Crying Girl in a Ball Pit

Date: 3/6/2021

I heard a girl crying as I walked through the crowded campus hallway. As I neared the source, I saw her through the glass to my right. She was indeed crying, sat in a ball pit in a very small room (the room itself was maybe 6' by 6' and half filled with colored plastic balls). I felt empathy for her and wished I could help, but I didn't know what to do and also wanted to give her her privacy (lol). I felt like maybe I should look her in the eyes and give her a compassionate expression and make a heart with my hands as I passed, but I was worried about making her feel too observed, so instead I avoided eye contact and just tried to have a very concerned/empathic face and hope that there was a small chance that she would see me and know I cared. As I passed the window and prepared to turn right, I was rapidly gaining confidence that she _would_ want to be seen and given an expression of love. I thought "I should just do it!" but it all happened so fast. I rounded the corner, passed by the ball pit room's other window, and continued to avoid eye contact until it was too late. I felt guilty. I was following meagh or somebody, and she entered the next door on our left and was waiting to talk to someone. I took my shoes off, but quickly decided that I needed to go show this girl I cared, so I put my shoes back on and went back out into the hallway and toward the ball pit room. Oh no, was I too late? I thought I could see from where I was that she wasn't in the window of the ball pit room anymore. Dammit, she sucked it up to move on with her life without knowing that at least I cared about her pain. As I neared the door to the room adjacent to the ball pit room (the ball pit lobby?), the door opened and the girl stepped out. She was smiling as if nothing was wrong. Quite disappointingly, I realized I was going to continue avoiding eye contact with her. But, as I passed, she spontaneously gave me a very quick hug then continued walking away down the hall I had come from. I was incredibly surprised. Did she actually just see my face and know I cared? Was that just purely random? I turned back to face her, and just said "awwh!..." loud enough for her to hear. Then after a second's pause I called after her "thank you!" I think she responded "you're welcome!" or something, and I realized that me explicitly expressing appreciation for that hug hopefully at least brightened her day a bit, like this brief interaction had brightened mine.