Dork.

second.

The point of peer first responders is to be comfortable and casual. But it's worse than a regular therapist, it feels more likely the peer first responder can go blabbering to their friends- and also it's even more embarrassing to confront someone of your own age that you don't know at all. But my mother wouldn't care about this of course lol.

Kevin Moon scribbles something on the clipboard, I fiddle with the safety pins on my skirt, but I can feel him glance up at me briefly. Making my palms sweat more so I slowly take a deep breath, trying not to have him notice. But my chattering knees give it away.

"A-are you cold?" Kevin speaks, standing up and grabbing a near blanket. I don't answer but he unfolds the blanket anyways, draping it across my knees from as far away as he can stand. This surprises me- usually boys at this school wouldn't purposely help a girl cover up from the uniform skirt. But I'm not letting my guard down. I made that mistake in the past already.

I can sense Kevin is slightly nervous as we'll because I haven't spoken to him this entire time but he sits back in his couch across from me.

"So, how are you today?" Kevin moon puts his hclipboard beside him, I glance at it and it's full of doodles. He's surprisingly socially awkward for a peer first responder.

I almost Tch, but I realize that might be sort of rude after he gave me a blanket.

"Fine I guess," I say quietly, not looking him in the eye. I know my voice is shaky and I slap myself in the inside for it.

"I see," Kevin says, definitely contemplating how to revive this dead conversation. "I'll introduce myself first then." He says. "I'm Kevin moon, as I said before, I'm a senior here at this school, I just transferred this year, and I like art!"

I glance up at him for a split second and he's still wearing a small smile, motioning for me to speak.

If I look at him in the eye my hands might start shaking as well so I focus on the table in front of me.

"I'm Sunhee, I've been at this hellhole of a school since freshman year, and I should be at home right now" I say, thinking about how it's after school and I'm wasting my time here.

"Ah, is it really that bad? I've only been here a month," Kevin laughs slightly.

I just nod. If you're me it's bad.

"Well, Sunhee, I know your mother requested you come here- but do you have anything you want to talk about?" Kevin asks.

"If I don't I can leave right?" I say.

"Well- technically you can leave whenever you want. But the session doesn't end until 5 pm" Kevin tells me.

I sigh. What am I going to do until 5?!

"Not in particular" I say to him.
"Alright then," Kevin says. Despite my un-cooperation, he doesn't sound defeated. Kevin stands up, walks over to the bookshelf, and pulls out a folder. He sits back down, still wearing his upturned lips.

"Geez how much did my mom tell you about me," I scoff, glancing at the thick folder.

"Oh!" Kevin laughs, realizing I'm referring to his taunting folder. He puts the folder on the table between us, opening it with "suspense".

I raise my eyebrows slightly, as it's not confidential information about my personal life in the folder. It's a stack of detailed designs, doodles, and drawings and packs of gel pens.

Kevin gets up from his seat, and my stomach churns a bit as he walks around the table to my side. He sits down on the couch I'm on, still with a foot of distance, but I flinch as instinct.

"Oh sorry! I didn't mean to scare you" Kevin says, he looks like he's about to reach his hand out to me, but retracts it wisely instead.

"It's okay" I say quietly.

Kevin clears his throat and passes me a colouring sheet, a complicated mandala, and a pack of pens.

"Let's just- hang out!" Kevin smiles at me. His smile is almost contagious. Almost.

I just nod, I guess this is better than talking. I start coloring slowly, silently, almost afraid to breathe at the fact that a boy is sitting on the same couch I am.

Kevin continues coloring as well, almost like he's in his own world, seemingly he doesn't mind the silence despite desperately trying to fill it earlier.

After a moment I muster up the courage to say, "is this how you treat your elementary school patients too?" I don't know why I said that. I just blurted it out. But it's true, coloring is for children.

Luckily Kevin just laughs, "coloring is for everyone! Besides, watch what you say, I drew these"

I look back at the coloring sheets in surprise and with a new found appreciation. I now connect the dots, his immediate reaction to social awkwardness was to draw on his clipboard, of course he's an artist. Duh.

"Surprised?" Kevin asks, glancing at me.

"A bit, I haven't witnessed a guy at this school openly admit to drawing" I say without looking at him.

"Really? How weird, well I'm admitting it now," Kevin says proudly. Ok, at this point I'll have to admit: I'm slightly impressed by him.

After another comfortable silence I ask, "So why do you to this?"

"Do what?" Kevin turns to me.
"Do, this," I motion to the room.

"Well, I've always been interested in psychology, maybe being a psychologist, and this is about the closest you can get for experience in high school," Kevin explains.

"Ah. that's nice," I say quietly. At least somebody knows what they want to do with their life.

Surprisingly time flies as I finish coloring the drawing, and luckily Kevin senses I'm done. He scoots a tiny bit closer, very carefully, and motions for me to show him which I colored.

"Hey! You're really good! At least someone knows about color coordination" he grins at me. I make the mistake of sharing his eye contact, I'll admit he has cute eyes and a boxy smile, but I clear my throat and look away immediately.

Kevin glances at my legs shaking from under the blanket and he stands up, taking my coloring and putting everything back in the folder. He puts it back on the shelf and I glance at the clock. It's time to go!

I stand up as well, Kevin seems awkward as he doesn't know whether to shake my hand, or high five or what. I walk towards the exit slowly, trying not to turn my backside to him.

"Well, I-i um, I'll see you tomorrow, we can hang out again!" Kevin waves from across the room.

I nod, for some reason I glance up, and we share eye contact for longer than  I've had with anyone for years. Kevin had kind eyes, of course I'm not letting my guard down so easily. But- maybe he's not too bad?

Kevin POV.

I wave to her, and surprisingly Sunhee looks up at me. I've been waiting for her to honestly, she's very pretty, built delicately and short but has a cool and impressive exterior.

For a split second I am surprised, she holds so much pain in those large brown eyes, her facial expression rarely changes, but nobody can hide their eyes from revealing their secrets.

I continue staring as it seems like she's giving me permission by staring at me as well. She looks away so I do to, shaking out of the trance.

Sunhee leaves the room abruptly, closing the door silently beside her. I'm glad she came to see me, I hope I can help her. And I hope I can get to know her if she lets me.

Sunhee POV.

I shut the door silently behind me, leaving Kevin's mysterious kind brown eyes back in that room.

I guess I have to go here after school now. I sigh, I prefer to just be alone in my bedroom after an exhausting day at school. But a weird tiny part of me is intrigued to see how Kevin Moon is. Is he as real and kind as he shows me? But more importantly, will he be able to break my exterior?