At dinner, we all ate take out at their dorm. Everyone ate as if there was no tomorrow while I only picked at the food on my plate.

“Yah! Mel, why aren’t you eating?” Heechul asked while pointing at me with his chopsticks. I shrugged and stared at my plate.

“I’m just not that hungry…” I replied and Henry translated in Korean for me. It that I can only understand Korean but I couldn’t speak it.

“Eating disorders haunt you.” Kyuhyun said. I looked up at him and glared. Everyone else looked up and stared at us with wide eyes. Kyuhyun sat right across from me. If I only could fling my food at him…

“What does that mean?” Eunhyuk asked.

“She used to be anorexic. That explains why she’s so skinny and yet she doesn’t exercise.” He said. I slammed my chopsticks on the table and glared at him harder. He smirked at me and I just wanted to explode. “It’s only the truth.” He lightly chuckled and I stood up and excused myself from the table before putting on my converse and leaving the dorm. I walked around the city, looking for something to calm myself. I looked and saw a shower house. Maybe a nice sauna would calm me down. I shrugged and walked in. Since it was dark out, the lady just let me go in without paying. It felt nice to shower, even though this would be my second shower today. I ran my fingers through my long blonde hair. There was a figure walking in.

Great…

I noticed that the lady saw me and went to the shower right next to me.

Really? Right next to me?

From the corner of my eye, I could see that she was checking me out. It was awkward but it felt nice I guess? I let out a sigh and turned my head to face her.

“Can you please stop looking at my body…?” I said to her.

“Oh I’m sorry it’s just… I saw those scars on your waist and I wanted to ask about it…” She replied in English.

“Oh! You speak English!” I said in surprise.

“Yeah, I’m from California. I’m Stephanie, everyone calls me Tiffany though.” She said as she stuck her arm out. I was hesitant to shake it but I did.

“Mel…” I responded back. She smiled and I noticed how pretty her eye smile were so cute.

“So… those scars?” she asked slowly as she turned her head, probably trying not to look embarrassed.

“Oh, well uhm. I use to harm myself there and yeah…” I explained. She nodded.

“This may be stupid but, how do you handle hurting yourself like that? I mean I never went through that phase when I was your age but yeah…”

“I don’t really know. The physical pain eases the emotional pain…” I shrugged and Tiffany slowly grabbed her soap while looking sad.

“You shouldn’t do that to yourself. You have so much to live for. I don’t want you to be freaked out but after this, would you like to go to my dorm with me? We can talk about what happened that made you do this…” She talked in almost a whisper. I chuckled a bit and looked at my toes.

“I’d love to do that. I need someone to talk about this. I can’t tell my hyung about it or he’ll freak out.” I responded with a smile. She looked at me confusingly.

“Hyung?”

“Since we’re really close, I call him hyung.” I explained. She nodded and we both continued taking our showers while having short conversations. By the time we finished, I felt so close to her. I didn’t feel as much of a burden like I did before. We walked a bit to her dorm (maybe house?) while eating some food that we saw on the way. She was pretty cool. She told me all about herself and I told her about myself. Well some of the things about myself. We also had lots of laughs on the way there. I followed her as she walked up the stairs in the building and she unlocked her dorm door.

“Shh. Everyone might be sleeping…” she whispered as she put a finger to her lips.

“How many is everyone?” I whispered back. We silently tiptoed to what was her room and she closed the door tightly.

“Do you not know of Girls’ Generation?” she asked.

“I know of them. I just don’t know their names or what they look like. Or their music. The only song I know is Into The New World.” I told her. She smiled and sat on the bed. I sat down next to her.

“I’m a member of Girls’ Generation.” She said as she started laughing. I laughed with her because I realized how stupid I am.

“Sorry! I’m not really SM biased so I don’t know many people…” I admitted. She laughed more.

“What company do you favor the most?” She asked me.

“Hmm… I don’t really have a favorite company…” I exclaimed. She nodded her head from side to side.

“Then who’s your idol?”

“That’s easy! It’s BAP.” I said happily. She giggled a bit.

“Really? I never actually heard their music. Is it really that great?” She asked. I nodded and she reached over to her laptop, then she handed it to me. “I wanna hear it!” she said as she smiled brightly. I nodded and typed in some of their videos. We watched a couple and the whole time she was in awe.

“Whoa, they sound so badass!” She said while smiling at me. “Shall we visit them tomorrow?” She asked. I thought about it.

“If it’s okay with you…” I whispered. She squealed a bit.

“This is so exciting. You’re quite a cool person. How old are you?”

“Well here I guess I’m 19?”

“Really? When was your birthday?”

“Yesterday”

“Oh! You’re an early ’96 then! So you’re 20. Have you ever drank before?” She asked with a really excited expression. I shook my head and her jaw dropped. “For a late birthday present, I will take you to go drink with me. We will probably drink a lot!” she covered her face as she fell back and laughed harder.

Was she already drunk?

“Don’t you have a schedule?” I asked in a concern like voice.

“Nah, I have the week off since I worked so hard. By the way, will you tell me the reason why you harmed yourself?” She asked, becoming suddenly serious. I sighed, where do I even begin?

“Okay, I’ll start from the beginning?” She nodded and I nodded back