Our Reality (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Expansion

Shujinkou's stomach roared as he continued to scour the school for Mali. He thought he could visit her in her classroom during lunch break before eating his, but she was not there. He had also checked the previous spots they interacted at but to no avail.

"Wonder where she's at?" Shujinkou wondered aloud.

"Looking for someone, Senpai?" a sharp chill shot up his spine the moment he heard that familiar voice. He turned around but, to his surprise, there was no one around. "Up here, Senpai."

Shujinkou looked up to find Mali smiling down at him from on top of a set of lockers.

"Mali...?" he was astonished to find her in such a location.

"I told you people don't look up or down often," she giggled as she jumped down from her post. "Was Senpai looking for me or one of his other female 'friends'?"

"The first one and speaking of friends..." Shujinkou scratched his right cheek. He had been steeling himself for this moment since the night before and he didn't want to slip up at a critical moment. "There's something I want to ask you."

Curiosity rested on Mali's face. To Shujinkou's surprise, she looked genuinely innocent. "Senpai wants something for me?"

"Yeah. I was kinda hoping you could stop teasing my friends."

"What ever does Senpai mean?"

"You know, purposely upsetting them like you've been doing every time you see them."

"Oh that..." Mali remained silent for a moment. "So Senpai wants me to stay away from him and his friends?"

"What? No, I didn't mean that." Shujinkou sputtered.

"But wouldn't it be easier to just do that, Senpai? It'd probably be best for your circle of friends to just cut your Kohai out of your life all together."

"I don't want to do that. I just don't want you messing with my friends like you have been doing."

Mali once again silently gazed at Shujinkou. It was like she was trying to peer into his soul. "So, Senpai intends on us all getting along with each other."

"Well, that would be nice," Shujinkou solemnly scratched his right cheek. "But even if you don't want that, could at least not go out of your way to be really harsh with them."

"Hmm... Senpai sure likes to play the long and hard game... Also noticed that Senpai didn't include himself in his request," Mali suddenly flashed her usual innocent smile. "But if that's what Senpai wants, then I'll give it a try."

"Thanks, Mali," Shujinkou breathed a sigh of relief. For once, their conversation wasn't turned against him. "Oh and thanks for finding us a club room."

"Senpai's thanking me for that?" she asked, perplexed.

"Yeah. I know that it probably wasn't easy so... Thank you."

Mali curiously stared at Shujinkou for a third a third time before smiling. "No problem, Senpai."

As if on cue, the school bell rung.

"Well, I got to get back to class. See ya later, Mali," with a wave goodbye, Shujinkou ran down the hallway, disappearing from sight.

"Senpai's really weird," she giggled.

The day continued on like normal and, once the final bell rung, students either left the premises or settled into their respective clubs.

"Okay, everyone," Monika glanced around the room. Natsuki was busy organizing her collection of manga in the clubroom closet, Yuri was neck deep in a book and Sayori was hungrily eyeing the chocolate cupcake Shujinkou was eating. "Everyone?"

"Finally..." Natsuki stepped out of the closet, satisfaction beaming on her face. "I finally have a place to put my collection without worrying about anyone messing it up."

"Natsuki..." Sayori looked up at her fellow club member with pleading eyes. "How come you only made Shujinkou such a chocolately cupcake?"

"Because I made a bet and I lost," she answered. "Plus, I only had enough ingredients left to make that, so it's not like I could have made anymore even if I wanted too.

"Aww..." she whined.

Shujinkou glanced down at what was left of his prize and sighed in acceptance. Watching this short exchange, Yuri couldn't help but silently giggle.

"Everyone?" Monika called once again.

The four turned their attention to their club president.

"Now that we have a clubroom, Sayori and I decided that now would be a good time to bring up the club budget," Monika announced.

"Club budget?" Natsuki said, astonished. "I thought only sport and educational clubs only got money."

"Every official club is given a budget to work with," Monika explained. "We would have brought it up earlier, but..."

"Our club was self-sufficient enough to not need it?" Yuri interjected.

"Exactly," Monika confirmed. "But now that we have a clubroom, we think that now's a good time to dip into it."

"For what exactly?" Natsuki questioned.

"Clubroom customization!" Sayori excitedly declared. "We're going to make the clubroom look like it's a clubroom we use."

"Within our budget," Monika added. "So, we wanted to know if anyone has any suggestions."

The room was soon filled with silence as the club started to brainstorm ideas.

"Oh wait!" Sayori suddenly said. "We can't forget the other thing!"

Monika nodded her head in agreement and the two glanced at Shujinkou. The young man anxiously scratched his right cheek, wondering what he had done to garner such attention.

"Sayori also brought up the topic of expanding out club roster and decided to start with those around us," Monika said.

"Around us?" Shujinkou repeated, surprised. "You mean...?"

"Yeah," Sayori nodded. "We can't ask Fuyu since she's super busy doing presidential stuff but we were hoping you could ask Kiyo and Rei to join."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You're the closest to them, so it you would be our best bet."

"But wait... Didn't Rei already kinda say no?" Shujinkou recalled.

"We don't really know if she said no, she just left" Sayori pointed out. Plus, she's gotten to know us a lot better since then."

"And Kiyoko said that she couldn't commit to her last club."

"She can be as uncommitted as she wants in this club."

"You'll really say anything to get anyone to join this club, won't you?" Natsuki noted.

"That's not true," Sayori denied.

"You lured Shujinkou here with the promise of cupcakes."

"That's different."

"How?"

"I got something out of it..." Sayori nervously chuckled.

"You're not even denying your underhanded methods!" Natsuki raged. "I bet you don't even know the definition of subtle."

"I'm subtle." Sayori insisted.

"'Pottery Club, the Literature Club, the Basketball Club, Literature Club, Drama Club, Literature Club, Debate Club, Journalist Club, Archery Club, Supernatural Club, Literature Club...'" Shujinkou quoted.

"You still remember that part...?" Sayori nervously chuckled once more.

"So..." Monika glanced back to Shujinkou. "Will you ask them, Shujinkou?"

"Mm-hmm," the young man nodded his head.