"I'M not very hungry, thank you..."

That was the last sentence she heard coming from her lover's mouth before he headed to her room, closing the door behind him.

She sighed and turned to her friends, who were now fully awake, and repeated the same question.

"Are you hungry?"

They all nodded like children who were given candy. She softly smiled and guided them to the storage room to pick their favorite food.

"Actually, before we eat. Mal, can we go for a walk? I need to talk to you about something." Chan requested, his face filled with worry.

"Of course, Chan! Anything you want," she turned to the other members, who were patiently waiting for permission to start eating, "you guys go ahead. We'll follow."

They all nodded, watching the pair walk away and disappear through the gigantic main door.

As soon as they were away from the house, Chan coughed to get his friend's attention.

"Anyway... I wanted to talk to you about Felix."

She let out a small questioning 'oh?' and guided her friend to the gates.

"So you know how we happened to yell at you before going back to Korea?"

She nodded while biting her lower lip.

"Felix took it all on himself as soon as we got out of the hospital. He began to think that he wasn't pretty, that he was overweight, and that he didn't deserve you and the hate comments proved him right."

Mal stood in her place for a moment, her voice stuck in her throat.

"He hadn't eaten anything ever since we got on the plane."

That caused her eyes to widen.

"But..."

"I know. I know. I know we promised to take care of each other, but... Felix pretends that everything is fine and when he's alone he breaks down..!" Chan teared up and gulped at the image of his friend crying himself to sleep, "I-I thought it was going to break him if we didn't come here. He was desperate to see you, and even when we got off the plane, and we were so tired that all we could do was eat and sleep, he still refused to eat anything."

Chan rubbed his temple in distress.

"I don't think he's taking his medicine either. He's losing a lot of weight, Mal, and it's really not good for his health. He needs to eat..."

He sighed heavily, "If he continues doing that, he might develop an eating disorder. We can't force him to eat if this happens."

A chill ran down Mal's spine. Tears threatened to spill down her face at the thought.

The last thing she wanted was for her boyfriend to suffer like that.

She continued to stare into nothing for a few seconds, unsure if she should say anything further. Nonetheless, she had no idea how to respond. She only knew that she wanted to be with her lover to comfort him.

"I... I don't know what to say. Of course I'll help him. But he needs your help too, Chan, okay? The other members too."

Chan sighed and nodded, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

"Hey... Are you still mad? About what happened in the US? I know what we did was terrible but-"

She interrupted his rambling by hugging waist as tightly as possible. He let out a small gasp before smiling, then hugging her torso in return.

"I'm not mad. I promise. I love you guys so much..."

Chan allowed his eyes to widen for a short minute before his face broke into a wide smile, eventually returning the hug.

"We love you too, Mal. Thanks for everything."

☂︎

Knocking on her own door, she grabbed the tray in her hand tighter and opened the door a few moments later.

Felix heard the knock, wiped his tears away quickly, then went back to lying on the bed, his back aching.

"Sunshine? Are you okay, baby?"

He turned to her direction, seeing her set the tray on the nightstand beside them.

"Y-Yes, baby, I'm fine. Why?"

She sighed and jumped on the bed, reaching to his side in a mere second.

"I love you so much."

He gulped at the words, "I love you more than anything."

She stretched her hand out and pulled him in a tight hug, making him weakly sit up straight in an attempt to return the hug.

"Come on, sunshine, eat something for me. I know how much you love roasted beef. I made Adam make some for you."

He almost teared up at the thought of eating.

He didn't want to gain weight.

He hated the idea of gaining weight that was going to make him worthless, even more than he was already.

But at the same time, the last thing he wanted was to make them worry about him.

Especially his beloved girlfriend.

Hesitation overwhelmed his insides, and he was stuck between eating the heavenly roasted beef his lover brought him, or starve himself until he got sent to the hospital. Both sounded equally appealing, in all truth.

He stretched his hand out to grab the fork, and cut a little bite of the roasted beef, his hand shaking with each movement.

His heart raced as his hand brought the food closer to his mouth, his mind racing with thoughts of hesitation.

He gulped at first, knowing that he needed to make a decision.

What should he do?

____________________