also in the art room finishing her painting for tomorrow.

steps back to look at his painting, staring at it intently. He glances over at the other person in the room, not having noticed her until

then. "It's really pretty, aru. Your painting I mean."

finishes the brush stroke before looking up. "Oh, thank you," smiling towards the other. "Your painting looks very nice too."

smiles brightly, "Thank you, aru! It's sort of old-fashioned, which is how I like to paint."

"I've noticed. You have a very unique style compared to everyone else in the class."

huffs, "Well, that's because most of them do 'modern' art. Modern art isn't art at all, aru! Just... Splatters." He turns back to his

painting to add in a small detail he missed.

"Not all modern art is like that though; usually the piece is just very abstract," she responds before fixing a bit of the grass on her own

painting.

pouts, shaking his head. "Most are, aru. But I do like your painting, it's very vibrant!"

"Thank you." She not going to tell him that there is a bit of modernism in her painting. "I just can't help feeling that there is something

missing though.." She sighs.

looks at her painting a bit harder, thinking. "Well, maybe you should add some birds over here." He points to the forest in the background,

"But have them going at an angle, aru. It'll look dynamic." He explains matter-of-factly, happy to help her.

looks at the area where he's talking about. "You don't think it'll be too unbalanced with the birds like that?"

shakes his head, "Well, if it turns out unbalanced, you can just add some more birds or something over on the other side." He explains with

patience.

"Alright, if you think it'll look right..." She adds the birds in the corner.

nods, confident in his advice. "I think it'll look great, aru. And if it doesn't then you can just paint over it right?"

nods as she touches up one of the birds. She steps back a bit to look at her painting. "Oh, that does look better. Thank you for the idea

Yao," as she smiles toward him.

smiles back, "You're welcome, Bella, aru. I'm glad I could help." He finishes off his own painting, signing it in small Chinese letters.

she goes back to her own and signs it in the corner. "I'm just happy that I was able to finish this before class tomorrow."

nods in agreement, "Teachers give ridiculously small amounts of time for projects, aru..."

"I know! They just think we have these large amounts of time to dedicate to their assignments when we have other stuff to do.."

shrugs, "We should make them do their own assignments- see how they like it, aru."

"Oh, if only we could actually do that."

"I wish we could..."