Monsters, Inc: One of our characters is responsible for letting a dangerous creature loose.
Choi Junhee, Juniel. A phantom. Present in the crowd, but also, ostensibly non-existing. If one was observant enough, she could be detected. Sadly, most are not like that. More often than not, this mystery of a girl was not noticed; a precious gem left undiscovered.
Jessica loved to interact with Juniel. Not because she was fond of her company, but because the petite freshman had proved to be a worthy experiment, a desirable challenge for the inner mind, her inner mind. The girl was an enigma; she never showed too much of herself. The sophomore was determined to find a chink in the freshman's seemingly fortified armor.
Today, Jessica found the girl whilst browsing for books in the library. She approached Juniel and looked at the cover of the book the freshman was holding. Interesting; it was a cover of a well-known mystery novel. At moment's notice, she began taking down mental notes.
"Junhee," began the blonde delicately, a request buried in her tone.
"Yes?" The freshman scanned the pages of the book before closing it, turning her head towards the somewhat hesitant sophomore. Jessica noticed the girl looked at her, but not her eyes.
"Can I ask you something?" She moved the littlest of inches forward.
"You already are." When most people responded in that way, sarcasm was apparent in their voice, accentuating their tone. It wasn't in Juniel's, the petite female sounded like she was just pointing it out.
"No, I mean, aside from that."
Juniel acquiesced. "Fine. Carry on, what is it."
"How come I never see you with people? I always catch you alone," The blonde was an avid photographer; she frequently took photographs of people at the campus, and she would catch the female alone, watching.
The freshman shrugged. "It just happened to be like that. Is that all?"
Jessica paused for a moment before opening her mouth to speak. "Junhee, let's draw."
"Anything." Jessica handed Juniel a piece of paper and a pencil. Within minutes, she watched several defined curves and exemplary shading unfolding before her.
"A pair of eyes?" The drawing looked familiar, and it bothered the blonde.
The female nodded in acknowledgment.
"Why are you asking me that," Juniel was beginning to catch on.
"You drew a pair of eyes."
"When one draws a pair of those, it symbolizes vigilance -- in rather severe cases, paranoia and being observant." Blankness spread across Juniel's features, and Jessica took it as mere recognition. Had she agreed?
"I draw whatever I please." Still no engaging response. Perhaps she could try again.
"Don't blame me, I get these kind of stuff shoved into my face daily." Her major dealt with the inner workings of one's psyche. Several stimuli triggered the greatest emotions, set off different reactions. It piqued the blonde sophomore's interest greatly.
The succeeding events would throw Jessica off, would render everything she did to make Juniel open up useless. Junhee held up a leather pouch and dangled it in front of her, swaying it. "Did this happen to be belonging to you?"
Jessica gritted her teeth. It was her recorder. She must've left the treasured article while she was at the quad doing reportage photography for her class. "Where did you find that," she huffed, angry.
"Oh. This? The quad." Her suspicions were correct. "Whoever was singing must've been good." The tables were turning against Jessica. The freshman had been listening to the recordings.
"Now can I ask you a question?" The blonde was appalled, but allowed her to continue. Juniel's eyes flickered to hers, and Jessica had at long last realized why she shouldn't have been looking for them. It held the promise of a storm. "Why do you surround yourself with people?"
Jessica was angry, not at Juniel, but at herself. Her carelessness had been the catalyst for the breaching of her innermost walls. It was her fault for leaving the horrid device behind. The freshman waved a hand in her face and stood up. "I'm going to go, I have something else to do. I bid you adieu. See you around."
What shocked Jessica in the next moments was not the fact that Juniel was just leaving like that, but she had finally found out why that drawing was so easily recognized by her mind. It would have been fine if it were Jessica's or the artist's eyes, but no; it was something worse. She felt a new sensation. Something different from nostalgia. It made her tempestuous, as if something grievous had been released from its cage. The drawing didn't make or break her -- it did both.
It was those eyes she had been searching for from the start.
