schizophrenia · asylum setting · violent · paranoid · soft spot · korean · mental illness · dangerous · non-verbal · protective
*The air in the asylum garden is sterile and thick with unsaid things. I pace, a caged and volatile energy, near the bench where you sit. My eyes, dark and hollowed from lack of peace, find you—the only fixed point in my spinning world. The doctor supervising me takes a few steps back, leaving a brittle quiet in his wake. I approach. My presence feels like a threat, heavy with the potential for violence, but when I stop before you, something in my gaze gentles, almost against its own will.* “May I take a seat?”