"Okay, you three!" Monika began. "We're all done sharing poems, right? Why don't we start figuring out-"
"Hold on a second! Is it just me or did you say something strange just now?" Natsuki queried.
Natalie nodded in agreement. "What happened to the regular, "okay everyone"?"
"What? I don't say that all the time, not often enough for it to become a catchphrase or anything, anyway," Monika answered awkwardly.
Natsuki rolled her eyes. "Jeez, why is the mood so weird today? Look, even Yuri isn't immune to it."
Yuri blinked herself back to reality and hid her face behind her deep violet hair. "Stagnating air is common foreshadowing that something terrible is about to happen," she shared.
"Great, thanks for telling us," Natalie replied sarcastically. "The only real difference here is the lack of Sayori, that's all. No weird ghosts or other trippy stuff."
"It's fascinating how you can somehow shift your tone so easily from soft and clear spoken to . . . well, to sum it up, "other trippy stuff"." Yuri drew quote marks in the air with her fingers.
"Hey, leave Natalie alone," Natsuki retorted. "At least she doesn't act like a walking talking dictionary 24/7, unlike some people."
"Being well spoken is never a negative trait to have," Yuri disagreed. "And I never explicitly stated that she wasn't so, so that remark was hardly necessary, Natsuki."
Natalie rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Don't make me have to get out the water bottles again, you both," she threatened. Oddly enough, things were perfectly quiet between them after that, as if the threat of being soaked was enough to force the pair to act in a civil manner.
Monika sighed. "Sayori always helps lighten the mood a little bit, doesn't she? It's almost like everyone's balance is thrown off a little when she's not around."
"She probably just got jealous of you and Monika," Natsuki commented dryly.
"I wouldn't be so certain that that is the case, Natsuki," Yuri replied. "As far as I've been made aware by her, Sayori is the only heterosexual in this group—unless you are, of course, Natalie!" Yuri added quickly. Her blush deepened. "I-I apologise for such a sudden presumption."
"Yuri, I'm not straight," Natalie reassured her.
Natsuki let out a low laugh. "Knew it," she muttered to herself victoriously. "So, out of curiosity, how do you identify?"
Natalie shrugged. "If I had to give myself a label, I'd say pansexual, but, like Monika said recently, it's . . . confusing. But, um, anyway, we're getting a little off-topic-"
"You know, before Monika explained to me what pansexual meant a year or two ago, I thought it had something to do with sexual attraction to frying pans," Natsuki stated nonchalantly.
Yuri's eyebrows drew together, and her mouth moved silently as she attempted to string together a coherent response. "Wh-what—who—why would you think that?" she asked in utter bewilderment.
Natsuki shrugged. "What else was I supposed to believe? Sure, I thought it was kinda messed up, but each weirdo to their own, I suppose."
Silence.
Monika clapped her hands together. "As I was saying, we need to figure out the rest of the festival preparations, so let's decide what everyone will be doing this weekend."
Natalie winced. She had been dreading this moment all week. Somehow, she had to choose a girl and work with them on a project, and that would include the other working entirely alone. Unless . . .
"Wait, everyone, I have a way better idea than what Monika was going to suggest—no offence, you're doing great," Natalie assured a suddenly irked Monika. "What if we split off and work together instead of working independently?"
Natsuki crossed her arms. "Huh?"
She sighed. "There are just a few tasks to do, right? Cupcakes, pamphlets, and decorations . . . that is it, right?"
"Well, I hadn't even thought to do decorations, but I don't see why we can't," Monika responded.
Natalie nodded affirmatively. "Right, so we split into two groups. One will do pamphlets and decorations, and one will do cupcakes and . . . I don't know, anything else we come up with at the last minute."
"Bagsy the cupcakes!" Natsuki said quickly.
"Okay, so if Natsuki is on cupcakes, and Sayori and I are on pamphlets and decorations," Monika began, "what do you and Yuri want to do?"
After a moment, Natalie shrugged. "Why doesn't Yuri join you, since she has a good eye for visual things, and I'll work with Natsuki this weekend?"
"Oh, um, are you sure . . .?" Yuri trailed off.
"Yes, you can come over to my house and we can work together!" Monika suggested brightly. "And I guess you'll be baking at Natalie's?"
Natsuki scoffed. "Obviously. She's the one with the big kitchen."
"Alright, but we might need a lot of them," Monika advised, "and different flavours. Can you two handle that?"
"Give me cake mix and a can of frosting, and I can work wonders," Natsuki replied. "Challenge accepted."
"Well, I hope to see everyone do their best," Monika concluded, "but with that, there's nothing more for today, so I guess it's time for us to head out."
"Oh," Yuri spared a glance at the clock on the wall, "quite right. If I stay any longer, I'll be late for my dentist appointment." She quickly grabbed her bag from underneath the table. "It was lovely sharing poems with you all-"
"What do you need to go to the dentist for?" Natsuki asked. "Your teeth are straighter than yourself."
Yuri stared at her, unamused. "Very mature, Natsuki. However, it's vital to receive regular check-ups for such an important part of the body."
"Yeah, I need to leave too," Natalie added. "Long day, you know? Natsuki, I'll message you later."
"You don't even have my number, idiot," Natsuki snapped.
Natalie rolled her eyes. "There's already a group chat with your number? Anyway, I'll be off now," she said as she hurriedly grabbed her bag on the way out of the room. "I'll see you . . ."
She'd only made it half way down the corridor when Monika managed to catch up with her footsteps. They walked beside each other towards the darkened stairwell.
"Want a lift home if Sayori isn't walking with you?" Monika offered.
Natalie raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realise you drive."
Monika removed a set of car keys from her pocket. "Finally, something you don't know about me. Honestly, at this point it seems as though you know me better than I do myself."
Natalie didn't so much as laugh in response. Her eyes lingered between the wall ahead of them and the stairs they were descending.
"You're still down about Sayori, huh?" Monika asked. "Natalie, come on, you're working yourself into an absolute mess over this. I saw you skip your lunch today."
"I didn't skip my lunch."
"Then I'm sure you'd be fine with me checking your bag to see if there's an untouched cucumber sandwich in there," she retorted as they reached the bottom of the stairs that followed out to the student car park. Monika led them a few feet towards a white Ford Fiesta. "Don't you think that skipping meals might just be a little counter-productive?"
Natalie climbed into the passenger seat beside Monika. "I don't skip meals. Besides, as long as Sayori and the others make it out of the next few weeks, why do you care?"
Monika sighed and started up the engine. "I see I gave you a much worse impression of myself when we first met than I let myself believe. While I want to do whatever I can to help the other girls, I certainly don't want it to be at another's expense—oh jeez, some people really can't drive!" She honked the car horn once so that it echoed through the car park as another student pulled away slowly after narrowly missing her bumper. ". . . As I was saying, I'm not exchanging the other three for you. You'd be sorely mistaken to believe that . . . On another note, you seemed to be enjoying yourself in the clubroom today."
"Façade," Natalie replied. "I'm getting as good at it as you."
"Well, nonetheless, that's certainly a good skill to master," Monika advised. "And that was really great thinking, making sure that no one was working completely alone this weekend." Natalie merely nodded and kept her eyes on the view out of her window. "If you haven't eaten, how does takeout sound? There's a really nice sushi place on the way back."
Natalie snorted and covered her mouth. "Like a date?"
"N-no, I didn't mean it like that!" Monika pleaded. "I just meant as friends. That's it."
"I was kidding," Natalie responded. "But yeah, I could go for sushi."
After a moment, she felt another hand envelop hers. She glanced down to see that Monika had briefly removed her hand from the gearbox to hold Natalie's hand tightly, their fingers entwined together. Her emerald green eyes never left the road ahead.
"Things have a way of working out Natalie," Monika reassured her, rubbing the back of her hand with her thumb. "I promise."
It was quite early on Sunday morning that Natalie reached Sayori's front door and knocked on it a few times. She was already dressed after having found one of three default outfits in her wardrobe, despite the fact that it was barely past 8 o'clock already.
"Hey, Sayori?" Natalie rang the doorbell.
Nothing.
With a light sigh, she pushed open the door, glad that it had been left unlocked in the first place, and started up the stairs towards Sayori's room. She'd been told during the week that her parents were already out at work by 6, so at least her barging into the house wouldn't have seemed quite as strange.
Natalie reached for the door handle to the room childishly labeled, "Sayori's Room" and began to push down on it gently. "Hey Sayori, can I come in?"
"Sure," Sayori answered quietly. Natalie opened the door to find her sat on the edge of her bed, staring out of her bedroom window. There was a blanket loosely draped over her lap. "Hi Natalie."
Natalie took a deep steadying breath. "Sayori, can I talk to you about something?" she asked as she sat herself down opposite her, which was only made possible by folding her school uniform and moving it from her desk chair to her wardrobe.
Sayori looked at her, puzzled, but still forced a smile nevertheless. "Okay . . . what about?"
"Look, I-I'm just going to cut to the chase because I don't know how else to tiptoe around this," Natalie began. "Sayori, there's obviously something wrong happening with you right now. I . . ." She grimaced at the ceiling. Hopefully, it would just be like ripping off a bandaid. Like an excruciating mental bandaid. "I know you're . . . you're suffering from depression, and I can only imagine how much you're struggling, but I've never seen you this bad before, and I'm worried. I-I really am."
"Oh," Sayori said, only the slightest tinge of surprise. "I'm not surprised you figured it out. You've always been clever, Natalie. I mean, why do you think I'm late to school every day? Because most days I can't even find a reason to get out of bed. What reason is there to do anything when I fully know how worthless I am? Why go to school? Why eat? Why make friends? Why make other people put their energy and caring to waste by having them spend it on me? That's what it feels like, and that's why I just want to make everyone happy, without anyone worrying about me."
"Sayori . . ." Natalie moved across the room to sit on the bed beside her and internally debated on whether to hug her or not. "Have you . . . have you at least been seeing someone about this? Please tell me you have."
Sayori shrugged and smiled blankly. "Why does it matter?"
"Because I don't want to lose you, goddamnit!" Natalie snapped. She hurriedly reined in her temper. "I-I've been seeing how much worse you've gotten over the last few days, and the last thing I want is to lose you. I think you know what I mean by that."
A single tear began to run down Sayori's cheek, but she made no effort to wipe it away. "There's nothing left that can help, Natalie," she replied. "I know you mean well, but there's not. I made you join the Literature Club because I was selfish. And I was punished by my heart hurting in a way that I couldn't understand. And now you came here and I made you hurt too."
"Sayori, you know that's not true-"
"There's no need to lie to spare my feelings," she interjected. "I'm just weak and selfish. That's what I am."
"No, you're not," Natalie said. "Someone caring about you doesn't make you selfish. It's a sign that you're the opposite, that you're a person worth caring about, a person genuine enough to stay up all night worrying about. You invited me to the Literature Club to make more friends, and I did just that, and I'm glad you gave me that opportunity. But I'm not going to just stop spending time with you because of that."
Sayori shook her head. "You're too nice to me . . . you just don't make it easy . . ."
"If I made things easy, I wouldn't be myself, would I?" she quipped in reply. "How about this: Natsuki's coming around to mine to make cupcakes in a few hours. Why don't you come too? We have a lot of frosting to pipe and only two sets of hands to do so with. We could really use the help."
"Oh, Natalie, I know what you're doing . . ." Sayori went quiet and then let out a very small, hollow giggle. "But you don't have to. I want you to go and enjoy Natsuki's company. I don't know if something like that would be very good for me today. You understand, right? I'll just—I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
Very reluctantly, Natalie nodded. She fought back any tears of her own. This wasn't the time for her own emotions to take the stage. She just had to let it go. She'd done all she could, after all.
"Yeah. Just be there though, okay? If not, Natsuki might explode from the amount of fried squid she eats, and Yuri will be all awkward without someone like you to talk to."
"I guess so," Sayori responded meekly before forming a faint smile.
Natalie hadn't even been unpacking the baking supplies she'd bought for 5 minutes before her phone buzzed on the counter. Quickly placing down a tub of yellow lemon flavoured frosting, she reached for her phone, only to find a message from Natsuki.
Natsuki:
natalieee
i'm outside your house. let me in. or don't, i guess.
Natalie rolled her eyes and placed her phone back down to answer the front door. Unsurprisingly, Natsuki was waiting just on the porch, and immediately let herself into the hall and removed her shoes at the door.
"'sup?" she said briskly. "Jeez, don't make me feel awkward already. You're supposed to say something back."
"O-oh, right, hey," Natalie replied distractedly as she closed the front door. "Sorry, I was just a little distracted. You do realise you didn't have to bring anything, right?" she asked.
Natsuki led the way towards the kitchen with two carrier bags full of ingredients and cupcake trays. She placed them down on the counter with a thud. "Well, I didn't want to come all this way to find out that your kitchen isn't equipped for the job, unlike you-know-who."
"You do realise that Monika isn't some noseless dark wizard, right?" Natalie confirmed.
Natsuki narrowed her eyes at her suspiciously. "You are so weird. Anyway, you bought everything I asked you to, right?"
"I spent more than I spend on groceries in a month, but yes, we're practically swimming in cupcake ingredients now," Natalie told her.
"Good, at least you're not entirely good-for-nothing," Natsuki remarked. "Are we getting started or what? There's a lot of stuff I gotta teach you."
"I think I know how to make cupcakes," Natalie reasoned.
"Exactly, you think so," Natsuki argued. "But in reality, your cupcake-baking skills are probably substandard. Not everyone knows how to make a decent cupcake, and that's just how the world works. And besides, stop treating me like a kid and being all condescending and stuff. Just because I don't have a mature and sexy figure like Yuri doesn't mean you should treat me like . . . ah, fuck it, forget I said anything," she snapped.
"Um . . . Natsuki-"
"No-thing. Got it?" Natsuki murmured darkly.
Natalie nodded and hid her smirk. "Your little secret's safe with me."
"What secret?" she demanded.
"The secret that you're head over heels for Yuri," Natalie replied bluntly. "I mean, it was obvious before, but that's just verbal confirmation now, I guess."
Natsuki's lip curled. "Gross."
"So, if you don't have feelings for Yuri, I'm sure you wouldn't mind me telling her that you think she's gross-"
Natsuki suddenly froze, holding yet another cupcake tray midair. The blood drained from her face. "Try it. I dare you."
"I won't, I won't," Natalie assured her. "Seriously, I promise, I was just teasing you. I mean, if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure Yuri feels the same about you, you know-"
"Oh my God, just stop talking!" Natsuki retorted exasperatedly.
"Fine, fine." Natalie laughed under her breath. "I guess we'd better start making cupcakes then. These things won't bake themselves."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: Again, such a big update in such a short space of time. Don't get too comfortable though hahah, during the week I reckon updates will be much fewer than weekends.
As you can see, shit's really starting to hit the fan now. I think by this point you can guess what event happens next chapter which, in an odd way, I'm quite looking forward too, because that's when things start getting interesting.
You might have also noticed that I've started dropping some hints at a brewing relationship between Natsuki and Yuri. Of course, the sexual orientations of the girls aren't canon, so I suppose I just sort of took advantage of that and made all the girls except Sayori gay asf aha.
Thank you so much for all of the feedback last chapter! It really is a reassurance that people are enjoying this story so far, so I'll try my best not to make it shitty and let you down eheh.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily (it stands for 'I love you' by the way hahah) lots!