Control was a fickle thing.
None of the girls had any upcoming schedules nor any practices to attend. To celebrate they decided to go out shopping together. Minju chose to stay home, feigning a migraine as she lay down in her bed under a pile of blankets. She stayed like that until they left, emerging as she heard the door of their dorm shut and their loud chattering fade away.
She shuffled her way to the couch, turning the tv on as she curled into the couch cushion. She aimlessly flicked through the channels, looking for something entertaining enough to pass the time. After what felt like hours of flicking she eventually found The Fault in Our Stars, a movie she had seen once before but in English so she barely understood a word.
She pulled a blanket over her body, falling deeper into her spot on the couch as she got into the movie. She occasionally checked her phone during the commercial breaks, getting a text from Sooyoung checking on her to make sure she was okay and asking if she needed anything. She responded that she was fine and thanked her for checking up on her before turning her phone off and getting back to her movie.
Eventually, she was interrupted by the loud growling of her stomach. Her last meal was about noon yesterday and it was a bowl of yogurt with some granola. She was good about getting out of dinner, saying she was too tired and she would eat later but never would. The other girls never questioned it, choosing to believe her and letting her rest.
Her stomach growled again, this time louder than the last. She decided it was time to get something to eat, at least something small. She pushed herself up from her spot on the couch, slowly making her way into the kitchen, and began rummaging through the cabinets, checking the labels, looking for something that would be able to satisfy the hunger pains that gripped her stomach.
Her eyes eventually fell upon an unopened pack of cookies. They weren't even supposed to have them in the house for they were supposed to be dieting. Minju couldn't remember the last time she had a cookie, her meals always consisted of either fruit, a bowl of yogurt, or some variation of chicken with a small portion of rice with vegetables. She never allowed herself to have sweets, fearing they would instantly make her gain fat.
However, she felt strangely empty. It felt as if her hand was moving on its own, grabbed the cookie packet, and ripped it open. The smell hit her and a growl rampaged through her stomach again. Without a thought she popped one of the cookies into her mouth, the taste of the chocolate spreading throughout her mouth. She swallowed and she quickly ate another one without thinking until the packet was empty.
She was still hungry.
She found an open bag of cereal and quickly began grabbing handfuls and shoving them into her mouth. When she finished that she set the empty bag aside and moved onto the half-empty open bag of candy they had in the cabinet as well. She unwrapped each one, casting the wrapper aside as she popped the candy in her mouth.
It wasn't until Minju had eaten multiple slices of bread, handfuls of a bag of chips, plus whatever they had in the refrigerator and she returned to her place on the couch that she realized what she did. She felt so gross and full that she wanted to cry. The food sat in her stomach like a boulder, and her stomach was uncomfortably bloated from the amount of food she selfishly inhaled.
Without a second thought, she made her way straight to the bathroom. The girls wouldn't be back for a little while anyway so nobody was going to stop her. She pulled her hair back and wasted no time in leaning over the toilet bowl, shoving two fingers as far back in her throat as she could. Her body lurched forward as she gagged, but kept trying until she was able to throw up whatever she had eaten.
Again.
She kept going until nothing was coming up but maybe some stomach acid. She flushed the toilet before eventually laying down on the cool bathroom tile. Now she did have a migraine. Minju laid on the bathroom floor for a bit longer before she eventually knew she had to get up. She swished some mouthwash around, trying to get rid of the horrible throw-up taste that lingered in her mouth.
Minju slowly made her way back into the living room, looking at the tv she had long forgotten. It was now playing some American show she didn't recognize. She didn't dare look into the kitchen yet, fearing the horrible mess she made and would eventually have to clean up. After all, she didn't want the girls to know about what had just happened.
After putting it off for as long as possible, Minju went to work cleaning the kitchen. She threw away all the trash that she had left littered everywhere and wiped the counters down to get rid of all the crumbs. She grabbed the broom from the closet, sweeping everything off the floor and discarding it in the trash. Finally, she washed the dishes she had dirtied, setting them on a dishtowel on the counter so they could dry.
When she was finally done she was soon confronted with the absolute killer headache she brought on. She shuffled to the bathroom, looking through the cabinet until she found the bottle of headache medicine one of the staff had bought for them a week or so ago, and quickly poured two into her hand. She made her way back to the kitchen, this time for a bottle of water, and used it to wash the bitter pills down.
Minju finally made it back to the couch where she started, turning the tv and the lights off to try and ease her headache away. She laid down, and it wasn't long before she fell asleep, a blanket pulled up to her face as she hugged the little throw pillow that Joohyun had bought on a whim at a store they visited after a performance.
She woke up a couple of hours later, her headache long gone but her mouth about as dry as the desert. As she chugged the now warm bottle of water she was aware that the girls had returned home as she heard some soft chattering coming from the other room and there were shopping bags on the ground. Minju got up, pulling the blanket over her shoulders, hobbling around until she found where the others were. Their eyes lit up as they saw her come in and immediately began spilling all about the day they had and what all they did, and Minju listened, just happy that they had fun and enjoyed their well-deserved day off.
