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The magazine with Hailee had been out, yet the girl refused to look at it due to the sickening feeling in her stomach she got.
She finally gave up avoiding it and grabbed the magazine and flipped through until something caught her off guard.
Her eyes, her tummy, her skin.
They had been changed. Enlarged, skimmed down, and paled. Photoshopped into an unfair beauty standard. She stared at the photo, her face turning red with anger.
Getting up from her couch she made her way to her room and opened her closet, searching for something at the least presentable.
In Hailee's terms sweatpants, a sweatshirt, one of Jaehyeon's flannels, a white sneakers.
She grabbed her lanyard and shut her apartment door, not before putting on a mask, and left storming down the streets practically fuming with rage.
By the time she got to SM, where the magazine had been cleared, she was practically stomping.
She reached the room and slammed openthe door, Hyeok and another man sitting down and talking. The man had a nametag that read Mr. Jung. They stopped talking and glanced at her.
She gripped the magazine in her hand before furiously flipping to the page and tossing it onto the desk, the magazine spinning to face him.
"What's up Ms. Choi," he said lazily, "what's this?"
"Your photos."
"Hailee," Hyeok said, "these are yours?"
"Not with how much work you've done to them," she ranged, "with that you can't even say it's purely me, you might as well call it fan art or a digital arts project!"
Hyeok glanced at the photos then back at her.
She didn't stop.
"Remove the magazine from the market," she continued, "get rid of the photoshop, and then put it back on."
"I won't be having this talk Ms. Choi," Mr. Jung said, "it's money and time, and the magazine will be a good seller, your face and this photo will be on ads across the city."
He got up, Hyeok watching the young model's face turn to one of boiling rage.
She stormed out of the room following Mr. Jung and grabbed his shirt sleeve.
"I will not have that photo on the market," she said, "it shows unrealistic body proportions and standards that are severely damaging to the youth's population."
"Whats so wrong about fixing your flaws," Mr. Jung sneered, "isn't that what you want?"
"No," she glowered, "it's not. I want to help change body standards, I want to help girl's embrace their bodies. I want to embrace my body and my appearance for what I was given, not change it for others."
"That won't be happening," he said, "you have to be at least skinny to be a success."
Hailee blew up at this ignoring the boy's coming down the hallway.
She raised her hand and next thing she knew, Mr. Jung's face was thrown to the side.
"That's the toxic masculinity speaking bastard," she seethed, "and hell if I have the 'eleven abs' of big eyes. Hell if my skin isn't pale or my legs long and thin. I don't care if I make a ton of money or success, I care if I help people view themselves better."
She felt a hand tugging at her shoulder, but she threw it off.
"Toxic Masculinity Ms. Choi," Mr. Jung said, his hand drifting to the large red mark on his cheek.
"Is fake."
As she was about to bite back, Hyeok restrained her, and another voice cut in.
"No, sir'," he said, "it's real, just you don't see it because you're absolutely disgusting, which is, may I say, toxic masculinity."
Hailee thrashed around in Hyeok's restraint, her now falling out bun hairs framing her glasses.
"Recall the photos sir," Hyeok said, "it'll be easier."
"But my profits-"
Haile opened her mouth to yell something back, but Hyeok stepped in.
"Will be fine," he said, "Hailee is already well known, a little tummy chub and normal sized eyes won't ruin your money."
With that Mr. Jung huffed and spun around, his hand gripping his cheek.
Hailee was let go and given a stern look from Hyeok.
"We'll talk about this tomorrow."
With that he turned around, leaving the girl by herself.
"That was quite-"
Hailee turned around and saw who had stepped in.
"Can we talk," he asked glancing down at her.
Hailee looked at Mark before nodding.
"Yeah."
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