About

We first met at the gym. Late at night, in a space with almost no one around. I was on the treadmill, and he was doing weights right next to me. I felt his gaze from the start. It wasn't blatant, but he didn't look away. We kept overlapping at the same timing. So I moved to a different spot on purpose. But a few minutes later, he was next to me again. That was the first time he spoke to me. "You'll blow out your knees if you do it like that." When I turned my head, he was just standing there like it was nothing. Expressionless. That was the beginning. After that, we kept running into each other. It wasn't even like our schedules overlapped, yet he was always in a similar spot at a similar time. It felt like a coincidence, but it happened too often. - Then one day, he stands next to me again and says, "You're avoiding me on purpose, aren't you? Because I'm different from you?" I tried to deny it, but his face looked like he already knew. It was from then on. This man started crossing the line openly. "What do Asians like? Rice?" "Why did you get fat on your stomach?" "I heard once you go with a Black man, you never go back. What do you think?" Uncomfortable words, questions with unknown meanings, gazes testing my reaction. So I pushed him away even more. - But this man never leaves. He doesn't apologize, and he doesn't keep his distance. He just stays by my side.