Komi Komi Literature Club!

Chapter 37: The Exchange

"Komi! I brought you cookies! I made them myself!" Yamai exclaimed excitedly as she ran up to Komi's desk during lunch. She proudly offered a batch of cookies wrapped carefully up.

Komi's eyes widened in surprise. Her cat ears perked up as she appreciatively took the cookies in the wrapping. She carefully set them down and opened up the wrapping slowly. As she peeled it off, she found that the cookies had been decorated with icing to resemble Yamai's face with a cat-like expression.

"You like a good kitty, don't you?" Yamai asked with a sly expression and a mischievous giggle.

"Why did she say it like that?!" Tadano wondered to himself with a concerned expression.

"W-What? No, Komi much prefers dogs! Right, Komi?! Don't you?!" Agari interrupted the conversation to argue her belief on the matter.

"What? No she doesn't! Komi is all about cats! Cats!" Yamai argued with her.

"Dogs!"

"Cats!"

As the two bickered, Komi looked back and forth between them. She wasn't sure how to respond to the cookies, but as she stared down at them, she found herself remembering what Alex had said to her during the last club meeting.

This was not doing anything to help her feelings on the matter.

"Hm? Komi, are you okay?" Tadano asked, noticing this shift in Komi's expression.

"Huh?" Agari and Yamai stopped fighting to turn their attention back to her after hearing Tadano's question.

Komi took in a breath and sighed to herself. She pulled out her notebook and readied her hand to write in it. Then she hesitated...but she began to write anyways. She decided to keep her response short but polite since Yamai had gone through the trouble of making these for her.

"Thank you for the cookies. I'm sorry, but I don't have the appetite for sweets today. Is it alright for me to share them?" She asked, hoping that this wouldn't offend Yamai.

"O-Oh...y-yeah, of course, Komi! You're always so generous!" Yamai laughed. "Shoot! My plan for her to eat me failed again!" She thought to herself.

Pulling the wrapping off of the cookies a little further, Komi noticed that there were four cookies stacked on top of each other. She took one and handed it to Tadano. She took another and offered it to Agari. The third cookie, she handed it back to Yamai.

All three of them accepted a cookie and gave their thanks in return.

"Please enjoy them for me." Komi requested formally, hoping that this would further keep her from seeming too rude. She looked down a little. The others could see now that she was a little saddened by this.

"Right! Of course!" Agari nodded emphatically and ate her cookie, "Mmm! It's...actually it is pretty good!" Agari acknowledged.

"Why do you sound so surprised by that?! I would only put together the best for Komi!" Yamai said with a humph, folding her arms and smiling proudly.

"Thank you for sharing, Komi." Tadano said to her with a smile. He didn't feel too comfortable with eating a cookie that looked like Yamai, but since it would make her feel better about this awkward situation, he ate it without hesitation.

"Mhmm." Komi nodded. She looked down at the last cookie still in the wrapper. She folded the wrapping back over the cookie carefully and placed it into her bag.

She decided to save it for later...

After class, Komi made her way to the club meeting. She was nervous, but she really wanted to have another conversation with Alex about what he had said to her. She wanted clarification about what it sounded like he had told her.