The first question that came to mind was "how?" Monika paced the hallway anxiously, her mind racing for an explanation. In all the time she'd spent delving into the game's code, she'd never come across anything that explained her current predicament. She'd never heard any sound bites of birds chirping, had never seen any image files of the house she was in, had never seen anything outside of the high school – so what was going on, here?

The notion that she was still within a game was right out. The amount of detail, the amount of things that she herself could interact with could not be simulated by anything digital, no matter how high-quality it was. But that was all that it could be, right? There was no possible way that this world was real.

And yet, no matter how many trains of thought she followed, each track led back to that statement – "the world was real." It was the best explanation that she had. Of course, that meant that she was real, too. Herself, Sayori, Natsuki, Yuri, and…

The player. Of course. Why weren't they the first person that she'd thought of? They'd messed with the game's code before. Maybe they knew something about this, too. And with the world as detailed and nuanced as it was, she could probably ask them directly, too.

Oh, my. A real conversation with the player. That was a thought.

But in order to make that thought a reality, Monika would have to go to school, so she went back to her room to get ready. Upon glancing at her alarm clock and reading the time, she cringed. First period was happening now. She was definitely going to miss it, and if she didn't hurry, she probably wouldn't make it until third period began. She rifled through what was apparently her closet, extracted a clean uniform from a hanger, and got changed. Within another ten minutes or so, she'd stuffed every textbook she had into her bookbag, brushed her teeth, scarfed down some untoasted toast and orange juice, taken an extra minute or two to revel in her new ability to actually taste things, snapped back to reality, and dashed out the door.

As everyone else had long since left for school, the walk was completely uninterrupted. Which was a good thing, for even when taking into account the absence of any other people, Monika had vastly underestimated just how much would be going on outside. Between the warm Sun melting across her face and the brisk wind nipping at her nose and ears, it was all she could do to keep her focus on moving forward.

Finally, she arrived at the high school. Heaped on the street just outside the entrance was a big, dirty pile of snow. The last dregs of a recent snowstorm, Monika supposed. The few bits of snow which had managed to remain uncovered by dirt sparkled in the morning sunlight. Monika turned her head to get a different angle at it, and, to her delight, it sparkled and shone in a new and unexpected way. She crouched down next to it, poking and prodding in different places. Once or twice, she just grabbed a fistful of the stuff and watched it melt all the way down in her hand.

It truly was a feeling unlike anything she'd experienced before, and she couldn't stop a childlike grin from rising up to decorate her cheeks.

The chime of a bell caused Monika to look up in the direction of the school. Groups of students holding lunchboxes were filing out of it, talking amongst themselves.

"Oh, gosh…" she whispered under her breath. Had she really been out here for that long? If it was lunch period, she'd missed both second and third period. She got up and made for the school hastily, but slowed down after just a few steps. Although they were technically her classmates, all of these people were unique to this reality. She didn't know any of them. How could she possibly go about talking to them? Would it even be worth it to try?

"Hey, Monika!"

She jumped and looked up from her thoughts to see a girl with peach colored hair dashing towards her, waving her hands about wildly, a carefree smile plastered onto her face.

Monika's heart leapt up into her throat, and she raised a hand tentatively. "H-Hi, Sayori."

Having reached Monika, Sayori leaned over and placed her hands on her knees, panting. "Whew! Glad I finally found you. Did you sleep in or something?"

"Oh. Um, yeah. I slept in." Monika stammered.

Sayori cocked her head and pursed her lips. "Really? This late? You must have been really tired. You didn't even answer any of my text messages!"

Text messages? She had a phone? Monika filed away these questions for later and tried to get the conversation back on track. "Sorry. I was really tired."

Sayori pouted and pressed her fingers together. "Next time check your phone, okay? I was worried about you…"

Monika couldn't help but smile at the immaculate display of cuteness that was Sayori. "Okay, I promise. I'm sorry that I worried you. Want to go eat together?"

"Sure!" Sayori pumped her fist into the air and zoomed off. Monika giggled and called out for her to wait up, dashing after her.