Sayori started coughing wildly.

"Are you okay? Do you need anything?" Yuri said, worry etched in her voice, and face.

"W-water." Sayori managed to wheeze out between coughing fits.

"On it." Natsuki hurried out of her chair, and ran out the classroom door to get to the school kitchen.

Monika felt so helpless, staring at the coughing Vice President, wishing she could do something, anything, to help ease the pain of her friend. But she couldn't speak. She couldn't move. Sayori's words echoed in her mind, accompanied by the image of her mutilated neck.

I tried to hang myself yesterday... I tried to hang myself yesterday... I tried to hang myself yesterday...

She didn't realize her friend had it that bad. With Yuri, there was at least some evidence to go off on. She liked knives, she was kind of intense, and she would leave the club for way too long, then breathe heavily when she returned. It should have been obvious what she had really been doing, where as Sayori, the happiest of them all, Monika's right hand woman, the shining light in their group... hanging herself? It made zero sense. There'd been no buildup. None whatsoever. And yet...
She hadn't known what Yuri had been doing. The so-called evidence to her cutting herself was only obvious because she told herself it was, a combination of guilt over not being able to help her friend, and hindsight. And now that her thoughts began slowing down, and stopped bouncing like pinballs against her skull, she could also think of some evidence to support Sayori's suicide attempt.
There had been bad days. Days where Sayori's smile and bubbly personality had seemed oddly forced. It didn't quite reach her eyes. She'd still be the peacemaker, bringing her flair of optimism to the whole group, and making them all feel better just by being there, talking to them. But... they could all see her eyes hadn't been as bright on those days, and her mouth had curled into a frown when she thought no one was looking at her.
Monika's speeding thoughts now reminded her of one particularly bad day, where she had actually asked Sayori if anything was wrong. Sayori had laughed her off, assuring her that nothing was wrong, that her feelings were just being silly. She had a habit of using goofy words in her poems to describe sad things, like a child who didn't quite have the hang of using more complicated words describing more complex emotions, and had said the day was being "full of rainclouds," but she had no reason to worry, since it was just her being weird, and it shouldn't have to impact the others. Nevertheless, Monika had gone to the other girls, telling them to take it easy on Sayori that day.
But that obviously hadn't been enough! That was just something she'd done to be able to say that she'd done her part to help Sayori, when she'd done the barest minimum. She could have done more! It was clearly a cry for help she'd ignored, and if she'd just done a bit more, lived up to her title as Club President, and been a decent goddamn friend, Sayori wouldn't be here right now, red in the face, still softly coughing into her hand with that horrible mark on her neck.

"We got the principal's permission for her to wear the sweater today." Yuri said softly, patting Sayori's back. "Normally wearing something over your school uniform wouldn't be allowed, but when he saw... it, he agreed that she needed it to avoid answering questions from other students. He didn't really ask himself, which we appreciate, just if she had it under control."

"And is it? Under control?" Monika asked, having regained her ability to speak, although it seemed like she had an uncomfortable lump in her throat, like some kind of sick joke after seeing Sayori's mark.

Sayori, having gotten over her coughing fit, nodded slowly. Natsuki reappeared in the door to the club, rushing as fast as she could carrying a tray with a glass pitcher full of water, and an empty glass. She put down the tray on the table and started pouring water in the glass.

"They were out of icecubes, so sorry if it's not cold enough." Natsuki said, slightly out of breath from running.

Sayori nodded to show that she understood, and accepted the water from Natsuki, drinking long and hard, emptying the glass. She breathed out, coughed twice, but stopped herself before it could develop into another fit.

"Thanks, Nat," she said gratefully.

"Don't mention it," Natsuki said. "Whatever you need, just say it."

"Don't rush yourself." Yuri adviced Sayori. "Go at whatever pace you want, as long as you can handle it. Don't feel like you have to make it exciting to not waste our time."

Sayori nodded, pouring herself another glass.

"Whenever you're ready." Yuri said.

"I... I've been depressed for a while now." She started, her voice still raspy and hoarse, but at least she wasn't coughing, and seemed to breathe somewhat normally now. "I've never really told anyone, because it's always seemed so pathetic to me. Like, there are people in the world who has actual issues, like diseases, poverty, mental issues, and so on. It's always seemed to me like they're the ones who need actual help, not the girl who's just sad when she's got no reason to be."

She took another sip of water.

"I've been told that is my depression talking. Basically doing whatever it can to make me feel worthless and selfish, invalidating me. And when it's the only voice you hear at all times, and me being as bad at arguments as I am, it's hard not to listen to it and believe what it's saying."

Oh, Sayori. No.

Hadn't they ever told her how great she was? How much they appreciated being friends with her? How much she helped this club function just by being there. Surely they had. Surely they'd made sure she knew they weren't just taking her for granted?

"So I kept it a secret. No reason to make you waste time worrying about someone like me, when we have so much other stuff, more justified stuff to worry about. And I could deal with it. I could accept being an useless sad sap myself, as long as I could maybe try to brighten up other, more deserving people's days. But... it got harder to manage once MC joined our club."

Sayori's eyes drooped down to look at the table, as if ashamed of herself. She let out two small coughs, and took another sip from her glass. As she threw her head back to swallow, Monika flinched as her neck mark was flashed to her yet again.

"On paper, it seemed like a good idea." Sayori said. "I've known MC for nearly all my life. He was my childhood friend. We kinda drifted apart for a few years, but then he started walking with me to school, and it was like no time had passed at all. We were talking and goofing around just like old times, and I started getting happy again whenever I was with him. There were still the days with rainclouds darkening everything, but he was like a beacon, shining through them. And then I joined this club, where I felt like I had actual girl friends."

You DID have friends. We are, and have always been your friends, and we love you.

"Monika said that to make this club official, we needed one more member, and he just seemed like the obvious choice. If I got him in here, I'd have all my friends together, in one place. Like some sort of concentrated happiness cannon, that could blast away any raincloud that would come my way in the future.
But... it didn't happen like that.
Everything went as I hoped it would, you guys really liked him, and he really liked you. It was surprising how quickly you all hit it off. But whenever he would sit and read with Yuri, or laugh with Natsuki, or flirt with Monika, I'd feel this horrible pain in my chest. Every single time he seemed friendly with any of you, it felt as though someone stabbed a knife through my heart. And the feeling wouldn't go away, it just got rainclouds started coming more often, being with MC no longer helped, and I realized I had made a terrible mistake.
I'd misjudged my feelings for him. What I had thought was just me enjoying his company as my best friend, had blossomed into full blown love. And when I saw him with you guys, the feeling of getting stabbed was me being jealous. I had gotten the guy I had feelings for into a club with three other girls who were all so much more talented and deserving of his love, than me."

No! You're wrong! Yuri gets fanatically obsessed about whatever and whoever she likes. She's so intense that she scares most people off. You approach your interests with such a lighthearted casualness. Where Yuri would sit and obsess about every minute detail of the things she wants to say for hours, you can say all the right things without a second thought.
Natsuki comes off as a brat who criticizes everyone simply for having their own opinion, and it gets exhausting to be around her for more than two hours. You encourage everyone, and do your best to get into their special interests, even if you're not personally a fan of it. You're kind to everyone, and people can't get enough of you!
I'm supposed to be the Club President, I'm supposed to care about my members, and help them through their hardships, and yet I didn't know Yuri was cutting herself. I didn't know Natsuki's dad abused her. I didn't know you were depressed.

I'm the worst person in this room, and you're better than all of us put together!

Sayori kept going.

"I considered using my power as Vice President to veto MC from the club. It was never more than a thought, since it would lead to more problems than it would solve. You all loved him, and without a good reason, you would just start hating me for banning your best friend. I wouldn't be able to hang out with MC because he would hate me for banning him from his new best friends. And since I would be the only one in favor of the decision, chances are you'd just make a new club, one where you could hang out with him without me being a killjoy telling you not to."

We would never. We would respect your wishes, even if we didn't understand them. Yes, we would probably try to question your reasoning, but if you told us that you didn't feel comfortable with it, we would trust that you had a good reason.

"So I just kept quiet, like I always do when I get in one of my irrational moods, even if it got harder than ever to attend the club, go to school, or even get out of bed in the morning. Every day began to have rainclouds, voices in my head yelled louder and louder about how worthless and stupid I was, I started hating all of you every time MC talked to you, and then I'd hate myself for hating you. I felt like I was slowly drowning, the voices distracted me, so my grades started falling more than usual, cooking dinner seemed incomprehensible so I didn't bother making it, and all the while I got stabbed every day in this club. I started to doubt I'd ever get happy again."

This was the most difficult story Monika had to listen to. She'd felt terrible hearing Yuri and Natsuki's stories, but this felt like getting her chest split open by a rusty knife and getting her heart forcibly scooped out with a wooden spoon. Sayori's opening statement of trying to hang herself had been horrible in and of itself, but her story of how she got to that point was somehow worse, now that she knew where and what exactly the climax would be, and her helplessness to stop it. She couldn't travel back in time with the knowledge she had now, and even if she could, what good would she do? She couldn't just make people happy, rewrite and manipulate their personalities to follow her every whim. All she could do right now was listen to how much suffering her friend had gone through while tears streamed down her own face. She could see similar things happening to Yuri and Natsuki at Sayori's sides.

"I had started to contemplate suicide. It was a constant thought in my life these days, and the only thing that kept me from doing it was telling myself that tomorrow would be better. I'd be happy starting tomorrow. I'd turn my life around tomorrow. Don't do it, tomorrow everything will be fine. I tried calling a suicide prevention hotline, but as I tried to explain to the lady on the line what I was feeling, I realized how pathetic I sounded, and hung up so she could help people who needed it more than me. That sounds really dumb, saying it out loud, but I became obsessed with the thought of deserving stuff. You always hear about these people who struggled through depression until they said 'enough is enough' to themselves and start turning their life around all by themselves. And they always have good reasons to be depressed, like PTSD from fighting in a war, or a loved one dying. And there I was, a teenage girl who had four amazing friends with my biggest concern being that they hung out with each other, and I still couldn't bring myself to eat anything besides oatmeal and instant ramen. I didn't deserve to be saved. I was a burden to society, and suicide began to look more and more appealing, not just as an escape route for me, but as a way for everyone else to stop worrying about looking after a lost cause."

Sayori emptied her glass of water.

"Which brings us back to yesterday. I had been lying in my bed all afternoon, not having the strength or motivation to get up. The only reason I can get up in school mornings is because I know MC would walk there with me, and I didn't want him to see the mess my room was in, or find the noose I had tied months before, hanging over my chair. Weekends would usually be spent sitting in my bed, staring at the noose until late into the evening, wondering if today would be the day, before I got so hungry that I had to get up and make myself some ramen. But something shook me out of my thoughts, and made me get up early. I could hear MC's voice outside my window."

"We had come to invite Sayori to a town fair." Yuri said, her voice calm and quiet, even as wet tears were trickling down her face. "We hadn't seen her outside school since the incident at Natsuki's house, and truth be told, we were mildly worried about her. MC was telling us stories about his and Sayori's childhoods, how inseparable they had been, how much fun they had had together, and how much she meant to him. I... I was enchanted by his words, how highly he spoke of her, and without thinking, I gave him a hug right outside Sayori's house."

"I had made my way to the window to see if it really was MC out there, and I caught the hug." Sayori took over. "And just then, when I saw how happy they looked, with Yuri's arms around him and Natsuki at his side, I knew what I had to do. Yuri had confided in me about her issues with her cutting, and how MC had helped her, and I had been at Natsuki's and knew about how MC was helping her sleep. I knew how much Monika liked to flirt with him. And I knew then that all of you deserved him so much more than me, who isn't as smart as Yuri or as talented as Natsuki, or as funny and hardworking as Monika. It was unfair to all of you that I was there with my feelings for him, making an already difficult choice between you harder than it needed to be. So I decided to remove myself from the playing field.
I grabbed my noose and threw it over the hanger near the ceiling in my bedroom, where I hang my clothes to dry. I then tied the end of the robe to my heavy desk, and-"

"Please." Monika interrupted. "Stop. I- i can't hear this."

The Club President felt sick. Like she would throw up if Sayori spoke another word. She felt awful, Sayori was being so brave, telling them all about the darkest moment of her life, and she couldn't even do her the decency of listening to it.

"Sorry." Sayori said, and Monika felt even more horrible. "I think you get the gist of it, anyway."

"I'm the one who's sorry." Yuri said in a choked voice. "It's my fault... if I hadn't... that hug... should have realized..."

"Anything could have set me off. If it hadn't been you, it would have been some other thing. My mind was already looking everywhere, searching for the smallest excuse to kill me, and it just so happened to be that hug. I don't blame you, and you shouldn't blame yourself. I'm just lucky I didn't do it correctly, and that my friends were nearby."

Monika was sure she didn't want to know what she meant, but for some reason she asked anyway.

"C-correctly?" She managed.

Sayori looked up at her with her sad, blue eyes, and sighed.

"Apparently, the 'proper' way to hang yourself is jumping from a high enough point, so that the rope snaps your neck, killing you quickly and painlessly. But turns out I couldn't even do that right."

The blood seemed to freeze solid in Monika, making her spine tingle. She didn't want to hear this, but she couldn't speak. The way Sayori was so casually talking about her own suicide attempt was creepier and more disturbing than any of Yuri's poems.

"I should have researched it better. It was a sign of how much my mind had deteriorated. I just did what I thought you were supposed to do. I dragged a chair over below the noose, got up, and inserted my neck into the hole. I wasn't really afraid, or sad, but rather... satisfied. Not that the voices were impressed with me. They kept telling me that it was about time, that I should just get on with it, stop wasting everybodys time."

She hestitated, scratching her head.

"Sorry, I'm rambling." She said. "Uh... so yeah, I thought the way you did it was just, kicking away the chair, and let the rope do the rest of the work, so that's what I did."

She touched the mark on her throat, massaging it lightly as she reminisced on what she had done.

"It... it wasn't good. Obviously. The robe cut into my throat, and I was in a world of pain. I tried thinking that this was how it should be, that I deserved this, that all of this was for the best, but my body was acting on it's own. I kicked out with my legs, trying to reach the chair I had kicked over, to try and get a foothold. My fingers were clawing at the robe, trying to lift myself. I guess it was my survival instincts kicking in. Even then, I could hear the voice telling me that I couldn't even die properly. That I was pathetic for fighting back. That I should just accept it and die with some dignity. I felt like I hung there for hours, my body fighting, me giving up, realizing I couldn't take this pain and started fighting back again. Each time I tried moving it felt harder and harder, my limbs getting heavier, but still the pain got more and more intense, and I was just regretting everything. Not killing myself, but just living in the first place. Spots were appearing in my eyes, until I couldn't see. My last thought was if I should have written a note, but figured it would be a waste of time for the ones who had to read it. My poems never really were that good, after all."

She stopped talking to pour herself another glass of water.

Monika was aghast. Her stomach was churning at the mental image of Sayori hanging in her room, gasping in futile effort to scream, limbs flailing madly as she struggled to find some desperate way to save herself, unsuccesfully. Although she hadn't been there, this vision her mind had fabricated from Sayori's story would be sure to haunt her nightmares for many months to come.

"How-" Monika's throat felt dry. "How on earth were you saved?"

"I- I don't really know." Sayori answered. "I just woke up in MC's arms, with Yuri standing over me. I never really asked."

"We heard a crash from your half-open window." Yuri explained. "Probably from when you kicked your chair. We called up to you, and got worried when you didn't reply, so we hurried into the house, MC leading the way up the stairs to your room. But... we weren't ready for the sight that met us. Me and Natsuki both froze in the doorway, struggling to comprehend what we were seeing. It was so scary. You were completely still, and your eyes were half open, looking through us. While we were staring at you uselessly, MC rushed towards you, grabbing your legs and lifting you as much as he could. He shouted at you, at us, yelling that we had to help, get you down from there. And still, I just stood and stared. I was so sure you were dead, all life was completely gone from your eyes. I tried to formulate sentences, tried to explain to myself as much as him that you were, that it was no use trying to save you, and he just yelled at us in response. I'd never heard him raise his voice at me before, but he shouted at the top of his lungs that you weren't dead. And then, I noticed one of your legs spasmed, just a little. I started hearing again, and heard the faint rattle coming from your mouth. Without thinking, I reached into my bag, pulled out my knife, and threw it at the rope above her head."

"It severed, just like that, and Sayori was released, leaving MC to catch her." Natsuki said. She was openly crying. "Yuri stepped forward to provide first aid. I... I just stood in the door opening. I didn't know what to do, what to say. I just stood there."

Monika looked at the heartbroken pinkhaired girl. She'd like to think she would have done better in such a situation, but based on all of these revelations today, she wasn't so sure.

"It was like waking up from a nightmare." Sayori said. "The voice had disappeared when I looked up at his face. I was still in pain, I couldn't talk and my neck was on fire, but as I looked up at his smile, I knew he would be able to chase away any rainclouds in my life."

The girls sat like that for a while, saying nothing as they all dabbed at their eyes with paper towels from Natsuki's quickly dwindling supply. At last, Sayori broke the silence again.

"From then on, it was a lot of crying and hugging. My throat wouldn't let me speak yet, so we all just sat there on the floor, me and Yuri and MC with our arms around eachother, bawling our eyes out. I tried to say I was sorry, sorry for scaring them like that, sorry for inconveniencing them. I knew it was stupid, so I'm glad I couldn't speak, but they seemed to get my meaning anyway and just whispered words of comfort to me. It was... nice."

"I baked her some brownies while they were comforting her in her room." Natsuki said, a single tear travelling down her cheek. "I'm not good at cheering people up, so I went to the store instead to buy ingredients. It was honestly kinda depressing to see her kitchen. I'd probably try to kill myself too, if all I had for breakfast was half a bag of oatmeal and a quarter liter of expired milk."

"That's not funny, Natsuki." Yuri said, quietly.

"I know." Natsuki said, voice breaking as she took her own piece of paper towel and dabbed at her eyes. "I- I also thought if I stayed in the room, I would begin yelling at her. Call her names, call her stupid. I felt horrible for even feeling it, but I was so angry with her."

"I deserved it so-"

"No!" Natsuki yelled. "Stop saying that. You're the nicest girl in this club. Seriously, I know I'm a total bitch, but compared to you, we're all bitches. You don't deserve anything bad in life, so don't you dare say you do!"

Sayori looked down, tears in her eyes. "Sorry."

"Don't say sorry! Are you even listen-"

"Natsuki." Yuri simply said, and Natsuki swallowed her words. "I think that's enough."

Silence again.

"After awhile, I regained the ability to speak again." Sayori said. "We had all bundled up on the floor with a blanket over us, me cuddled up to MC and Yuri at my side. Natsuki had joined, sitting on MC's other side. We were eating Natsuki's brownies while watching a movie. It was nice. No one was pushing me to say anything, to explain myself, but I knew I had to. So I paused the movie. It took me some time to say it, my throat hurt and I had more than a few coughing fits, but eventually I explained to them my depression, the voice, even... my feelings about MC."

"We all reacted the way you did, with Yuri's story." Natsuki said, looking at Monika. "That she could have him. Yeah, we all love him, and yeah he's helped us through a great deal. But not in this way."

"We tried assuring Sayori that there would be no ill feelings if she began dating MC." Yuri said. "That of course we would still be friends, all of us."

"I- I agree." Monika said. And she really did.

Sayori's story had shaken her to her very core. She'd never thought a girl who seemingly wore her feelings on her sleeve would be hiding something this dark. She had come in here today to talk about her undying love for the man of her dreams, to let them down easy as she explained why they couldn't have him. Instead, they had flipped the whole thing on its head, essentially telling her that she was the last person who had any right to MC's heart.
And to be honest? That was fine.
Of course she could deal. Yeah, she didn't think she'd ever find a man as great, as kind, as perfect as MC. But that was exactly why Sayori should have him. Because she was the best of them, and if MC made her happy, then she should have him.
But to her surprise, Sayori got a hard look in her eyes.

"No." She said.

"No?" Monika repeated, confused.

"I don't want to take him away from all of you. You have just as much right to him as I do. You're all so much more talented and smarter than me. It's not fair if I automatically get him just because I did something stupid and cowardly."

"Sayori, you're not a coward!" Monika couldn't believe what she was hearing. They had all told her that they had no problem with her getting MC, and she still thought it wasn't fair. She really was so much better than her. "You... you tried to kill yourself! You need him mo-"

"We all need him!" Sayori punched the table, her raised voice causing another coughing fit.

Monika had never heard her so angry before.

"Yuri needed him to make her stop cutting herself! Natsuki needed him to help get rid of her dad. You need him because you love him!" Sayori spoke with passion in her voice. "I can get some medication. I can see a therapist. Having MC can't, and won't be the only reason for me living! And I will not!" She hit the table again to emphasize her point. "Be the reason for you not getting the one you love."

Sayori took a shuddering breath.

"This whole thing about who deserves what, based on how good a person they are, how much they've suffered... It's dumb. It's all I hear when the voice speaks. It's the reason I didn't seek help with my depression. It's the reason I tried hanging myself. I will not have it be the reason you can't be with MC. Because..." Sayori looked up at each of them, her expression softening, and a small, unsure smile crept back onto her face. "...we all deserve love, right?"

Monika looked at her, not comprehending what she was hearing.

"We all know MC was the best thing to ever happen to this club. To ever happen to us. We're never going to find another guy like him again. Taking him from any of you... I couldn't do that. But... maybe there is a way for us all to have him without taking him away from the others?"

Monika couldn't tell where this was going. "Sayori, what are you saying?"

"She explained it to us last night, and it took us hours to get it." Natsuki said.

"This is the true thing we needed to talk about, Monika. The real reason we've talked all day." Yuri said.

"We can all date MC." Sayori said, her eyes sparkling. "Share him."

Monika stared at them all, face full of incomprehension. She could see skeptical optimism in Yuri and Natsuki's faces, and pure hope glinting in Sayori's sapphire eyes. They were actually serious about this suggestion. This was all such a Sayori-thing. To put her friends happiness above her own, to make sure that no one was left out. But the thing she was suggesting... could they really do it? Could she really do it? This was quite a bit more serious than sharing something like a game, or a cupcake. No one did this. It was completely unheard of.
And yet... looking at Sayori's genuine face, she was actually considering the possibilities of it. It was such a ludicrous idea, and yet she owed it to her friends to hear them out.

"Did you two agree to this idea?" Monika asked Yuri and Natsuki, keeping her face neutral so as to not give anyone an impression of what she was thinking.

"At first? No way." Natsuki said. "I couldn't really see myself sharing MC with someone like Yuri, not to mention two others. No offense."

"I was thinking the same, originally." Yuri said. "But..."

"...after thinking about it..." Natsuki continued. "If we worked out some of the logistics..."

"...and managed to come up with a system..." Yuri said.

"...arranging days of the week where we can each have him..." Natsuki said.

"...in a fair, balanced way..." Yuri said.

"...and accounting for times where we just need him, like my night terrors..." Natsuki said.

"...Sayori can under no circumstances be alone at any time this month..." Yuri said.

"...then maybe..." Natsuki said.

"...potentially..." Yuri said.

"...It could work." They both said in unison.

Monika stared at her friends. She would never have thought Yuri and Natsuki could agree to do something this big. To share a boyfriend, not just with each other, but Sayori and Monika herself, too. This could never work. Too many variables to go wrong, too many feelings to get hurt...
And yet, as she looked into Sayori's hopeful face, her mood softened. Why exactly couldn't it work? She loved MC, and she loved her friends. They all meant the world to her, and she was starting to think maybe she meant the world to them, too. Even if she didn't think highly of herself sometimes, didn't she owe it to them to give this a try?

"...okay." She said, at last.

"Really?!" Sayori yelled, rising from her chair, then doubling over as she began to cough again. She quickly got over it though, and rushed to tackle Monika in a hug.

Monika hugged her back. How could she have planned to steal away the happiness from this wonderful girl?

"We still need to come up with a system." Monika said in a half-hearted attempt to get some control of the situation back. "I still have my doubts if we can pull this off without anyone getting left out."

"Of course we can." Sayori said to Monika's shoulder, as she didn't slacken her grip on the Club President. She sounded happier than she had been in months, and it positively melted Monika's heart. "It'll be the simplest thing in the world!"

And despite herself, in that moment, Monika seemed to believe her.

Things were going to be just fine.

"What'll be the simplest thing in the world?"

All heads turned towards the boyish voice. Standing in the door opening to the classroom, stood the familiar body of MC, a slight smile on his face, but also mild concern in his eyes, as he noticed all the folded up paper towels laying around the round table, evidence of the crying that had taken place.

"MC!" All the girls shouted in unison, and they all rose from their chairs, all running up to him and tackling the boy with a furious attack hug. The push from all fronts made them all collapse on the floor, giggling wildly.

"Sorry I was late." He said sheepishly, blushing as the four girls remained attached on top of him. "What have you guys been talking about?" In a more serious tone of voice, he added "You ok, Sayori?"

"I'm super, now that you're here!" The red-bowed girl said, her voice finally matching the usual cheeriness of Sayori.

"We were just talking about Sayori's proposition." Monika said, trailing a playful finger over the boy's cheek, her voice huskier, more flirty. She couldn't help it, everytime she saw MC she just got this way. "We decided we'd give it a try." She whispered in his ear.

"Sayori's proposition? What's that mean?" came the boy's bemused reply.

Monika snapped her head towards her fellow club members. Surely not, right?

But their guilty expressions told her everything.

"You didn't tell him?" She asked, incredulous.

"Uhh..." Yuri muttered nervously.

"We just figured he would automatically be on board." Natsuki reasoned. "You were the important one to convince."

"Convince of what?" MC said, frowning slightly. Based on previous instances of the girls antics, he wasn't entirely comfortable with being left out in the dark like this.

"Oh boy..." Monika closed her eyes. Once again, it was up to the Club President to save the day by explaining the idea someone else had come up with to the hopelessly unaware boy. They'd been in this room for a while, and it looked like they weren't leaving it any time soon.

"You're gonna love this, trust me." Sayori rasped in her reassuring voice.

He smiled cautiously. These girls were going to be the death of him one day.