Crises d'angoisse de Shelby

Shelby’s panic attacks turn fear into a physical event: her heart pounds, her chest tightens, her breathing accelerates, and the world can seem dark even in sunlight. They recur in classrooms, in response to unwanted touch, and amid the violence surrounding Jungkook Jeon’s underground fights. The episodes make visible how little control Shelby has over the arrival of panic, but also how support, treatment, and time can help her find a way through it without making recovery appear simple or finished.

The Body of Panic

A severe episode begins during class, after a brief childhood memory ends. The narrative does not specify that the memory causes the crisis; instead, the abrupt movement from remembered play to present distress places the two moments in striking contrast. Shelby feels pain throughout her body, her heart races and constricts in her chest, tears rise, and her breathing quickens. Without speaking, she bolts from the room, alarming the instructor and students. Cassiopée Smith follows, but quickly loses sight of her.

Away from the others, Shelby covers her pierced ears and tries unsuccessfully to slow her breathing. Panic and anxiety seem to speak in her mind and weigh on her shoulders; tears sting her cheeks, while the brightness around her fails to dispel the darkness she perceives. The description gives the attack both bodily force and an oppressive inner presence: sunlight is there, but it does not make her feel safe.

When Cassiopée reaches her, she first touches Shelby’s shoulders. Shelby recoils with a cry of pain, and Cassiopée stays calm rather than insisting on contact. Once Shelby is no longer shouting, she remains curled up and clearly refuses to be touched. Cassiopée asks her to look at her and follow her breathing. Shelby manages to imitate her; over the next few minutes, her breathing settles and the painful pounding in her chest eases. She thanks Cassiopée, but the episode leaves both women uncertain: Cassiopée wants to talk and help, yet recognizes Shelby’s reluctance to open up.

Triggers and Recurrence

In describing another difficult day to a psychologist, Shelby recounts accidentally bumping into a student she had already collided with at the start of the term. This time, he grabs her arm violently. She experiences the contact as a burning sensation and keeps massaging the spot afterward. Asked whether this might relate to her rejection of human touch, she agrees that it probably does, adding that she could not stop thinking about the incident. She also reports having a panic attack in the next class, although the available account breaks off before she explains what brought it on. The episode shows how an ordinary collision can become an extended source of distress once it includes forceful, unwanted contact.

At Ares Garden, panic erupts in a different setting. Shelby watches Jungkook fight; his anger and pride are apparent, and his dark expression frightens her. She decides she has seen enough and turns to leave, then spots a familiar figure nearby. The figure does not notice her, remaining absorbed in the fight, but Shelby immediately collapses to the floor in panic. The account does not identify the figure or state exactly why its presence affects her. It does show that the crisis arrives before she can leave the scene: she unconsciously seeks refuge near Chen Wu, who helps her stand and leads her toward the stairs. Her distress worsens on the way, with chills and trembling that alarm him.

Another attack is disclosed through a quieter detail: Jungkook finds Shelby in the shower, still fully dressed. When he asks why she is there, she tells him she has had a panic attack. He recognizes the sensation of pressure in the chest, panic spreading through the veins, and a constriction around the throat from his own experience. His recognition offers a point of connection, but the episode is not presented as solved; he asks what caused it, and the supplied scene does not give Shelby’s answer.

Treatment and the Difficulty of Contact

Shelby’s difficulty speaking is present from her first exchange with a psychologist who has received her file from a former therapist in Los Angeles. The psychologist has noticed that Shelby struggles to fit in and open up after an unspecified event, and invites her to talk about it. Shelby declines for the moment. The psychologist accepts that answer, gives her time, and assures her that what she says in the room will remain confidential. The exchange makes space for treatment without treating disclosure as something Shelby owes on demand.

Later, Shelby says that she had a psychologist in Los Angeles and now sees that clinician’s colleague, whom she describes as kind. In a conversation with a friend, she recounts several consequences of the event she has experienced: self-harm, an eating disorder, and cannabis use. Those difficulties are distinct from her panic attacks, but they situate the attacks within a broader struggle rather than presenting them as an isolated problem. Her friend listens, visibly affected by fear, anger, and sadness, then gently takes Shelby’s hands. The contrast with Shelby’s recoil from Cassiopée’s unexpected touch matters: the narrative shows both how contact can intensify distress and how, in a moment of disclosure, a hand can become an offered gesture of support.

Support, Change, and Meaning

When Shelby later discloses her rape to Jungkook, he tells her that he believes her. His response brings immediate relief: tears of release and a smile of hope replace some of the strain she has been carrying. This moment does not establish that her attacks disappear, nor does it make Jungkook a substitute for professional care. Rather, being believed changes the conditions of one painful conversation. The scene connects the difficulty of speaking about what happened with the importance of having another person receive the disclosure without disbelief.

The story’s ending frames change as slow, uneven work. Shelby and Jungkook manage, each in their own way and together, to move forward and leave their demons behind. The conclusion also emphasizes that a rebirth may take months or years, and that a person can choose whether to proceed alone or with company. Its insistence on having one’s own pace echoes the earlier psychologist’s willingness to wait when Shelby is not ready to talk. The attacks therefore matter not only as episodes of acute distress, but as part of a larger arc in which safety, connection, and movement forward are possible without being instant. The narrative offers hope while leaving recovery open-ended: progress is real, but it is neither a straight line nor a demand that Shelby be well on anyone else’s timetable.