a/n: this is a double update! Read the previous chapter if you missed it! 😊

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Kai fixed on steel wristlets on both of Shixun’s wrists. They weighed a kilogram each and he could see that the brunette didn’t adore the weights on her hands so much.  As he secured them around her wrists, he waited for her to groan or complain in frustration at how heavy it was; but surprisingly, nothing came out of her lips at all.

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

Shixun put her arms down, they were heavy. But hurt, she didn’t know how pain is supposed to feel like anymore actually. She wasn’t sure when she could say something hurts.

“Are they supposed to? But it doesn’t hurt as much as—” she paused before meeting Kai’s deep chocolate orbs.

“—Uh, no it doesn’t hurt yet.”

Kai fought the urge to ruffle her hair. He missed her, too much. But when she woke up from her come because of the explosion, Kai was the only one she didn’t remember and that upset him enough for him to no longer attempt to be friends with her especially since she left the palace. He was only thankful that Baekhyun still remembered him.

How they started to become friends was purely a coincidence. If she hadn’t loved gardening then, Kai wouldn’t have even met her at the Imperial Garden. After all, he was the gardener’s son.

“So, how do we do this?”

Kai hummed for a while, thinking about what they should do. In all honesty, they weren’t exactly supposed to start today. But Krystal and the King himself had set the training session to be of high urgency.

“We’ll carry out something light today, since it’s the first session.” Kai left the place and strode over to the other side of the room, wordlessly gesturing for Shixun to tag along. The brunette wondered why the training room only had the blue training mats; turns out, it was only one of the many other rooms there.

“How many sessions are there?”

Kai raised both his brows and cracked his neck once he unlocked the door, “It depends, and here is the fitness room.”

He opened the door to another section of the chamber, revealing a room filled with fitness and gym equipment. Kai didn’t have to tell her twice; the brunette was already strolling in— her eyes scanned the room from top to bottom. It was beyond amazing.

There were clear glass panel windows at the end of the room, with the sun rays dancing through them which lighted up the room. The room had earth colours, the light brown walls and the oak wood floorings; making her feel calm and peaceful. She missed this feeling, she always felt at peace whenever she was surrounded by the earth and soil. Shixun always felt that way whenever she did gardening.

But that was a long time ago.

She moved in further and took note of how properly organised and arranged the equipment were. There were 2 treadmills placed neatly in front of the glass panels, and the dumbbells as well as other weightlifting equipment were on the racks.

“Come here,” Kai brought two fingers up and curled them inwards twice to call her forward to the centre of the room— right where the punching bag was.

Shixun gulped, her eyes trained onto the sandbag. As she neared, Kai left the area briefly to open the compartments underneath a nearby storage bench and took out two pairs of gloves.

He came back and passed one to Shixun, “Wear these.”

Shixun pouted and frowned, wasn’t running on treadmills or lifting weights supposed to be the first