The Girl In The Painting (ON HIATUS) (Hyetomi/Chaetomi)

Introduction to Some New Friends

Third-Person POV

      The class suddenly turned silent as two people who came in the room surprised them. The first one was the pregnant teacher.

     At the right part at the back of the class a girl whispered at the girl in front of her, "Pssst. You told me she gave birth last month."

     The girl's seatmate was the one to reply as the girl she was talking to didn't reply, "Minjoo, did you seriously believe her? Yuri says that every month."

     "I heard that.", the girls immediately pretended to listen when they heard their teacher.

     "Everyone, as you can see, you have a new classmate, her name is Hitomi. Honda Hitomi.", the teacher introduced the second person to surprise the class. Transferees were not rare but no transferee has ever been this cute.

      Hitomi still faced the teacher and didn't bother to look at her new classmates. She was too afraid. She just stood there tightly gripping both of her bag's straps. She couldn't even keep eye contact with the teacher so she just stood there, looking at anything but her teacher's and classmate's eyes.

     Hitomi flinched as she felt a hand on her shoulder. The teacher immediately removed her hand as she saw how it was uncomfortable to Hitomi.

     "Oh- I'm sorry I didn't mean to. I just wanted to ask if you're okay.", the teacher said.

     Hitomi just nodded. She's lying. She could feel everyone's stares and she hated that, she hated the spotlight. She always felt like she was being judged. Her breathing was really fast and her knees felt very weak.

     She finally faced the class but didn't look at them, she kept her head down.

     "Hitomi? Is she Chinese? Her name doesn't sound Korean.", Minjoo asked.

     Everyone in class had different reactions to their classmates question. Some laughed but most of them just looked as if they were used to her weird questions.

     "You've been my friend for so many years yet you still don't know the difference between Chinese and Japanese?", Nako asked the girl behind her, the girl next to her, Yuri, still kept quiet.

     "Oh- She's Thai?", Minjoo then asked. The whole class sighed except for Yuri.

     "Listen, everyone.", the teacher said to get everyone's attention.

     "But Hitomi here isn- Oh god. Can someone please wake Yuri up, she's asleep again. Oh come on, it's the first day of school for Pete's sake", she said and then everyone looked at the sleeping girl.

     Nako slapped the girl next to her.

     "I didn't mean slap her, Nako.", the teacher as she was shocked by how loud and strong Nako slapped Yuri, even Hitomi looked up to see what happened. Yuri sat straight.

     "Casu- Casualty of- of-of looove", Yuri spoke out of nowhere but then she went back to sleep again.

     "See? Even when if you slap her, she won't wake up.", Nako explained.

     "Oh I give up. She's always asleep and will probably fall asleep again anyway.", the teacher said before looking at Hitomi.

     "Oh right. As I was saying, Hitomi here isn't like you, so I'm asking you to be kind and patient with her.", the teacher said to the class. Whispers could be heard in the class.

     "Eh? Not like us?"

     "What does she mean?"

     "She's so cute. Look at her big fluffy cheeks."