The Monster // Junpei Yoshino x Reader

Chapter 9 // Blood Sweat and Tears

"Are you sure this is a good place to do it?"

"Man, you never stop questioning me, do you? It's fine! There's no one around"

Junpei awkwardly stood in the middle of the grassy field. It was a sunny day this weekend so I took him out to the park.

"There's no better place to do some serious training than mother nature!"

The boy had his arms shyly folded over his chest, wanting to take up as little space as possible.

"Well... I was kinda expecting we'd go to a gym or something"

"Please! You'll thank me that we didn't go to a stuffy gym in such hot weather! Now take your shirt off!"

Junpei's eyes shot wide open at my last remark. His red face instinctively turned away from mine.

"W-what?! Why the hell would I do that?!" His voice squeaked.

"Relax, I'm not some sort of creep!" I flail my hands vigorously "I want to evaluate your physical capabilities by seeing your raw muscles. Plus, there's nothing more badass than working out shirtless"

"Can't I just say I'm extremely unathletic?"

We both stared into each other's eyes, my gaze unamused by his statement. He tried holding his ground by keeping eye contact, but his spirit quickly wavered and he averted his orbs to the side.

"Sigh... fine" The boy pressed his lips together, shifting his weight from one leg to another, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. He would raise an inch of the fabric up, but then would shoot a glance in my direction. When locking eyes with me he'd immediately look away, his face tinting a brighter shade of red and hands forgetting the shirt all together.

I kept on staring at him, utterly confused. He was giving me these quick glances to see if I'm still looking at him or not.

Was he... embarrassed to undress in front of me? But he's a guy, what's the big deal? It's not like I'm asking him to get buck naked... oh whatever.

I close my eyes and throw my hands up in defeat, slowly turning away from the guy.

Sigh... so this is my apprentice huh?

"...Ok, I'm ready" after a short moment I heard his hesitant voice.

I turned around and quickly scanned my eyes over his body.

"Yep, you really don't work out that much do you?" I grabbed my chin and hummed in amusement.

"You just had to point that out..." Junpei murmured under his breath, lips lopsided and eyebrows furrowed.

"Don't take it to heart, it's just a friendly observation!" I enthusiastically patted his back. I guess a bit too enthusiastically because the action knocked his wind out.

"And trust me," I grinned a Cheshire smile and made a powerful pose, pumping my fist in the air and grabbing my bicep "after my workout regime you'll be beefier than a fine steak"

Junpei snorted at my ridiculous exclamation, but still visibly relaxed from my attempt to lighten the mood.

"Now then, let's get started!"

The first hour had passed and Junpei was already dead. He layed on the grass like a starfish, panting heavily and sweating profusely.

"We're not even half way through, don't tell me you're out of fuel already?!" I poked his side with a wooden stick as I crouched beside him.

"St... ph... this is... too m...ch" He had a hard time catching his breath. I kinda felt bad for him.

I placed an almost empty water bottle next to his head. He lazily took it and poured the remaining contents onto his face.