Komi Komi Literature Club!

Chapter 18: The Silence

Making his way into the clubroom, Alex was surprised to see that only Komi, Natsuki, and Sayori were inside. He turned and looked up at the clock on the wall – it was almost time for the meeting to start.

"Hey. Uh, I thought I was gonna be the last one today for sure." Alex said with an ironic chuckle as he entered the room. He slid his bag off his shoulder and dropped it into an empty seat.

"On any other day you would be," Natsuki said. "But Yuri texted me earlier saying she was gonna be in the library with Monika today. They got a-a English project." She explained.

"Gotcha. So what does that mean for us?" Alex asked.

"Today's gonna be a quiet reading day," Sayori answered. "Or if you've got homework or writing you wanna work on, you can do that too. I'll be working on my next poem!" She declared.

"I'm gonna be reading manga. Alex, care to join?" Natsuki asked.

"Uhh yeah. Sure." He agreed.

"I think I'll work on a poem too." Komi decided.

"Great! So it'll be a quiet reading and writing day." Sayori said with a smile.

So the four of them split into pairs: Komi sat next to Sayori so that they could work on writing poems while Alex and Natsuki sat on the floor by the wall side by side so that they could read from her manga.

Once they were settled, the silence quickly set in.

Komi felt a slight sense of palpable discomfort in the air. It was hard to describe; she was used to things being quiet when she was at home, but in the presence of her friends, the silence didn't quite feel right. Sayori seemed to be fairly engaged in her writing, so maybe it was just her feeling that way?

She glanced over at Natsuki and Alex and that's when she noticed that they weren't reading from the manga. Instead, she was typing something on her phone and then showing it to him. Then he took the phone, looked down at the screen with a strangely serious expression, then he typed something and gave it back to her.

Komi quickly looked down at her paper, confused by what she had just seen. After considering the facts for a few minutes, she realized that Natsuki had likely drawn him in so that they could talk privately, likely about something serious.

Komi tapped her finger against her pencil before writing a message to Sayori on a blank piece of paper. She slid it over to Sayori's desk.

"Is everything alright?" She asked.

"Hm?" Sayori looked up, read the message, then looked at Komi. They stared at each other for a few moments before Komi's eyes fell to the paper. Sayori looked down at it and started writing. Then she slid the paper back to Komi.

"What do you mean?" Sayori asked.

"I'm not sure." Komi admitted. She was unsure of how to explain the feeling she was picking up on. She was hoping that Sayori would be able to read into it the same way Tadano could, but instead Sayori just shrugged and went back to her writing.

She was unsuccessful in expressing her concern...

The quiet meeting soon came to an end. The school bell rang, and everyone stood up from their seats, "Sorry to rush out of here so soon but I gotta get home! See you guys tomorrow!" Natsuki said before rushing out the door.

"Wait, Natsuki! I needed to borrow some of your notes, remember?!" Sayori said, grabbing her bag and running after her.

This left just Komi and Alex in the room. He stood up slowly with a grunt. He took a few moments to stretch his legs, "Ah well. I'mma fix up these desks real quick. Apparently the teacher gets mad if we don't leave the room exactly how we found it." He said as he begun to slide the desks back into their proper place.