Komi Komi Literature Club!

Chapter 10: The Backstory

Komi originally intended to miss only one Literature Club meeting. However, between classes, activities with her ever-growing circle of friends, and the second-hand embarrassment she was still suffering from, a whole week had gone by and she still hadn't been back.

She felt bad about that. It's not that she didn't want to come – she had just gotten tied up after that initial incident last week. However, this week she was determined to resume attending Literature Club meetings regularly.

After entering the front doors of Itan High and placing her things in her shoe locker, Komi started making her way to her homeroom class. On the way there, she passed by Natsuki, who quickly saw her and flagged her down in the middle of the hallway.

"Hey, Komi! You forget about us already?" She greeted her as she walked up to her.

Komi quickly stopped and shook her head. Then she pulled out her notebook and wrote: "I'm sorry. Last week on Monday I wasn't feeling well, and then after that some of my friends had made plans and insisted that I accompany them. I apologize for not attending."

Komi looked down a little, feeling guilty as she turned her notebook around and allowed Natsuki to read what she had wrote. Not only was she feeling guilty for not being at the club meetings, but because she wasn't letting on everything that happened on Monday – she felt like she was being partially dishonest.

"Nah, it's fine. Just next time send us a text or something so we're not waiting up on you, yeah?" Natsuki requested.

Komi quickly nodded her head in response.

"Cool. It's too bad you didn't come. One of our other club members that doesn't show up too much stopped by a couple times. We totally would've introduced you to him had you been there." Natsuki informed her.

Komi's mind immediately went back to the incident with Monika last week and began to shake a little.

"What's with that expression?" Natsuki thought to herself.

"I'm sorry. I'll make more effort to be at every meeting going forward." Komi promised.

"Hey, if you can't make it, there's no problem. I just wanna make sure you're not slacking off or tryna ditch us, you know what I mean?" Natsuki said, resting her hands on her hips.

Komi nodded in understanding then wrote her response, "I would never. I enjoy being in the Literature Club with my friends." Komi hid her face a little behind her notebook.

Natsuki cracked a smile when she read Komi's words, "Yeah. Yeah, we like having you too, Komi. You're really chill." She complimented her.

"Hmm?" Komi tilted her head, unsure of what she meant by that.

"I-I just mean you're cool, very relaxing to hang out with. But hey, I'll see you after school at the club meeting. I'll let you get to class." Natsuki said, waving to Komi then making her way past her to get to her own class.

However, to her surprise, Komi moved in front of her and held her hands up to stop her. Natsuki quickly stopped, looking surprised. This made Komi self-conscious – that had probably been too rude or maybe too forward.

"What's up, Komi? Something else you need?" She asked. Komi nervously started writing in her notebook again.

"Who is the other member of the Literature Club? The one I do not know?" She asked.

"Oh! Uh, he's...Monika's boyfriend." Natsuki answered slowly, looking away after.

Komi's eyes widened. Her suspicions had been correct: Monika's boyfriend that she had seen with her in the classroom was the other member that Natsuki was alluding to. Komi gestured for her to continue.

"Huh? Um, yeah, he joined a couple months before you did. He was an alright guy; he liked writing stories and song lyrics more than poetry. He stopped coming as much after he and Monika started hooking up." She explained.

"Did something happen to make him stop coming?" Komi asked.

"Yeah, he and Monika started hooking up," She answered irritably. "I don't know if he joined the club just to find a girlfriend or whatever, but once they started dating, Monika got more territorial – like she wanted him all to herself," Natsuki said, rolling her eyes at the memory.

"Anyways, it was causing stupid drama and problems in the club. It would've been fine if Monika had just stopped being such a diva about the whole thing, but he decided to pull away and not come at all for awhile. He's only now starting to come to the meetings again...

"It's all Monika's fault, really, but I'm pretty sure he blames himself for all the tension that was happening. I'm surprised he came back at all, honestly." Natsuki said in a quieter voice, huffing and folding her arms.

Komi stood there awkwardly with her eyes wide. She didn't realize that there was this much history between all the members of the club. Clearly, they've been friends for longer than what she originally thought.

How she would fit into this situation though was another matter entirely – one she hadn't even started to figure out yet.

"Perhaps I will get to meet him at the meeting today." Komi wrote, clearing her throat afterwards.

"Yeah...I guess we'll see. He's kind of a jerk though, we'll see if you two get along." Natsuki commented, chuckling to herself as if she had just told an inside joke.

Before Komi could ask anymore questions, the school bell rang, signaling that class would be starting in 5 minutes. Both Komi and Natsuki flinched at this.

"Woops! Gotta go! See ya, Komi!" Natsuki waved before hurrying on her way.

"Mhmm!" Komi nodded and hurried off as well.

Komi made it to the classroom with about 2 minutes to spare. She quickly got into her seat and sat straight up, taking a moment to catch her breath. Tadano looked at her in surprise and with concern.

"Whoa, Komi. You usually arrive so promptly. It's not like you to be late. Is everything alright?" He asked her. Komi looked at him and nodded, taking one deep breath before writing out an explanation.

"I'm fine. I was just talking with a friend." She answered. Tadano gasped softly at this.

"Komi. Oh...I see. T-That's great, Komi." He said calmly. He turned away from her and pumped his fist, feeling a surge of pride for her. However, she couldn't tell why he was doing any of this as an outside observer.

As class began, Komi closed her eyes and set her notebook down. Her mind was a little too busy to be happy about her progress with communicating. She needed to focus on class and work up the nerve to prepare herself for today's Literature Club meeting.

Evidently, she might be meeting someone new later...