Deen-The New Kid

I stood nervously. The wiry lady gave me a stern look from behind her glasses.

'So,' she said. 'You are the new student.'

Duh, I thought.

'Yes, ma'am,' I replied, bowing down in greeting. 'My name is Deen. I am seven years old and I live with my mother at Hyehwa-Dong. We just moved-'

'That's enough,' she cut me off. She was looking at my file in front of her. From her expression, I could tell she didn't like me. It turned sourer and sourer as she went over my file.

'Tsk tsk,' she said. 'Illegitimate.'

Ill-ill what? I felt perfectly fine. She closed my file and looked up at me.

'I guess, our school will be allowing students like you in,' she said in a disgusted tone.

I was taken aback. Did I do something wrong? I wondered. Her clear dislike of me was piercing me. I guessed she was my class teacher.

'Follow me,' she barked at me. I was startled. What was her problem? I followed her through the halls until she led me into the classroom. I looked around. All the children were looking up at me curiously.

'Children,' the lady called out to the class. 'This is our new student, Deen. He transferred recently to our school.'

None of them said hi. They kept staring at me like I am an object. It made me uncomfortable. Ugh, I thought. I wish Mee was there. But she had to report to work early, so she ran off after briefly talking to the principal. The Principal seemed friendly. He assured Mee that I would be happy at their school. But the teacher's behavior said otherwise.

'You!' she turned to me. 'Introduce yourself.'

'Hello,' I said, bowing down. 'My name is Deen. I just moved to Korea a few days ago. I hope all of us can be friends.'

Silence. No one was saying a word.

'Go sit at the back bench,' the teacher ordered.

'Ummm... I'm short sighted,' I said. 'Can I sit at front? There is an empty seat right here.'

I pointed at the empty seat in the front. The boy sitting next to that seat quickly put his bag on it. I was taken aback.

'Didn't your elders teach you not to point?' the teacher scolded. 'Go and sit down!'

I slowly made my way to the back. No one was sitting next to me. It was unsettling. In all these years, I have never felt such hostility. What was going on?

I noticed a few of the students were glancing at me and whispering. I tried to hear them.

'I heard he is illegitimate,' one girl said.

'Ew, I wouldn't mix with him,' her friend said. I put my head down, trying to drown out the whispers. Illegitimate. For some reason I didn't like the word.

The morning passed by and lunchtime arrived. Kids kept on giving me strange looks. It was the same look Mee used to receive back home. People pointed at her and talked about her loudly. Now they are pointing at me. Even the teachers gave me weird looks. Some of them were disgusted while others were of... pity. I couldn't tell which was worse.