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As Natsuki sat, headphones plugged in her ears in the back of her dad's SUV, she scowled out of the window, upset at her current predicament. Trees, cars, and country grasslands whizzed by as her overactive mind raced. She and her father were on their way to a small town multiple hours away from home where Natsuki would be attending an all-girls school almost year round.
Ever since her mother had died three years ago when she was 12 years old and her father had been remarried to an evil woman named Dina, life had been nothing but hell for Natsuki. In her youth, her father had been caring and sweet, the best father she could ask for, really. Lately though, he had been cold and unsympathetic, which Natsuki blamed on her witch of a stepmother.
Natsuki leaned over from behind her father's seat and through the windshield once she noticed that the car was no longer moving, and with this, her palms began to sweat along with a hollow feeling in her chest once the realization that this giant campus would be her new home settled in. She was nervous, and rightfully so. She had never been away from her home, let alone her hometown for long periods of time. Sure, when her family was whole and functional, they took small vacations from time to time with what money they could scrape up over the years, but nothing like this, not to mention that she would be all alone, no guidance from her family.
The short girl reluctantly climbed from the back of the SUV and was greeted with the sight of her dad collecting her bags from the trunk. She slowly made her way over as he handed her the bags and shut the car boot tight. He then placed his hand on her back firmly, moving her along to speed up her pace. Natsuki quickly noticed that they were heading towards a woman, maybe late fifties with long, thin brown hair, dusted with grey. The corners of her lips pulled up with friendliness as she offered a hand to the anxious teen.
"Hello, Natsuki," she greeted. "We've been expecting you." Natsuki grabbed the woman's wrinkly hand softly, ever so slightly trying to hide behind her father, whose hand remained firmly on her back, keeping her from backing away. The woman glanced at Natsuki's pink hair and frowned. "I sure hope that's temporary," she warned. "Unnatural hair color is against our dress code at this school, you will need to remove it immediately, lest you be dresscoded."
Natsuki evaded the woman’s prodding eyes as she stared at the vibrant grass (which looked very much painted, in her opinion) in annoyance of having to remove her hair dye. She just wanted to go home to her room, decorated from head to toe with printed manga panels plastered on the walls, colorful posters, and cuddly stuffed animals, but instead, she would be stuck in this dusty hellhole for the rest of her highschool career.
“However,” the woman continued. “I will relay a message to the other teachers and give you a pass for the rest of the week, but after that, it is expected that your hair is back to it’s natural color.” Natsuki nodded absentmindedly, wanting nothing more than to go to her new dorm and be alone. She seriously couldn’t believe that her father would think to do this to her. After a quick discussion between her father and the greying woman, whose name, Natsuki learned, was Ms. Hiyoshi, the woman called over a girl named Sayori, who was instructed to lead Natsuki to her room.
The girl had curly strawberry blonde locks that stopped just below her chin, the roots coiled close to her scalp. A breathtaking mix between coral pink, light brown, orange, and a darker brown at her roots completed with a vibrant red bow nestled tightly in the hair at the top of her head. Her eyes were a mesmerizing crystal blue that anyone could get lost in, ambitious and bright with life, big and innocent and filled with a sort of childlike wonder. Her round face was dusted ever so lightly with scattered freckles, and she had a small gap between her two front teeth, barely noticable at first glance. Sayori wore the same uniform that Natsuki had been given a week before her arrival, which she had also seen other girls on campus wearing. The only difference being that instead of the grey and burgundy blazer that Natsuki had been given, Sayori wore a burgundy sweatshirt with the schools logo and name in white lettering. Sayori’s uniform was noticably messy. Natsuki's eyes lingered on multiple prominent wrinkles on the curly haired girl’s dark-grey skirt and what looked to be a toothpaste stain tainting the collar of her white button up.
“I know it’s strange now,” Sayori started, cheerfully bouncing up the stairs, “But this place will be just like home in no time, promise. I felt the exact same way that you probably do when I first got here. We all did.” Despite the strawberry blonde’s attempts to cheer her up, Natsuki was still sulking by the time that they made it to their room.
“We have two other roommates, by the way. Their names are Monika and Yuri.” Natsuki’s mood immediately worsened. Though she would’ve preferred to have a room to herself, she at least thought that sharing with Sayori wouldn’t be that bad, but now she was being told that she would have to share her space with not one, but three other moody teen girls. Sayori, sensing Natsuki’s discomfort, made yet another attempt to lift her spirits.
“Don’t worry though! I know it sounds intimidating, but they really are the sweetest. Monika’s super nice and welcoming. She’ll make sure you feel right at home!” Sayori cheered, a joyous smile on her face accompanied with a light blush that did not go unnoticed by the pinkette. “And Yuri is just about the most considerate person ever! She’s such a sweetheart and she’s really smart and I love her!” A beat passed and Sayori averted her eyes, once again, slightly blushing and chuckling. “Hehe… platonically, of course. She’s like the younger sister I never had! Even though she’s around a year older than me. Aaand she’s a lot smarter and more mature than me… and a lot taller… Eh- but still!” Natsuki shrugged, ignoring the ramblings of the talkative girl as the two reached the entrance to their shared dorm.
Sayori opened the door and the girls walked into the sunlit room. It was definitely larger than Natsuki had expected, but less space than she would appreciate considering that four people would be sleeping here. She looked around the room, inspecting the quadrants. The first corner she walked to was decorated colorfully, sticky notes covered in notes, lists, and doodles messily peppering the ivory-colored wall. She also noted posters of multiple boy bands such as One Direction and the Jonas Brothers, as well as posters of Girl in Red, Lana Del Rey, and Mitski. Well, she's definitely not into guys. Natsuki thought to herself.
The bed was unmade, a pastel blue comforter, accompanied by a design of cartoonish clouds sat balled on top of a drool stained white bedsheet, next to two large white pillows, as well as a round sun shaped pillow with a smiley face.
“Oh! That’s my room!” Natsuki heard the bubbly girl call from behind her. She figured it was Sayori’s but also questioned whether or not this space could even be called a room, as it was just a corner of an actual one.
The next corner was rather basic, simplistic sage green sheets on a neatly made bed and corny inspirational posters on the walls, completed with matching wooden shelves and a desk, plants sitting peacefully atop both. Natsuki also noticed a small wooden piano figure and a green journal on the desk, as well as an entricate wooden music box. Sayori was quick to chime in and inform Natsuki that it was Monika’s quadrant of the room.
The final corner of the room besides the newcomer’s undecorated one was the one that she assumed belonged to Yuri, obviously since she had already explored the ones belonging to the other two girls. Her bed was simply dressed with black pillowcases and mauve sheets below a double-sided lavender and black duvet. An oval-shaped black rug sat at the side of the bed on the hardwood floor. Along the walls above the bed sat a collage filled with quotes, poems, paperback book covers that had been photo copied and printed, and photos of nature landscapes such as gardens, trees, lakes, rivers, mountain ranges, and canyons. Beside the bed was a black wooden nightstand decorated with a tiny desk plant, black alarm clock, an essential oil diffuser, and an empty teacup that sat on top of a brown wooden coaster. The decor wasn’t really Natsuki’s style, but she could appreciate it.
After checking out the other three girls’ “rooms”, Natsuki made her way over to her pathetic excuse for one. Upon sitting on the bare matress, she heard Sayori speak up again.
“Hey, will you be okay here by yourself for a bit? I need to run to the library for a bit to catch up on some work, but I promise I’ll give you a full tour of the campus once I’m back. You can explore the building if you want, or you can stay here if you wanna decorate or be alone for a while.” Natsuki nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll just stay here, I think.” Sayori gave a gentle smile.
"Okie doki!" She said as she walked through the door, and then she was gone. Natsuki released a breath and flopped backwards on the mattress to where her legs hung off. She stared up at the ceiling and her eyes traced along leftover pieces from where a poster had been ripped from the ceiling, probably from a previous inhabitant of this dorm. She recognized the bits that she could see as the torn corners of a Broadway Newsies poster. Natsuki closed her eyes and rolled over lazily, lacking the energy to get up and decorate her room. Probably from the long car ride. She decides, however that she should at least dress her bed, and so, the girl gets up from her scratchy matress and grabs her bedding from one of her bags. It’s a pink and white set. Bubblegum pink sheets and pillowcases and a white comforter with pink polka dots.
She spends a few minutes making the bed before she gets bored and decides to follow up on Sayori’s suggestion to explore the dormatory building. She walks down the stairs and comes to a large room that she remembered seeing on her way upstairs with Sayori. The room was in a large cube shape with a section of the wall and window that protruded out of the building and looked out into the courtyard. In the windowsill was a cushion that acted as a window seat. There were three dark red couches in the middle of the room, positioned in a way that one couch faced towards the window, and on either sides of it, the other two couches faced one another. Along the walls, there were giant bookshelves. Natsuki could tell that this wasn’t the library, however, as she didn’t see a librarian, nor did she see Sayori anywhere. Not to mention that there were no tables for studying and though the bookshelves were large, there weren’t nearly enough for this to be a library.
Natsuki liked the big window, so she decided to take a seat on one of the couches. She gazed out of the window for a few seconds before a sound from a corner of the room startled her up. “What the he-“ She stopped herself as she saw a girl walking towards her. Natsuki supposed that she had been sitting at a desk that she now noticed was in a corner of the room behind a bookshelf that wasn’t completely against the wall. The girl stopped in front of her and Natsuki studied her features. The girl had a very “clean” aura to her. Natsuki didn’t say it out loud, but she radiated teacher’s pet energy.
She had long, shiny mildly wavy hair that was tied in a high ponytail at the back of her head with a white ribbon that had a large bow attached to it. Not a single stray hair in sight. Her bangs were nicely trimmed and two strands of brown hair that hung down by her cheeks framed her face perfectly. Her eyes were a bright emerald color, even more beautiful glowing in the sunlight. The girl had perfectly clear skin, not a single blemish, bump, bruise, or mole. Her uniform was in perfect shape. Nothing out of place, stained or wrinkled. Unlike Sayori, she wore long, sheer, black stockings and black shoes, once again, unlike the usual brown ones.
“Hi,” the girl said holding her hand out towards Natsuki with a friendly smile. “I was told by the administration that we would be getting a new roommate, and assuming by the fact that I’ve never seen you in this dormatory before, I’m guessing that’s you.” Natsuki grabbed her hand and the brown haired girl shook it firmly.
“Yeah, that’s me. I’m Natsuki, by the way.” Natsuki knew that something about this girl seemed familiar. She guessed that this must be Monika. She fit right into the decoration, simplicity, and cleanliness of the room in her new dorm.
“Nice to meet you, Natsuki. I’m Monika.” The girl spoke again, letting go of Natsuki’s hand. Knew it. “I’m guessing that you already met Sayori. She was probably the one who led you here.” Natsuki nodded as Monika spoke. “Have you met Yuri yet?” The shorter girl shook her head.
“No, I haven’t. I only just got here a few minutes ago actually. I don’t think you were in here when we came through.”
“Aha, well... no I just got here, too, actually. My classes just finished and I wanted to get ahead on some assignments, but I love the natural sunlight in this room, which is why I didn’t come up to the dorm.” Natsuki could definitely understand that. The light filtering into this room was exquisite. “Well, anyway,” Monika continued, “I just wanted to introduce myself. If you want to chill in this room, I won’t stop you, but just know that if you need anything, I’m always happy to help, just ask.”
Natsuki nodded once more and sat back down on the couch, grabbing a pillow and hugging it tight to her body and peering down at the students walking though the courtyard as the sound of Monika typing on a keyboard slowly faded into the background.
When Natsuki opened her eyes, it was due to Sayori lightly shaking her by the shoulder. The pink haired girl sat up tiredly, stretching her arms above her head.
“We should be heading upstairs now,” Sayori spoke, “It’s pretty late now.” It was dark out, and Natsuki wasn’t sure of how long she had been asleep. She got up from the couch and nearly toppled over as she stretched her legs on her tip-toes. Natsuki followed Sayori up the stairs sleepily, and ignored a humming Monika as they walked into their dorm. Sitting on her bed, Natsuki noticed that their fourth housemate still wasn’t in the room.
“Hey, Monika,” Natsuki started, looking across from her bed at Monika. The taller girl perked up upon hearing her name and replied with a friendly, but distracted smile as she wrote something down in a notebook.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Why is our other dorm mate still not here? Didn’t Sayori say it was getting late?”
“Yeah, but-“ Monika started before being interrupted by Sayori.
“Yuri likes to stay out pretty late sometimes. She’s kind of an introvert and so she likes to have her own space away from everyone else. There’s a small clearing with a lake in the forest that’s not too far from here. She likes to go there to be alone. She also said that it gives her inspiration for her poems. You’ll usually either find her there or at the library whenever she’s not in class, but judging by the fact that I didn’t see her anywhere in the library during my study hall, I’m guessing she’s somewhere in the forest. Don’t worry if you wanted to meet her tonight, though. It’s not like she tends to stay out all night or anything. The latest she’s ever come home was around 10:00, but she’s usually here by 8."
Monika shot Sayori a dirty look after having been cut off by the girl. Sayori responded with an apologetic one, fidgeting with a lock of her hair in the process. Natsuki simply responded to the information Sayori gave her with a short ‘Oh.’
An hour had passed since the conversation, and all three of the girls were sleeping. Natsuki was messily sprawled across her sheets, one foot on her pillow where her head should’ve been, the other hanging limply off of the bed. One arm was thrown over her eyes and the other stretched all the way to the other side of the mattress. Sayori was curled up with a stuffed elephant , loudly snoring and drooling, and Monika kept tossing and turning, overheating under her comforter.
The door slowly opened, and Natsuki stirred. Groggily looking towards the noise, she spotted a tall figure with long hair gently closing the door back, most likely trying their hardest not to wake up everyone in the room.
Natsuki was sure that it was Yuri, unless this person was just a very polite intruder. However, Natsuki wasn’t in the mood for anymore introductions, and now probably wasn’t the best time anyway, seeing as everyone was already in bed, and so she fell back asleep to the gentle sounds of Yuri rustling around, changing clothes, and settling into her bed.
“Sh..t …p… you..’re… goin..g… to…… w…ke.. her!” The next morning, Natsuki awoke to the sounds of commotion in the room. She sat up, now well rested, and was greeted with the sight of a tall girl standing between Sayori and Monika’s beds, holding something over her head and laughing the sweetest and gentlest laugh the girl had ever heard, comparable to a gentle symphony. Suddenly a pillow whizzed towards the tall girl from Monika's bed, but missed and instead went straight past her and hit a giggling Sayori in the chest. Natsuki rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned.
“Sorry, did we wake you up, we promise we didn’t mean to.” Monika apologized as she noticed that Natsuki was up.
“What’s going on?” The shorter girl responded.
“Yuri’s just up to mischief this morning,” Sayori chimed in. Natsuki looked over at the girl. She had long legs. The ratio of her upper half to her lower half was probably around 45:55, Natsuki estimated. Her hair was silky, dusty black and surprisingly pretty thick for its length. It flowed down her back, ending around halfway down her thighs, slightly ruffled from sleep. Her fingers were dainty and thin, with well kept, strong nails at the end of each one. Natsuki studied her face next. She had a rounded face, not as round as Sayori’s, though her cheekbones and jawline weren’t as sharp as Monika’s. Her complexion resembled that of a ghost. Pale skin with a dusty red blush. She had dark circles under her piercing, brown eyes. Barely noticable, but still there. Her nose was pointed, slightly crooked and with a small bump in the middle of the bridge, perfectly and imperfectly sculpted, as if every detail was meticulously crafted by only the most skilled of artists, and she had thin lips, a gradient from a lighter desaturated red color to a darker one in the middle of her lips, like a permanent lip gloss. The girl was wearing white socks, up to about mid-calf and black and green basketball shorts paired with a black shirt with a picture of a guy with wild hair holding a guitar printed in the middle of it.
She returned the pillow that she was holding back to Monika and crossed her arms over her abdomen, like what someone would do when their stomach hurts, turning her blushing face away from Natsuki’s staring eyes, which the girl only now realized that she was doing.
“Oh, so you’re Yuri,” Natsuki finally spoke up. “Sayori told me a lot about you and Monika. Nice to meet you. By the way, I’m Natsuki.” She said, getting up from her bed and holding her hand out to Yuri’s larger one. Yuri’s eyes flicked to the corner of the socket, eyeing Natsuki’s friendly gesture and back up before she made a move and grabbed the shorter girl’s hand in her own.
“N-nice to meet you too.” After the greeting, Yuri moved her hand away and announced to the group bashfully, still avoiding eye contact with the others, “I… I must start getting ready for school now… You should too, Monika, seeing as you and I have class together. Monika simply smiled and nodded as Yuri walked from their dorm and down the hall into the bathroom. “See, I told you she was a sweetheart!” Sayori tried whispering but didn’t do a very good job. Natsuki was unsure whether or not that was intentional.