|| May I Read With You? || Sayuri ||

Chapter Three: Decisions

    
     Yuri has always been... socially awkward, to say the least. She wasn't sure if it was obvious to others, but it's quite glaringly obvious to her. Especially when you're too nervous to even utter a simple greeting to someone who walks into the room you're in..

Speaking of which, the girl had left and placed a flyer on her desk while Yuri was inwardly panicking.

No doubt she was probably quite embarrassed about how the situation played out.

Yuri took a few (somewhat shaky,) breaths in and placed down her book. The flyer was simple to say the least, a few images of books or pencils on the sides and a couple lines of text. Besides from the quite clear text on the top of the page telling her it was a literature club, the images helped clue that in.

That made sense. They were starting a literature club and saw a girl reading, so one would probably presume she would like a literature club. There really was no reason for her to have been so anxious, they were simply trying to get people to join their club.

....

     Somehow that made Yuri feel even worse.

     First off, she most probably embarrassed herself and them by saying absolutely nothing, and now they might not be so sure she'll join. They had in all probability expected to have a conversation about if she would like to join, and- Oh, who was she kidding? It probably didn't matter if she joined, she was likely their last chose just because they wanted more members.

     Okay. Now she was just needlessly making up excuses. A literature club was interesting to her.. Perhaps she could converse with others more easily, with a set topic of literature. Room 3-B.. She could try to check it out, and if she doesn't like it or embarrasses herself somehow she can just- not come back-

     Yeah. Okay. That would work. That way, Yuri could still try to be somewhat social and be able to opt out. Though that might be rude... It was already decided on, so it didn't really matter at the moment.

     She was broken out of her thoughts as her eyes wandered to the clock. In her daze it appeared quite some time had went by. She better get going..

     Yuri gathered her things and exited the classroom, trailing down the hall.

     Yuri had assumed that everyone had already left, considering the school hallways were unnervingly silent. But she was proven wrong as she was suddenly shoved into the wall.

     Whimpering in pain, Yuri opened her eyes and turned to see the persecutor.

     Of course. It was almost always Takeshi, Astrid and their party. This time it was just him and Astrid. Yuri wasn't sure if that was better or worse.

"Look who it is, little miss antisocial freak!" Takeshi sneered, shoving her against the wall again.

"Tell me about it, one day even your books will get sick of your company!" Astrid laughed.

Yuri almost immediately shrunk in on herself, although still being taller than the both of them. How pathetic was she that she couldn't even stand up to someone shorter than her?..

They were still throwing insults at her, but she wasn't really listening anymore. It wasn't anything new really..

"You know, Yuri? Somewhere out there is a tree tirelessly producing oxygen for you. You owe it an apology." Astrid gave a sick grin, placing a hand on her shoulder and squeezing it

"W-well actually all plants, algae, and Cyanobacteria create oxygen, b-but yes trees do also help.. B-but u-uhh.." Yuri trailed off almost immediately and wished she hadn't said anything at all.