[Chaeri's POV]

It's been days since I've began starving myself. I've only been drinking water and eating biscuits for lunch. Heck, I even stopped eating my desserts. As for the exercising, I've been waking up at 5 AM everyday just to jog around the neighborhood up until 6AM. After that, I'd go check my weight and do one push-up times half of my weight. Yesterday, I was 120 pounds so I did sixty push-ups. Well, my stomach would grumble twenty-four seven but I just try to think of it as music to my ears.

---

"Chaeri..." I heard a blurry voice say accompanied by the sound of a wooden stick being tapped on my desk.

"CHAERI!" The person yelled and the next thing I felt was being hit in the head by that wooden stick. 

"You've been sleeping again! It's the tenth time this week!" Lee seonsaeng exclaimed. "What's wrong with you?"

I rubbed my eyes and shook my head. "It's nothing, seonsaeng." 

"If it's nothing, then explain to me why I've been hearing grumbling noises all day long from you, huh?" 

"Well..." I couldn't answer immediately for I was feeling as weak as a newborn baby. "Umm..."

"She's starving herself, seonsaeng." One of the girls said. "But even if she tried, she can't be as pretty as we are!" 

"Yeah, what a try hard fatty!" Another one added and soon, the class began to laugh except Youngmin who could only stare at me with a look of pity.

"Everyone! Stop this monstrosity!" Lee seonsaeng commanded. 

I felt my vision becoming blurry once again and my brain felt like it was spinning around inside my head. I'm feeling all woozy all of a sudden and was the blackboard always so full of messy handwriting?

---

Alright so I fainted, big deal! Idols experience that a lot and they're all still standing and well, am I right? Well, I was told to stay home for a few days due to stress and fatigue. Stress and fatigue my behind! I'm still gonna exercise and no one can stop me. I got up from my bed and saw a note on the door.

"Dear Chaeri,

I've been so worried of you. Please don't force yourself or else your body won't be able to handle it. Eat more and get a lot of rest. Also, don't get mad at me but I also locked the front and back door as well as the windows. This is for your own good.

<3 Mom."

"DAMMIT!" I yelled and tore the paper into tiny bits and pieces. Fine, if I really HAVE to eat, I'll just forcefully puke it out. Yeah, that's what I'll do. 

And so, my struggle for beauty went on with my usual 10-hour a day exercises and puking out of the large amounts of food that my mother would give me. I was eventually diagnosed with Bulimia but still, I didn't care. My body had gotten so used to automatically puking everything out that it had become a natural occurrence to me. Eventually, I lacked the energy to even run so I couldn't go to school and ended up locking myself up in my room. My mom would just bring food up to me and I'd devour it like an animal and throw up afterwards. Still, this is all for beauty, right?

"Riiiing~!" My phone rang. I see, it's Youngmin again. Hmph, I refuse to talk to him. Not until I become presentable and beautiful. I can't stand to even hear his voice. I don't want him to worry about me.

My mother then entered the room carrying a tray that contained a bowl of soup and some water. She slammed it onto my study desk causing some of the hot soup to spill. 

"Here's your supper, you monster." My mother said with gritted teeth of disappointment. 

"M-mother... How am I a monster? It was you who locked me in here." I replied as I got out of my bed.

"I thought that it was for your own good..." She paused for a moment. "...But I never thought that you'd become a disgusting creature."

Enraged, I got the bowl of hot soup and threw it at her face. "HOW DARE YOU CALL YOUR OWN DAUGHTER A DISGUSTING CREATURE!" 

"Why you-!" She slapped my face and looked at me straight in the eye. "Look at yourself! Is this beautiful to you?" She then dragged me to my mirror and there, I saw a rather scary person. She was almost skin and bones and she was the most frail person that I've ever seen.

"Is it, Chaeri?!" My mom yelled.

I tried to let go of my mother's tight grip but just couldn't. "No... This can't be..."

"This is you, Chaeri." She pointed at the horrifying girl in the mirror. "THIS IS WHAT YOU'VE BECOME!"

I shook my head with a terrified face. "NO, THIS ISN'T ME!" I pushed my mother out of the room and slammed the door at her face. 

I then curled up into a ball, scrunching my hair while rocking back and forth. "No... I'm not that girl...."

".... I'm not."

Phew~! Another chapter, done! It's not as long as the other chapter, though. Thank you all for the comments and I'll most likely update with the third and last chapter tomorrow. :D

Thank you for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed it~!