"Ugh...!"

Jake heard Natsuki giving a loud sigh from within the closet. It sounded like she was annoyed by something.

Already regretting his decision to listen to Sayori, Jake cautiously approached her, just in case the girl needed any help.

"You uh, looking for something in there?" Jake asked calmly.

"Freaking Monika..." Natsuki muttered, "She never puts my stuff back in the right spot! What's the point in keeping your collection organised if someone else is just gonna mess it up?"

Natsuki slides a bunch of stacked books and boxes across the shelf.

"Manga..." said Jake quietly.

Natsuki looked at him. "You read manga, right?"

"Um... sometimes... How did you know, anyway?" He asked.

"I heard you bring it up at some point. Besides, it's kind of written on your face." She told him.

"What? I don't get what you mean..."

There was a lone volume of manga amidst a stack of various books on the side of one of the shelves. Curious, Jake pulled it out of the stack.

"There it is!"

Natsuki snatched it out of Jake's hands, startling him a little. She then turned to the box of manga and slipped the volume right into the middle of the rest.

"Aah, much better!" Natsuki said in a satisfied tone. "Seeing a box set with one book missing is probably the most irritating sight in the world."

"I-I can agree with you on that..." replied Jake.

He took a closer look at the box set Natsuki was admiring. Inside was a full volume of a series titled Parfait Girls. He had never heard of this in his life. Which meant it was either something he wasn't interested in... or it was just plain terrible.

"If you're gonna judge, you can go do it through the glass on that door." Natsuki said, frowning at him and pointing to the classroom door.

"H-Hey, I didn't even say anything...!" stuttered Jake.

"It was the look on your face." Natsuki replied, "But I'll tell you one thing, Jake. Consider this a lesson straight from the Literature Club: Don't judge a book by its cover! In fact—"

Natsuki pulled out the first volume of Parfait Girls from the box and shoved it right into Jake's hands, "I'm gonna show you exactly why!"

Jake starred blankly at the cover. It featured four girls in colourful attire and striking animated feminine poses.

(This is gonna be a long afternoon...)

"Don't just stand there!" Natsuki shouted.

"Uwa—" But before Jake could finish, Natsuki grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the closet over to a wall. She sat down beneath the windowsills and patted the ground next to her, which signalled for him to sit there.

"W-Wouldn't the ch-chairs be more comfortable...?" Jake asked, glancing over at Yuri. He really didn't want her to see him sitting on the floor with Natsuki, like how they had the other day. For some reason, doing this felt very wrong to him.

"Chairs wouldn't work. We can't read at the same time like that." said Natsuki. She did have a point, as both Jake and Yuri learned yesterday.

"Okay..." Jake sighed.

He slowly took a seat next to her, trying to make sure there was at least a one inch distance between the two of them. But as he opened up the book, Natsuki inched even closer to him, hoping that he wouldn't notice.

Unfortunately for her, Jake immediately noticed this and was growing more uncomfortable by the second. He could feel her peering over his shoulder, much more eager to begin reading than he was.

"Wow, how long has it been since I read the beginning...?" Natsuki asked out loud.

"I dunno..." Jake mumbled, barely paying attention. He tried to have a look at Yuri again, but his vision was blocked off by chairs and desks. He hoped that if he couldn't see her, she couldn't see him either.

"Hey, are you paying attention?" asked Natsuki.

"Uh... W-What's it about?" He responded quickly, even though the cover quite clearly showed it was likely about a bunch of friends hanging in high school. A slice-of-life, as they called it.

Jake was never a fan of reading stuff like this. It just reminded him of how difficult real life was and how much he despised it. The whole reason he loved manga, books, anime and games was that they distracted him from his own problems. The bad thing about that of course was he had trouble focusing on his actual schoolwork and stuff.

Jake's parents constantly reminded him of this, especially his father, who always told him he was just wasting his life away behind a book or in front of a computer screen. Although a part of Jake knew that they were right, he didn't really care that much. Because life always threw crap and responsibilities he didn't want to deal with into his face at every corner.

"Well, if you read the front cover, you can probably figure it out." Natsuki replied, "Well, a lot of the beginning is about simple things... Like there's this really funny chapter where they become obsessed with a guy at an ice cream shop—"

Jake's eyes rolled back into his head; he could already tell this was going to suck balls. A story about a bunch of Sayori clones yammering on about the latest trends and cute boys and all of that boring stuff.

"But later on, there's all kinds of drama..." Natsuki continued, "Like when they all get into their backstories, and when some of the romance starts to happen... That's really what makes it so good. There are so many touching parts."

"If you say so..." Jake muttered.

"Hey! What did I tell you about judging a book by it's cover?!" Natsuki snapped, giving Jake a little shove.

"Hey, hey! Chill out!" Jake quickly said, raising his hands in defense. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm just not used to these kinds of books. I'm more into a comedic sort of drama, not 'drama' drama."

"Hmph." Natsuki crossed her arms, clearly irritated. Not wanting to piss her off more, Jake tried to shut up and read. As he did, he noticed something in the manga that made his brain click.

"Hold on, this chapter seems like it's about baking... Is there going to be a lot of baking in this manga?"

"Well—" Natsuki paused for a moment, "...Yeah. Why does that matter?"

"It doesn't, I-I was just wondering... Since you like baking too, right?" Jake asked.

Upon hearing this, Natsuki suddenly looked furious and her cheeks turned as pink as her hair.

"That's— Just a coincidence!" She said loudly, "I just happened to get into baking around the same time that I got this manga! Like I would ever get into anything because it's in a manga! I feel bad for anyone that impressionable! Ahaha!"

"Well, I started to exercise a lot more after reading One-Punch Man and I don't exactly see that as a particularly bad thing. And baking isn't the worst hobby to pick up—"

"I told you it's just a coincidence!" yelled Natsuki.

"Okay, alright, it's all just some big coincidence! You don't have to have a hissy fit about it!" Jake snapped, not believing a word she said.

"Fine! If you don't want to read with me, why did you even come talk to me?" Natsuki shot back.

Jake went silent; he knew it would not be wise to tell her that Sayori told him to do this. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

"Because... we got off to a bad start." He told her. "I'm a very anxious person, and I tend to react pretty poorly towards criticism... and judgement, kinda like you actually."

Natsuki's expression softened, but she still looked annoyed.

"So, I'm sorry for acting rude to you." Jake apologised. "I really didn't mean for it to sound like that. I'm just not that good at understanding how people feel sometimes..."

"Urgh, It's fine..." She responded, "How about we just start reading?"

"Sounds good to me."

After settling down, Jake and Natsuki read on for a few more minutes. Jake had gone through a couple of chapters at this point. But it still wasn't really his style of manga, which made it kinda hard to focus. It also made it easier to notice Natsuki watching him with a strangely cute face.

"...Are you sure this isn't boring for you?" Jake asked.

"It's not." She assured him.

"Even though you're just watching me read?"

"Well... I'm... I'm fine with that."

Jake raised an eyebrow, "Okay... Well, I guess it is pretty fun sharing something you like with somebody else. I wouldn't know personally, since my only friend is Sayori."

"Seriously? You don't have any other friends besides her?" asked Natsuki.

"Well, I did have this one friend back in Australia. But I lost contact with him when my family all moved here. Since then, yeah, Sayori's my only real friend now." Jake explained.

"You're from Australia?"

"Yep. Or as we like to call it, the Land Down Under."

"Ah— So that's why you sound British..."

Jake looked at Natsuki, wearing a deadpan expression.

"Um... That's not..." Natsuki murmured, "Well, I wouldn't really know."

"...Don't worry, people make that mistake all the time. Guess our accents are pretty similar, so I can tell why it gets all mixed up." said Jake, "Anyway, how about you? Do your friends read any manga?"

"Hmph." huffed Natsuki, "Like I could ever get my friends to read this. They just think manga is for kids. I can't even bring it up without them being all like 'Eh? You still haven't grown out of that yet?'. Makes me want to punch them in the face..."

"I know how that feels..." said Jake coldly, "Clearly they haven't read Attack on Titan or Tokyo Ghoul. They just judge it simply because of its name. Sure, it might not be their thing, but that doesn't mean they should put people down because of it."

"Hm. Yeah, that's pretty accurate." agreed Natsuki. "I mean, I feel like I can't even keep it in my own room. I don't even know what my dad would do if he found this. At least it's safe here in the clubroom. 'Cept Monika was kind of a jerk about it... Ugh! I just can't win, can I?"

"Well, I guess it all worked out in the end, am I right?" Jake pointed out, "Here we are, reading it with no one judging us. Feels pretty good, eh?"

"Well, it's not like that solves any of my problems." Natsuki frowned.

"Yeah... but at least you're enjoying yourself, right?"

Now it was Natsuki's turn to be silent. Her eyes darted away from Jake as she tried to come up with a response.

"...So?" She asked.

"So that's the only thing that matters." Jake told her with a smile.

To his surprise, Natsuki gave him a smile. Just a small one, but a smile nevertheless. She seemed to notice this and quickly returned to a neutral expression.

"Are you gonna keep reading, or what?" She asked, but the annoyed tone she gave him sounded kinda... forced.

"Yeah, yeah..." Jake brushed the thought aside and he flipped the page over. Suddenly, Natsuki starts laughing.

"Ahahaha! I totally forgot that happens!" She said, pointing at one of the panels, "Minori is my favourite character. You always feel a little bad for her, since she's so unlucky. But later on it gets especially bad when—"

Natsuki stop talking, upon realising what she was about to say.

"I shouldn't be talking about that yet! Just finish the chapter already!" She demanded, but her voice still sparkled with excitement, in contrast to her usual bossy tone.

But since she probably wasn't used to sharing her interest in manga with her friends, Jake understood why. It was difficult to explain the feeling you get when you connect with somebody over a topic you both enjoy.

And being able to provide that experience for Natsuki (and vice-versa of course), made Jake feel a little better about himself.

"Okay, everyone! Are you all ready with today's poems?" asked Monika.

"Oh, come on! Could you're timing be any worse?" groaned Natsuki. She and Jake were partway through the volume thus far, and Jake was actually beginning to enjoy it a little bit.

"Sorry~! I just need to make sure we have enough time." Monika told her, "Though you do look pretty cosy over there. Ahaha!"

"Eh...? A-Ah!" Natsuki suddenly noticed how close she had gotten to Jake. She immediately slid at least twelve or so inches away from him.

"Alright... Guess I'll stop here, for now." Jake muttered. He closed the manga and handed it back towards Natsuki.

"You're just giving it back...? Don't you wanna know what happens?" Natsuki asked.

"Ah... Yeah, but... M-Monika just said—" stuttered Jake.

"Don't be dumb. Just take it home with you." She told him.

"I can't do that. I might damage it or lose it..." Jake responded. At home, he could be a bit of a slob, and he didn't want to lose all the process he had made trying to make friends with Natsuki over a ruined or missing book.

Plus, he doubted he would have enough time to read anything if he had to keep coming up with new stories every afternoon after school. The pressure on his shoulders was already bad enough as it was.

"It'll take forever to finish if you don't take it home... But you're that careless with other people's stuff, maybe you shouldn't." And with that, Natsuki took the book from Jake's hand and walked back to the closet.

Jake got back up and looked over at Yuri, who was carefully slipping her poem out from one of her books. That was a pretty clever idea actually. Smiling to himself, he returned to where he put his stuff and pulled out his rather crumpled sheet of paper.

Monika walked over to him and asked, "How did you go with writing your short story?"

"Oh, well, it was actually more difficult than I thought." admitted Jake, "But I think I did much better than with the poem."

"I'm glad to hear that! I can't wait to see what you've written." She smiled at him.

Jake rubbed the back of his neck nervously, turning pink. He was never gonna get used to her smiling at him like that.

  **********

After showing his short story to everyone, Jake slipped back into his chair, feeling pretty happy with himself. The girls' reactions this time around were much more satisfying and... interesting than the previous ones.

Monika cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, "Okay, everyone! We're all done reading each other's poems, right? I have something extra planned today, so if everyone could come sit at the front of the room..."

"Is this about the festival?" asked Natsuki.

"Well, sort of~" Monika replied.

"Ugh." Natsuki groaned, "Do we really have to do something for the festival? It's not like we can put together anything good in just a few days. We'll just end up embarrassing ourselves instead of getting any new members."

"That's a concern of mine as well. I don't really do well with last-minute preparations..." said Yuri sadly.

"Me neither..." Jake agreed.

"Don't worry so much!" Monika told them, "We're going to keep it simple, okay? We won't need much more than a few decorations. Sayori has been working on posters, and I've designed some pamphlets we can give out during the event."

"Okay, that's great and all... But that still doesn't tell us what we're actually going to be doing for the event." Natsuki said, with a hand on her hip.

"Ah, sorry! I thought you heard about it already. We're all going to be performing!"

__________

And done! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, cause I really pushed myself to get it finished. I might skip the poems section again, but I'm not so sure since I've changed poems to short stories. Let me know what you think.

Also, please let me know about any spelling mistakes you might see. I keep mixing up the American and Australian spellings of words.

Last but not least, shout out to @autumnpigmy for the kind comments. I really means a lot to me. Thank you very much 😊

~Cheesy