"Hey, hyung!" Minseok greeted loudly, trotting into the practice room with ease of mind. "I didn't think you'd still be here. Am I too early?"

Sungmin glanced up from the plastic bowl of Chinese take out in his hand, and he smiled with sealed lips. "No, no, I'm overstaying my visit. I'll be going shortly."

Minseok nodded and plopped down a few feet away, his back leaning against the mirror covered wall as he poked a straw into his coffee cup. Sungmin in turn stretched his legs out as he swallowed the last sauce drenched noodle, a little slurp sounding.

"Are the rest coming?" Sungmin mumbled, his words slurred as they struggled to pass the food in his mouth.

Minseok shook his head. "No, just Luhan and I. He's running a bit late though. What about your group?"

Sungmin's answer was cut off by the sight of his fellow Super Junior member reentering the practice room, face in a scowl as he sharply shrugged his shoulder to keep a messenger bag from falling.

"Oh, you're back?" Sungmin asked.

Shindong shrugged. "Yeah, I'll just head back when you do."

The younger smirked. "Forgot your keys?"

"Shut it... oh, hey Minseok."

"Hi, sunbaenim!"

​The three kept quiet for a good three minutes then, Sungmin eventually setting down his cheap lunch to check the usual social networks. Shindong and Minseok decided then to steal any leftovers of the now cold food, which didn't phase it's owner in the slightest. A few minutes later, Sungmin frowned, his eyes set upon a conversation between five fans on the video of the newest SJ-M video. Although his English wasn't the greatest, the general subject got through to him, and he subconsciously read aloud as he tried to decipher the exact sentences.

"Sungmin oppa... looking... fat... I do not... like this... he was very... pretty... now he is... fat..."

Minseok froze slightly, eyebrows raised and chopsticks stuck between his lips. Shindong groaned loudly, shoving a few more pieces of meat into his mouth.

"They're saying I'm fat?" Sungmin asked the air, eyes staring in disbelief at his phone.

The youngest of the three tried his hardest to distract himself, pulling his phone out then to play a game.

"The fans don't think I'm handsome anymore... because they think I'm fat..." Sungmin processed the information aloud, his cheeks trembling softly.

"Now you know how I feel," Minseok mumbled, his eyes blank as he stared at his phone.

"Excuse me?" Shindong retorted, a sudden laugh drawing from the two.

Both men had never really taken such comments seriously, and both had been pelted with them since their debut. Sungmin, however, had not, and this was his first time hearing of such opinions. He looked shocked, his vision narrowed and his jaw dropped.

"Is this supposed to be funny?" He exclaimed, offended.

Minseok only shrugged as he sipped from the paper cup of an indie coffee shop. "You get used to it."

Sungmin left then, standing up quickly to stride out of the practice room. He hoped and crossed his fingers that Shindong wouldn't follow him, though after all, his bandmate had no key or ride home. The younger sighed at the sound of his hyung's nearby footsteps.

"Hyung... am I ugly now?" Sungmin whispered, refusing to turn around.

"You shouldn't be addressing your hubae like that," Minseok said quietly.

The older spun around to see the younger behind him in the hallway, his hands shoved in the oversized pockets of his grey hoodie. Sungmin squinted to make sure it was the same, recently debuted younger who was there.

"Shindong told me that he isn't really good with comforting and stuff. Well, I don't think I am either. If it makes you happy though... you're seriously not ugly."

The smile on Sungmin's face was faint and tiny, but nonetheless, it was there.

"You've probably aged the best out of anybody in your group. Hell, I hope I can look as great as you when I hit the same point in my career."

The smile grew.

"You know, my group debuted not even a year ago, and I'm already getting fat comments. I... I'm used to them, but I'd be lying if I said they weren't getting to me. I think I'm starting to loose weight too fast, I don't know, it's not healthy. Whatever it is though, you shouldn't worry. Your fans wouldn't like to see you stuffing food in your mouth and then running away to throw it up."

Sungmin stepped forward.

"Besides, you're not fat. I'm not fat. Shindong isn't fat. We're all fine, and we shouldn't listen to stupidity."

A second went by, and Sungmin was hugging Minseok's shoulder with one arm. His grin was wide and sincere.

"Don't you tell anybody that a sunbae took such fantastic advice from a hubae," Sungmin sarcastically warned, to which Minseok laughed and agreed.

Later, Sungmin stumbled into his room at four in the morning, his eyes barely open and his back aching in pain. For a moment, he remembered reading another ten comments about his weight, and a frown appeared on his face as he clutched his phone tightly in his hand.

"No, I... I will not," he swallowed, setting his phone down gently, "I will not let this get to me."

Before he collapsed onto his bed where he soon drifted off into a sweet slumber, he made a note to take Minseok and Shindong out to lunch sometime.

"I feel no shame. I only feel power."