The first thing Emil woke up to on his first official morning of college was a cold wet towel smacking his face.
"Blargh—!" he gasped as the freezing water dripped onto his pillow and soaked him through and through. "Leon, what the hell!"
"Rise and shine, snowflake," he heard his less-than considerate roommate snicker as he caught the towel before it hit him back.
"That's not cool!" Emil exploded. "I'd never do something like that to you!"
"Yeah, but you slept past the alarm," Leon said. When Emil looked closer, he noticed Leon was already dressed in basketball shorts, running shoes, and an Eliatha University sweatshirt. The sweatshirt was actually a hand-me-down from Cheng; it was a little big, but since he always took care of his belongings, Leon didn't mind saving a few hetas by taking it with him to school. The design hadn't changed on the new sweatshirts, either.
"C'mon, Emil. Get dressed so the machines don't get taken up. Cheng and Mei told me it can get awkward waiting around for a machine to be available."
Emil wasn't able to relate since Lukas never bothered going to the gym as an undergraduate. Much like his brother, Emil was gifted with high metabolism, but as a result, it gave him the poor excuse that he didn't need to work out in order to look lean. Leon was a different case, but at least he practiced martial arts and worked out back in high school—apparently being a fanatic of all those Hong Kong action movies paid off in the long run.
"What time is it?" Emil groaned.
"Six thirty," Leon said. "I already took a shower and everything. You slept like a log while I was getting ready."
Emil glowered at his friend. "I was exhausted. Transitioning from high school to college and going to a party will do that."
"I did the same," Leon reminded him.
"Yeah, but you're used to this lifestyle by now, aren't you? You moved from Hong Kong barely two years ago.
Leon shrugged. "Maybe that's it. But anyway, hurry up and get dressed, wouldja? I don't wanna have to come up there and drag you down myself."
"I'm getting ready," Emil sighed and flung over his covers. He thought of making his bed before leaving, but since Leon was waiting and he had the top bunk, anyway, he figured it wouldn't matter if he left it undone for one day.
Unlike Leon, Emil hadn't planned on actually going to the gym so the only thing he could manage was a large t-shirt with a loaned pair of shorts from Leon. Aside, his shoes, socks, and his undergarments, everything was borrowed from his friend. Most embarrassingly of all, the t-shirt Emil was forced to wear was something he couldn't be proud of.
"Go to hell," Leon laughed. "Now that's funny."
Emil groaned. According to Leon, his distant relative from Thailand gave him the shirt Emil was wearing. It consisted of a cheap white fabric with blunt stars, glittering rainbows, and pink ponies that spat fire out of their mouths. The icing on this trainwreck of a shirt was the three words at the bottom of the design labeled in brilliant rainbow font: "GO TO HELL."
"This is the stupidest thing ever…" Emil looked over at his friend who appeared to be more well-dressed than him. "You didn't have any other shirts, Leon?"
"None that I'd let you work out in," he replied. "I plan to wear the rest for, you know, college stuff, not exercising in. I thought you'd bring some gym clothes, but I guess not, huh?"
"Oh, you think?" Emil sarcastically sneered.
"Hey, don't sweat it—no pun intended," his friend laughed. "If there's anything people are going to remember you by besides your white hair, it's going to be that shirt. I was going to wear it around during parties or something, but I think it looks better on you. Wanna have it?"
"No, thanks," Emil declined. "I think I'm better off with the wardrobe I have now."
Getting back to the main subject, since Lukas had never gone to the gym, he hadn't bothered showing his little brother where it was located. Apparently it was close to Ruby Hall according to Mathias, but Emil was unsure of its whereabouts, too. So, instead he was stuck following Leon around.
On their way to the gym, Leon got a phone call.
This early in the morning? Emil thought. He figured Lukas was still sleeping—probably due to excessive pre-emptive studying.
"Yeah?" Leon spoke into his phone. "Hey, Cheng. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, Emil and I are going to the gym right now. Don't worry, I promise I'll take care of him. I miss you, too. I—What? Yao and Mei are listening?" Leon hung his head. "Shhhit...Fine. Put them on."
"Leeeoon!"
Emil winced. He could hear Mei's energetic voice even without the speakerphone on Leon's end.
"How's everything going?" she asked. "Did you meet anyone? Is your R.A. cool?"
"Fine, yes, and sort of," Leon answered the questions in order. "Emil and I are already settled in, and I met some people from Ruby and Gold Halls. They're pretty cool. And I think my R.A.'s gay. I think. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me, either way."
Mei's voice must've died down because Emil couldn't hear anything anymore—that was, until he heard Yao's voice speaking through the phone.
"Jialong, are you getting enough to eat?" he asked. "Are you making sure the colors in your house are coordinated?"
"I'm eating enough, Yao," Leon frowned, "and yes, I made sure the stupid plaque is facing the right way."
"Make sure you buy a plant, okay?" Yao instructed. "I want you to send me a picture of your plant by tonight, got it? Since classes haven't started, you still have time to take the bus to go out of town. Whatever you do, don't get—"
"A bonsai," Leon sighed. "I know. You've told me a thousand times. I'll send you the picture then." He paused to point Emil in the left direction at the fork of the walkway. From there, Emil could see something that vaguely looked like a gym at the end of the road next to a red-bricked building; it must've been Ruby Hall, he assumed.
"Listen, we're almost at the gym. I'll talk to you guys later, okay? Bye, Cheng. Bye, Mei."
"What about me?!" Emil could hear his friend's guardian shout.
"Yeah, yeah, you, too, gramps," Leon groaned and hung up before he had to submit himself to anymore yelling. "Geez, that stupid guy…"
"Are you really going to buy the plant?" Emil asked with a slight smirk almost cracking between his lips.
"I have to," his friend grimaced. "If I don't, Yao's going to threaten to cancel my phone plan."
"That sucks." Emil could understand. Lukas would do the same if he found out one day his number was listed under something besides "Big Brother."
"Uh, let's see…" Leon mumbled. "I think we're going to be okay. There shouldn't be too many people. We'll see."
As mentioned by Mathias when he was an undergraduate student, Emil saw that the machines ran on fingerprint scans so anyone who wasn't a student couldn't use the machines.
"Are you two new?" the lady at the front desk asked.
"Yeah," Leon said. "Freshmeat." That earned him a smile from the lady.
"Alright. Just give me your ID and I'll tell you when you can register your thumbprints, okay?"
"Sure," Leon replied. Emil also nodded.
A few seconds later, after the lady had typed up their names into the registrar, she gave them the confirmation to put their thumbs on the scanning device. Emil thought it was strange how the machines were only operational through a thumbprint scan, but such was the way of technology.
Once they were registered, the lady told them they were free to go wherever they pleased. Before leaving, she also gave them recommendations if they had never been to a place like this before.
"The staff's always willing to help," she said. "And if you want, you can always ask some of the upperclassmen what their workout regimes are like."
"Thanks," Leon said.
"Oh, by the way," the lady said. "Emil, is it?"
"Uh…Yeah?" Emil suspected she only knew his name because of the registration.
"I like your shirt," she smiled.
Emil could feel his face flushing red. "Um, thanks."
When they left, Leon laughed and nudged his friend in his arm. "See? Maybe wearing that shirt isn't so bad after all."
"Shut up, Leon."
"Pfft," he snickered. "Anyway. We should—Aw, shoot. Did you stretch before we left?"
"No."
Leon pointed to Emil's legs. "You need to stretch before you start. If you pull something, it's on you, and it's not pretty when it happens."
"Leon, it's been a while since I've done P.E.," Emil said. He didn't have the courage to tell him he wanted his friend to stay with him.
"That's easy. You just do some lunges and pulls. Arms and legs. Make sure you don't go too far or you might pull something that way, too."
"Leon—" Emil started after him. "You said you'd stay here."
His friend raised a thick eyebrow. "I already stretched, Emil. I'm just going to reserve some machines in case more people show up."
He had a point. This early in the morning, there were already men and women using the machines to prepare their physical strength for the rest of the day. Emil wasn't sure if more people were going to come, but Leon's decisions were rather rational from an objective point of view.
"Oh, I get it," Leon huffed. "You're scared I'm going to leave you all alone like last night."
"N-No," Emil stammered. "It's just been a while since I've…"
His friend smiled. "Well, you made it all the way here, didn't you? Look, all of these people here aren't judging you because it's your first time. Usually when they see someone knew, they think, 'Oh, it's a new guy.' End of story. Unless they're assholes. Then I'll take care of them, okay? If you want, I'll just be by the weights."
He paused to look at his friend's physique. "Yeah. Judging by the bones on your arms, I'd say you shouldn't waste your time embarrassing yourself on those. When you're done, just tell me so I can show you how to use medicine balls."
Medicine balls? Emil thought. Like balls filled with medicine? He wondered why Lukas hadn't told him about those before. Perhaps it was a new thing.
Well, after Emil managed to finish stretching, he found out what real medicine balls were. He honestly had no idea why they were called medicine balls. They weren't small, and they weren't carrying any medicine in them. Instead, they were like round basketball-sized dumbbells with straps attached to opposite sides. The idea of the medicine balls was to use them as weights for working out one's core and a few arm muscles. Still, the origin of the name was a mystery to Emil.
"So you take them in your hands like so," Leon explained as he wrapped his hands securely into the Velcro straps. At this point, both of them were lying down on yoga mats alongside some of the girls. Some had giggled at Emil's shirt, but no one made fun of him. "Like, make sure you don't drop it because right now, I think it'll crush your stomach. You've literally got no abs."
"Ha ha. Thanks for pointing that out, Leon." To further emphasize his lack of ability, he noticed Leon was carrying a seven-kilogram (~15.4 lbs) medicine ball while he gave him only a four-and-a-half-kilogram (~10 lbs) medicine ball.
"Okay, so you go like this," the more experienced of the friends instructed, holding his weight close to his chest. "When you pull your body up, you thrust the ball out above your head like so. Remember to breath out when you come up or you're not doing it right. I'll show you once."
To demonstrate, Leon repeated the action of preforming a sort of sit-up combined with weight-lifting as he brought the medicine ball out in succession. It looked easy enough.
"Now you try," he said when he finished doing it three times. "Remember to breath out when you come up—and try to do it with your diaphragm."
Considering Emil's medicine ball was almost three kilograms lighter than his friend's, he sought out to prove he wasn't as weak as Leon suspected him to be. The first few were easy enough. He wasn't losing any stamina, and he was able to lift the medicine ball well above his head.
"Good, I think you got it," Leon smiled. "Okay, we'll do this for…" He paused to check his phone. "Five minutes. That'll be enough for now. Then we'll shift to upper body."
"What about running?" Emil asked. He suspected since most of the machines aside from the weights were treadmills, cycling machines, and stair-masters, they would be doing some sort of cardiovascular activity.
"Maybe after everything else," his friend smirked. "That's only if you still have energy after we're done."
"I'm fine, Leon."
"Now you are," he laughed, "but just wait until tomorrow."
After their five minutes, Emil's stomach felt like he hadn't eaten anything for the entire day. Eating sounded good right now. He hadn't had breakfast yet—neither did Leon. He wondered if it was better to eat something before working out, but for now, he trusted his friend's judgment and continued obediently with the program.
Next were bars, padded weights in the shape of iron rods. Each one was almost five and a half kilograms (~12 lbs), but in two hands with one's back supporting the weight, they felt surprisingly light.
"It's just like using weights," Leon explained—of course, he was able to carry three bars at once. "So basically all you have to do is lift them—first only halfway until you make a right angle to your chest." Emil noticed some of the girls were watching him explain himself. "We'll do that for fifteen reps, okay? Then, from there, we go from the middle to your shoulders. Don't pull up too quickly, or you'll damage your back—and don't forget to breathe."
"I got it," Emil grunted. "Don't have to remind me."
Unexpectedly, Leon chuckled earning a slight flustered look from Emil and some giggling from the girls. "If you collapse on me, I'll have to face your big brother's wrath."
Emil didn't want that. However, he noticed his pacing wasn't as frequent as Leon's. He was beginning to miss his lifts, and he was sure he wasn't doing enough lifts to count towards his imaginary quota. Sure, Leon had done this more times than he did, but he was only doing one bar as compared to three. He should have been able to handle himself.
Before he knew it, he was starting to keep his pace—at the expense of his breath. Without having to pause to take a breath, he was able to keep up with whatever music he was listening to.
And then, something happened. His head was feeling light. He thought to take a breath and stop, but he knew he'd sound overly exhausted if he paused. Leon didn't sound like he was out of breath at all. He was even able to talk to him from time to time, but all Emil could respond with was a short nod or a shake of his head. If he stopped now, he'd be panting and wheezing. He knew that.
As time passed on, the refreshingly air-conditioned gym was beginning to feel like one of Tino's saunas. His shirt was beginning to feel like a burden, and he felt like he'd explode with annoyance at any point in time. Even when Leon told him they were almost done, it felt like another half and hour away. His chest was warm and most likely wet—a horrible condition to be in when wearing a cheap white shirt.
"Emil, we're done now," Leon said. "We should drink some water or you're going to get dehydrated. Come on."
But he didn't follow. Instead, he leaned against the nearest wall and slid onto the mats, exhausted.
"Emil?" Leon stopped and bent down. "Hey, are you feeling okay?"
No, I'm not okay, you dumb shit, Emil thought. His lungs wanted to explode from keeping his breath inside. His breathing was growing irregular from trying to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide as subtly as possible. He wasn't even using his mouth.
"Shit," his friend cursed. "You forgot to breathe, didn't you?" Since Emil made no response, he had to assume the worst. "That's it. We're done. When you can get up, let me know so we can—"
But he never got to finish because somewhere mid-sentence, Emil collapsed to the ground.
Leon blinked. "Emil? Shit. Emil? Hey…" He froze. His friend had lost consciousness.