Komi Komi Literature Club!

Chapter 1: The School Festival

Komi was incredibly beautiful, even if she wasn't fully aware of it. She had an appearance that tended to draw a crowd wherever she went. Even at an event like her school festival, people still trailed behind her. It probably didn't help that she was dressed as a maid with glasses and her hair pinned back.

The school festival was something that she had been looking forward to for weeks. Her class had decided to host a maid cafe for the event, and while waiting on tables for strangers certainly intimidated her, she had to admit that she was having a lot of fun.

She was taking some time to go for a walk around the school when she noticed something odd: one of the open classroom doors had been lined with hand-painted streamers. They hung from the top of the door frame, blocking view into the room but instilling curiosity in her nonetheless.

With her hands meekly folded in front of her, Komi turned towards the classroom door and passed through the streamers, entering into a dimly lit classroom that smelled of some indiscriminate pleasant fragrance. At the front of the classroom, a small group of students were watching one guy read from a piece of paper.

"...if you're not in my circle, you're no friend of mine." He seemed to be finishing whatever he was saying. He set the paper down, and the other 4 girls in the room began snapping their fingers. One of them giggled happily.

"Great job! That was a good one!" She said.

"Haha, thanks."

"It was very pointed. It reminds me of something Natsuki wrote last week." Yuri commented.

"Glad to see you learned something." Natsuki folded her arms and smirked proudly in response.

As the five of them talked and laughed, Komi quietly stood in the room watching them curiously. She didn't know who any of these students were; they didn't look familiar at all. But they did seem like a closely-knit group of friends, which was nice to see.

"Monika? It appears we have a guest." Yuri was the first to notice the mysterious maid standing towards the back of the room. Everyone turned back to look at her. Komi flinched in surprise as their eyes fell on her, but she wasn't sure whether to leave the room or not.

"Hi!" One of the girls waved and walked up to her. "I'm Monika! Welcome to the Literature Club!" She welcomed her.

Komi nodded a little and looked around the room curiously. She noticed more streamers hanging from the ceiling; a multitude of them with a single word written on each one. It caused Komi to get distracted from the conversation she was supposed to be having.

"Um...have you heard about our Literature Club?" Monika asked.

Komi realized that Monika was still talking to her. She snapped back into focus and shook her head 'no' in response to her question.

"Oh I see...uh..."

"You'd love the Literature Club!" Another girl jumped into the conversation with a cheerful expression. "It's wonderful! It's all about discovery: learning about creative differences, learning about how to express yourself, and having fun while doing it!" She listed.

"Thank you, Sayori. Yes, that's what we're all about here. If you think you'd be interested, why don't you take a flier? We'd be happy to have you join us!" Monika said, reaching for a flier and handing it to Komi. She took it and looked at it.

"The Literature Club. Write the way into your heart!" Komi read over the words with intrigue. This was a new concept for her: she was used to writing on paper to communicate in casual conversation, but never anything deeper.

Would it really be possible for her to tap into something like that?

Komi took the flier and folded it neatly, holding it in her hands. She bowed respectfully as a show of thanks for the flier. Monika, surprised by this formal gesture, laughed a little.

"Oh, haha, you're welcome! Again, my name is Monika – I'm the president and founder of the club. This is Sayori, our vice president." She introduced.

"Nice to meet you! And over here are Yuri and Natsuki and...where did...? He must've snuck out." Sayori shrugged it off.

"Thanks for visiting! We hope to see you at one of our meetings," Monika smiled. "Oh! Natsuki, let's give the maid a cupcake for the road." She said humorously. Natsuki, the shorter girl with the pink hair, stood up and brought a cupcake to Komi.

"Here you go! Made it myself!" She held it out with a polite smile.

Komi took the cupcake in her hands. It was decorated with a little cat face made of frosting and edible ears. Her eyes widened in amazement. She held it up and inspected it, utterly impressed. She bowed in thanks again before leaving the room with the cupcake and flier in hand.

"Byeeee! She seems nice. I hope she comes back." Sayori said with a smile.

"I guess so...oh wow. There's quite a few people coming in now! We better get the next reading started!" Monika realized, noticing the handful of people coming into the room after Komi had left.

Meanwhile, Komi started making her way back towards her classroom. She found herself resisting the urge to overthink how poor of a first impression she had just made. They probably thought that she was dumb after zoning out of the conversation like that.

Embarrassed, Komi opened up the flier and looked it over again. Her eyes fell on the location and time for the Literature Club meetings. Part of her really wanted to look into it more, but did they really mean it when they said they'd be happy to see her make a visit?

Komi sighed and looked at her cupcake decorated like a cat. She took a picture of it with her phone before taking a bite of it. She had quite a bit to ponder over, but she was certain of one thing: the cupcake was really good...