It was the end of another school day – regular classes were getting out and students were either exiting the building or making their way to after school clubs. Then there was Tadano sitting alone in his classroom finishing up his class president work.
Tadano wiped his brow and stood up, taking a moment to stretch before gathering his things and leaving, "Whew, I'm tired. Why do I have to be the one who gets stuck with all this work?" He thought to himself as he made his way downstairs.
"Hey there! Tadano, right?" Alex asked as he passed by Tadano on the steps, going up while he was coming down.
"Hmm?" Tadano stopped and turned to look back up at him, "Oh hi, Alex!"
"Hey. Where ya headed?" He asked.
"Um...home...?"
"Not anymore. Come on. You're coming with me to the Literature Club." Alex said, grabbing him by the sleeve and pulling him back up the stairs. Tadano turned and followed, allowing himself to be dragged along.
"Whoa! Um, alright then!"
So just like that, Alex and Tadano were in the classroom for the Literature Club – in fact, they were the first ones to arrive.
"The others should be here in a few." Alex said. He set his backpack down on a nearby chair and removed his uniform jacket and tie. He set them down on the desk.
"The others?" Tadano asked absently, unsure of what was going on as he watched Alex take his clothes off.
"Yeah, for the club meeting?" Alex responded, looking at him strangely with an eyebrow raised.
"Hiii! I'm here!" Sayori grinned, announcing her presence as she ran into the room and did a little hop. She planted her feet when she landed and stood up straight with her arms outstretched as if finishing a gymnastics routine.
"Hey, Sayori. This is Tadano. He's Komi's friend. We just got acquainted the other day." Alex introduced them.
"Oh hello! Are you here for the Literature Club meeting?!"
"I suppose I am." Tadano answered, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
"Ooh! Well it's a pleasure to have you here in our little Literature Club, Tadano!" Sayori said with a grin.
"We have a visitor?" Monika overheard her, entering the room with Natsuki coming in right behind her.
"Oh, another boy this time. Well, at least he seems less stupid than the one we currently have." Natsuki said teasingly.
"TBD," Alex said with a chuckle. "The short one is Natsuki. And this here is Monika."
"Hello. I'm Tadano Hitohito. It's nice to meet you both!" He greeted them with a wave and a respectful bow, "The girls in this club are...cute. I gotta keep my head on straight." He thought to himself.
"Nice to meet you too, Hitohito." Natsuki nodded in his direction. Tadano's eyes widened a little at hearing a girl say his first name so casually. It was an indescribable experience for him.
"What an amazing club." He thought to himself.
"Hi, Tadano," Monika smiled at him and offered a handshake. "My name is Monika. I'm the president of the Literature Club. Thank you for stopping by! Please, make yourself comfortable!" She invited, gesturing to the desks before folding her hands down in front of her.
"O-Oh, thank you, Monika. I will." Tadano nodded, rubbing the back of his head again.
"We're just waiting on two more people now. Oh! Never mind." Monika said, noticing Yuri and Komi coming into the classroom together.
"...well please send me a text whenever you'd like to make the arrangements," Yuri said to Komi before addressing the group. "Hello, everyone."
"Hey, Yuri! Hey, Komi! Look who's here." Alex said, gesturing to Tadano.
"Hmm?" Komi looked in his direction. Her eyes widened with notable excitement upon seeing him. This prompted Tadano to stand up. He cleared his throat and waved to her.
"Uh, hey, Komi! Good to see you. Alex dragged me here, heheh."
"You're welcome." Alex chuckled.
"Is he talking to me or Komi?" Tadano wondered.
"Haha, well since everyone's here. Let's get started." Monika said.
Everyone sat down at the 7 desks that had been pushed together. Komi sat next to Tadano. Yuri and Natsuki sat across from Tadano and Komi. Alex sat on one end by Tadano and Yuri. Monika and Sayori sat down at the other end by Komi and Natsuki.
"Don't forget to say your catchphrase, Monika!" Sayori said to her as they all settled in their seats. Monika sighed a little at this and cleared her throat.
"Ahem. Uh, okay, everyone! It's time to get started. As you can see, we have one of Komi's friends visiting us today. Thank you for joining us, Tadano." Monika began.
"Uh, y-yeah, you're welcome." Tadano nodded.
"As per usual, whenever we have guests and new people join us, we always try to get a sense of what their interests are as far as reading and literature are concerned." Monika began.
"So, Tadano, what kinda literature you like? You do much reading?" Alex asked curiously, folding his arms on his desk.
"Erm, occasionally. I'm afraid I'm not much of a reader outside of school assignments." Tadano said with an awkward chuckle.
"You play any video games?" Natsuki asked curiously.
"Huh? Uh, yeah." He answered.
"What does that have to do with anything, Natsuki?" Yuri questioned.
"Well, 'cause my next question was gonna be how long have you been reading manga?" Natsuki brought up.
"Huh?" Tadano flinched in surprise.
"How does one thing correlate to the other?" Monika asked.
"Oh, trust me, there's always a correlation. So spill it." Natsuki smirked in Tadano's direction, interlacing her fingers and resting her elbows on the desk with her chin on top of her hands.
"Hmm hmmm." Sayori hummed playfully and did the same thing.
"Heheh, uh...I haven't been into it in a long time, but..."
"Buuut?" Natsuki leaned forward.
"But I...still keep my old ones around." He finally admitted, looking down and to the side.
"Aha! Knew it!" She exclaimed proudly.
"I wanna die now." Tadano thought to himself.
"Ahaha, oh wow. Okay. So your tastes are similar to Komi and Natsuki then. That's interesting. It must be a more popular thing now." Monika commented.
"Yeah! And to think ya'll gave me flack for it. Mhmm. Mhmm." Natsuki teased, folding her arms and nodding her head a few times.
"Yeah, because you show up and you suck." Alex said with a snicker. Natsuki opened her mouth to retort, but then they both broke and started laughing.
"I will never understand you two." Yuri said, shaking her head.
"Wow. They're all very tight knit friends. No wonder you like being here." Tadano observed, talking to Komi directly.
"Mhmm." She nodded in agreement.
"Oh yeah. The Literature Club is a great place to hang out and enjoy writing, learn each other's interests; you'd probably really like it here, Tadano!" Sayori said with a smile.
"Heh...I think I would. I wish that I could stop by more often, but I have duties as class president that I unfortunately have to keep up with." Tadano said.
"Woww, so dutiful." Alex said in a high pitched voice to poke fun at him.
"Shut up, Alex," Monika giggled. "Well I understand. But if you ever have time, you should stop by. We'd be happy to set up another desk for you in our little round table here."
And just like that, the bell rang. The girls all looked at each other in surprise. Time really flew during today's meeting. Tadano was the first one to get up, promptly returning his desk to its original position before addressing the group.
"Well thank you for having me! I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I'll be able to stop by again soon." He said with a smile.
"Please feel free to. Next time, I'll have some tea prepared." Yuri promised.
"That sounds good, but you don't have to go out of your way for me." Tadano said.
"Oh, we do it all the time. It's no big deal. We'll have an extra cup on hand whenever you'd like to visit again." Monika said with a smile.
"Yeah! Any friend of Komi's is a friend of ours!" Sayori chimed in.
"Wow...so nice. Thank you! I look forward to it!" Tadano said more enthusiastically.
He made his way to the door and waved to everyone. Then he stopped and looked at Komi, noticing that she was awkwardly standing at her desk looking back and forth between him and the group. His eyes widened a little bit, and then he leaned forward from behind the door frame.
"You don't have to wait up for me, Komi. If you wanna stay behind and chat, that's fine." He said.
Komi gasped a little, standing up straight. She hummed unsurely before shyly holding up one finger. Again, Tadano's eyes widened and then he smiled.
"Sure. Alright. I'll wait right over here then." He said before stepping out of the room.
"Whoa. What was that? It was like he read her mind." Natsuki observed.
"I'm sorry, but I have to get going now. I'll see you all tomorrow." Komi wrote, bowing respectfully before grabbing her things and following Tadano out into the hallway.
"Is everything alright, Komi?" Tadano asked as the two of them walked away.
"Everything is alright. Why do you ask?" Komi asked.
"Oh, well it just seemed like you wanted to talk to me about something." He answered.
Komi lifted her head up and fidgeted awkwardly for a little bit before writing in her notebook again, "Did you enjoy being in the Literature Club?" She asked.
"Oh! Yes, I did. I liked it. Your friends all seem really nice." Tadano said with a smile.
"Yes. Do you think you'll be able to visit again?" She asked.
"I'll do my best." He promised...
"Those two are cute, huh?" Alex commented to Monika with a chuckle.
"Who? You mean Tadano and Komi?" Monika asked.
"Mhmm."
"Yeah, they're sweet. You think Tadano will join the club?" She wondered.
"Join? Probably not. But I hope he at least visits from time to time." Alex said...