My head jerked up in surprise, and I muffled a curse as my head banged against a floor lamp. Sungmin looked at me with a concerned look, just as Uki screeched again, “SHE-WON!!”

“Who is She-won?” I asked Sungmin in my rudimentary Korean, fixing the blanket on Yesung’s bed before heading out into the hall.

He hesitated for a minute, staring off towards the smell of food, and said haltingly in English, “He are… Super Junior member, Uki…oh-pah.”

I cringed at the word ‘are’ instead of ‘is,’ but refrained from pointing that out, reminding myself to talk to him about it later. Okay, so he was another member of Super Junior. But there was that dang oh-pah word again, and I had no clue what it meant! I sighed. “Sungmin, food,” I muttered in Korean, pushing him a bit down the hall since that was where he obviously wanted to be. He didn’t hesitate, and soon disappeared into the kitchen.

I turned back down the hall and opened another door. It was pitch-black in here, and a body odor stench hit my nostrils. I pulled up the hem of my shirt and covered my mouth and nose with it. Yep, this is Henry’s room, I thought, carefully weaving my way towards Henry’s bedside. I was about to poke him to wake him up, but then I remembered some of the man’s words concerning my dear brother. I halted, and, biting my lip, instead picked up his phone and wallet from his nightstand.

Henry, I hope you understand. I checked to make sure his phone was on silent and, quickly surveying the room for a sufficient hiding spot, placed the two on the floor in the closet, hidden in a lump of the rug and masked by a pile of clothes. Knowing how incredibly dumb my brother could be, it was totally possible to mistake my hijacking of his phone and wallet for him throwing his clothes in the closet and them tumbling out of a pocket underneath that ripple in the rug.

I bit my lip again and returned to Henry, shaking him a little. “Henry, wake up,” I said in English, then repeating myself in Chinese. He groaned and slowly sat up. I skirted the bed and whipped open the blinds, flooding the room with light. He winced and teetered out of bed, wandering down the hall to see what smelled so good. I eagerly followed him, not giving a second thought to his phone and wallet hiding in his closet.

The boys from upstairs had come down, and they were crowded around the table. But, there was a new face at the table. Oh gosh, he had muscles. And eyebrows. I stared a bit at the giant who practically dwarfed Uki, who was sitting next to him. Was this She-won?

Uki then noticed me and squealed. Okay, who is this and what did they do with the Uki from earlier?! She popped up from the table, where the boys were ravenously scarfing rice and kimchi. What happened to the feast from yesterday? Uki grabbed me and said, “Ryn, this is my older brother She-won. I know it sounds weird, but it’s spelled S-I-W-O-N. He lives on his own and it feels like I haven’t seen him in forever, even though it was only last night!! He usually doesn’t come to the dorms for breakfast, but hey, whatever!”

I looked at Siwon, who was studying me, and bowed a bit. “Hello, I’m Taryn,” I shakily introduced myself in Korean. The boys around the table whistled a bit like teenagers and continued to eat and make noise. Siwon stood and bowed, saying in English, “Hello Taryn, my name is Choi Siwon and I hope we will be able to get along.”

He smiled as I stared at him. Holy crap, he’s good! After a few seconds of silence, I asked, “How long have you been studying English?”

Before Siwon could reply, I heard a crash as a bowl dropped onto the table. Eunhyuk sat there staring at the table, red-faced for some odd reason, as the boys started teasing him, Leeteuk especially. Siwon laughed a little bit as well, covering his mouth with his hand, and sat back down. I simply sat next to Henry, mystified, as Siwon replied, “Very short time. I am not well with English.”

Ignoring his bad grammar and the ruckus the guys were making, I smiled. “We can work on that.”

He nodded and started to attack his food again, Uki yabbering at him the whole time, still rubbing her shoulder, leaving me a few seconds to thoughtfully shove rice and kimchi down my throat. Why had everybody started to laugh at Eunhyuk right after I spoke? Why had he introduced himself as Cheh Siwon if his first name was Siwon? How come his second bout of English was so much worse than his first sentence? Did he have that introduction memorized or something? And how the heck is he so tall while Uki’s so short? I shook my head. Too many questions, not enough answers.

Within two minutes, the table was deserted. Leeteuk, Donghae, Ryeowook and Shindong had gone back upstairs, while the boys down here were frantically running around just like yesterday. Siwon simply lounged on the loveseat with nothing to do, flipping lazily through the channels. Alex yelled something like “get ready” at me, which I hurriedly went to do. Looking at the cloudy sky outside, I pulled on jeans and the sweatshirt I had on earlier, making sure nobody could tell I had a bunch of gauze wrapped around my middle (which was starting to ache again from the flower imprinted on my back). I pulled a small mirror out of my backpack, since the shower was running in the bathroom, and put on my makeup in record time, then reached for my miniature Dakine backpack in my suitcase that I hadn’t had a chance to use yet. I quickly transferred the contents of my purse into the bag and headed back out into the living room where Siwon was.

Seeing he wasn’t paying me any attention, I timidly approached him. “Um, Siwon?” I asked in English. His head swiveled towards me, then tilted to one side. I took that as permission to continue. “Is there a bathroom down in the lobby I can use?”

His brow furrowed as he processed my words, then replied, “Yes. We be- er, will be there. Okay?”

I nodded in relief. “Okay. Thank you.” Then I yelled back into the rest of the apartment as Siwon refocused on the TV, “Uki, Alex, I’ll meet you in the lobby!” I pulled on my Toms and slung my backpack over my shoulder, not waiting for a reply.

Making sure I had my phone, I bolted down the stairs and made a beeline for the door with a woman pictogram over it. Not attracting any attention, I entered and made sure I was alone, peeking underneath the stall doors to make sure.

Then I bent over one of the toilets and made myself throw up everything I had eaten for breakfast.

Wiping my mouth with a piece of toilet paper, I took a toothbrush and toothpaste out of my bag and cleaned my teeth to protect my enamel, spitting into the sink, then alternately gargled and swallowed water to protect my esophagus. Milk would have been better, though.

I was good at this. I was quiet, and quick. Nobody suspected. I couldn’t stand out. I needed to eat to blend in, I needed this to be thin. I needed to get on the good side of the man once more.

As much as I hated returning to this dirty practice, I had to.

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Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. By the way, I'll probably continue with this pattern of updating every other day or so. Updating every day is getting in the way of schoolwork :/ Anyway, please subscribe/comment! I really love reading your feedback :)