Well-Rounded
TUESDAY
“SeungJae!” came his dad’s voice, and Kevin’s eyes snapped open. His dad only used his Korean name when he was annoyed, and that meant he had to get out of bed five minutes ago.
He vaulted out of bed, and without even thinking padded barefoot over to the door and threw it open. “What, appa?” he shouted into the hallway, but he hadn’t needed to. His dad was standing right there. He was a short, stocky Korean man who’d made all kinds of jokes when Kevin’s last growth spurt had let him shoot a measly two inches over the man’s head. Kevin expected him to be annoyed, but instead his dad was smirking.
“Nothing,” he chuckled. “Just wanted to make sure you were still alive.” He nodded to Kevin’s legs. “Put pants on and have breakfast.”
Kevin glanced down as his dad turned and walked away. Sure enough, he’d fallen asleep in a pair of black boxer-briefs. Sighing, he pulled it off, went back into his room, and shut the door. He slid his glasses onto his face, then stood in front of the mirror and went through his morning ritual: his poses.
He was still a beginning bodybuilder, but it was important for him to master all the basic poses, he’d decided. And as he flexed in front of the mirror, he had to admit: he didn’t look half bad. The other guys in the gym were way bigger than he was, but he was gonna get there eventually. His arms were toned enough, his chest well-defined, his abs were at least visible, and these boxer-briefs made his glutes look great. He had no idea why anyone would ever wear boxers; those were for the kind of guy who’d already given up on himself.
When he was satisfied, he gave one last flex—his Most Muscular pose—then slid on his blue workout shorts and an old tee from intramural soccer. It was streaked with paint from all the times he’d helped his parents paint the house with it, but he didn’t have to look good for a workout.
He emerged into the dining room a few minutes later, where his parents both sat, eating bowls of congee. His place at the table, however, was set with a tall protein shake in a plastic cup.
“Thanks, mom,” Kevin said. His stomach rumbled as he sat down, and he took a huge gulp right away to quiet it. He knew his diet plan ordained that he not eat until after his morning workout, but what the fuck, he was hungry.
His parents bombarded him with questions about his new gym, and if he liked it better than his old one. “Yeah,” Kevin said. “It’s got much better equipment. I think I can make some real gains there. Maybe this year, I can go out for a team or something.” But even as he said it, he wasn’t sure what. He wasn’t tall enough for basketball, wasn’t big enough for football, wasn’t well-trained enough to join the swim team.
“Oh,” he added after a moment. “I ran into Tanya Takeuchi there. She works at the gym now. She seems to really love it. Crazy, huh?”
His parents exchanged a glance.
“...We’re happy that she’s happy,” his mom said diplomatically.
He strode calmly into the gym an hour later, having made good time on his bike. The moment he’d ingested protein, he’d started two clocks: the one he had to mind while he worked out, to maximize the effects of the protein in his blood, and the one he started each day from the moment he began eating. Kevin’s life was a complex array of calorie counting and macros, but by now it had practically become second nature to him.
Alison was minding the front desk today. Her ripped arms were covered in elaborate tattoo sleeves, while matching silver rings dangled from her bare midriff and the middle of her nose. Her purple-dyed undercut was a bright contrast to her bulging red sports bra, and her unamused scowl a contrast to the bright smiles of every other person in the gym. When she caught sight of him, her scowl deepened, the light catching on her freckled cheeks.
“Hey, Alison,” he said. He couldn’t help himself. Contemptuous as she was, she was also hot as hell. “How’s it going?”
Alison rolled her eyes. “It’s not happening,” she said, as her black-lacquered fingers deftly folded another towel and tossed into onto the teetering pile next to her.
Well, at least he’d tried to be friendly. “Can I have a towel?”
“Depends,” Alison said. “You fast enough to get one yourself?”
Kevin was in nowhere near as good of shape as Alison, but he had to try his luck. His arm shot out to snatch the towel off the top of the pile, but Alison deftly flicked his hand away. His wrist stung where she’d parried him. For the first time, she smirked. “Guess not.”
“Leave him alone, Alison,” Tanya said, appearing as if by magic. Fuck, somehow she looked even hotter than she had yesterday, when he’d first laid eyes on her.
Kevin glanced down at his lean, athletic body. That didn’t make sense. Tanya had been training him for a while now, hadn’t she? Rome hadn’t been built in a day, and neither had these gains.
He shook it off, distracted once more by his trainer’s raw, palpable sex appeal. Her athletic confidence and coiled strength reminded Kevin of a lioness. Next to her, Alison just looked like a sour black cat. “Right this way, Kev.”
He opened his mouth to correct her, but the words left his mind before he could form them. He just nodded and followed her out onto the gym floor.
The gym was quieter this morning, which gave them the pick of machines and workout stations. But they only needed a few in particular; today was the day even the most serious lifters dreaded.
“Leg day!” Tanya announced triumphantly. “My very favorite. Can you tell?”
Kev’s eyes lingered on her long legs as she stopped and struck a pose. Her calves tightened, her quads bulged, and her glutes practically shone beneath the gym’s buzzing lights. “Definitely.”
“Every guy thinks girls just want big arms and a big chest,” Tanya said as they settled on an unused squat rack. She only needed a moment to glance at her training spreadsheet before they began to load out the bar with the right amount of plates. “But a boy who squats? There’s nothing better. All that hip control…” She nodded to the bar. “Get under there and show me what you can do, big guy.”
A thrill of excitement ran through Kev. He was in okay shape, but he’d never been called “big guy” before. He liked the sound of it...particularly from Tanya’s mouth.
His first set was a little sloppy, and Tanya had to keep reminding him to go lower.
“But if I do that,” he grunted as he came up from his fifth squat of the set, “it gets harder.”
“Pain and gain,” she replied with a bracing clap of her hands. “Pain and gain.”
He returned his attention to the mirror in front of him. It was supposed to be so he could check out his form and make sure he didn’t injure himself. But as he sank into squat number six, he glanced up at his trainer’s face, and he didn’t mistake the way her eyes lingered on his ass.
Despite his fatigue, he grinned.
“Right,” Tanya said as he finished his first set. “That was alright, but you can do better with your form. Why don’t you just follow my lead?” She moved to take position beneath the loaded-out bar.
“Wait,” Kev said. “Do you want to take off some of the—?”
She glanced back over her thick shoulder at him, and gave her eyebrow a skeptical arch.
He hung his head. “Right. Sorry.”
“Like I was saying,” Tanya said as she took up her position, “the thing about squats is that you have to get good and low. Watch me, now.”
Kev didn’t know how he could do anything else. Every muscle in her body tensed and flexed as she easily shouldered enough weight to make his legs wobble, then sank so low her ass was practically touching the floor. Her shorts were stretched taut across her glutes, and beneath the black spandex Kev could see the telltale outline of a thong.
And then, she came back up to a standing rest. Even with a straight back, her glutes still bulged invitingly.
“Now, why don’t you come a little bit closer?” she said. “Mimic my posture for the second one.”
Kev gaped. “W-what?”
“You’re not gonna learn without some good hands-on experience, you dork,” Tanya laughed. “Come on. Do what your coach tells you to.”
Kev approached her shyly. Carefully, he extended his hands out, not wanting to do anything untowards…
Tanya sighed, then reached behind her to grab his hands, and planted them firmly on her own hips before he could stop her. She yanked him closer so he was pressed up against her back, his glasses just barely peeking over the top of her head. “Now, with me,” she said. She squatted, and he followed. He tried to mimic her posture as best he could, but it was impossible for him to concentrate. Her body felt like warm steel, and her ass was grinding invitingly into his cock, which had begun to harden at her touch. If she could feel it grinding back, though, she either didn’t know or didn’t care, because she came right back up to a stand before sinking into another squat.
“So,” she said on their fourth shared squat. Somehow, she didn’t even sound winded. “You got a girlfriend, Kev?”
He gaped down at his hands on her hips, at her ass on his crotch. Now she wanted to know? “Uh, no,” he panted. “Not a lot of luck there.”
“Really?” said Tanya. “That’s too bad. You’re not a bad-looking guy. Any girl at school would be lucky to have you. Or hell, even the girls who aren’t at school.”
“That’s nice of you to say,” Kev grunted as they came up from the squat. He let go of her as the set ended.
“I’m not saying it to be nice,” Tanya said. “I’m telling you what’s what. I know you like to play at being dorky, but you’re a handsome, strong, sexy guy. No point in pretending you’re not, okay?”
Precisely none of those words had ever been used to describe Kev in his life. His sister had gotten all the looks in the family. But he was hardly gonna disagree, so instead he just nodded. “Thanks.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Now, come on. You’ve had enough rest. Get back under that bar and give me a third set.”
He obliged her, and began squatting again. But even though his quads and calves and hamstrings all screamed at him to stop with every rep he put up, he found himself grinning into the mirror. He was strong, he thought as he did his third one. He was handsome, he thought as he did his fifth. He was sexy, he thought as he let the bar clang onto the rack at the very end of his set.
“Damn!” Tanya whooped, high-fiving him as he stepped away. “You had some fire in you on that last one, huh?”
“Fuck yeah, I did,” Kev grunted. His shirt was splotched with sweat, his hair was matted to his forehead, and his glasses were fogged. But somehow, despite all that, he felt fucking great.
“I told you you’d do well here,” Tanya said with a pleased nod. “Now, one more set of squats, and then we’ll go over to that machine and do some leg curls for your hammies…”
After his workout, he hit the showers.
He could feel all the knots in his muscles untangling as hot water ran over them. He glanced down at his body, and was pleased by the progress he saw there. Ridges of muscle were just starting to carve themselves out of the small spare tire of his gut, and his chest was starting to cast a shadow over everything beneath it. A couple more months of this, and he’d be in the kind of shape where he could even think about entering his first contest.
He’d have to do something about that hair, though, he thought with a glance at his limbs. He was Asian, so he didn’t have a huge amount of body hair to go around in the first place, but what little there was, he was going to have to shave. The last thing he wanted was any obstacle between other peoples’ eyes and the muscles he worked so hard to get.
He was just thinking that it might be worth it to throw on a swimsuit and tan in the backyard for a while after this when the door opened. And into the locker room lumbered Daniel.
He looked as if he’d only just arrived for his own workout. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans that practically looked painted on, and the workout clothes for which he exchanged them were even more form-fitting. Even without his glasses, Kev could see every single striation, and he couldn’t believe that anyone with such an incredible body could exist.
Until the owner of said body turned and saw the Asian kid gaping at him from the shower.
“Sorry!” Kev squawked, turning away. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s alright,” Daniel said behind him. For such a big guy, his voice was surprisingly high. “I get that a lot. When you look like me, you kind of get used to it. It’s okay, I don’t think you’re perving on me.”
Slowly, Kev turned around, though he made sure to cover his junk with a washcloth.
“Let me guess,” Daniel said. “You’re straight, and you don’t want to do me, but you wish you were me?”
Was he that transparent to everyone in this damn gym? “Yeah,” Kev said, shutting off his shower. “How’d you know?”
“Because one day I walked into a gym like this, and when a trainer asked me what I wanted to look like, I found the biggest, most ripped motherfucker in the place and said, ‘Him.’”
Kev stood there, awed. He didn’t know a blessed thing about this man, but somehow it seemed surreal that he hadn’t always looked like that. He began to towel off, though Daniel’s light tone made him less self-conscious of being naked. He was remembering what Tanya had told him earlier, and taking it to heart. “How did you do it?” he said, unable to keep the greed from his voice.
“Hard work and patience, same as you. This place really helps, though.” He studied Kev a moment. “You’re in what, high school?”
Kev nodded.
“How old?”
“Old enough,” Kev said, surprised by the assertiveness in his own voice.
Amusement played on Daniel’s features. “My boyfriend and I are having a pool party tomorrow night,” he said. “He’s got a girl cousin your age who’s got some friends, and they’re probably gonna be there. How would you feel about stopping by?”
“Sure,” Kev said, before he could stop himself from saying anything else. He opened his locker, and from it removed his stylish thick-framed glasses and his sleek red compression tee.
“Great,” Daniel said. “Give me your number, and I’ll text you the address.”
And that was how Kev left the gym that day with a party invitation and more self-esteem than he’d ever felt in his entire life. Not even Alison’s rolling eyes could get him down as he breezed past her work station.