How to save someone from themselves

The beginning

Minghao couldn't exactly pinpoint the time it all began, he guessed it just happened thanks to a string of events.

Maybe it was when he went home for the holidays and his mother squished his cheeks telling him how cute he was with his baby cheeks and how squishy they were. For that was the first day Minghao truly looked at himself and saw that he indeed had a lot of fat, but he had forgotten about it soon after.

Well, forgotten, not really, more like, trying to forget. Maybe the issue really began when he saw some comments talking about how thin Jeonghan, Jisoo and Wonwoo looked, how amazing their looks were with how slim they were. Minghao had then realised that he wanted to get praised too. Maybe that was the reason a lot of people forgot about him, because he didn't look as good as those three. That was probably the day Minghao started his habit of weighing himself every morning.

But to put a real start on events, he couldn't truly say. He hadn't really taken any action after those two events. For a start is one thing that sets everything in motion, which wasn't the case here, it was more the comments, his mother and friends calling him cute with his chubby cheeks, his insecurities and who knows what all packed together.

But he did remember how one day he had found an article talking online about the perfect beauty and how to accomplish it. Some time later that week he had found a hate comment about him, telling him how talentless he truly was and how the mere sight of him made them want to puke, that he truly was hideous. It was the comment that opened his eyes.

That evening while he was laying in bed he had thought back to the article "The first way to beauty is of course your body, no matter how good looking you are in the face departement, it is all for nothing if your body has too much fat on it". Minghao remembered that as the day he decided to stop eating snacks.

But after that, he truly couldn't say, all he knew is that one day around a week after he had started skipping all meals except breakfast and an apple between practice, after his morning weighing he had lost 5 kg (11lbs) and the feeling of euforia he had felt at the moment had been worth everything. After that, every time he lost weight, the happiness he felt was incomparable to anything he ever felt before. But all good things must come to an end, the moment he saw that his weight loss was slowing down, he felt like he had been slapped in the face.

He had tried to ignore it but the number kept appearing before his eyes every time he closed them. But that wasn't the only thing that kept appearing before his eyes. The comments about him being ugly, people calling him a pig, it was all branded behind his eyelids. So when one day he was looking through his social media and he saw the same account that opened his eyes, he clicked on it, wanting to see if he had improved for they were the only fan speaking the truth. When he saw one of their recent posts talking about how he seemed to have gained a lot of weight and looking even grosser, he unconsciously clicked on the like and follow buttons and closed his phone, the comment never leaving his thoughts.

So that was the day he had decided to stop eating in general, the sight of food, the sight he used to love so much, only sickened him now.