Joanna Kim's short fiction has appeared in Solstice Magazine. She is the recipient of the 2018 Anita Shreve Emerging Writer Fellowship from GrubStreet. She lives in Boston, MA, with her first drafts and her two guinea pigs, Flower and Nutmeg.
Joanna Kim
NOVEMBER FICTION: SO PRETTY BY JOANNA KIM
Joanna Kim - November 2, 2020
"Your mother catches you. Calls you yeppuh, beautiful, which startles you, and then she remarks that ramen will give you fat hips."
First is strawberry milk. Your friend tells you it’ll grow your boobs. “It’s all the estrogen and shit,” she says, sipping on her third box. “You’ll have melons in a month.”
You’re both at a 7-Eleven after school. Late afternoon sun through the window warms the back of your neck, and you remember it’ll be summer, swimming pools and bikinis in Seoul soon, so you buy two boxes to start.
After a month, the milk only gives you a new cavity and an irrepressible sweet tooth.
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