PART 2
The clubroom looks as it always does. The sun is casting long shadows of the trees outside across all the desks. It seems everybody has their backs to the window, so as to better see their books. As usual, each girl is sitting a few desks away from each other with Monika resting her legs on the teacher's desk in the front of the room. As I watch her kicking her feet to the rhythm of some unheard song, I'm reminded of yesterday, and the promise I made to her.
But promises are easier to make than they are to keep. Natsuki and Yuri are sitting on the far side of the room. Both girls have their backs to the wall and their knees up in front of them. I suppose it speaks to their innocence that they'd sit the way they are. If I were a lesser man, I'd be trying to sit at just the right angle to...
No, I can't think like that. I promised Monika I'd make friends, and that's just what I intend to do. But first, I need to scope out my target.
I look over at Natsuki. She's almost curled up into a ball, completely engrossed in her book. Her mouth is making subtle movements, as if she's reading aloud to herself. She's shaking her knees, bouncing them against each other as she reads. She seems to be flipping around randomly, since she just turned a page backwards.
Wait, is she reading manga? If so, I've found an opening.
There's no point in taking this slowly, so I sit at the desk next to her. Natsuki doesn't seem to react to my movement, so I tap on her shoulder to get her attention.
"H-Hey!" she squeaks.
"Sorry!" I raise my hands up defensively. "I didn't mean to startle you, but I was wondering, is that Parfait Girls?"
I know it's a stupid question, but my skills at making small talk are underdeveloped, so it's the best way I can think of to break the ice.
"Yeah... It's right on the cover." Natsuki raises the back of the book up to me, as if to prove her point.
"I loved the anime, is the manga any good?" I try to salvage the conversation.
"You're not one of those people who's only seen the anime but acts like they're a fan, are you?" Natsuki looks annoyed. "Jeez, and it's such a bad adaptation."
Good, I've got her talking.
"For one," Natsuki puts down the manga and looks at me "The studio animating it didn't know if they'd get a second season or not, so they made this horrible anime-original ending that completely missed the point. It was so bad, they had to make that awkward mini-arc at the beginning of the second season to explain why the story got so weird and why the villain was still around. Then, they completely messed up each girl's character arcs, since they tried to end the show too early and wrapped all of them up hastily. So Princess Strawberry and Princess Cherry learn to get over their differences and become friends at the end of season one, but then at the beginning of season two they're at each others throats like none of that ever happened. And if that's not enough, the lazy animators apparently couldn't be bothered to actually do their jobs and animate all the frills on each character's costumes, so the anime designs are these stupid knock-off versions of the real outfits, so every time I wear my cosplay, I always get some moron who hasn't read the source material asking me why my outfit looks so different and I have to explain to this mouth breather why-"
At that point, she stops herself.
"Ah, I didn't mean to rant like that. It's just..." Natsuki looks out the window. "It's just that I never get to talk about this stuff to anybody in person, so I guess I got a little carried away. Sorry if I freaked you out."
"No, it's fine! It's nice to listen to somebody with such passion talk about their interests. And you said you were into cosplay?"
Natsuki blushes. "Well, it's not like. I mean I'm not super into it or anything but-"
"I'd like to see that!" I interject.
"You... you really would? I've never... ah! Meet me in the hallway in like 5 minutes, okay?" Natsuki runs to the closet, grabs a plastic bag full of pink ribbons, and runs out the door.
Monika smiles at me a bit before looking back at her book and Sayori gives me a confused look, as if she was suspecting me of doing something horrible to Natsuki. Before I can come up with a way to signal that I did nothing wrong, she looks back to her book. Yuri remains deeply invested in her novel, not even looking up when Natsuki ran out.
I pick up Natsuki's book and head out of the club room and in to the hallway. I pass time by flipping through the manga Natsuki was just reading. The character designs are so over-the-top it almost looks like parody. After some time passes, I feel a tap on my shoulder.
"So," Natsuki twirls "Whaddya think?"
She's covered head to toe in pink ribbons over a frilly white dress. Her hairclip looks like it's made of licorice and she's holding a large white staff with a jawbreaker at the top. Beneath her skirt are two long red stockings and a pair of ruby slippers. Referencing the front page of the manga in my hand, I can tell her costume is almost exactly like one of the girls on the cover. She's even matching their signature pose.
"That's incredible!" I say "Did you make it yourself?"
"Well, almost." Natsuki stops posing. "I got my hands on a costume based off the awful anime design, then I made some alterations myself to better fit the real designs. It's almost exactly like how it should be except for one small detail!"
"I wouldn't know." I shake my head. "I've only seen the anime."
"Ah jeez, MC-Kun." Natsuki lifts her skirt a bit. "It's the socks!"
I immediately look away. Does this girl have any idea how this looks? She's standing in front of me, lifting her skirt up like it's the most casual business! If somebody walked by right now, they'd...
But nobody is walking by. This part of the school is usually reserved for clubs, but since the literature club is so small, and we're pretty out of the way...
I hesitantly look back at her. "What about the socks?"
"Jeez, can't you see for yourself, or are you that shy?" Natsuki wiggles her skirt around. "This isn't making you uncomfortable, is it?"
I will not stand idly by and have this precocious child taunt me. If she wants to play this game, I'll have to beat her at it. I bend down, putting my head at thigh-level. Natsuki pushes her skirt down between her legs.
"Anon!" She blushes "What are you doing?"
"Hmmm?" I grin "I'm just looking at your stockings. Sorry if I'm a little slow, I just can't figure out what's wrong with them."
Natsuki grimaces, but sees what I'm doing. She doesn't seem to want to back down.
"It's the garter." Natsuki lifts her skirt again, but not nearly as much as before. "Her costume doesn't have garters, but I added them myself because..."
"Because..." I continue.
"Because the costume was too big for me, okay! Whenever I moved around in it, the socks would slip down, so I added garters!"
"Oooh..." I say "I see it now."
I slip my finger underneath her garter and pull at it a bit. To my surprise, Natsuki doesn't flinch away or tell me to stop. She only tightens the muscles in her legs. I slide my finger around underneath her sock and then let go, producing a snapping noise as the cloth slaps against her thigh.
"So you did all of these corrections yourself?" I look back up to Natsuki, my face almost buried in her raised skirts. "I'd really like to take a closer look."
"Y-you've got quite the eye for authenticity. I'll give you that." Natsuki looks close to breaking. "Maybe I'll have to- I'll have to-"
The door to the literature club slams open. Natsuki and I lunge backwards and try to take normal-looking poses. Monika stands before us with a smug look on her face.
"I didn't interrupt anything," she says "did I?"
"We were just- uh..." I begin
"We were on our way back just now." Natsuki finishes.
"I see." Monika smiles. "That's quite the interesting outfit, Natsuki!"
As if she had forgotten she was wearing it, Natsuki jumps.
"You- it- I was- this..." Natsuki stutters. "It's MC-kun's fault!"
And she runs back into the clubroom.
