» Little Brown Seeds | #michaeng [on hold]

Chapter 3

"Myeong, I will seriously slap you if you keep doing this!" Jihyo threatens the woman sitting in front of her, whom uses her laptop screen as a meek excuse of a shield to hide herself from the yelling girl.

Mina glances across the room. There she is, the girl from the cafe, unaware of the noise, not even the presence of two girls at a far corner of the coffee shop.

"Slap me," Mina responds with a tiny wail.

Jihyo sighs heavily. Literally, that's all she can do as she tries putting up with her roommate's obsession these days. This whole thing annoys her, probably more than it annoys Chaeyoung. As an outsider, Jihyo fails to understand what Mina will gain from this.

She tries to kick some sense into the girl but if she has learnt one thing from the two years they have been living together is that, what Mina wants Mina gets and if that weird girl is what Mina wants at this moment, then no one will stop her from getting close to her.

"Don't you think this is weird?" Jihyo asks, for the thousandth time. She dives her spoon into the dessert and puts it in her mouth. Her question draws Mina's attention, her eyes that were focused on the blonde girl dreamily, now landing on Jihyo.

"Huh? No, it's not."

"I mean, anonymous messages on napkins? Isn't this creepy?"

"First of all she knows my name, my face and she even texted me. It's not like I'm a complete stranger," Mina continues justifying, "Second of all, I'm kind of crushing on her, I know this is such a high school thing to say, but I do. The thing is that I tried to approach her, she hesitated and the whole thing ended up being in a disaster."

"So you decided to approach her without physical interaction? Kinda smart, if you ask me."

"Smart? Why?" Mina asks curiously. 

Jihyo who raises an eyebrow.

"Look at her. Has she rested in her place for more than five seconds? No. She's always in this coffee shop at that exact time, sitting at that exact table in the same spot, ordering exactly the same drink. You probably noticed that she also tends to rock back and forth or scratching her skin repeatedly. And what happened when you two met?"

"She panicked. I thought that was because the music was too loud. Where is this going, Jihyo?" Mina has so many questions in her head.

"Autism, Mina," says Jihyo, very determined. "Her behavior shows evident symptoms. However, the autistic spectrum is wide, so I can't tell you if she belongs to the high functioning type or not. But if there's one thing I'm sure of is that at least she belongs."

Mina's breath hitches. All that new information hits her like a truck. Suddenly, she suddenly feels thirsty. And it's as if there's a huge lump stuck in her throat. She opens her mouth in attempt to speak but closes it. Opens, but the words won't come out so she closes it again.

Mina isn't stupid. Of course she has heard of autism.

But wait a minute.

"Just because she's just not behaving the way you want her to, she's automatically autistic?" She takes a defensive stand which makes Jihyo smirks.

"I'm just telling you, Myeong."

Mina looks down at her intertwined fingers for a short second, a slow sigh ensues. Jihyo's statement does sound legit, yet a part of Mina doesn't know if it's true, or to put it precisely, doesn't know if she's ready to accept that it's true. But one thing for sure, she should be extra careful from now on, otherwise it might lead to damage.

"Tell me more, Jihyo," she exclaims. All ears.

"Although I'm a medical student, mental disorders aren't exactly my field, but I know one or two things. The Autism Spectrum Disorder is, let's call it a group for mental disorders, that share the same symptoms. Your cutie likely belongs to that group. To me, she seems high functioning and if she is, then that means the symptoms are less severe, which I don't know if it's a good thing or not. She'll talk to you but with trouble, know that at the moment she is stressing herself out. She won't look you in the eye. She won't get your body language, even if she feels it but she won't understand your intentions."