Sayori's footsteps were frantic on the other side of the door. "Monika, are you sure you don't want to take the day off? You look pale," I heard her ask, her voice muffled by the heavy wood.
Monika's response was strained, a thin veil of professionalism stretched over something brittle. "I'm fine, really. Didn't you say you brought a new member? You should have picked him up by now."
She was clearly trying to shift the spotlight, her voice tight with a kind of nervous energy I wasn't used to hearing from her.
"Oh! I forgot to tell him where the room is! I'll be right back!"
The door flew open before my hand even reached the wood. Sayori collided with me full-tilt, a flurry of blue blazer and frantic energy. I caught her by the shoulders, my feet sliding an inch on the waxed hallway floor as I braced for the impact.
"Oof! Eugene!" She looked up, her face a mask of wide-eyed surprise that quickly melted into relief. "You're actually here! I was just—I thought I'd missed you, and I was going to run back to your classroom, and I'm a dummy..."
"I'm here, Sayori," I said, keeping my voice level. I stepped back, letting her find her balance. "Take a breath."
She laughed, a bit breathlessly, and grabbed my sleeve to pull me inside. "Right! Come on, everyone's waiting!"
I followed her into the club room. The late afternoon sun was hitting the windows at just the right angle to fill the room with a warm, hazy glow. The desks had been moved to the walls, creating an open space in the center that felt unnervingly large.
My eyes immediately scanned the room, identifying the variables.
A girl with pink hair was leaning against a desk near the back, a tray of something covered in foil sitting next to her. Natsuki. She looked smaller in person, but her scowl was sharp enough to be a weapon. To her left, near the tall bookshelves, stood a girl with long, violet hair. Yuri. She didn't look up; she was practically trying to merge with the shadows of the bookcase.
Then there was the girl at the front.
Monika was standing by the teacher's podium. She looked exactly as she should—tall, athletic, and composed. But something was off. Her fingers weren't resting on the podium; they were gripping the edge so hard the skin across her knuckles looked like it might tear. Her complexion was off, too. In the warm light, she should have looked vibrant, but she looked like she'd spent the last hour staring at a ghost.
She didn't greet me immediately. She just stared. It wasn't the look of a club president welcoming a new member; it was the look of someone trying to solve a puzzle that didn't have enough pieces.
"A boy?" Natsuki's voice cut through the silence. She crossed her arms, her eyes darting between me and Sayori. "Great. You brought a boy, Sayori. This was supposed to be a club, not a mixer."
"Aw, don't be like that, Natsuki!" Sayori pleaded. "He's really nice, I promise!"
I gave a short, polite nod. "I'm Eugene. Sorry for the intrusion."
I kept it brief, the way the 'local' me would. I turned my head slightly toward the bookshelves, acknowledging the girl in the corner without making a scene. She flinched when my gaze landed on her, her face turning a deep, pained red as she retreated further behind a thick hardcover.
"It's... it's quite alright," a soft, trembling voice came from behind the book. "New members are... a welcome change."
I didn't push it. I turned back to the front. Monika had finally moved, though her steps felt a bit too deliberate, like she was manually controlling her legs. She forced a small, polite smile, but the corners of her mouth twitched.
"Welcome to the club, Eugene," she said. Her voice was steady, but there was a hollow quality to it. "I'm Monika. It's... good of you to join us. We weren't sure if Sayori would actually convince you."
I stayed silent for a second, watching her. My mind was already overthinking the situation. Why is she so tense? She's breathing too shallowly. She's looking at me like she's waiting for me to do something specific.
"Are you okay?" I asked. I didn't make it a big deal. I kept it casual, the way a normal guy might ask if he noticed someone looking a bit peaky. "You look like the heat in here is getting to you. You're a bit pale."
Sayori chimed in instantly. "See! I told you, Monika! You need to sit down."
Monika's eyes widened for a fraction of a second—a flicker of something that looked like genuine panic. She looked at me, then at Sayori, then back at me. She seemed to be searching for a hidden meaning in my words.
"I'm fine," she said, her voice a little too fast. "Just a bit of a headache. It's the seasonal transition, I think."
Lie, I thought. A headache doesn't make your hands shake like that.
"Maybe we should just keep things low-key today," I suggested, looking over at the tray Natsuki had brought. "The sun is pretty bright. We could just have some tea, eat those cupcakes I keep hearing about, and settle in. No need for a big production on my first day."
Natsuki huffed, though she started to uncover the tray. "Well, at least someone around here has priorities. I didn't spend all night baking for them to go stale."
Monika looked at the empty space on the desks, then back at me. The tension in her shoulders didn't disappear, but it shifted. She looked less like she was expecting a disaster and more like she was simply exhausted.
"Tea," she repeated, her voice finally dropping into a more natural register. "Yes. That's... that's a good idea, Eugene. Let's just sit down."
I walked toward one of the desks, picking a spot that gave me a clear view of the whole room. As I sat, I caught Monika looking at me again. She looked confused, but also... relieved?
Something was very wrong with the atmosphere in this room, and it wasn't just the fact that I had replaced the main character. Monika was scared of something. And I needed to figure out if that something was me.