It was annoying and it was upsetting, but overall it was just getting old. The short girl jokes because she was the shortest member of the group.

When she first released her solo, being the shortest was okay because she was fourteen at the time. But almost two years later and Yeojin hadn’t grown much, barely any change. The other members that were only a few years older towered over her. Even when they were fourteen they were significantly taller compared to her.

It wasn’t fair!

Yeojin always made sure to sleep early (as early as promotions allowed her to). Always drank milk before bed. She did stretching exercises to help her bones and muscles grow. 

Nothing! 

None of these things that were supposed to aid to her growth helped. The older members even about not eating her fruits and veggies and that’s why she lacked in height. She ate so many vegetables! More than all of them! How come everyone else could be picky with their food and they were still as tall as lamp posts!?

Just why did life have to be so cruel with her? What did she ever do to deserve this injustice? She was so busy drowning in her self-pity that she didn’t notice she was blocking the way leading to their front door. A very late Hyunjin did not appreciate being held back even more behind schedule.

“Hey Squirt, mind moving your little legs a little faster?”

Yeojin threw Hyunjin a glare. Was the name-calling really necessary? The tall girl didn’t even react to Yeojin’s discontent. They were leaving for early recording and they still had a full busy day coming, so they had to move it or lose it. Yeojin already had a feeling it would be another day filled with short jokes and dumb nicknames thrown her way.

“Roll call! Everybody quiet, please! We’re starting roll call!” Haseul tried to talk over the chatty group.

They didn’t completely cease all conversations but the volume did decrease significantly. Once the noise got to about a level one, a sleep-deprived Heejin did the honors of starting them off.

“One.”

“Woof Woof!”

“Three.”

And then silence.

They did attendance by each girl calling the number order in which they were revealed to the public for the first time. Naturally the order was Heejin, Hyunjin, Haseul, Yeojin, and so on. Yeojin was supposed to call her number but she hadn’t spoken.

Haseul looked around in confusion, not being able to locate the fourth member just by sight alone. “Four? Where’s the fourth girl? Yeojin!” 

“Here!” Yeojin shouted from the very back of the van.

She had been spacing out so she hadn’t even noticed they were doing attendance already. Yerim had to elbow her so she could get herself together. The youngest member could barely peek from behind the tall seat in front of her, so she was jumping in place waving her arms high up so their leader could see her. The only thing you could see if she wasn’t moving were the cute space buns on her head. 

Haseul smiled at the cute sight. “There’s my cute Mini-Me.”

Yeojin flinched at the name. 

“Okay let’s resume!” Haseul dismissed.

“Five.”

“Six.”

“Seven!”

Yeojin looked back out the window full of thought as the rest of the girls finished with attendance. She usually liked it when Haseul pointed out how similar they looked in terms of facial features, but for some reason today’s nickname hadn’t sat well with her. Mini-Me. Was that what other people saw her as too? A shorter version of Haseul?

The maknae didn’t realize it, but a strong pair of eyes was keeping watch on her the whole time. Usually after the girl said her last number, Yeojin would chime in conversation loud and excited. She eagerly waited for roll call to end so she could continue whatever it was she was talking about while making sure ALL the girls heard her.

Most of the girls didn’t notice since the van was already loud, but Hyejoo was good at observing people and had good memory for routines. The routine was that Yeojin was always the loudest member and never stopped talking, yet today that wasn’t the case. The second youngest made a mental note to keep an eye out for her today.

“Okay everyone. Good job!” The director’s voice boomed in the set wrapping up recording. 

All twelve girls bowed simultaneously and made their way off the stage to check on the screen monitors how the final take looked like. They had recorded three times total, this being their final take and the producers would get to chose which one looked best to air later tonight for today’s music show episode.

Naturally everyone wanted to be in the front so they could see themselves in detail, and easily because of this Yeojin got pushed to the very back. She tried to get on her tippy toes to see but it was no use with members like Sooyoung and Jinsol in front of her. They were the tallest ones, why couldn’t they stay at the back? She even jumped to try to see past their shoulders and nothing.

Jungeun, who happened to be next to her and happened to be one of the members who could actually see, snickered at her situation. She was only shorter by a few centimeters yet they made such a huge difference for everything.

“Can’t see the screen?” The blonde gave her a once over before addressing the others. “Guys, make way so Teeny can see!” She shouted.

Automatically they all parted like the Red Sea while laughing for the shortest member. Yeojin appreciated them moving out of the way, but did they have to make it so dramatic? Some even swiped their hands over her head to imply her lack of height. The youngest tried not to roll her eyes and instead focused on monitoring herself in their performance.

From behind her, Hyejoo was the only member that hadn’t joined the teasing.

“It’s nice of you to join us tonight! Please introduce yourselves!”

All twelve girls greeted in unison, “Hello, we are Loona!” 

The crowd behind them cheered animatedly in response.

“Wow! Here in the studio with us are the new Monster Rookies who are changing the Kpop scene, Loona! Welcome!”

The host introduced and some of them whooped in excitement. Once again, Yeojin ended up in the back by pure coincidence. She couldn’t see squat, and she didn’t feel like being on her tippy-toes for ten minutes straight. Pretty soon she resigned to her fate of not being able to see what's going on. Lord have mercy and hope they don’t call on her to do something she has no clue about because she can’t see.

“Please introduce yourselves one by one while you also show your significant animal to our viewers!”

Yeojin was pretty sure the camera recording them wasn’t even aware of them being twelve members and simply looked like there were eleven. Who thought it was a good idea for her to be at the back? Like she didn’t mind for the most part, but for official events, like really? When she let out a tired sigh, Jinsol next to her have her a pat on the head.

“Is our Little Baby tired?” The blonde whispered and shot her a gentle smile.

Yeojin didn’t feel like explaining herself so she nodded, the lack of rest not being at all the reason for her foul mood. Jinsol liked to give all the members the nickname of “Baby.” That was how she showed her love and affection for them. Chaewon was particularly the member she dotted on the most just because she liked to be called by that pet-name the most. Jinsol always called her “my Baby this” or “my Baby that.” However, why was it that when it came to her, Jinsol had to slip the “Little” in front of it? Little Baby. 

Was she the only one overthinking this? Yeojin again wasn’t paying attention from being lost in her mind, so Jinsol had to squeeze her hand to wordlessly signal it was her turn to introduce herself already. Yeojin blinked back surprised. Nine girls had introduced themselves and she didn’t even notice. The members in front then got out of her way as she reached out to the mic stand to talk. It was a lot higher for her compared to the others. It reached her forehead instead of .

Everyone, including the host, bursted into a fit of laugher from the stark difference. Yeojin was sure even the audience watching them from behind was laughing at her. She didn’t like the feeling of being the of the joke. She didn’t like how being shorter than the others somehow was something funny or a reason to always laugh at her. She tried to jump to talk but Heejin and Jungeun helped adjust the microphone for her.

“She’s the Shorty of the group,” Heejin added from behind.

Yeojin felt a sour taste in just thinking about that being the official role given to her. She introduced herself while thinking that out of all the things she knew she was good at and was slightly better at than other members, still, it was her lack of centimeters that stole the attention. It’s true that she stood out because everyone in the group was somewhat the same height except for her. Yeojin admitted she got noticed more for that, but it’s not like she wanted to.

At the end of her introduction, she crouched down to pose in representation of her animal being a frog, and just for those few seconds as she looked up, everyone looked so tall and intimidating from below. Her mind was playing tricks on her again that this was probably how short everyone viewed her. As Yeojin got back on her feet she could feel her blood run cold and she felt her head getting dizzy from getting up too fast. The youngest quickly wanted to be out of sight so she pushed her way back in line to hide behind the members.

“You’re so cute!” Came Yerim’s cheerful voice from the side opposite of Jinsol, failing to realize Yeojin’s shaken state. “Like a baby Munchkin.”

Yeojin felt like screaming.

Their day of going all over the city, racing to get from one place to another, finally came to an end. The only thing left on the schedule was late night practice. They had to go over a few small changes in their choreography they believed would make their live performance better. All twelve girls worked their butts off and after a couple hours it was time for a break.

“Smalls!” Chaewon skipped over to her. “It’s your turn to help me get drinks!”

Yeojin ignored the name she used and gave her a tight smile. “Sure.”

“Get me an iced coffee,” Sooyoung called after them from across the room, not bothering to stop with her stretching exercises.

“I want green tea!” Jinsol joined while on the floor.

Heejin was next. “Bring me cranberry juice.”

“Ew.” Hyunjin made a face. “That’s gross.”

“You’re gross!”

The first two Loona girls immediately began fighting over Heejin’s drink preference and Haseul took it upon her to stop them before it got physical. They always fought for the dumbest things. Sometimes, Yeojin thought Hyunjin liked to antagonize Heejin on purpose. It was rather fascinating how fast her mood would change when going against the taller girl.

“Anyone else?” Chaewon asked. “If not we’re just bringing mineral water. Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Yeojin looked around to see if anyone else wanted specific drinks.

“Could you please bring me a strawberry lemonade?”

The youngest member turned her head towards the owner of the voice. None other than Jiwoo, beaming at her brightly.

“You got it.” Yeojin wrote the drink down on a piece of paper so she wouldn’t forget.

“Thank you, Shortcake.” She came and ruffled her hair lovingly before skipping over to Sooyoung with a large grin.

Shortcake.

Out of all nicknames...

From across the room, Hyejoo had been  observing her the whole time and she had seen everything that just happened now. She seemed to finally understand the reason behind Yeojin’s odd behavior today. The thing was, why was Yeojin keeping quiet? If something was bothering her, why didn’t she say anything? Hyejoo hoped she wouldn’t keep things bottled up for too long.

“Do you want anything?” Chaewon locked eyes on the youngest member of her sub-unit.

Without missing a beat, Hyejoo answered. “Just a coke.”

Finally they were able to go home. Most of the girls were half-asleep before they even crossed the door. They did however still have to take off their makeup before bed, so the girls that were conscious enough ran for the bathroom to get it over with. Yeojin ended up being first but it was no use, she couldn’t even see her reflection in the bathroom mirror from it being too high.

The older members didn’t understand her predicament. “You’re like Thumbelina. Too small for everything around you.” Vivi cooed before she pinched her cheeks.

Now in the confinements of their own dorm Yeojin could finally explode. The little amount of patience she had left was close to running out.

“Who moved my stool!?” The youngest hollered. “I swear to God I’ll kill however did it!”

“I did.” A fearless Sooyoung made her presence known. “It’s in the laundry room. It was your turn to do laundry today and you forgot. Get moving, Little Lady.” With her hands on her hips she resembled a mother scolding her child.

It was unusual for Yeojin to throw tantrums. Even though she was the youngest she was very mature for her age. More often than not she was the one that was always looking out for the older members. But just this once she used the age card and got away with pushing everyone out of the way full of anger, steaming like a little teapot, and making a scene all the way to the washing machine. Everyone was at a loss of words at the reaction.

Yeojin stomped her feet, kicked whatever was in her way, and slammed doors to prove a point that life when you’re short. Sure enough, right in front of the washing machine was her kiddie stool, because she was too short to even reach inside of it. It was as if the pink step was taunting her and she couldn’t take it anymore. That was the last straw for her. Yeojin released a high pitched scream, the raw emotion coming from somewhere deep within her. 

When she was done, burned and she didn’t feel any better. She still felt as frustrated as she did a few moments ago, if not even more upset. Everyone was always talking about her being short like she was the only person in the world to be lacking in the height department. People came in all different shapes and sizes! Why couldn’t anyone understand that? Yeojin was actually saying this entire monologue out loud to what she thought was just herself.

When she turned around Hyejoo was right behind her, black laundry basket in hand waiting for her to finish her rant. Yeojin huffed and puffed but didn’t say anything. Not feeling embarrassed in the least bit about getting caught being such a brat. The second youngest didn’t speak either, Hyejoo only held her gaze. A few seconds passed before Yeojin moved out of the way without a word, and Hyejoo took the chance to walk up and put her clothes in the washing machine.

“Go get your basket. I’ll help you,” Hyejoo said without sparring her a glance.

Yeojin crossed her arms in defiance. “That’s not why I’m upset.”

“I know, but you still have to do laundry.” Hyejoo’s tone of voice was softer. “Go fix your load and then come back.”

She still wasn’t looking at her but Yeojin could tell there was something more behind her words than simply doing her chores. It was like she wanted to say something but she was holding back. With a stuffy feeling in her chest she walked out to get her dirty clothes. The older members didn’t dare approach her when she was in such a mood. They believed all she needed was space.

She was glad they weren’t talking to her. If they spoke to her one more time she was