Our Reality (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Summer Intermission

"Ah... The first day of Summer Vacation," Shujinkou took a moment to inhale the fresh air coming through his open window before grabbing three distinct game cases. "What better way to start it off right than to marathon the Sly Cooper Trilogy?"

The instant he finished his sentence, Shujinkou's eyes darted towards the direction of a lone case laid spread across the floor.

"It's not like I don't like the fourth game in series, it's just that I just want to play the classic three..." he thought. "...Still can't believe that I got into the series by playing the games backwards. Thankfully, I never got far due to fear of confronting the guards and desperately trying to avoid street level, but it was still jarring going from the gameplay of 3 to 2 to 1... Especially from 2 to 1. It's a real good thing that I got over my fear of confronting people in stealth and stealth-like games of else I wouldn't be able to play a lot of the stuff I like. Huh, stealth was kinda like my horror back then."

The young man immediately slapped his cheeks, the sound of skin hitting skin echoing through the room.

"If I try to recap my entire gaming life, that'll be my entire vacation," he chuckled as he placed the first game of the trilogy into his Playstation 2. "Time to play."

The second he grabbed his controller and sat against his bed, his phone started to vibrate across his pillow. Shujinkou wasted no time in reaching for the hushed device and answering the call.

"Hey, Monika," he greeted.

"Hey, Shujinkou," Monika replied, her voice making it clear that she was in a good mood. "What are you doing?"

"Uhm, nothing much," he answered as he watched a familiar anthropomorphic raccoon run across his TV screen. "Just enjoying the first day of our break. Why do you ask?"

"No special reason. I just wanted to know if you wanted to hang out."

Shujinkou's eyes slightly widened as he watched the title screen of the game appear.

"...Hang out? You mean today?" he queried.

"Yeah," Monika answered. "That is, if you didn't already have plans."

"Um... No, I didn't have anything planned for today so... I'm available."

"That's good. What do you say we meet at that the parfait shop we used that coupon?"

"Um, Okay. I'll see you there."

The moment the call ended, Shujinkou placed his phone back down on his bed and waited. 5 minutes quickly passed by and he found himself still waiting.

"Huh. I expected me to have a bigger surprised reaction than what I did have," he said aloud in his empty room. "I mean, I guess I'm a bit nervous but I still expected a shocked reaction... It's strange, but I'm not complaining."

Shujinkou wasted no time in getting dressed and heading downstairs.

"I'm heading out, mom!" he announced.

"Oh?" Hiro walked down the steps behind him, giving Shujinkou the surprised reaction he expected earlier. "Where are you going?"

"I'm... going to go hang out with Monika today," he answered.

"Is this like a date?" she asked.

"Huh? What. No. No," he violently shook his head as he continued to say 'no,' stopping only when dizziness started to take effect. "It's not a date."

"I said something embarrassing, didn't I?" Hiro weakly chuckled.

"Uhm...."

"Right. I'm just going to go back upstairs now before I ruin the meet up any further. Practice my sewing, against my better judgment. That'll keep me distracted so I don't say anymore."