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Ding Dong!
I pressed the doorbell. I was waiting for my good friend Sara to answer the door. In my left hand, I held a yoga mat and a heavy water bottle. She invited me over to do some exercises with her own personal trainer since she wouldn't be alone. Sara told me her husband believed in the stigma around personal trainers. Especially for male personal trainers. So I was being used as his eyes since he couldn't be home.
"Hi, babe." Sara cracked open her door. She engulfed me in a hug. "So glad you could make it." Sara struck rich when she met her husband, Park Jinyoung. He was the founder and CEO of his own entertainment in Seoul, South Korea. The couple lived in a very prestigious area of Seoul. It would be rare to see people of my economic class here. But Sara and I went way back. Meeting in a nail salon in New Jersey and just chatting it up. We became close ever since.
"Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you were good." I took off my tennis shoes. Two weeks ago, the media reported that Sara's home was broken into by a group of robbers. They managed to steal over 1 million dollars worth of items.
"Jinyoung was more shaken up about the situation than I was. All of my valuables are in a vault at the bank. So I wasn't that stressed about it." She shrugged off. She led me downstairs to her 'woman cave.' Many different types of gym equipment are laid around the perimeter of the room.
"He is the one that suggested I take some self-defense classes. So I know how to handle myself when he isn't near me."
"That's not a bad idea at all."
"It's crazy in this world that we live in. People get attacked for the smallest reasons."
I agreed with her. Living in the rural south of America as a black child, I was always paranoid of being attacked. Adding being a woman on top of that, it was just a lot.
"So, where is this instructor?" I asked.
"He should be on his way soon." Sara sat down on her mat and began to stretch her limbs.
"How did you meet him?"
"I just googled 'experienced personal trainer,' and his name was the first to pop up. I watched a couple of his fitness seminars, and he definitely knows how to put you into shape."
Sara and I continued chatting about this mystery personal trainer. The woman cave started to get warm and stuffy. The workout hasn't even started, and I was already feeling sweaty. I was just wearing a vintage t-shirt and biker shorts. Using a spare rubber band I had around my wrist, I tied my shirt in the front. And at that exact moment, the doorbell rang. Sara got up from the ground and looked at my shirt. She smirked at me.
