September 21st, 2017

It was Thursday afternoon, and it was time for the club meeting already. Jake had gotten a little more comfortable being there over the past couple of days. Entering the clubroom, the usual scene greeted him.

"Hi Jakey~" Sayori welcomed him.

"Sup, Sayori." responded Jake. "You seem to be in a good mood today."

"Ehehe~" She giggled. "I'm just not used to you being in the club that's all."

"I see... that's a pretty simple thing to get you in a good mood. But I guess it's always the simple things with you, anyway." He reasoned.

"Speaking of which... I'm kinda hungry... Will you come with me to buy a snack?" She asked.

"Why? You're old enough to go get one on your own now, don't you think?" He replied.

"Eh?? T-That's not like you at all!!" She whined.

"I have my reasons." He stated. "Now, why don't we take a little look into that purse of yours?"

"E-Eh? Why that... all of a sudden?" She stuttered.

"Oh, no reason. No reason at all." Jake said sarcastically. "I just wanna see what you've got in there."

"A-Ah..."

Sayori nervously retrieves her coin purse. She fumbles with the latch and gets it open. Then, she turns it upside-down and lets its contents spill onto the desk. Only too small coins fall out.

"A-Ahaha..." She laughed awkwardly, tapping her fingers together.

"Wow! Look at all those invisible dollars!" Jake chuckled in faux amazement.

"That's not funny!" Sayori pouted. "How did you even know?"

"Quite simple, really. If you had enough money in the first place, you would have bought a snack before coming to the clubroom." Jake explained. "So, either you're not hungry, and just wanting an excuse to take a walk... Or, you planned to conveniently forget that you spent all of your money, so that I would lend you some. But wait, that first one can't be right... because you're always hungry! Which means the only option is...?"

"Uwaaa~!" Sayori cried. "I give up! Don't make me feel guiltyyy!"

"And that, my little hungry friend, is why you should never try to pull the same tricks twice!"  He replied, closing his eyes and waving his finger in the air.

"Ahaha." Yuri suddenly giggled.

"Eh?" Jake's eyelids wrenched open and his cheeks flushed; he didn't noticed that Yuri had been listening in. Her face with in a book, as always. But her listening in wasn't what surprised him the most, but rather the fact that she just laughed at his humorous response.

"A-Ah!" Yuri gasped. "I wasn't listening or anything—! It was just... something in my book..."

But Jake was barely listening to what she was saying. Instead, he was looking at her dreamily. He loved it when he make people laugh at his attempts at comedy. It would make him feel all tingly in his stomach. But hearing Yuri giggle like that gave him another tingly feeling. But this one was not just inside his stomach...    

"Yuriiii..." Sayori whined. "Tell Jake to let me borrow some money..."

"That's—! Don't get me involved like that, Sayori..." Yuri said sternly. "Besides... You should only buy what you can responsibly afford.. And frankly, after pulling such a mischievous little stunt like that, your suffering is fair enough retribution."

Jake and Sayori starred at her in silence. Yuri noticed their reactions and immediately started to look worried.

"Ah—! Did I just... I-I didn't mean that!!" Yuri stuttered, looking away from the two. "I just got too absorbed into my book... Uu..."

"Ahaha!" Sayori laughed. "I really like it when you speak your mind, Yuri. It doesn't happen very much, but it's a fun side of you!"

"That's... There's no way you could think that..."

"You were right, though..." Sayori admitted. "I did something bad and now I have to accept the revolution."

"Retribution..." Yuri corrected her.

"Yeah, that!"

"Still, coming from you, Sayori... I guess there's a little devil inside all of us, isn't there?"

"Ehehe... Jake?"

Jake blinked and looked back at Sayori. "Uh, yeah! Don't let her fool you, Yuri. Sayori knows exactly what she's doing. After all, she told you guys she was bringing me to to the club before she even told me..."

"B-But...! You wouldn't have come if it weren't for the cupcakes... So I had to trick Natsuki into making them!" Sayori explained.

"Come on, give me some more credit than that. I could've just said "no" and gone home, but I didn't cause I was peckish."

"Ehehe..." Sayori giggled nervously.

*PWAP!*

"Kyaa—!" Sayori shrieked. Out of nowhere, something smacked her in the face and tumbled on the desk.

"Ow... What was— Eh??" She stopped talking as she noticed the thing that hit her was round and wrapped in plastic.

"A-A cookie!" Sayori yelled. She glanced around. "I-Is this a miracle?? Is it because I've paid my restitution!?"

"Retribution." Jake corrected her.

"Actually, that one almost worked..." Yuri told him.

"Ahahaha!" Natsuki laughed. "I was just about to give it to you. But then I heard you blab about the cupcakes. It was totally worth seeing your reaction, though. Ahaha!"

"N-Natsuki! That's so nice of you! I'm so happy" Sayori said, beaming at Natsuki. She hugged the cookie tightly.

"Jeez, just eat it already..." Jake groaned.

Sayori rapidly tears open the wrapper like a starving animal and takes a huge bite. She smiles as she munches on her new snack.

"Mmmm, sho good... Mmf—!" Sayori suddenly clasps her hands over her mouth. The cookie fell back onto the desk.

"I bit my tongue..." She whined. Jake silently facepalmed.

"Ehehe. You're going through a lot over just one cookie." Natsuki chuckled, taking a bite out of her own cookie.

"Ah, yours looks really good too, Nat!" Sayori said, eyeing Natsuki's cookie. "Can I try it?"

"Jeez... Beggars can't be choosers!" Natsuki muttered.

"But yours is chocolate..." Sayori muttered.

"Yeah, why do you think I gave you that one?" asked Natsuki.

"Fine... I'm still really happy that you shared one with me! Ehehe~" Sayori gets out of her seat and goes behind Natsuki, then wraps her arms around her.

"Ah—Jeez... I get it, I get it..." Natsuki groaned. Cookie still in hand, she reaches up to try and nudge Sayori off of her.

"Three, two, one..." Jake whispered so that only Yuri could hear him.

"...Om."

Sayori suddenly leaned down and took a bite out of Natsuki's cookie.

"H-Hey!!" Natsuki yelled. "Did you seriously just do that?!"

"Uhuhuhu!" Mouth full, Sayori trots away to safety. Jake and Yuri laughed. Jake could see that one coming from a mile away, having lived with Sayori for half his life.

"Jeez, you're such a kid sometimes!" Natsuki said in annoyance. "Monika! Can you tell Sayori— Eh?"

Natsuki glances around. It slowly occurred to Jake that Monika was the only person who was not in the clubroom.

"Ugh..." Natsuki groaned. "Where's Monika anyway?"

"Good question..." replied Yuri. "Have any of you heard about her being late today?"

"Not me..." said Sayori.

"Yeah, I haven't either." said Jake. "Is she not usually late?"

"No... this is a bit unlike her." Yuri stated.

"I hope she's okay..." Sayori muttered in a worried tone.

"Of course, she's okay. She probably just had something to do today. She is pretty popular, after all." Natsuki explained.

"Eh? You don't think she... She has a...!" Sayori asked in surprise.

"Ahaha. I wouldn't be surprised." Yuri said with a smile. "She's probably more desirable than all of us combined."

"That's not true!" Jake blurted out without thinking. The girls all looked at him as he covered his mouth. Yuri looked surprised and Natsuki raised an eyebrow.

But Sayori was grinned at him with a sly smile. She knew he wouldn't have responded at all had it not been Yuri who had said it. Once again, Jake's face turned bright pink as he silently begged for a miracle.

Suddenly, the door swung open and in came Monika, breathing heavily as though she had just been running in a marathon.

"Sorry! I'm super sorry!" Monika apologised.

"M-Monika! There you are!" Jake said loudly, trying to push all of the attention onto her.

"I didn't mean to be late... I hope you guys weren't worried or anything!" She panted.

"Eh?? Monika chose the club over her boyfriend after all!" Sayori blurted out. "You're so strong-willed!"

"B-Boyfriend...? What on Earth are you talking about?" Monika asked. She quizzically glanced at Jake, who was sighing with relief.

"Ah, never mind that..." He told her. "What held you up anyway?"

"Ah... Well, my last period today was study hall." Monika explained. "To be honest, I kind of lost track of time... Ahaha..."

"That makes not sense, though." Natsuki piped up. "You would have heard the bell ring, at least."

"I must not have heard it, since I was practising piano..." replied Monika.

"Piano...?" Yuri asked her, looking very curious. "I wasn't aware that you played music as well, Monika."

"Ah, I don't really...! I kind of just started recently. I've always wanted to learn piano." Monika responded.

"That's so cool!" said Sayori. "You should play something for us, Monika!"

"That's..." Monika looks at Jake. "Maybe once I get a little better, I will."

"Yay~!" Sayori cheered.

"That sounds cool. I'd also look forward to it." said Jake.

"Is that so? In that case... I won't let you down, Jake." Monika smiled sweetly at him.

"Ah... I didn't mean to, like, pressure you or anything!" Jake replied nervously.

"Ahaha, don't worry. I've been practicing a whole lot recently." She assured him. "And I'd really love the chance to share once I'm ready."

"I see... well in that case, I wish you good luck."

"Thanks~! So, I didn't miss anything, did I?"

"Well, there was a bit of a cookie crisis with Sayori and Natsuki earlier, but besides that, nothing too major."

Monika giggled, "Sayori does get pretty mischievous when she doesn't have her sugar."

Jake and Monika both laughed. It seemed they had some similar relationships with their fellow club members. Speaking of which, everyone appeared to be settling down now. Sayori finished her entire cookie already, Natsuki disappeared into the closet, and Yuri was back to reading her book. Jake noticed it was a different book to the one they had been reading together. Curious, he wanted to ask her if they would be reading together again.

"Hey, Jakey." Sayori called to him. Jake looked over to her.

"Eh?" Jake replied. Sayori gestured for him to come closer to her. Confused, Jake slowly made his way over to where she was.

"Hey, are you about to go read with Yuri?" Sayori asked him.

"Er..." Jake rubbed the back on his neck.

"Listen, I have this little tiny request I wanted to ask you about. You don't have to do it, but it will really make me happy if you do." she said.

"Oookay... What is it?" asked Jake.

Sayori tapped her index fingers together nervously, "I was just wondering if... maybe... you could go spend some time with Natsuki today..."

"What? Why?" He asked.

"You don't have to! It's just that, she really isn't as mean as you might think she is. Sure, she may be a bit harsh on the outside, but inside she's a really sweet person." Sayori explained. "It would make me happy if you gave her another chance. I promise you won't regret it."

"I don't know, Sayori..." Jake muttered, looking back at Yuri. "I kinda want to keep reading Yuri's book with her. It's been really nice and relaxing..."

"Pleeeaaase, Jakey!" Sayori begged, giving him the puppy dog eyes again. Jake groaned, trying not to look at her, but it was not an easy task; he just couldn't say no to that face she made.

"Fine! I'll go spend some time with her. If she'll even let me, that is..." He sighed.

"Yaaay~! Thanks, Jakey!" Sayori cheered, wrapping her arms around him.

"Okay, okay, that's enough." Jake said, gently pushing Sayori back. "But what about Yuri? What if she's waiting for me to come read with her?"

"Don't worry, I'll go talk to her. I'm sure she'll understand." She replied.

Jake sighed, "I really wish I had your optimism..."

Sayori smiled at him and then walked over to Monika. Feeling a little sad about not spending the day with Yuri again, Jake looked over at the closet where Natsuki had gone.

(This is gonna suck...)

__________

Okay, so this chapter was a little shorter than the previous ones, but I didn't know what to add without making it enormous. I've also been losing my motivation to keep writing since this book isn't getting much attention, so updates might start to slow down.

Anyways, since I combined both of Yuri's reading sessions into a single chapter (since I had considered skipping the first act at one point), I figured that the next one would have Jake hanging out with Natsuki. So keep an eye out!

~Cheesy