章 4: 3- Do I Like Litterature?

"Hello? Cat got your tongue or what? Don't you know its rude to stare?" Natsuki's word brought Cal back to reality rather rudely, not that he cared much. This kind of rudeness was very light compared to what he had been subjected to before he had 'reigned' himself him.

"Natsuki..." However, it seems this attitude was rather disappointing for Yuri, as she said the name of her fellow club member with dejected eyes.

"Tch."

"And that's Natsuki, she gets moody sometimes. Just ignore her when she does." Sayori leaned toward him and whispered in his ear, her tone full of quiet cheers.

"And It seems you two doesn't need introduction." Sayori continued, indicating toward Monika.

"You'd be correct, Sayori." Monika confirmed, a smile on her face as she looked at him. "It's nice to see you again, Cal. I didn't expect to meet you again in these circumstances."

Shrugging off the gut feeling that her last sentence had a double meaning, Cal answered with a smile and decided to play it safe. "It's the same for me, Monika. I'm surprised you decided to start a new club. Weren't you a board member of the debate club last year?"

She sighed. "I grew tired of the politics of such a big club. I got the impression after a while that the only thing we were debating was how to allocate the budget and how to get more." She put a hand on her waist and looked across the club room. "So I had the idea to create one myself, where people would truly gather to do and talk about what they love and nothing else. Anyway, enough about me, what brought you here?"

'Well, rip the script. Not that it was gonna last long with me and Monika in the same room.' Cal thought briefly before he answered. "I've promised Sayori to look into joining a club this year, and she approached me earlier asking if I wanted to join hers. So I figured that I'd give it a try..." He trailed off and scratched his chin. "Though she had a compelling argument involving cupcakes if I'm not wrong."

"Ah, right! I almost forgot. I'm gonna go bring them!" Sayori perked up, only to be rebuffed by Natsuki.

"No! I'm the one who made them, so I'm gonna bring them!"

"I'm gonna brew some tea to go with them in this case." Yuri added, her and Natsuki going deeper into the classroom.

Then, Sayori, who previously looked sheepish because of Natsuki, immediatly returned to normal as she led Cal to a circle of tables. "Come take a seat! We even made some place in preparation for you!"

Doing as she said, Cal took a seat between Monika and Sayori. Not really awkward but very much observed still. Shortly after, and before anything could be said, Natsuki came back with a plate covered with a white napkin.

With a floorish, she took it off. "There we go! Better eat them when they're still warm."

Sending a brief look to Natsuki as he directly reached out to take one, he confirmed that, sure enough, she was badly hiding her expectation. "Ah, don't mind me then. Those looks great."

Taking a bite out of one, a burst of creamy sweetness exploded in his mouth as both the topping and the cupcake melted on his tongue. He couldn't help but let out a little hum in appreciation after that. Those were seriously good.

"Hmm! So sweet!" Sayori let out noises of appreciation as she munched on her cupcake and cupped her cheeks with her hands.

He chuckled under his breath at her reaction before he caught himself and realized he was both still under observation from a certain green-eyed girl and that Sayori had went off script inside the club room for the first time.

Both unable and frankly unwilling to throw a look at Monika to see if she had realized something of the sort too. Cal simply soldiered forward as he swallowed his last bite and smiled at Natsuki. "Well, figure me surprised. I didn't think it would be possible for them to taste even better than they looked, but they really do. Thanks for letting me have one."

The pink haired girl almost looked as she was physically struck by the heartfelt praise and seemed to reply almost instinctively as she humphed and turned her head aways. "Well, It's not like I made them for you in the first place."

Quite amused, even if it was her scripted answers. He decided, even against his better judgment, to press even more to see how she would react. "I'm serious though. I don't even think those cupcakes would be amiss on the counter of a high class patisserie. So I'm grateful."

Despite doing a spur of the moment thing, Cal still put himself on the look out for anything strange or out of the ordinary after his words. So he didn't miss the almost negligeable pressure pressing against his mind for a split second. Which was both good and bad. Good because he was doing something while talking out of script, and bad because he had no real idea of what.

"N-now you're just messing with me!" Natsuki sputtered indignantly and glared at Cal but couldn't stop the pink hues subtly rising to her cheeks nor prevent him from seeing it.

"No way! Cal doesn't say things lightly. If he say something, then it's because he really think it!" Sayori replied leaning forward and shaking her head furiously with quite some heat in her voice before she realized what she was doing and flinching, seemingly calming down a bit. "Sorry about that, hehe..." She chuckled nervously and quietly finished her cupcake with another bite, yet she didn't seem to have finished talking yet. "Also, they really are good, Natsuki. So please, don't be upset?"

...

"Tch." Natsuki didn't reply for a while and even then just sat down on her chair, evading everyone's gaze as she took one of her cupcake and began to nibble on it.

'Well, I was just gonna shrug intially and say that I wasn't but now Sayori just made it awkward. However, since it was to defend my honor, I can't really say anything, can I?' Cal lamented in his mind yet really found it more fun than anything.

Luckily, it was at this moment that Yuri came back with a tea set, the purple haired introvert totally oblivious to the atmosphere at the table as she filled a cup of tea for everyone. Though to be fair Sayori was probably just as oblivious as she thanked Yuri brightly and proceeded to blow on her tea cup.

Cal, as for himself, simply nodded and thanked her for the tea. He wasn't surprised when he took a sip and it was almost a perfect fit for having a sweet desert. The slightly bitter savor mellowing the sweet aftertaste of the cupcake and soothing his tongue.

Even then. He made sure to let her know. "It goes well with sweet snacks. Looks like you know your deal."

She looked momentarily surprised to be put on the spot, but then she nodded her head and calmly replied from behind her tea cup, though he could see her eyes lit up slightly all the same. "I dabble, I just think there's quite nothing like sipping a cup of tea while reading a good book, don't you think?"

Cal simply smiled at her, not answering. Inwardly thinking that was a very different result from his previous compliment.

His reaction immediatly caused the purple head to fall into self-doubt, the gears in her head beginning to almost visibly churn as a slight hue spread to her cheeks after a few seconds.

Cal had to physically restrain himself to not explode into a cackle as he saw all of that. Oh, he was going to be very bad for this girl. Though he had to be careful, excessive teasing with Yuri could have potentially bad consequences, especially if he didn't clarify he was just messing with her and joking. Plus, they technically just met. They weren't close. He may knew her but she didn't knew him.

Sobering, and kinda sureal thought. That he absolutely wasn't willing to deal with just yet.

Now that everyone was settled, Monika cleared her throat. Attracting everyone attention as she shifted her attention to Cal. "So Cal, I have to ask, and don't worry if you don't. But do you like litterature?"

Having everyone's attention turn to him as they awaited his answer made him feel a strange pressure. The mental kind. It was significantly heavier than when he pushed Natsuki with his second praise too. It felt like his tongue almost wanted to slip and just say 'not really, but I can give it a try.' Or something of the sort. But that wasn't what he wanted to say. So he pushed it away with a slight flex of his 'mind'.

Taking a few seconds to gather his thoughts, Cal tried to ignore the other kind of mental pressure he was under by virtue of having the full attention of four beautiful girls. "Hm. I do, I'm pretty sure. I like to read a lot. More fiction than anything else, but a bit of everything else too. I also have to write scripts sometime when working on one game or another. So there's that." He finally answered, finishing his cup of tea with a last sip, kinda unsure of where to rest his gaze, yet in the end opting to stop being potentially suspicious and directly look at Monica.

The girl in question brought her hands together and casted one of those small delighted smile only really pretty girls could pull off. "Excellent, you're gonna-"

"You do?" However, the club's president was stopped in her tracks as another voice coming from his other side spoke up lowly, hesitantly. There was a strange lul as the words echoed in the air. Sayori's voice echoed crisply into his ears. Yet time seemed to freeze for him. He realized his blunder rather quickly, but even that didn't linger long in his mind.

'Do I like litterature? Of course not, I...' His breath caught in his throat. Pressure uncomparable to anything he had previously felt pressed on his mind, trying to change him, to conform him to his supposed identity.

The words he wanted to say kept twisting, both on his tongue and in his head. His own memories were fighting him, memories of this world. In them, he never was interested in litterature growing up. And he only gave the club a try to make Sayori happy and to stop her from pestering him.

Those memories were as real as his other ones.

So did he like litterature?

The answer was naturally...

"Yes, I do." Cal smiled at Sayori, lifting and tossing away the headache inducing mountain like weight on his mind. The game had already tried that shit once, it failed. Of course it would fail again.

He was not some kind of Ai, nor a character in a game. He was himself, that's it. Current situation non-withstanding.

The girl froze at his words, then she became blurry and fuzzy, green and black cubes erasing her in an instant. Then the world glitched out with her in the same manner.

Maybe Cal did too at that moment, he couldn't tell, taken with the terror and dread at what he had potentially done, the smile he had frozen on his face. The only thing he knew was that next second, everything was fine and he was back facing Monika with her hands clasped and a small delighted smile on her face.