The Literature Club!

Hey! My name is Koichi Haru, I'm a new Second Year Student at Japan's Hayase Academy, I'm exactly 18 years old. My life hasn't been anything too exciting, except right about now...

"Heeeeeeeey!" A girl shouted.

I stopped to see a girl with coral pink hair running towards me. She stopped in front of me to catch her breath.

"Sayori... Did you wake up late again?" I sighed.

"May... Maybe I did... Just a little?" She replied.

Sayori, Sayori, Sayori... She's an absolute ray of sunshine, she's been my friend since we were little kids, buuuuut she's been having a bit of a habit of sleeping in too late.

"Why didn't you wait up for me?" Sayori whined.

"I would've if I knew you were behind me, silly! Come on, we've got no time to waste!" I chuckled.

Sayori walked next to me as we crossed the street towards the Academy. I felt her staring right at me.

"Hey, so, have you thought of any clubs to join yet?" She asked.

"Clubs? W-Well, if I'm gonna be honest, I completely forgot to check any of them out..." I confessed.

Sayori let out a disappointed gasp, "You what?! You promised me that you would!"

"H-Hey! Take it easy! People tend to forget things you know!" I argued.

"We talked about this literally every single day you know." Sayori noted.

Ah, right... I guess that's true, isn't it?

"Oh... Yeah..." I nervously laughed.

"Will you pretty please pick one this year? Preeeetty please?" Sayori questioned.

I looked over towards the school in the distance, "Alright, I will, hopefully I won't be too late already!"

[Several Hours Later...]

The school day came and went like normal, it was quite a treat being back inside the classroom. All day I was thinking about what club I could possibly join. There was the Anime Club, Debate Club, even the... Thighs Save Lives Club? How exactly is that one even allowed? If I recall, Sayori told me that she was in some sort of Literature Club, it's in a room upstairs somewhere. I gathered my things and decided to see what exactly this Literature Club was about. If anything, it sounded as if it was just a bunch of reading and nothing more! After some searching, I finally found the room I was looking for. I peeked my head into the room to see what was up.

"Hey... Um... Is this the Literature Club?" I announced.

Sayori's eyes brightened up even more than usual as soon as she saw me.

"Th-Th-This is the person I was talking about! I can't believe it!" Sayori chirped.

She quickly ran towards me and pulled me inside the room. Sayori was practically radiating with joy as she stood next to me.

"This is Koichi! Our new member!" She exulted.

"N-New member?! Hang on just a sec! I just got here!" I responded.

A pink haired girl glared at me, "A boy? Seriously, Sayori? Way to kill the atmosphere..."

"Oh, come on, Natsuki! Just 'cause he's a boy doesn't mean he can't be in the club! I'm sure he'd have a lot of fun here! He's a nice guy!" Sayori told her.

Natsuki seems a little... What's the word? Easily agitated? A girl I've seen before came up and patted Natsuki on her shoulder, that girl was Monika, she was in one of my classes last year.

"Haha! Take it easy, Natsuki, if he's Sayori's friend then he's good company to have! It's nice to see you again, Koichi." Monika smiled.

"It's nice to see you as well, Monika! You as well, Natsuki! Oh, I probably should formerly introduce myself to you all. My name is Koichi Haru, a Second Year student just like you all!" I bubbled.

I looked over and noticed a violet haired girl that was looking down at the desk in front of her. She looked up and gave me a small smile.

"I'm Yuri, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Koichi." Yuri spoke softly.

She seems to be much more mature than the rest of us, judging by the way she spoke. Although she seems to be a little more reserved as well.

"Lemme guess... You have no idea what this club is about, do you?" Natsuki asked.

I shook my head at her, "Nope, not at all. My guess was that it was mainly just a reading club until I saw that there was already one of those. So, I guess I'm lost already, sorry."

"That's not a problem! Here in the Literature Club, we do read, but our main focus is writing poetry! As President of the Literature Club, I should tell you that it's rather fun! Of course, it does take a bit of brainstorming to think of a poem, much like any form of literature does." Monika chimed in.

Poetry...? I guess I shouldn't really be that surprised whatsoever...

"Hang on, two things... First, you're President of the Literature Club, Monika? And second, writing poems?!" I exclaimed.

Natsuki set down a tray of cupcakes, "Oh boy... If you're gonna leave you might as well have a cupcake before you go."

"I'll go make tea then, I guess." Yuri sighed.

I put my hands out in front of me and waved them, "W-W-Wait a sec! I didn't say it was a bad thing! I just wasn't expecting to write poetry, that's all."

"Phew... I thought you were gonna walk out of here, that wouldn't have been good!" Sayori responded.

I took a cupcake from the tray, it looked like a little cat, did Natsuki make these? Yuri came back and sat down tea cups in front of us. I took a bite from the cupcake, they were super good!

"Wow... These are awesome, Natsuki! Thank you!" I grinned.

"I-I didn't make them for you, dummy!" Natsuki grumbled.

"Technically you made them for all of us, including me, although you didn't really know I-" I countered.

She gave me another glare that made me stop talking, even though she was small, I'm pretty sure she could hurt me in places I didn't know I even had.

"So, Koichi, I know poetry isn't exactly what you were expecting but... What do you say? We do need one more member in order to make it an offical club." Monika wondered.

"Hmm... It would be interesting to say the least. Honestly, I don't see why not if all you need is one more person." I agreed.

All of their eyes lit up with glee, at least the mood in the room's better than what it was before. But doing poetry...? Can I really do that?

"Then it's settled! Welcome to the Literature Club, Koichi! If that's everything, I've got a bit of a project for all of us to do tonight, I'd like all of you to write a poem to bring in tomorrow. We'll be sharing them with each other-" Monika joyously nodded.

"Sharing them!? Excuse me, but I wasn't under the assumption that we were gonna share them, Monika!" Natsuki interrupted.

"Y-Yeah... I don't really know about that Monika. I guess... It sounds a bit... Intimidating." Yuri added.

Monika crossed her arms, "What's wrong with sharing them? If we don't, how else are we supposed to get our ideas and expressions out to others? I know you're all fantastic writers! It'll also help Koichi get to know all of us more and maybe even improve on his writing skills."

"Yeah! I think that would be super duper fun! I don't think it'd be scary as you two are thinking though." Sayori approved.

"Well... Alright fine, I guess we can do that." Natsuki huffed.

"O-Okay... If you all are... Alright with it... Then I am as well!" Yuri nodded.

"Awesome! So, that'll conclude our first ever meeting, everyone! Thank you for joining us, Koichi. I'm certain you'll have fun here!" Monika grinned.

"Yeah, I think so too!" I smiled back.

Natsuki and Yuri cleaned up their things as we packed up ours. Sayori and I were the last to leave the classroom.

"This'll be so fun! I can't thank you enough for doing this, Koichi!" Sayori beamed.

"Hey, no problem, this wasn't something I thought I'd ever be doing but I guess it's better than most things. I didn't think Monika was the President of the club, is there a Vice President or something like that?" I told her.

"Ehehe~! That'd be me!" She giggled.

I would've figured that someone like Yuri would've been the Vice President. I don't mean to be rude but Sayori's a bit of an airhead at times, she means well, but she's clueless sometimes. I guess she must be really passionate about this club!

"Ah, okay, that must be quite the role for you." I replied.

Sayori moved her bag to the front of her, "Yeah huh! But I really like it a lot! There are somethings that Monika has to do since she's the President, but I do quite a bit myself as well."

We left the school and took our usual route home. The entire walk home I was trying to think of what exactly I was supposed to write. Once I got home, I walked up into my room and found a notebook. I bought an extra one for whatever club I joined just in case I needed it. I opened it up and looked at the blank page in front of me.

"Alright... This should be easy... Just write down something... Something..." I muttered.

My mind was drawing a blank, this was gonna be harder than I thought... I laid down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. What was I supposed to even do? I heard my door open, I sat up and saw my Mom looking in.

"Well, hello there! How did your first day go?" She asked.

"It was pretty normal, except I... I joined a Literature Club and I'm supposed to write a poem. The only problem is that I don't know what to write." I admitted.

"That's something I never thought I'd hear you say. Well, allow me to say this, just write down whatever comes to mind. Poems don't need to rhyme, dear, they just need a message behind them. You can write a poem about anything!" Mom advised.

"Really? All I need is a message? Why didn't I think of that, thank you, Mom!" I smiled.

My Mother winked at me, "You're dear ole' Mom knows a lot more than you think, especially about literature!"

She closed the door behind her and I looked over at my notebook. All I need to do is write something that someone like me can relate to? That shouldn't be too difficult I hope. Something finally hit my brain and I started writing it down! After about 20 or so minutes of writing, I had a pretty decent poem. I suddenly heard a tapping on my window, I turned around and...

"S-SAYORI?!" I screamed.

I opened my window, "Hey! Do you have a pencil I can borrow? I kinda forgot mine at school."

"How exactly did you get up here?! Why didn't you use the damn door!?" I questioned.

"That's something I'll never tell you. Can I have a pencil now?" Sayori replied.

"O-Okay? Sure, I guess?" I nodded.

I handed Sayori a pencil and watched as she climbed down to the ground then scurry off towards her house. She's... Definitely an interesting girl to say the least.

[The Next Day...]

School actually flew by rather quickly, I've been thinking about my poem, would it even be good enough to be called a poem? I approached the Literature Club room, the quiet walk up here was somewhat calming. I opened the door and saw that everyone except for Monika was in already.

"Koichi! Glad to see you actually came back!" Sayori greeted.

"Actually came back? Did you not expect me to or something?" I chuckled.

"We were just discussing that a little bit ago, I do thank you for keeping your promise, Koichi." Yuri spoke up.

"O-Oh, no problem, Yuri!" I smiled.

She looked to the side a bit, "Honestly, doing something like this is rather remarkable, I understand you aren't accustomed to activities like this one. We all really do appreciate you being here."

I smiled back at her, which I don't think she was expecting, her face went bright red as she looked away and fidgeted with her hair.

"Yeah, yeah, you're here. I would've been fine either way if you showed up or not." Natsuki scoffed.

"It's nice to see you too, Natsuki..." I deadpanned.

"Monika told me she was gonna be a bit late, I don't remember what she told me she was doing though." Sayori informed us.

Natsuki rummaged through her bag, "Hmph... She's probably got a boyfriend that's holding her up or somethin'."

"Oooo! A boyfriend? You really think so, Natsuki?" Sayori bubbled.

As the two made theories of Monika's "boyfriend", I sat down next to where Yuri normally sits. Yuri sat down then pulled out a weird looking book, I couldn't help but be drawn by it. It was titled 'Portrait of Markov' and had a red eye in the middle of the cover.

"What's that your reading?" I asked.

"O-Oh! It... Um... W-Well..." Yuri stuttered.

She took a deep breath and stayed quiet for a bit before continuing.

"I'm sure you already read the title of the novel, but it's a rather captivating read, Koichi. Allow me to briefly explain, so basically, it's about this religious camp that was turned into a human experiment prison. The people trapped there have this trait that turns them into killing machines that lust for blood. But the facility gets even worse, and they start selectively breeding people by cutting off their limbs and affixing them to-- O-Oh, that might be a little bit of a spoiler... Maybe...?" Yuri explained.

I blinked a few times after her statement, "Well... That's rather dark. But that does have me curious now! But like, not because of the gore and stuff!"

"Well... If you'd like, would you like to... Read with me?" Yuri questioned.

"Sure, I'd-" I agreed.

The door burst open, "Hellooooooo girls! And Koichi! Sorry that I'm late everyone, I was finishing up my piano practice. Let's get started with sharing our poems, eh?"

All of us were delighted to see Monika, but weren't so delighted with having to share our poems. I reluctantly grabbed my bag and pulled my poem out from a folder. Being that Yuri was already next to me, I tapped her on her shoulder.

"Hey, do you wanna show me your poem?" I wondered.

"Of course. Please do tell me what you think." She replied.

She handed me her poem and I read through it. I have to say, I'm not sure what the meaning is behind it. It's elegantly written however, she's definitely developed her own poem style already, I guess it must be from whatever novels she's read in the past. I handed her back her poem and she gave me back mine.

"A bit of a dumb question, but there wasn't a meaning behind it, was there?" I questioned.

"No, not necessarily, but it's always nice to at least try to formulate some kind of meaning regardless of what you're reading. In this case, however, it's up for anyone's interpretation. Your poem wasn't too bad, although your formatting needs some work, you can also trim some of your lines down. Other than that, it was a simple, easy to grasp Free Verse Poem." Yuri responded.

"Thank you! For yours though, I was mainly thinking that it had something to do with the feeling of being unable to move on from the past, you know? Almost as if that person was stuck in nostalgia but found someone else who was feeling exactly like them." I told her.

The girls all looked at me with surprised expressions, Sayori tilted her head with bewilderment.

"That was... Deep. I wanna read your poem next, Yuri!" She commented.

"Most definitely unexpected, I have to say, Koichi." Monika remarked.

I rubbed the back of my head, "I-I guess I just put effort into something for once! It was nothing!"

Yuri and I got up from our desks to share out poems with the others. I walked over and sat down next to Natsuki after Monika and Sayori went to Yuri.

"Okay, Mr. Immersive, let's see your poem." Natsuki smirked.

She handed me her poem and I did the same. Her poem looked simple, but actually using my brain, it's kinda sad instead of adorable. It might've rhymed like a traditional poem, but the ending fell flat like the last line's message. I set her poem down, she looked at me, then back down at my poem. Theeeen back up at me once again before nodding.

"Huh, I guess I really underestimated you. It's not terrible, but I've seen better, at least you're not totally inept at writing poems. You wrote about loneliness from what I'm understanding, right?" Natsuki spoke up.

"Yeah, that's right. I figured I should do something simple for now until I get comfortable with writing. I wanna absorb as much as I can from all of your poems so I can at least learn something." I confirmed.

"Well, look no further than the best writer in this club! I'll show you the ropes, of course, I'm sure you'll be a poem writing machine in no time." She smugly suggested.

She kept up her smug look as she grinned at me, "I'm thankful for your offer, O' Wise One, I'm forever in your debt.

"Haha! Natsuki Time Baby!" She cackled and posed.

"Natsuki, I wouldn't stand on the desk, they're awfully wobbly!" Monika warned.

"Oh, right!" Natsuki responded.

She hopped off her desk and took her poem from me. I made my way over to Sayori, I was really wondering what kind of poem she had written. She smiled at me as I sat down next to her.

"Heya! Yuri's poem sure was something, I tried to figure out what you were seeing but I was thinking of something else entirely~" She giggled.

"Did it happen to be food?" I chuckled.

"No! Yes..." Sayori simpered.

I smiled and shook my head at her, we exchanged poems, as I read through hers it was beautifully written. Then I got to the ending of it, "I want breakfast" it said. I blankly stared at it then looked back up at Sayori who was looking at me.

"Okay, so maybe I was allllmost late today, but that doesn't matter!" Sayori quickly spoke.

"I thought you had alarms set? What happened to those?" I wondered.

"I kinda... Sorta... Slept through them?" She squeaked.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised whatsoever. I glanced over and saw Natsuki looking rather bored at Yuri's poem. Yuri seemed to be struggling with the concept of Natsuki's seemingly simple poem as well.

"Well, I guess it's fancy?" Natsuki told her.

"O-Oh... Thanks... Yours is... It's cute." Yuri responded.

"Cute? Hang on a sec, did you even read my poem, cause if you did you would've seen the clear symbolism in my writing!" Natsuki claimed.

Yuri quickly looked at the paper, "N-No! I-I... Um... I did!"

"Oh, yeah? Then how is the feeling of giving up quote on quote, 'cute', like you're saying? Huh?" She fumed.

"I... I was just trying to say something nice, that's all." Yuri lamented.

"It takes you that long to say something nice? Thanks, but it didn't sound like it at all!" Natsuki sighed.

"Oh... B-But... I do have a couple suggestions of my own." Yuri continued.

"Yeah, whatever, I'm not looking for suggestions from you. I'd rather take some from people that actually paid attention to it and 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 it. My writing is perfectly fine thank you very much!" Natsuki scowled.

An argument started between the two, Monika tried to stop them but they just ignored her. The two then turned to me right as I was about to say something.

"Koichi, talk some sense into her!" Natsuki whined.

I watched as they turned back to arguing with each other. I took a deep breath before speaking. If I was gonna do this, I needed to channel my inner Sayori...

"Will you two just stop for a second?!" I shouted.

They stopped arguing and looked at me, "Listen, nobody's telling either of you that you have to change your styles or that they don't get the meaning of your poem. Both of you are really great writers in your own right, there's no need to argue over a simple misunderstanding! Not everyone will understand the meanings of your poems, Natsuki. And not everyone will be able to understand the complexities of your writings either, Yuri. You two don't need to argue over something as silly as this."

"I... I guess you're right, my apologies, Natsuki. I should've thought about your poem a bit more in depth instead of giving you that compliment." Yuri apologized.

"Y-Yeah, well...! I guess I'm sorry too, Yuri. Your poems are pretty complex." Natsuki responded.

Thank goodness... I thought they would've kept arguing! I looked over and saw Sayori wiping tears from her eyes.

"That was beautiful, Koichi! I've raised you right, haven't I?" She sniffled.

"Thank you, Sayori," I smiled, "But the point is, your both super unique with your poems! It makes no sense to try and outdo one another. That's what this club's all about, right? Helping one another improve with their writing and making this a place where anything is a worthwhile read, regardless of what it might be."

Things eventually calmed down between the two, I gave a slight sigh of relief, I really didn't think that my words would've worked at all. I sat back down in my seat and looked at my poem.

"𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔

𝑨 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔.

𝑨𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌.

𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕.

𝑯𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏.

𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆?

𝑯𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔? 𝑫𝒂𝒚𝒔? 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔?

𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒇 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓.

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒅𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔;

𝑯𝒆'𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆.

𝑶𝒓 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆."

I didn't even notice that Monika was standing in front of me with her poem. I looked up at her and slightly smiled.

"Hey, you ready to swap poems?" Monika asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure." I answered.

The whole time I read her poems, I couldn't help but think of my own, putting my feelings on paper just for them to get read and vaguely talked about... I don't know why but it kind of hurt on the inside. I got back into focus and read through Monika's poem once again. It was similar to Yuri's mature tone, but it had it's own bubbly flare, just like her personality. A poem about the distance and destiny between two people who have yet to meet.

"This was beautiful, I really liked it, Monika." I softly spoke.

"Thank you! I must say, your poem was really good as well, are you sure it's your first time writing?" Monika smiled.

"Well, my Mother's a writer, so I guess I've learned from her somewhat." I replied.

I gave her back her poem and she gave me mine. We started packing up for the day, Sayori trotted over to me as Monika dismissed the club. As we walked out of the room, Sayori had a peculiar look on her face.

"So, that poem you wrote, was that relating to anything at all?" She inquired.

"Huh? What? Oh, no, why do you ask?" I lied.

"It's just that usually when someone writes something heartfelt like that, it normally means something, kind of like writing a love letter to someone!" Sayori continued.

"N-No, it's nothing like that, you know how it is with my Mom being a writer and such. I just picked up some tricks from her, I guess, although I'm not too good at it yet." I responded.

Sayori nodded and remained quiet the rest of the walk home. We eventually split ways like we normally did, but this walk felt a lot colder than normal. Things have been rough for me, not a whole lot of people outside of Sayori have remotely talked to me, I guess being someone as quiet and basic as me does that to you. Not only that, but Mom and I have been struggling financially, my Dad tries his best to help us but there's only so much you can do when you're out on a business trip. I eventually made it back home, I noticed that my Mother was looking a lot happier than usual.

"I've got some wonderful news! The publisher I've been talking to managed to get a deal with another company, they're gonna start publishing my books ASAP!" Mom cheered.

"W-What?! Really!? That's awesome news, Mom! How much are you getting from it?" I exulted.

"I'm not sure yet, but from what it sounds like, we won't have to worry being late on our bills anymore." Mom replied.

Wow, at least one problem's been solved, I hope. My Mom's been struggling to get traction on this book she's been writing, but I guess her persistence has paid off. Still, even though I should be feeling happy about this, I just kept thinking about everything else. I walked up to my room after sharing a celebratory hug with my Mother, I crashed down onto my bed and stared up at my bedroom ceiling.