Komi Komi Literature Club!

Chapter 32: The Cold Sets In

"Alex, is that you?" Tadano asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah, who else would it be?" Alex asked with a chuckle.

Komi's head perked up. Now that she realized who it was, she was immediately put at ease. To the surprise of the other students, she picked up her notebook and stood up from her desk. Alex gestured for her to follow him out of the classroom, and she followed behind him.

"What?! How dare he command Komi's movements?! Disgraceful! Why I should-" Yamai began to rant as the two of them left the room.

"Hey, sorry to bother you on your lunch." Alex said, now turning to face Komi. She shook her head and wrote in her notebook.

"Is everything alright?" She asked, holding the notebook down in front of her now as she waited to hear Alex's answer.

"Mhmm, yeah. I just wanted to let you know that today we'll be having the Literature Club meeting in the commons area instead of the classroom. The teacher isn't in today so there's no one to open it for us." He explained.

Komi lifted her head then nodded. She wrote in her notebook again, "Thank you for letting me know. I will be there. I'm looking forward to it."

"Great! I'll see you there!" Alex nodded. Komi could see by the expression of his eyes that he was smiling, but the rest of his face was still obscured by his mask. She decided to ask him about it.

"Are you not feeling well?" She asked curiously.

"Yeahhh, I have kind of a runny nose situation going on. I don't think I have a fever though...but I've been sneezing everywhere since the temperature dropped, so I didn't want anyone thinking I had like covid or something." He joked.

"I see. I hope that you feel better." Komi said.

"Yeah! I'm taking medicine and stuff, don't worry about it. Thank you, Komi! I'll see ya after school, 'kay?" Alex said, holding his fist up sideways in front of her.

Komi looked down at his fist, unsure of what he wanted to do. She looked up at him and tilted her head in confusion.

"Fist bump." Alex said, urging her to go ahead and do it.

Komi flinched slightly, realizing that she probably looked stupid for not immediately recognizing what it was that Alex was going for. She looked around, flustered for a few moments, before taking a breath. She raised her hand up, curled her fingers into a fist, and gently pressed it into Alex's fist.

"Alright. We gotta work on like a literature club handshake," He thought aloud with a chuckle. "See ya, Komi!" He waved and finally went back to his own class.

Komi waved back to him then looked down at her hand, noticing the slight difference in how her fingers felt after coming in contact with Alex's skin. She ran the tips of her fingers over her other hand, noting the difference.

That was a pretty good exchange right up until the end before she made it awkward, unfortunately. She would have to remember this so that she could be prepared for it next time. No one had ever offered a fist bump to her before – it was so informal, and yet it felt kinda cool at the same time.

"Everything okay, Komi?" Tadano asked after Komi sat back down. All of her classmates leaned in a little, anxious to see what her answer would be. Komi nodded to Tadano and wrote in her notebook.

"Everything is fine. We were just talking about the literature club meeting today." She explained...

Once the school day came to an end, Komi gathered her things and made her way down to the school commons' area, only stopping by her locker first to drop off a few of her things. While she was there, Monika swung by to get her.

"Hey, Komi! Did you get the text that we're meeting in the commons' area today?" She asked.

"Hm?" Komi looked at her. She realized that she had forgotten about her phone. She pulled it out and flipped it open. Sure enough, there was a message in the group chat from Monika letting everybody know about the change.

"Haha, that's okay. You ready to go?" She asked.

"M-Mhmm." Komi nodded. Monika gestured for her to follow, and the two of them began walking to the commons area. When they arrived, there were other students around, but the other literature club members had gathered at their own table by the wall.

"Well well well, look who's late." Alex said with a teasing chuckle as the two approached.

"No, we're all early, you dork." Monika said in reply, shaking her head at him.

"Yeah but technically in comparison to our early, you're like late, sooo..." Alex said just to keep the joke going.

"Technically, you're a dork." Natsuki said in reply, smirking behind her folded arms.

"Hey, who's side are you on here?!" Alex exclaimed, making the other girls giggle.

"Anyways, shall we get started now that we're all here?" Monika suggested.

"Yep! What're we doing today, Monika?" Sayori asked.

"I'm glad you asked, Sayori. Okay, everyone! The weather is changing, and the winter season is officially in! Therefore, I think for our club meeting today, we should discuss writing winter themed poems!" She began.

"Ooh, are we gonna do poems about snow?!" Sayori asked.

"That might be too cliché of a choice, no?" Yuri commented.

"Well ultimately it will be up to each of you to decide what you actually want your poems to be about. However, we can take some time between chapters to discuss what sort of topics we could all potentially write about." Monika suggested.

"Sounds good to me!" Alex said, smiling behind his mask.

"I've always liked how cool the air feels during winter. Could I write a poem about that?" Komi asked.

"Of course, Komi! That's great that you're already thinking of ideas!" Monika said cheerfully.

"I like that idea too, Komi. Do you mind if I do the same?" Yuri asked. Komi shook her head, paused, then nodded. She wasn't sure if that got the message across, so she just went back to writing in her notebook.

"It's fine, Yuri. I look forward to seeing what everyone writes. I will do my best too." Komi promised...