Daisuke stared at the painting. The painting's title was "Wounded Tears". There was something about it that hurt him deeply for some reason. Not the kind of hurt you went to the doctor's for. It was an emotional hurt, but an oh-so strong one. Almost as if it just tore him to pieces to even look at the painting. Guilt and sadness accompanied this feeling. Why?
The painting was that of a young woman, aged either seventeen or eighteen. The young woman had wavy golden red hair. Daisuke couldn't see her eye color because the eyes were closed. Forever, it seemed. She appeared to be lying on a snowy landscape. In her hands was a sharp, flat stiletto. The stiletto was a deep, deep red color. Her forest green dress had blood stains on it. There was a streak of blood on her cheek and a pale pink mark. Daisuke squinted and stared at her eyes. Barely visible, he noticed frozen tears clinging to the long lashes. Had someone killed the young woman? Or had she taken her own life?
The bell rung, breaking Daisuke out of his trance, and he hurried to get to class. He didn't know that soon two emerald green eyes were going to stare at him with both hatred and sympathy. The eyes of the young woman.
"Excuse me, excuse me," Chie Ryoyu said as she struggled to get to class. "Excuse me, please. Thank you. Excuse---Whoa!"
Tripping over someone's feet, Chie fell and crashed into the person in front of her, dropping her notebook. Both fell down in a heap.
"Ow," Chie mumbled and rubbed her forehead.
"Are you okay?"
Chie looked up. "Dai-kun, I'm so sorry!" she cried. "I'm so very deeply sorry!"
"It's okay." Daisuke stared at her for a moment. There was something about Chie that seemed strange today. Her school uniform was neat, as always, and her long reddish brown ponytails were held back with brick-colored ribbons. He had known Chie for at least a year now. There was nothing unusual about her, so why was he staring at her in a new light?
"Dai-kun?"
Daisuke blinked. "Uh, yes?"
"We're going to be late for class." Chie smiled pleasantly. "I'd better hurry. Don't wanna be late like last time, you know."
"Okay. Bye!"
"Bye-bye!"
Chie hurried off. It wasn't until she was gone that Daisuke noticed she had left her notebook behind.
"Oh, no," he said and picked it up. "I'll have to find her later and give it to her."
Out of the notebook fell a piece of paper. Daisuke picked it up. It was a rough sketch of "Wounded Tears."
Where to start explaining this? I guess I'll talk about Chie. Chie is, to say the least, a little ditzy. Actually, she's extremely clumsy and actually trips on thin air. I was going to model her after Daisuke, but, somehow, she turned out . . . kinda different! Chie's friends include Daisuke, Riku, and another girl. Her family is pretty big on legends and myths. Chie's name means "wisdom" and her last name means "good friend". She can sing and paint, but is totally hopeless when it comes to dancing. She's polite in a cute way and uses honorifics a lot. She likes giving her friends nicknames (example: "Dai-kun" is what she calls Daisuke and "Giku-chan" is what she calls Riku). And I guess that's about it.
