"I feel terrible," those three words were the only thing that circulated through Shujinkou's head from the moment he left the Literature Club meeting to when the lunch bell rung the net afternoon. Not only did he feel bad about wasting the club's time, he couldn't help but feel disappointed in himself for how he left Sayori. "Maybe, that's why I didn't see her this morning."

"Shujinkou?"

Shujinkou glanced up and was completely taken aback once he laid eyes on Monika.

"M-Monika? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to eat lunch together," Monika suggested with a smile.

Shujinkou's eyes widened with shock as he tried to process what he was just asked. Why would the school's idol want to eat lunch with him? That was the only thought in his head as he opened his lunchbox.

"Hey, Monika…" Shujinkou said.

"Yeah?" Monika looked up from her meal with curious eyes.

"How come you asked me to eat lunch with you?"

"To be honest, I wanted to see if you were okay. You kinda left in a hurry yesterday."

"Oh."

Shujinkou scratched his right cheek as he sheepishly looked down at his food.

"About that… I'm sorry about yesterday," Shujinkou apologized.

"Sorry? Sorry about what?" Monika inquired.

"Not joining the club and suddenly leaving?"

"There's no need to apologize about that. The club's not for everyone. But there is something I wanted to know."

Shujinkou looked back up, curious to know what Monika wanted to ask.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Sayori once said that you weren't interested in joining any clubs," said Monika. "Why's that?"

"Oh. Well, to be honest, they're just not really my thing."

"Why not?"

"I'm just not interested. I prefer to just go home after school and do my own things."

"Is that really all there is to it?"

Shujinkou diverted his gaze and sighed. All he could answer her question with was a simple, "Yeah."

Monika silently stared at him as she continued to eat her meal.

"Okay then," she said. "But if you ever change your mind about joining the club or just want to visit us, just know that you can."

"R-really?" Shujinkou replied, perplexed. "That's kind of a…"

"Sudden and strange offer to someone that 3/4ths of the club doesn't know that well," Monika casually interrupted.

Shujinkou didn't know how to respond to her on-point deduction, nor did he know if he should feel amazed or scared.

"Uh, yeah… What you just said," he nodded.

"It does sound strange but I'm sure Sayori would really like it if you at least visited now and then, especially since she talks about you so much," Monika explained.

"S-She does?" Shujinkou couldn't hide how surprised he was to hear that.

"All the time. It's probably why she convinced Natsuki to bring in cupcakes."

Shujinkou was rendered speechless by what he just heard. He never thought Sayori would talk about him so much after so long. But all that information did was make the disappointment he felt in himself grow and flourish.

Suddenly, Monika stood up and said, "Well, I got somewhere to be, so I gotta cut this conversation short."

"That wouldn't be your way of trying to inflict irony on me, is it?" Shujinkou asked.

"No, I wouldn't do that. It's just that I promised to help a teacher with something after I finish my lunch. But I really do hope to see you later," Monika smiled and waved goodbye as she disappeared into the distance.

"I still kind of feel the irony…" Shujinkou sighed.

He promptly finished his lunch and returned to class. But he was unable to listen to the teacher's words. All he could think about was what Monika had said to him. That thought would linger in his mind throughout the day and as he returned home.

"Welcome home, Shujinkou," Hiro approached her son and was slightly surprised by the solemn look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Hey, mom... Do you ever feel like that I'm like my father?" Shujinkou asked.

"No. Why would you ever ask that?"

"Because I kinda feel like that I've been caught in myself so much that I haven't really thought about those around me. Doesn't that sound like my father?"

"Shujinkou… Jomei's a lot more complicated than that. You shouldn't really use him as an example to compare yourself to."

"But…" Shujinkou's mind replayed his most recent conversation with Sayori. "I left someone when they wanted me to stay. I ran away instead of dealing with the situation when it happened. That kinda sounds like something my father would."

"Shujinkou…" Hiro gently placed her hand on her son's head. "Well, do you feel bad about leaving this person?"

"Yeah."

"Then I think we both know what you need to do. You need to talk to Sayori."

"Huh? How did you know?"

"I am a mother. I'm supposed to know this kind of stuff. That and I think Sayori's the only who can elicit such a reaction from you."

Shujinkou scratched his right cheek.

"But… What can I say to her?" Shujinkou queried.

"That's something you'll to find out for yourself," Hiro smiled as she ruffled her son's head.

It wasn't the answer he was looking for, but Shujinkou knew it was the right one.

"Thanks, mom," he thanked before he heading to his room.

Later that evening, Hiro found herself in a familiar situation just as she heard the sound of the doorbell reverberate through the house. She shuffled her way to the front door and opened it to find Sayori on the other side.

"Hey, Auntie H," Sayori waved.

"Hey, Sayori," Hiro sheepishly chuckled.

Sayori's eyes scanned Hiro's body and the layers of yarns that constricted it.

"What happened?" Sayori queried.

"Just something that happens sometimes when my sewing teacher is unavailable," Hiro replied. "In fact, if I was mom or Shujinkou, I would probably be scratching my right cheek right now."

"Speaking of Shujinkou… Is he here?"

"Uhm, yeah. He's been upstairs ever since he got home. You're free to head up there if you want."

Accepting the invitation, Sayori eagerly skipped into the house and jumped up the steps. Once upstairs, she opened Shujinkou's door and found him lying in bed.

"Shujinkou, are you asleep?" she whispered.

Nothing but silence answered her question.

"I see…" Sayori walked into the room and plopped herself on the floor. "Sorry for not walking to school with you this morning. I kinda oversleep this morning. Though, maybe you'd rather be alone now that I think about.

Um… You know, I'm kinda glad you're sleeping right now, because I don't think I could say this to your face. We haven't really hung out for awhile now and I know it's because of what happened all that time ago, but… I don't know if you thought about me until a few days ago and even if you haven't, I always thought about you. Always wondering what I could do to help you smile again. But I could never think of anything and could do nothing but watch you be sad. But after Yuri said that you were special to me, I realized that I couldn't consider myself a good friend if I didn't still try to find a way to make you happy again. The club is a fun place and I thought if I could get you to join, then you would smile again.

At least, that's what I thought at first. When I really thought about it after you left, maybe I was really thinking about myself. I begged you to try and find a club you liked and tried my hardest to make sure you would visit our club; hoping that you liked it enough to join it. Because it would have been really fun if we were in a club together. It would have been like the old days when we used to play together. But we soon grew apart and… I felt really lonely. Really, really lonely. Talking about you kind of helped but it wasn't really enough. I really wanted to you to join the club because I… I really wanted my best friend back. But in the end, it was just a selfish wish. Everything I did in the past few days was me being selfish. I never even considered what you wanted. How you just wanted to be left alone.

I get it now though. Now I know that if I can really consider myself your friend, I have to leave you be. It may be hard for someone as selfish as me to do, but I'm sure I can manage it."

Sayori jumped onto her feet and immediately realized that she forgot something else.

"Though now that I think about it, I may have to find a way to say that to you when you're awake," she said as she walked to the door. As her hand tightly gripped the doorknob, she quickly looked back at her friend.

"See ya, Shujinkou," a small smile formed on her face as she tried her best to blink back her tears.

The very next afternoon, Sayori skipped into the clubroom and noticed Monika writing at the teacher's desk.

"You working on your mystery story again, Monika?" Sayori asked.

"Who told you?" Monika gasped.

Sayori's curiosity spiked before Monika started giggling.

"Just kidding," Monika said. "You're not getting any hints that easily. But anyway, what I'm really doing is updating our club info so that it shows that we have 5 members now."

"5 members?" Sayori's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Did we get a new member?"

"Mm-hmm. The new member should be here soon."

"Really? I wonder what they're like."

Monika simply smiled at the young Vice-President as they heard a familiar voice ask, "Am I too late?"

Sayori quickly turned around and was shocked to find Shujinkou standing behind her.

"Shujinkou?!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, it wouldn't look good if the newest member missed his first club meeting," Shujinkou replied, scratching his right cheek.

"Eh!? You're our newest member?!"

"Yeah, I asked Monika if I could join this morning."

Sayori blankly stared at Shujinkou. Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around him and started jumping up and down.

"You're in the club! You're in the club!" Sayori cheered. "But wait, what made you change your mind?"

"I kinda realized that I really didn't give the club a chance and… To make a long story short, I decided to join the club," Shujinkou answered.

"Oh, that makes sense," Sayori nodded.

"It does?" Natsuki interjected. "He only told you the beginning and end result of the story."

"It doesn't really matter. As long as it ended with him joining the club," Sayori beamed.

"Then why did you ask for an explanation…?" she sighed in disbelief.

"Moving on; Now that everyone is here, we can finally get today's meeting started," Monika announced.

"Yeah!" Sayori cheered.

"Hey, uh, Sayori…" the young VP looked at Shujinkou and shot him curious look. He scratched his right cheek and continued with, "Never mind. I'll tell you later."

"Um… Okay," she grinned.

"Selfish": The End