“YAHYAHYAH! Wait up a second!”

“Kim Jiho! I’m going to be late! I don’t need my lunch!”

“You say that only to call me out at 12 to bring in your lunch. Besides, you have to do well during your first year of residency. You can’t just skip lunch,” I said while rolling my eyes. I turned around. “Seulbi, can you give this to your dad?”

Seulbi gallopped over to her dad.

“Here appa!”

“Seulbi, kiss!”

Seulbi proceeded to kiss her father on the cheek.

“Bye Seulbi! Listen to your mom!” He closed the door on the way out.

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9 years ago / first year of high school / Author’s POV

Jiho was calmly eating her sweet bread in the classroom. Although she had tried to keep away from sweets and fatty foods, she couldn’t help it anymore. It was just too difficult for her to away from the most unhealthy but delicious foods. She had never really had many friends after coming back to Korea and entering high school. She had one best friend, named Yoobin, but Yoobin had been sick for about a week, so she was all alone in class.

“Hey! Fatty! You’re eating again? Heol~! You must be at least 80 kilograms,” said Chaeyeon. Jeong Chaeyeon was the mean girl of their class. She always loved to make fun of Jiho because in elementary and middle school, Jiho had always been the center of attention and everyone envied her. Chaeyeon could get a 98 on the math test, but Jiho would get a 99 and be praised constantly. Chaeyeon could climb the rock wall in the gym all the way to the top and back, but Jiho would do it in record time. They could get the same exact haircut, but Jiho would be the one getting all of the compliments. Now that Jiho wasn’t as popular thanks to her weight gain, Chaeyeon thought of the torture she was giving her as revenge for always taking the spotlight.

Towards the middle of the last year of middle school, Jiho’s grandfather on her dad’s side had suddenly gotten sick, so Jiho and her family rushed to the United States to see him. Because her family was paying more attention to her grandfather and she had no friends in the U.S., Jiho would often feel lonely. Her time was spent taking online courses for school and staying on her bed watching dramas and swooning over the actors while snacking on food. Her parents weren’t home a lot of the time, so no one was there to control how much she ate, and eventually, she began to rapidly gain weight. In 6 months, she went from 5’3” and 44 kilograms to 5’5” and 60 kilograms, with her appearance and healthiness drastically changing for the worse. Once February came, her grandfather had finally shown some improvement and her father and mother’s work leave was up, just in time for winter break at school. On the first day of high school after the winter break was over, everyone who knew her in middle school was shocked. In their eyes, the beautiful, perfect Jiho became a fat, nerdy Jiho who couldn’t be separated from her bread.

Now, it was the end of March, March 27 to be exact. Almost one month of high school had passed.

Chaeyeon and Jiho's conversation continued. “At least I don’t look like a stick bug with a caked face,” Jiho muttered with a full mouth.

“WHAT?!?” said Chaeyeon. “YAH! What did that fatty jus