“What can promote innocent mirth, and I may say virtue, more than a good riddle?” -- George Eliot

    “Hello.”

    Even as you mumbled a reply, the smile seemed to follow you around the room. You shivered. His attention was turned to someone else now, but for some reason the feeling that it left lingered, and not in a warm way. It was a smile of mystery, of shadow, a smile that spoke of knowledge and depth but revealed nothing at all.

    It was a smile that people avoided.

-----

    There was a new kid in the class, Dongwoo noted. Perhaps this would be the one that would be his friend?

    “You can sit in the back next to Shin Dongwoo”, the teacher suggested, and the student nodded and made his way into the back of the class. Dongwoo smiled to himself and ripped a small scrap of paper out of his notebook, beginning to cover it with his signature cramped, slanted handwriting.

    A box without hinges, key or lid.

    Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

    What am I?

    Satisfied, Dongwoo slid the paper over to the new kid, not once making eye contact. The new guy narrowed his eyes at the text, shooting Dongwoo a look that he saw out of the corner of his eye. Confusion. Distrust? He couldn’t be sure.

    Sure enough, the other student crumpled up the note, putting it in his desk without another glance. Dongwoo’s shoulders slumped downwards. What was he expecting? He should try meeting people like other did. Normally. Without trying to test them first. Without trying to find someone that was like him.

-----

    Dongwoo kept his eyes cast down for the rest of the day, trying to avoid the whispers that floated around him.

    He did it again, that weird guy. Giving weird riddles and stuff to people. What a freak. Does he think he’s better than all of us or something?

    Finally outside of the suffocating building, Dongwoo took a deep breath of air, calming his pounding heartbeat.

    It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,

Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.

It lies behind stars and under hills,

And empty holes it fills.

It comes first and follows after,

Ends life, kills laughter.

Darkness.