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“Prove it.”
Yuri starts, her brows rising in silent shock as she looked up at Natsuki.
“I beg your pardon?”
“No need to beg, I know you heard me. If you think you’re better at writing poems than prove it.”
The meeting had only been going for five minutes and Yuri and Natsuki had already managed to get into an argument. Monika peered at them over her schedule for the meeting worriedly. She exchanged a quick glance with Sayori, her eyes posing a question: ‘Do we stop them?’ Then again, should she even have to ask? She’s the club president! It’s her duty to make sure everyone’s in a good mood, isn’t it?
It had started out relatively normal, with everyone bringing in their poems and splitting off to show them to one another. Sayori and Shujinko immediately read each other theirs, and since Monika was too busy pouring over festival preparation that left Yuri and Natsuki to pair up. And, as it usually goes when they compare poems, they had immediately engaged in a, how would one put it, friendly debate over whose writing style was better: Yuri’s deep and thought-provoking one, or Natsuki’s short and sweet one. It quickly devolved into Yuri accidentally using phrasing Natsuki would take offense to.
“My style is more... professional. But yours has its own merits, as well.
“Maybe we should let them resolve it themselves?” Shujinko proposed quietly. Sayori shot him a quick look, shifting from foot to foot anxiously.
“I’ll try to calm the waters a bit,” she said with a reassuring smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Shujinko put a hand out to stop her, turning his gaze to face the bickering pair.
“They need to learn to resolve arguments themselves, it’s part of being human,” he countered, but that didn’t stop Monika from biting her lip and continuing to watch them.
Yuri blinked her violet eyes, staring at Natsuki as though she actually hadn’t heard her. She set Natsuki’s poem down gently, making sure the paper laid flat on the table before she looked back up at the girl, who’d been watching her impatiently.
“I can’t do that, Natsuki,” she replied, to which the other girl barked a sarcastic laugh. “Taste is subjective, and I didn’t mean to offend when I stated my style was more professional, I just meant that…”
Natsuki smirked victoriously, though it quickly dropped off her face. “See? I knew it. You meant yours was more professional , more likely to be picked up by- by the poem company or something.”
(“More likely to be published,” Shujinko muttered. Sayori jabbed him with her elbow.)
“So it’s clear that you thought yours was better!”
Yuri picked up Natsuki’s poem, using the same careful hand that she had used before. She moved her eyes slowly across the words, drinking them so she could absorb them in their entirety.
“My writing is hard to describe,” she began and Natsuki huffed, fully expecting Yuri to start pulling out words like ‘couplet’ and ‘alliteration.’ “I described it as professional because it’s the style you might find in a published collection of poems. In a way, my style is basic because of that. Because it uses what most poets use. Metaphors, rhyme, alliteration (Natsuki scoffed, but there was less heart in it), these are all things that are a must-have in most poems.”
Yuri picked up Natsuki’s poem again, looking at the first line.
“Don’t read it aloud!” Natsuki blurted, her face burning. Yuri looked up and Natsuki glanced away, not wanting to meet her gaze as she spoke her next words. “I don’t want everyone to hear…”
“We’re all going to read it anyway, Natsuki. Those are the club rules,” Monika commented rather unhelpfully. Natuski sent her a glare that, on anyone else, might have been intimidating, but any menace it might’ve possessed was lost when Natuski looked so cute. Nonetheless, Monika still flushed slightly, quickly turning back to her papers.
“I don’t have to if it makes you uncomfortable,” Yuri muttered, averting her eyes. Natsuki waved an impatient hand.
“It doesn’t matter, just get it over with,” she snapped and Yuri nodded, turning her attention back to the poem.
“Not What It Seems
Ants appear weak, but they are strong,
Sloths appear strong, but you are wrong,
I see someone write about lies,
When will they stop, what if someone cries?
People aren’t what they seem,
So you should stop being so mean.”
Yuri finished, looking back up at Natsuki as the other three club members tried not to eavesdrop as much by busying themselves with their own poems.
“Your poem relies on rhyming its lines to create a flow. As I mentioned, most poem collections include poems with many devices in them. But, yours just rhymes. It establishes its point in the first two lines, that things aren’t what they appear, before it mentions someone spreading lies that distort a person’s image.” Yuri tugs her sleeves further down nervously while Natsuki watches her with a blank stare. “It ends with the main idea, to not judge someone for how they are and to not make fun of them for it.”
A pause. Yuri looked up at Natsuki who’d crossed her arms over her stomach and was watching Shujinko and Monika exchange poems. Natsuki chewed on the inside of her mouth.
“I didn’t mean to imply I was a better poet than you, or that my poems are more likely to be published. I meant that mine was professional. But yours, Natsuki... yours is unique. It gets its point across immediately. It’s short, giving its readers more time to mull over the message and observe its different angles.”
“I think you’re giving me more credit than I deserve,” Natsuki mumbled, her face pink from the praise. Yuri smiled softly.
“I love your poem Natsuki. I hope you may forgive me for how I came across.”
Yuri waited, her throat dry as she pulled on her sleeves, beginning to regret her decision. Just when she felt like she was going to start sweating, Natsuki took her hand. Her heart skipped a beat for a reason she couldn’t place (but she could and she wants to act on it, but she can’t).
“Apology accepted,” Natsuki said, a grin that’s less smug than her usual one on her face. Yuri felt her heart swell with fondness, though she became quickly conscious of the fact they were still holding hands. Natsuki seemed to as well, if her wide eyes and flushed face were anything to go by.
“Uh, whaddya say I make ya some apology cupcakes? As a token of my... forgiveness,” she finished lamely and Yuri couldn’t help but feel as though she wanted to say something else.
“That sounds wonderful, Natsuki. Thank you,” Yuri responded, prompting the shorter girl to beam.
“No problem! You won’t regret this by the way, these’ll be the best cupcakes you’ve ever had.”
Yuri smiled. “Prove it.”
Natsuki’s grin slipped slightly and Yuri turned away, embarrassed. “Too soon?”
Natsuki quickly smiled again. “Nah, I just didn’t think the shyest girl in class had it in her,” she responded and Yuri chuckled quietly.
“You did it!” Sayori squealed, flanked by Monika and, a few steps behind her, Shujinko. Natsuki frowned.
“Did what?”
“You reconciled! On your own!” Sayori gushed, pulling Monika into a hug as if the taller girl was an outlet for her joy. To everyone’s shock, she even managed to lift Monika a few inches off the ground before bringing back down safely. Monika, Yuri, and Shujinko all laughed at her antics while Natsuki just crossed her arms with an exaggerated pout, but they could all see a smile creeping onto her face.
“Alright, alright, I hate to break this up, except we only have ten minutes left to exchange poems,” Monika announced, seamlessly bouncing back into her role as class president. “Sayori, Yuri, you’re both with me. Natsuki, Shujinko, well, your work’s already half done.
---
“You know, when I first joined I thought they were dating.”
“Hm?”
Sayori looked up at Shujinko. The walk home had just gotten much more interesting.
“Ya’know, Natsuki and Yuri. They had that troublemaker-peacemaker dynamic. I thought they were shot by Cupid, to say.”
“You have such a way with words,” Sayori teased, picturing Cupid with a gun in her mind. Shujinko spluttered beside her.
“Sh- shut up! I’m in a literature club!”
“I know, I happen to go to the same one. Oh, hang on, who invited you to the club again?” Sayori asked, feeling particularly sassy that evening. Normally the sassiness left Shujinko speechless with shock, but today was not one of those days.
“Well I could say Cupid shot another pair in the club, hmmmm? What do you and Monika have goin’ on?”
“What? We’re just friends,” Sayori retorted, but Shujinko knew her too well and for too long; he spotted her lie immediately.
“Oh, yes, friends, because the absolute epitome of friend behavior is running up, hugging someone to the point you lift them off their feet, and oh, maintaining that hug as the pair of you laugh and talk. I mean, if the blush that was on both of your faces was anything to go by…”
“Shujinko!”
“Hey, I’m just saying what I saw, didn’t you keep your arm around Monika even as the two of you sat next to Yuri? I mean you did literally sweep her off her feet so I see why she would want you nearby…”
“Shujinko!”
“You said I have a way with words~”
The walk home quickly turned into a playful chase home as Sayori bolted after Shujinko, their laughter ringing through the neighborhood.
(It was loud enough that a certain pink-haired girl looked up from the batter she was mixing, peering out the open window suspiciously. She heard her dad shift from where he was on the couch and she clutched the bowl closer to her stomach. The window was closed silently that night, and the man slept on.)
---
Yuri placed her bag carefully under her chair, watching Sayori and Shujinko walk in, happily chatting as always. She smiled welcomingly as Sayori approached her, a skip in her step.
“Hey, Yuri! Oh, hold on, I’m the vice president. Uhmm, got your poem for today?” she asked after some deliberation. Yuri nodded, a chuckle working its way out of her mouth. “Great! Any idea where Monika is?”
“I believe I saw her go into the study hall earlier, perhaps she’s still practicing piano?” Yuri guessed and Sayori nodded, walking away to set her things down.
Yuri turned back to her desk, reaching inside its hollowed center to pull out a book she had forgotten before (her mind had been on... other things). Her fingers faltered when she touched hard plastic before she fumbled around what felt like a container. She pulled it out and was pleasantly surprised upon seeing the contents.
Six cupcakes, coated to perfection in a fluffy buttercream frosting, with a red velvet cake just visible from between the frosting and wrapper. Yuri liked to think she normally had good manners, but she licked her lips at the sight nonetheless. A letter had been carefully taped to the top, her own name inscribed in surprisingly neat handwriting on the center of the paper.
Yuri picked it up and unfolded it, reading the message more eagerly than she’d like to admit.
I’ll cut right to the chase. I think I owe you an apology as well, so I’d like to say I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions about what you said. Bit hypocritical of me, given my poem, but I digress (I looked up that word for you). I appreciate what you said about my poem, because it was pretty awesome. Anyways, how about we make a deal? If these turn out to be the best cupcakes you’ve ever had, which they will turn out to be, I’ll show you how to make ‘em. Your house, not mine. Capiche?
Love, and I hope you’d able to tell who this was without me writing it, Natsuki
Yuri stared running over the last line. Love . She rubbed her finger over the word that Natsuki had written with her in mind. And the words that came after it were so Natsuki that she couldn’t help but laugh. She refolded the letter carefully, setting it aside so her name faced the ceiling. She delicately opened the container, despite knowing it didn’t need so much care, and set the lid aside. Her attention was then on the main attraction: the cupcakes. Yuri held her breath as she pulled one out, peeled back the liner, and bit into the tender cake. She smiled as she swallowed, her upper lip covered in frosting.
Natsuki chose that moment to, for lack of a better word, burst through the door. With a half-eaten granola bar in hand, she looked around the classroom rather wildly.
“I’m not late am I?” she asked, gulping down her previous bite. Yuri smiled, getting up to walk over to her.
“You’re actually earlier than the club president!” Shujinko called across the room and Sayori whacked his arm.
“That was the best cupcake I’ve ever had,” Yuri told Natsuki quietly. The shorter girl processed the information for a moment, blinked, then looked up at her.
“... Guess I proved it, huh? Did you, uh, did you read the note?”
“I did.” Yuri brought her hands carefully in front of her chest. “Do you want to show me the recipe tonight?”
Natsuki beamed, all teeth and all joy. “You’re on.”
And when Monika did finally join the group, an apology on her tongue and a poem in her hand, she was surprised to see Yuri and Natsuki immediately split off to exchange poems, but that was their business. And, if Shujinko conveniently had to go to the restroom right when Monika was about to add him to her and Sayori’s exchange group, well, that was her business.