Komi Komi Literature Club!

Chapter 3: The Guest

Komi's breathing grew a little more rapid as she followed behind Monika. They made their way back up to the second level of the school. Before long, Komi could see the door coming up. She remembered it from when she saw it during the school festival.

Meanwhile, Monika was feeling pretty nervous herself. Komi's popularity was no secret, so why was she interested in joining her small Literature Club? Also, why was she speaking by writing on a notebook? Was she a mute? Or was it some kind of weird prank?

How well or unwell this club meeting would go would depend on how she and the other club members reacted to having Komi as their guest...

"Look who finally decided to show up!" Natsuki greeted Monika teasingly as she entered the classroom.

"Sorry, sorry I'm late! I got a little hung up writing down some of the announcements on the bulletin board. But I brought someone new with us today!" Monika said with a smile.

"Oh, did you?" Yuri asked, curiously lifting her head, which had previously been buried in her book.

"Ooh, how exciting!" Sayori exclaimed before asking, "Where is she?"

"Huh? She was..." Monika turned around to see that Komi was not behind her. She made her way towards the door and found Komi standing shyly just behind the door frame.

"Hey, everything alright? You don't need permission to come in, y'know." Monika said with a little laugh.

Komi gasped a little again and nodded her head with a quiet 'mhm'. She made her way into the classroom with her hands folded over notebook. She clung to it tightly as she revealed herself to the other club members. All three of them looked surprised to see her.

"Oh." Yuri said absently.

"Well, another girl would be a good change of pace...hey, isn't that...?" Natsuki started to say before Sayori chimed in.

"Komi! Hi! You came after all!" Sayori exclaimed happily.

Komi's eyes widened. She nodded again with another hum. She was relieved to see that someone had remembered her first visit after all.

"What do you mean, Sayori? I don't recall her ever visiting." Yuri said.

"It was during the school festival, silly! Don't you remember? She was wearing a maid costume with glasses." Sayori described, making circles with her thumbs and pointer fingers and holding them up to her eyes to demonstrate the 'glasses'.

"...ohhh!" There was a collective moment among the other three members as they recalled what Sayori was saying and finally put two and two together: Komi was, in fact, the maid whom they had invited to their club.

"I should've recognized you sooner! You look different with your hair down and the glasses!" Monika said with a laugh.

Komi lowered her head a little, blushing in embarrassment. She wasn't sure what to say in response to that.

"Well, in any case, we appreciate you coming to visit our club meeting today. Would you like some tea?" Yuri offered. Komi accepted this offer with a nod of her head.

"Cool! Well, let's get an extra desk, I guess." Natsuki decided with a shrug.

So the girls gathered 5 desks together, creating a square with an extra desk at the end. Komi assumed that she would be the one sitting at the end, but Monika, as club president, opted to sit there. Instead, Komi was sat next to Sayori and across from Yuri, at Monika's left hand.

"Okay, everyone! It's time to begin our club meeting," Monika began. "As you can see, we have a visitor with us today. So I think it would be best to get to know her and see what her literarer-bleh...what her literary interests are." Monika said, over-correcting herself after stumbling on her words.

"Yes! I'm curious to see what kind of things you're into, Komi!" Sayori said, beaming with excitement.

Komi's head tilted downwards, and she blushed in embarrassment once more. On the one hand, she appreciated the special attention she was receiving; she could tell that they were trying to make her feel welcome. But on the other hand, having all eyes on her made her very uncomfortable.

"There's no need to feel pressured, Komi. We would just like to have a simple conversation about your interests." Yuri said reassuringly, gauging Komi's embarrassment. She set down her teacup in front of her first as an added sign of goodwill.

Komi lifted up the small teacup and sipped from it before looking at the others and nodding her head.

"So what do you like to read?" Monika asked to get the conversation started.

"Do you like to read would be a better question really." Natsuki commented.

"I do enjoy reading a little in my spare time." Komi answered. She couldn't think of a non-embarrassing way to explain that her reading material mainly consisted of books on how to communicate, so she decided to keep her answer general for now.

"Well that's good. Reading and writing are the primary focus of our club activities." Yuri said.

"What sort of club activities do you have?" Komi asked curiously.

"Well, sometimes we'll just sit here and read. Other times we'll have discussions about what we're reading, or we'll have more general discussions about literary devices or themes. And it doesn't always work out, but once a week we try to write poems and share them with each other." Monika listed.

"The poems are my favorite!" Sayori said with a grin.

"I've never written poetry before." Komi admitted. After everyone had read the words she'd written down, she took a moment to look over the sentence again.

"Perhaps, in time, that's something you might be interested in doing? It's a good way to learn more about how to express yourself." Yuri recommended.

Komi's eyes widened at this.

"Yeah. It can feel kinda awkward at first. Honestly, it still feels pretty awkward to me," Natsuki commented. "But it's kinda nice sharing different viewpoints and styles and stuff. A couple of times Yuri and I wrote poems about the same thing, and it can be neat to see how you can describe the same things in different ways." She continued.

"Wow! That's a lot coming from you, Natsuki!" Sayori said.

"I agree with you. Although, I always thought that those exercises irritated you because our styles are so different." Yuri said to Natsuki.

"Oh it does, but you know, I'm trying to be convincing." Natsuki said with a little laugh.

"I think that this club would be good for me. I would like to join if you'll have me." Komi wrote down. Monika smiled when she read this.

"Hey, we're always welcoming new members! If you think the club would be a good place for you, then of course we'd be happy to have you join us!" Monika spoke on behalf of the club.

"Totally. But don't think you'll be able to get out of writing and doing your part." Natsuki said with a little chuckle.

"Don't listen to Natsuki. Just take things at your own pace, alright?" Yuri said to Komi.

Komi swallowed and nodded before writing down, "Thank you", followed by: "I'm looking forward to it."