Fast forward to a week later, and I'm in the gym, getting my grind on.
This is how I'd been living my life for the past week. I'd wake up, go to the gym for a workout, take my self-defense classes, go home, do some research on stocks, and then prepare for cram school for the rest of the day.
My schedule wasn't all too versatile, and I was content with it as I had enough time for myself and for my goals.
After finishing my sets, I went to the restroom to take a small break. Looking in the mirror, I was impressed with the amount of progress I'd made. It had been about 4 weeks, so I wasn't expecting anything too much, but I was finally gaining some weight and coming out of my lanky frame.
This was good; I'd keep this up and continue to monitor my progress.
"Okay, it's back to the grind, I guess," I thought as I finally left the restroom.
I was on my way to resume my sets when I noticed another guy working out on my spot. 'Bro probably doesn't understand gym culture; well, I might as well ask for my spot back,' I thought.
"Excuse me, bro," I said in a respectful tone, trying my best not to cause any trouble.
"What!" The man shouted as he got up from the bench press stand and rose to his feet.
As he stared down at me, and I looked at his face, I realized that I could recognize this man. I'd seen him multiple times in the gym.
I had no problems whatsoever with him as I'd simply come to the gym to work out and leave; however, he always felt the need to cause me discomfort here and there.
Sometimes he'd shoulder bump me. Other times he'd take my spot like he did today, forcing me to wait for another person to finish their sets before I could continue my workout.
This had gone on for a while now, but as I was much smaller in frame and trying to keep a low profile, I let it play out.
I was getting pretty fed up, and I guess today was the day I would finally confront him.
He was way taller than me, and I was by no means short; I was 6 feet tall, and I was literally looking up to speak to this guy.
He looked like a classic biker character pulled straight out of a 90's movie with a bald head, long brown beard hair, tattoos and piercings here and there, and a very large frame. Like really large.
I was intimidated at this point, but I stood my ground, not letting my flustered emotions show.
As he stood there, letting his oversized mass cover me, sweat dripping profusely from both of us, others stopped working out and began to stare at us.
"Woohoo! Seems like we've got ourselves a stand-off, ladies and gentlemen," said one of the men, and everyone burst out laughing and cheered loudly.
A gym official also came and stood to oversee what was going on, and I realized that this was fast becoming a scene.
'I was trying my best to avoid this, but since it had come down to it, I have no choice,' I thought to myself.
I spoke first. "My bag was here first, and according to the rules of the gym, you can't take another person's spot till they are done working out, so please excuse me and go somewhere else."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhh!" The crowd cheered loudly as they heard this, and I realized the scales of this battle were tilting in my favor. There were also cheers of… "He's right, move over punk" from the audience, and the big guy noticed that he was starting to lose face.
Realizing he had to do something quickly, he moved closer and said, "You want me to move, why don't you make me" and pushed me with one hand, causing me to stagger back a few steps.
At this point, the crowd went wild, and everyone was screaming the words "Hit him back." I weighed my options; even though I'd been taking some martial arts classes and was starting to get adept with the basics of combat, would that really be enough to help me beat this guy?
As I still contemplated my options, the system popped up with several panels coming up at once. I was shocked as this had never happened before.
~Ding!~
[System Notice]
*Warning!* *Warning!* *Warning!*
[Yes] [No]
This was a self-defense protocol! I'd seen things like this happen in movies before. I wasn't sure how it worked, but the main character would basically lose control and functionality of their body, allowing the system to take full control until the threat was eliminated.
This could work! But then, considering the fact that I didn't know the full extent of the system's power, it could've taken the man as too much of a threat and caused permanent damage which would ultimately get me in big trouble.
I would have to try this out, but that would be some other time as this was my loss.
Not saying anything further, I picked up my bag and started to make my way to the exit.
"That's what I thought," shouted the man loudly as he began to flex his muscles with his gym bros like any other set of people would do.
'Typical of them,' I thought.
There were large boos of dissatisfaction from the crowd as they expected more action, but I simply ignored them. The gym officials who were previously present returned back to their positions, and everything started to calm.
As I opened the gym doors and began to take the walk of shame home, my mind wandered around how I could get my revenge.
This was my loss, yes, but the bullying was never going to stop; in fact, it would increase in intensity now that he'd won this battle.
I would find a way to get my revenge; however, defeated and dejected, all I could say at that point was that it wasn't over.