Our Reality (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Paper Lanterns

'Twas a peaceful, quiet summer morning. Yuri was sitting against the side of her bed, her eyes scanning the pages of the novel tucked between her hands. The calming scent of the burning candles nearby filled the room, offering a relaxing atmosphere. As she turned to the next page of her book, a small blue paw landed on her shoulder.

"Boo!" a high feminine voice screeched as a stitched up bear was thrust into Yuri's view. The young maiden nearly dropped her novel from sudden shock as her younger sister slid up next to her. "Scared you, didn't we?"

"Yes..." Yuri answered. Her eyes then trailed down to Yuki's stuffed toy and glanced at its sharp teeth. "Grimm has fangs now."

"Yeah... Grimm has been feeling pretty vampiric lately and, while I was helping with the transformation, we were wondering something."

"Wondering what?"

Yuki silently looked down at Grimm and nodded her head in agreement.

"When are you going to ask Shujinkou out for real?" she asked.

Yuri's cheeks immediately grew rosy red as she desperately looked for something else to focus her attention on.

"W-Wh-What are you talking about?" she stuttered. "Why would you ask such a random question?"

"We were just curious," Yuki casually answered.

"But why would you think that I would want to do that?"

"Well... when Grimm and I were discussing this topic, we went over and analyzed the analysis we obtained from the time he pretended to be your boyfriend and we formulated a hypothesis. For you to even pull off such a thing, you would need to either ask a complete stranger to help you so you wouldn't have any personal awkwardness to deal with or someone you trust and are comfortable around. We know that you wouldn't ask a complete stranger such thing, so it would have to be option 2.

But even then, for you to even endure the somewhat romantic atmosphere of the plan, then that person would have to be someone you're really comfortable around and wouldn't mind doing somewhat romantic things with... like when you held his hand at the amusement park."

"Y-You saw that?!?!?!"

"When we compiled all the information we gathered from our analysis, it's easy to conclude that you really, really like Shujinkou."

"Ah... That's a really good observation."

"So, when are you going to ask him?"

"That's... Ah..."Yuri started to play with her hair as she contemplated Yuki's question. "I don't think that would be a good idea..."

"Why not?" Yuki asked.

"He probably wouldn't be interested in doing such a thing. Plus, he reacted in a very negative way when I initially asked him for the favor in the first place."

"But wasn't that because you started with 'Will you be my boyfriend?' out of nowhere. Anyone would be shocked by that. You just need a moment alone to just sit down with him, look him straight in the eyes and take a chance... Or that's what Grimm says. I said you should take things more slowly, but either way you need to find a way to spend time with Shujinkou."

Yuri pondered the words of her younger sister and stuffed bear until the ringing of her phone interrupted her thought process. She picked it up and answered it without even looking at the caller.

"Hello?" Yuri said.

"Hey, Yuri," a familiar voice responded.

"Oh. Hi, Shujinkou," Yuri replied.