requested by anon

It's just another average day at school.

Girls are gossiping, guys are throwing balls around and punching each other playfully, and you walk down the hallway, books clutched to your chest as you try to make yourself as small as possible.

But of course, you could never truly make yourself invisible.

"Look what we have today," a girl sneers, glancing at you briefly before scoffing and rolling her eyes. "Don't you know how to use shampoo?"

You reach behind your head and run your fingers through the strands—there's no oil to speak of there.

"Ew, someone needs to lose twenty pounds," another mutters not-so-subtly, grimacing at your skirt-exposed legs. You flinch, as your weight was a sensitive subject for you—you weren't overly fat by any means, but there were definitely a few pounds you wanted to get rid of.

Thankfully, the bell rings, (temporarily) saving you from any more of their verbal abuse.

Or so you thought.

"God, you're so ugly," one of them calls over her shoulder as she saunters off to class. "Can you, like, never show your face again?"

~*~*~*~*~

Those words follow you for the rest of the day, running through your mind like some sort of a mantra.

You're ugly, you're ugly, you're ugly

You shake your head, trying to clear your thoughts, but they refuse to leave, tormenting you every second.

They'd called you some pretty bad things before, always picking on some aspect of your body, but they'd never actually called you straight-up ugly before.

And to be honest, it hurt much more than you thought it would.

Once you're finally dismissed for lunch, you head over to the tree that you usually sit under with your boyfriend, Choi Minki. It's somewhat secluded, so nobody can see the two of you together, and you like it that way—not a whole lot of people know that the two of you are dating, and you'd prefer to keep it that way.

Minki is everything that you're not; slim, popular, good-looking, talented in many things, and well-liked by the general population. Why he decided to date you of all people is no short of a mystery to you, but you have no objections—he's the sweetest person you've ever met, although he can be a little odd sometimes.

"Hey," he calls as you approach, waving an arm in greeting. "How was class?"

You shrug in response, sitting down next to him and smoothing your skirt, opening your backpack and pulling out your lunch, although you don't have much of an appetite.

"Not hungry?" Minki asks.

"Not really."

"Did something happen in class?"

"No."

"Then why aren't you talking to me?" Minki huffs, crossing his arms. "You're not usually this..." He waves his arm over your body. "Morose."

"Nothing, Minki, it's fine!" you snap, tossing your chopsticks into your lunch container. "Everything's fine."

"It's not." Minki raises an eyebrow. "Tell me what's wrong."

"I told you, nothing!"

"And I told you, I know it's not." His expression softens, and he places a hand on your shoulder, his eyes fixed straight on yours. "We're supposed to be equals in this relationship, okay? And that means if something's wrong, you tell me, so that we can work things out."

His voice is soft and reassuring, and it all comes spilling out before you can stop it, stuttering and teary, but Minki merely sits there in silence and nods occasionally, his expression solemn.

"T-they said I was ugly," you say, blinking as you stare at the ground, "it hurts, Minki, it hurts."

He says nothing, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you close to his chest.

After what seems like several minutes of listening to Minki's steady heartbeat, he finally speaks.

"They don't know anything," he says, his voice firm. "You're beautiful. More beautiful than they can ever hope to be, you don't need all that makeup to be pretty. And you're not fat, you're perfect. You're not ugly. You never were, and you never will be."

"But—"

"No buts." Minki presses a finger to your lips. "You're not. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise."