CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE – THE LADY'S PLAN (MoniKenta)
"Alright, see you guys tomorrow! And good work to each and every one of you!"
As the other debate club members filed out of the clubroom, Monika watched them go with both joy and relief. Their latest participation in an interschool debate competition yesterday had paid off after some of their junior members and one of their senior members had won first place. Monika felt proud, knowing just how much effort the rest of the club had put into researching and gathering data for those who competed, and how much it meant to the junior members to score such a big win. She only wished that they stopped giving her so much credit for an accomplishment that they had more of a hand in making happen than she did – she was, after all, only the club leader, and her role had been to mostly help them along their way instead of being on the stage with them during the event itself.
She waited until most of them were gone before she started packing up her things. Most of the time, she was the last person to leave the clubroom, always making sure that no one forgot anything inside and checking to see if everything was in its proper place.
"Mind if I speak with you for a while?"
Monika turned around. She knew who the speaker was, though she was admittedly surprised that he still lingered inside the clubroom after the meeting. "Of course, Takeo," she replied, looking up to face him from where she was sitting and arranging her things.
Takeo sat down in the chair next to her, smiling coolly. "Good thing those juniors managed to get by in that competition yesterday," he said. "But this means that we'll have to double down in preparation for future competitions, as always. Our professors are expecting constant diligence and effort from us, and it won't do if we disappoint them and commit mistakes by being complacent."
Monika let out a small sigh. As a firm believer of the club's superiority over other groups in other schools, Takeo was always quick to point out that there was simply no rest for the debate club when it came to interschool events. He relished debate victories as much as anyone else in the club did, but he never dwelt for too long on them, instead using them to push the others to do even better. Monika understood his logic and how it meant well, but there were times when his no-nonsense work ethic began to take its toll on the club – and her as well.
"I agree," she said. "Well, we'll just have to do our best to lead them forward, right?"
"Of course," said Takeo, nodding. "As long as everyone plays their part, there will be no trouble with that."
"They always do, so I guess there's no need to worry about that," said Monika. "Right now, though, everyone should get a well-deserved break."
"Perhaps," said Takeo. He paused for a moment before continuing. "So, Monika . . . if you're not doing anything after this, I was wondering if you'd like to go somewhere. We could grab a bite or something if you want. Or we could just go hang out wherever you'd like."
Monika looked at him. What Takeo was doing right now reminded her of a similar scenario last year: just the two of them, alone after a club meeting during her first few weeks of being a member of the debate club. Being a year older than her, Takeo always exuded confidence, and it was with that same confidence that he had asked her out last year like this. If another girl had been in her place, they would be more inclined to accept, Monika mused. Takeo was as handsome as he was smart, and she knew quite a few of her friends in the debate club who looked at him with more than simple admiration.
Though the circumstances were slightly different now, her answer remained the same. Monika smiled politely. "I'm sorry, Takeo. I already have plans for today."
Takeo smiled back, though she could sense his disappointment beneath his pale blue eyes. "I see. That's alright, I was just thinking that maybe you'd like to unwind after the grueling days we just had."
"I appreciate your invitation, Takeo," Monika told him. "Just not today, I guess."
"It's okay," said Takeo. "There's always a next time."
"We'll see." Monika stood up. "Anyway, I have to get going. I still need to go downtown. How about you?"
"I suppose I'll be leaving as well now," said Takeo, also standing up. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
"Okay, take care!"
Before Monika managed to go out the clubroom's door, however, Takeo spoke up again.
"You're seeing someone else, aren't you?"
Takeo's voice was casual and friendly, if a bit formal. Though his invitation to go out didn't surprise Monika that much after being asked out by other males before, his new question did give her pause. She stopped and turned around to face him. Takeo looked professionally serious as he stood a few feet away from her, as if his query was merely part of another club meeting.
Monika decided to be honest. "Yes, Takeo," she said tentatively.
Takeo nodded. "I surmised as much." He paused for a bit before continuing. "Is it that garish redheaded guy from 3-C? The one you always hang around with nowadays?"
His tone remained casual, but once again, Monika could sense another emotion emanating from his being as he spoke his question. Of course, there was only one redheaded boy that could fit Takeo's question; Monika remembered the time when Takeo and Kenta first encountered each other, back when she had invited Kenta to answer a survey for the club's data-gathering. Takeo had been rather standoffish then with some pointed words for Kenta, though she didn't ask her vice president about them since things returned to normal after that day. With Takeo's current questions, along with the way he had just described Kenta, Monika seemed to understand better now why he had acted the way he did back then.
"Yes," said Monika. "Is there something wrong with that, Takeo?"
Takeo grinned. "Nothing's wrong," he said. "You two have been growing closer for the past months, so I believe that's really no surprise."
Monika stared at him for a few more moments, knowing that he was lying in order to appear as cordially professional as always. Though Takeo often exuded pure poise bordering on coolness, there were also moments when his façade would falter somewhat to give way to thinly veiled condescension and annoyance, especially when something that he particularly disliked came into question. Monika had observed this from some of their more strenuous club meetings in the past, and it formed part of the reasons why she sometimes felt more tired than usual after school. Then again, she also understood why he acted that way; like her, Takeo was one of the school's top students, and always strived to maintain an image as such.
Knowing that there was nothing else to say for now, Monika nodded at him. "Well, um, if it's alright with you, I'll be going now. Take care, okay?" she said warmly.
"Thanks," said Takeo, again with that casually friendly tone. "You take care as well."
Kenta was waiting next to the school gates with some of his classmates. The loudness of his laughter and voice made Monika smile, as it always did whenever she passed by in the corridors to hear him laughing and talking with his friends loudly. Quickening her pace, she called out to him cheerfully, "Kenta!"
Kenta's face lit up as he saw her. When his friends looked around to see her approach, they glanced at Kenta with knowing grins on their faces. Some of them greeted Monika casually as she approached, and she greeted them back with a smile and a wave.
"Alright, boys, I think we should leave our buddy alone here now," said one of them jokingly. "It's time."
"Stay strong and awesome, bro!" another quipped. "You've got this!"
"Godspeed, my friend!" said a third with a facetious bow.
"Alright, alright, that's enough out of you dolts," said Kenta, laughing as he waved his hand dismissively at them. "See ya all tomorrow!"
When everyone had gone, Kenta turned to Monika, blushing slightly. "Sorry about that," he said, chuckling nervously.
"It's okay," said Monika, beaming at him. "Let's go!"
Truth be told, this particular meetup excited Monika for a reason; her role in the debate club's preparation for the interschool debate competition meant that she was unable to go out with Kenta for quite some time, and even texting had been difficult because of the things that she needed to supervise and take care of after school hours. Ever supportive, Kenta let her take care of things, only texting her once every few days to cheer her on and remind her to take a break whenever things got too rough. It was a simple gesture, one that even seemed odd where Kenta was concerned, but Monika appreciated his support and how sweet it was of him. Now that everything had finally been settled, she was definitely eager to catch up with him on what they had missed out on, and she knew that Kenta felt the same.
"Congrats on leading your club to another victory," he told her, grinning as they walked down the street.
"Hey, it's not like I actually participated in this one," she reminded him, nudging him gently in the side.
"You told me back then how everyone did their part in things like this," said Kenta. "Reminds me of how it's not that different from varsity captains making sure a team's in tiptop shape, so yeah, you still deserve credit."
"Thanks," said Monika, smiling as she patted his arm.
Their return to the Cocoa Connection was different this time around. Instead of heading upstairs to sit in separate chairs at a table, Monika guided Kenta towards one of the loveseats on the chic bistro's first floor. Couples seeking shelter from the autumn cold had filled up most of the loveseats; Monika was thankful that the two of them had arrived relatively early; otherwise they wouldn't have had the chance to pick out a nice spot to sit in. The clerk on duty, who knew Monika as a frequent customer, looked at the two of them with a knowing grin on her face as they ordered from the counter. In spite of his nervousness, Kenta sat down willingly next to her on the loveseat they had chosen. Monika saw how the physical distance he usually maintained whenever they were next to each other was now gone, and it made her feel happy about how such a little change had a big effect on their time together.
"Y'know, this is all pretty weird for me," Kenta muttered as he mixed the blueberry cream cheese shake he ordered with a straw. "Back in middle school, I would've gone nuts if I managed to score a date with any of my crushes. Now that it's actually happening, I dunno if I can even go nuts."
Monika laughed. "Didn't you count our trips last time as dates?"
"Er, no," he replied, "but my dolt buddies called them that, though. They might've seemed like dates, but I didn't treat them like that – and basically, I didn't wanna jinx anything as well."
"I understand," she said smoothly, taking a small sip of her favorite almond milk macchiato. "Well, from now on, whenever we go out, it's a date, okay?"
As the two of them ate their respective beverages and took bites out of the cheesecake they ordered, Monika felt at peace with the world. Kenta relished her with stories about his own progress at school, and she returned the favor by telling him how the competition had gone. When they ran out of things to talk about regarding school stuff, their conversation soon shifted to more personal things.
"I talked to Takeo earlier," said Monika after a while.
"Oh, him again." Kenta scowled a little. "What else did he say? I hope he's no longer complaining about things to you guys."
"No, nothing like that. He just talked to me before I left the clubroom."
Kenta paused before speaking. "What did you two talk about?"
Monika glanced over at Kenta, shrugging. "He wanted to ask me out."
Kenta raised his eyebrows. "R-Really? What did you tell him?"
"I told him that I already had plans with you."
She watched as Kenta tensed nervously. Ever since the day she had invited him at her house, and after the surprisingly sincere conversation that the two of them had there, they slowly progressed into being more than simple friends. Monika had no intention of hiding so after everything she had told Kenta that day – in fact, she had never felt happier and freer than after she had spoken to him about it all. One of the things that happened afterwards which Monika could not control, however, was that it didn't escape most of their schoolmates' notice. When word spread of how one of the most popular girls in school was rumored to be going out with a boy as notorious as Kenta Yamaguchi of 3-C, Monika sensed that gossip was sure to follow.
She smiled, putting her arm around his. "It's okay. There's nothing wrong."
Kenta blinked, as if he had just broken free from a trance. "Y-Yeah, I know. I wasn't worried or anything. Just pretty surprised, that's all. . . I wonder what that dolt is thinking right now," he went on, chuckling. "Was it . . . Was it the first time he tried?"
Monika shook her head. "He tried a couple of times before last year, when I was still new to the debate club. Surprised me a bit back then, because I always thought that he didn't exactly fancy girls in lower years. I told him no, because he didn't strike me as my type. No one did."
"Oh. I see," said Kenta quietly.
Monika squeezed his arm tighter. "Except you, of course!" she added, giggling.
Kenta glanced at her nervously. "Am I really?"
"Of course!" Monika pouted. "There you go again, doubting yourself. What did I tell you about that?"
"I know, I know. I'm sorry," said Kenta, laughing bashfully.
"That's alright," said Monika, laughing along with him. "You remind me of Sayori sometimes. Remember her and Akihiro?"
"They're the ones we saw at the mall that one time, right?" asked Kenta. "How are they?"
"Still going steady," said Monika. "Akihiro seems to be doing fine. I don't know about Sayori, though. . ."
"Why? Is there something wrong?"
"I don't know for sure. Whenever she talks to me, she's either really happy or really . . . lost, like she doesn't know what to do. But every time I try asking her about it, she tells me that it's nothing. I mean, I know Sayori, and I know that she's prone to spacing out or being forgetful sometimes, but . . . I don't know. Something's just a little off about the way she is right now. It makes me wonder if she had a fight with Akihiro or something."
"I hope they're alright," said Kenta. "I mean, I know it's pretty normal to quarrel in a relationship every now and then, but I hope it ain't anything too serious."
Monika sighed, glancing around at the other couples who were eating and drinking in the loveseats around them. Though very few showed their affection by cuddling and exchanging sweet words to one another, Monika could feel their joy and bliss. On the other hand, she couldn't help but imagine how many of them had gone through a rougher time with misunderstandings, and whether or not Sayori and Akihiro were going through such an experience right now. Kenta was right in saying that fights between even the closest of lovers were normal, but such matters could always be avoided, and she wanted to believe that they were a matter of if instead of when.
"I hope so as well," she mused.
At that moment, as if brought out on cue by their conversation, the Cocoa Connection's front doors opened, and in walked Akihiro. He was still in his uniform, signifying that like her and Kenta, he had chosen to come to the bistro after school. Monika sat up straighter as she spotted him, anticipating that Sayori would not be far behind. She waited in vain, however; as the doors swung shut, she realized that Akihiro had come alone.
"What is it?" Kenta asked her, glancing over to where she was looking. "Oh, that's Akihiro, right?"
"Yeah, it is," said Monika. She stood up and waved, crying out, "Akihiro! Over here!"
Akihiro looked around, and a look of surprise formed on his face as he saw the two of them. "Hello there!" he called out, taking a detour towards their loveseat on his way to the counter.
"Didn't expect to see you here," Monika told him, smiling. She scooted over towards Kenta to make some room so that Akihiro can sit. "You remember Kenta, right?"
Kenta nodded, grinning as well. "How's it going?"
"I'm doing okay, thank you," said Akihiro, smiling back at them as he sat down. "I just got back from a friend's house for a group meeting for school. I was on my way home when I thought about going here to order some strawberry shortcake for Sayori. I thought it'd be a nice little surprise to give her."
"That's sweet of you," said Monika, "but I was actually expecting to see Sayori with you. Where is she?"
The smile on Akihiro's face faded a little. "She went home already. I was supposed to walk home with her like we always do, but she said she needed to take care of a few things as well. I'm going to her place later to check on her, so I decided to go here to buy her a little something."
Monika sighed. "We were just talking about you two, actually."
"You must've noticed it too, right?" said Akihiro a bit anxiously. "She's been on and off for the past week. She's been texting me just fine, and she seems to be doing okay in person, but it still feels weird. Anyway, I told her that if she feels like something's wrong, she can tell me about it."
Kenta leaned forward a little. "Pardon me for asking, but . . . does she do that? Tell you when there's something up, I mean?"
Akihiro looked at the two of them. Monika could see in his pale green eyes the relief he felt, presumably from the idea that he could finally voice his worries to someone. "Not all the time," he replied. "This happened before, and I know it might happen again. Of course, I can't force her to talk to me every time she's not okay, but I can't help but be worried sometimes, you know? I'm thinking sometimes if I should just stop and let her be, but . . . I can't."
He said all this with a bit of desperation in his voice. Monika felt for him; as her friend, she wanted Sayori to know that she could always count on her for help if she needed it; and though she was not as close with Akihiro as she was with Sayori or Kenta, he was still Sayori's closest friend, and for that she also wanted to help him make sure that things were okay.
Before she could say anything, though, Kenta spoke up again. "Well, it's alright to be worried about things like this," he told Akihiro kindly. "If it makes you feel any better, you're doing okay. Things like this happen, just like I told Monika a while ago, so it's also normal to worry about them. It just means that you're really looking out for your girlfriend, right? I know we're not that, er . . . close and all, so it might sound like I'm snooping in on something I shouldn't really be talking about with me giving you this advice, but I just . . . I just wanna help you two out."
Monika looked over at him, surprised by his words. She knew Kenta was often the guy whom no one would take seriously when the situation calls for it, mainly because of his past and based on face value. Privately, she half-expected him to be a little peeved by Akihiro's arrival and how it interrupted their date, given that he wasn't exactly one of his closer friends. Instead, Kenta was doing his best to sympathize with Akihiro and give what comfort he could, much like what he had done during the first few times that she went out with him.
"Kenta's right," she told Akihiro earnestly. "We know that you really care for Sayori the same way that she does for you. Don't let up, Akihiro. Sayori might need some space now and then, but that doesn't mean that you should just let her be. We're sure that even while you two aren't seeing each other, Sayori misses you and the times that you two go out. She might just be having trouble showing or saying how she feels."
Akihiro smiled in spite of the worry in his eyes. "Thanks, you two. I mean, really. It's been a bit tough, so I'm really glad to be able to talk to someone like this right now. I want Sayori to be happy, like she always has been. I'm just afraid that . . . that I might be doing something wrong after we got together and all."
A short silence followed his words. At that moment, a thought popped up inside Monika's head.
"If you want, Akihiro, we can all visit Sayori together!"
Akihiro looked at her. "What do you mean?"
"I mean we can all go to her place tonight and surprise her with a visit," said Monika. "If I know Sayori, she's definitely the type of person who wants to be with her friends. Right now, she might be feeling a bit distant, but I'm guessing that a visit from us would help her feel better."
Akihiro's face lit up a little. "I think that'd be a good idea."
"Oh, would that be okay with you, Kenta?" asked Monika, glancing over at Kenta.
"Sure thing, no worries! We don't have anywhere else to go after this, so I'm down with it," said Kenta. "But, ah . . . I'm not too familiar with Sayori, so I dunno how she might react to me being there. If you guys want, I can just go with you there and then wait outside while-"
"No, it's alright!" said Akihiro quickly. "Sayori loves making new friends. I'm sure she'll be totally okay with you being there."
Kenta glanced at Monika, who gave him a reassuring nod and a smile. "W-Well, if you say so," he said, smiling back. "Should we get going?"
"Once we finish up here, we can go," said Monika. She turned to Akihiro. "Go ahead and order at the counter, Akihiro. We'll wait for you here!"
"Alright. Thanks, you two," said Akihiro gratefully.
Around fifteen minutes later, the three of them arrived in front of Sayori's apartment. Stray leaves from the trees up front crunched beneath their feet as they walked through the concrete pathway leading to the entrance. Akihiro led the way, carrying the small box containing two slices of strawberry shortcake he had bought from the Cocoa Connection. Behind him, Monika and Kenta followed dutifully; Monika had also ordered four lattes for each of them so that they would have something to drink.
When they reached Sayori's door, Akihiro knocked three times. "Sayori?" he called out.
"Just a minute!" came Sayori's voice from within her unit. After a few moments, the door opened. Sayori was still wearing her uniform, and she looked positively harried as she straightened up her blouse and smoothed out her skirt.
"I didn't know you'd be coming over, Aki-" she began breathlessly, but she stopped when she glanced up and saw Monika and Kenta.
"Hello, Sayori!" said Monika. "We came by to visit."
"Moni!" Sayori cried out excitedly, walking out of her room and into the hall to embrace Monika in greeting. "I didn't expect to see you here of all places!"
"Just thought of dropping by," said Monika, beaming at her.
Sayori glanced over at Kenta. "Hi, Kenta!" she said, inclining her head both nervously and cheerfully at him.
Kenta nodded back, grinning politely. "Hello, Sayori."
"What brings you three here?" asked Sayori, straightening her hair bow, which was slightly askew atop her hair.
"Kenta and I were having some coffee over at the Cocoa Connection when Akihiro showed up," replied Monika. "He told us that he was going to be ordering some strawberry shortcake for you as a surprise, so we kind of tagged along to pay you a visit."
Sayori looked both surprised and worried. "Again with the surprises, Akihiro!" she said, pouting at Akihiro. "You should've told me beforehand!"
"It wouldn't be a surprise then, Sayori," said Akihiro, laughing. "I didn't want to disturb you right away with a text. I was worried that you might be, you know. . . A-Anyway, can we come in?"
"Oh, of course!" said Sayori. "Come on in, guys!"
Sayori's apartment looked neat enough except for the notebooks and books that were scattered on top of her bed. Monika quickly went towards the windowsill, where there was a group of stuffed animals sitting on top of it like an audience watching over the unit.
"These are really cute, Sayori," Monika simpered as she picked up one of the stuffed animals. "Reminds me of the ones I used to have as a kid."
"I have Akihiro to thank for a few of them," said Sayori as she sat down on her bed, "especially for Mr. Cow over here!"
She gestured at the large stuffed cow sitting at the foot of her bed. Akihiro shook his head. "I told you before, Sayori, cows are female," he said amusedly.
Being the odd one out among the four of them, Kenta opted to stand by the door politely, leaning against the wall as he looked around at the others and the room. Sayori, who noticed this, quickly sat up straighter. "You can sit over there if you want, Kenta!" she cried out, pointing to the chairs that flanked the small table she had at her unit's kitchen area. "You don't have to stand, you know?"
Kenta waved his hand airily. "That's alright," he said. "Thanks for the offer."
Sayori pouted at Akihiro as if it was his fault that Kenta was left without a seat. "You didn't have to bring them here, Akihiro," she said petulantly. "Moni was having a fun evening out with Kenta over here and you told them to come along."
"Jeez, Sayori. . ." said Akihiro, scratching his head apologetically.
"Now, now, don't scold Akihiro for that, Sayori," said Monika with a giggle. "I was the one who asked to come along. Kenta and I didn't have anywhere else to go after our coffee date, so we decided that it was a good idea to drop by."
"Aha! So it was a date, hmm?" said Sayori, grinning knowingly. "I'm so happy for you two!"
Kenta blushed as he glanced at Monika, who smiled glowingly at him. "Well, when are you and Akihiro gonna be going out again, Sayori?" she asked.
Sayori looked nervously at Akihiro. "I don't know yet," she replied. "I've just been really busy with the project we have for Social Studies. I've been cranking up my research every night, so I don't know when I'll be free."
"It's alright, Sayori," said Akihiro as he sat down next to Sayori on the bed. "I'm just worried about you. There are times when you just seem . . . I dunno, sad or stressed."
Sayori smiled at him, holding his hand. "I'm fine, dummy," she told him. "I'm just really busy taking care of stuff sometimes, and I keep thinking about a lot of things so I'm pretty much spacing out most of the time. But I'm trying to be more responsible by doing everything on my own without disturbing you for help. Remember what I told you?"
"I know, I know," said Akihiro. "Just remember what I told you as well. If you need help, if you need company, don't hesitate to ask, okay?"
Kenta smiled as he watched the two speak to one another tenderly. Somehow, the idea of Sayori distancing herself from Akihiro didn't seem as bad as he imagined it to be now that they were gathered together like this, but then again, it might run deeper than what he and Monika might think. Even though he didn't know Sayori or Akihiro as well as he knew Monika or his best friends, Kenta felt for them and the little dilemmas that they were going through, and how they were trying their hardest to get through them. It reminded him of what he had told Monika before about talking to him when she needed to, and how Monika wanted the same from him regarding his problems. In a way, it was forging a bond between him and them.
"Akihiro's right," he told Sayori. "It's alright to bunker down and take care of stuff alone, but you don't have to carry everything by yourself. There'll always be people who are ready to help, just like Akihiro over there, because they're looking out for you. If you need to, don't hesitate to talk to him or to Monika."
"And you, Kenta?" asked Monika.
"And me, if you want," Kenta added with an apologetic grin.
Akihiro smiled back. "Thanks, Kenta."
"Wow," said Sayori with genuine amazement. "That's . . . That's r-really nice of you, Kenta. To be honest, I didn't expect you to be, um . . ."
"Friendly?" Kenta offered jokingly.
"No, I didn't mean it like that!" said Sayori quickly. "I mean, I always thought that you're the kind of guy who sticks only to his own group of friends."
"Don't worry, I get that a lot since middle school," Kenta acknowledged. "I know that you and Akihiro might not know me that well, but hey, who says I can't be friends with you two, right? Besides, any friend of Monika's is a friend of mine, and as cheesy as it might sound, friends help each other, so you two can count on me from now on."
He looked over at Monika, laughing embarrassedly. "Sounds weird coming from me, right? If my best buddies heard me saying things like that, they'd be laughing their butts off."
"Don't worry about them," Monika remarked. "It's still really nice of you, Kenta."
For the next half hour or so, Sayori's apartment unit was filled with laughter and snippets of conversation as the four of them talked to one another, drinking the lattes that Monika bought. In spite of her initial embarrassment at Akihiro's surprise visit, Sayori gladly accepted the strawberry shortcake he bought, eating it alongside him like an excited child. Kenta soon found his stride in their company as they warmed up to his jokes and the tales of his middle school exploits, with Monika helping him along with her own stories both inside and outside of school. Overall, it made for a good evening even if it wasn't just Monika and him together on another meaningful night out.
When the time came for them to leave, Akihiro decided to stay behind for a bit longer to keep Sayori company and to help her clean up. Though Sayori refused to let him stay at first on the grounds that he also had homework to take care of later that night, she relented after Monika persuaded her. Just before the two of them left, Akihiro thanked them for their company and advice, and Sayori expressed her desire to see the two of them again on less busy days. Monika promised that such a thing would be guaranteed in the future, and Kenta also remarked that he would be there to keep everyone company.
"You can tell that she really enjoyed tonight," said Monika as she and Kenta walked down the stairs to the apartment's main entrance. "She even made a new friend."
"And I made two," said Kenta, laughing. "It feels weird to make new friends sometimes, but in this case, it was fun."
"Is that why you didn't try making friends with me back when we were classmates? Because it was weird?" asked Monika, smirking.
Nervously, Kenta scratched his head. "N-Not really," he replied. "If I tried talking to you back then, I might've just ended up swallowing my tongue, not to mention all the middle school flashbacks I might've had. . . Besides, I needed to get my crap together first. Couldn't afford horsing around like I did back then."
"That's what actually caught my eye about you," Monika stated. "I knew you were a fun-loving guy, but I didn't want to see you get expelled because of your low grades. Somehow, I knew that with a little push, you can improve even more."
"Yeah, if you didn't help me out by lecturing me, I wouldn't have done much about my grades." Kenta sighed. "It's not like I liked being lazy. Truth is, high school was a sort of culture shock for me. It was a bit easy back in middle school, but it was a whole new deal in high school. I knew I had to catch up, even if it was hard work."
"And yet that hard work paid off," Monika reminded him. "I'll always be proud of the way you've changed, Kenta."
"Like I said, I couldn't have done it without your push," said Kenta. "That's what makes you a good leader, you know? You look out for people and you help them become better, but you're also not afraid to just nudge them a bit harder when it's needed. It's why everyone looks up to you, especially in your club."
Monika gave him a small smile. "Thank you. It's tough sometimes, but I do my best. Sometimes, when I help people, it even happens outside the club, you know? Like earlier with Sayori and Akihiro."
Silence crept in as the two of them walked down the street and back towards downtown, where Monika will be picked up by her driver. All around them, the autumn air covered them in its chilly embrace as the lights from nearby houses and buildings lit the way for them in the onset of the evening's darkness.
"Let's do that again," said Monika after a while.
Kenta looked at her. "What?"
"Getting together with you guys like that," said Monika. "If you want, we can do it again. We can go out somewhere, do some fun stuff, enjoy the free time we have on weekends. What do you say?"
"Sounds like a good idea," said Kenta, nodding. "Might be nice to bust some stress every once in a while and have a little get-together after hard days at school. Is it gonna be just the four of us again?"
"If that's what you guys want, I'm okay with it," Monika remarked. "Or . . . you can invite your friends. The more, the merrier!"
"You mean Daisuke and Naoki?" Kenta asked. "Well, having them around would really lighten up the mood even more, but I dunno if they're free. Most of the time, they're with their friends, Yuri and Natsuki. Remember them?"
"Oh, yes, you did tell me about them before. Hmm . . . well, since it's going to be more fun with more people, if they want, all of them can come along, too. It'd be like a group date!"
Kenta weighed the thought in his mind. If there would be eight of them, there was no doubt that their get-together would be very merry indeed, though it would also mean bringing together people who didn't know each other that well just yet. Then again, a lot of people start out as casual friends who meet each other on get-togethers like this, and Kenta knew that Daisuke and Naoki were very much open to the idea of making new friends with nice schoolmates like Sayori and Akihiro. In this case, however, Yuri and Daisuke's friend Natsuki seemed to be the odd ones out, much like Kenta was earlier with Akihiro and Sayori.
"I'll tell them about it and see if they'll want to come along," said Kenta after mulling things over. "But if you ask me, my buddies are pretty open to get-togethers like this, and maybe they can convince Yuri and Natsuki to join."
"I hope they'll come." Monika glanced up at the night sky, smiling. "Who knows? After this, we might be able to form our own little group of close friends that we can bond and share interests with."
"Like a club outside of school, you mean?" said Kenta, chuckling.
Monika laughed with him. "Maybe."