer.”

His advice came from his own experiences. Ra-Eun’s head had been disordered due to her sudden confrontation with Park Eun-Soo. This might be the time when she needed to take a breather.