The next day passes quickly, and before I know it, I'm back in the literature club. I was quicky greeted by an enthusiastic Monika.

"Hi, Noah!" Monika greets me with a smile. I couldn't help but frown a little after reading about her last night.

"Hey, Monika," I answered much less enthusiastically.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You don't seem too happy." 

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said.

"Okay then. Just let me know if you need anything," Monika said while giving me a sad smile.

I thank her and sit down by myself. I then hear Natsuki in the closet.

"Ugh!" I hear an exasperated sigh from the closet. She seems to be annoyed by something so I approach her just in case she needs a hand.

"Are you okay in there?" I ask her.

"Freaking Monika! Always messing around with my stuff and never putting it back where it belongs," she said, clearly annoyed. She then slides a whole bunch of books across the top shelf.

"Manga?" I asked.

"Yeah, you read manga too, right?" she questioned.

"Well, sometimes I guess. How'd you know?" I asked.

"Heard you bring it up at some point, and it's kinda written on your face."

There's a lone volume of manga amidst a stack of various books on the side of a shelf. Curious, I pull it out of the stack.

"There it is!" Natsuki exclaims and snatches it out of my hands and sighed with relief. "Ah, much better!"

I take a closer look at the manga she was messing with. "Parfait Girls?"

"Hey if you're gonna judge, go do it over there!" Natsuki demanded. "Consider this a lesson straight from the literature club okay? Don't judge a book by its cover! In fact, I'm gonna show you exactly why!"

She then shoves a book into my hands, and we sit down on the ground and begin to read the book. While we read, I can help but notice how beautiful Natsuki looks while she's reading. I look back down at the book and began read it. While we were reading, my phone buzzes. I take a look at it, and to my surprise, it was a text from Jacob.

Jacob: Hey, can you talk?

Me: I'm at the club rn, what is it?

Jacob: I have to tell you something important, but it can wait until you get home.

Me: Okay then, ttyl.

"Who was that?" Natsuki asks me.

"Oh, just my good friend from back home."

Natsuki looks at me curiously, like I said something weird. "What do you mean back home?"

I catch what I said and chuckle nervously. "Oh, I meant from here."

She shrugged. "Whatever."

Suddenly, Monika's voice rings out through the classroom. "Okay everyone, time to share our poems for today!"

Fortunately, I remembered to write one at the last minute. I specifically tried to write it for Natsuki, so I hope she'll like it.

I decided to start with Monika. "Hey, Noah. How's everything going?" she asks me with a sad smile.

I remembered that I sort of ignored her when I walked in.

"Monika, can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Sure, What is it?" she questioned.

I lowered my voice. "Do you know who I am?"

Her smile faded. Monika took a deep breath and nodded. "I was going to wait, but now is a good time. Yes, I do. I know that you are different from the other players. Can you just do me a favor?"

I silently nodded.

"Don't mess this up, or there might not be a second chance."

A serious look grew on my face. "I'll try my best."

Monika's smile returned. "Okay."

I then decide to go to Sayori, who greeted me as per usual.

"Hey, Noah. How are you?"

"I'm alright I guess. Can I ask you something?" I asked her, hoping I wouldn't be too direct.

"I guess so. What is it?" I think for a minute to ask her without offending her.

"Are you okay?"

She looks at me with a confused expression. "Well, I guess so. Why?"

I elaborate a bit more and tapped the side of my head. "No, I mean in the head, emotionally."

She looks at the ground. "I mean, I guess so, I'm just a little down right now. That's all."

"Well please promise me this. If you ever want to talk, please come to me, okay?"

She gives me a sad smile. "Okay, Noah. I will."

I then come up with the most genius idea ever. "How about this? We go get some ice cream after?"

Sayori's face suddenly lights up with happiness. "Really!? Are you serious?"

I smile at my idea. "Of course. Anything to make you happy." After all that, we completely forgot about poems and moved on.

I decide to go to the chosen one, Natsuki.

"Hey, Nat. What's up?"

She turns around to look at me and begins to laugh a little. "Nat?" 

"Why not?"

She looks at me and we share a good laugh afterward, but it was sort of like Sayori. I could tell that something was off. However, I decided not to press her about it, because right now, I need to focus on Sayori the most.

We eventually share poems.

"Well let me tell you what I don't like!"

A pause came.

"Well... never mind. I'm not gonna give you my opinion."

I decide to just go with it. "So I'm guessing you liked it?"

"Well I...yeah whatever. Just get outta here already." She says with her hands on her hips and with a little laugh.

I give her a smile and she gladly returned it. Before I left, I remembered something that I had thought of right before I came to the club.

"Oh, hold up!" I called out to her.

"What's up?" she asked. I pulled a king-size chocolate bar out of my backpack.

"Here, I know you're hungry. Take it."

She looked at me weirdly for a second but didn't ask me how I knew she was hungry. Later, she finished it in less than a minute.

"Thanks," she said quietly. Then, of course, she stormed away and went back into the closet.

I then move on to Yuri.

"Hey, Yuri!" I call out with her head stuck in a book. I must have startled her.

"A-Ah! Hey, Noah. Would you like to share poems?"

"Of course I would!" I try to sound happy to be here talking to her, hoping for a similar reaction.

"Well, I can tell you wrote this for Natsuki," she says after reading my poem.

"What? No, I didn't!"

Well, I had thought of her while writing it, but as I said, it was at the last minute. "I wrote it at the last minute, so I was in a hurry."

Yuri gives me a strange look, but then she goes on about how she knows it's my first time ever writing a poem. I don't intend to be mean, but I pretend to listen while she rambles. Eventually, she finishes and I ask her about ice cream, and she reluctantly agrees to go.

When I was waiting for the other girls to finish their poems, I catch myself in deep thought again. I looked over toward Sayori's direction, and I overheard them talking about something about the upcoming festival.

While I was zoned out, I almost was asleep when I was awakened by the noise of arguing. Confused, I looked up to see it was Natsuki and Yuri.

"Oh really, well how do you know that he didn't like my writing style more?" Natsuki was saying. I get up from my seat to spectate what was happening, even though I already knew what was going to go down.

"Oh, I didn't know that you were trying to impress our new member, Yuri!" Natsuki was going on. While it was escalating, I decided to change things up a bit. Before I was given the choice of who's writing style I liked more or asking Sayori to help me, I decided to interrupt.

"How about this, guys?"

The girls suddenly stopped and turned to me. "Listen, I may not be the smartest guy, but I like all of your writing styles!"

Natsuki looked at me and said, "But who's do you like most?"

"All of yours! Seriously! I like Yuri's because of her beautiful handwriting and her ability to make it have a deep meaning. I like Natsuki's because she writes about happy things, and I like happy things!"

I glance behind me and I see Monika and Sayori just watching in awe.

Yuri spoke first. "Well, I guess I can deal with that."

"Yeah, I guess so. As long as he likes my style as well as yours," Natsuki agreed.

I did it. I can't believe it, but I did it. I mentally patted myself on the back.

After a while, it was finally time to go get some ice cream, but my wallet was starving after I paid for the entire thing, but I thought it was worth the $60. Sayori and Monika both got a large chocolate and vanilla sundae, while Yuri got a normal, large chocolate ice cream. Natsuki got a deluxe size chocolate banana sundae. We finally sit down and begin talking about the upcoming festival. Monika says that we will begin making plans tomorrow.

Good. Maybe I can spend the weekend with Natsuki. Oh, I should also invite Sayori over. Wait a minute, I could also maybe have all of the girls over so none of them gets upset.

I chose to think about that later.

After a while, we all finish our ice cream, and my wallet finally stopped crying. It was good that work at a small family restaurant.

I suddenly remembered that Jacob had something to tell me. "Hey guys, I have to get going. Sayori, you ready?"

"Yeah! Let's go." But before we officially take off, Natsuki runs up to me. And to my surprise, she gives me a little hug. Then she pushes me away, blushing pretty heavily.

On the way home, Sayori and I were talking about random stuff when she suddenly got quiet.

I stop her for a minute. "Hey Sayori, remember that you promised me that you'll talk to me if anything was bothering you?"

"Yes. And I'll come to you if anything's bothering me. I promise." Sayori said.

Something told me she won't, but I have to trust her that she will. We finally make it home, and I crash on my bed. After about five minutes, I pull out my phone and call Jacob.

It rang a few times, but he eventually answered.

"Hey, what did you want to tell me?"

He took a few seconds to respond. "This is going to sound crazy, but I had a strange dream last night similar to yours."

I frowned. "Really? What was it about?"

He filled me in, and it was almost exactly like mine. Jacob said that after he falls asleep, he would be in the game as well.

"I can't complain," I started. "I could use the help."

"I bet so. It would be a lot easier."

"That's true," I agreed. "Besides, you know more about the game than I do."

"Mhm. Well, I need to get going," he said. "I will see you in the morning."

"Okay," I said. "See you then."

After the long day, I proceeded to take a shower and cook some spaghetti that happened to be in the freezer. I turned on the TV to the local news, when a sudden knock pounded on the door.

I decided to get up to see who it could be.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------