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My heart thumping loudly in my chest, I head to our practice room.

Chapter Seven

THE TWO OTHER GIRLS IN OUR GROUP TURN OUTto be Isabel Martinez, the girl who said she had lived in Korea, and Melinda, Henry’s ex. Since we only have this one official practice to select and practice our song for the elimination round, everyone starts working right away, each of us sitting against one of the four walls of the practice room.

Like everyone else is doing, I pull up music on my phone. I already know what song I’m going to do—it’s a song I know by heart and always wanted to perform if I got into a K-pop competition. But I could still use a refresher and need to figure out how to reinterpret it in my style.

I’m well into my fifth sing-along of Lee Hi’s “1, 2, 3, 4” when I notice Melinda hovering over me. This is the first time I’ve seen her up close, so it takes me a second to recover from just how flawless she is.

If Lana and Tiffany look like they could star in a K-pop music video, Melinda looks like she could be in a music videowith Taylor Swift. I think shewasin a music video with Taylor Swift, or was at least one of her backup singers. I still remember how her photos with Henry on Instagram looked like spreads from a fashion magazine.

“Um,” I say. “Can I help you?”

“Oh my gosh, ahnyeong,” Melinda says. “That is such a good song. And Lee Hi, what an inspiration, right?”

Trying really hard not to laugh at “oh my gosh, ahnyeong,” I say, “Yeah. She’s pretty amazing.”

“You especially must find her so inspiring. She was fat-shamed so much, but now look at her! She’s doing so well for herself! Pretty and thin, too!”

And just like that, Melinda’s put herself on my list of enemies.

“She wasn’t fat, but yeah, people did fat-shame her, which sucked,” I say, trying to keep my tone civil. “Being fat and pretty aren’t mutually exclusive traits, though. Fat people can be pretty, pretty people can be fat.”

Melinda stares blankly at me, like I’m speaking a foreign language.

“Okay,” she says slowly. “By the way, do you want to eat lunch together during our break? I brought some kimchi. It’ssogood for you.”

I can’t believe a white girl is telling me that kimchi is good for me. It’s really weird, since she knows I’m Korean. Why would she think it’s okay for her to explain to me about my own cultural food?

“Kimchi with what?” I ask, more out of morbid curiosity than anything.

“Pardon?” She blinks in confusion, and I don’t know whether to groan or laugh.

“You’re not supposed to eat kimchi by itself. If you do, it’s the same thing as eating ketchup by itself. You’re supposed to eat kimchi with rice.”

Melinda scrunches up her nose. “I don’t eat rice. I’m on a no-carb diet.”

I don’t know what to say after that, so I look around the room to find both Isabel and Lana staring at Melinda. Isabel has a look of horrified fascination on her face, while Lana has a hand over her mouth like she’s suppressing a laugh. They both shoot me a sympathetic look before we all get back to work.

Melinda, thankfully, returns to her spot soon afterward.

Well, I think.That’s one person I won’t feel bad about winning against.

Lana has some errands to run with Tiffany after practice, so I ask her to drop me off at Mom’s studio.

“See you in two weeks!” Lana says as I get out of her car.

“See you! Thanks for driving me!”

She blows me a kiss before speeding away, and I’m left alone to deal with Mom.

The logical part of me knows I really shouldn’t expect Mom to mention the boot camp at all, but at the same time, somepart of me hopes she’ll give me a chance to talk about it, even if it’s just with a simple “How was your day?”

But when I enter her studio, she only says, “Oh, you’re back.”

She doesn’t ask how my day was, and she doesn’t even ask where I’ve been. Without a second glance back at me, she rearranges some purple orchids in a vase on Sally’s desk.

“Where’s Sally?” I ask, since she’s nowhere to be seen.