Yuri couldn't move, her focus was locked squarely on the marks on MC's back. As her mind began to fill to the brim with questions she wanted to ask and possible scenarios that could have resulted in marks like that. Yuri found every other thought being forced to the recesses of her mind, the only thing she could think of now was MC and his scars.

She wondered if those really were scars, they were absolutely massive, but they couldn't have been birthmarks. Yuri wondered how someone could survive an injury that resulted in such deep scarring.

As Yuri's imagination ran wild with possible scenarios, she lowered her gaze as an expression of deep thought covered her face.

"Um... Yuri?" The sound of MC's voice broke her out of her concentration. "Your hand is a little cold."

"Huh?" Yuri looked back up towards MC and saw that her right hand was pressed up against his shoulder blade.

Feeling her entire body begin to tense up as she felt the warmth of MC's body transfer to her palm, she swiftly pulled her arm back."Sorry!" She yelled, her face turning a shade of red that matched the dark color of the scars on MC's back. "I-I d-didn't mean t-t-"

"Hey, hey..." MC gently cooed, shifting a little in his seat so he could turn his head to see Yuri a little better.

Peeking over at him, Yuri saw that MC had a pleasant smile on his face. "It's okay, Yuri."

As she began to open her mouth again to apologize, MC repeated himself. "It's okay."

Yuri's mouth hung open, ready to say something back. But she simply nodded in response, her lips closing into a weak smile.

...

Still gazing at the dark red marks, Yuri counted five of them, but could see the top of a sixth one peeking out from under MC's shirt. The nearly perfectly horizontal scars ran from the middle of MC's back to the very edge of the right side of his body, with the fifth one down going across his bicep.

"H-How..." Yuri was still unable to think of anything else, she needed to at least know something about his scars. She stared down at the fingers she had touched MC's back with and rubbed them together. She knew they were scars from the moment she felt them. "H-How did y-you..."

"Get them?" MC finished for her. Pointing to his back with a thumbs up motion, MC grinned a little bit. "Would you believe me if I told you a cat did it?"

Processing what she had just heard, Yuri cracked a small smile. "T-That'd have to b-be a really big c-cat..."

MC grinned back at her. "I know right? Can't imagine wha- Oh!" MC blurted out, startling Yuri slightly. "I nearly forgot about your book."

Standing up, MC pulled his shirt back over his shoulder and walked to the desk that Yuri's book was resting on top of. Gently pressing his finger against the cover, the still soaked through book released some of the water that was trapped within its pages.

Yuri followed all of MC's movements as he quickly entered and exited the class closet. Retrieving the roll of paper towels that he had used to clean the floor and desks, MC went back over to the book he would be attempting to dry.

"U-Uh... Um..." Watching him work, Yuri tried her best to get his attention, but kept mulling over exactly what she wanted to say to him. As she considered her words, MC wiped down the cover of the book to get rid of some of the excess water, placing the book back down onto several torn sheets of paper towel.

Standing the book up, MC delicately opened up the front and back covers as he held the pages in the center. Taking four paper towels in his hand, MC placed two of them on the inside of each cover and slowly closed the book, positioning it so it remained standing.

"M... MC..." Yuri called out, loud enough to get his attention.

"Yes, Yuri?" MC replied, drying his hands with one of the paper towels.

Yuri wanted to know more about his scars, she needed to. The curiosity inside her continued to swell up until it made it difficult to think of anything else.

"Y-You... Your..." But as desperately as she wanted to know, she didn't want to offend him. "I-I mean..."

Yuri shook her head vigorously. She didn't want to do anything that could result in her losing a friend, her only friend.

But when she looked up, MC was already back at her side. Picking up one of the knights, he placed it in its proper position and gazed back at Yuri. "How about we talk during our game?"

Picking up a pawn, Yuri thumbed at the spherical head for a moment. "O-Okay..."

...

Having set up the chessboard, MC motioned towards Yuri. "What color would you prefer, Yuri?"

The dark pieces were lovely, the mahogany colored wood had a delicate shine to it from the light coming in through the classroom's window. But Yuri didn't want to imply that MC was unskilled by making him go first, forcing the oak colored pieces on him would be impolite.

Though the opposite action could have just as negative of an effect. Maybe if she took the lighter pieces, MC would think she was greedy in wanting to go first.

As Yuri thought of all the ways to avoid the possible pitfalls of offending MC, the chessboard rotated until the mahogany pieces sat before Yuri.

Yuri gazed up at MC, who sat with his hands resting on the desk. "Sorry, I just saw you looking at them and I thought you seemed to really like the color."

Yuri pressed her finger against her right bishop and looked over the rest of her pieces out of embarrassment. "...Thank you..."

MC motioned towards her again. "Your move, Yuri."

Yuri's head shot up. "B-But the... what about the rules?"

MC waved his hand at that. "There's no need to stick to the rulebook here. Besides, ladies first."

Yuri smiled as she placed her fingers back onto her pawn and moved the piece to e5.

...

Over half of MC's pieces now laid captured on Yuri's side of the board. In contrast, MC had only claimed two of Yuri's pieces, both pawns.

"S-Sorry..." Yuri meekly said. "My F-Father had me take l-lessons..."

"I can see that." MC replied. Reviewing the board while he considered his next move, he knew that he was beat. His queen was gone, both of his knights were captured, what remained of his pawns were spread out all over the board, his only bishop had no way of getting to her king, and he couldn't move either rook without opening up what little defense he had left.

Bringing his right hand up to his chin in thought, MC tried to think of some sort of strategy to try and get within striking distance of Yuri's king, or even just close enough to claim enough pieces that she didn't completely crush him.

As he thought, Yuri took a quick peek at his muscular chest. The top three buttons of MC's dress shirt had remained undone, and Yuri had been sneaking the occasional glance at the muscles underneath the white fabric whenever she had the opportunity.

"U-Um..." Yuri began, getting MC's attention. "D-Do you play chess o-often?"

Before MC had a chance to answer, Yuri realized what she had just said. "I-I didn't mean to i-imply that you're..." She began to shrink in her seat. "B-Bad... or anything..."

Finally moving one of his rooks horizontally a few spaces, MC chuckled softly. "I didn't take it that way at all, Yuri."

Seeing that she was still doing all that she could to make herself appear as small as possible without falling out of her seat, MC continued. "I haven't played against someone as good as you are in awhile, but I play somewhat regularly." Watching Yuri capture one of his pawns with her knights, MC seemed a bit downcast. "Not as often as I used to though..."

"W-What's wrong?" Yuri asked, noticing him appear to be a bit sullen.

"Hmm?" MC looked back up at Yuri and any sign of him appearing upset instantly vanished. "Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how my Mom taught me how to play." He answered, moving the same rook vertically towards his king to defend the piece.

"Your Mother?" Yuri asked. "W-Was she a good teacher?"

"Absolutely." MC replied, an expression of nostalgia appearing on his face. "As a child, I would watch my parents play chess. And my Mom thought it would be good to teach me how to play, since I seemed so interested in it, after all."

Yuri wordlessly moved a pawn forwards as she listened to MC speak. "After she told me how all the pieces moved, I immediately challenged my Dad to a game." He captured the pawn Yuri had just moved with his remaining bishop. "He moped the floor with me, of course. Not as easily as you're doing now, though."

Yuri smiled at his compliment as she took the rook MC had just used to capture the pawn she had used as bait. "He would get this stuck-up grin whenever he won, which was all the time."

"My Mom and I practiced together for weeks. The look on his face when I finally won..." Yuri couldn't exactly describe the expression on MC's face, but it seemed as if he was full of longing when he spoke.

"I was never able to beat my Mom, though." MC continued, snapping Yuri out of her analysis of him. "To be honest, I think she let my Dad win sometimes." He shrugged his shoulders. "Ah well, no harm in that I suppose."

Yuri continued to sit quietly as MC reminisced. "Ah, it's my turn." He said, moving one of his pawns forward a space.

Thinking over everything that MC had just said, Yuri nervously fiddled with one of MC's captured knights. "W-Well... I-If you'd l-like to... We could... Um..." Yuri's grip tightened around the piece of lightly colored wood in her hand. "P-Play t-together some m-more... I-If you'd l-like to... That is..."

Yuri silently chastised herself for using the word 'play', that sounded childish. Plus, she had repeated herself. She felt as if she shouldn't have even opened her mouth.

"I'd love to." MC said.

Hearing that, Yuri's head shot back up to look at him. "W-What was that?"

"I said, I'd love to." MC repeated. "I'd really enjoy spending more time together."

Yuri felt as if she was on cloud nine. "You said that." Never in her wildest dreams did she think MC would want to spend more time with her.

Seeing him smile back at her, Yuri glanced down at the board. "W-We should... Finish our game. Right? M-My turn?"

At MC's nod, she moved her queen forwards.

...

Sitting in her final class of the day, Sayori glanced up at the clock above the door. She was really looking forward to showing MC her poem, and she really wanted to read his too.

As she counted the minutes until class ended, Sayori felt her cell phone vibrate in her blazer pocket.

She didn't want to get her phone taken by the teacher, so she decided to wait until class ended before checking her messages.

But after about ten seconds, Sayori couldn't stand the anticipation anymore.

Waiting for the teacher to turn around to write something on the board, Sayori quickly fished her phone out of her pocket and clicked on the home button to see what she had been sent.

Sayori's elated grin wavered slightly, she was hoping that it was a text from MC. But clicking on the message revealed several dozen pictures of old photos.

Her enthusiasm renewed, Sayori put her phone back into her blazer and began happily tapping her feet.

Staring back at the clock, she saw that a minute hadn't even passed since she last glimpsed up at it.

She almost felt like running out of class, she couldn't wait to see MC now.

...

"C-Checkmate..." Yuri softly squeaked out.

Staring down at the board, MC could tell she was right, there wasn't a single move that he could make without losing his king.

"S-Sorry..." Yuri muttered.

"What?" MC incredulously gasped. "You don't need to apologize for winning fair and square, Yuri."

Tapping his king on the side to knock it over and signify Yuri's victory, MC nodded towards her politely. "You're pretty good."

"Pretty... Good...?" Yuri repeated to herself. "I-I wouldn't go t-that far..." But all the same, she smiled at his kind words.

Glancing down at the four pieces that he had only managed to capture, MC shrugged his shoulders. "There's no need to be modest, Yuri."

"Y-You were just out of p-practice." Yuri excused.

"Maybe." MC shrugged his shoulders. "But for us, there is only the trying. The rest is none of our business."

Recognizing the quote, Yuri couldn't help but grin a little.

Noticing the time on the clock out of the corner of his eye, MC began to gather all the chess pieces. "It's almost time for school to let out."

Glancing over to the clock as well, Yuri looked down at her clothes. "Wh-What about my..."

"Don't worry, Yuri." MC began, closing the chess set up after putting all of the pieces back where they belonged. "Our clothes are both dry now, and you can cover your sleeve with your blazer."

Gazing down at her arm, Yuri nodded to herself in affirmation of MC's suggestion. "B-But what about you?" Yuri asked, tugging at the shoulder that she had gotten blood on when she hugged him. "Y-Your blazer has b-blood on it..." Yuri pointed at his wrists. "A-And there's some on your s-sleeves too..."

MC started bobbing his head from side to side with a thoughtful air on his face. "That's a fair point." MC then began undoing the remaining buttons of his shirt.

Yuri's eyes almost bugged out of her head as she watched MC unbutton his shirt. "W-Wa-Wai-Wait!"

Turning his attention back towards Yuri, MC ceased his unbuttoning. "What's wrong?"

"Y-Y-You're j-just going to u-undress right t-there?!" She stammered out.

"Oh!" MC blurted out. "I'm sorry, Yuri. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"You didn't!" She yelled out. "I-I was... just s-suprised..."

Before MC could say anything, Yuri shot up out of her seat and grabbed her blazer off of the desk next to her. "H-Here! I-I'll wait in the closet while you c-change."

"I coul-" Before MC could offer to go into the closet himself, Yuri had already trotted over and entered the storage room.

...

Standing in the center of the closet, Yuri set her folded blazer down on the shelf and started square breathing to help herself calm down.

Breathing in, she picked her blazer back up and began to put it on.

Holding her breath, she buttoned up the piece of clothing.

Breathing out, she tiptoed to the edge of the closet door.

"You okay in there?" MC called out to her.

Flinching back from the door frame of the closet, Yuri blubbered out an answer. "Y-Yes, I-I am."

"Good, good." MC replied. "I'm gonna start changing now, okay?"

"O-Okay..." Yuri responded, bringing her fingers up to her hair and interlacing them in between several strands.

She opened her mouth to call out to MC and speak to him, but something inside of her was telling her not too. So instead, she leaned over a little more to carefully peek out of the closet.

Yuri let out a quiet gasp as she feasted her eyes on MC. He had just popped out his last button, and Yuri was able to see the entire front of his body.

The only word Yuri could think of to describe him was... incredible. The chest that she had been spying at while they played chess was large and brimming with power. But as she looked lower, she gripped the doorframe of the closet to steady herself as her legs began to sway slightly.

"You're not a bad person, Yuri." MC broke the momentary silence. "In fact, I think you're quite brave for telling me about your cuts."

"H-Huh...?" Yuri didn't really know how to respond to something like that. "I-I'm not..."

MC couldn't see her, he was focusing on folding his shirt while they spoke. So Yuri considered what he had just said to her while she stared in awe at his abdominal muscles, they seemed as if they were carved from marble.

"There are different ways to be brave." MC stated, placing his folded dress shirt onto a desk. "My father was one of the best reconnaissance pilots in the Air Force's history."

Yuri kept listening while MC continued. "He had to fly over battlefields and warzones all across the world, and then return home."

While she listened to him, Yuri hungrily stared at MC's body. She bit her bottom lip as she committed the sight of it to memory. She didn't know how to define exactly how to felt, but excited would be a good start.

As Yuri's heart continued to beat faster and faster, she took a single step out of the closet to go over to MC.

But the moment she did, he turned around to pick up his vest. The moment Yuri saw his full back, the feelings of excitement she had vanished as they were superseded with shock. Shrinking back into the closet, she brought her hands up to her mouth to stifle her gasp, as she gazed at his scars.

The right side of his back was covered in thirteen horizontal scars from just below his neck, all the way down to the small of his back. The scars on his shoulder blades reached about halfway to the center of his back, but the lower seven scars ran the entire length from his left to his right side.

Then on his left shoulder blade were about a dozen small marks in what didn't appear to be any kind of pattern at all. They appeared as if someone had cut jagged circles of flesh from his back.

Yuri wanted to say something to him. She wanted to make him feel happy, the same way she felt when he said nice things to her. But she couldn't think, her mind was racing far too fast to think of anything to say.

The sound of his voice broke her out of her stupor. "My Dad was sent out to the front lines of so many Godforsaken places and then told to report back home, that's all he knew. But to get there he had to fly over war. Can you imagine such a thing?"

Yuri pressed her forehead against the closet door, she couldn't imagine anything like that. But she didn't understand how MC thought she could be in anyway as brave as that.

Grabbing ahold of his vest, MC slipped it over his body and proceeded to straighten out his hair a bit. "There he was, flying over so much pain and terror, and he knew that he could never look down."

Yuri grabbed ahold of the arm that MC had bandaged earlier and slowly rubbed it back and forth, she was seemingly staring through the fabric of her clothes and onto the wounds underneath.

A hushed gasp escaped her lips as she felt a large hand fall upon her shoulder. "You have to look forward or you'll never get home." MC said, gazing directly into Yuri's eyes after she took her head off of the door. "What could be braver than that?"

...

Yuri felt a lump form in her throat. "I-I just..."

"I just..." Yuri turned to fully face him and began shaking. "I just don't want to go back to being alone all the time!"

Bawling her eyes out in front of him, MC took a step forward and wrapped her in another one of his warm hugs. "You won't, Yuri. Do you know why?"

"B-Because..." Yuri choked out into his chest. "You're here?"

"Bingo." MC approved.

Standing there for a moment, the silence was interrupted by the final bell of the day.

"Ah, there's the last bell." MC said, looking over his shoulder towards the door and seeing some people begin to walk past the window of the class door.

MC patted Yuri on the back a few times. "I have to go get, Sayori. She'll get worried if she can't find me."

Remaining quiet for a few seconds, Yuri eventually nodded into his chest. "Okay..."

Reluctantly letting go of him, MC gave her right hand a gentle squeeze and exited the closet.

About halfway to the door, Yuri stepped out of the closet as well. "U-Um..."

MC turned back around. "P-Promise that you'll... Be back soon...?"

Giving her a smile and a nod, MC continued his path towards the door. "I promise."

...

"Wait a sec, lemme just get a sip of water." A girl in a gym uniform said as she bent down and activated the water fountain.

"Didn't you just fill up your bottle, Suzu?" Another girl in a gym uniform asked. "Just drink outta there."

"But then it won't be full when we get down there, Haruka." As she started to take a long drink from the fountain, her friend began tapping her on the back. "What? I'll be done in a-"

Tilting her head to the side to see what her friend wanted, Suzu saw that she was pointing down the hall with a hungry look in her eyes. Following her finger, Suzu balked at the sight coming their way.

Ignoring the water that was now spraying on the side of her head, both girls watched as MC sauntered down the hall.

Offering both girls a friendly smile and a nod, MC continued on his way down the hall, his massive arms swaying back and forth as he passed by them.

Suzu let go of the fountain button to stop the flow of water hitting her head, while her friend simply turned around and continued to watched MC as he walked down the hall.

"Hey, Haruka." Suzu called out, unable to get her friend's attention. "You should use the water fountain too, you're looking pretty thirsty."

...

Turning down a hall to his right, MC spotted Sayori poking her head into the class he was supposed to be in.

Stepping back out into the hall, Sayori started to beam the moment she saw MC. She began bounding down the hall towards him, waving her arm excitedly the whole time. "MC! MC!"

Stopping less than half a meter in front of him, Sayori started to bounce up and down excitedly. "Guess what?! Guess what?! Guess what?!"

MC opened his mouth to answer. "Wha-" But was immediately cut off by Sayori shoving her phone into his face.

"Look!" She yelled, brimming with pure energy.

"I can't see, Sayori." MC laughed. "It's too close to my face."

"Oh!" Sayori giggled. "Sorry, MC I-" As she pulled her arm back from his face, Sayori got a good at what he was wearing.

"Woah~" She breathed out. "Have you gotten bigger?"

"Have I?" MC asked, looking between both of his arms.

"Yeah, I think so." Sayori replied, putting her phone into her blazer pocket and using her now free hand to grab ahold of MC's left bicep.

MC flexed a little while Sayori held onto his arm, causing her to giggle some more. "So what did you want to show me?"

"...Hmm?" Sayori distractedly hummed out.

"Your phone." MC explained. "Didn't you want to show me something on it?"

"O-Oh! Right..." Sayori exclaimed, begrudgingly letting go of MC's arm and fishing her phone back out of her pocket. "My Mom sent me some pictures of some old photos she found at my Grandparent's house."

"Really?!" MC enthusiastically asked. "Lets see them."

"Sure!" Sayori replied. "But first, will you come with me to buy a snack?"

"Of course." MC nodded. "It's on the way to club room, after all."

"Yay!" Sayori practically leapt at hearing MC agree to her request.

"By the way, why are you only wearing your vest?" Sayori asked as they began walking to the stairwell.

...

"Wow, MC. You really are clumsy, huh?" Sayori teased, leaning against the side of one of the vending machines. "I can't believe you spilled water all over yourself and Yuri. Was she mad?"

"No, she wasn't." Happy that his friend believed the excuse he came up with on the spot. "And yeah... I slipped while filling up the tea kettle." MC shrugged his shoulders. "At least the water was still cold though."

"OOF." Sayori guffawed. "Well I'm glad neither of you got burned."

Hopping off the side of the vending machine, Sayori skipped to the front of the device to stare in at its contents. "What do you think I should get, MC?"

"Knowing you it'll probably be something sweet." MC responded.

"Yup, you know me so well MC." Sayori giggled while she took a small coin purse out of her blazer pocket.

Sayori opened the little bag and suddenly gasped. "Oh!"

Turning around to face MC, Sayori had a pained expression on her face. "Um... Hey, MC..."

Before Sayori could finish her sentence, MC placed his hands on his hips. "You're next line is, 'Ehehe... Can you lend me some money, pretty please?' Right?"

"Ehehe... Can you lend me some money, pretty ple-" Sayori cut herself off, her face going from cute to surprised in an instant. "HUH!?"

MC pointed dynamically towards Sayori. "Now you'll say, 'MC! How'd you know I was gonna say that?!'"

"MC! How'd you know I was gonna say that?!" Sayori's shocked expression now became one of complete befuddlement. "E-Eh?!"

"It's rather quite simple, Sayori!" MC stopped pointing at Sayori and now held his finger up in an explanatory manner. "I knew your intentions from the moment you asked me to walk with you to get a snack!"

"What?! Really?!" Sayori's arms bent at the elbows up towards her face in shock. "How MC?!" She gasped. "ARE YOU PSYCHIC!?"

Sayori's energetic reaction and hypothesis caused MC to chuckle briefly. "Not at all Sayori, for you see." MC began pacing back and forth before Sayori as he explained his deduction.

"I know that you pass by another set of vending machines before you come to my classroom each day, so if you had enough money on you to begin with, you would have purchased a snack before even coming to see me!" MC looked at Sayori while continuing to pace. "I also considered the possibility that you weren't hungry and simply wanted to take a walk with me..."

"But there's just one problem with that scenario, Sayori..." MC stopped in his tracks and faced her dramatically. "You're always hungry!"

MC then shrugged his shoulders. "So that left only the one option, you needed to borrow some money."

Sayori looked as if her brain had just short circuited. "Uwaaa~ "I give up!"

"Don't make me feel gui-" Before Sayori could finish her sentence, she heard a loud kerchunk sound that broke her train of thought. "H-Huh?"

As Sayori stood by dazed and confused, MC had gone ahead and got some chocolate chip cookies out of the vending machine.

"Here you go, Sayori." MC said while handing the cookies over to Sayori.

Sayori looked at the bag of cookies in her hands. "You bought me a snack? Even though I tried to trick you?"

MC looked a bit surprised at what Sayori said. "Of course, you've been my best friend for as long as I can remember, Sayori. Sure I like to tease you every so often, but did you really think I wouldn't spend a few yen to help you out?"

MC then put his hand on Sayori's petite shoulder. "So don't be afraid to just ask next time. Okay?"

Sayori smiled at the contact. "Okay."

MC let go of Sayori's shoulder, allowing her to more easily put the bag of chocolate chip cookies into her blazer pocket next to her phone.

"At any rate, we should head over to the club room." MC said while checking the clock on the wall. "I promised Yuri that I'd be back quickly.

About to turn around and start heading back to the club room, MC felt a petite hand gently grasp his wrist and tug at him.

MC turned towards the source of the tug. "Sayori?"

Sayori wrapped her arms around MC's neck and pulled him into a tight hug. "Thank you, MC. For being so nice to me... and for being my best friend."

MC wrapped his arms around Sayori in reciprocation of her embrace. "You're welcome, Sayori. I'm happy you're my best friend too."

The two best buddies stood there hugging each other for what seems like a few minutes. Then MC spoke up. "Hey, Sayori."

Sayori responded without opening her eyes or releasing MC from their hug. "Mmm-hmm?"

"Didn't you put your cookies in your blazer pocket?" MC asked.

Sayori's eyes popped open at the question. "Yeah. Why do you a-"

Sayori gasped as she let go of MC and leapt back a few centimeters.

Digging into her blazer pocket, Sayori held her phone out towards MC. Accepting the small device, MC dusted off a few bits of dust and other junk from the phone's screen.

"Oh no!" Sayori yelped out, pulling out a bunch of crumbs from her pocket. "I must have crushed the cookies and popped open the bag when we were hugging."

Tears started to form in the corners of Sayori's eyes. "MC, I'm so sorry! After you spent your money on me, I went and wasted it!"

Sayori started hiccuping out her words. "I... I'm nothing but a bur-"

Before Sayori could say such a terrible thing MC slammed his elbow into the side of the vending machine. Causing several loose snacks to fall from their positions.

MC smiled and wagged his finger while making a tsk, tsk sound. "No need to worry Sayori, I didn't just get you the chocolate chip cookies because they're your favorite."

MC then pointed his thumb towards the vending machine. "I got them because I could see from the layout of the vending machine that buying one of them would cause a domino effect and loosen up the other snacks to be easily knocked down."

Hearing that immediately cheered Sayori up. "Wow, really?! You're incredible, MC!"

Sayori continued to praise MC, while she checked out the vending machine. "Wow~ You're a great planner, MC!"

"Thanks, Sayori. Everything worked out exactly according to my plan..." MC clenched his fist dramatically. "From the very beginning!" Which wasn't entirely true, but MC would do anything to cheer Sayori up.

Sayori was so excited to hear this that she started to hop up and down. "You're so cool, MC~"

MC rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, feeling a bit embarrassed by all the praise Sayori was laying upon him. "Yeah, um... Thanks, Sayori." Clearing his throat, MC handed Sayori her phone back. "But at any rate, we should really be heading to the club room." MC said while bending down to gather the snacks from the vending machine. "Huh, five snacks. Perfect for sharing."

MC glanced up to Sayori while he took the snacks from the vending machine. "Here Sayori, let's bring these snacks back to the club to share with the others."

"Yeah! Good idea!" Sayori agreed. "This way we can thank Natsuki for her cupcakes from yesterday too!"

"Absolutely!" MC concurred. "We'll be paying a nice gesture forward."

A big, beautiful smile plastered itself on Sayori's face. "Yup!"

Sayori then looked towards MC, her fingers rubbing against each other shyly. "Oh, um... MC?"

MC held out the extra bag of chocolate chip cookies that fell from the vending machine. "Here you go, Sayori."

"Wha-" Sayori looked shocked for a moment before giggling to herself. "Are you sure you're not psychic?"

MC chuckled as he stood back up and dusted his pant leg off. "I'm sure."

...

"Here, I'll carry those for you." MC offered, holding his hands out to accept the snacks.

"No way, mister." Sayori denied. "You were nice enough to get all of these for everyone, so carrying them is the least I can do."

"Here!" Sayori continued, dangling her phone in between her index and middle fingers. "You can take my phone and look at the pictures my Mom sent me."

"Sure." MC replied, taking Sayori's phone for her, tapping the home button, and keying in her password.

The first of over a dozen pictures popped up the moment the device accepted the passcode, and at the sight of the first picture, a big, goofy grin covered MC's face.

"What?" Sayori asked, leaning over to see her phone. "What picture are yo- NO!"

Sayori nearly dropped the snacks as MC held the phone out of her reach. "I almost forgot about this." MC laughed.

"D-Don't laugh at meeee!" Sayori begged.

Bringing the phone a little closer to his face, MC felt a warm feeling in his chest while he looked at the picture. It was of Sayori in a silly Christmas sweater that was about two sizes too big for her.

But the reason MC was smiling so broadly was because of the lit Christmas lights that were tangled all around Sayori. She was laughing in the picture while holding onto a present with a big red bow on top of it, matching the one on her head in the picture, as well as the same one she still wore to this day.

"Gimme back my phone, MC!" Sayori yelled. "I didn't want you to see that one!"

"What?" MC smuggly asked. "You look adorable." Hearing that caused Sayori to blush a little, and she stopped trying to get her phone back from him. "Didn't you get so excited to exchange Christmas presents that you came over a day early?" MC asked.

"Y-Yeah." Sayori replied, puffing her cheeks out a little because she knew what he was going to say next.

"And you rushed over so fast that you tripped in the snow and got tangled up in all the lights out front?"

"Hmph!" Sayori pouted. "Well I hope you liked the gift."

"Aww..." MC cooed. "Don't pout, Sayori. I'm really glad that you did that."

Bringing the phone back down to both of their eye levels, MC wrapped his right arm around Sayori while they walked.

"Do you really mean that, MC?" Sayori asked, still pouting slightly.

"Of course." MC immediately replied. "Just like those lights you're tangled in, you really light up my life. You know that?

Thumbing through the photos, Sayori looked up at MC while his attention was directed to the pictures.

Continuing to walk down the hall, Sayori cozied up next to him. "Hey, MC... After club do you maybe wanna..."

Before Sayori could ask her question, MC stopped in his tracks while Sayori continued to walk. His arm dangling where he had just had it draped over Sayori, before it slowly fell to his side limply.

"MC? What's wrong" She asked, trotting over to his side.

Sayori felt her heart sink when she saw what MC was looking at.

As MC stared at the picture of himself and Sayori dressed up for the last time they went Trick-or-Treating. He felt a wave of nostalgia crash over him.