“Worth It?”

Karin had been training like a woman possessed—late nights at the campus gym, early-morning posing practice in her dorm mirror. All because of him. The quiet guy from her kinesiology lecture, the one who always sat in the back row and gave her a thumbs-up whenever she crushed another PR at the student rec center.

Today, she was done waiting.

She caught him alone in the hallway between classes, sunlight pouring in from the windows and gleaming off her sweat-dappled shoulders. Her light-blue top barely clung to her hulking frame, every thread straining to contain the insane bulk she’d been building in secret.

With a deep breath and a surge of nerves, she stepped in front of him—and flexed.

Her arms rose into a perfect double biceps pose.

RIPPP—!!

The fabric gave out instantly.

In the first moment, captured like a snapshot in time, her top exploded off her torso in jagged curls of fabric. Her pecs surged forward, raw with power and laced with veins that wrapped like lightning across her chest. Her delts flared, her triceps bulged—every inch of her was thick, veiny, and absurdly defined.

She froze. Her eyes went wide.

So did his thumb—already raised in a solid, proud thumbs-up.

But Karin didn’t relax.

Was he just being polite?! Did she overdo it?! Did she just flash him in the middle of campus?!

She stayed locked in place, every muscle refusing to let go of the pose. Her sweat-glossed torso glistened in the sunlight, ridges of her abs casting deep shadows, obliques sharp enough to cut paper. Her breath caught in her throat, but her arms wouldn’t drop.

There she stood fully exposed—topless in a deserted hallway, face flushed, body flexed beyond reason. She was a mountain of muscle and panic.

And he was still giving her the thumbs-up.

Karin’s jaw tightened.

“W-Worth it?” she whispered, barely audible.