Chapter 949. Crank Up 6

He put down the kettlebell and wiped the sweat that rolled down his face. The trainer said that they would move on to the next workout after a 5-minute break.

“Is something on your mind lately?”

Kang Giwoo put down the towel and looked at the trainer.

“Something on my mind?”

“Your expression doesn’t look good when you’re concentrating today. Usually, you would be immersed in the exercise itself, but seeing your posture during your swings, it seems like your mind is elsewhere.”

Perhaps his emotions were subconsciously revealed. As this trainer had been training him for years, he probably noticed the minute changes easily.

“There’s a problem I can’t get around. I have to focus on the workout, but it’s not easy.”

“I’m sure you’ll do well by yourself since you’re meticulous at self-management, but please focus during training. There’s a risk of injury, and there’s also the matter of efficiency.”

“Okay, I’ll be more careful.”

He needed to listen to the trainer’s words carefully. It meant that his control over his emotions was shaking to the point that other people noticed it.

He drank some protein shake and looked at the woman exercising on top of a gym ball on the other side. The woman, who was on top of the gym ball, looked just like Han Gaeul. The fact that she was here in the premium room meant that she had quite a lot of money too. He met eyes with the woman exercising. She nodded at him with a smile as a greeting before focusing on her workouts again.

“Apparently, she’s a president at that age. She already earns billions of won every year thanks to a travel-related mobile app. If you have an interest in her, you should talk to her. I’m pretty sure she’s interested in you too,” said the trainer.

Giwoo watched the woman stretch his arms out like a bow with the gym ball in her arms as though to boast her body curves before shaking his head.

“I should sculpt my body first. The character I’ll be playing in the upcoming film is a muscular man. Maybe it’s because I’m young, but I get zero roles where my stomach isn’t ripped.”

“Ripped bodies look good. Also, that’s the mindset you should have. Let’s go over to the next workout.”

High-intensity workouts followed for the next 40 minutes. By the time he felt his arms and thighs shivering from the lack of energy, he was given another break. Stretching his muscles on top of a mattress was followed by receiving a massage from the trainer on the bench.

“Wait here for a bit. I’ll bring your schedule and your diet.”

The trainer left for a second. Giwoo sat down and did some simple yoga while waiting. Just then, he saw a pair of yellow trainers enter his eyes. When he raised his head, he saw the woman that was training with the gym ball a while ago.

“You’re okay with me talking to you rather suddenly, right?”

She seemed rather bold by her words. It wasn’t really surprising since her appearance was excellent. Giwoo stood up while looking at the woman’s eyes, which looked like she had never been rejected before. Seeing her from up close, she seemed to be the definition of meticulous self-management.

“I don’t hate it.”

“I thought you’d talk to me first. But are you cautious about it because you’re an actor?”

“There’s that too, but there are also ladies who come here solely to train. I usually hold back lest I bother them.”

“I’m also here just to train, but I see you in front of me, Mr. Giwoo. I came over since I never know when I’ll get a chance like this again. You’re on your break after the drama, right?”

“I’m not sure. I did finish the drama, but I’m not sure if I’m resting or not. I’m training my body like this since I feel uneasy not doing it.”

“But you look good enough though. You’re just my style too.”

The woman sat next to him. Giwoo saw the trainer walk over with a clear file behind the glass. Before he opened the door, the trainer shrugged once before turning around.

“I also want to get trained by him, but he’s fully booked.”

“He is quite good.”

“Can I receive training alongside you?” the woman said as she leaned forward.

She was someone well aware of what her charms were, and what kind of weapons she should use to fell a man. While her personality was to his liking, and she seemed decent enough to play around with, Giwoo drew the line there. He wasn’t feeling interested. Everything about her was good, but the eyes, nose, and lips that looked similar to Han Gaeul’s bothered him.

“That’s something I can’t accept.”

The woman was quick-witted. Okay — she answered before standing up. She didn’t even express any disappointment at the fact that she was rejected and just went back to her gym ball before continuing with her exercises. Even her confidence was just like Han Gaeul’s.

Giwoo sighed and stroked his hand down his face. Lately, he ended up comparing every woman he saw to Han Gaeul; he compared their faces, personalities, and voices. Whether it was better or worse compared to Han Gaeul, everything came down to one conclusion: that woman is not Han Gaeul. Ever since the vacation, he could not get excited no matter which woman he saw. Even when he did, his sense of self-guilt kicked in when he tried talking to them: You can’t have the real one, so you’re just looking for replacement counterfeits?

“The mood isn’t good here. Do you not like her?”

“She’s an okay person, but I plan to focus on my next work for now.”

“I’ll ask just in case, but you have someone you’re interested in, don’t you?”

“Do I look like it?”

“That’s just how we men are. We just don’t see any other women once we set our eyes on one. It’ll be a different story once you start dating her and see her bottom, though. Hey, who is it? Who is the woman that makes the almighty Giwoo think about other things during workouts?”

“I’ll tell you who she is if things work out.”

“I’m sure it will. Against someone like you, any girl would show interest as long as you treat them well.”

“I hope that’s the case.”

Giwoo talked about what was on his mind as the trainer could be trusted. Towards capable people, he acknowledged them and gave them suitable treatment. There was a reason why he paid the trainer separately to have him by his side.

“Even if it’s tiring, you should definitely work out at the hotel’s gym. Working out is about momentum, so you have to do it when you have to. I’m sure you’ll do well by yourself, but telling you is part of my job, so please look over it.”

“Okay.”

After working out, he received meal kits provided by the gym for the diet. He returned to his house and opened one of the vacuum-packed kits and put it in a bowl before sitting down in front of the TV. There was a memo stuck on the table left by the cleaning lady: I have gathered the broken pieces of the clock and put them next to the trash.

That was the table clock that he threw on the day he returned from the group vacation. He didn’t clean it for days and just let it be, and it seemed that the cleaning lady had cleared it up. On the day he returned, the word ‘obsession’ never left his mind. The word that came out of Han Gaeul’s mouth shook his entire body like a ship in the middle of the stormy seas. That was the first time he destroyed something needlessly. When he looked at the broken and shattered table clock, Giwoo once again felt that Han Gaeul did not mean a small amount to him; when she mentioned ‘obsession’, it was true to a certain extent.

He put down the salad that he was putting in his mouth before opening up Instagram on his phone. He took photos of the plate with the salad on it before uploading it. As soon as he uploaded it, he was given lots of hearts and comments.

Our actor is looking after his body; it looks tasty; you want to eat greasy stuff, don’t you?; et cetera. There were many ‘lols’ in the comments as well, but none of them made him laugh. He turned on the notifications that he usually had turned off. The sound that came out whenever there was a new comment sounded out endlessly. He could practically see his phone’s battery being depleted with his eyes.

People liked Kang Giwoo that it was to the point that they would go out of their way to write comments on a meaningless photo.

He turned off the notifications and had a look at the comments. He did not see Han Gaeul’s ID anywhere. He checked the IDs written in the English alphabet one by one before chuckling.

Kang Giwoo, what the heck are you doing?

He was about to throw his phone away but then decided to go to Han Gaeul’s account. He saw a photo uploaded by her. It was of some food from Jeju island with the scenery of Jeju island. He had heard that she went to Jeju island because of a shoot.

He looked at her smiling happily with a cup of coffee in her hand. He wanted to talk to her, face-to-face.

He looked for her number in his contact list which numbered over a thousand. It took quite a long time for him to press the call button. He felt even more nervous than when he was calling his grandfather after committing a mistake. The funny thing was that he didn’t hate this nervousness. He felt his heart pounding as he listened to the call connecting. He did not expect her to pick up. After all, she had never picked up since the vacation.

After the chorus of a famous song ended and was about to start over, he heard a voice notifying him that he was being directed to voice messages. Giwoo hung up. Fatigue assaulted him all of a sudden. He was stuck at home on a weekend. Lately, too many things he would usually consider unimaginable was happening to him. The fact that Han Gaeul was related to all of them made him faintly furious, yet happy at the same time. The face of the woman who shook him up and down was reflected in his eyes, while her voice rang out in his ears. His hands entered his pants. He imagined her moans that he had never heard before. What would it sound like? He could feel his unstoppable thirst getting bigger.

Obsession, obsession, obsession — he repeated to himself several times.