“You know, it’s so rare to find someone who looks washed out in every color she tries,” Mina says, glancing in my direction. “I almost didn’t see you there. You blend right into the wall.”

I catch one of Grace’s assistants smirking in my direction, eyebrows raised. My face burns, but I don’t back down. I can’t. Not when I know there isn’t anything Mina wouldn’t do to keep me from succeeding.

“Luckily, the people who matter do see me; otherwise they wouldn’t have decided you couldn’t handle singing with Jason on your own,” I say smoothly.

That earns me more than a few snickers from the room, and Mina’s mouth drops open in fury. But before she can snap back, Grace swoops in, pulling a tiered black fringe dress from the clothing racks.

“Let’s try this flapper-girl look,” she says. I step into the dress as she plonks a pearl-encrusted headpiece on top of my hair. She circles around me, tweaking the fringe and scratching her chin. “All right. I can see it. I can see it.” She snaps her fingers at one of the wardrobe fitters. “Mark this one down as a maybe. And let’s get Rachel to try on some shoes.”

Just then Heejin, one of our trainers, whisks into the room, iPad and a bottle of barley tea in hand.

“Rachel, Mina, get over here for your weigh-in,” she says briskly. “And quickly. I don’t have all day.”

The fitting team helps me out of my dress so I can get weighed in just my bra and underwear. I walk over to the scale, where Heejin is waiting for me, Mina following closely behind.

“After you, Princess Rachel,” Mina says with an overexaggerated arm flourish.

Ignoring her, I step onto the scale. Heejin squats down next to the calculating number, watching closely with her pen poised over her iPad.

The number pops up and I’m… twelve pounds heavier than last week?

What the hell!? That can’t be possible!

My jaw drops and I sputter, “I… this is… the scale must be broken.”

“What is happening here, Rachel?” Heejin says, whipping her head to look at me in disbelief. “You know I have to report a weight gain this huge to Mr. Noh! There’s no way you’ll be allowed to continue with the trio. What did you even do to gain twelve pounds in a week?!”

Mina snickers behind me, and I turn around just in time to see her lift her foot off the back of the scale. I narrow my eyes.

Mina. Of course she was stepping on the scale as I was being weighed to make me look even heavier. This is a new level of petty. My body feels ready to burst with rage. “Pretty pathetic attempt at sabotage, Mina. Seems like you’ve lost your nerve,” I say in a low voice.

“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean, Princess,” she replies, her voice sweet but her eyes glinting with hatred.

“All I have to do is tell Yujin what you did to me, and you’ll be kicked out of DB forever.”

Mina smiles indulgently. “You mean all you have to do is admit to Yujin that her perfect, perfectly behaved Princess Rachel went to a party at the trainee house and—gasp!—got drunk?”

“I didn’t ‘get drunk,’ Mina. You put something in my drink! You drugged me! You and the other trainees did it on purpose so I wouldn’t—”

“That’s a great story, Rachel,” Mina cuts in over me, “but I’d love to see you prove it.” She smirks at me for a moment, and when I don’t reply, she walks away.

I want to storm after her, but there’s no point. She’s right. I could never prove it, and even if I could, what good would it do me? I would have to admit that I was at a party and that I was drinking. I would lose my spot singing with Jason, and if that video ever came out, I would probably get kicked out of DB altogether.

Instead I turn back to Heejin with gritted teeth. “Please let me try one more time,” I ask. “There was obviously a mistake.”

Heejin sighs, irritated. “Hurry up, then.”

I step off the scale, pause for a second, and then weigh myself again, shooting a death glare behind me to make sure Mina isn’t joining me this time. The number that pops up on the screen is the same as last week. I breathe a sigh of relief, and Heejin nods, satisfied.

“Okay, Mina, your turn,” Heejin says, typing my weight into her iPad.

Mina steps onto the scale, sucking her breath in. A number pops up and her face falls.

Heejin purses her lips. “One pound over last week’s weight,” she says, her voice scathing. “Is this also a mistake, Mina?”

“I…” Mina looks down at her toes. “I’m sorry.”

“Tell me.” Heejin’s tone is low and scary. “Tell me everything you ate since the last weigh-in.”

Damn. A whole food interrogation. I would feel sorry for her if she weren’t Mina.

“I had a Greek salad, the smoothies you recommended, and…” Mina trails off. When she speaks again, her voice is small. “A pizza.”

“How many slices?”

“Three.”

I let out a low whistle as if to say, Wow. Three pizza slices. Mina glares at me from the corner of her eye, and I feel a split second of shame before remembering all the times Mina has tried to ruin my life—and that’s just over the past few weeks.

Heejin shakes her head. “No self-control,” she yells. “Absolutely none. If you don’t want to do this, just leave. Walk out right now. Do you want to quit? Huh? Do you? Because it seems like you already have.”

Mina looks down at the floor in shame. “No. I’m sorry. I don’t want to quit.” She bites her lip. “I’ll do better next week.”

“I certainly hope so. Otherwise I’ll have to tell your father that his daughter is getting too heavy to be a K-pop star,” Heejin says. “If you don’t want to disappoint him, I’d stop gorging on those pizzas.”

Mina’s face goes gray at the mention of her father. She’s always bragging about how he and Mr. Noh are such good friends, how her dad hosts parties and dinners for all the trainers and execs at DB, and how she knows them all so well, but she doesn’t look too happy about that connection right now.

Mina straightens up, rolling her shoulders back. “There’s no need to tell him anything. I won’t gain any more weight. I promise.”

Heejin grimaces, typing a quick note. Her eyes flick to Mina’s legs. “Also, if the dieting doesn’t work, we should consider plastic surgery for those daikon legs. All your weight goes straight to your calves.”

Damn. I should take lessons from Heejin on how to burn Mina. Heejin flips her iPad case closed and walks swiftly out of the room. Mina steps off the scale, and I smile brightly at her.

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” I say.

She scowls and pushes past my shoulder, storming away to grab her clothes.

* * *

By the afternoon I’m back in my favorite Adidas sweats for dance practice. Mina’s been ignoring me since the weigh-in, which honestly, is fine by me. If only we could figure out a way to get through these next few months without having to speak at all.…

As we walk down the hall, I hear a familiar singing voice. “Start again!” someone says. “You still don’t have enough control on the high notes.”