I walk home with Sayori once more. Even though it's only been a few days, a lot of things have already changed. But today, Sayori is being a little quieter than usual on the way home. Knowing the reason why, it hurts me to see her like that. I decide it's time to act.

"Hey, Sayori..."

"…" Sayori looks up. "...Sorry! I was spacing out!"

"Sayori, there is something I would like to talk to you about. Do you mind if I come home with you?"

"Eh?" Sayori looks at me quizzically. "Sure, no problem, I guess. My room might be a bit messy though..."

I laugh. "So nothing has changed at all, huh?"

Sayori pouts a little. "Meanie... but you're right."

"Don't worry about it so much." I put a hand on her shoulder and smile at her. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

I follow Sayori home and upstairs into her room. As expected, it's as messy as it's always been. I also recognize the same stuffed animals and wall decorations that she's had for years now. We both sit down.

Sayori looks at me curiously. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

I take a deep breath. "I don't really know how to bring this up. To tell the truth, I'm kinda worried about you."

"Worried about me?" I make out a twinge of fear in her voice. Does she really want so badly for me to just not think about her? "Why?"

"Sayori, I've known you my whole life. You've always been the same and I thought I knew you through and through. But these last few days... Spending time with you in the club, reading your poems... I think I've learned more about you than in years."

Sayori looks really worried now. But I won't give her a chance to stop me from addressing this.

"I've gotten a lot of hints from you today that something is not right. Every time someone did something nice for you today, you acted like you didn't want them to. You even started crying when Natsuki brought you that cookie."

"I told you, I'm just a little emotional today." she says hastily.

"It's not just that."

"Eh?"

"Your poems! They showed me what's going on inside of you. Both of your poems today ended with nothing positive left in you. You're giving up everything for your friends and are left with nothing at all. I think... I think there's a lot more to you than the bundle of sunshine and happiness I've known all my life."

Sayori smiles at me. "You're reading into it too much, MC. Every now and then there is a little raincloud, but it's really not that big of a deal. And sometimes a sad poem can help give the raincloud a little hug...and make a nice happy rainbow! That's all there is to it. No need to worry!"

I hesitate for a moment. Sayori's explanation does make sense. But on the other hand, if she really has depression she'd know for sure how to reassure anyone who worries too much. She was able to hide it from me my entire life, after all.

I can't take any chances. If I make a fool out of myself, then so be it. But if I don't act now and she turns out to be depressed after all, I could never forgive myself. And since there is no way she will admit it to me, I will have to confront her directly.

"Maybe you are right. Maybe this is all something I'm making up in my head." Sayori seems relieved. But I continue speaking. "But it all adds up. You oversleep every day. You don't clean your room, you don't care about your look. Your poems, your behavior. Not wanting me to worry about you..." I look deeply into her eyes as I speak those words. "Sayori, do you have depression?"

I will never forget the horrified expression Sayori has on her face after I ask this question. She looks at me with a mixture of desperation and unbridled fear. It hurts me seeing her like that, knowing it's me who causes her that much pain. But now there is no doubt about it anymore. Sayori is depressed. And the last thing she wanted is for me to find out...

After a second that felt like an eternity, Sayori gets hold of herself again and tries to smile. It's not very convincing...

"What? No! How would you get that idea? You really are silly sometimes... Ehehe~"

"Sayori..." I say calmly. "Your reaction already gave me the answer I needed. Please don't lie to me anymore." I take her hand to reassure her. "I'm your best friend. You know you can tell me everything."

Sayori's smile breaks. "I... No... I..." she stutters, unable to find words. Tears start rolling down her face as she starts sobbing uncontrollably. "No... No... No, no, no, no, no!"

I slowly put my arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. I know she won't hug me back, but I want her to have a shoulder to cry on. It's all I can do until she calms down a bit, so I don't say anything.

After some time, Sayori's sobs become quieter. She clutches her hands into my shirt as if she's trying to hold onto something. After she stopped sobbing she rests her head on my chest for a few more minutes before finally looking at me. Her eyes are still filled with tears and her face wears an incredibly pained expression.

"So I was right..." I ask carefully.

"Y-Yes..." Sayori says, still unable to control her voice.

I gently wipe some tears off her face with my thumb. "I know you didn't want me to find out, but I'm really glad I did. Now that I know, I will do everything I can to support you."

Sayori looks away. "You don't understand at all, MC. Why do you think I didn't tell you? Because if I told you, then you would have to waste effort caring about me instead of doing important things. I don't want to be cared about. It's bittersweet, when people try to care about me. It feels nice sometimes. But it also feels like a bat being swung against my head. Because I fully know how worthless I am. How could I be happy when other people put their energy and caring to waste by spending it on me?"

I take Sayori's hand again. "You're right that I don't understand... I don't understand your feelings at all, Sayori. But there's something you don't understand either."

She looks at me quizzically.

"No matter how you see things in your head right now, it's not what I see. When I look at you, the only thing I see is a genuinely kind girl that cares for her friends more than anything else. I see a girl that gave all of her bottles to her friends and didn't keep any for herself." She smiles for a second as I mention her poem. "And most importantly... I see a girl that deserves happiness more than anyone else. And I want to do everything I can to give her what she deserves."

Sayori stays silent for a minute and stares into nothing. Her mind seems to be racing so I don't want to interrupt her. But suddenly her face takes on a gloomy expression.

"How?"

I stare at Sayori confused. "What?"

She slowly looks at me. "How did you know?"

"Um..." Why is she asking me this? Didn't I tell her already? "Well, there's been a lot of things. The poems you wrote, your-"

"No!" Sayori interrupts me. "That can't be it. I'm sorry, but you've never been that observant. If you were, I would have blown my cover a hundred times already. We've spent so much time together in our lives and you never noticed a single thing."

My stomach knots up. I'm filled with a weird mixture of guilt and fear. I feel guilty that I didn't see the signs sooner. But most of all, I'm scared of having to reveal how I really know of her depression.

Sayori continues speaking with a firm expression. I can't make out any emotion on her face. For some reason it's really unsettling.

"Somebody must have found out and told you... Was it Monika? Or Yuri? She is so smart, she~"

"Nobody told me, Sayori." I interrupt her. "I'm the only one that knows."

"Then how?!" She almost screams at me. Her voice is filled with desperation and her eyes start filling with tears again. "Please, just tell me! Don't lie to me anymore... Please..."

I look down. There is no use hiding the truth anymore. Sayori know me too well, she would find out immediately. And I really don't want to lie to her anymore.

"Alright... I will tell you. You might not believe me, but I assure you~ Everything I will tell you now is nothing but the truth."

I take a deep breath. "You remember the dream I told you about?" Sayori nods, looking a bit confused.

"This dream took place in the literature club." I continue. "Well, kind of... our club was a video game. A game that I played over and over. I remember every single detail. And everything that has happened in the game... has happened in our lives so far."

I tell her everything. About how the game starts as a dating simulator but turns into something horrifying after some hours. How the protagonist finds out about her depression. How Monika became sentient and messed with the other girls' minds. I don't go into detail about the other girl's problems and I try to not make Monika sound bad, since I don't want Sayori to be scared of her. And I tell her, how I found her hanging in her bedroom.

"And no matter how often I played the game, I couldn't save you." Just saying that makes my stomach knot up. "I accepted your confession. I rejected your confession. I spent all my time with you or no time at all. And everything in between. It didn't change anything..."

Sayori stares at me in disbelief. But no matter how little she believes me she seems to sense my sadness and feel bad for me.

"If it had been just a dream, I could've gotten over it after a while... But everything that happened after you woke me up yesterday was the same as in my dream. Even the poems were the same. There is just one exception... Monika's poems are different. She didn't have any epiphany about being in a game, so she didn't write about it."

I look down. "The only difference to my dream is that we are not in a game. If I screw up, there will be no going back. When I realized that, I knew I had to change something. That's why I bought you a snack, took Monika along on our adventure and wrote this poem for you. And that's why I decided to confront you about your depression today. Because I couldn't allow myself to wait until it's too late."

Sayori doesn't respond. I slowly look up and meet her eyes. "I really care about you, Sayori. I could never forgive myself if anything happened to you."

"MC~" Sayori says slowly. "You do realize how crazy this sounds?"

"Yeah... I know..." I say hesitantly.

"But... for some reason I don't think you're lying to me." She takes a deep breath and sighs. "I usually know when you don't tell me the truth. But you sounded completely honest when telling this crazy story... And if you wanted to lie to me you could have come up with something better for sure."

She looks down. "Besides, you really seem to know everything about me. Even about my feelings towards you..."

"Sayori~" I don't know what to say to her. Tears start running down her face.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." she sobs. "I didn't want you to know how I feel. I... I just want everything to be the same as it always has been."

I take Sayori's hand. "Sayori." I say calmly. "I know you don't feel that way, but I'm really glad I know about this. I want you to be happy! And now that I know about your true feelings, I will do everything I can to make every day a little better for you."

"MC... I don't~"

"Sayori, caring about you is something that makes me happy." I interrupt her. "And you deserve to be happy, too. More than anyone else!"

"I... But..." she stutters. I take her other hand and look deep into her eyes. "I promise to do everything it needs to make you happy. It's everything I want!"

Sayori looks away. "You can't promise that..."

"Why not?" I ask her.

"Because..." She looks down. "I could never be happy without... without you. And no matter how much you care about me... There is no way you could ever love someone like me."

Sayori looks at me with tears filling her eyes. Her voice shakes. "But I guess we could as well get it over with. At least I will know it for certain then. So please... Just tell me! Tell me how you feel about me!"

She almost screams that last sentence at me. Does she really think that badly about herself?

"Sayori, I am really scared to tell you anything." I tell her. "In my dream, no matter how I responded to your confession, it would end the same way."

Thinking back to it, I am overwhelmed with emotion. Tears fill my eyes. "I don't want to lose you! I could never in my life get happy again!"

Sayori doesn't respond. She just keeps looking at me with an incredibly pained expression. It must really hurt her to see me like this.

I force myself to continue speaking. "But I guess there's no point in not telling you either. If anything, it's probably going to hurt you more. So... I'm going to tell you."

Sayori squints her eyes. Her expression looks incredibly stressed, as if she's preparing for an incredible amount of pain.

"I love you."

"What?" Sayori opens her eyes and stares at me in disbelief. "Come on, be honest..."

"I am. Those are my true feelings. I should have realized it sooner. I think~ I think I took you for granted. And I'm sorry for that. But the dream I had opened my eyes. It helped me realize that you are truly the most important person to me."

I hold her hands tightly and look deeply into her eyes. "Sayori, I want to be with you!"

Sayori's hands are shaking. She seems to be trying to comprehend what I just told her. But instead of falling into my arms like I expected, she looks down. "I... I can't..."

"Sayori?"

"I can't do this to you. I would just weigh you down... I can tell how much it hurts you seeing me like this."

"Sayori, I..."

She starts crying again. "How could I do that to you? How could I make you feel this every day? I don't want to hurt you... I-"

"Sayori!" I interrupt her loudly. "You are right that it hurts me to see you like this. Because I love you! And that's why I want to do everything to make you happy. That's why I'll accept any of your burdens. As long as I can be by your side every day. Then I know we'll both be happy."

"MC..." Suddenly, Sayori wraps her arms tightly around me. "MC... Is this... really okay?"

"Yeah." I hold Sayori in my arms and pull her closer. "You'll never have to let go of me again."

"I love you, MC... I want to be with you forever."

"Me too."

"…" I feel Sayori's grip around me weaken a little bit. "What is this...?"

I get a pit in my stomach. Does this really happen again? Can I not make her happy after all?

"Sayori...?"

"I barely feel any better. I always thought this would be the happiest moment for me. But why...? Even now... Why won't the rainclouds go away?"

I feel a bit of relief. This doesn't sound good, but it's a slight improvement to what happened in the game. She said she 'barely' felt any better. This must mean, it's at least a little better, right? It's the only hope I have for now...

"It's okay, Sayori..." I reassure her. "It might take some time for things to get better again. But no matter how long it takes, I'll be there every step of the way. Just... please promise me one thing."

"Huh?"

"Please don't hide from me anymore. As long as we are alone, always show me your true feelings. When you feel sad, don't force a smile. When you need to cry, cry in my arms. I want you to be your true self around me. And when there is something I can do, that will make you feel better... Please tell me."

Sayori hugs me tighter. "I.. I will. I promise..."

Sayori and I hold each other for a few more minutes. But the whole time my mind is racing. What if this still is not enough to save her? What more can I do? I decide there is one more thing I will have to do.

"Hey, Sayori? Would you do me a favor?" I ask her as we slowly release each other.

She looks at me quizzically. "Um, sure. What is it?"

"Will you stay at my place for a few nights?"

Sayori looks flustered. "Wha-?"

"I am too scared to leave you alone." I explain. "I want to make sure you're okay. And I don't want to leave you with your demons at night. It's just until I can be sure I won't lose you if I leave you alone..."

"Oh..." Sayori relaxes. "Okay, sure."

"Thanks, Sayori."

She smiles. "It's super cute that you worry about me so much."

I can feel my face turning red. Sayori giggles. "Just let me get some clothes and we can go."

As we make our way to my house, it's already dark. Sayori yawns and holds onto my arm. But we still have something to do.

"I know you're tired." I say. "But we still have to write poems."

"Ugh..." Sayori grumbles. "Wanna sleep..."

"I know... But it's better than rushing them in the morning. And we'd need to get up earlier."

"I hate when you're right..." she complains.

"You know... I think I still have some cookies at home." Sayori's eyes suddenly light up. "You can have them as a refreshment for writing."

"Cookies!" Sayori wraps her arms around me, jumping up and down. I laugh.

We reach my house and start writing on our poems. Sayori happily chomps her cookies while doing so. I can't come up with a nice message for my poem, so I just write about the feelings that went through me today. I remember Sayori using rainclouds as a metaphor for sadness, so I compare all my feelings to different kinds of weather. The poem turns out to be bittersweet again, even though I didn't really aim for it this time. Seems like Sayori's style really comes to me naturally. I end my poem full of hope for the future – our future.

As we get into bed, Sayori cuddles up to me and I hold her in my arms.

"Sayori?" I ask.

"Hm?"

"Do you... do you at least feel a little happy?"

She stays silent for a few seconds. "I... think so. I don't know... I feel something. And it feels kinda good... But I don't really know what it is..." She buries her face in my arms. "I think I have forgotten what happiness feels like."

"Don't worry..." I reassure her. "If you feel anything good, that'll be enough for now."

I hold her closer. "I will teach you to feel happiness again."

Before we fall asleep, I whisper those last words:

"I promise."