Chapter Text
Ever since I changed my bed to be right beneath the window of my room, mornings have always dictated how my day is going to be. Sunny morning? Cheery day. Cloudy morning? Regular day. Rainy morning? Yeah… One morning we had a thunderstorm and it was an awful day for me.
But today, the sun shone brightly on my face! It woke me up with a very tender kiss on my eyelids and another warm blanket on my body. A kiss that eventually started to bother me and a blanket that eventually became too warm. I am thankful for your help on waking me up, but enough is enough! Thank you, miss sun!
I open my eyes with a hand over them, because I don’t want to get blinded, and sit up on my bed towards the edge, where a pair of orange slippers is waiting for me. Once free from the sun’s rays, I rub the sleep outta my eyes and open them, finding my small little room being lit by the sun.
As per my morning routine, I first stand up and streeeeeeeeeetch my body faaaar up until I can almost touch the ceiling, if you consider being around 30 centimetres away from it to be ‘almost touching’. Still, one day I will touch it! After that, I go to my drawer to take my morning medicine with a sip of water from my trusty water bottle.
I got out of my pyjamas and changed to a nice, breezy fresh outfit before looking at myself in the mirror as I adjust my beloved bow on my hair, finally getting ready for a great summer day.
I walk out of my room to the exciting sound of someone cooking downstairs. Assuming by the closed door of Natsuki and Yuri’s room, it most likely is Monika the one that is cooking.
It’s been four years since the Literature Club disappeared and evolved into the University Literature Club; four years since us four members started living together in this apartment. I get to have my own room, Monika has hers too, but Natsuki and Yuri share one with separate beds. But not a day passes that, when I peek into their room, I don’t find their beds stuck together!
But honestly, I don’t blame them at all for doing that. Ever since that day five years ago, when Natsuki confessed to us about her problems, she has always been attached to Yuri because she was the one that she trusted enough to start opening up with. They told us a bunch of the story leading up to that point, and ever since then, neither Monika nor I have been able or willing to separate them.
Deciding on not bothering those two girls, who probably haven’t even woken up, I start my trip downstairs to the kitchen. There is a soft hum coming from there, which I recognize as Monika humming a song as she cooked. It smells like… Like bacon!
“Heyo, pretty lady!” I say once inside the kitchen. And yep, there she is! With an apron tied on her body, her long hair in her iconic ponytail and still wearing pyjamas! She turns around towards me once I make myself known, smiling widely at me and letting me see that she was making scrambled eggs with bacon.
“Hello, beautiful!” I hop my way towards Monika, who receives me with open arms as I sling mine around her neck and just give her the biggest smooch I can muster!
Monika and I have been dating for a while now! Almost three years or so. It all started after we had a nice discussion about our feelings after I had an incident that happened around our High School graduation. It was a ‘I don’t deserve being here and I want to die’ incident, which I almost pulled through it had it not been for Monika. She said that she would support me, even though I do have my problems, and that she would be by my side forever. And well, it was a bit of a slow slope ever since, but it took us two years to understand that our feelings were more on the side of love than just friendship, and since then we started dating.
Those were some very awful times of my mind, but having Monika beside me have made those bad days far easier on me. Because of her we have been going to the same psychiatrists and therapists, and I’ve been taking my medicine. It’s been wonderful ever since and I can’t thank her enough for that! But I also gotta thank Yuri and Natsuki, because they too have been beside me ever since we started living together.
We’ve had a lot of group sessions of crying and letting our feelings out during these four years. They’ve always been so therapeutic and, uhm… Catheterical? Cathedralical? I dunno, Yuri is the one good with words. But that word! Not once have I felt that those sessions had resulted in us feeling worse than when we started. And not just that, but we all are very supportive of going to our therapists; Yuri and Natsuki share a psychiatrist and a therapist while Moni and I share our own.
But while Natsuki and Yuri share a lot of things, bedroom included, they are… Strangely opposed to the idea of starting to date. Unlike Monika and I, those two have had this strange ‘will-they-wont-they’ that is just one good day away from being official. Those two genuinely care for each other, they have said so in front of each other in multiple occasions, and I have caught them sharing VERY intimate moments beyond the ones that are caused because of a bad mental health day or something like that. Like sometimes they just randomly hold hands and stay very quiet and blush a lot while looking into each other’s eyes! Like come on, girls! Just kiss already!
Anyway, I shouldn’t pry into their relationship. It’s not up to me, not up to Monika, not up to no one but them! They are enjoying themselves right now and putting pressure on them might ruin that nice thing they have going on. Plus, they look cute doing it, so that’s a whole ‘nother story for a whole different day.
“How did you wake up today?” Monika asks me once we split from our kiss. I step back from her while I think of how to answer, and the only thing that I can think of is of this… This weird thing that is happening inside the house. I think of the way that things are like nowadays, of the way that we four girls inside this household are running the show. We are not divided, not separated, but we are kinda segregated into pairs.
Monika and I, Natsuki and Yuri… And although we all support each other as best as we can, we are supposed to be a team! We are supposed to have a four-way friendship! Romantic relationships aside -or in Yuri and Natsuki’s case, a romantic friendship-, our overall friendship must prevail!
I feel the sudden pang of inspiration. I feel the urge to act! To do something about this pairing system we have fallen into! This wonderful summer week we are in will be one of interacting with my friends! One on one, face to face, heart to heart!
This week will be of Sayori and the girls! Not of Sayori with Monika and Natsuki with Yuri! I will strengthen my bond with my each of my friends!
“I woke up wanting to go out with Natsuki!”
I waited with Monika for Natsuki to wake up and come down with us. She walked downstairs with the most adorable bed hair of all time and her pyjamas, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Monika server her a portion of eggs ‘n bacon, and sat her up on the table seat in front of me. I took this God given chance and lurched myself forward into Natsuki’s field of view.
“Sukinat!” A beloved nickname of mine to hers, which she doesn’t like but I don’t care.
“Risayo.” And that’s the common answer to me calling her that. “What’s up?”
“Do you wanna go out with me?”
“…” She rises an eyebrow to me at that question. “Where to?”
“I dunno. We can figure out that in our way out.”
Natsuki keeps her eyebrow high, giving herself some time to process what I was telling her. But once a few seconds passed, she shrugs her shoulders and smiles to me.
“Sure. I’m on my free day, so anything’s fair.” I rise my arms hiiiiigh up and wiggle them in joy, excited to have a nice day with Natsuki.
“Yay! We are gonna have a great day!” I reach down to softly hit the table like that bongo cat meme and wiggle in my seat. “How about weeee… Go to the aquarium?”
“Yeah, sure.” Natsuki says almost too mindlessly, still a bit asleep. “Wait, isn’t that on the neighbour town?”
“It is, but we can take a train there.”
“… Alright.”
I waited for Natsuki to get ready for the day, saying our goodbyes to Yuri and Monika once we were ready to leave. The trip to the train station was a short 20-minute walk, in which Natsuki and I spent talking about what was going on in our lives.
“How’s school?” Due to Natsuki not being able to pay for her tuition once her dad kicked her out, she didn’t finish high school. But that didn’t stop her from getting some stuff done! She started working, she started going to therapy, she started being truer to herself and to what she wants. She never really liked school to begin with. The teachers would always be mean to her, the anxiety of getting called out on her bruises was devastating and she would struggle on her homework because she couldn’t focus at home when doing it.
But by no means is she dumb for not being able to do good in school! Natsuki is incredibly smart, extremely creative and has so much drive to do things. She might not have ended high school, but she tries her best to help the other girls when we are stuck in our homework. I remember one time that Monika, who is studying computer science, asked Natsuki to bounce ideas off of her, and that helped Monika to get out of a rut she was stuck in and do well on her homework. Natsuki became so wonderfully flexible after getting out of that awful situation she was in.
“Oh, you know. Summer break is on, but I still got a project to do.” My studies in art school have been doing great! I’m not the best painter in the world, but I do like to make decorations for the house and stuff! “Right now, I’m working on making a clay bust.”
“Of whom?”
“We are all replicating a Julius Caesar bust. Here, lemme show you.” I took out my phone and scrolled through the thousands of memes and pictures of Monika until I found the picture I was looking for. I show it to Natsuki, who tries to hold in a laugh and fails, giggling to my messy attempt of an emperor.
“Girl, this looks more like the salad than the man.”
“I knoooow! It’s just so tedious and I gotta keep so still and the tools are all so awkward to hold!”
“… I mean, the nose is kinda good.”
“Yeah, it took me forever for it.”
“Well… I can’t wait to see the finished thing. Will you bring it home when it’s done?”
“Duh! I think putting him on the living room would be neat.”
“We can put him somewhere where he can see the TV with us.”
Natsuki and I giggle to the idea as she returns me my phone.
“And what about you, Suki? How are you doing?”
“Oh, the usual. Ever since I became head baker, I haven’t had much contact with the clients, so I just roam in the kitchen after we bake our daily batch.”
“Have you gotten some Karens attacking the place?”
“Heh, funny that you say that.” Natsuki pinches the bridge of her nose and exhales loudly, clearly annoyed at the memory. “We had some old dude demand a refund because there were blueberries on his blueberry muffin.”
“… Who orders a blueberry muffin without expecting to find blueberries in it?”
“I don’t know. But other than that, not much has been going on. I just think of a new thing to bake, I bake it, I try it, and if it works, I tell Mikasa to put it on the menu.”
“Mikasa is your boss, right?”
“Well… She is more of a supervisor than a boss.”
“But she was the one that made you head baker, no?”
“Yeah, but still. I like to consider us to be on the same level of importance, just that she is on the café and I’m on the kitchen.”
“You are the muscle and she is the brain.”
“Hah! Like that cartoon with the mice.”
“Except you’re not dumb and you’re one hundred times cuter!”
“Pshh, the cute one here is you, Sayoyo!”
“No, you!”
“No, you.”
“No! You!”
And so, this battle to see who accepts the compliment continues for a little while until we reach the train station.
We pay for our tickets and wait around two minutes for the train to arrive at the station. Once inside the train, we get ourselves some window seats facing each other and wait for the train to take off.
“So, how are you holding up?” Natsuki asks once the train is up to speed, our trip to the neighbour town only being another 20 minutes. “Outside of school, I mean.”
“Umm… I’ve been doing good.”
“How has the summer treated your weather?” Natsuki asks this and points at her own head. Even before telling Monika and the others about my issues, I’ve always conceptualized them as a weather inside my mind. In days like today, in which I have all the energy of the world and I want to go out to do stuff with my friends, my weather is like today’s: warm and sunny, with a cool breeze to top it off.
“So far, the summer has been nice. I go out to finish my project, then I spend my day with Monika and you guys… It’s been nice.”
“No rainclouds?”
“Nope. No rainclouds. Only big, white, fluffy clouds.”
“That’s great to hear.” Other than Monika, Natsuki has been the one that has been checking up on me regularly. Monika makes sure I make it through my hard times, but Natsuki is the one that keeps me sane. Yuri’s way of taking care of me is more subtle, less direct. When the outside weather is rainy, she wordlessly invites me to a cup of tea to enjoy beside her on the couch. Or when my inside weather is rainy as well, she sits beside me and… She is like some sort of sponge. She lets me vent, she lets me cry, she lets me let my feelings out in a safe way.
“And what about you?” I usually return the favour to Natsuki. Yuri is the one that helps her during her hard times, but I am the one that keeps her grounded. The stress from the bakery, those small moments of that awful insecurity that she sometimes gets… I help her with it. But Monika is the one that truly gets Natsuki upright. Moni makes Natsuki get up when she can’t, Moni helps Natsuki realize her feelings outside of the negative ones, Moni gets Natsuki to act and do stuff when she doesn’t believe she can.
“Beyond what happened the other day about me having an awful panic attack? I’ve been good.”
“Have you told Yuri about it?” Remembering what she said to me, the last thing Natsuki would like to admit to Yuri was that she saw her father in her.
“… I kinda did.”
“What did you say?”
“Well… I told her that I was, like… Having buyer’s remorse. Like I gave us a promise that I didn’t knew if I could keep and that I was afraid to break.”
Yeah, that’s an oversimplification of what she told me that night. Still kinda accurate though.
“But she told me exactly the same thing that you told me, that none of you have to have a reason to love me, and that she will still be waiting for me, even if I relapse or regret promising that or…” A strange shadow passed in front of Natsuki’s face… A shadow I very clearly recognize. “She said that she will still love me even if I break or give up…”
I reach out to grab Natsuki’s hand to this comment. I hold on to dear life, quite literally, and she grabs my hand in return, though not as strongly as I held hers.
But this very clearly is a sensitive topic, to me specially, which Natsuki instantly recognized and started to correct herself.
“S-She only said that in the very rare case it happens, thought I will never consider it. I’m not going anywhere, Sayori.”
“Oh, you certainly aren’t.” I squeeze her hand softly. “I am not letting go of you. Neither is Yuri or Monika, as a matter of fact.”
“I know, Sayori. Thank you.” There was a small moment of discomfort in Natsuki’s face as I squeeze her hand a bit too hard, to which I relaxed my hand, before a smile began to form on her face. “Really though, the best feeling in the world for me is being held on to.”
“Then come get some sugar whenever you want!” I spread my arms and lean forward into her, catching her in a tight hug, which she returned just as strongly.
“Hell yeah! Squish me more!” She says and starts to squeeze me, to which I start squeezing her as well. We both press each other hard and strong against each other until our arms give up and we fall into our seats, recovering our breaths and giggling all the way.
“No really, I love getting squished.” She says as she fixes her clothes. “Yuri often sleeps with just a blanket and a cover, so I get to steal the rest of her blankets and I just bury myself in them.”
Ohohohoho, so they do sleep together! Natsuki catches my growing smile and recognizes what she just said
“So, you do sleep together!” I point at her with my Phoenix Wright finger and Natsuki’s face slowly starts turning redder than the ribbons she ties her hair with, crossing her arms as she tries to shrink herself to no avail.
“S-Shut up!”
I chuckle at Natsuki’s cute reaction and hold a hand over my mouth, not wanting to get the attention of the people around us.
“Oh, my dear and beloved Sukinat.”
“Look, you little scoundrel.” Natsuki leans forward in her seat to face me closely. “What Yuri and I do in our bedroom is…”
But then she blushes even harder, catching herself on the way she said what she said.
And to this I laugh a bit harder.
“Oh, golly gee! Please do tell me what kind of stuff you and Yuri do in your bedroom.”
But Natsuki’s face morphs into a scowl and rises up from her shame.
“You are no stranger the kind of shit I am into given we read the same yuri manga. And speaking of, Yuri and I are no strangers to the fact that you and Monika get it on whenever we aren’t at home.”
N-Natsuki!
“N-Natsuki! D-Don’t say that!” I look around the train to see if anyone around is hearing our discussion, and thankfully, our cart is pretty empty.
“Oh, come on! It’s my time to tease you now.” Her scowl now has an added vengeful smile. “Trust me when I say, my beloved Risayo, that Yuri and I can hear your weekly midnight escapades into Monika’s room very, very clearly.”
Oh, gosh, now my face is burning up. Natsuki, please! I know Monika and I have our… Our moments, but you shouldn’t just air them up like that!
Natsuki’s verbal attacks to me eventually subsided, but the shame of such a talk, of being called out the way she did, still got me thinking that I should have a serious conversation with Monika once we come back home regarding… Our alone times.
Regardless, after enjoying a bit more of a normal conversation, our train started to slow down to a halt, having reached our destination. Natsuki and I walk out of the train and head towards the nearby taxi stop, climbing into one and asking to be taken to the aquarium.
Natsuki looks out the window as the taxi takes us to our destination, enjoying the view of the buildings in the city as we pass beside the city downtown. The straight road that is the boulevard forks to the right and we start going towards the outer limits of the town. And not long after looking at the parks that litter the outskirt of the town, we finally reach our destination.
Natsuki makes sure to pay for the taxi, saying that she wants to break even in this date regarding payments. I thank her thoughtfulness and return it to her by rushing to open the door for her. She giggles and thanks my courtesy as she steps out of it while grabbing my hand.
And now, finally, we are in front of the entrance to the aquarium.
We pay for our tickets, not using my student discount to make it fair for Natsuki but her ending up forcing me to use it, and we enter the premise.
We walked past a huuuuuge tank full of all kinds of fishes, and Natsuki and I start giving the fishes names and professions.
“Urgh, I can’t believe the amount of fish taxes I have to file!” Says the fish with black and yellow stripes.
“I am running late for my meeting with the other fish doctors!” Says the white fish with a black ring on its body, making it look like it was wearing a stethoscope.
“My fish wife is cheating on me, but thankfully I am a fish, so I’m gonna forget about it in 10 seconds!” Says the purple fish as it hides beneath a coral.
We point at the fishes that take our attention with their fancy colours or shapes. We make up stories for each of them, saying that ‘those two are married’, ‘that one is a conservative’, ‘the one over there likes to watch late night TV shows’, amongst other little stories.
We walk forward, deeper into the aquarium, and find a tank with blowfishes inside, to which Natsuki and I laugh and joke about that one that ate a carrot long time ago.
And walking beyond that, we find a little pool where we can put our feet in so that little fishies can eat the dead skin on us.
“Aw, hell no. These motherfuckers have a feet fetish!” Natsuki says as the fishes start nibbling at her feet, while I try not to pull my feet back from being tickled from all directions. The sensation is both pleasant and so weird!
We continue our date by buying ice cream, sitting beside a large tank and eating it as we continued to talk about the latest fish drama and gossip. We talk about our favourite sea animal, Natsuki thinking that the octopuses are cool while I confess my love for dolphins.
“Girl, dolphins are so fucking gay.” Natsuki says as we finish our ice cream. “One time I saw a video of a comedian that showed that some gay male dolphins fuck their male partner’s blowhole.”
“Oh, my god! What the hell!?”
“Yeah, imagine having a boyfriend that sticks his dick up your nose.”
“Okay, the worst part of imagining that is me having a boyfriend.”
“I know, right?”
But as the sun started to reach the tip of the hills beside the city, Natsuki and I looked at each other and smiled, eager to go back home to rest after so much fun today.
The sun began to set by the time our train back home started to move, so we called Monika to come for us at the train station.
And when the three of us finally entered our home, Yuri had finished setting up the table for all of us to have dinner.
Natsuki and I told Monika and Yuri about our day, about the incredible number of fishes we saw, about the funny stories we made up for each of them, about the feet-fetishist fishes and finally, about how much fun I had with Natsuki, who really did seem like she needed a change of pace.
A day of peace and a moment to breathe and laugh, a day to just forget about her issues and to play around. A day to finally find herself having fun after going through a bit of a rough patch.
“I’m glad you had your fun today, Sayori.” Monika said to me during the last few minutes of our dinner.
“What about you? What did you two do while we were gone?” I looked at Yuri and Monika as I asked this, catching the two by surprise with my question, but then the two smiled at me.
“Monika and I had a nice day chatting and talking about our studies.” Yuri began talking as she started cleaning up the table, Natsuki helping right behind. “After that, we had a little bit of a drink while talking and watching TV.”
“Ohh, you two getting tipsy?” Natsuki poked at Yuri with her elbow, causing her to giggle and blush a little.
“We just had a glass of wine each, nothing to worry about.” Yuri said as she went to put our dishes on the dishwasher. Not wanting to feel like I was literally just sitting around, I took Monika’s dishes as she helped clean up the table.
But then, something clicked on me. The gears inside my head began moving around… I got hit with another pang of inspiration…
Monika and Yuri are the elder ones, while Natsuki and I are the younger ones. This plan of wanting to make our four-way friendship had once again segregated us four into pairs! I cannot have that! I cannot allow this to happen!
I must do more!
“Yuri, do you wanna go out with me tomorrow!?”