In my final period, I find myself just staring down at my desk, not even listening to the teacher. All I can think about is seeing him again. I'm not sure if I can bear it. I can already feel the anxiety well up inside me. I throw up in my mouth a little and start coughing violently. The teacher stops and looks at me, causing the rest of the class to do the same. I smile and wave, and the teacher continues her rant about polynomials. Normally I would be investing all my attention and energy into this stuff (I love Calculus) but right now I just want to sink into the floor and probably die. Well at the very least cease to exist for the next 2 hours. I look around, and discover that everyone has left, and the teacher is desperately trying to get my attention.

"Sorry, Miss Noma." I quickly snap my head up at her from my front-row desk. Her long brown falls over her face. She brushes it aside as she speaks.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asks in a concerned-but-not-too-concerned-because-she-wants-to-get-out-of-here-ASAP tone.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

She looks slightly relieved, but raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure?" I just nod. She seems convinced. "Alright. You may go, I have to lock the door."

"Thanks Miss Noma. I'll see you tomorrow first period." I smile and wave at her, and she does the same.

I half-walk, have-run, to the literature club, keeping my head fixed towards the floor as I go. I hear one of my friends from my Japanese class call out to me, but I just ignore him. Not out of malice, I just wasn't aware he was really there. Now I just feel bad, but my mind is just going mad with all this stress. I tell myself to calm down, with any luck he will have forgotten everything. I smile a little at the thought, but quickly drop my face again.

"There's no chance he's forgotten." I mumble aloud to myself. I sigh and approach the club room door. I step inside, no-one else is here yet. I sigh again, but this time it's relief. I could use a chance to relax before this club turns to shit. I sit down on top of the teacher's desk, my legs swinging underneath the open window. Warm sunlight streams through, and a cool breeze tickles my hairless legs.

"Good thing I remembered to shave." I mutter slightly, then let out a chuckle. In this short moment I forget all of my troubles ever existing. The radiant sunlight floods my face, causing me to giggle slightly. I stare out the open window. I see Natsuki hurrying along the main path towards the building where the club is, desperately trying to hold on to a metal tray which presumably houses the cupcakes. She looks even tinier looking from three floors up. I hear the door creak, and Yuri walks in.

"S-sorry Monika! I hope I'm not too late!" She stumbles over her words in a fit to apologise to me (as per usual), but I just smile at her and gesture with my head to the rest of the classroom. She looks where I'm looking, then back to me, then at her phone, then back at me again. "Where is everyone? I thought I was late!"

"Seems everyone is late today. Natsuki should be here in a few minutes, I just saw her running towards the building. Not sure where Sayori and M-" I catch myself, and cut my speech short. I don't want to reveal to Yuri I know who our new member is. "Not sure where Sayori is. Probably off to get the new member."

"That does sound logical, yes. But I don't see why that should take so long."

"Maybe they're in the arts building?" The Arts block at our school is on the other side of school from the Languages block, and I distinictly recall him being very good at drawing. Not so much writing, but he draw some very nice drawings next to his poems (which to be honest were pretty mediocre), which I assume were just doodles, but most of them were very cool, such as: Bloody and scarily-realistic eyes, a piece of rope, blood, a broken bottle of what I presume was alcohol, and my favourite one: An image of a girl trapped behind some sort of screen, where the screen had a box which read: "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID."

"Ah yes, of course. That makes sense. Her arms and legs start shaking, and she quickly makes her way to her desk and plops down her books, keeping her bag on her back. "I gotta go the bathroom really quick. I won't take long."

I smile at her, and she quickly hurries out of the room. I can hear a mettallic jangle emanating from her bag as she runs out. I raise an eyebrow, but think nothing of it. Not two seconds after Yuri leaves, Natsuki arrives, carrying her tray of cupcakes.

"Oh thank God! I'm not late." She sets her back down on a random desk, balancing her cupcake tray expertly on one hand. "Yo where did Yuri go?"

"To the bathroom. She'll be back soon."

"She didn't take her bag, did she?" Natsuki looks at me intently, a worried expression on her face.

"Yeah she did...?" I ask, confused. "Why? Are you worried about her?"

"Pssh! Me? Hell no! I was just making sure that is all..." She trails off, her voice getting weaker. She stares out the window for a secon, then snaps back to me. "Where shoud I put these?"

"I suppose you could put them in the closet. There might be an empty shelf there."

Natsuki nods and places the tray carefully on the tray at her shoulder level. She walks over and sits on the desk in front of Yuri's, directly facing me. "Let's see how long it takes for her to come back..." Natsuki whispers to herself."

"Sorry what did you say?" I ask her, even though I know exactly what she said.

"Oh nothing." I'm just a little nervous about our new arrival, you know?" She looks at me and I nod. "I wonder what she'll be like..."

I swallow. I'm not prepared for this. We sit in silence for a couple more minutes until Yuri comes back. Her face is red, but other than that she looks much better. She looks happier, more... relieved.

"5 minutes..." Natsuki whispers. "Hmm..." She stands up and walks over to Yuri. "Hey Yuri! How are you?" She grabs Yuri's left arm and puts her left hand on Yuri's right shoulder. Yuri yelps like a small puppy and jumps back. I'm shocked too, that's totally out of character for Natsuki to greet people, let alone Yuri, like that. I see Natsuki's face flash sour for a split second and see her mouth "I knew it." but quickly beams again and steps back.

"H-hi Natsuki! You're a little excited today, hehe..." Yuri laughs nervously and rubs the arm Natsuki grabbed.

"Yeah just looking forward to our new member."

"Y-yeah me too..." Is what Yuri says, but definitely not what she means. She's terrified at the thought of meeting another new person after only just getting used to us. If she knew about him... she'd only be more terrified. She rubs her arm again as if to reassure herself, and smiles slightly, but her eyes look guilty. Before I have a chance to question why Yuri is acting strangely, the door opens with Sayori's typical vigour.

"YOOO WHAT'S UP EVERYONE! THE NEW MEMBER IS HERE!" Sayori shouts.

"I told you, don't call me a new member-" I hear a deep and familiar voice mutter angrily at Sayori, before stopping when he sees me and the other girls. He swallows, then speaks.

"Hello everyone, I'm Mike Charlie. But you can call me Mike."