Helloo :)
Thank you to Xiaoyin Lover and Wind Scarlette for the reviews! Kinkiness coming soon, pinkie promise ^_^


Hwoarang

Still disconcerted about how a small conversation like that can make me change my mind about something I thought I was set on, I park my bike at home and walk to the gym. I'm procrastinating, putting off making the pivotal decision: do I try and kill myself properly, or do I call Xiaoyu?

Possibly one of the hardest decisions I'll ever make.

I observe my surroundings with slight revulsion. It's one of those dingy little gymnasiums that opens whenever the owner feels like it and closes whenever he can be arsed to kick everyone out. The walls are black and peeling to show dirty white underneath the paper, and adorned with posters of muscled men for inspiration and naked women straddling motorbikes for encouragement. There are no windows; the whole place is underground, and the bricked walls induce the claustrophobic feeling of being at the bottom of a large square well. The bare bulb in the middle of the room flickers sulkily.

This place is disgusting.

I start out light, on the forty-kilogram weights, attempting to think things through in my head. How did she put me off even attempting what I went there to do? Why did she give me her number? Is she interested?

The last one is fucking laughable. Like she'd ever fall for me. Though something similar did happen once, in a childhood story called "Beauty and the Beast".

Upping the weights to fifty-five, I catch sight of myself in a grimy mirror directly opposite the place I'm sitting, and almost look away in disgust. I see a man with too-red hair and too-big muscles, working out to hide the insecure, lonely adolescent he really is because he doesn't have the balls to show anyone how vulnerable he feels.

Well maybe things can change. Maybe he's found someone who's going to listen to him and make him happy in ways that fighting never can.

I shake my head violently, forcing myself to be rational. I'm thinking too far ahead. We've basically only just met, for fuck's sake.

I make myself exercise furiously, pushing myself too hard, not thinking of how much pain I'll be in tomorrow, or maybe the day after. When I next check the time, it's ten 'o' clock. Damn. It's getting late.

I stand slowly and stretch out all of my limbs. Hearing them click is always surprisingly refreshing.

Exhausted and dripping with sweat, I nab the small bathroom and quickly shower, ignoring the decaying rat lying forlornly next to the sink. The water alternates between cold and freezing, but it's better than nothing.

The second I'm outside to head home I'm approached by two hoodie-clad men. My taekwon do instincts kick in and I automatically change my stance to lower my centre of gravity, making quick attacks easier if necessary, but relax when I recognize the spotty, greasy faces of two of my teenage clients.

"What?" I snap, not in the mood to be plagued by these two. They're particularly annoying, with their braces and immaturity and eerie habit of finding me wherever I am.

"You holdin'?"