Trouble had come to exasperate me in the form of a girl almost half my size. She had long hair that obscured her face as if it was something she wanted to hide, and eyes that were always curious, like a 5 year old kid. If she was half as annoying, she could even be considered cute.

From what I gathered from my loose-lipped sidekicks, we had just one class in common – Japanese class. Due to an unfortunate turn of events, I was better in Korean and she was better in English and we accelerated each in a subject we were meant to take together.

Which explained why I hardly saw her around; which explained why we hardly talked. In the rare occurance when we would cross paths while walking to another building for another class, piercing looks would be exchanged, each firm gaze begging to unlock the other's secrets.

She annoyed me endlessly. It troubled my heart that someone I couldn't, didn't trust was keeping a secret for me, though I was keeping hers too. We were in a mutualistic relationship where to cross my boundary was to question, and to question endangered my own answers.

But I was curious, so very curious. What kind of mental illness was she burdened with? What kind of affliction plagued her? Soft spoken, introverted – probably not something like an anger management problem.

*          *          *

Schizophrenia?

I pictured her in an art class, a blank canvas before her, palette laden with strange, diverse colours. She would dip her paintbrush gently into the viscous paint, roughly smearing fine, wet across the white. Schizophrenia shows up in art, and she was an artist, wouldn't it be obvious?

Strolling along the graffiti-covered walls of the art building, I finally found the art storage room at the end of a deserted corridor. The keys I charmed out of the school estate manager earlier were thrown carelessly in my bag, and as I rummaged through it, I furtively glanced sideways to check for another's presence.

The musty odor overwhelmed me as I entered the art storage room. The pieces were sorted according to name apparently, hence I travelled to the back of the room.

“S... Where's 'Seo'....? Ah!” conversing with myself in the dimly lit room. “Seo Jiyoung, Seo Joohyun... Seo Kaeun! Okay!”

I unwrapped the most recent canvas. It looked anything but schizophrenic – was it fanart? A stunningly lifelike boy who looked like Jack Frost in a navy and white plaid shirt, brittle snowflakes decorating the background and bits of snow on his shoulders. The colours were dull, but it felt like the artist had breathed life into the graphically vivid Jack Frost.

So... She's good at art and not schizophrenic. Noted.

*          *          *

Bipolar disorder?

From the babble of my student council underlings, I discovered a person of intermediate importance – a mutual acquaintance. A 3^rd year senior who transferred here in the middle of his second year, multi-talented, taking modules in both Art and Music. Lee Jaehwan. The popularity he amassed from crooning ballads in his sweet husky voice could rival mine.

I met him at the annual Christmas charity concert rehearsal that evening. He was singing in a four-piece ballad group, and I was performing a dance item. Despite being in grey denim jeans, a printed tee, and a nonchalantly-worn thin white jacket, female fans that had come from another school to watch the rehearsal were screaming excitedly about how attractive he was.

“Hey, Jaehwan-sunbae!” I called as he exited the stage. He turned to face me, a mild expression of surprise emerging on his face as he noticed me.

“Ohhhhh it's Han Sanghyuk! Mr President, how may I help you?”, he joked as he approached me.

Laughing nervously, I inquired, “Sunbae, this might be a little awkward... but I need to ask you something...” Ears perked up and there was a glint in his eyes as he eyed me curiously.

“Ken! Just call me Ken! What is it?”

“There's this girl called Kaeun in the art department...”

“Ahhh.... You should have told me sooner! Seo Kaeun? She's the cutest thing alive and she's a really good friend of mine, are you interested in her? You're in trouble! The line of suitors hoping for her attention to be bestowed on them could span the width of the Han River!”, Ken chuckled heartily.

I scratched my head and shifted stiffly. This wasn't the conversation I had in mind.

“Erm.. yeah... I just wanted to know if her mood changes a lot. You know, I need to be sensitive to her mood right? Otherwise I might get into her bad books.”

“You'll be fine! She only has one mood – melancholic and buried in deep thought. It's almost distressing to be her friend, but she's totally adorable so I'm okay with that~”

So... She's popular with guys, gloomy, and not bipolar. Noted.

*          *          *

My findings of the day turned out to be utterly worthless. Seo Kaeun was a perfectly normal girl who was talented at art, adorable, popular, moody, and not riddled with any severe mental ailment, I concluded.

She also had a strangely cute grown man as one of her most trusted confidants. That was weird.

I waited for her in the frosty courtyard between the art and administrative buildings. Kaeun appeared in an oversized brown sweater, and an ivory scarf and leggings, hauling a bag of paintbrushes and carrying too many art storage tubes to handle on her own. I impetuously jogged towards her and removed the tubes from her possession.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Helping this vertically challenged human being out. Are these all yours?”

I was answered with a hard smack on my forearm, as she responded cynically, “Yes. I draw a lot. Why are you helping me?”

“Hmm... I'm here to annoy the mental illness out of you. It's not schizophrenia, not bipolar disorder. Perhaps... anxiety?”, I speculated.

As we strolled towards the bus stop, hands full with art pieces and mouths full with witty retorts, flurries of snow showered us, contrary to the the little arrows of warmth and affection that prodded softly at my unwitting heart. We made conjectures about each other, and discussed trivial, foolish affairs, laughing at the ridiculosity of it all.

Author's Note:

*'sunbae' means 'senior' in korean

Might not be able to update tomorrow because my schedule's filled tomorrow >.<