Monika and Natsuki hurried up the stairs to the second floor of the school. The went room to room searching for Sayori, but couldn't find her anywhere.

"Let's try the third floor, she could have gone up there, too," Monika said.

"Yeah. Sounds good, Monika."

The two went up the next flight of stairs and were on the third floor. There were club activities going on at the time, so Monika advised Natsuki to be a little cautious while looking for her, so as not to disturb the clubs. So the two began looking in every room, hoping to spot her somewhere, but once again, they couldn't find her in any of the classrooms.

"The only place we haven't checked yet is the restroom," Natsuki said. "We should check there next."

"Agreed, let's go."

They walked towards the restroom, and opened the door.

Yuri was still holding Sayori close trying to comfort her as her crying subsided. "Thanks, Yuri, I really needed that." Sayori said, smiling.

"Anytime, Sayori." Yuri said, returning the smile. She then heard the door of the restroom opening, and turned to see Monika and a short girl standing there. "Monika?"

Monika dropped the backpack she was carrying and took off without saying anything. 'I thought we had something special, but here you are hugging this girl,' she thought as she ran.

"Wait, Monika!" Yuri shouted after Monika. 'Oh, no… she misread everything that was happening. What do I do?' Yuri was panicking. Monika walked in on her and Sayori hugging and completely misunderstood and left before Yuri could explain.

"Yuri, go after your friend. I'll be fine," Sayori said, giving Yuri a little push towards the door.

"R-right! I'll be back Sayori." Yuri took off after Monika, and saw her head up the stairs towards the roof. Yuri followed as quickly as she could, though she knew that if Monika kept running, there was no way that she could ever catch her. She made her way to the roof and saw Monika sitting on a bench crying. 'Oh no. Monika is crying? This… this is all my fault. I have to do something, explain what happened, why I was in there in the first place. But that means… telling her about my cutting. I don't care if she hates me for it, she deserves to know the truth. If you love her, you'll tell her.' "Monika! Why did you leave like that?"

"I… I saw you with that girl. You were holding her close. So, I thought... "

"You thought I was seeing someone else?"

"..."

"That's what I was worried about. Monika, the truth is, I only met her a few minutes ago. She ran in while I was in the restroom, and she was crying. I was only trying to make her feel better."

"Wait, was that, uh, Sayori?"

"Yeah. She was dealing with some bullies, and we just happened to be in the same place at the same time."

Monika sighed and stood up. Looking out at the school grounds she remained silent for several seconds. Yuri watched her in silence. "I guess I completely misread that whole thing, huh?" Monika let out a nervous and embarrassed chuckle.

"Yeah, like you had a completely different book." They stood in silence again. "Listen, Monika… I don't want you thinking that I would ever betray you like that. I may not be very good at this whole relationship thing, heck, I'm not very good at 'people-ing', but I would never do something like that to you. I… I love you more than you could imagine, Monika. Ever since I first saw you, really, but, especially within the past two weeks, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. And when I noticed you in the library a few weeks ago, and how you would always happen to come when I was there, it made me so happy. It was like, everyday I would get to see you. Then, that day finally came, when you spoke to me for the first time. I'll admit, I was scared and nervous. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest, and when you actually asked me out I thought I was going to die from how happy I was." Yuri walked over to Monika and took her hand, and noticed that Monika had tears in her eyes again. These tears were different though. "Monika, I love you, more than any book I could ever read, and in more words than I could ever convey in any poem." Yuri then pulled Monika into an embrace, where they stayed for several seconds until she separated themselves to look Monika in her eyes. "It's also the reason I was in that restroom to being with. You see, when you were teasing me earlier, and you got so close to me, I just couldn't handle how it made me feel. My heart was pounding so hard, and I was scared and excited at the same time. I had to calm myself down, and I only had one way in my mind."

Yuri looked away. Monika could tell that Yuri was having trouble talking about this. "Yuri, it's okay, you can tell me anything." She gave Yuri a smile to reassure her.

"I, well, the thing is… I cut myself sometimes if I'm overstimulated. It's a release that I need sometimes. I don't want you to be worried, which is why I'm nervous telling you, but I know you will be regardless. Yes, I know it's dangerous, and I rarely do it and am very careful when I do. I was doing that when Sayori ran in crying. She saw me doing it, and honestly I was so scared at that moment, but she was more concerned about my arms, and even bandaged them for me, all while dealing with her own problems. I wanted to help her, too, so I thought about ways that my mother helped calm me down when I was crying as a child, and the first thought that came to my mind was to hold her close and to let her cry herself out while telling her things would be okay. She was just finished crying when you two came in."

"I see. I'm sorry, Yuri. I know I should have trusted you more than I did, and I'm sorry that I ran off before you could explain."

"It's okay, Monika. I'm sorry for running off earlier, too."

"I really do love you, Yuri."

"And I really love you, too, Monika." The two leaned forward and shared their first kiss, and both Yuri and Monika could not have been happier at that moment. While it may not have lasted that long, to them it could have gone on for eternity and nothing else would have mattered. When it finally ended, they held each other close. "We should check on those other two."

Monika took Yuri's hand in hers. "Yeah, let's go."