Jaehyun looked at his sister and said, "Yes, she has a fear of balloons."

Baekhyun's lips pressed tight as if to hold back his laughter. Eunji stared at Baekhyun. "Do you think it's such a silly fear?" she asked. His response was a simple 'no' as he shook his head. She shifted her gaze to Jiyeon and told her, "The only way to overcome your fear is to expose yourself to balloons. Holding an uninflated balloon is a good start." She eyed the uninflated balloon on Jiyeon's palm.

Jaehyun put his arm around Jiyeon's shoulders and whispered in her ear, "Balloons are harmless. They're just rubbers. Fear will only chase you when you try to run away from your fear, but as you face your fear, it will run away from you."

Jaehyun is right. Balloons are harmless. They're just rubbers. Jiyeon repeatedly told herself until her hand stopped shaking. She inhaled deeply before she held the balloon with the index finger and thumb of her right hand and put it to her lips. She slowly blew it up, her eyes fixed on Baekhyun, who was smirking at her discomfort. The other fingers showed the increase in the round shape of the balloon as her first breath expanded it a little. The thought that it might pop and strike her face made her feel extremely anxious. 

Baekhyun unslung his backpack from his shoulders, set it on his lap and ped it. He started digging inside. His smirk grew into a wide grin as he pulled out a box of colorful push pins. He oppened the box and took one. He put the box back into his backpack, zipped it and placed it on the grass beside him. The balloon was half full when he pricked it with the pin. It burst, bruising her cheek and startling her so much that she shrieked. Her heart was racing like crazy, and for an instant she thought she would pass out.  

Baekhyun broke out laughing. In fact, he began to laugh so hard that he had tears in his eyes. Eunji looked peeved. Her eyebrows were furrowed.

Jaehyun cupped her face. "Does it hurt badly?" he asked in a worried but soothing voice, her cheek where the balloon had burst against it with his thumb. She made no response. Her hands were shaking. He took her shaking hands and held them in a firm grip. At the same time, he nodded his head slowly as if to say: "It's all right, it's all right."

Jiyeon remained still, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Her cheek hurt but not so bad. It felt like when her mother slapped her cheek. She took a deep breath, calming her racing heart. I'm still alive―it didn't kill me, didn't even knock me out. Relief and gratitude flowed through her. Once her hands stopped shaking, she removed them from Jaehyun's grip. "I'm still alive. It's true. Balloons popping couldn't kill me." She laughed, clapping her hands together.

Baekhyun stared at her, dumbfounded. "Why are you not mad at me?" he blurted out.

"I don't want to waste my energy," Jiyeon countered after the laughter tapered off. A smile graced Jaehyun's face, filled with glowing admiration while Baekhyun pursed his lips, displeasure plain on his face.

"Jae," Eunji called. Jaehyun shifted his gaze to her. "Let's race to blow up a balloon until it pops," she added as she handed him a yellow balloon, which he took it enthusiastically.

"It has been a long time since we last played the balloon-bursting game." Jaehyun stretched the balloon once lengthwise and once crosswise.

"That sounds fun. I join. Give me one." Baekhyun held out his hand.

Eunji gave him a red balloon then looked at Jiyeon. "And how about you? Do you want to join our game?"

"No, I'm going to watch you guys," Jiyeon replied as she shifted slightly away from them.

Eunji nodded in understanding, took a green balloon and put the rest of balloons on the grass. "Let's count to three and start the race," she announced.

On the count of three, they put the flimsy rubbers to their lips and began to blow and blow and blow. Jiyeon's heart began to pound fast as she watched Jaehyun and his sister' balloons start to expand.  

"Fear is only in your mind. Don't let fear control you. You proved yourself a balloon popping couldn't kill you," Jiyeon muttered under her breath as she found herself looking away and covering her ears with her hands.

With a deep breath, Jiyeon mustered the courage to look back at them. She realized that Baekhyun couldn't blow up a ballon. She could hear the noises he made and his puffing cheeks turned almost as red as the strip of rubber as he tired hard to blow air into it. His red balloon looked just like a thin skin while Eunji's balloon was about the size of a large cantaloupe, bigger than Jaehyun's. She winced in anticipation of a balloon popping. Instinctively, her eyes slammed shut and her shoulders hunched protectively when Eunji's balloon burst with a loud bang, followed by her shout 'that was awesome!'

At the same time, Baekhyun screamed, "Oh !" He threw his uninflated balloon at Eunji. She managed to catch it.  

"You don't know how to blow up a balloon, do you?" Eunji remarked, waving his uninflated balloon.

"Well, I can't blow up balloons. The air sticks in my cheeks until it hurts, and I seem to be unable to force it into the balloon—" Baekhyun held the push pin up. "I like popping balloons. It's very pleasurable to me." He smiled as he looked at Jaehyun, who was still blowing air into his balloon.

"Don't you dare to pop his balloon," Eunji warned, throwing his uninflated balloon back at him.

Jaehyun seemed relaxed. His eyes smiled at Jiyeon above the expanding rubber. When it was nearly full, he removed the rubber strip from his mouth and pinching his fingers at the opening to hold the air in, he tied a knot. He moved closer to her and handed her his inflated balloon. "Try to squeeze it and pop it deliberately with a pin," he prompted.

Jiyeon in deep breaths, trying to calm her heart beat before she held the balloon. Now she felt a little more comfortable holding it.

Jaehyun switched his gaze to Baekhyun. "Can you lend her your pin?" he asked.

"No!" Baekhyun snapped. Eunji shook her head and then just started at him in utter disbelief.

"Where are you going?" Jiyeon asked as Jaehyun got to his feet.

"I'm going to take a pin—"

"No need. I will squeeze this balloon until it pops."

"Are you sure?"

Jiyeon glanced up at him. "Yes, I can do it," she answered confidently. Jaehyun nodded and sat back down.

"It's just rubber and air. It won't kill you. You're the one who is going to destroy it," Jiyeon muttered inwardly, mustering up all her courage. All eyes were on her as she squeezed it lightly for a while. It was nerve-wracking. Her heart was beating fast. Enough is enough. I don't want to be a slave to my fear anymore! She clenched her teeth as she squeezed it as hard as she could until it popped. She blinked, her heart beating faster. Eunji and Baekhyun burst out laughing while Jaehyun smiled, rubbing his chest.

Immediately, a great wave of relief swept through her, and Jiyeon started to laugh. She spontaneously stood on her knees and hugged Jaehyun. "I could finally pop the balloon myself!" she exclaimed delightfully. "I've beaten my fear of a balloon popping."

"Congrats for beating your fear," Jaehyun said gently as he caressed the back of her head.

His caress sent warm shivers through her body. She closed her eyes, enjoying it. Baekhyun's fake coughs filled the air, ruining her blissful moment. Jiyeon pulled away and sat back down.

A serious expression blanketed his face. "Eunji, you seem to approve of her. I suggest that you think twice," Baekhyun said gravely.

Eunji clucked her tongue, shaking her head. "Why should I think twice?" she retorted, holding his gaze.

"Ignore him, sis. Don't waste your energy on him," Jaehyun said. "He's clearly jealous."

Baekhyun let out a short laugh then shot him a sharp look. "So Jung ing Jaehyun, I'm jealous? Jealous of what? Of you dating the youngest ing teacher in this city?" His voice sounded upset.

Jaehyun's gaze was as sharp as his. "You already have the answer to your own question," he countered sternly.

"Listen, ing boy. I have no interest in that youngest ing teacher. Even if there were only one woman in this world, I would never date her—"

"Good then," Jiyeon butted in. "I'd said the exact same thing before, do you forget, Mr. Playboy?"

Baekhyun jerked his gaze to her and curled his lips back, revealing his clenched teeth. Holding up the uninflated balloon, he threatened through clenched teeth, pronouncing every syllable as if to make sure she would not mistake one word he uttered, "I will blow it up and pop it right in your face."

What a silly threat! A small laugh escaped her lips. Jiyeon gave him a challenging look that put a defiant spark in her gaze. "Go ahead, just do it right now." Her voice took a sharp tone. "I'm going to laugh my off at you. I know you cannot blow up a balloon."

Jiyeon watched as his nostrils flared and his eyes bulged. After stretching the balloon's neck several times, Baekhyun put it up to his lips and began to inflate it. His cheeks puffed out, and he got red in the face as he tried to force air into it. He managed only to get a small bubble. Jiyeon, Jaehyun and his sister laughed their asses off. He looked so angry. He blew harder and harder, which caused the balloon to fly out of his mouth. Their laughter grew even louder.

His chest rose and fell with hard breathing. His hands balled into fists. "Shut the up!" Baekhyun spat, his voice seething with anger.

Their laughter ceased. Eunji cleared , and her expression turned serious. "How did you know each other?" she asked, looking alternately at Baekhyun and then Jiyeon.

Jiyeon opened to speak, but Baekhyun beat her to it. "My aunt introduced her to me. They teach at the same school—" He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Eunji, this is one of the reasons why you should think twice. You better listen carefully." He fiddled with the screen and played their recorded conversation.

They lapsed into silence as they listened. Jiyeon couldn't believe that he would use their recorded conversation against her. Eunji pressed her lips together as if trying hard not to laugh at her remark 'I'm not a man; I'm a woman.' When the recorded ended, Baekhyun stuffed his phone back into his pocket while Eunji stared at her intensely.

"Sis, your friend feels attacked," Jaehyun said as he took Jiyeon's hand and caressed the back of it with his thumb. "Jiyeon didn't bash his field. She did the right thing by questioning his field and psychiatry. Psychiatry's never proved people with the 'schizophrenia' label have brain diseases. That's a fact. True believers in the notion people with the 'schizophrenia' label are 'brain diseased' and have 'bad genes' are just as bigoted as the people who believed in scientific racism. Psychiatry and medical healthcare are both to be questioned and overcome. Today's healthcare modality holds people hostage to drugs and tormenting procedures and lies, and on the other hand society has been given what it demands. We must change our perception and take control of our own health."  

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at him. "You, ing boy—"

"Society's belief in psychiatry's 'future' proof that never comes, that is always 'around the corner' justifies 'schizophrenics' being put in chemical chains, which cause brain atrophy and other brain abnormalities," Jiyeon interjected, her voice taking on a sharp edge. "We should not overly trust authorities. If people didn't just blindly follow authority, there would be no wars and many other societal problems."

Baekhyun opened his mouth, but Jaehyun beat him to it. "Are you going to label her ODD?"

The lines of Baekhyun's face were taut with anger and frustration. He ruffled a hand through his hair and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down before he looked at Eunji. "Listen, let me tell you something. Park Jiyeon, the youngest ing teacher in this city, attacks people who are seriously ill by disbelieving in the existence of mental illnesses. She claims psych diagnoses are bogus, and psych medications are dangerous. She doesn't trust medical science. She also promotes something as dangerous as looking directly into the sun and encourages her students to be anti-authoritarian. She's an absolute danger. That's why you should think twice," Baekhyun spoke slowly and gently. He seemed to be searching for all the conviction he could muster to try and convince Eunji to disapprove of her.

"Bro, it's disgusting how you're accusing her of such a thing just because she doesn't believe in mental illness," Jaehyun remarked, shaking his head. Simultaneously, Jiyeon countered, trying to sound calm, "Mr. Byun, I don't dispute that there are people who have distressing experiences such as hearing voices; nobody disputes that people suffer from "major distress", but in no way are any of these behaviors truly an illness. The chemical imbalance theory is unproven. It's a myth, yet it is still being taught in colleges. If you could tell me the scientific evidence of this and a chemical imbalance test that people can take in order to find out which chemicals are imbalanced so it can be fixed then let me know now otherwise you're just blowing smoke out of your hole." 

"Actual brain scans show—"

"Why are you talking about brain scans again? Have you ever heard neuroplasticity and epigenetics? The organization of brain "circuitry" is constantly changing as a result of our experiences. Trauma, abuse and poor parental attachment have all been shown to cause physical changes in brain imaging. Stresses change the brain and when these stresses are addressed, the brain changes back again. Neuroplasticity and epigenetics directly undermine the "broken brain" model and are therefore conveniently ignored by the mainstream of psychiatric research," Jiyeon cut him off. "Mr. Byun, I keep reading about different types of depression, like "minor depression", "moderate depression" and "severe depression". My question is, how objective are these categories? And how does one assess which type of depression the client belongs to?"

"Those designations are completely arbitrary and subjective. They're based on scores on a depression questionnaire, which relies either on patient reports on subjective questions, or caregiver reports on the same subjective questions—" Eunji paused and let out a long, deep sigh. "I quit my master clinical psychology course a month ago."

"You quit?" Jaehyun asked, disbelief coloring his tone. Simultaneously, Baekhyun's voice rose with curiosity, "Why you quit?"

"I couldn't diagnose people with labels and see them take psychiatric drugs. You know in order for me to become a clinical psychologist, there were certain rules that I needed to follow. I needed to go to psychiatric hospitals, see the so called patients and perform MSE that is the mental status examination. What happens in an MSE is you talk to them, they will talk to you about what they have gone through, what they have faced in life," Eunji explained. "And I'm supposed to write it down in a checklist, see the symptoms and at the end I'm supposed to give them a categorization like mild depression, severe depression, anxiety disorder and basically everything that they have gone through it becomes a number. Depending on my categorization, they would get a label. They would be given drugs. They would be given electric shock. To me, it's wrong, and this should not be done—" She paused, looking up at the sky.

After a moment's silence, Eunji took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. She gave Baekhyun a sharp look as she continued, "Clinical psychology labels humans. These labels encourage them to think of themselves in a set way. I view psychology not as science rather as pseudoscience. Psychiatry is quackery, and the DSM is not a scientific document. Homouality was removed from it, not because of new scientific advances but because the annual conference was stormed by gay activists who used threats of violence to get their way. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how so many people can subscribe to all these DSM inventions. in' blows my mind. Then on top of that, peeps think meds work and don't even question the influence Big Pharma has on research. These pills only give you the illusion you are getting better but in fact they're only masking the problems, and the withdrawals are horrible. These withdrawal symptoms will be blamed as other underlying health conditions, blah blah blah."

"I admire that you recognized the harm these labels do to others and pharmaceutical drugs are harmful rather than beneficial. Herbert Shelton explains, 'All drugs are physiologically incompatible with the functions of the body.' So it is unsurprising that all drugs are recognized to produce 'side effects', but the degree of harm is invariably understated and mostly hidden," Jiyeon remarked. "In any case, a label such as "you have X disease"—substitute X with some fancy name, should never be given for "mental illness" because that would trigger nocebo effects. Nocebo effects lead to adverse outcomes." 

"Psychiatric labels have no benefit; they serve only to oppress, even dehumanize. But there are people who seem to be proud of their psychiatric labels. They will get angry if you tell them there are no chemical imbalances. It is all made up to justify the prescribing of drugs," Jaehyun chimed in. "It seems to me people who blame chemical imbalances are doing so just to shift the responsibility from themselves and their actions; they don't like the thought of happiness being within their control."

Eunji and Jiyeon exchanged smiles whereas Baekhyun and Jaehyun engaged in a ferocious staring contest.

"Jiyeon, I'm interested in hearing your voice-hearing experience," Eunji said softly.

Baekhyun jerked his gaze to Jiyeon. "Don't you dare mention him!" he shouted, pointing his finger towards her, his eyes burning in fiery anger.