Emily #freementalillness #literasia

t h i r t e e n

If someone asked Walter who Emily Kim was, he would simply use one word: happy. Because that's what she was.

When he first met her, she was a short, quiet girl who carried books everywhere. They sat next to each other in English, and he didn't know how to talk to her, so he bothered her instead. He would ask to borrow a pencil or a sheet of paper every single day, and it annoyed her to no end. Before long, Emily hissed at him to get his own damn paper and pencils, and Walter felt like he'd won the lottery. This was the first time she showed any emotion towards him. Annoyance, but he would have have to settle.

He grinned at her and said he'd find his own school supplies, but by then she'd turned her head down at some book, completely disregarding his words. That was Emily in a nutshell, though, he supposed. A bookworm through and through.

When he and his friends played basketball on the courts by the lunch benches, he'd catch glimpses of Emily reading on them. He'd purposely miss shots and try to get the ball to roll near her, just to have an excuse to go near her.

Of course, he flashed his signature grin every time. It may not have caught Emily's attention, but it certainly made an impression with the other girls in his grade. He was a charmer, as much as Emily was adamant to be an introvert.

Emily was happy then, even though it was hard to see. Her face lit up with a wide smile when talking to her friends, which had amassed abundantly at the end of sixth grade.

Even then, in seventh grade, the year of ultimate preteen awkwardness and puberty disasters, he could sense something was off about her, and it wasn't just hormones.

Maybe it was the way she rarely smiled, and if so, it never reached her eyes. A smile either came too easily, looking like a ghost expression, or too painfully, like it was physically difficult for her to act happy.

However, through a year of awkward hallway conversations and passed notes on used binder paper, they talked again.

"Hi." Walter stopped in front of Emily, smiling widely.

"Hey." Emily hesitantly smiled back.

"How's life?"

"Life is as life will be," she said cryptically.

"That is true."

"Are you ready to graduate? Oh, wait, I'm sorry, 'get promoted' because moving from middle school to high school isn't a big deal at all." She rolled her eyes.

"Not really," he admitted. "I've enjoyed these past years, eighth grade especially. I think I'll miss it."

Emily laughed, that sound causing his smile to grow, if that was possible. "I just can't wait to get out."

And they went their separate ways.

Freshman year, they had three classes together. Naturally, Walter and Emily grew closer, becoming good friends. Emily didn't make new friends that year, but he did. He formed a group, but never spent less time with her.

They were still close, still best friends, still inseparable pieces of a whole. It would have to take a lot more than people to pry them apart.

Walter remembered the day he told Emily he was leaving.

It was a bright, sunny day, and he could feel the weight of those words on his tongue, but he couldn't bring himself to let them go.

She just looked so happy that day, he didn't want to ruin it.

"Hey, I'll race you! Walking only!" She exclaimed, starting to speed walk.