Tuesday morning. School. Again.
Natsuki sat up in the sleeping bag and felt disoriented for a moment, surrounded by the interior of Sayori's bedroom rather than her own.
And the cow. That damn cow...
Natsuki shuddered.
Standing up, she glanced over at Sayori, who was still fast asleep. Sprawled out on top of her sheets with her arms and legs pointing every which way, and a small puddle of drool having formed at her mouth, made Natsuki glad she'd gotten the sleeping bag.
Once in the bathroom, she checked herself carefully. She'd had to wear the same uniform throughout the night, but it still looked fresh, even if the clean smell was long gone. As long as nobody came too close to take a whiff, there'd be no problem. The bruise on Natsuki's face has mostly healed by now too, and had receded to her hairline, making it much easier to hide.
Natsuki brushed her teeth, woke Sayori up, and made herself some quick toast. It felt almost as though she was living an ordinary life, like Sayori was her roommate or sister or something, and they were preparing for a completely ordinary school day. She'd almost forgotten her troubles until she checked her phone.
Three calls from her dad and seven messages.
She didn't dare answer, or even read them. Better to let her dad forget about her.
Forget all about her.
Sayori was cheerful and jumpy all the way to school, chattering non-stop about the guy she liked. Apparently Natsuki was the only one who knew of her crush, and finding out had opened a floodgate of new topics for Sayori to talk to her about.
Natsuki just nodded and smiled, trying to take in as much as she could. It was the least she could do, after all.
"I'm gonna tell him in lunch break!"
"Mhm?" Natsuki responded.
"Or do you think I should tell him sooner?" Sayori pondered.
"In my experience," which Natsuki knew was none, "you should always do something like this at the beginning of the big breaks. Then you'll have time before class to recover if things go wrong."
Not as though things were likely to go wrong. Sayori was joyful, caring, and funny. What was there not to like?
"I think everything will be okay!" Sayori sounded confident, echoing Natsuki's thoughts. It did put a smile on her face to see Sayori so excited, so she hoped it would work out for her. Things were finally looking up in her own life, why not in Sayori's as well?
In the end, Sayori decided to find the boy in lunch break and confess to him then. Excited for her, Natsuki found herself smiling during Maths class, for the first time in a very long time. She wasn't sure if anyone noticed, nobody paid any more attention to her than usual, but it felt good.
In fact, she almost enjoyed all of her classes leading up to the break.
But here it was, the big moment.
Natsuki hadn't packed herself a lunch as part of an unfortunate habit, and instead searched for Sayori and the mystery guy. It felt weird that she hadn't even heard the guy's name yet, it was one thing Sayori had never mentioned.
She wandered around the school grounds, looking around. Natsuki had never noticed how barren the outside area was compared to the hallways during break time. Kind of sad, given it was a beautiful day outside. Sighing, Natsuki entered the building again.
She didn't find Sayori, it was instead Sayori who found her.
She was not bouncing off the walls, but was instead walking very normally, very purposefully. Natsuki immediately knew something was up.
Reluctant as she was, she had to ask.
"So how'd it go...?"
"It was okay..." Sayori gave her a small smile and held her composure remarkably well, but Natsuki could see tears welled up in her eyes.
It was not okay.
Sayori stepped a little closer and wrapped her arms around the shorter girl, stifling a sob.
Natsuki looked around over Sayori's shoulder. Nobody was looking. Two girls hugging wasn't exactly a special sight anyway. She raised her arms and embraced Sayori gently.
"I'm sorry..."
"It's okay..." Sayori sniffed, "he said he was already happy with someone else..."
"Who's that?" Natsuki's curiosity got the better of her.
"A girl called TW9uaWth..." Sayori sighed sadly.
"Well I don't know her..." If Sayori's stories and descriptions about the boy were all true, then she was a lucky girl, Natsuki thought. All things considered though, Sayori seemed to be handling it pretty well.
They stood there a while longer, until the bell rang. Sayori wiped her eyes and waved goodbye on her way to her next class, forcing a smile.
She was strong. Natsuki was certain she'd pull through this.
The rest of the school day went by much slower. Natsuki wasn't particularly excited about anything now but getting back to reading her manga in the Literature Club. And maybe coming back to Sayori's house. She'd probably bake the poor girl something to help her take her mind off things. Again, it was the least she could do.
The final bell rolled around after an eternity of staring at textbooks and confusing diagrams, and Natsuki was released back into the hallways. Like usual, she walked in the opposite direction to most of her classmates and ascended the stairs to the upper floor, where the Literature Club was held.
She opened the door and a familiar sight greeted her.
Chairs neatly arranged behind the tables, the desks all lined up perfectly, and Yuri sitting at the other end of the room, staring intensely at a book.
"Hey." Natsuki waved nonchalantly and Yuri looked up from her book, nodding back in friendly greeting.
Off to the closet, then. Sitting down on the floor with her favourite manga in her arms, Natsuki began reading too, letting all her thoughts disappear into the pages of the compelling story.
After a while, she heard the door open and peaked round the corner to see who it was. Sayori stepped into the room more quietly than usual, nodding politely to both Natsuki and Yuri, before sitting down at her usual table and pulling out her notepad.
Natsuki watched her for a while. It's not that she was particularly worried about Sayori, she was just curious about how the girl coped. She was writing. A story, perhaps... maybe a poem? Natsuki recalled she'd done some writing herself in the past, but it wasn't anything she'd ever want to share.
The club meeting wasn't all too different from usual, aside from the fact that Natsuki wasn't interrupted from her peaceful reading for once.
Monika came in a little late, as usual, and had a chat with Sayori, who seemed to cheer up a little. Yuri was quiet, but from the way she stared at her book she looked as though she was having an extremely intimate moment, and Natsuki preferred not to dwell on that for too long.
She sighed happily. Somehow, the Literature Club almost always helped cheer everyone up. But as quickly as it had begun, the meeting ended.
On the way home, Sayori was quiet. She stared ahead, and whenever Natsuki asked her if everything was okay, it would take a couple nudges to get a reaction. Sayori almost took a wrong turn on the way home, too. NOW her behaviour was getting a little worrying. It's like the moment she left the clubroom she'd fallen back into a hopeless slump. Natsuki had no experience with break ups, but she knew they could take some time.
At least, that's what her manga had taught her.
They finally arrived at Sayori's house. The sun was shining as brilliantly as ever, and they walked up to Sayori's room together.
"Listen... anything you need to talk about, I'm here for, okay?"
Sayori nodded.
There was a long silence.
"Can... can I have some water...?" Sayori asked. Her lips were a little dry, Natsuki noted.
"Sure thing."
Natsuki patted her friend on the back gently and stood up. She exited the room and went downstairs. The drinking glasses were a little high up, so she had to be careful, but managed to retrieve one without dropping anything. There wasn't a water filter or anything around, so Natsuki just poured water straight from the tap. It looked clean enough.
She went back upstairs, carrying the glass with her and another for herself. Hopefully Sayori would want to talk more once she had rehydrated herself. Natsuki was actually missing how chatty she used to be. She awkwardly pushed down the handle to open the door and dropped the glasses, screaming.
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