Everyone had returned to the clubroom and pulled out varyingly different pieces of paper, each with different distinct handwriting and number of creases. Noelle readied her own poem and went to walk over to Kris, but was stopped by…Natsuki? That actually wasn't that surprising, the two had had a talk earlier with the help of Sayori about the argument from yesterday. It seemed they were both alright now.
"Hey!" Natsuki held her poem out and she seemed to feel a lot better than earlier, if not a bit embarrassed. "Still can't believe I agreed to this."
"Yea, same here." Noelle held out her poem and slid it over to Natsuki which allowed the two to swap poems. Noelle slowly read Natsuki's over and made sure that she wasn't missing anything.
It was called "Eagles can Fly" and it listed different things that animals could do in a simple and happy way, until the last two lines which were; "People can try" "But that's about it." which had not only broken the scheme but possibly brought some meaning to the poem.
Surprisingly, it didn't take Noelle that long to be able to pick up on what the meaning could be.
Natsuki was still reading Noelle's poem even after Noelle had finished reading.
Salt and Sugar
Salt can look a lot like sugar.
It's scary, even.
You always need to check these things.
And make sure you know where you're going.
But, that day.
I baked a cake.
And added salt on accident.
Instead of sugar.
I realised too late.
And took a bite.
It was bad.
I wanted the sugar.
But the cake had already been made.
Natsuki pouted once she had finished reading Noelle's poem. "Well…..let's start with the thing I…" She started to noticeably trail off before putting her hands on her hips all of a sudden. "Ugh! Why did you have to be good at this?"
"Uh…" Noelle let out a fit of nervous laughter and scratched her head right as she got her poem back from Natsuki. "I don't really think I'm really that good.."
"Freaking liar." Natsuki scoffed while getting her poem back from Noelle.
"Heh, anyway. I liked how you actually went all simple, I'm so happy that others understand that you don't gotta be all fancy and crap with your poems. Yuri normally disagrees with that but you don't and I'm happy 'bout that." The words gushed out of Natsuki's mouth almost instantly in a way that would have made Noelle annoyed but oddly enough, made her feel almost nostalgic.
"Thanks, Natsuki! Honestly, I agree with some of it." Not including the part that called Yuri out. "But it can all be good."
"Fair."
"Anyway, I did like how it just…dropped at the end. It hurt, knowing that it was also true."
"Hell yeah!"
"Well, let's go to the others.."
"Sounds good."
Natsuki and Noelle separated and went to others.
Meanwhile, Kris found themself standing next to Yuri. They had already handed her their poem and vice versa. Kris was able to read Yuri's poem rather quickly, it was called "Ghost Under the Light" and it talked about a person talking about not wanting to move into the future and stay where they are, under the light.
Once they had finished reading, Kris looked over at Yuri who was almost done with reading their poem.
Darkness
It all consumes me.
A darkness I never thought I'd see.
Rivals turn to friends.
Feelings are discovered.
We met new people all because of the darkness.
Even if there was a risk.
The darkness was worth it.
Kris kept waiting, it seemed to have been over a minute, which surely felt like enough time to properly read their poem, until they remembered that this was Yuri and how this route goes. That's what happens when a completionist plays these games, you need to see absolutely everything. Just in case, they decide to tap Yuri's shoulder.
"Gah! I uh- Oh, Kris. Sorry, I…" Yuri jumped back slightly and her blush deepened once again. "I forgot to start speaking…and please warn me before doing….that."
"Sorry." Kris meant it, they honestly should have just sucked it up and spoke rather than being a silent freak that only talked with friends. "I'll remember."
"Anyway, this is your first time writing a poem, is it not?" Just as she was saying the words, Kris could practically feel the embarrassment climbing up them and into their head, the fact that it was their first time writing a poem didn't help. It also didn't help that they needed to accept someone else's assistance with it. Moral of the story, they sucked.
"Mhm." They got ready to brace for impact.
"I'm not saying that it's terrible, don't worry." Yuri retorted out of seemingly nowhere. How on earth did she read their mind like that? "It's just that there are specific writing habits that are usually typical of new writers. Specifically how they try to make a style deliberate and it just…doesn't fit with the topic. Or, as what happened here, it seems as if you couldn't decide whether to rhyme or not. Which is perfectly fine on its own but you might want to watch for it and-" All of a sudden, Yuri cut herself off, her face a familiar intense smile to one of pure embarrassment and shame.
"I-I was rambling again, wasn't I?"
"No. You weren't."
"Ah, good. Please inform me if I make that mistake again."
"Okay."
"Anyway, what are your thoughts on mine?" Yuri asked. "I know it was quite short but it seems we both went that direction."
Kris stood there for a quick moment, trying to come up with some sort of answer without blabbering key words about game knowledge. Monika already suspected them as being from some other world and they weren't going to completely give themself away then and there.
"Well, it's quite uh, wordy despite its length, in a good way." Admittedly, it felt really weird to speak so much but they didn't mind that much. "It really described the feelings you seemed to be looking for, really impressive.."
"I'm…really glad you liked it. Since this is our first time sharing, I did want to write something easier to digest than my usual."
"Ah, gotcha. I'll probably try to do the same thing myself."
And the two went off to other people. Eventually, it had hit almost the end and a part that Kris dreaded just from remembering what was to come. Yuri and Natsuki walked up to one another and shared their poems.
It started off with the simple little banter it always did, Kris and Noelle both tried to ignore it but couldn't help but listen once names started being thrown in.
"If I was looking for suggestions, I would have asked someone who actually liked it. Which people did by the way!" Natsuki rebutted. "Sayori liked it, Kris liked it, Noelle liked it!"
Yuri put her hands up to her chest and the room felt even more tense once she responded. "Odd how you use Noelle as an argument considering how much you affected her mood the day before."
Alright, that wasn't said in the game… Noelle had no reason to be so stressed about this part because she only got a rushed synopsis and not a full word-to-word showcase, Kris however, was already tensing up at the newly exchanged words.
"That's bull! I said sorry, she forgave me and I'm not the reason for that nightmare!" Natsuki placed her hands on her hips and looked over towards Noelle. "Am I right?"
"Yep!" Noelle's tone was speedy, anxious and it looked as if she was trying to run towards the door and leave as soon as possible.
"Regardless, we are talking about poetry. Not that." On the other hand, Yuri kept her voice at a low pitch and a scolding tone.
"You're the one that brought it up but whatever." Natsuki rolled her eyes and put one of her arms down. "People liked my poem so I'll gladly give you some suggestions of my own. First of all-"
Finally, back to base game arguments.
"Excuse me, but I've spent a long time establishing my writing style. I don't expect it to change anytime soon." Yuri interrupted, a slight smile forming on her face as she did so. "And Kris liked my poem as well, they even said that they were impressed by it."
Actually nevermind, Kris did not want base game dialogue returning, especially since they were forced to be the MC now.
"Oh? I didn't know you were so invested in trying to impress one of our new members, Yuri." At Natsuki saying that, everything dropped. If anyone was talking earlier than they weren't anymore!
"E-Eh? That's not what I…!" Yuri stuttered out in an attempt to find some words to defend herself from that. "Maybe you're just jealous that they appreciated my advice more than they appreciated yours!"
Natsuki let out a laugh that seemed to be in the 'can you really believe they said that?' variety. "And how do you know they didn't appreciate my advice more? Are you that full of yourself!?"
Meanwhile, Kris literally could not remember what advice Natsuki supposedly gave them.
"If I was full of myself…I would deliberately go out of my way to make everything I do overly cutesy!"
Sayori tried jumping out to stop the argument, but was cut off by Natsuki before she could speak.
"Uuuuu…well you know what? I wasn't the one who's boobs suddenly got bigger as soon as-"
"What?!" Natsuki's…less than appropriate remark was cut off by Noelle's commentary on it with an added giggled.
Because Natsuki had been fully silenced, Yuri was the first to turn to her. "This doesn't involve you anymore."
"Yea, it's just that…" Noelle took a not-so-subtle glance at Kris before a small smile formed on her face. "I don't think that's really their main concern."
"Are you saying I don't have boobs?" Natsuki snapped back. No, Noelle was referring to someone else entirely.
"Can we just stop?!" Sayori also interrupted, seeming to succeed this time. "Listen, you guys are my friends and I-I just want everyone to get along and be happy! My friends are all unique and wonderful people and I love them because of their differences!"
"Natsuki's poems give so much feeling with not many words and Yuri's poems paint beautiful pictures in your brain! Everyone is so talented!" Sayori enthusiastically continued before her voice dropped significantly. "...So why are we fighting…?"
"Uuuu…"
"U-Uhm!"
Both girls were at a loss for words.
Another voice interrupted the scene. "O-Okay, everyone! How about we try this again tomorrow and hope that it goes better?" It was Monika, clearly.
"Alright! Sounds good." Noelle stated in agreement and hastily walked towards the door, but didn't exit.
"Yea, sure, whatever. I need to go." Natsuki rushed past to leave.
"Y-Yes, I will see you all tomorrow." Yuri collected her things and exited the clubroom.
Monika turned to the remaining club members. "You three should all go before me, I need to pack up some things!"
"Yep!" Sayori forms a smile after leaving whatever trance her brain had put her through. She turns towards Noelle and Kris. "Are you both ready to walk home?"
"Mhm." Noelle nods and she leads the three out of the school and onto the street.
The entire walk had been deafeningly silent, even for walks that these three had had, even if that was only about three or four now. Noelle expected that the tension would die down once Sayori had left but it almost seemed to get worse. She took a quick look over at Kris before turning her head back to the street to think about what could be happening. Of course, she wasn't surprised at their quietness but this wasn't the usual. Deciding to not just..sit there, she lent over and tried killing their silence.
"You good?" Honestly, there were much better things to be said there and that was made completely evident by the fact that they didn't say anything in response and continued walking. It was a feeling that she didn't like at all but it was what it was.