“Geez,” Ryujin comments, staring at the Japanese doctor’s patient. She looks lifeless (which Nayeon really is) while walking out of the interview room, with the nurse giving her a pat before giving her access to go sit with them in the activity area. “Out of all the patients Doctor Takeda had, Nayeon’s the sanest.”

“Yeah,” Chaeryeong nods in agreement as she sips her freshly made soy milk. “Manweol’s probably the worst patient she handles. Imagine trying to solve a Chronic Schizophrenic patient's mind. That sounds awful.”

“Give them a break,” Jennie hits the table with her left hand as she glares at the two manic bipolars. She sighs as she lowers her voice down. “Manweol’s just the same as us. She was depressed before going Schizophrenic. All of us in here have Mental Disorders—some, Personality Disorders, so stop with the bull.”

“Technically, you can say that,” Nayeon plops down on the bench just beside Jennie as Bogum gives her the ty meal. She proceeds after looking at her sloppy breakfast, deciding to only eat the side dish. “But Manweol only has a limited thinking and speech now. She used to be a brilliant student, always valedictorian every year, but when she went into college, things went worse for her. She was aiming as a Summa Laude, but she failed miserably because she got sick with anemia and insomnia. When rumor spreads around their neighborhood that she talks to herself, her dad locked her up in the basement for almost 20 years out of shame she gave him.”

The three patients looks disheartened by the story and Nayeon’s lack of sympathy in her face as she tells them. Chaeryeong breaks the silence and asks, “Does that mean she’ll never go back?”

Manweol seems to pick up her name because she went to their table. She speaks like a 2-year-old child, always stuttering and saying the same thing. Her hands never stopped moving, especially with scratching her sideburns. “Weol-ie? Weol-ie?”

They all turn their head at the familiar voice, looking at the woman struggling to express ‘plead’. She seems to be asking for food.

“That? That? Weol-ie? Weol-ie?”

“Sure, Weol-ie,” Nayeon beams at her as she takes her chicken. The 43-year-old woman was about to take her food without the younger girl’s permission but she immediately stops her, asking her a question first. “But Weol-ie, before I give this to you, what’s this that I’m holding?”

She scratches her head again before her lower area. She expresses a frustration in her eyes. “C-Chicken? Chicken? General?”

“Yes!” Nayeon takes the older woman’s hand to give her a congratulatory handshake before regretting that decision—Manweol always have this mannerism that disgusts everyone.

“Yikes,” Bogum laughs as he outwardly points the two patient's hand holding each other. “You need to wash your hand before eating that salad of yours.”

Right.

Manweol always (and by means of always, is in literal form of every minute) scratches her bottom, even arranging her pyjamas that’s eating her , before placing her hands on as if she just washed her face.

Naayeon dismisses her sensitive side and ignores the nurse aid purposely so that she wouldn’t throw up. She’ll wash her hands later, alright, but for the meantime, she’d rather celebrate Manweol’s little progress. She’s come in to terms that Manweol and Jisoo are her happy pills. That seems to faze all the people inside, but nevertheless, appreciate Nayeon’s love for them. They need more care than others, and Nayeon is willing to help them.

“Here you go,” Nayeon hands Manweol her supposed meal, a chicken’s , as the older girl takes it quickly before they all can even notice. It was barely even in her hands before she puts her face near the chicken as she eats it without even thinking about the bone. “Weol-ie, slow down!”

“I’ll take care of her,” Bogum reassures the younger girl with concern plastered in her face. He takes the chicken out of Manweol’s hand (even if it looks disgusting) and suddenly made a serious face. “What did we talk about eating?”

“S-Slowly.”

She’s still trying to reach the chicken in Bogum’s hand, but she’s giving people space than before (Yeri’s mom visited her with an apple pie for everyone but she smashes her face towards it and that was the incident, according to Jennie).  “Slowly, Weol-ie. Slowly. Yes?”

“That’s right!” Bogum praises her while she seems unbothered, only nodding her head repeatedly and leaning her ear at no one, presumably to the things she sees that no one can. He gives her her chicken back, guiding her to at least seat on the bench away from the others. “How’s the taste?”

“General? General? Oh, hmm. Napoleon is better than Hitler. Hmm? General?”

Nayeon went to wash her hands when she sees Manweol eating her chicken happily.

“She sounds like a great historian,” Jennie laughs to herself as she watches the woman.

Nayeon goes back to their conversation after washing her hands. “What was your question again, Chaeryeong?”

“Will Manweol ever go back?” the latter repeats herself as she leans on the wall that’s mere inch near the bench. “Just like Joy, taking it little by little with Yeri’s help?”

Nayeon hums for a moment.

“I think we will never go back to what we were before. We’re put here not to enable what we were before things started to fall apart, but to heal the wounds that’s abandoned by everyone except us.”

Even though Doctor Takeda simplified the answer as ‘no, she’ll no longer go back to what she was. This is by far the only progress she’ll ever get throughout her life’, it made her feel empty even by just looking at the woman who looks trap in her own despair. She just didn’t want to give them false hope nor a sad answer because from what her grandparents told her, ‘to feel sadness is painful’. Sharing sadness to others would only make it worse, hence, Nayeon, always suppressing her feeling. Maybe that's the reason why she doesn't understand herself and the people around her that hurt her before--she numbs herself before anyone so that they wouldn't feel the pain, even if t