Drowning in a pool of her tears, fears and sadness.

Her protection squad members will give her all the love she needs to pull her out of the slump.

Yeri wasn't oblivious to all the hate she was getting.

"Why did SM decide to add such a useless member?!"

"OT4 was perfect!"

"She looks so ugly!"

"Yeri will steal all your oppas! Watch out!"

Breaking news: Red Velvet Yeri Under FIRE For Allegedly RUDE Actions Towards Irene ...

As she read all these mean comments, she could not understand why people would hate her that much.

"Am I such a bad person? Am I too fat? Am I really useless? Do I have no talent?" Without realising a thing, her tears were rolling down her cheeks quickly, leaving her essay with random smudges.

"Yah Kim Yerim, are you doing you homework or using you phone?!" Her leader's voice rang in her ears, and she was quickly flipped over her lap.

"Unnie!" She gasped as their oldest delivered 10 warning swats to her bottom.

"Do your homework and stop using you phone, arraso?" She lifted the maknae back onto the chair and squished her cheeks together. 

"Neh, unnie."

"It'd better be done by the time Wendy comes back. Is that clear?"

She gave her one last wave before leaving.

Yeri sighed.

Her lip was bleeding (because she bit down on it hard to prevent tears from falling in front of Irene).

She felt that she was a burden to them.

She felt that she was useless.

She felt worthless.

Her unnie even had to punish her to make her do her own homework. 

So, instead of doing that, she scrolled through more comments.

"How fat! Is she Ms Piggy?"

That comment really struck a chord.

She still had some baby fat (which made her look cute, in the eyes of her fans).

However, she thought that maybe that was the reason people call her ugly.

"Maybe if I was more pretty, the fans would find her more useful." She thought.

She looked down at her thighs.

"I'm so fat.." She cried, burying her head in her arms.

"Maybe if I lost weight, the fans will love me more..." She thought. 

That day, she made a firm resolve.

---

"Yeri-ah, you haven't touched your food at all. Are you sure you're not hungry?" Wendy asked, as the maknae poked her food around with a fork.

"I'm really not hungry, unnie."

Wendy knew that there was something up. Their maknae scoffed down food quicker than the speed of a cheetah, and that was when she wasn't even hungry.

"You sure? You know you can tell us everything, right?" She gave her that sincere motherly Yeri jade the urge to just break down and spill everything.

"But this isn't unnie's problem to deal with..." She thought. 

Yeri clenched her fists around her utensils.

"O-of course."

"Alright then. Could you help me with the dishes?" Yeri quickly got up to clear the plates.

The other four had a mini gathering.

"Did you see how hard she was gripping that spoon? I really suspect something's up." Wendy said, pointing in the said girl's direction with a spoon.

"Oh really, who would have figured that out?" Satan Joy rolled her eyes and butted in, earning a smack on the thigh from Irene.

"Don't be rude, Kim Sooyoung. I raised you better than that. Anyways, maybe we should just...let her be for now?"

The members nodded in agreement. They did not have any better ideas anyways.

"I'll just update the protection squad about this..."

Irene tapped her phone screen quickly, typing rapidly.

---

Yeri's condition was not improving.

Their comeback was nearing, so the girls were placed on diets (except Seulgi who didn't need one because she was forever skinny).

Their staff also noticed that Yeri was severely underweight, and encouraged her to eat more.

She looked uneasily at the scale.

"B-but they'll call me fat..." She mumbled softly, and the staff could barely catch her words.

---

She continued to starve herself day after day, and she felt weaker and weaker.

Her baby fats were gone, and she looked pale and boney.

The members were starting to grow concerned.

"Yah, Yeri ah, you have to eat something. A banana a day is not good enough! You're a growing child, you need more food!" Wendy nagged, but she was really concerned for their baby.

"I'm fine, unnie." That's what she always said.

That's what she said even before she fainted during dance practice.

---

Yeri blinked once.

Then twice.

Then three times.

Why was everything around her so white?

Was she in heaven or snow land?

Then, the lights were blocked by figures.

She looked around, but there was no sign of her Red Velvet unnies. 

Instead, Jonghyun and Taemin were towering over her,

"Oh...oppa annyeong? Where's unnie?" was parched but she managed to whisper a few words, which of course, Jonghyun could lip read because what can he not do?

"They're filming a variety show."

"T-Then I better go! What am I even doing here?!" She sat up quickly, which made her head pound.

The world was spinning, but she fought to get out of bed.

Jonghyun pushed her back down.

"Oppa! I need to go for my schedule!" She whined, pushing his shoulder away, only to find that she had not much strength anyways.

He grabbed her wrist.

"Do you see how thin this is? Where are your cheeks? Where are your muscles? All I see is skin and bone." He patted her cheeks, saddened by how they caved in slightly.

The doctor came in right on time.

"Jonghyun-ssi, please let go of my patient."

He retracted his hands