It was almost time or rather it should have been time, but something had come up. Monika was asked to deliver a file to Fuyu and she did just that. After conversing with the the student president for a bit, Monika made her way to the clubroom.

The smile she had on her face could light up the entire school. It took a lot of effort and struggle, but the time finally came for a Literature Club meeting with everyone attending.

Well, almost everyone…

Still, Monika was happy that the others were there and was nearly giddy with excitement.

When she had finally arrived, she swung the door open. "Sorry, I'm late guys, I…"

A wave of atrophy hit her once she stepped through that door. What she had envisioned was the usual sight of everyone interacting as they went about their business.

What she found was the complete opposite — Everyone was lying on the ground, staring at the ceiling.

"Guys, what happened?" Closing the door behind her, Monika approached her fellow club members.

"Exam prep…" they each said this as if they just finished a lengthy marathon.

"Oh…" Monika had recalled her own experience of tedious amount of work foisted on her and lethargically joined the others on the floor. "They're steadily getting closer…"

"What are you depressed about? You know you're going to be fine," Natsuki pointed this out, stifling her envy.

"I don't know, I haven't really been studying as well as I could have been lately," Monika admitted.

"I think that's a problem that's afflicting all of us…" Yuri expressed this with a tired sigh.

"And catching up has been so hard with everything that's been happening…" Sayori added.

She then, along with Monika and Yuri, snuck a peek at Natsuki.

"Stop staring at me. I'm fine," Natsuki grumbled.

She had said this for the last two days, and it didn't look like her response would change anytime soon. They weren't sure if it was the truth but didn't want to pry.

Natsuki, throwing her hands up in frustration, sat up with a loud groan "You know what really makes me mad right now? How come we're on the floor like this and not on anything more comfortable?"

"Because the last occupant sold all the furniture provided for money," Monika replied.

"Oh right… The weird guy that kidnapped you… We have a budget, right? Why don't we buy something?"

"Because it wouldn't be right to buy stuff without discussing it with all club members," Sayori explained.

"Right…" Natsuki returned to having her back against the floor, belting out another sigh.

"I'd have to agree on the sentiment, however" Yuri spoke up. "My back isn't enjoying this…"

The others nodded their head in agreement. But there was nothing they could do. They had been dealt a bad hand and they had to accept it.

"Wait," Monika quickly sat up and turned to the others. "I think I may have a solution to our problem."

…

The abandoned school building that stood behind the school was once the main section of the school. It seemed like it would always serve that function until an incident occurred. While safe now, a chemical experiment that went wrong left the building unusable for a while.

Even after the new building was built, the intent was to still use the old building. However, plans for its use fell apart while trying to refurnish and the building was left alone.

It was a tale that everyone knew, but the part Monika was most interested in was the attempt to refurnish the building. She knew firsthand the building still had furniture that could be acquired with permission, something she had asked for a while back just in case.

"Are you sure you want to get something from here?" Natsuki questioned.

"I'm sure we'll be able to find something that can suit our needs," Monika assured here. "Okay, everyone, let's split up!"

Following her declaration, the Literature Club began their search for anything that could be used to make their clubroom a little more comfortable.

"Aaah!"

Monika, Natsuki and Yuri rushed to where they heard Sayori's cry. They found her staring dreamily at a microwave.

"We gotta take it with us!" Sayori said, excitedly pointing at the device.

"That's not exactly what we were looking for, Sayori," Natsuki reminded.

"Yeah, but just imagine it, we can warm up our food so we don't have to go to the vending machine so much."

"…It would be easier on Shujinkou's wallet. …And ours."

Sayori chuckled, her cheeks burning bright red.

"Are you sure it's a good idea? It's not exactly in a brand new condition or properly wrapped up," Yuri pointed out.

"That's a good point," Sayori acknowledged.

Sayori reached for the door of the microwave and opened it.

"Kyaa!"

A shadowy figure sprung out of the coveted item, its surprise appearance sending Sayori into her friend. They were tightly holding on to each other as they watched the creature scamper across the floor.

"Eh?"

As they began to calm down, they came to realize the creature that had frightened them was tiny squirrel.

"Ooh!" Sayori dropped to her knees and crawled to the squirrel with sparkling eyes. "It's so cute!"

It tilted its head to the left, which Sayori playfully mimicked. Its head tilted to the right, Sayori copying this action too.

The two continued this back and forth, much to the amusement of the others.

Then the squirrel sprint forward and quickly climbed its way up to Sayori's shoulder.

"I think he likes me," Sayori said cheery smile.

"Guess that means you'll stop climbing trees now, huh?" Natsuki joked.

"Hey, that was because of a cat. And I was trying to save it…"

As the memories of her plight returned, the squirrel jumped off of Sayori's shoulder and onto Natsuki's. It immediately began sniffing the strands of her hair.

"What is it doing?" Natsuki wondered aloud.

"Maybe it wants to see if you're territory," Sayori hypothesized.

"What!? It better not mark me as territory!" Natsuki vehemently opposed.

Just then, she felt its nostrils brushing against her skin. It's investigative and playful movements broke free the chuckle Natsuki had been trying to keep down.

It then moved on to Yuri, eliciting a similar reaction from her.

"It seems very friendly," she noted.

"Think we can keep it as the club pet?" Sayori eagerly suggested.

Once the squirrel jumped onto Monika, she caught a glimpse of something intriguing.

"I think this squirrel already belongs to someone," Monika drew attention to a collar wrapped around its small neck.

After pointing this out, the squirrel hopped off of Monika, deftly landing before the girls. It exchanged brief glances with them all, it soon ran off, quickly disappearing from sight.

"Should we go after him?" Sayori wondered.

"I kinda get the feeling that he'll manage on his own," Monika said in a reassuring tone of voice. "Let's just get back to work."

"I guess no free microwave then…"

The Literature Club continued their search. After scouring the entire first floor, it seemed like their task would end in failure.

"Ah! I think I found something," Yuri called out to the others, leading them into a room that looked generally untouched.

Inside they beheld a sofa, tightly sealed in plastic wrap.

"Wow, it's brand new," Sayori marveled.

And oddly convenient. Where was this when I briefly slept here?

Natsuki was utterly baffled.

"Well, let's get this up to our clubroom," Monika instructed.

"You sure?" Natsuki questioned. "This thing's got to be super heavy. How are we supposed to get it up to the clubroom?"

"I'm sure we'll be allowed to use the elevator if we ask for permission."

They all shared the same hesitation, but they were all willing to try.

The four congregated on one side and started to push. They kept pushing and pushing, each step draining them of more and more of their energy.

"Hold on a second," Natsuki said, thrusting her arms in front of the others. Without another word, she leaned forward and found the culprit behind their struggle.

The front legs of the sofa were digging into a tattered rug, severely limiting its movement.

"We need to lift the other side up so I can get get the thing out of the way," Natsuki explained.

The other three followed her lead. They lift the other side of the sofa into the air, giving Natsuki a chance to pry the rug away from the sofa.

With one obstacle out of the way, the Literature Club could continue their task. Taking short breaks at certain intervals, they were eventually able to move the sofa out of the old building and were on their way towards the main building.

"Ow!"

Like a bullet that was just fired, a tennis ball soared through the air and hit bounced off of Sayori's head.

"Sayori!"

Her friends all called out to her but couldn't get a response beyond a few garbled words. They continued to try until they heard a loud, "Hey!"

A student ran up to them, but not one from their school. He waved a tennis racket around as he panted over and over.

"Aren't you, Haru?" Monika recalled.

"Y-Yeah…" Haru took one deep breath and exhaled. "No one's hurt, are they?"

"What do you think? You sent a tennis ball flying right at us!" Natsuki snapped. "What are you doing playing tennis away from a tennis court!?"

"It wasn't my fault! Well, I mean… that ball hitting someone was kinda mine, but I didn't want to do this at all!" Haru defended himself. "It's all-!"

He then went silent, keeping his eyes glued on Yuri and Natsuki.

"Why are you looking at us like that?" Natsuki asked.

Keeping his silence, Haru tenderly grasped their hands. "Would you like to go out for a beverage sometime?"

EH?!

They were astounded and rendered speechless by his sudden and bold approach. It was almost as if he was a natural at asking that question.

As he waited for an answer, another tennis racket flew past them and swatted him away. As the owner approached him, Haru weakly muster up an inaudible, "Why, Haruko…?"

"You seriously going to flirt with the friends of the person you knocked out," Haruko admonished. "And you say I'm the unpleasant one."

Haru truly wanted to point out the irony of that statement coming from someone who swung at her own brother, but a splitting headache prevented him from doing so.

Done with her brother, Haruko shifted her attention to Monika. Monika remembered how their last encounter went and flinched when Haruko started to approach her.

"Didn't expect to run into you here, Monika," she said.

"Well, I do go here…" Monika nervously replied. She felt a strong urge to scratch her right cheek while in front of the visitor's threatening gaze.

"Don't get smart with me! You know what I'm getting at!"

"What's your problem?" Natsuki stepped in between them. "Why are you acting Monika did something horrible to you?"

"Because she did!" Haruko thrust her tennis racket forward, leaving it inches away from Monika's face. "I need her to accept responsibility for stealing my thunder.

"…What?"

"She went and became the school idol when were in junior high together when that was my goal."

"…Is that it?" Yuri asked.

"Don't say it like that! It's super serious…!" Haruko clapped her hand over her mouth and backed away. "Crap, she's rubbing off on me again…"

Suddenly, a blanket was draped over Haruko. Emerging from behind was another visiting student, a girl Monika had a notable run in with too.

"Haru's right, this is kind of fun," she said with a hearty laugh.

"Hey, haven't we met before?" Monika questioned.

The girl stopped and eyed Monika from head to toe.

"Ah, that explains it. But, yeah, we met before," She triumphantly pressed her thumb against her chest and smiled. "Name's Stella. Nice to meet you guys."

She suddenly stepped her her right, dodging a blanket that was about to be draped over her.

"You're too predictable, Haruko." Stella playfully patted her acquaintance's head, openly mocking and rebuking her.

"…I'm going to kill you," Haruko uttered under her breath."

"Not in the mood for that right now, but I'll give you a shot if you catch me."

Stella broke out into a sprint, disappearing from sight at a speed that would have left an afterimage in a more fantastical world. Haruko wasn't deterred though, still giving chase.

"Ugh…" Haru stood up, still dazed by his sister's assault. "Why couldn't Somiye come and back me up…"

He continued to lament this while stumbling away, leaving the Literature Club astonished.

"…What just happened?" Natsuki wondered aloud.

"Seems like we just witnessed the middle of another school's dispute," Sayori replied.

"Yeah… Wait! How long were awake, Sayori!"

"About when that guy asked you and Yuri out."

"Yeah, that was weird…" Natsuki admitted. "Wait, did that guy ask us out over Monika?"

"Eh…" Monika lightly shook her head. "Anyway, you should probably know this for future reference, Haru is the student president of his school."

"He is?" Yuri marveled. "I never envisioned any student president asking someone out like that on first glance… Let alone two."

"Or let himself get smacked around by another student…" Natsuki muttered. "I'm pretty sure he can give someone severe punishment for that.

"That's his sister," Monika informed.

"Oh… Still."

"Well… Um, let's not let all of that distract us. We still have a sofa to get to our clubroom."

After enduring a strange encounter, the Literature Club returned to their initial objective. They pushed it into the school and eventually inched their way to the school elevator.

All they needed to do now was take a break and obtain the elevator key.

"Out of service?" Sayori read the tape sprawled in front of the elevator doors.

None of them uttered a word, but they it was obvious to that they shared the same feeling — dread.

They were now faced with only one option if they wanted to get the sofa to their clubroom. An option that tired them out just by thinking about it.

…

"Are you guys pulling?" Natsuki huffed.

She along with Monika were giving it their all to lift the sofa up each step. Sayori and Yuri were on top, struggling to move back while maintaining their hold on the sofa.

"So heavy…!" Sayori winced.

"We're almost there, just a few more steps, everyone," Monika encouraged.

With one last spurt of energy, they lifted the sofa over the final step.

"We did it!" Sayori cheered.

Yuri shook her head in response. "Actually, we're only halfway there, remember.?"

The victory was short lived once everyone was reminded that they only brought the sofa to the midpoint of the stairwell.

Despair started to sink in, and they began to wonder if they had the strength to finish what they had begun.

Hm? Monika looked up at the top step again, someone's head coming into view.

It was Kiyoko, walking down the steps with half-lidded eyes and a yawn.

"What're you guys doing?" she groggily asked.

"We're trying to get this sofa to our clubroom," Sayori explained. "But the elevator's broke and now we got use the stairs and it's really heavy."

Kiyoko glanced at the sofa.

"How come you guys haven't taken the legs and the cushions off?" she pointed out.

Once again, the Literature Club had sunk into the depths of despair, even though that wasn't Kiyoko's intention.

"Here. Head's up."

Water bottles were thrown their way. The cold plasticfelt refreshing against their sweaty palms.

"You guys look like you didn't pace yourself too good either," Kiyoko noted.

She didn't have to guess. It was plain to see by the way, the Literature Club guzzled their water.

"Ah, Kiyoko, you don't have any afterschool activities, correct?" Yuri recalled. "How come you're still here?"

"I just woke up from a nap," Kiyoko yawned.

"But it hasn't been that long since school ended," Natsuki pointed out. "You're telling me you went to sleep for just a little bit at school."

"I was on the roof," Kiyoko added.

"That gives you even less time. That means you went to the roof, took a short nap and came down here."

"Yep."

"Oh… Okay then," Natsuki, while a bit perplexed, accepted the reality of what they had been told. Guess it's not a big deal, just sounds a little tedious.

"Where'd you guys get the sofa from anyway?" Kiyoko asked.

"It's from the old school building," Monika explained. "It's probably the only brand new one so… That's part of the reason we didn't take it apart… At least I wished that was what was going through my head…"

"Meh, don't let it get you down," Kiyoko encouraged while looking at her phone. "Anyway, I have to head out."

"Are you going to see Shiko?" Sayori queried.

"Nah, I have something else to do. See ya." Waving goodbye, Kiyoko climbed down the rest of the stairs and walked through the doors at the bottom.

Following her departure, the remaining four went to work based on her advice.

They removed the plastic casing and swiftly stripped the sofa of everything that was able to come off.

While still somewhat heavy, it was considerably lighter than before.

…

It was done. It took considerable effort and some back and forth, but the Literature Club finally had proper seating in their clubroom. And there was no better time for them to test it out then now as they were about to collapse.

"Next time, we're using our budget to hire someone to do something like this…" Natsuki moaned.

The other three nodded their heads in agreement.

"But I guess the most important thing to consider is the fact that we at least have a place to rest now," Monika said, trying to lighten the mood. "Though we should probably think about getting other things to sit on. And something to write on too."

"Perhaps a kotatsu would be a good idea to purchase too," Yuri suggested. "Especially with the declining temperature."

"I hope you're not complaining about low temperatures once the exams are over," Natsuki teased.

"No, I'm sure I won't have any worries there," Yuri replied with a chuckle.

"Aw, I really want to pass this year so I don't miss out!" Sayori whinged.

"You didn't go last year?" Yuri inquired.

Sayori shook her head. "No, I had to take make-ups… It wasn't fun."

"But you passed all the other ones, right?" Natsuki pointed out. "So, you should be fine."

"Well… I kinda squeaked by…" Sayori admitted with red cheeks. "I think I did a little better last semester since I've been doing homework with Shiko."

"Are you suggesting that Shujinkou keeps you focused?" Yuri theorized.

"I guess. I think we were keeping each other focused since I had to snap him out of his daydreams a lot at the start," Sayori recalled, a bright smile stretching across her face.

"Maybe when he wasn't daydreaming, his focus rubbed off on you," Monika suggested. "Shujinkou was very focused during our study sessions."

"Guess that explains why having him to yourself and flirting with him all day didn't work," Natsuki said with a knowing grin.

Monika backed away in embarrassment. "I didn't flirt…"

"Didn't you play dress up with him too?"

"That was to make it less boring at the start… It worked."

"Ok, but can you tell me that the thought of dressing like a sexy scientist didn't cross your mind?"

"…You know, it's funny how Claudette teased me about the same thing…"

"Would seduction tactics like that actually grant the desired result with Shujinkou? He kept his eyes away from Monika while she was dressed as a maid after all," Yuri speculated.

"I was pressured into that…" Monika slumped further into the couch as her face grew even redder.

"It probably wouldn't work anyway, since Shiko's already seen naked women before," Sayori stated matter-of-factly.

The others were stunned by the rather blunt admittance but were then reminded of what their Club VP was referring to.

"W-Wait, I didn't mean to say that out loud!" Sayori fretted. "All this talking about Shiko just got me thinking, that's all!"

"Still kind of a hard thing to just gloss over, Sayori…" Natsuki lightly chastised.

"It does bring to mind how you used to take every opportunity to bring up Shujinkou before he joined though," Yuri said.

"Huh? Did I really do that?" Sayori asked.

"All the time," her friends answered.

"I guess, but it was pretty much the closest thing to being friends to Shiko I had at the time. So, I couldn't help it."

"I was always envious of those strong feelings you showcased," Yuri admitted. "I've always longed to have such a strong relationship like that."

"I guess you got your wish because we're all doing it now," Natsuki said.

"We are?" Sayori wondered.

"It didn't take us long to mention Shujinkou and him becoming the only thing we're talking about so maybe we should say what's on our minds."

"We miss him…" all three of her friends said this at the same time.

Their speed and lack of hesitation caught Natsuki off-guard, effectively leaving the spotlight solely on her.

"Of course, I miss having him around," she said in a huff. "Don't make it awkward just for me…"

"When's Shiko going to wake up though? It feels like it's been forever…" Sayori lamented. "And he's going to miss out on everything again if he doesn't wake up soon."

"I think he would feel upset if that were to come to pass…" Yuri added.

"That's true…" Monika took note of the heavy, oppressive air. "But we can't stew about it."

Amid confused stares, Monika stood up with a smile and a wink. "Natsuki's right that we should address the fact that we miss him, but we also can't let us use that as an excuse to make us act like we did right after he fell under. Besides, you know how Shujinkou feels about his friends being upset."

"Mm-hmm," Sayori eagerly jumped up beside her. "Plus, we're a club that enthuses enthusiasm about literature. Emphasis on enthuses enthusiasm."

She's back on that. Natsuki shook her head with a barely audible chuckle.

"Your enthusiasm is as infectious as always," Yuri cheerfully noted.

Everyone was in agreement, inspiring Monika to say these words again.

"Okay, everyone."