"What's taking Natsuki so long," Monika sighed, breaking the silence in the otherwise quiet literature club room. The four present club members had all exchanged their daily poems with one another, and they had ended up splitting into pairs afterward. Sayori and Monika sat together on one side of the room, their desks arranged so that they were facing one another, while MC and Yuri sat on the floor, sharing a book and whispering to one another. Neither Monika nor Sayori could quite make out what they were saying, but they both noticed that Yuri was speaking much more than usual today.

"I dunno," Sayori shrugged. "She said she had to go pee. Maybe she was holding it in for a long time?"

Monika shook her head, unimpressed by the answer. "People don't pee for thirty-two minutes, Sayori," she reminded. Then, she frowned. "I'm worried about her; she never misses club meetings."

"I'll go check on her!" Sayori declared as she sprang up from her seat. "I kinda have to go pee, anyway. Too much apple juice," Sayori giggled nervously.

Monika nodded. "That might be for the best."

Sayori jogged out of the room and down the hall, but she slowed her pace to a creep once she approached the bathroom door. She heard. . . Something on the other side, so that was a good sign. Then, she pushed open the door.

That sound was sobbing. Sayori recognized who exactly was doing the wailing. Her heart sank almost instantly.

"N-Natsuki? Are you OK?"

The sobbing stopped. Sayori heard a sniffle. "S-S-Sayori?"

"Yeah," Sayori replied, coming closer to the stall. "What's the matter, Natsuki? We're all waiting for you in the club."

There was an awkward pause. "G-Go away!" Natsuki lashed out bitterly. "Leave me alone!"

"Natsuki," Sayori moaned sadly. "You're crying. I can't leave you alone now; it would break the Sayori code of honor."

Natsuki sniffled again. "I-I just need some time alone, Sayori. P-please, g-give me a few more minutes."

"You need a friend," Sayori accused in a caring tone. "I need to use the bathroom. I'm not going anywhere."

The attempt at playful humor got a chuckle out of Natsuki, but little else. "Y-you're right," she relented, unlocking the stall door with a click. "Come in."

Sayori frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Natsuki, I'm not gonna pee in the same stall as you."

"That's not what I-. . . Just get in here, please!"

Sayori obliged reluctantly, coming in to find Natsuki staring at her. Her eyes were bloodshot from all the crying she had done, and her cheeks burned with an emotion that Sayori could not decipher- anger, passion, embarrassment? Perhaps all three.

Regardless, Sayori knew what to do. Throwing her arms around Natsuki, she allowed the girl to cry on her shoulder. Natsuki obliged, melting into her friend's grip as she let everything out. For a while, neither said anything, the only sound emanating throughout the small restroom being Natsuki's choking sobs. It tore at Sayori's heart to see her friend like this. She would find the person who did this to her, and then. . . She would give them a stern talking-to!

At last, Natsuki calmed down enough to let go of Sayori. However, she still continued to cry silently, gazing at the floor with a downtrodden expression.

"T-thank you," Natsuki murmured weakly. "S-sorry you had to s-see me like that."

"It's no trouble at all," Sayori replied, flashing a sad smile. "Do you wanna tell me what the problem is?"

Natsuki nodded. She sighed sadly, inhaled deeply, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I. . . I bought a pair of tickets for prom," she explained.

Sayori's eyes lit up with joy. "Oh, Natsuki, that's wonderfu-"

Natsuki put a hand over Sayori's mouth. "He's already going with someone else."

Sayori stopped in her tracks. Instantly, her happy smiled melted into a disappointed frown. Seeing such happy girl become so sad-looking only made Natsuki feel worse, but she tried her best to brush her feelings aside, for now. It was somewhat easier than expected, given how she had let them all out before.

"Oh, Natsuki. I'm so, so sorry! That's terrible! Who did you ask out?"

Natsuki glanced at the toilet. She thought about the tickets she had flushed away not ten minutes after buying them. What a waste of $50. "P-promise not to tell?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die!" Sayori vowed as she made a crossing motion around her heart.

Natsuki could accept that. Sayori may not have been the brightest bulb in the drawer, but she was nothing if not trustworthy.

"It was MC."

Sayori nearly doubled over from the shock. "What!? B-but you two always hang out together! How could he do this to you!?"

Natsuki exhaled. "It's my fault, really. I should have been honest with my feelings. Now," Natsuki sighed, hugging her knees to her chest once more. "Now, he's found someone else. Sayori, why was I such an idiot?"

Sayori playfully bonked her sad friend on the head. Maybe that would knock some sense into her. "Hey, don't talk about yourself like that! You made a mistake; nothing more."

Natsuki didn't respond for quite a while, in spite of Sayori's silliness. "I love him, Sayori, I really do. He makes me feel special, makes me feel wanted. I just. . ."

She started crying again, and she instinctively fell onto her friend for support. Sayori patted her on the back, but in her head, gears were turning. She wasn't the brightest bulb in the shed, she knew that and had no trouble admitting it, but that didn't render her incapable of forming a legitimately good plan.

"Well, why don't you just go to prom, anyway?" Sayori asked. "Just because you're single doesn't mean that you can't have a good time, right?"

Natsuki, still blubbering and incoherent, merely pointing toward the toilet. Sayori had to take a moment to put two and two together.

"Oh, Natsuki, why?" she murmered. "You poor thing. How could he choose. . . Who did he choose, again?"

"Y-y-y-yuri!" Natsuki wailed. "H-h-h-he l-l-likes Y-y-yuri!"

Yuri? That explained why she was sitting rather close to MC, today. Had Yuri ever confided in Sayori about potential feelings, however? She searched every memory that she had on file, yet it all came up blank.

"Yuri? Really? How could he choose Yuri over someone like you!? Not that Yuri is bad, or anything, but-"

Natsuki gestured to her own bosom, or lack thereof, and a new wave of sobs overcame her. "I'm so ugly! I'm just a w-w-waste!"

Sayori scowled, not at Natsuki, but at the wall behind her. That did it! Nobody was going to say such things and get away with it.

"Natsuki?"

Natsuki glanced up, still crying. "W-w-wha-"

"Don't you ever, ever, ever, call yourself useless again," Sayori uttered in a dark, threatening tone.

The oddity of seeing sweet literal Sayori turn so sinister on a dime was enough to surprise Natsuki out of crying altogether. If anything, now she was quivering a bit. "O-OK, sorry."

Sayori's chipper smile returned immediately. "Good! Because you're not useless, OK? He doesn't know what he's missing out on! Besides, I'm always here for you, I promise!"

For the first time since she received the awful news, Natsuki allowed herself a genuine smile. "Thank you, Sayori," she spoke, genuine gratitude in her tone. She pulled her friend into a hug. "You're the best friend I could ever ask for."

"All in a day's work, mon capitan!" Sayori saluted once they broke away. "Now, could you maybe get out for a minute or two?"

Natsuki tilted her head. "Huh? Why?"

"Cuz I gotta PEE!" Sayori shrieked.

"O-oh!" Natsuki jumped. "Yes! Yes, just give me a sec!"

And with that, she dashed out of the stall and out of the bathroom. Sayori popped out a few minutes later, looking much more relieved.

"That's better," she mumbled to herself before turning her attention back to Natsuki. "Ready for another day at the literature club?"

Natsuki gazed at the ground, absentmindedly kicked somebody's lost mechanical pencil, and shook her head. "Not really, no. I just wanna go home."

Sayori frowned sympathetically. "Are you sure? I promise we can still have a good time."

Natsuki sighed. "I don't want to see that tramp's hands and tits all over him. I just wanna go home," she repeated. "I want to forget today ever happened. Just tell them I was sick or something, alright?"

Sayori watched as Natsuki turned away and began walking down the hall, passing by the literature club door without so much as a glance. She hesitated, not knowing if she had any right to follow her or just break the news to the others.

But what kind of friend would she be to just let Natsuki walk off alone when she was in this kind of mood? A lousy one, that's the kind.

"Natsuki, wait!"

Natsuki turned back to see a huffing and puffing Sayori sprinting down the hall after her, waving frantically as she did so. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait!"

"What is it now?" Natsuki groaned. "Can't I just go home?"

"Well, if you're leaving, then I'm coming with you!" Sayori declared firmly, yet with a big grin on her face. "I'm not going to just leave you alone when you're this sad, alright?"

"So, you're walking home with me?"

"Well, yes, I suppose. I was thinking that we could hang out or something, you know?"

"Like a-"

"A sleepover!" Sayori sang, spinning around on one leg. "No boys, no drama, no Yuri! Just you, me, and whatever you'd like to cheer yourself up with? So what do you say? I can grab us some snacks from the mini-mart on the way back to my house?"

Natsuki hesitated, absentmindedly rubbing her arm as she thought about it. The offer was tempting, to say the least, but Natsuki had never had a sleepover before. It wasn't that she didn't want to have one in the past, or even that Papa wouldn't allow one, it was just that she didn't have many friends before she joined the literature club. Now, Sayori was offering a chance to make all this go away, at least for one night, and have a little fun.

At last, she nodded. "Sure, that sounds great."

"Yay!" Sayori exclaimed. "Let me just tell the others that I'm going home, alright?"

Natsuki twiddled her fingers together. "You don't have to leave the club early just for me, OK?"

"Pfft! Nonsense!" Sayori stated dismissively. "Turning that frown upside down is far more important than a silly club meeting. Right now, you need me more than they do, right?"

"That sounds kinda selfish if I say yes."

"You do!" Sayori affirmed. "Now, I'll just be a moment, OK?"

Natsuki nodded. "OK, I'll just wait here."

Sayori entered the club room to find MC and Yuri still reading together. That simple act bothered Sayori more than she would've liked it to. She had to remind herself that neither knew how Natsuki felt, and this whole situation wasn't their fault. It wasn't anybody's fault, but merely the result of poor timing. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she found Monika neatly writing on a sheet of paper by herself and walked over.

Monika didn't notice her presence until Sayori tapped her on the shoulder. That was enough to snap her back to reality. Turning her head back, she eyed Sayori and flashed her a friendly smile. "Heya, Sayori. What's up? Did you find Natsuki?"

"Uh, yeah. About that, Natsuki isn't feeling well. She's just going to go home, if that's alright."

Monika frowned. "Aww, poor girl. Did she throw up?"

"Well, no," Sayori admitted. Casting a glance in the direction of MC and Yuri, she was somewhat relieved to find that neither seemed to notice the current discussion. She sighed with relief. Love was blind and deaf, it seemed. "She's not sick, at least not physically. I'm actually going home with her; we're gonna have a sleepover tonight so that I can cheer her up. She's had a very bad day, today."

Monika glanced over at the couple across the room, then back at Sayori. "So I guess it's just me and them, today."

"Yep."

Monika shrugged. "Ah. Well, that's fine. Just, if I may ask, did she specify what's got her down? Maybe I can write her a poem to make her a little more happy tomorrow."

Sayori hesitated. "She, er, did, but it's a long story. It kinda involves the others, as well. Can you keep it a secret?"

Monika nodded. "Of course. I'm not a blabbermouth."

Sayori grinned. "Good. I'll text you tonight, kay?"

"Wait, Sayori, what-"

But before she had time to get an answer out of her, Sayori had snatched her backpack and was gone in a flash.