Dandadan : Awkward Guy

[1st POV]

(Four days later)

"The bruising is much better now," I said, looking at my reflection in the gigantic mirror of the gym.

After three months, the reflection didn't look foreign anymore. My mind had come to accept that I was the scrawny dude in the mirror.

"Although not so scrawny anymore," I said and started flexing in the mirror. A healthy amount of muscles were starting to fill up my skinny bones.

I did not have crazy muscle definition but I could be called a healthy teenager now. That was a huge progress considering I could be categorized as a malnutrition before.

"You've made insane progress in a short time kid, keep it up," a buffed guy standing a few meters away and was also flexing said.

After complimenting me, he turned and sent a brief glare towards the young men gathering in the bench press machine. They were snickering at me while I was flexing in front of the mirror.

How nice of him, he complimented me to reassure me and silenced the bullies at the same time.

Although it didn't really matter, I appreciated what he did. Their snickering did not bother me one bit, I had much bigger things to worry about than how they saw me. It's like how a homeless man searching for food would never worry about their calorie intake.

I was fighting against a much bigger issue than being laughed at.

The gym was called Ocean Gym. I decided to come to the gym after a few days of training at home and realised the lack of equipment was an issue. I did not have spare money to register myself as a member or fees to pay so in the beginning, I sneaked inside and trained without paying.

The gym was relatively small so there were no gym cards or something. There was a staff duty in front of the entrance and that was it. I would wait outside and sneak t in when the staff was away training himself or going to the toilet.

But before even a week had passed, I was caught. Yet the owner was kind enough to allow me to go for free in exchange for service.

Apparently, I gave off puppy vibes. The owner was understanding of my situation and also knew I was determined to improve from the way I was going out of my way to sneak in.

So in return for opening and closing the gym, I was allowed to come and train for free. It was a good deal.

I just had to wake up early and open the gym, turn on the lights and all that stuff. Then at 10:00 pm, I was to turn off every light and close the gym.

They get a small convenience and I get to train for free.

So anyway, that's the story of how I got my membership for free.

I continued staring at my reflection in the mirror and realized that my hair had grown quite a bit. I had just let my hair grow for the past month and now they were covering my ears.

"Maybe I should get a haircut," I said. It was Saturday so I was free the whole day.

I trained a few more hours in the gym, mainly focusing on weights as my main goal was to build muscles. Sunday was my rest day and I hadn't trained since my fight so I worked on every muscle group, leaving me exhausted.

Well, exhaustion was much better than the muscle ache I would experience tomorrow. I thought with a grim smile.

After I was done, I left the gym and went to the supermarket. I picked up groceries - healthy ones and also bought some necessities like a toothbrush and hair cream.

I headed to the barber shop after I was done.

"So, how would you like?" the barber asked while I made myself comfortable in the chair.

"Give me the cheapest haircut," I said.

"Sorry, we don't do it like that here. The price is the same except if you want other services like dyeing your hair, shaving or a massage," was his reply.

I hummed in understanding. Back at home, the price is different depending on the haircut. For example, getting a buzz cut was cheaper than a taper fade.

"Then please, anything that would look good on me," I said.

It has not even been four months since I was in this body. So I did not know which haircut was suitable nor was I picky enough to care that much. If it was not shaving everything off or looking like a caveman, I was okay with any hairstyle.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, you should know better than me," I replied.

"Okay then, don't blame me afterwards," the barber said and began working while I closed my eyes.

I felt the buzzing machine move along my scalp, sending pleasant vibrations to my brain. It felt nice.

After ten minutes or so, the haircut was done and I opened my eyes to look at myself.

"Is this fate?" I said out loud when I saw my reflection.

It looked like a permed mullet, a hairstyle that was similar to Okarun's in the show. But since my hair was from a proper haircut, it looked neater and better.

"Would you look at that, you look like a different person," the barber said, clearly pleased with his work.

"You are surprisingly handsome too. That hair really did you dirty," the barber said.

I continued checking out my new hair and even I was satisfied. I said I didn't care in the beginning but I didn't know I would look this much better.

"Thank you," I said.

The price was worth it.

..

..

////////////////////

It was already afternoon by the time I left the barbershop. I decided to eat dinner at a restaurant instead of going home and cooking for myself.

I'd like to clean up and immediately go to bed after I reach home. And eating was kind of important to me for my training.

I went to a local restaurant, nothing fancy as I wanted cheap food. I ordered two plates of fried rice, chicken fried rice and in the name of Uncle Roger, egg fried rice.

It was the mother-daughter combo. Okyakadon if you will.

No, maybe calling it the mother-baby combo would be better. Diddy special if you will.

When my orders arrived, I immediately dug into my food without wasting time. The food was surprisingly good and I really enjoyed it.

Not only that, the rice came with free soup on the side. What a steal!!

I was minding my own business, comparing the taste of the chicken and egg rice and determining that they were the same except for the topping. But my peaceful time was interrupted by a yell in the restaurant.

"No! I'm done Momo!" said some thug-looking guy with bushy eyebrows. He also had ugly earrings on.

They were sitting on a table a few meters away. From the looks of it, they were an arguing couple.

Normally I wouldn't care that much but I was immediately interested because the guy was yelling Momo. Momo was one of my favourite food back home. It was a Tibetan version of a dumpling basically, look it up.

"I can't believe you bring us to this crappy restaurant for our date," the boy said, rather loudly and rudely.

I looked at my rice, feeling a bit offended for their sake. I wanted to yell out, hey the rice is good. Keep my rice restaurant's name out of your mouth!

"Honestly you are such a crappy girlfriend, You are broke, lame, and won't let me act intimate in any way!!" the boy said.

I was literally speechless at his shamelessness and I think others were as well.

"I'm leaving. Consider our relationship over," the boy said and stormed out of the restaurant like a little sassy bitch.

You really couldn't judge a book by its cover. The guy looked like a thug from the outside.

"Hey, you can't just break with me!! I didn't consent!!" the girl stood up way after the boy was out and yelled.

"Come back you disgusting feet-loving pervert!!" she yelled louder but the boy was long gone.

She released a dramatic sigh, flopped back in her seat and lay on the table. The people in the restaurant started gossiping about what happened but the girl did not seem to give a flying fuck.

Correction. It was not just any girl, it was Momo, the main character of Dandadan.

I did not recognize her at first but when she stood up and I caught a glimpse of her face, I knew who she was. Her huge earrings were also unmistakable.

I sighed when it came to my mind what I had to do.

What a drag.

She was the only way to get my powers and I had to talk to her. I only watched the first episode of Dandadan and have seen a few edits of it so the only way I knew how to enter the supernatural world was through her.

Meaning Momo was vital in my goal of returning home.

I had to befriend her as Okarun did.

...

And so, with no small amount of reluctance and uncertainty, I approached the main character of this world. A part of me advised that it was not wise to approach her while she was in a foul mood due to her boyfriend but I did anyway.

It'd be such a drag to meet her in school and befriend her considering the difference in our popularity.

"Hi," I began.

"Get lost, not in the mood," she said without even looking up at me. Her face was planted on the table.

'Okay, part of me that advised not to approach her, you're in charge from now on.' I thought to myself.

..

..

..

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Add this book to your collection and give stones. 🙏