The notice that swimming class had been canceled was posted in the morning.
Substitute class — partner stretching, Practical Training Hall Room 3, second period.
Minjun stopped for a moment when he saw the notice.
‘Partner stretching means there’s a partner involved.’
There was no information in Isabel’s memories about a partner for physical education class. Most likely, Isabel either worked alone or was paired with a student from her sphere of influence. Someone directly under the ducal House of Esther. If she ended up paired with one of those students, there would be no need for conversation, and the situation would be simple. They would simply follow along no matter what Isabel said.
He would only find out how far off that prediction was once second period began.
After first period ended, while moving between classes, Minjun saw Sylvia Kant. She was standing by the corridor window, looking toward the athletic field. Her black bob swayed in the wind coming through the window. Sylvia looked his way. Their eyes met.
Sylvia looked away first.
‘She’s observing. Always.’
Minjun simply walked past.
---
Practical Training Hall Room 3 was a wide space laid with practice mats.
The professor had come in first and written the partner assignments on the blackboard. As Minjun entered, he saw the name written beside his own.
Chloe Armand.
‘…….’
Beside him, someone drew in a small breath. It was a student from the Esther sphere of influence. It must have been their reaction to Isabel being paired with Chloe. What that meant would be discussed within the sphere of influence after today’s class ended.
Minjun pretended not to hear it.
Chloe was already inside the training hall. She must have seen the blackboard. Her eyes met Minjun’s. Chloe gave a very brief nod.
It meant she had confirmed her partner.
‘There were people at work who confirmed tasks like that too. No unnecessary frills.’
Sylvia Kant was also inside the training hall. Not far away. Her partner was already beside her. Sylvia’s gaze moved toward the direction Isabel had entered from, then to the partner assignment board, then—back to Isabel.
‘Looks like she’ll be observing again today.’
The professor demonstrated. The basic movements of partner stretching—back stretches, shoulder stretches, movements where one held the arms behind the back and stretched them.
And then the final movement.
“A stretch where the partner behind presses down on the shoulders to bring the upper body forward. The partner standing behind takes both shoulders of the partner sitting in front and applies pressure slowly. Do not push too hard. Match your partner’s breathing.”
The professor demonstrated with the assistant professor. The hands of the person standing behind were placed on the shoulders of the person sitting in front. Pressure was applied slowly.
As Minjun watched the demonstration, he thought of the partner assignment.
Chloe Armand.
‘Which article of labor law does this violate?’
---
The partners took their places on the mats.
Minjun stood facing Chloe. They decided the order with rock-paper-scissors. Minjun lost.
“I’ll go first.”
Chloe said.
Minjun sat on the mat.
He straightened his back and stretched both legs forward. Back upright. Isabel’s bodily memory knew this posture. A stretching posture.
And Chloe came behind Minjun.
He heard footsteps. Footsteps drawing closer. Footsteps stopping right behind Minjun.
‘How close is she?’
Minjun did not look back. He knew that the person sitting in front was not supposed to look back during a stretch. It would ruin the posture.
Until Chloe’s hands touched Isabel’s shoulders—it took time.
He knew before they touched. The warmth came first. Chloe’s hand temperature was recognized by his skin before it made contact with his shoulders. And for the 0.2 seconds just before that warmth reached his shoulders, Minjun could do nothing.
Her hands touched his shoulders.
Both shoulders. Chloe’s two hands were placed precisely on Isabel’s shoulders. Exactly where the professor had demonstrated.
‘……Hot.’
‘No. This is body temperature. Thirty-seven degrees. It’s not abnormally hot.’
Chloe slowly applied pressure.
His shoulders were pressed forward. His upper body tilted. As the angle of the bend increased, the muscles in his back stretched. The stretch was working. At the same time, Chloe’s hands were there. On his shoulders. Hands with pressure. Hands that were not light.
‘This is a situation I should report to HR. But I can’t classify the situation.’
“Are you all right?”
Chloe asked quietly.
Her voice was close to his ear. Minjun tried not to calculate how close Chloe would get if she leaned forward in this position.
“……Yes.”
“Please tell me if it’s too much.”
Chloe applied more pressure. Isabel’s upper body tilted farther forward. Her back stretched like a bow. Chloe’s hands shifted slightly along with the movement. From the shoulders to the shoulder blades.
‘My heart is beating fast because the stretch is stimulating my muscles. Definitely.’
---
Across from them, Sylvia Kant was stretching with her partner.
From his bent position, Minjun raised only his gaze and looked that way.
Sylvia had her partner’s hands on her shoulders, but she was looking in another direction. This way.
Exactly this way.
At Isabel and Chloe.
Sylvia’s partner said something. Sylvia did not react. Her partner called her name once more.
Only then did Sylvia turn her head.
She began talking to her partner. But two seconds later, she looked this way again.
Minjun returned to his posture.
‘She was looking at me just now.’
Chloe’s hands began to lift from his shoulders.
Slowly.
For her hands to leave his shoulders—it took longer than for them to touch.
Minjun did not know why the final moment when her fingertips left his shoulders felt so long.
‘Why is she taking so long to let go?’
Chloe’s hands completely left Isabel’s shoulders.
He felt the difference in temperature at that moment. The difference between the places where her hands had been and the places where they were gone. It was the first time he realized such a difference could be so clear.
“Now let’s switch.”
Chloe said.
---
Minjun stood up.
Chloe sat on the mat.
Isabel’s body moved behind Chloe. He could see Chloe’s back. In her seated posture, her golden hair fell down to her lower back. Her back was straight. A posture seated upright. The line of her shoulders could be read even through her uniform.
Minjun tried to place his hands on Chloe’s shoulders.
His hands stopped in midair.
0.5 seconds.
‘What are you doing? Just put your hands on her shoulders. This is class. It’s a movement the professor assigned. The labor law was already violated earlier, and there’s nothing more to violate here.’
His hands lowered.
They touched Chloe’s shoulders.
Chloe’s shoulders tensed ever so slightly, then relaxed. That change was transmitted through his palms.
‘She’s nervous too.’
That fact was strangely comforting. It shouldn’t have been comforting, but it was.
The fact that Chloe was nervous. In this situation. This person, who showed no fear in front of Isabel von Esther, had tensed minutely the moment hands touched her shoulders. That was a reaction different from fear. If it had been fear, she would have gone rigid. But this was tension followed by release. Not freezing and then melting.
Minjun slowly pressed Chloe’s shoulders. Just as the professor had demonstrated. Slowly, in time with her breathing.
Chloe’s upper body tilted forward.
Her golden hair spilled forward.
As all of her hair fell forward, Chloe’s nape was revealed. The line running from behind her ear down to her neck. A line visible only from this angle. Something only seen from behind a person sitting and bending forward.
Minjun fixed his eyes on Chloe’s shoulders.
He looked only at her shoulders.
Only at the hands placed on her shoulders.
‘I didn’t look at her nape. I’m looking at her shoulders right now.’
Chloe exhaled. That breath was transmitted through his palms. The breath that made her shoulders sink.
Minjun adjusted the pressure to match that breathing.
‘This is completely work. Partner support work. Stretching support. Physical contact is for work purposes, so there’s no issue.’
Chloe’s shoulders slowly lowered forward.
And somewhere across from them, Sylvia Kant was looking this way. Minjun knew it.
Sylvia’s partner called Sylvia’s name twice.
The first time, Sylvia did not react.
Only at the second call did Sylvia turn her head. Toward her partner. And she said something. But two seconds later, she looked this way again.
‘How many entries will be added to her observation file today?’
Minjun focused on Chloe’s shoulders.
The two hands placed on Chloe’s shoulders. When he applied pressure, Chloe’s upper body tilted forward, and in that bent posture, the line of Chloe’s back could be read through her uniform. The line running from her shoulders along her spine to her waist. Beneath Minjun’s hands was the starting point of that line.
‘I shouldn’t look at this.’
He didn’t.
He looked only at her shoulders. Only at his hands. He focused solely on how he was applying pressure.
Chloe exhaled. Her shoulders sank. Minjun matched that breath. He matched the next breath as well. And the breath after that.
At some point, listening to Chloe’s breathing became natural.
The moment he realized that fact, Minjun decided not to process it either.
What mattered right now was—the hands placed on Chloe’s shoulders. And the person breathing out beneath those hands.
Because if he processed it, he felt like he would have a reason to lift his hands.
The professor’s voice announced that class was over.
Minjun lifted his hands from Chloe’s shoulders.
That motion was—slow.
Chloe must have noticed. There was no way she hadn’t. Because the time it took for his hands to leave Chloe’s shoulders was clearly long after the professor’s closing signal.
Chloe rose from her seated position and turned around.
Their eyes met.
Chloe said nothing.
Minjun said nothing either.
Inside the training hall came the sounds of students tidying up. The sound of mats being dragged, footsteps, voices.
All of those noises sounded as if they belonged to another space.