Chapter Three:

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Jinki’s POV

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“I can’t breathe –” Hyo-Eun gasped for air.  “I need some High-High.”

“The only ‘High-High’ you’re gonna get is up this mountain,” I rolled my eyes.  We had barely walked for 5 minutes.

“Can we at least take a break?”  She fell against a large tree, sweating.

“Come on, we only have 28 days left.  You have to push yourself.” I held out my hand for her.  She sighed, and reluctantly stood back up.  I gave her a reassuring smile.  “You can do this.”

No, no she can’t.  I miscalculated everything.  According to my calculations, if they were correct, she would have to lose 20 pounds each week, but so far she’s lost zero.  That’s right; zero.

“Really?  Do you think I’ll be able to walk up this whole mountain?”  Her eyes lit up.

“Yes, you can.  But I can’t.  So I’ll meet you there in about a few hours!”  I waved, and ran towards the line for cable cars.

“What?  No!  Jinki –”

“You have to lose 20 pounds by the end of this week.”  I turned and replied firmly.  She sighed again, and nodded.

“So I’ll see you there! Hwaiting!”  I yelled before running down the straight path.  Thank goodness I don’t have to climb that mountain.  Apparently climbing this mountain burns 1,000 calories, but it takes about 3 hours to climb…

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Hyo-Eun’s POV

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I made it.  I did it!  I reached the first checkpoint!

“Congratulations.  You have walked 1.0 meters.”  A flat voice spoke from a nearby loudspeaker.  It was obviously congratulating me – I mean, I’m the only one bothering to climb this thing!  I hurriedly grabbed the white bandana – proof of reaching each checkpoint – that was shot out from a nearby bush. Shoving it in my bag, I continued walking.

Is it just me or is each checkpoint getting farther away from the one before?  By the time I arrived at the red machine, I was literally dying.  Sweat was dripping down my face and back, and my hair was a tangled mess.  I waved my hand in front of the red sensor, but no sound came out.

“Is something wrong with this?”  I tapped the machine a few times.  It started lighting up, and then it dimmed again.  “What the heck?”  I kicked the bottom flap.

“Oops…”  The machine started making clicking sounds.  Just then, red bandanas began shooting out of a flowerbed full of red roses.  “Stop it!  I only need one!”  I swapped the bandanas away from my face.

“Please do not kick machines.  You have walked 150 meters.  Pick up all 37 bandanas, and deposit 36 in the black flap one by one.”

“Stupid machine.  Whatever.”  I carefully stepped over the red bed of bandanas, and spared one.  As soon as I stepped over, water began squirting at me from all directions.  “Gah!  Stop the water!  Stop!”  I screamed.  I ran to avoid the water, but the sprays followed.

“Find the tree with a blue button.”

I gritted my teeth and began to look for the tree.  After a few minutes of continuous running – partially because I wanted to avoid being sprayed as much as possible – I found a young maple tree with an electric blue button the size of an egg popping out from it.  Frantically, I slammed my fist against the button, and immediately, the water stopped showering me.  A freshly washed, warm towel fell on my wet hair. 

I yanked it off and roughly dried my face.  “Oh, Jinki.  You better watch out.”

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Jinki’s POV

Aish.  Where is this girl?  It’s already been 2 hours, and I’ve already drank three glasses of tofu shakes.  Yes, tofu shakes.  It’s the only thing they sell that seems edible here.  Seriously though, what kind of café has Maple Bark Bubble Tea, Ivy & Oak Leaves Panini, and Tangerine Zest Coffee as its lunch special?  What’s wrong with plain old fried chicken?

I took another sip of my tofu shake, and grimaced.  Milk and tofu do not go together.  Just then, someone took a seat in front of me.

“Sorry, but this seat is –” I stopped midsentence, and gaped.  “H-Hyo-Eun?”  I stifled a laugh.  She was soaking wet, and her hair looked like a haystack.

She glared, and threw a rainbow of bandanas at my face.  “Hiking here every day?  Hah, you’re funny.”

“You have to Hyo-Eun!  Take the advice of people who hiked here twice a day every day; they lost 40 pounds in a month just by doing that!  They didn’t even diet or exercise otherwise.”  I lied.

“You don’t even have any proof,” she scoffed.

“Yes I do!  This woman!”  I grabbed a skinny old lady by the elbow.  “Halmuni, it really is true that you lost 40 pounds in less than a month just by hiking up and down this mountain every day?”

“No, I–”

“Oh right, twice a day.  I’m sorry.”  I pleaded her with my eyes to play along.  She stared at me with an odd expression, but she did play along.

“What?  Oh, yes.  Yes, no diets.  Just hiking…”

“See!  I told you.”  I accused Hyo-Eun.  “Thank you so much, Halmuni.”  I smiled thankfully.

“Well…  Fine, but that’s 40 pounds.  I have to lose 80!”

“But you’re dieting and doing other exercises.  And besides, you’re young, and your metabolism is much faster.”  She began to consider what I said.  “I take it as a yes.  Now let’s go!  I’ll meet you down by the entrance!”  I waved and ran off again.

Phew.  All this running is going to make me lose weight…  Anyway, thank God Hyo-Eun believed me.  Hopefully she’ll be able to make my lie come true…

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Hyo-Eun’s POV

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It’s been 5 days.  I’ve been waking up at 6 in the morning to jog for an hour.  For breakfast, a cup of skim milk, a banana, and a cup of granola is all I have.  At 8 I start hiking the stupid mountain.  At 12 I have lunch, which is disgusting all the time.  It’s half of a sweet potato, a plate of salad with no dressing, and 5 oz of tofu – that is, if it’s a good day.  Then at 1, I climb the mountain.  I have to say, it’s not as bad as before, now that I’m used to it.  And then I go home and sleep.

Just kidding.  I wish that were it.

I get home at around 3, so I have a snack, if you can call it a snack.  I don’t really consider 5 cherry tomatoes and half a boiled egg a snack.  Or sometimes I have some of that disgusting yogurt.  Seriously, I wish it ended here.  I run the treadmill for half an hour, and then I jump rope for another hour continuously.  After that?  I have dinner…  Usually it’s 10 oz of steamed tofu, a plate of salad with no dressing, and the other half of the boiled egg.  I occasionally sneak a few baby carrots, though.

Oh, the things I would do if I could just sleep after dinner.  But no, I hike the darn mountain again.  What else do I do after that?  I jump rope again.  For another hour.

It’s about 9 when I’m done with all of that, but nope, I’m still not finished.  For the last 2 hours, I get to choose the exercise, and that’s that.  I’m forced to sleep at 11 – no TV, no internet…  That’s not the worst part, though.  The worst part is that I can’t have any junk food, and I have to watch Jinki eating fried chicken in front of me – every single day, for lunch and dinner.

Thank goodness my parents are away all the time though.  They’d freak out if they knew Jinki was over every day…

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It’s the 7^th day.  So far, I’ve lost 5 pounds.  Is that even possible?  How do I only lose 5 pounds after all that exercise and dieting?  I’ve been taking supplements, too, so it’s not the lack of fiber or anything…

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“Can’t we just resort to weight loss pills?” I pleaded Jinki for the millionth time.

“No, I told you, they’re anti-depressants!  You’re going to get depression if you take them!  I’m not kidding.  The last thing I want is for you to be depressed and suicidal.”  He replied firmly.

“But still, how else will I lose weight?”  I banged my head against the table.

“Just wait.  You will.”  His annoyed expression was replaced with one of certainty.  Sighing, I gave in.

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It’s the 15^th day.  I’ve been working harder than ever…  And I’m just about to step onto the scale.

I placed a foot on the stainless steel, but brought it back down.  “What if I didn’t lose any weight?”  I stalled.

“You did.”  He urged me.

“But really, I only lost 5 pounds last week.  What if I didn’t lose weight this week too?”  I questioned.

“Get on the scale, Hyo-Eun.”

“Maybe I’m just not cut out for diets or being skinny.  I think I should just –”

“Get. On. The. Scale! …please.”  He glared.

I took a deep breath, and hesitatingly stepped on.  I squeezed my eyes shut, afraid that the numbers would still be well above 150.

“Oh my goodness,” Jinki gasped.

Oh no.  Oh no.  Oh no.  I’m still the same fat beast, aren’t I?  I guess I really can’t be skinny…  I can’t believe all that exercise didn’t –

“Hyo-Eun!  Open your eyes!”  Jinki shook me.

“No,” I replied.  “I can’t believe all that work didn’t pay off.  I should really just give up, shouldn’t I?”

“Hyo-Eun!  No!  Look at the scale!”

He sounds… excited.

What?  No, he can’t be excited.  I haven’t lost any weight.  There’s no way he’d be excited because of that.

…or maybe, just maybe, I really did lose weight?

I opened one eye cautiously.  The last digit is 5…  I quickly covered the first two digits.

“Did I really lose weight?”

“Yes!  Now look at it!”  He uncovered the scale’s numbers.

1… 3… 5!?

“O-one thirty-five?”  I gaped.  “Is this really my weight?”  I gently glided my fingers along the numbers.

 “Yes, Hyo-Eun!  We did it!  You did it!”  He yelled.

“Whoa…”

And without thinking, without realizing, I hugged Jinki…

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