Love is beautiful || Minwon

Chapter 6

Trigger warning: Eating disorder

"Oh, isn't this the big boy from secondary school?"

Shit, this is the voice that Mingyu knew too well. The voice that made him insecure about himself and his appearance as a whole. The voice that made him get goosebumps and shivering all over his body. It was the voice that unlock the deepest past that he buried for a long time.

You see he used to be that one new kid who have chubby face and huge body, that his mother love so much; yet somehow, they are the topic that the kids at the secondary school always bully him about. They would tease him, saying stuff that he won't be loved if he is not skinny, giving him names that made he came home crying to his mother every day.  

That time, Mingyu used to refuse to eat breakfast and dinner for almost a year, even with his mother begged him not to listen to what the other said for the sake of his health. He became the skinny boy that they wanted as so not to getting bullied but his health was tragically declined as well.

Mama Kim was shocked when she received a phone call from the school one day during her working hour, stating that Mingyu was fainting; his homeroom teacher informed her that Mingyu didn't eat his lunch today and since there were a lot of students that she needed to look to, she didn't notice that Mingyu dumped his lunch into the trash.

Later that night, after more convincing from Mama Kim to opened up, Mingyu revealed the reason why he didn't eat his foods which the elder did not miss to inform the homeroom teacher about it. The kids that bullied Mingyu at that time got a lot of scolding from both the teacher and their own parents as the teacher also inform them about their misbehavior.

Afterwards, Mingyu was still struggling with eating at normal time, his mother was patience with him throughout process of getting better, to eat without puking or suddenly lose appetite. At school, he did not make any friends at all until he entered high school where the dorky Seokmin and over friendly Soonyoung showed up.

From the trauma he got from a few years ago, he was afraid that his new friends would not accept him if he ate too much foods or look a little bit fat, so he limited himself to a certain meal. Seokmin, as dorky as he was, still caught on to Mingyu abnormal behavior to which he assured that the younger can eat as much foods as he wanted. Soonyoung showed him that he could even eat three burgers at a time for further affirmation. This made Mingyu really grateful toward them both since then.

"Yah, you are Kim Mingyu, aren't you? Now that you become skinny and handsome, you forgot about us?"

There were about four guys walking up to him with that sly smirk displayed on their face. Mingyu, although he was shivering from those guys voice, put on his most confident facial expression that he could master.

"What do you want, Jinseok?

"Nothing. Just want to greet my old friend. Cannot?"

At this time, his buried memories come flash back to his mind like they were happened yesterday. The feeling of insecurity, his struggling of keeping in shape floated to the surface to which he almost cannot control his emotion.

"Listen, Jinseok. I don't want to get involved with you. So can we just go on our own way?"

"Alright, Alright. See you next time, chubby boy." Jinseok patted his shoulder and walked off to the other side of the road.

~

It was almost ten at night, mama Kim noticed something out of ordinary when she didn't find Mingyu at home when he was supposed to be nor a text of where would he be at this hour. She tried calling both Seokmin and Soonyoung about his whereabout whilst they both responded that he went home as soon as the class over.

Mama Kim was worried, as she didn't have any clue where Mingyu could be. She looked through her contact list and shambled across Yeonsu's number. Picture of Wonwoo appeared on her mind, maybe she could ask for his help. She bit her nails anxiously, waiting for her friend to pick up.

"Hey, Seowon" the other line responded

"Yeonsu-yah, my Mingyu isn't at home. he's usually here by now and he always told me first if he goes somewhere. I- "

"Seowon, calm down for me, okay? breathe in and out. Mingyu is fine. i'll bring Wonwoo with me to your house. We'll arrive in 5 minutes. Stay with me on the phone, yeah?"

"Okay" while Seowon calm herself down, she could hear Yeonsu at the other line uttering Wonwoo to change his clothes.

Arriving at Seowon's home. Yeonsu let herself in the house to find the other woman sitting on the couch, sobbing. She quickly went to embrace her friend into tight hug. In the meantime, Wonwoo was driving off to find the missing boy.

"Aish, this kid, where did he go?" Wonwoo murmured to himself while driving through the town. He has been driving for 15 minutes around the university where he dropped Mingyu off this morning but there is no sign of the younger anywhere.

He come to the red light, while waiting for it to become green, he caught a sight of a silhouette of the man he was looking for at the park, sitting on the swing. He immediately found a spot to park his car and walked to the said figure.

"Mingyu," the older called.

The younger one slowly looked up, "oh, hyung. What are you doing here?"

Wonwoo instantly caught on the worn-out tone from the younger. Nonetheless, he took out his phone and texted his mom that he had found Mingyu by the park.

"Mingyu, what's wrong? why aren't you going home?"

"I'm sorry, hyung. I lost track of time."

"Come on, kid. I'll bring you home."

-------------

To those who struggling with eating, you are not alone. We will go through this together. 🙌

Happy Halloween everyone 🎃