Times goes by fast when you are having fun. That was exactly the case for Nari and friends who without realising were now third year students and thus a whole new set of mischief and adventures awaited them as they were one step closure towards the responsibilities of adulthood.

Having experienced the freedom that came along with short hair, Nari refused to let her hair grow out again. Whenever Seulgi visited she would trim Nari’s hair using a pair of scissors specifically for cutting hair Taeyong had bought — which for obvious reason was stored at the boys’ flat rather than Nari’s.

With a new academic year in sight, Nari braced herself for what was to come. To Johnny’s delight, Nari had continued taking psychology modules because she found them fascinating and actually did help bring out more to her sculpting. This meant that by default, Jaehyun and Taeyong spent more time together since they were in the same major while Nari and Johnny were often found walking together from the psychology building to the art building and vice versa.

Tapping his pen against his notebook, Johnny glanced around him, taking in the countless psychology students who looked like they were already running low on stamina and fuel despite classes having just started. Dropping his chin to the desk, Johnny tilted his head to spy on his neighbour and found Nari on her lower lip as she glared at the image of a spirit possession ritual in the textbook. The lecture today was about varying cultures’ approach to illness of the mind and how spiritualism came into play. Nari’s mouth then started moving while her hand guided a pencil across her sketchbook. Feeling curious, Johnny leaned closer and his eyes doubled in size at the immense speed Nari was filling up the previously blank page. 

Starting with the silhouette of a lone figure at the bottom right corner of the page, Nari added intricate and twisted designs around the figure. It was hard to discern whether those patterns were being emitted by the figure or the figure was being trapped and weighed down by the patterns. As the designs increased in volume, Johnny had to rub his eyes because he noticed that depending on the angle he was tilting his head, the seemingly random patterns came together to form different designs and objects. Even as a layman in anything art related, Johnny was aware that Nari was masterfully playing around with perspective, and to make matters more impressive, Johnny felt as though Nari had managed to capture the view of the world from the viewpoint of a patient being possessed by spirits — or in medical terms as having psychosis or some sort of schizophrenia.

Letting out a low whistle, Johnny mentally clapped his hands, impressed by Nari’s ability to take inspiration from anything and everything, letting it flow out of her hands and into whatever medium she was using to express herself so naturally. Johnny was so immersed in the ever growing world unfolding on the paper in front of him that he failed to notice class had ended. It was only when Nari closed her sketchbook — locking Johnny out of the drawing — that the male became aware of his surroundings again.

Nari remained oblivious of the effect her mindless doodling had on Johnny and instead just jutted towards the door, eager to get out of the stuffy lecture hall. Following after her, Johnny lightly slapped his cheeks to bring himself back to reality though his eyes never strayed from Nari. With each passing day, he simply became more fascinated with the girl.

Stepping out of the classroom, Nari’s eyes brightened up ever so subtly when she locked gazes with Taeyong who was casually leaning against the wall waiting.

“Lunch?” Taeyong asked despite knowing the answer whi