Five Months Earlier
The human body is, truly, a masterpiece of evolution.
Three million years ago, some groups of tree-dwelling apes that resided in the grasslands of Africa decided to climb down and live on the open fields. They were hunch-backed, not very intelligent, and easy pickings for something like a lion or a jaguar. There was nothing extraordinarily special about their species, perhaps doomed to be an easy lunch had the dominos of life not knocked in their favor.
Over time, those primitive apes started to stand upright, to be able to peer over the tall grass of the African fields. Over the course of millions of years, their brains doubled in size, they stopped slouching and grew stronger, learning to utilize tools and hunt for food and form tribes and clans and expand their influence across the planet. Three million years later, homo sapiens dominate the world.
Scientists estimate the normal human body has over ninety billion nerves, each delicately but precisely connected to function in perfect unison with one another. They control muscles, bones, arteries, organs, eyes, senses, all without ever stopping. Not a millisecond goes by without your body beating and flowing and rising and falling and expanding and living.
But, despite it's breakthroughs in evolution, the human body is susceptible to grave weaknesses. A strain of virus coursing through the bloodstream will ruin the inner systems of the body. A bite from a poisonous animal will send the poor victim into a coma. Fatigue. Concussions. Shock. Hypothermia.
And hunger.
The last decent meal Natsuki Tamura had eaten was around three or four days ago (she really can't remember), a pot of spicy noodles made up of various scraps of meats and whatever spices she had found in the cupboard. Her father had eaten a majority of it, leaving Natsuki with about two bowls for herself (plus the broth to turn into a soup she had already gone through).
He's eating, somewhere. Natsuki knows it. Out with his fucking friends or whatever cheap escort he could find at a low-rate rabuho. If he wasn't, he'd bring home the bare essentials and force her to make something for him (and leave her with whatever was left). Other than a new case of whiskey or whatever corner store hooch he can find, he never brought food home.
His daughter was an afterthought to him.
The ramen wasn't very filling, but it kept her from passing out from hunger. At least, for a few days. Usually there was just enough in the cupboards for a snack to make; a jelly sandwich, fried eggs, maybe oatmeal with some cinnamon, but she was running dangerously low on the bare essentials to make something edible, even with her cooking skills.
Had it not been for the two cases of protein bars she had been carefully rationing (and hiding from her father under her bed), Natsuki would have died a week ago. Stopped showing up to class, a welfare-call made, a body taken away in a draped sheet.
Would he even mourn?
School was always a drag. Natsuki would just blow through the work and write in her notebook until it was time to leave, but it was loads better than staying at home. Shut in her room with the door locked and barricaded. Headphones on, trying to let the world around her dissolve and disappear into the Internet. Constantly distracting her mind away from the biting, sinking feeling in her stomach, the growing shakiness in her arms, the rubberiness of her legs.
A feeling she hasn't escaped for maybe a solid week or so. It always crept on her.
There wasn't anything for her to do during lunch, aside from smell everyone else's food and try to fight off the hunger growling inside her. She didn't have many friends, and the few that she did have didn't share a lunch with her. Natsuki often just sat alone, her notebook open to a dog-eared page filled with prompts or a drawing. Hopefully she didn't look that pathetic to the people passing her by.
But then again, nobody ever stopped to say hello to her. Or ask how she was doing. Or acknowledge her.
Some things never change.
Natsuki sighed and closed her notebook, hastily shoving it into her bookbag. She couldn't even think; her hunger was growing.
Natsuki reached into her bag, digging for the protein bar she packed this morning. She at least had the foresight to pack one, something to snack on until she got home and ate a few more. She knew that there was at least one food pantry open, but that was a good several blocks away from her home. She could get home, gain some energy, and then try to-
It wasn't there.
Natsuki felt panic creep up her spine. She rooted into her bag faster.
At the bottom of her bag, she felt a slight tear in the fabric. She quickly lifted it up onto the table and looked at the bottom. A hole the width of a bottle had been torn open. Not big enough for something like a textbook to fall out, but the right size for...a protein bar.
The pink-haired girl felt a lead weight drop in her stomach.
"Now I'm really fucked.", she thought to herself. The wobbliness in her legs seemed to grow bigger, the fuzziness in her eyes streaking her vision.
Her mind clawed for a solution. She had to eat something.
Her mind buzzed, and a grim idea came forward.
It was desperate. It was weak.
It was weak and pathetic and could potentially get her in trouble and maybe even sent to a foster home if they found out the true extent of her home life, but Natsuki had to risk it. Otherwise she'd collapse in her next class.
Natsuki didn't think that the dumpsters behind the school had locks on them…
Hastily she stuffed her papers into her bag and slipped it over her shoulder. Slowly she started to walk out the cafeteria, walking past the long bulletin board across the wall…
She stopped, and glanced back at the wall.
Among the sea of posters and graphics and random slaptag arts, Natsuki saw a glimmer of pink.
It was a new poster, starkly different in design from the usual black-and-white posters whipped up in Microsoft Word in five minutes. This one was...genuine. A nicely printed sheet of paper with a stylized font. Little drawings of stacks of books and pens doting the corners.
At the top was the clubname, a drawing of a pen beside it.
"Doki Doki Literature Club."
...
"I can't believe you dragged me out of study hall just to help me look for your keychain."
"Awww, come on Monikaaa! What would you rather be doing; practicing on your little piano or spending time with your amazing vice president?"
Monika paused. Hidden from her view, a playful smirk crossed her face.
"Piano's pretty fun."
Walking behind her, Sayori stuck her tongue out. "Rude."
Nobody gave a second glance when Monika Sehlke and Sayori Asoka stepped into the cafeteria, brushing past the students going in and out the glass double doors. Monika's hair was let loose from her traditional ponytail, flowing freely down past her shoulders in glossy, perfect curtains. Sayori's hair was a bit of a mess, an ocean of coral-pink dotted by a lavender bow.
They had met completely on accident, but Monika still vividly remembers the day…
"That's not what I'm trying to say, but sure. Whatever, Alexis."
"Then what are you trying to say, Monika?"
"I just think that overall, the way we structure our arguments should be more passive than stating the facts all the time. It feels emotionless."
"Judges don't care for tears, they care for content."
"So? That doesn't mean that-"
CRASH!
Monika felt her olive green lunch tray flip into something, someone. She felt drops of wetness fleck her cheeks, but otherwise didn't get anything on her. The sound of crashing silverware and broken plates echoed across the cafeteria.
Three hundred pairs of eyes turned to the sound.
Monika opened her eyes and gasped.
The girl she had walked into was staring down at the floor, hiding a wobbly frown. Monika took her in; shorter than her, coral-pink hair, red bow, unbuttoned blazer.
A blazer, vest and skirt now smeared with a healthy serving of ranch dressing, tomatoes and lettuce.
The entire world stared at the kettle of awkwardness. Monika Sehlke just dumped her lunch on some random girl.
"O-oh my gosh!" Monika stammered. "I-I'm so sorry! Uhh, let me just-"
Monika reached out to try and remove some of the pieces of salad clinging to the coral-haired girls blazer, but she spun on her heel and ran away, dropping her own small plate. Monika could head ugly sobs trailing from her.
Monika didn't even think twice. She started to call after her, ignoring the stares following her. "Ah, wait! I'm sorry!" She quickly left the cafeteria, trying to stop the girl.
After searching the school halls for a bit, Monika found a dirty blazer slumped against the door of a bathroom, not far from the cafeteria. Monika went inside and saw only a pair of feet in one of the stalls, an orange blazer crumpled beside it. Monika could hear quiet sobs coming from the stall.
"Hello?" Monika cautiously said aloud.
The sobs stopped for a beat. A sniffle.
"Y-yes, t-that's my b-blazer out there. I'm s-sorry, I-I just-"
"No no, I'm not a faculty. I'm the…" Monika trailed off. "I'm the girl you walked into."
Silence. "Oh...I-I'm still s-sorry..." Another sob.
"No no, it's all my fault. I'm really sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going a-and I...I have some wet wipes in my bag if you need them, if you'll let me help you try to clean your clothes off."
A deathly silence rung in Monika's ears.
"Please."
The bathroom stall clicked open, and the girl slowly stepped out. Puffy redness circled her eyes. An attempt was made to clean the salad off herself, to little effect.
Monika sighed. "Well, I do have some clean clothes in my bag if you want them, um...what's your name?"
"S-S-Sayori…" the girl mumbled, barely audible.
Monika still remembers helping Sayori clean up in the bathroom, helping her re-do some of her makeup and giving her the spare clothes she kept in her bag (because if a zombie apocalypse were to strike Japan, Monika Sehlke would be prepared with a shotgun and first aid kit in her bag).
After that, Monika had asked for her number, in an attempt to make 'peace' and be friends with her. Monika gave it completely expecting it to not go anywhere (I mean, would you want to talk to a stranger that dumped their lunch on you, accident or not?), but Sayori was actually the first to text, later that night.
It was a cat meme.
The two became fast friends. As it turns out, Monika has a lot in common with Sayori, a lot more than she did with her friends from debate or politics club or the honor society. They liked the same music, the same make-up, the same movies, the same snacks, the same...well, you get the idea. They were practically like sisters, in that sense.
And Sayori was so...wholesome.
It mystified Monika how the human embodiment of a puppy could be so confident and happy almost all the time. Even things that would piss the hell out of most people didn't even faze Sayori.
Like this one time the two went out to eat together at this cafe. After waiting 20 minutes to be served, they were presented with the wrong order. While Monika was fuming and ended up waiting another 10 minutes for the food she ordered to arrive, Sayori didn't even seem to notice that she was not given what she paid for. The second the plate was in front of her, she started to chow down.
After they left, Monika asked her about it. "You know that food they gave you wasn't yours, right?"
Sayori gave her club president a puzzled look. "Really?"
"Yeah, you ordered the chicken alfredo and got coconut shrimp."
Sayori thought about it for a beat.
"Oh yeahhh...well, it was still good anyway!" she said, before happily skipping to the street corner to press the crosswalk button.
When life gives you lemons.
Where Monika gave Sayori tips on make-up, fashion, and studying, Sayori returned the favor by a genuine friend. Best friends. They texted daily, occasionally video-chatting from their houses, laying in their beds. Monika had even invited Sayori to spend the night a few times at her house ("It's like a castle!", Sayori first exclaimed when she was greeted).
And eventually, the two came up with the idea of starting a club together.
"What even makes you so sure you left it here?" Monika said, pausing to take a sip from her water bottle.
"Because I had to have! I had it in gym class, I had it in biology, I had it in chem lab, I had it in lunch, and now I don't have it! Ergo, I had to have left it here...somehow."
Monika rolled her eyes. "Can't you just get a new one?"
Sayori seemed aghast at the thought. "Of course not!"
"How come?"
"B-because, Monika! That one was special! I got it at the Osaka Film, Dance and Art Festival! I don't even remember what artist it was!"
"Mmm...fine." Monika said, accepting she was gonna be forced to look for it anyway. "But don't blame me if I can't find it."
The two walked up to the second floor seating area, which offered a sweeping view of the entire cafeteria building. Rows and rows of tables full of students stretching back, circled by a lavish water fountain. Sunlight streamed through the wall-to-wall windows.
The booth Sayori and Monika sat at earlier was empty. Sayori skipped towards it and started to pat the seats down, intently searching.
"Mmm...I don't see it." Sayori mumbled. Monika glanced at the other tables. Surprisingly, nobody else was up here.
"What about the stairs? Maybe it fell off your bag when you were trying not to trip down them." Monika said, hiding a smirk.
Sayori glanced up and shot Monika a look. "Rude." Sayori brushed past Monika and started to slowly inspect the stairs like a union investigator looking for cracks in the cement. Monika sat at the top of the stairs, pausing to check her phone.
After a minute of hard looking, Sayori leaned back up straight. "Nooo...no luck." A frown creased Sayori's face. "Maybe it's somewhere…" the bow-headed girl trailed off. "Monny, look."
"I'm looking, Sayori." Monika mumbled, a little peeved Sayori called her by her "nickname".
Sayori tugged Monika up at her sleeve. "No, look.", she said, pointing into space.
Monika sighed and glanced up from her phone. She looked down to where Sayori was pointing, off towards the bulletin board. She could see it-well, her.
Someone was looking at their poster.
"You know," Sayori said. "I think that's the first time I've seen anyone even look twice at our poster."
Monika frowned. She knew Sayori was right; it had been two weeks since the Literature Club officially formed, and there wasn't any hope of a new member. Monika had tried her best to sway some of her friends to join, but they always phonied up some lame excuse to not go to at least one meeting.
So much for friends, Monika thought to herself.
Her eyes skitted back to the pink-haired girl, still looking at the poster. She had to be, Monika thought. Or, hoped she was.
"Maybe we should go talk to her?"
"What? Isn't that weird?"
"Oooonly if you make it weird!" Sayori said with a smile that could melt hearts. Monika glanced at Sayori, her eyes eager.
She only sighed.
"Fine, but you start talking to her first."
...
"Like to read? Love poetry? Enjoy a cup of tea and a good book? Then join the Literature Club, with meetings every Wednesday after school! We hope to see you there!~"
Natsuki reread the poster again and again.
A literature club? She didn't know Yamaku had one. How long has this poster been here? Maybe it was put up yesterday. Didn't Yamaku need five members to become an official club? Who was in charge of the club? A teacher? Monika Sehlke sounded like a teacher's name.
The idea of joining a club was one Natsuki hadn't considered. When the semester started, Natsuki had ruled off just about every club that was available at the time, except for the anime club. She remembers going to the next meeting that week and being forced to make small talk with the, shall you say...bottom-feeders of the social food chain. While the rest of the club sat around and watched Darling in the Franxx and made jeers when Zero-Two's ass was in frame.
Natsuki didn't go back after that. She couldn't help but see there were no other girls at that meeting.
Still, maybe this Literature Club was different. Instead of mouth-breathers and boys who could used some dandruff shampoo, it would be a club full of bookworms and future Harvard graduates. She could fit in, right? Then again, all she ever read was manga-
"Heya!"
Natsuki almost leaped out of her skin.
"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" the voice said, giggling.
Natsuki turned to face the voice. A girl, a little taller than her, with a beaming smile and hair like the prettiest colors of a sunset. Behind her was an attractive looking girl, with flowing brown hair and emerald green eyes. She looked rather embarrassed, pretending to type at her shut-off phone.
"I just umm, couldn't help but see you were looking at...that-poster! Yeah." The bow-headed girl tripped over her words a little.
Natsuki blushed. How long did they watch her just stare at this piece of paper? They probably came here to laugh at her.
"Oh um, yeah...I was just interested in this club flyer...thing. Yeah…" Natsuki almost mumbled that last part.
"Oh, cool! Dooo you have any questions?"
Natsuki blinked. "Questions?"
"Yeah! You aaare talking to the president and vice-president, after all." the bow-headed girl said proudly.
The emerald eyed girl seemed to blush, sinking deeper into embarrassment. She must've put her up to this.
"Yyyeahh, uhhh, hi..." the pretty girl finally said. "My name's Monika and this is Sayori. Like she said, we're in charge of the Literature Club
"Ahhh, Natsuki. Nice to meet you both."
There was a pause.
"What-umm...wh-what do y'all usually do there? A-at the literature club." Natsuki finally said.
"Oh, welllll…" Monika trailed off. "We usually just sit around and talk about a certain book or a concept. Since we just started we haven't made an offical schedule or anything, but we did want to start reviewing one during today's meeting."
"Um, how many people are in the club?"
Monika glanced at Sayori, who gave a slightly downcast expression.
"We uhhhh, ahah...i-it's just us two so far." Monika said sheepishly.
"Ahhh, I see.", Natsuki said.
Just them two? They don't seem like the snooty types to me. Maybe it's not how I thought it would be…
Monika tried to keep the ball rolling. "Wwwwwellll, like the poster says, we're having a meeting today if you'd want to stop by. We have drinks and snacks and stuff, and we picked out a topic that we think is pretty interesting."
It sounded painfully sad, but Natsuki's interest grew a lot more at the promise of free food.
"Oh, that sounds cool." Natsuki said, trying to walk the line between genuine interest and not being too interested. "What's the topic you picked?"
"Japanese comics, specifically manga and stuff like that.."
Was this club made for her or something? This had to be a calling of some kind, Natsuki thought. Food, people that might enjoy her presences, and talking about her favorite thing in the world?
Natsuki smiled dimly. "What room is it in?"
At least she's asking where it is, Monika thought to herself. "Room 217. In the seniors building."
Natsuki shifted the bookbag hanging off her shoulder. "Wel, IIIII'll be sure to drop by then, Monika."
Monika smiled brightly. "Awesome! Guess we'll see you then!" She nudged Sayori on the shoulder, who was busy staring at a bird perched against the window. "Excuse us, but we need to get to our class."
And with that, the pair made their way out the door even doors.
Natsuki took a moment to process what had just happened. Not only had she (seemingly) made two new friends, but now she also had a reason to stay out of the house more even if it was just for a day a week. Suddenly, the gnawing feeling in her stomach seemed to wash away, taken over by a sense of...purpose. Something to look forward to, at least.
I wonder what kind of snacks they have.