Chapter One #3
“He’s such a dog,” she says, shaking her head. “Always flirting with everything that moves.”
I laugh, scrolling through my client list. “Hyunwoo’s never met a woman he didn’t try to charm. It’s like a reflex for him at this point, I don’t think he even knows he’s doing it half the time.”
“Good thing he’s hot enough to get away with it,” Ye-eun says, tucking her tablet under her arm and leaning against the kiosk. “Otherwise he’d just be creepy instead of charming. There’s a very thin line between the two and the only thing separating them is bone structure.”
“I guess so,” I mutter, scanning the afternoon slots. I’ve got a new client at three, a regular at four-thirty, and then a group session at six that I’m co-leading with one of the other trainers. Not bad.
Ye-eun steps closer, and I can already tell from the glint in her eye that whatever’s about to come out of her mouth is going to make me regret not walking away sooner.
“Come on,” she says, her voice dropping into a conspiratorial tone she uses when she’s about to be nosy. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it. The guy’s like sex on legs with that body and face, and the way he carries himself like he owns the entire world.”
I cringe, visibly, my whole face scrunching up. “I’ve known Hyunwoo since we were both in diapers, Ye-eun. So no, I’ve never really thought of him that way. That would be like checking out a brother.”
Ye-eun licks her lips with a deliberate, exaggerated slowness that tells me she’s doing it purely to make me uncomfortable, and says, “So you’ve like, seen him naked and everything, right?” She wiggles her eyebrows. “Is he packing?”
I give her the flattest look I can manage. “I don’t pay much attention to other men’s dicks, Ye-eun.”
Her grin only gets wider, completely undeterred.
“So you have seen it. Well? Is he? Come on, I’m never going to get close enough to that kind of trouble myself, so I have to live vicariously through you.
” She clasps her hands together in front of her chest in a mock-pleading gesture.
“Just ease my curiosity a little bit. That’s all I’m asking for. A crumb.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut. “I don’t—” I start, then stop, sigh through my nose, and reluctantly add, “He’s an alpha, so yeah, I guess he’s typical alpha-sized. And that is all you’re getting out of me on the subject.”
Ye-eun lets out a triumphant giggle, pumping her fist. “I knew it. Of course he would be, with all that big alpha energy he throws around. It’d be a crime against nature if he wasn’t.”
“Please never ask me anything like that again,” I say, dropping my hand from my face and fixing her with a look that I hope conveys the full depth of my discomfort. “It’s weird and gross to talk about my best friend that way.”
Ye-eun laughs and pats me on the back with a sympathetic firmness that is not at all sympathetic.
“It’s too bad you like women, Yugyeom, because the juicy details you could provide with that face of yours if you hooked up with men would be enough to sustain me for the rest of my subdued beta life.
I’d never need another drama subscription again. ”
I roll my eyes and grab my water bottle from behind the counter, already heading toward the training floor. “I have clients to train. And I’d advise you not to daydream about my friend’s dick all day.”
“I make no promises!” she calls after me, her voice carrying across the gym floor with zero regard for volume or the other staff members within earshot.
I shake my head as I walk away, pushing through the door to the training area.
It’s always like this with Hyunwoo. Women constantly asking about him, trying to get close to him through me, wanting details about his personal life, his relationship status, his preferences, his body.
I’m used to it by now after twenty-some years of friendship with the guy.
Sometimes it’s even beneficial, honestly, because I can often pick up all the women that Hyunwoo attracts but has no interest in sleeping with himself.
The ones who come sniffing around hoping to get his number and end up settling for mine instead when they realize Hyunwoo’s already moved on to the next shiny thing.
So I take the annoying side effects of having a cocky, good-looking chaebol as a best friend in stride, because the perks usually outweigh the inconvenience.
Although, I think as I set up the training mats for my three o’clock, maybe I should just ask Hyunwoo to supply me with a dick pic or something I can hand out to girls when they ask.
Like a business card, but worse. It would save me from having to field these uncomfortable questions about his anatomy every other week.
But then I’d have to have a ready explanation for why I’ve got a picture of my best friend’s dick stored on my phone, and I can’t think of a single version of that conversation that doesn’t end with someone looking at me like I need professional help.
So maybe not the best solution after all.