Our Reality (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

The Only Part 2

Have you ever had the misfortune of seeing someone you care about shut their eyes after the light left them completely? The fear and confirmation that they'll never open them again them no matter how much you beg and plead them too? A pain you could never get closure on because you had to bury for the sake of your remaining child who could only watch as he lost his sister?

I... Never truly had time to just take a moment to grieve Hiroko's de- passing. I couldn't with everything Shujinkou had gone through. He made it clear that he blamed himself for her passing and for Jomei leaving. He was so upset that he even broke off his friendship with Sayori, believing that he didn't deserve to have her as a friend.

But even after that, she did sneak over here behind his back from time to time to check up on him. I guess that's where my experience hiding Akira came from.

Thinking about it, that's just one of the reasons I view myself as a bad mother, at the very least, a bad one most of the time.

Beyond not being able to hold the family together, I don't feel like I was able to be there for my children enough. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't provide enough love and encouragement to compensate for Jomei's lack of fatherly affection.

And as I look at Shujinkou now, I feel one of remaining few of my family slipping away. And there's also part of his rebuilt life falling apart which relates to how his friends are dealing with what happened behind everyone's backs.

How could I have not known what happened during that time? How could I not know they were that close to-?

Hiro sighed.

I can admonish myself more later. Right now, I need to make sure I don't miss... Honestly, at this point it'd be a miracle to just get a response.

She looked down at her phone. Despite how much she wanted it, there was still no response to the request she made two days ago.

Her eyes then wandered just a bit, drawn to the time on top of the screen.

"School's almost out..."

...

Monika sighed as class was dismissed. The last few days of waiting for the day to be over was already excruciating enough for her but her talk with Kiyoko earlier made it even worse.

At least I can finally go home now.

She grabbed her things and stepped into a sea of faces scrambling towards their own locations.

"Finally can go home..."

As she muttered her thoughts aloud, Monika felt something pull against her sleeve.

"Monika-Senpai!"

Monika instinctively felt a chill as she turned around. Such a feeling could only be caused by one person.

Standing behind her with an innocent expression on her face was Mali.

"Mali?"

Her child-like expression and equally child-like way of grabbing her attention was surprising to say the least. It wasn't the first thing she expected Mali to do after not seeing each other for the last few days.

"Um..."

Perhaps it was because of how she felt, but it was a struggle to remember the intentions that lied beneath Mali's veil of pureness.

"What's wrong, Monika-Senpai?" Mali asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"Well, you're actually referring to me by name for one..." Monika weakly answered, scratching her right cheek.