Chapter 40
“Do you think Mr. Taehan is that kind of person?”
Manager Hwang turned back to the monitor and replied nonchalantly.
The massage shop is located near the jimjilbang.
Naturally, the customers who visit are of all ages and genders.
However, since all the massage therapists in the shop are men, it’s true that young female customers rarely visit… but that’s not the case for Kang Taehan.
Starting from who knows when, he was mentioned a few times on social media like Instagram, and at some point, reservations from young women surged.
At least, it’s not something to fuss over like this.
Moreover, Kang Taehan distinguishes between work and personal matters, and knows how to draw a clear line when necessary.
Of course, Choi Seonghyeon also knew this, so he scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.
“Hey, I know Taehan’s personality well too. But…”
“But?”
“I feel like the woman is slightly interested in him?”
Choi Seonghyeon has always had a good sense for romance.
During the freshman orientation, his couple prediction accuracy rate was a whopping 89 percent!
From what Choi Seonghyeon could see, even if Kang Taehan had no such thoughts, the woman seemed interested.
“What makes you think that?”
“Should I call it a hunch? Also, the woman came wearing makeup, whether she realized it or not.”
Blush that adds vitality to the face without being too obvious, and a colored lip balm that adds a subtle shine to the lips.
It’s simple makeup, but washing your face and applying makeup again is quite a hassle.
It would be understandable if she had companions, but she didn’t, meaning she put on fresh makeup solely for Kang Taehan.
“…You saw that already?”
“You just know by looking.”
“Really… Sometimes you have a knack for the strangest things.”
Choi Seonghyeon shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing.
Manager Hwang looked at him and tilted his head.
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“It’s not bad, actually.”
Chae Eunbi said, pressing down on the mattress while sitting on the massage bed.
She thought the massage shop in the jimjilbang would be small, but the space was spacious and the facilities were quite clean.
“What were you expecting?”
“Just, you know… a massage shop in a neighborhood jimjilbang? Hehe.”
Well, it’s hard to call it luxurious, but it feels quite professional.
Chae Eunbi burst into an embarrassed laugh.
“Your lower back was quite bad last time, right?”
“That’s right. You remember?”
“That much, of course. Would you like to lie down on your stomach first?”
“Yes~”
At Kang Taehan’s words, Chae Eunbi replied in a playful voice and lay face down on the bed.
Honestly, although she came all the way here, she didn’t have high expectations.
If it were a problem that could be improved with a massage, it would have been solved long ago.
This wasn’t because she didn’t trust Kang Taehan, it was just a realistic judgment.
“Then… I’ll focus a bit.”
However, the moment Kang Taehan’s hand rested on her back.
‘…Hmm?’
Along with a heavy weight, a warm energy began to spread throughout her body, centered on Kang Taehan’s hand.
But the warmth wasn’t transmitted from the outside through her skin, but rather felt like it was flowing inward, as if along her blood vessels.
A strange sensation she had never felt before.
But the feeling wasn’t bothersome, it was rather a peaceful feeling, as if her tense body was relaxing involuntarily.
Meanwhile, Kang Taehan was using a kind of Qi sensing through his hand on her back to check the condition of her body and meridians.
The warm energy Chae Eunbi felt originated from Kang Taehan’s internal energy.
‘As expected, her body itself is very healthy.’
A body with elastic and well-defined muscles.
Youth itself radiates a strong life force.
Even Choi Taejun, who had abused his body so much, recovered quickly once his meridians were opened.
In that sense, Chae Eunbi was even younger than Choi Taejun, and thanks to her consistent exercise and proper care from a young age, she was quite healthy.
However, if there were really no problems, she wouldn’t have lower back pain.
The moment he confirmed the expected location, Kang Taehan slowly nodded.
‘As expected, there’s a problem with the Yaoyan acupoint.’
An acupoint with the grand name of “Lumbar Eye”.
Two acupoints located on either side of the spine where it meets the pelvis, physically balancing the spine and playing a supporting role to the Dazhu acupoint of the spine in the meridian system.
Naturally, the impact this point has on spinal health is enormous, and it is safe to say that it is the second most important point in the meridian system near the waist after the Mingmen point.
However, the Qi of this Yaoyan point was somewhat unstable, and the surrounding meridians were tangled in a complex way, hindering the flow of blood.
In this state, the blocked blood flow would pool or stagnate somewhere, potentially transforming into turbid Qi, and this could further block the meridians, creating a vicious cycle that worsens the condition.
‘Judging by the situation, this area is weak from birth.’
Being born with problems in specific acupoints or meridians is not something that only happens in martial arts novels, it actually happens quite often in reality.
However, it is rare for the condition to be severe enough to cause physical problems, and in most cases, there is no problem even if they live with it, and even then, most of them recover or find their place as they grow up.
The same goes for Chae Eunbi.
Originally, there wouldn’t have been a big problem, and the tangled meridians from birth would have returned to their original positions over time… but the golf she played became the root cause.
Golf is a sport that puts a lot of strain on the lower back.
To be more precise, it overloads the spine, which is the central axis when swinging the golf club.
Of course, someone aiming to be a professional wouldn’t be unaware of this common knowledge, and she would have prepared sufficiently.
Just by looking at her strong and flexible lower back muscles, one could roughly guess that.
However, that doesn’t mean she could do anything about the meridian problem she had from birth, and she probably didn’t even know about it.
In the end, the accumulated shock from playing golf worsened the condition of her meridians, leading to these symptoms.
‘Actually, the problem itself isn’t that serious.’
It’s just that the swollen meridian, where blood flow was stagnant, happened to be in contact with the spinal nerves, causing a kind of disc symptom every time she swung the golf club.
If she were an ordinary college student, she wouldn’t have any problems in her daily life even in this condition.
You could say it’s an unlucky case in many ways.
“I know what to do.”
Kang Taehan slowly removed his hand from her back.
Now that he had identified the problem, it was time to solve it.
And that method was quite simple, at least for Kang Taehan.
“…Yes?”
Chae Eunbi was lying quietly on the bed, enjoying the drowsy feeling.
She was about to slightly raise her head and look back at the change in Kang Taehan’s mood and tone.
“Eek?!”
The next moment, with a scream like a string of a stringed instrument snapping, her body lightly bounced up.
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First, the Mingmen point located above the tailbone.
He pressed this point to draw out the original Qi within her body, and stimulated the dozen or so acupoints along the spine in sequence, instantly activating the meridians connecting from the lower Dantian to the middle Dantian.
The spine is the pillar of the body and a very sensitive area where numerous meridians and nerves are connected.
For Kang Taehan, he simply completed the necessary process as quickly as possible, but Chae Eunbi, who suddenly received a series of intense stimulations in a short period of time…
“Ughhhh…”
She let out a breath, drained of energy, and collapsed face down on the bed as if her body had lost its strength.
And Kang Taehan placed his hand on her back again.
First, using the original Qi he had drawn from the Mingmen point, he continued to circulate and stimulate the meridians located between the lower Dantian and the middle Dantian.
The Mingmen point, as its name “Gate of Life” suggests, governs the innate vitality and original Qi.
Therefore, the Qi contained in this point has a pure nature that best suits one’s constitution, and as a result, it has the characteristic of showing the least rejection when used as internal energy.
Of course, the amount is extremely limited compared to ordinary internal energy, and it is best not to use it…
But there is no problem if it is not emitted externally and simply circulates through the meridians within the body before being reabsorbed.
‘This is the most effective method.’
He opened up the main acupoints so that the turbid Qi could escape, and continued to rapidly circulate the original Qi through the meridians.
If the meridians were severed or she had internal injuries, it would be a different matter, but if the meridians were simply tangled or twisted like this, this much was enough.
Sure enough, the effect began to appear immediately, although subtly.
Just as a coiled hose straightens when a faucet is turned on, the tangled meridians began to slowly unravel.
Of course, there were some parts that didn’t unravel and instead became more tangled… but he could just untangle those parts separately.
Kang Taehan was observing the process intently, without losing focus, and whenever a problem arose, he would untangle it with acupressure.
“Ughhh, haah.”
Meanwhile, Chae Eunbi, who was experiencing the whole process firsthand, was simply bewildered.
Her body suddenly became hotter and hotter, and now her entire upper body was drenched in sweat.
‘It’s not even that intense of a massage?’
One hand was on her back as before, and the other hand occasionally applied acupressure to her body, but that was all.
However, with the refreshing feeling of blocked blood vessels opening up all over her body, and the feeling of energy gradually filling her body, she even felt a delusion that her heart was swelling.
“Hoo, hooo…”
The effect of circulating and activating the meridians that were usually dormant.
Chae Eunbi lay on the massage bed, catching her breath.
She hadn’t done anything, but she felt a strange mix of vitality and refreshment, as if she had just finished a vigorous jog.
‘It’s almost done.’
When the disordered meridians had mostly settled into place, and there were hardly any parts that needed to be untangled separately, Kang Taehan returned the borrowed original Qi to the Mingmen point and removed his hand from her back.
Now all that was left was to wait for her to recover on her own.
He had removed the stagnant turbid Qi, and the meridian that was close to the spinal nerve had been moved away.
As long as Chae Eunbi didn’t get up and swing a golf club right now, there was no way it would return to its original state.
‘The timing is about right too.’
He looked at his watch and saw that only ten seconds remained until 30 minutes.
Kang Taehan lightly checked Chae Eunbi’s condition one last time, then slowly got up.
“Ah… Is it already over?”
Chae Eunbi, still catching her breath, asked in a low voice.
Kang Taehan nodded at her words.
“Yes. I think if you take a nap…”
“Can’t you… do it a little more?”
A voice full of exhaustion, but also with a deep sense of regret.
Chae Eunbi lightly brushed back her sweat-soaked hair and said so.
It was certainly a strange and new experience, and her body was tired, but…
As Kang Taehan’s hand left her back and her heated body began to cool down, a strange sense of regret lingered.
“…No?”
Chae Eunbi asked once more, as if urging him.
At her words, Kang Taehan smiled softly.
It was a gentle smile, but with a firm impression.
“It’s time to sleep now.”
It was time to focus on recovery.
And the best way to focus on recovery was to sleep.
The moment Kang Taehan’s hand moved, Chae Eunbi’s upper body, which had been slightly raised, slumped back onto the bed.
