True Beauty

Jugyeong Lim is bullied in middle school because of her appearance and learns makeup from online tutorials after deciding she cannot survive the same treatment again. With a new face and a transfer to Saebom High School, she becomes admired almost overnight and enters a True Beauty competition that makes her image even harder to protect. At school she tries to act like the confident girl everyone sees, while hiding her bare face, her old memories, and her love of horror comics. Suho Lee discovers her real face after meeting her outside school, but he does not expose her. His silence becomes the first reason Jugyeong can breathe around someone without performing. Seojun Han later enters her life through clashes and misunderstandings, and his connection to Suho brings an old wound between the two boys back into view.

Jugyeong’s new life depends on keeping two selves apart, but school, social media, family pressure, and the competition keep narrowing that space. Suho sees the person behind the makeup but struggles with grief and distance. Seojun acts rougher than he feels and becomes another person who sees more of Jugyeong than she planned. Rumors, jealousy, photos, and public judgment threaten to return her to the shame she tried to escape. Jugyeong keeps chasing acceptance through beauty at first, then slowly learns that hiding every flaw only gives other people control over her fear. Her relationships with Suho and Seojun force her to decide whether she wants to be chosen for the image she created or known as the girl who built that image to survive. The story follows her attempt to protect her secret, face the people who hurt her, and stop treating her bare face as proof that she is unworthy.