DDLC: Our Time

Chapter 4: The Club Members

The conversation Monika was having with Alex, a potential new member for the Literature Club, was interrupted by Yuri slowly appearing in the doorway, making her presence known without stepping inside yet.

From outside, she had heard Monika talking to Alex. She didn't want to interrupt, so she simply waited for the conversation to conclude. However, after seeing him enter the club room with her, it quickly became apparent that he was going to be sticking around for longer than she had expected...

"Oh, Yuri! Hey, come in! Alex, this is Yuri. Yuri, this is Alex. He's visiting the Literature Club today." Monika introduced the two of them. Yuri timidly hugged her book to her chest as she slowly stepped inside.

"Um...hello." Yuri greeted him in a quiet voice. Alex smiled and nodded politely.

"Hi, Yuri. Nice to meet you." Alex said. Yuri didn't say anything in return. She simply nodded in reply before making eye contact with Monika, doing her best to be subtle in pleading for help. Monika understood and smiled again.

"Yuri, why don't you get some tea going for everyone?" She suggested.

"I'd...love to!" Yuri replied, quickly making her way to the back of the room to get started.

"She's a little shy." Monika said in a quiet voice to Alex. He scrunched his face and nodded to her, indicating that he understood but he also found Yuri's shy nature humorous.

In that moment, Sayori and Natsuki came in through the door too. They were in the middle of their own conversation, but it got cut short once their eyes fell on Monika and Alex. Natsuki's immediate reaction was a strange, hard-to-read expression, while in contrast, Sayori immediately got excited.

"Alex! You came after all!" Sayori clapped her hands and trotted over to him, "You came through on your promise!"

"Haha, well, I said I would, so..." Alex chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. Now all of a sudden, he was the one who was uncomfortable. Monika couldn't help but smile at his bashfulness.

"Yeah, Sayori had given up on you." Natsuki chuckled teasingly as she came inside.

"Hey, that's not true! I'm being falsely accused!" Sayori said defensively. Alex snickered a little at this.

"Heh, well, sorry about that. I'm here now. I'mma just sit in though, you can all do your thing and just pretend I'm not here." Alex said, hoping to divert some attention off of himself...

Uh, Monika? Can you help me out here? I'm not sure what to write next. I'm drawing a blank!

"Haha, just have a seat! Relax. There's no pressure!" Monika laughed, inviting him to sit down in a desk. Alex grabbed his bag and sat down, nodding appreciatively before clearing his throat.

"We're glad you finally came to visit! Getting a new member is so exciting!" Sayori giggled, sitting down in the desk in front of him so she could continue the conversation.

"Well, he's just sitting in for now. He hasn't made a commitment to anything yet." Yuri pointed out from the back of the classroom.

"Of course, but we still want to make all visitors feel welcome!" Monika smiled. She eyed Natsuki, who was being uncharacteristically quiet. It seemed she didn't know what to say. That was very unlike her.

"So who're you here for, Sayori or Monika?" Natsuki asked with a smug smile, resting a hand on Alex's desk. Monika rolled her eyes and smiled a little; looks like she had something to say after all. She just spoke too soon.

"Uh...I'm not..." Alex stuttered awkwardly. Natsuki just laughed.

"Man! You're just like Yuri. You're so bad under pressure!" She continued to tease him.

"Please don't bring me into this." Yuri commented.

"Haha alright alright. Since everyone's here, we should start today's club meeting." Monika suggested.

"Oh yeah! I forgot!" Sayori realized, spinning around in her chair to face forward.

"About the meeting?" Monika asked.

"Yeah!"

"Hmm, I wonder why." Natsuki smirked as she sat down in her own desk next to Sayori. Yuri quietly took a seat in a row by the opposite wall.

"Okay, everyone! I know we usually save discussions for towards the end, but since we have someone sitting in with us, I figure we can go ahead and just jump right in! Is that alright with everyone?" Monika asked.

"Do we have something to discuss today?" Natsuki asked, not realizing that there was something that needed to be addressed. Monika smiled.

"I have a new club activity for us to try out! I thought it would be fun to pick out a topic for all of us to talk about – something to do with literature of course. Since we all have different interests, I think we could all come at this from a different point of view." Monika explained her thoughts.

"Yay! I love new activities! And when everyone expresses their thoughts!" Sayori giggled.

"Thank you, Sayori. And actually, today's subject is..." Monika picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the blackboard in big capital letters: 'EXPRESSING THOUGHTS'.

"Expressing thoughts?" Natsuki asked.

"Mhmm. Okay, so hear me out. We all enjoy different forms of literature; Sayori likes poetry, Natsuki likes manga, Yuri likes her fantasy novels," Monika gave out some specific examples. "When it comes to expressing thoughts, all forms of literature do it, just in different ways."

"Oh yeah! You're right! Ooh ooh, like how the characters in Yuri's books have really deep conversations! Or-Or like in poetry, you compare things to your feelings!" Sayori chimed in excitedly.

"That's right! There's a million different ways to express something depending on what you're using to express it! And that's what I want to discuss. The differences between expressing thoughts in poetry versus manga versus a novel or a short story, or even conversations! You get the idea." Monika explained.

"Well, I mean, in manga usually they just talk about how they're feeling like all the time, so..." Natsuki commented.

"Well, the clear and concise language does count." Yuri pointed out. The tea kettle started to whistle, so she quickly got up to get it.

"There's also facial expressions and stuff. Or, uh, the way the words are actually written. The font might show that a character's being sarcastic or is really excited." Alex pointed out.

"Yeah...that's right too! Thank you, Alex. I hadn't thought of that." Monika nodded in approval.

"Do you read manga, Alex?" Natsuki asked curiously. She wasn't usually one to ask that question right away, but since he had made a point about it, now she had more interest.

"Not really. I can't get used to the whole reading from right to left thing." Alex chuckled, twisting his hands back and forth to further express the confusion he would feel.

"Oh. Well whatever." Natsuki faced forward again, a little disappointed by that answer. Still, he was right though, so Monika decided to build off of it.

"I'm glad that you pointed that out, Alex, because that's another thing to consider. Take Yuri's books for example. How do a character's actions reflect how they're feeling? When you establish a character and then they start acting differently, you recognize that something's wrong right away." Monika continued.

"Huh, that reminds me of...well, never mind." Natsuki trailed off. She was going to say something, but then she glanced back at Alex and decided not to say it.

"What? What is it, Natsuki?" Monika asked.

"It's nothing! I just...remembered this one arc in a manga I read where one of the characters was acting differently and everyone could tell but no one knew what was wrong, and then later it revealed that they were being mind controlled...

"Yeah, that sounds stupid now that I'm saying it." Natsuki chuckled, folding her arms.

"It's not stupid!" Sayori was quick to jump to her defense.

"That seems to have more to do with establishing characters and behavioral patterns more than conveying thoughts. But it is still a point that was worth making. The tea is ready now." Yuri suddenly spoke up as she walked from the back of the classroom and served tea to everyone.

"Oh! Thank you, Yuri!" Monika said appreciatively as she took her tea and sipped it.

"Thanks, Yuri." Natsuki said, seemingly referring to both the tea and how she'd given validity to her point.

"Mmm thanks, Yuri!" Sayori smiled as she sipped her tea, "You guys would know if I was being mind-controlled, right?" Sayori asked with a hint of actual concern in her voice.

"Ahaha, of course we would, Sayori." Monika giggled.

"Yeah, no one can match your level of energy even if they tried." Natsuki laughed.

"Yay! Then I'm safe!" Sayori sighed in relief.

"I meant to ask before if you liked tea. I-I hope you enjoy it." Yuri said quietly to Alex as she held out his cup.

"Mm," Alex hummed and quickly reached out, taking the cup carefully with both hands. "I'll try it. Thank you." He said appreciatively. Yuri hummed and took a moment to attempt a smile before promptly returning to her desk on the other side of the room.

"Anyways, we got way off track. Conveying thoughts! There's plenty of ways to do it! We'll leave it at that now, but think about how the different ways you can convey your thoughts and feelings in your literature, when talking with each other, or even your writing.

"These little discussions are something I would like to introduce as a new club activity. What do you all think of that?" Monika asked.

"I think it's great!" Sayori answered right away.

"I'm cool with it." Natsuki answered simply with a shrug.

"I appreciated the different perspectives. How applicable it will turn out to be is yet to be seen, but...um..." Yuri fidgeted with her hair, suddenly finding herself unsure of what to say in order to tie her thought together.

"I liked it." She finally concluded before turning away to hide her embarrassed expression.

"Great! Well, for now, we can do our own thing. But I'd like to revisit this topic sometime next week. Sound good?" Monika asked.

"Can't wait! I'm gonna convey my thoughts about conveying thoughts! I'll be like a thought-conveying conveyor belt!" Sayori declared. Both Alex and Natsuki laughed at this.

"Oh my gosh, what the heck, Sayori?" Natsuki shook her head at her.

So everyone started to get up from their chairs and go off into different activities. Yuri opened up her own book to read, while Sayori and Natsuki went towards the back closet of the club room to grab a manga to read. Alex got to his feet as he noticed Monika approaching him.

"Hey, Alex! So, what did you think of the club?" She asked. Alex shrugged.

"Oh, it's nice. The discussion was cool." He answered.

"Yeah? You made some nice contributions! I guess that comes from your writing experience, huh?" Monika asked with a little laugh. Alex smiled.

"Uh, yeah."

"Sayori briefly mentioned that you liked to write, Alex." Yuri commented. Alex flinched in surprise and turned to face her.

"Whoa! Where'd you come from?" He asked with a laugh. Yuri was in the middle of saying something else, but she quickly reacted by moving away.

"Uh, s-sorry! I didn't mean to startle you." She said, blushing in embarrassment and looking away. She fidgeted habitually with her hair.

"Oh, haha, you're alright. What were you gonna say?" He asked.

"Oh, I was just coming to get your tea and happened to overhear. Sorry." Yuri apologized again, reaching for Alex's cup.

"My tea? Oh! I got so caught up in the conversation that I forgot to drink it. My bad." Alex said, attempting to take the cup back.

"You don't have to drink it if you don't want to. It's already gone cold now, so..."

"Oh, alright. Sorry, Yuri. I didn't mean to make you go out of your way and then not drink your tea." Alex apologized again.

"It's fine. You don't need to feel pressured if you aren't interested. I know it's not for everyone." Yuri said, making excuses for him. Alex scratched the side of his head. He didn't even want the tea, and yet now he felt bad for not at least trying it like he said he would.

"I'll for sure try it next time." He hastily promised. Yuri chuckled a little.

"If you wish." She said before turning and walking away with Alex's cup in her hand.

"When did you suddenly become the protagonist?" Monika teased, pressing a hand on his back and standing by him. Alex scoffed and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I? That's embarrassing. How lame of me." He chuckled.

"I think it's sweet," Monika said, sliding her hand down a little. "So, ready to join the Literature Club?" She asked. Alex reached behind his back and took her hand. They held hands behind his back so that the other characters wouldn't see.

"I think that was a good start. So sure." He answered. Monika gently squeezed his hand.

"Great."