Our Reality (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Countdown to Devil's Night Part 3

"Sayori!"

Shujinkou called for his friend after entering her home, but his only response was silence.

He waited to meet up with her for their daily pilgrimage to school, but she never came. He tried calling, but she never answered.

Maybe it was his growing paranoia, but he felt compelled to see if she was home.

"Sayori!"

After checking the first floor, Shujinkou went upstairs and walked into her room. Like the rest of the house, it was empty. While disappointed, he noticed something odd about her room.

It's clean. Did Sayori start cleaning up her room now?

Shujinkou scratched his right cheek.

I guess she went on ahead of me. But... she usually lets me know and she usually answers her phone. She isn't mad at me for suddenly leaving the way I did, is she?

Shujinkou chuckled as he thought about his circumstances. "Possibly on the fence with the rest of the club... That was something I feared when I first joined."

His laughter soon devolved into a depressed sigh as he left his friend's home.

No! I can't revert back to being a sad sack! Sayori wouldn't want me acting like this! I'm sure she's just doing her usual behind the scenes... whatever it is she does.

I'll just check up on her at lunch later.

...

"Staying positive sure is hard right now..."

Shujinkou's shoulders slumped forward as he continued wandering the school. He had spent a good portion of his lunch break looking for Sayori, but so far, he had no luck locating her. It was strange and oddly depressing at the same time.

"This is starting to feel like Natsuki all over again."

Just saying that invoked a sense of dread in Shujinkou. Though it was more likely that he was just missing Sayori at every turn, he couldn't help but feel like something was very wrong. It had been gnawing at him all day and that feeling had been getting worse and worse as time went on.

Am I just being pessimistic?

Before he could consider that possibility, Shujinkou felt a presence behind him. Given their history, it had to be...

"Mal-REI!?"

Standing behind him was his perpetually silent companion, staring at him with her usual blank expression.

His heart felt like it could burst out of his chest; one reason being the surprise that it wasn't who he was expecting and the other the embarrassment he felt for reacting so strongly.

Even after steadying his breath, Shujinkou could only follow up with a half-hearted, "H-Hey, Rei. What's up?"

Rei didn't respond to his question. There was no wave hello or subtle changes in her eye; she just continued staring at him.

"Did you need me for something?"

It was at that moment when Shujinkou noticed a subtle change in her eye. It was hard to discern, but she seemed confused.

I wonder what she's thinking.

Shujinkou didn't know what to do in this situation. He was curious and slightly worried over what bothered Rei, but at the same time he wasn't sure if he had the time to indulge her silent treatment.

Actually, going back to Mali... I'm still wondering what she was talking about yesterday. She said was planning on speeding things up on something, but... I honestly don't know. Everything after that was pretty... off.