Kim Minah was immensely unfit, thanks to all the work college had dumped on her leaving her with little to no time to focus on getting her fitness on track. This summer she was determined to sign up at the local health and recreation centre to do exactly that.

On the other hand, Ari wanted to learn to dance over the summer. It had always been a passion, but work and education came in the way and dance seemed to take a back seat. So when Minah told her she was signing up at the recreation centre, she was quick to join her friend in the path to fitness. Though it would probably clash with her work times, she was quite determined to learn how to dance.

What she didn’t expect though was the health centre to be so well equipped with great facilities and of course great trainers. She noticed her name under a ‘Kim Jongin’s’ list and assumed he’d be one of those prudish pain in the old teachers.

So when she walked into the facility, of course she was dressed in her oldest gym clothes because she never had the time to play dress up for the gym, nor did she bother, since the few times that she actually did, her efforts were futile. She gave up on the concept that she would meet some nice, attractive bloke at the gym and they would live their life happily ever after; well, happy as she could be at least.

At least she wasn’t alone in this. She waved at Minah who was sitting outside the building’s entrance.

“Why are you outside?” Ari asked “Shouldn’t you be inside? At the gym? Working out? What you came here to do?”

“Oh I walked in alright. It was too intimidating, so I decided maybe not.” Minah grinned sheepishly. Ari rolled her eyes, Minah was being lazy and she was having none of that. She knew Minah had been a sportive child through her life and given the right push, she’d be perfectly fine inside a gym.

“I think you should attempt walking in again.”

Minah started to respond only to have Ari raise her hand to halt all the speech that was bubbling between her lips "Shut up and go.” Ari nudged her towards the door nearly sending her tumbling into the large gym. Ari dusted her hands before heading towards the noticeboard which had the directions to the dance studio and headed towards it.

“I hope this goes well.” She mumbled, hoping that Minah wouldn’t walk out of the gym the moment she was out of sight. She walked past the sauna, the yoga room, and the stairs leading to the indoor swimming pool nearly bumping into a sweaty old lady who smiled awkwardly at her before ducking into the yoga room. Ari cringed, her eyes landed on the board which read out “Dance Studio” and pushed the door open.

“Well, someone is early,” Ari’s eyes widened at the man standing in front of her with a smile that pretty much made her head explode into butterflies. He was tall with the most wonderful tan skin and twinkly eyes. He reminded her so strongly of a puppy by the friendly demeanor of his stance which shifted as he walked over to her with his hand reaching out for a handshake “I’m Kim Jongin, I will be instructing you. I hope you’ll enjoy your classes with me.” He grinned as Ari cursed her sweaty palm at that moment. His grip was firm and warm and Ari felt the warmth travelling up her arm to her cheeks.

“ ”  was pretty much on loop in her head. Nodding when he asked her to sign the sheet on the pinboard, she walked over to it, noticing her shabby clothing and cursing herself yet again. Where the was Minah when she needed her to share a look with?     

You’d think good fortune would be on at least one of these friends’ sides, but no avail. Just as Ari was cursing her poor choice of clothing, Minah was regretting every move she made at the gym. She was usually pretty good with machines, a klutz in no way. However, that day must have really been a rotten one because when she reached out to grab the smallest of the weights on the rack, she managed to successfully drop them. They landed with a loud klunk onto the gym floor which earned herself a few stares from the gym-goers. Minah cringed.

She swallowed and quietly placed the weights back where they belonged, on the rack, and tip toed away from anything that seemed like a potential weapon of mass destruction. Which actually proved to be quite hard, seeing as though she was in a room full of heavy equipment and machinery.

Minah made her way towards something she was extremely familiar with. A treadmill. She couldn’t go wrong with this one. Right? Or so she thought.

It started off on a good note. She began by walking at a slow speed. When she felt ready, she increased the speed to a slight jog. She smiled. Minah felt good. She could feel her blood pumping through her heart. She set the speed high enough to run, and when she began to run, adrenaline coursed through her veins. How she missed this. In between college and assignments, she just didn’t have the time to be as active as she prided herself in being once upon a time ago.

Minah ran and ran. Wearing herself out on the first day didn’t seem like a healthy option so she thought it was time to come to a stop. She pressed the button that should essentially slow it down but it did nothing. Okay, maybe a little while longer wouldn’t hurt while she tried to figure out how to get this to slow down.

One minute.

She kept trying.

Two minutes.

She tried hitting the stop button but that didn’t work either.

Three minutes.

If she ran any longer, she was going to collapse.

In panic, she pressed the power off button.

The machine came to a sudden halt, throwing Minah off the treadmill and sent her tumbling onto the floor.

If she went tumbling alone, it would have been okay, but no no no; she took someone down with her.

A very handsome someone.