Inside the Gym
"995."
"996."
"997."
"998."
Ren was performing pull-ups with a 30kg weight strapped to his waist, letting out a low growl with every count. His shirt was completely soaked, and sweat trickled down his flexing muscles, forming a small puddle on the floor beneath him.
With every upward pull, the muscles across his broad back tightened and shifted under the skin, hard and precise.
"Textbook back development. You're not half bad, kid. You've trained yourself well."
Hiratsuka-sensei, who had come to the gym to work out after finishing her shift, had initially been curious about who was training so desperately. To her surprise, she found it was the resident troublemaker, Ren Katsuragi.
She stopped her own workout and stood behind him to watch. She wanted to see just how good he actually was, especially since he had mocked her own training as "average" before.
The wet fabric clung to his muscles, fully revealing the state of his physique to her. Hiratsuka-sensei couldn't stay composed; it was truly astonishing that a student like Ren could develop such a form.
Ren didn't pay her any mind, burying his head in the count and ignoring the world around him. Hiratsuka-sensei didn't get angry; she simply found a place to sit and wait for him to finish his set.
Training is like a battle: it requires a sudden burst of energy. If your focus is interrupted and that momentum is lost, you might not be able to finish.
Looks like this guy's goal is more than a thousand...
Watching his movements closely, Hiratsuka-sensei had to admit that Ren certainly had the right to call her training average.
Snap—
His hands let go of the bar, and Ren dropped to the floor. A thin haze rose off his skin as sweat evaporated into the gym's cooler air, and Hiratsuka-sensei stared for a moment.
"Kid, what is this—some kind of trick that makes you steam?"
She knew exactly what it was, but that didn't stop her from teasing him. She pulled a bottle of mineral water from her bag and tossed it to him.
Ren wasn't polite. He caught the water, twisted off the cap, and took two large gulps before pouring the rest over his head.
"It is. Want to learn, Hiratsuka-sensei? Send me fifty bucks and I'll teach you."
"Hah. Other scammers promise miracles and titles. You're just offering to make my head steam for fifty bucks?"
Hiratsuka-sensei clearly kept up with online trends; she'd heard that kind of pitch before.
Ren didn't argue, he just chuckled. He sat down beside her, took another bottle of water from near her feet, and continued to rehydrate.
"Which style?" she asked out of the blue.
That day Ren had punched her, he'd used a sharp, straight-line technique, but one move wasn't enough to pin down someone's background. In fighting, plenty of people mix methods and keep a few techniques in reserve.
And props can be weapons. An umbrella, a cane, even something that looks harmless can be reinforced or weighted; one hit can do real damage.
And if you think taking the object away ends the fight, you're wrong. Anyone who carries something like that with confidence usually knows how to fight without it. The moment it's gone, the real hands come out.
Driven by intense curiosity, Hiratsuka-sensei decided to take advantage of Ren's post-workout calm to see if she could get some answers.
"You're actually interested in this, Hiratsuka-sensei?"
Ren, still drinking water, gave her a surprised glance. She was already a teacher at Sobu High; why was she so gossipy about his martial arts background?
It wasn't a shameful secret, so Ren honestly disclosed his roots.
"No official school. Just a bunch of old men. One taught me a bit of this, another taught me a bit of that."
"I just watched and learned until I seemed to know it all."
"They didn't ask me to carry on anything. They just told me to go home early."
"You actually had a lucky encounter like that?" Hiratsuka-sensei's eyes lit up. She excitedly grabbed the hand he was using to hold the water bottle and said seriously: "Where are those old men? Can I go try too?"
Teaching was her childhood dream, but martial arts ran in her family.
"They're out of the country, and I have no idea where they've wandered off to. Want to go and try your luck, Hiratsuka-sensei?"
"Never mind then."
The moment she heard they weren't the kind of "mysterious masters" tied to a fixed location, her interest vanished. The place was enormous; who knew which corner those old men had disappeared into? Without a lead, searching for them would be nearly impossible.
"Then what about you? Ren, why do you practice martial arts?"
Since they weren't at school, she treated him as a peer for the moment, wanting to see his perspective on training.
"To be handsome and make it easier to chase girls."
"To chase girls?"
The former she could understand; the latter left her feeling a bit scrambled. He put in all that effort to build that physique... just to chase girls? She couldn't wrap her head around it.
"Yeah. Who likes a guy covered in flab? If you don't work hard to improve yourself, how can you expect a girl to like you?"
Now relaxed, Ren began chatting and joking with her, sharing his views. You reap what you sow. You might not necessarily capture a girl's heart, but you will definitely gain a perfect body. Ren had always maintained his physique; he didn't believe in letting himself go.
"Makes sense. You really do use every means at your disposal, don't you?"
Rubbing her smooth chin, Hiratsuka-sensei nodded in agreement. Take Hachiman Hikigaya, for instance; despite his dead-fish eyes affecting his looks, he was still decent-looking if you really looked. In human interaction, appearance is always the first impression.
"Hiratsuka-sensei, want to grab dinner together?"
Ren had received a message from Mahiru saying she wouldn't be home for dinner, and since he was too lazy to cook for one, he decided to eat out. He had a perfectly good dining partner right in front of him.
"Sure. I know a great place. I'll take you there."
"Then wait for me a bit. I'll take a shower and change."
Standing in front of a ramen shop, Ren was speechless.
"Hiratsuka-sensei, if you didn't want to pay, you could have just said so. I'll treat you."
Ramen was indeed a staple in Japan, but everything has its time and place. They had just finished an intense workout, and she brought him to eat ramen?
"Kid, don't look down on this ramen shop. This place..."
Seeing Ren's open disdain for the shop, Hiratsuka-sensei prepared to give him a hard sell. Every time she failed a matchmaking date, she would come here for a bowl of ramen. That flavor was truly soul-soothing.
"Stop talking nonsense."
Without listening to a word of her pitch, Ren grabbed her by the wrist and began pulling her toward a nearby high-end restaurant instead.
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