Take My Hand

6: Mournful

It was an extremely woeful Monday afternoon in the Literature Club.

Sayori and Yuri were holding hands, sitting next to each other in the clubroom. Looking outside of the window revealed a gloomy setting, much like the atmosphere of the classroom. Someone significant was missing. The President herself was gone.

The Literature Club was bereft of all jubilation, and Natsuki's mournful expression revealed her inner feelings of lamentation. She had the feeling that this was entirely her fault.

For this was a day that all of the other club members would remember forever.

The day that Monika killed herself.

Natsuki was the only one who knew why Monika committed suicide. Her attempts to hold back her sorrowful tears failed as she clutched her girlfriend's suicide note in her hand as tightly as she could.

"Why...? Why did she...?," Sayori asked, her eyes watering as she teared up. Yuri instinctively squeezed the peach-haired girl's hand.

The bubblegum-haired tsundere hesitated. Silence pried into the room for multiple mournful moments before Natsuki finally gained the courage to speak up.

"She felt like her efforts weren't enough... Like she wasn't enough... I wish she would have told me SOMETHING!!!" She slammed her fist against her desk, sobbing loudly.

Sayori ran over to comfort Natsuki. "Hey, hey.. It wasn't your fault... Yes, she's gone, but we just have to move on... Okay?"

"Yeah.. Trust me, I know how this feels."

Yuri stood up from her desk, and she laughed nervously.

"Heh... My sister fell to the same damned trap several years back... It still hurts so much... But you have to move on from it. We all do."

"DAMMIT, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!!" Natsuki yelled, slamming the table over and over again with her fists. "I LOVED HER!!! SHE WAS EVERYTHING TO ME!!! And now... Now I have no one left besides a disgrace of a father."

Sayori grabbed Natsuki's wrists, causing the tsundere to flinch.

"You know why I didn't show up to the festival? It's because I almost made the same mistake that Monika made. But Yuri showed up just in time."

Yuri took Sayori's hand into her own.

"She showed me that taking your own life doesn't solve anything... It causes your friends and family to suffer."

Natsuki looked down.

"I know what it feels like... What it feels like to almost make a life-threatening mistake. Because I almost made the same mistake. I wish she could have told me something. I wish I could have helped her. I wish I could have saved her..."

She teared up again at this point.

"But I didn't. Because I didn't bother asking. Because I was too caught up in my facade to show any concern for my girlfriend. I loved her... She was everything to me. Without her... I have nothing."

Yuri walked over to Natsuki's desk, kneeling down to the tsundere's level.

"Trust me... I know exactly how it feels. I know what you're going through. Hell, I've been going through this exact same shit since I was twelve. Ayano was seventeen when I found her dead body. I couldn't believe that she was dead. She was everything to me, because my parents would never listen to what we had to say."

Her eyes watered.

"I-I miss her so much... Just like we all miss Monika..."

Natsuki smiled lightly, though her smile was mostly a part of the facade she desperately attempted to hold together. "I-I'll try to move on. I promise I'll try my best. But only if you promise that you will run the Literature Club the best that you possibly can, Sayori. Can you promise that?"

Sayori nodded. "I promise that I will run the Literature Club to the best of my ability." She saluted. "But we all need a break today, because of today's.... er.... events. Let's not even worry about writing our poems today."

Yuri nodded. "Sayori's right. Let's just chill, it's been a rough day for all of us."