They trooped into the gym. The entire staff exhaled in exasperation. They did not often come in clan form, but when they did, everything was disrupted. Mostly because they were all impossible to ignore. Even when the staff makes a concerted effort to do exactly that.

The new patrons were wondering if a photoshoot was coming into the gym. The regulars were mostly used to it.

Too many pretty people showing up throws the whole place off its rhythm. One poor jerk dropped a dumbbell on his toes nd yelped.

While everyone was checking in, Nayeon ran up behind them. She saw Alfred next to Seulgi, chatting. She slid up next to Seulgi and asked, “Where have you been hiding this one? He’s more handsome than your usual arm candy. What’s your name, handsome?”

“Nayeon, please allow me to introduce you to my father. Daddy, this is one of my soon—to—be—former best friends, Nayeon. Someone that I really need to have a conversation with about the use of propriety.”

Seulgi and Alfred knew that the ‘soon-to-be-former friend’ was not serious, but the growing look of terror on Nayeon’s face said that she was not so sure.  Nayeon did the only rational thing that she could do at this point; she bolted into the gym and hid. The employee tried to stop her from entering without checking in first.

Seulgi and the rest were laughing uproariously. Seulgi said to the employee that it was OK because the twit was with them.

Everyone went into the changing rooms and got into their workout kits. Once changed, they met back at the entrance and discussed where everyone was going. Seulgi and her girls were going to the track to run a couple of kilometers to warm up then go to pilates.

The Twins decided to join them today.

Alfred said he’d join them on the warmup and then go to the weight set route. It had been a long time since Seulgi had seen her father in a muscle shirt. She wondered if her father had always been this jacked. Then she noticed that he was becoming the center of attention himself.

A super-jacked silver fox was a novelty in some circles. Men were looking at him in awe and jealousy and more than a few women were looking at him with lust. To all of their disappointment, he only looked at his daughter. Everyone scattered to their own paths, but a good-sized chunk of them went jogging. Despite being twenty to thirty years older than the ‘kids’ he was hanging out with, he was able to outpace them. Only Yeji was able to keep pace with him and make it look easy. They actually held a conversation while running the rest into the ground.

Both of the Twins gave up at the same time and just slowed down to a more reasonable pace. Nayeon and Seulgi were next. They were not interested in sprinting the kilometers to ‘warm up’.  They watched the pair sprint off into the future while they waited for the Twins to catch up and have a more reasonable pace.

They finally caught up to Yeji who had already finished and was waiting for them. She had enough patience to not look impatient. Then they were all huffing and puffing their way to the pilates stations. They all (excluding Yeji) concluded that they needed to keep going back to the gym more often.

By the time they got to their desired stations, they found them full. So, they went and did some other stations. Seulgi went to weights with her father. Nayeon, red in the face, but not from jogging, went another direction. Seulgi and Yeji made sure to cat-call her as she left.

When they found her father, he seemed to be chatting away with JooHyun. This was odd as JooHyun never talked to new people. She rarely talked to them and they knew her. This was as surprising as it was bizarre. But a pleasant surprise. It was also unsurprising that there were a few bravos nearby gritting their teeth at the older man for monopolizing her attention. They got even more upset that he was helping her work out form, daring to touch her to correct her movements.

“I’m going to tell Mom that you are molesting the locals,” Seulgi said loudly.

“Go ahead. Look at this lovely lady. Can you blame me?” he replied, just as loudly.

Poor JooHyun turned red as her workout outfit. That was the only outward sign that JooHyun heard any of it. She just kept on with her workout steadfastly ignoring the by-play of the father daughter duo.

“Like this, sir?” she said to him.

“Your form is now both perfect and lovely,” he said, laying it on extra thick for his daughter to hear. Before she wandered over, he was strictly cool and professional. There was no hint of teasing or flirting, so she knew he was hamming it up for his daughter, not her. Watching them together, she could not find it in her heart to be offended. It was strangely comforting to watch how close they were.

To both of their surprise, she joined in the teasing.

“Thank you, Alfred, I could not have done it without you,” she purred in a low and sultry voice. Everyone within hearing started blushing. Up to and including the subject himself.

He saw the evil cat-like grin on her face and paused. He had been a steadfast monogamist all his life. He has been immune to every sort of seduction that has been thrown at him. However, he was still a healthy male and JooHyun was a work of art.

He gulped.

Seulgi slapped his shoulder and scolded JooHyun, “Stop it, Hyunnie. He’s old, you might give him a heart attack and kill him.”

JooHyun laughed loud enough to have heads turn. She went back to her workout, no help ever necessary from Alfred.  She had been playing him the whole time by playing the ignorant neophyte.

It was his turn to blush thoroughly, once he figured out just how badly he fell for it. To be fair, he didn’t really know her, so he was just trying to be helpful. This was when he remembered the phrase ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’