He stared at her from afar who's napping under the shade of the mango tree. Her silky raven hair was blown by the wind as if it kisses it. She looks so peaceful and he's contemplating to approach her and make her smile. He knew her. They're classmates yet she barely notices him. She seems didn't care about her surroundings. She has her own world and he knows that it was a world of ice. A cold world. 

She's so cold, emotionless and mellow that it ached him. He couldn't explain why he truly cares about her. Perhaps it's because her winter eyes strucked him at first sight. Or was it because he also felt that kind of isolation she's feeling. 

She has winter eyes that gives chills to his bones yet comforts his soul no matter how odd it feels. He saw her once, her eyes are far-away and it sparkles. Tear drops fell. It made his stomach churned and his heart felt like it was squeezed several times the moment he sees her in meltdown. He hid behind the trunk of the huge tree where it's several meters away from her whose sitting at open bleachers. He's afraid if she sees him because there's a possibility that she would avoid him. 

Why does she isolate herself from others? It is really painful if you kept your pain to yourself and you can't release it to anybody or anyone. You just drown yourself until it ends your breathing. 

He rushed to his locker and tossed his bag inside. He squinted his eyes to the pockets of his bag and rummaged something inside it. He snatched his post-it notes and teared a page. He wrote something on it. 

*Hey, winter-eyed girl, you did everything to survive. Just because you give up doesn't mean you give in to vulnerability again.*   

----

She's contemplating to end her life now when a small colored paper slipped from the pocket of her backpack. She was about to ignore it for she usually throw those papers before. She thinks those small post-it notes are trashes from her classmates who she assumes toyed her bag. Treating it like a garbage can. But it's not. It contains words. She read it with her swollen red eyes. 

Hey winter-eyed girl,

Ignore those thoughts. It will get you nowhere. Those thoughts will be endless if you let it stay inside your already mess-up mind. And it would destroy you. Think about yourself now. Don't waste your time thinking that you will live up to their expectations. You live your own life. No one rules your life. Only. You.

It cheers her up. A little bit. Her lips are quivering. Tears rolling down her cheeks and a smile is forming, struggling to spread from her delicate face. 

Someone truly cares. She didn't even know who writes it but the thought itself made her heart warmed. 

Everybody says she's almost perfect. She's an A-list student. She ace her exams but she was forcing herself to be perfect because her parents expected her to be. Her brother died who's in army, the person who stays and comfort by her side everytime she's weary and felt like the universe is conspiring against her. And when her brother died, her parents are not grieving. They accepted it as if they already know his fate. And it hurts a lot. Her parents were on the verge of divorcing. Her father would get home, drunk. Then he would hurt her. She stayed up late at night at school because she was terrified to get home. Her mother doesn't care unless she meet her expectations. No one cares until someone sends her letters. She don't know if she can survive this mess but she would hold on to those scraps of papers.

---

She walked to her locker and saw him who was about to drop a small paper to the small window of her locker. He was caught-off guard, eyes widened, beads of sweat trickled from his forehead. He was terrified he would disappoint her but all he could see from her face was a blank expression until her eyes are lightening up a bit. 

"Are you disappointed?" he asked carefully. 

"No. I am not expecting someone." she answered in monotonous tone. She smiled warmly that it made his heart jump a couple of times. "But thanks for the words. You saved me." 

She was gone when he realized that he wants to make her smile again. He would do everything to make her smile again. Trade everything just to make her smile again for it was all worth it.

---