Chapter 3: Memories

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

My eyes slowly opened as I was awoken by the constant beeping of the alarm clock. I kept my head under the covers, hoping to drown out the noise to no avail. Fed up with its infernal beeping, I peeked my head above the covers to locate it. I stared at the alarm clock with infinite hatred. I moved my hand above the OFF-button and...

"TEXAS SMASH!" I yelled as I slammed my fist against the button. The horrid beeping finally stopped, and I was left in complete silence with the exception of Mc's laughs ringing out from elsewhere in the house.

'I just stole a joke from him, and he didn't even know about it.' I thought. I groggily sat up and swung my legs over the side of my bed. As I did this, a sheet of paper was flung out from under the covers. It fluttered through the air for a moment, before landing softly on the floor a meter from my bed.

I stood up and stretched, then took a few steps to the paper. I leaned down and picked it up, turning it around to find it was the letter that Monika gave me when I woke up here for the first time. Not wanting Mc to find it, I pocketed the letter in my school uniform, still hanging in the closet, so I could dispose of it later.

I quickly got ready for the day, putting on my glasses, watch, and uniform. I walked by my desk, snatching up my poem as I did so, and left through the door. I found Mc (again) sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal with another bowl for me.

"Do you only eat cereal for breakfast?" I asked. Mc looked up from his bowl of cereal.

"I eat cereal for breakfast before school, but I cook breakfast on the weekends." He answered. "During the week, I usually don't have enough time or energy to cook in the morning, and cereal is a quick and easy breakfast."

"Fair." Was all I said. At this point, it seemed like Mc was a bit less dense and planned things out more than he did in the game. In the game, he was just a cardboard cutout of a protagonist. Just like with Monika, it was nice to see Mc like this.

The rest of the morning went about the same as it did yesterday. We finished breakfast, I went to the bathroom, and we walked out the front door. Sayori was standing on the sidewalk outside of Mc's house waving her entire arm at us.

"Hi, Mc! Hi, Alex!" She greeted us VERY enthusiastically. With her arm raised in the air like that, I caught a glimpse of something pink behind her. Mc seemed to have seen it too, because he squinted his eyes in suspicion.

"Sayori, what's that behind you?" He asked slowly. Sayori suddenly looked very flustered.

"N-no one! I mean... nothing!" Sayori was desperately trying to cover up whoever was behind her back, but I could already tell exactly who it was. No one else had hair that pink.

"Natsuki, is that you?" I asked, leaning around Sayori for a better look. Natsuki's voice rang out from behind Sayori's back.

"See?! I told you they wouldn't fall for it!" She called, exasperated. She walked out from behind Sayori, exposing her presence to the people who already knew she was there. Sayori looked down, saddened. With me being the only one there that knew about her depression, that expression worried me.

'Should I try to console her later? Maybe tell her I know about her depression?' I debated internally. 'No, that's Monika's job. Helping Natsuki should be my number-one priority.'

"Not to be disrespectful or anything, but... why is Natsuki here?" Mc inquired. Sayori looked back up at us, back being overly excited. Her mood changed as if someone flicked a light switch inside of her, and she was back to the bubbly, carefree girl she always was.

"Nat was walking by my house this morning, and I thought she'd like to walk with us!" Sayori announced happily. Natsuki, feeling a bit left out, jumped in on the conversation.

"It's not like I WANTED to... it was just... convenient..." Natsuki grumbled, trailing off. Sayori laughed, Mc chuckled, and even I couldn't suppress a smile.

"SHUT UP!" Natsuki screamed. Sayori came up from behind Natsuki and gave her a hug, smiling happily.

"You're so cute when you're angry!" Sayori commented. If Natsuki's blood were actually flowing through her veins and NOT being cut off by Sayori's hug, she probably would've turned red from rage. It got weirder when Sayori began to lift Natsuki off the ground with her hug. I walked up to the both of them.

"Okay, Sayori. I think that's enough. Natsuki needs to breathe, you know." I pointed out. Sayori lowered Natsuki to the ground and slowly let go of her, much to Natsuki's relief. She shook her arms to make sure her blood was flowing again as we all stood there.

"If Natsuki's going to be joining us on our walk to school, shouldn't we be going, now?" Mc asked, impatiently. Me, Sayori, and Natsuki all looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement. We all began to walk as a group of four down the street.

"So, Natsuki." I began. "Since you were walking by Sayori's house, that would mean that hers and Mc's houses are on the way to and from school for you, right?" Natsuki took a while to answer. She looked like she was choosing her words carefully, as if she was worried she'd accidentally say something she shouldn't.

"Not exactly..." She answered after a while. "I usually take a side path for my route to and from school because I don't want to deal with the large crowds! Is there anything wrong with that?!" Her sudden outburst surprised me. So much so that I found myself stuttering.

"N-no! I-I wasn't implying that there was something wrong with that! I was just curious!" I defended myself. Natsuki crossed her arms and put on a pouty expression. She looked like she wanted to say sorry, but just couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Wait, so if you usually take a different route, then why did you go this way today?" Mc inquired, confused. Natsuki stared at him blankly, like the answer to that question was obvious. After finding out he was actually serious, she sighed and answered:

"Because there was construction on my normal route that was taking up the whole road." She looked at Mc. "Shouldn't that be obvious?" Mc looked even more confused.

"No... that's not obvious." He admitted. "We don't really get that much construction here." I laughed at this fact while everyone stared at me. I just found it so funny that Mc wasn't used to having construction going on around him.

"What's so funny?" He asked me. It took me a few seconds to stop laughing, then I looked at him.

"Back in Canada, there's two seasons: Winter... and construction." I joked. Natsuki and Sayori burst out laughing while Mc just stared at me, more confused than ever. No matter how perceptive you make Mc, there'll always be at least a little bit of density to his personality.

"I don't get it." He said. I sighed and explained it to him. I felt stupid for having to do it, but he joined in with the laughter when I did, which easily made up for it. We continued laughing and joking around all the way to school, where we split up and individually made our ways to our lockers.

As I got to my locker, I walked by a short boy, probably a first year, who looked up at me in wonder. I ignored him while I sorted my stuff out at my locker and turned to him to find him still looking at me with that same wonder-filled stare. It was starting to make me uncomfortable, so I attempted to talk to him.

"Um... why are you staring at me like that?" I asked. He snapped out of his stupor and noticed what he'd been doing. He smiled at me and asked:

"Y-you're Alex, right?" He asked in wonder. I took a step back, wondering how this kid could've known who I was. Looking back at him, he looked like your normal ninth-grader. He was shorter than me, had brown hair, green eyes, wore large glasses, and had the air of an overwhelmed but excited kid. I took a breath and answered.

"Yeah. I'm Alex. Transferred in from Canada just yesterday. How did you know?" I asked. He looked at me as if I should know how he knew me. I didn't.

"How could I not?!" He exclaimed. "You beat up Okane and Chad!" I let out an "oooohhhhh" and started thinking. If this kid knew that I beat them up, then how much of the school knew? Would I get in trouble? Would I suddenly become some sort of school celebrity? I shook the thoughts out of my head and continued on with the conversation.

"Oh, I didn't know it was such a big deal. Have they been bullying you?" I asked. The kid quickly nodded. I laughed. He took a few steps closer and looked at me.

"How did it happen? What's the story behind you beating them up?" He asked. I felt reluctant to answer at first in case it was too personal for the others, so I chose to be a bit vague with it.

"Well, I encountered them in the hallway while I was looking for my clubroom. I pushed my way past them and walked into one of my friends from my club. They began to call her names and she started to cry." I paused to let it sink in, since this was getting long. "I'm protective of my friends, so I turned back to Okane and Chad and began to yell at them. They ran at me with their fists raised, and you should know the rest." I finished the story and the kid was slack jawed in awe.

The bell rang, signifying the beginning of first period. I said goodbye to the kid and made my way to math.

*One class later*

Again, math wasn't very difficult. I picked up all my stuff and walked out the classroom door. As I did, I was surprised to find Natsuki walking by my classroom. I wondered why I didn't see her yesterday, then remembered that everyone has different classes every semester, so she was probably still working out her routes through the school. I walked beside her and her head snapped to me. After seeing that it was me, she exhaled in relief.

"Oh, it's you." She said, relieved.

"Who else would it be?" I asked. Natsuki huffed in annoyance, although I could tell it wasn't directed at me.

"Okane usually bullies me on my way to science." She explained. Again, I just couldn't believe the determination that those bullies had just to insult people. It was bad enough when bullies did it when it was convenient for them, but it was just so much worse when they actively went out of their way for the "cause".

"Well, what if we walked together to science every day?" I suggested. Natsuki's face turned completely red and she began to stutter.

"I-I don't need your protection!" She exclaimed. I could feel my own face getting warm, even though I never meant what I said to her in that way. I quickly tried to explain.

"That's not what I meant!" I told her. I took a deep breath and continued. "What I meant was; they would probably steer clear after what happened yesterday." Natsuki's expression softened, transitioning into a sly smile. 'Uh oh..' I thought.

"Oh? Well in that case..." Natsuki began talking in a (somehow) higher pitched voice. "Thank you for protecting me from those bullies, Hero-kun! You're so strong and courageous!" She mocked.

(Author's Note: I'm so sorry.)

Instead of getting embarrassed, I chose to go along with the joke.

"You're welcome, Nat-chan! I could never leave a cute little girl in trouble!" Natsuki's blush returned in full force, somehow even more intense than last time. She stuttered for a few seconds before responding.

"I-I'm not cute!" She exclaimed. She punched me in the arm, which hurt a lot. She had a lot of power in that tiny frame, huh? I rubbed my arm in pain, and Natsuki looked concerned.

"Oh, crap! Are you okay?" She asked, concerned. I nodded my head and brought my hand away from my arm.

"I'm fine." I said. "You know, Sayori said you have trouble getting along with people. If that's true, then why have you been so nice to me?" Natsuki seemed a bit uncomfortable and troubled by the question, as if she didn't want to answer, but also couldn't quite figure it out herself.

"I'd rather not answer that right now, Alex." She stated. "Also, did you just call me Nat?" I took a few seconds to understand what she meant, then realized that I must have unintentionally called her by the nickname that Sayori gave her.

"Oh, sorry. Sayori called you that, and I just kind of..." I trailed off. Natsuki laughed it off.

"Don't worry about it." She said. "I'm not getting angry over something as small as that. I'm not that easily insulted. You can call me Nat." She smiled. It was kind of rare to see Natsuki smile like that. It wasn't a smug smile, it wasn't a fake smile, it was just a smile of happiness. I liked to see Natsuki like that.

We finally walked into the science classroom just as the bell rang. We took our seats and listened to the teacher's lessons while taking down some notes.

*One class later*

The lunch bell finally rang after an honestly long and boring class. The class began to get up and leave while Natsuki and I did the same. As we did, Natsuki turned to me.

"Hey, Alex? Didn't you notice them?" She vaguely asked. I was incredibly confused by this vague question. So much so that I completely froze in confusion, which I didn't even know could happen. I turned to her slowly.

"What do you mean by that? Who didn't I notice?" Before I got a straight answer, someone poked me in the back. Hard. I turned around as fast as I could in surprise, and came face-to-face with the blonde asshole Okane. Looking around, I saw that the teacher had already left the classroom. I sighed and looked straight at Okane.

"What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Want." I forcefully said. Okane had a smug grin on his face, and kept it that way as he spoke.

"I just wanted to talk to the Eskimo. Is there anything wrong with that?" He said like a dick. I put on a (hopefully) equally smug smile.

"You sure are talking big for someone who lost a fight to a gamer the other day. How's that head healing, by the way?" I saw a ghost of anger pass across his face, but he quickly covered it up.

"I heard some little kid mentioning me." He leaned to the side to get a look at Natsuki, but I moved my body to block his view. He shrugged. "Not like it matters."

"Listen, buddy. I don't want to have to deal with your shit right now." I stated. "So, let me ask you one more time before things get ugly: What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Want?" Okane dropped his smug façade and put on a bored expression.

"I'm not sure, Eskimo. Maybe I just wanted to tell you about the rumors." He answered. I knew exactly what he meant by that. He was about to tell me about a bunch of rumors around the club members, but I was having none of it.

"Listen up here, Burondo." I forced a finger at his chest, shoving him back. "I've already heard those bullshit rumors. I don't care about what you have to say about my friends, but I will tell you one thing." I leaned into his face and talked in a tone of pure hatred. "Even if the rumors were true, I'd still defend my friends from you and that pathetic shit stain, Chad. Because no matter what, they will always deserve more than you ever did."

Okane was speechless from what I said. For the next thirty seconds, all he did was stare at me in shock. After that, instead of pushing my buttons even more, he just turned towards the door and left, that shocked expression still on his face. I turned back to Natsuki, who was looking down at her feet. She then talked in a quiet voice.

"Have you really heard the rumors?" She asked. I had to stick with what I said to Okane, or else she probably wouldn't trust me anymore.

"Yeah. I've heard them. Mostly the ones about Yuri." I said sadly. I technically only knew about the ones about Yuri, and that one of them was true.

"Do you really believe any of them?" Natsuki looked up, looking desperate.

"Whether I believe that any of them are true isn't important. Nor is it important if any of them are true or not. What's important is that I don't give a shit about them. I know what kind of person you are, Nat. Same goes for the rest of the club. You're all good people." I told her. Natsuki smiled.

"Thanks, Alex." She said. She stared at me softly, and I could've sworn I saw a feeling of hope and affection pass behind her eyes. After a few seconds, she noticed what she'd been doing and looked away with a blush on her cheeks.

"We should get to the cafeteria." She blurted out. "The others are probably waiting for us." I looked at my watch and saw that we'd been in that classroom for five minutes past the bell. I nodded and we began to make our way out. I followed Natsuki out of the classroom, remembering to dump Monika's letter in the recycling next to the door.

*Five minutes later*

We walked through the double doors to the cafeteria and I scanned the room looking for the others. It wasn't too hard to spot them, as Sayori was (again) waving her arms in the air like a maniac to get my attention. Natsuki and I made our way to the table that the club was at and sat down.

I sat in the middle with Natsuki on my left, and Mc to my right. Directly across from me sat Monika, across from Natsuki sat Sayori, and across from Mc sat Yuri. We all began chatting about random things while we ate, which made me feel something I hadn't felt in a long time. I was reminded of all those times I'd spent talking to my friends during lunch at school.

I froze, feeling a sudden pang of sadness. 'My friends...' I thought. I lost who I was back when they died. I barely ate, talked, or slept for the two years between that time and my parents' deaths. I always felt guilty for my survival over them. I was never able to face their families after that event, but I was always able to imagine the looks of shock on their faces when they learned that their kid was dead.

Images of the horrible scene flashed through my mind. The mangled body of Kyle, his right arm blown off from the explosion, with his other limbs all bent at unnatural angles. The bloody mess of Aurora's body, crushed by the school caving in, the only thing intact being her pain-stricken face. Finally, there was the image of James being gunned down by a man wearing a gas mask and all black. His body fell to the ground atop the rubble of the school, the last of my closest friends to die.

Suddenly, I was jolted out of the nightmare and found myself sitting bolt upright in a cold sweat on a white bed. My throat felt sore, as if I'd been screaming. My heart was pounding. I looked around me frantically, only to find out I didn't have my glasses on. I quickly noticed them on a side table to my right and snatched them, throwing them onto my face.

I was in the school infirmary laying in a hospital bed, surrounded by six people. From left-to-right, they were Sayori, Mc, Yuri, Monika, Natsuki, and a tall man with black hair who was wearing a doctors' coat. Noticing my awakening, Sayori lurched forward and pulled me into a hug. She began to cry into my shoulder, clearly relieved.

"O-oh, t-thank G-god..." She stuttered. I put my arms around her, thoroughly confused by the situation.

"What happened?" I asked. Mc walked up closer behind Sayori and began to explain.

"Well, the rest of us were having a conversation when you just... blanked out." He explained. "Suddenly, you began to scream and foam at the mouth. You collapsed into Natsuki and started shaking violently. We didn't know what was happening, so we got the nurse and-" Sayori looked me in the eyes and interrupted Mc.

"He said you were having a panic attack!" She cried out loudly.

"Actually, to be more specific," the nurse started, "he had a post-traumatic-stress-disorder-induced panic attack."

I was shocked. Looking around me, I could tell that the others had a similar reaction, except for Sayori, who was looking at him in confusion.

"What does that mean?" She asked with tears still in her eyes. The nurse opened his mouth to explain, but Yuri beat him to the punch.

"Post-traumatic stress disorder is where someone is able to remember a physically or emotionally traumatic event with incredibly vivid detail, sometimes causing a panic attack." Yuri explained.

Noticing what she'd done, she quickly looked away and blushed again.

"Oh, s-sorry. I didn't mean to..." She trailed off.

"Yuri, again, you don't need to apologize. You did nothing wrong." I consoled her. She calmed down instantly, but the others ignored this. Then, Natsuki began to talk.

"What was it, Alex?" She asked me.

"What do you mean?" I inquired. She huffed in frustration, then remembered that I'd just woken up from a panic attack and expanded on the question.

"If you just had a panic attack from PTSD, then what was the traumatic event?" I panicked. I couldn't have them be worried about me so much. I was the one who came here to help them, not the other way around. Luckily, Monika pitched in for me.

"Natsuki, don't you think that's a bit of an insensitive question?" She minorly accused. Natsuki looked like she wanted to argue, but decided that Monika was right. She turned to me.

"S-sorry, Alex." She said. I didn't want her to feel guilty, so I said the first thing that came to mind:

"Don't worry about it, Nat." I reassured her. "I'll tell you guys at a later date, anyway." Natsuki smiled at this promise. I suddenly became aware that a lot of time could've passed in the time that I was asleep, and frantically searched for my watch. I picked it up off of the side table and glared at the time. I missed both of my afternoon classes?!

"Dammit!" I exclaimed. Everyone stepped back, shocked at my sudden outburst. I sighed angrily and reluctantly slipped my watch onto my wrist.

'Well, at least I still have the club.' I thought. Now, you're probably wondering why I was so angry about missing two classes when my primary goal was to save the other club members. Well, it's simple. Even though that was my goal, I still had to do the schoolwork so I wouldn't raise any red flags. If I didn't do it, the school would ban me from the club, preventing me from spending time with the club members. On top of that, if I got homework, I wouldn't have as much time to think of plans to help them.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and vaulted myself onto my feet. I felt a slight shock of nausea, but nothing too bad.

I turned to the others. "Shall we be off?" I asked. Monika nodded, while the others looked at each other in silent agreement. I picked up my bag (which was laying on the floor next to the bed) and Monika led the way to the club. I turned back at the doorway to bid farewell to the nurse, then followed the others. Sayori trailed behind to match my pace.

"Are you sure you're okay, Alex?" Sayori inquired, concerned. I smiled at her to reassure her.

"I promise you that I'm fine Sayori." I answered. Her expression didn't change, still believing me to be hurt.

"But..." She tried to protest, but couldn't think of anything to say. I sighed, then put my hand on her shoulder.

"Sayori, I promise you that I'm fine." I said gently. "I can understand if you're concerned about my well-being, but there's no need." Sayori looked a little better, but the sadness was still shown in her eyes.

"I know I can be a little stupid sometimes, but even I can tell that you must have had a really traumatic experience for you to be suffering from it." Damn, she was a lot more observant than I thought. That, and she was right. It was a horrible scene. I took a deep breath to prepare myself to be a bit more personal, just like I did with Yuri the day before.

"You're right, Sayori. It was a traumatic event." I admitted. "However, it was two years ago, so it doesn't really affect me all that much, now. This was the first time I've ever had a panic attack." Sayori began to lightly cry, still somehow sad.

"But... how do you know it won't happen again? How will we know what caused it? What if we don't-" I cut her off.

"Sayori." I said sternly. "Don't focus on the negative. It might happen again, but it might not. If you keep focusing on the negative, then you won't be able to appreciate the positive when it comes." I used my thumb to wipe away some of her tears. "Also, you're not stupid. A bit unobservant, yes, but not stupid. Don't talk about yourself that way."

Sayori paused for a moment, then looked at me gratefully. "Thanks, Alex. I really needed that." She smiled, and I smiled back. She really was a little angel, and it was mine and Monika's job to make sure she didn't turn into one.

We eventually reached the clubroom, all of us waiting behind Monika as she unlocked the door. Natsuki bounced on the balls of her feet impatiently as Monika slowly turned the key. I suppressed a chuckle at her behavior, finding it adorable. Sayori caught me looking at Natsuki and put on an insinuating grin. I waved her off as Monika finished unlocking the clubroom.

I followed everyone else through the doorway as they went to do their own thing. Mc and Yuri were back to reading The Portrait of Markov, Monika and Sayori were discussing plans for the festival, and Natsuki stood in front of me, expectantly. It took a few seconds of awkward silence for me to deduce that she was expecting her manga.

"Oh! Uh, here." I pulled the manga out of my pocket and handed it to her. I had made sure it was cleanly put in, as I knew she really didn't want her manga damaged. She snatched it out of my hand and frantically turned it around in her hands, checking to make sure it was completely intact.

"Don't ever just put these in your pocket!" She snapped, still looking over the manga. I wasn't surprised by her outburst, considering how passionate she was about these things.

"Yeah, sorry." I put my hand on the back of my neck. "If it's any consolation, I was careful with the placement, so there shouldn't be any damage to it." She ignored me. After she made sure there weren't any creases or tears, she rested her arm at her side and looked up at me.

"Well? Do you want to continue the series?" She asked. I nodded and she led me to the closet again. She placed the volume into the manga collection and searched for the next one. She seemed to be having trouble locating it, so I stepped in.

"What's wrong?" I inquired. Natsuki looked confusedly at the box of manga.

"I can't find the second issue." She suddenly looked angry. "Where is it?!" She yelled. Not wanting to attract attention from the halls (yes, she was THAT loud), I quickly began looking around the closet for volume two of Parfait Girls.

I found it after about five seconds of looking, spying it sitting on a shelf on the other side of the closet. I walked past Natsuki towards the shelf. Picking it up, I spun around and displayed it to her with a comical bow.

"Your manga, my good lady." I jokingly said in my best English accent. Natsuki laughed as she took the manga.

"You dork." She joked. I found myself smiling as we left the closet. We sat down under the same windowsill as the day before and we were soon back to laughing at the antics of the characters. The face Natsuki made showed pure childish glee and entertainment. I was almost disappointed when Monika announced it was time to share poems.

"So, I assume I read this at home again?" I asked as we stood up.

"Yeah." Natsuki answered. "C'mon. Let's go share poems." I walked over to my backpack propped up against the doorway and pulled out my poem. I looked it over a bit, making sure Natsuki would like it. I then got to "work" showing it to the other club members.

First showing it to Monika, she confirmed that Natsuki would like it, followed by her teasing me for trying to impress Natsuki.

"Would you rather I didn't try to save her?" I whispered angrily. Monika looked hurt.

"I didn't mean it like that..." She said, depressed. I just couldn't stay mad at her for anything, now. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sorry, Monika. You're here, trying to save your friends, and I'm here, getting angry at you for teasing me when you need my help to save them." I apologized. Monika looked back up, then began talking in a low voice.

"Alex, I don't want to watch them die again. Promise me you won't turn your back on them. Please." She said desperately. I looked directly into her eyes and said:

"I promise. If anyone here knows how you feel, it's me. I'm in this with you, until the bitter end." Monika smiled gratefully. I took my hand off her shoulder and she thanked me. She handed me her poem, and it was the exact same as the one in the game.

"Ah, keeping with the classics, I see." I joked. Monika giggled a little as I gave her poem back.

I showed my poem to Mc next, who was a bit surprised by the style. That is, until he figured out who it was for. He gave me a sly smile, which only lasted until I read his poem and pointed out the similarity to Yuri's style. As he walked away, blushing, it was my turn to give a sly smile.

Next was Sayori and Yuri, who both had basically the same reactions as in the game, along with the same poems. Nothing really all that interesting there. Since things were the same so far, I already knew that Natsuki and Yuri would argue about writing styles at the end of the club meeting, so I would have to find out a way to diffuse that situation better than Mc.

Finally, I showed my poem to Natsuki. Strangely, her reaction was different from the game. As she read the poem, I could see a smile slowly making itself known on her face. After reading it, she handed it back to me as she commented on it.

"I like it. I can tell you're a man of culture." She said. Despite my surprise at her complimenting my writing, I'm somehow able to respond.

"Thanks, Nat. Let's see yours now, shall we?" Natsuki hands me her poem, which (again) is the exact same as the one from the game. Using my knowledge of the game, I chose to over-analyze her poem.

"Well, from what I can see, this poem is about the feeling of giving up." I observe from memory. "In addition, you prepare the reader for a rhyme at the end, but make it fall flat to snap them back to reality. Am I correct in this observation?" Natsuki looked flabbergasted, shocked too bad to speak. After a while, she was finally able to find her voice.

"Y-yeah. You're right." She put her hands on her hips and tried to look impressive. "That's me! I'm a master when it comes to poem writing!" This wasn't the most convincing statement, considering she was blushing and sweating profusely, probably flustered by my comments. I didn't expect this in the slightest.

"Heh. I didn't expect you to be flustered by my analystic abilities." I teased, which quickly earned me a punch in the arm. "Yeah, deserved that." I said in pain. However, Natsuki had already left to share poems with Yuri. Before I could think of how I'd deal with their future argument, my vision went black as two hands covered my eyes. I heard Sayori giggling behind me.

"Guess who!" She said in a sing-song voice. I was half-tempted to call her "Misha", but she probably wouldn't have gotten the joke. I jokingly put my hand to my chin.

"Hmm. Well, I couldn't POSSIBLY be Sayori, now could it?" I joked. Sayori laughed and she took her hands off of my eyes. I turned around to see Sayori laughing with Mc standing behind her, smiling.

"So, how'd it go with Natsuki?" Mc asked teasingly.

"How'd it go with Yuri?" I rebounded. Mc blushed in embarrassment, but Sayori sadly frowned, reminding me of her crush on Mc. If Monika wasn't able to confront her about her depression, then we'd have to have a backup plan. Before our conversation could even start, however, I heard Natsuki and Yuri squabbling behind me. I quickly ran over to them, but they seemed to ignore my presence.

"If I was full of myself, I wouldn't go out of my way to make everything I do overly cutesy!" Yuri exclaimed. Natsuki looked furious, then seemed to get control of her anger and got smug.

"Well, I'm not the one whose boobs grew three sizes bigger when Mc started showing up!" Natsuki teased. Yuri looked away, mortified. I stepped in, trying not to make it too one-sided.

"Are you two seriously arguing over writing styles?" I angrily asked. "Listen, I understand it if you two don't like each other's styles, but saying that they're bad? That's just going too far. Everyone has their own preferences." Natsuki looked at me, her expression slightly softer, and Yuri peeked at me from the corner of her eye, still embarrassed. I turned to Yuri.

"Yuri, your style uses extensive knowledge of the English language, along with amazing metaphors. Don't think that the message of feeding an addiction was lost on me." I turned to Natsuki. "Nat, your style uses simple words to represent a much grander concept, in other words, making something great with not much, which is something that I can appreciate." I began turning my head between the two of them. "Now, let me ask this: Why the hell are we all fighting here?!"

Yuri looked down in shame, while Natsuki looked at Yuri regretfully. I turned around to see Mc and Sayori looking at me in shock, with Monika giving me a thumbs-up behind them. I turned back to Yuri and Natsuki to find Natsuki walking up to Yuri. She opened her mouth to apologize, but Yuri beat her to the punch.

"Natsuki, I'm sorry." She looked back up to Natsuki. "Alex is right. Neither of our writing styles is better than the other. Also, sorry for saying everything you did is cute." Yuri apologized.

"No, Yuri. I'm sorry. I'm the one who started this, thinking that your style wasn't as good as mine. That thing about your boobs, I didn't really mean it." She held out her hand. "Do you forgive me?" She asked. Yuri grabbed her hand and shook it.

"Yes. I forgive you, Natsuki." She said. This tender moment was unfortunately interrupted by the school bell ringing, signaling the end of the school day. Monika dismissed everyone as they filed out the door, leaving her to lock up.

"Hey, Alex?" I heard Natsuki say from behind me.

"Yes?" I responded as I turned around.

"Since my route is basically the same as yours..." Natsuki looked a little embarrassed. Luckily, I already knew what she was trying to say.

"Yes, you can join us on our walk home." I said. Natsuki breathed out a sigh of relief. I turned back around to see Mc and Sayori, again, at the end of the hall, beckoning me to follow them. I waved Natsuki to follow me, then began making the trek to my locker.

*Five minutes later*

The four of us walked out of the school. It was an oddly chilly evening, despite the fact that it was April. April... second? Yeah, second. On a Wednesday. It was surprising how the date directly corresponded to the date that I came to this world.

About halfway to Mc's house, I felt something warm on my right side. I looked down to see Natsuki huddled up to me, her teeth chattering in the cold. She seemed to be doing it of her own volition, and not just subconsciously. I place my arm around her shoulders, and she jumped in surprise. She looked up at me, blushing.

"Um... Alex?" She started. "Why is your arm around me?" There wasn't any annoyance or anger in her voice, just confusion, and maybe a little bit of fluster.

"Well, you were clearly cold if you were huddled up to me like that. I'm just being nice." I responded nonchalantly. Natsuki looked back ahead with a faint "oh", almost as if she were disappointed. However, she quickly leaned into me a bit more with a smile.

Eventually, we could see Mc's house off in the distance, and Natsuki was still hugging me for warmth. After seeing her like this, I just couldn't help myself.

"You know, I feel like you're just asking me to call you cute at this point." This earned me a punch to the arm, but Natsuki didn't let go. In fact, she didn't even say anything. That smile on her face was still there, just as happy as ever. As we got to Mc's house, Mc turned to Natsuki and Sayori.

"So, would either of you like to come in for some hot chocolate? It's kind of weird to have it at this time of year, but it's so cold that it doesn't really matter." He offered. Sayori was almost bouncing off the ground in excitement, but Natsuki frowned sadly.

"Sorry, but I can't. My dad expects me home at a specific time." She responded sadly. "He can be pretty strict about boys."

'Among other things...' I thought. Sayori, who had been jumping up and down in excitement at the prospect of hot chocolate, suddenly stopped right there with a remorseful look on her face.

"And I just remembered that I have homework to do. Sorry, Mc..." She said. Despite the disappointment in her voice, Mc smiled at her.

"Don't worry about it. Your grades are more important." Mc said. Sayori looked up at him gratefully before waving goodbye. Natsuki left too, but not before whispering in my ear a thank you for the warmth.

*Ten minutes later*

I sat on one of the couches in the living room, waiting for Mc and the hot chocolate. Letting him do all of these things made me feel kind of bad, but he insisted I wait. Finally, he walked out of the kitchen with one mug in each hand, steam curling off the surfaces. He sat down next to me, handing me one of the mugs. It wasn't long before he began to make conversation.

"So, when are you confessing to Natsuki?" He asked smugly. I nearly spat out my hot chocolate in shock. I was barely able to swallow before blurting out:

"WHAT?!" Mc laughed at my embarrassment, and I could feel myself blushing.

"Listen, I know you like her, and you know I like Yuri. So, when do you plan to confess to her?" He asked again, this time a little more forceful. I took a few seconds to catch my breath from the shock of the question before answering.

"I don't know." I answered as calmly as I could. "It probably won't be any time soon. I'm not even sure she shares my feelings." I was surprised by my own honesty. For some reason, I was able to easily talk to Mc about this.

Mc laughed. "With the way she was hugging you on the way back? And people call me dense." He had a point. However, it wasn't that I was dense. I just didn't want it to end up like Exit Music. I didn't want to watch her die after getting so close.

I was eventually able to get him to drop the subject, but not without me threatening to tell Yuri about his crush on her. It seemed that he didn't know whether she like him back or not. And he called ME dense. Anyway, we began to talk about miscellaneous subjects, until he asked me a question that hit a little too close to home.

"So, how's Caitlyn doing?" I was barely able to keep hold of my now-empty mug. He looked at me confusedly after about half a minute. "Um... you there? You know, Caitlyn. Your sister." His words almost went right over me in my half-catatonic state. However, I was just barely able to choke something out.

"S-she's..." I put my hand to my mouth as tears ran down my face, remembering the image of her lifeless body hanging from her bedroom ceiling. Mc seemed to figure out that he'd asked about a sensitive subject.

"Oh, shit." He said under his breath, followed by him putting his hand on my shoulder. "A-Alex. I didn't know. I'm sorry." I kept my head facing forwards, but took my hand off my mouth.

"I-It's o-okay, Mc. I-I think I'll g-go to b-bed now." I got up off of the couch without another word from either of us and started towards my bedroom. It didn't matter that I hadn't had dinner. I staggered through my bedroom door, stumbling over to the bed and falling face-first into the pillow as I remembered the day my sister took her own life.

It was about a week before I was pulled into this world, and three weeks after our parents had died. I was able to cope with their deaths better than Caitlyn, who I could hear crying in her room at night. One day, she attempted to take her own life.

She stood at the top of a five-story building, preparing to jump off. I was just barely able to get up there in time to talk her off the edge. I thought I'd saved her that day, but I found out the next morning that she was still doomed.

I had gotten up out of bed, and went to check and see if Caitlyn was mentally alright. I knocked on her door to no response. I knocked again. I called her name, but she never answered. Finally, I got so worried that I just burst through the door, and the scene that I was met with was horrifying.

I witnessed my sister, hanging from a noose attached to her bedroom ceiling, her eyes glossy and dead. No life in her body. Just dangling there, like a sack of meat. There was blood around her neck, probably from the noose digging into her flesh. I'd wanted to throw up, but my body had ceased to move.

Suddenly, I was jerked back to reality, laying down in my bed in Mc's house. I was grateful, as I didn't want to live through that moment for any longer. I sat up and fished my phone out from my pocket, turning it on. The screen flashed to life, and I instantly made my way to the messaging app. I opened it and began to text Monika:

You: What the FUCK, Monika?!

It took a bit for Monika to respond, probably from the sudden shock of my text.

Monika: What?

You: You told me that Mc and Sayori only knew about me, and the fact that I'm from Canada!

Monika: Okay?

You: Then why did Mc just ask about Caitlyn?!

Monika, again, took a while to respond, the text bubble just sitting there on the screen. Finally, she responded:

Monika: I don't know, Alex. All the information I gave them was listed in the letter I sent you. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but I just don't know.

I gazed at the words on the screen, thoroughly confused. I knew that Monika couldn't have been lying. That just wasn't like her. I sighed sadly and put the phone on my bedside table, along with my glasses and watch, not even bothering with responding. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a straight answer. I laid down in my bed, closed my eyes, and waited until sleep consumed me...