The Reason

Ayame also checked the story I submitted earlier. I thought my story was good, but it didn't compare to Ayame's beautiful and detailed drawings. I was pessimistic about this.

Ayame chuckled and said, "Is this really a story you're proud of? It looks like you're writing a story for the first time."

"At least I can write a story instead of you who can't," I said in a proud tone.

"Hoho, so you think this is a good story, look at this, how can the main character and the protagonist both fall in love at first sight? Then here the main character is very bland. Then the girl likes him for no reason. This is really children's writing."

"What's wrong with that? I mean, this is a good romance story for me, right?"

"For you? You said it's a good romance story, you're not listening are you? It's like a boy in a wet dream writing a story, it makes no sense at all."

"Geez, do you think your drawing is good? Look at this, the shadow of the main character is not perfectly shaped, the sun is also behind him, how can his shadow be behind him too, it should be in front of there."

“Whatever you say, let me fix some parts of your story, I know you've worked hard on this story, I can see your efforts here," Ayame said as she stared at the computer screen and typed.

"I think we should compromise now, I've had enough of misunderstandings, by the way, your drawing also looks good for every aspect, except some aspects like the girl should smile."

"I understand, you can put a red circle on the part that you think needs improvement. Don't worry, I won't ask you to draw those things."

After that we went back to our routine, Ayame went back to her laptop and corrected the mistakes from my story. I circled in red the pictures that I thought were not good enough or could still be improved.

"Hey Ayame, do you know where Senior Takumi is?" I asked.

"Senior Takumi is probably doing something important, you should know the answer because senior Takumi is a senior, he could be busy with other things like studying for exams or maybe preparing for university or developing games or maybe working part-time." Ayame said while her eyes were still focused on her laptop.

"Hm I see," I said, I went back to typing on the laptop.

The conversation ended there without any continuation. Damn, the club was quiet again within seconds of the conversation ending.

I wondered why she joined this club in the first place. She was a good student as people say, like a model student or an exemplary student. She's almost perfect in everything and also a member of the student council. Should I ask her? I rarely interact with girls other than Konohana. Whatever I ask I will ask.

"Hey Ayame, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm busy, I might be late answering your questions."

"Why did you decide to join our club?"

Ayame stopped typing and looked at me. "Why are you asking that question?"

"If you can't answer it, that's fine, I just want to know because you know."

"Don't say that, I'm not a perfect student, I'm just like any other student, sometimes I fail and sometimes I succeed."

"Sorry for asking such a sensitive question, I won't bother you anymore" I continued typing my story after red-circling the picture.

"I don't like telling you this, but I'm going to tell you anyway, Normally what do you think about model students or exemplary students or whatever you call them."

"They are..." Before I could finish my sentence, Ayame cut me off.

"You probably think they're perfect in everything, good grades, all the teachers like them and their parents are proud, right?"

I paused because what Ayame said was the right thing, so I took my eyes off her and went back to my laptop, continuing to type.

"I know you feel bad about this, but this is life, a life where you can't choose what you want to be and what you want to do. My parents are also very strict about everything, that's the reason I left home because they're a pain in the arse."

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, it's a very sensitive topic, I'm nothing to you, so yeah I can't say much about it," I said while trying to stop her from sharing her personal situation.

"I'm glad there are people who are willing to listen to me for the first time. Every time I talk about this, people just leave or don't even care about my situation"

"I don't want to talk sweetly about this, but then again it's not good, all we can do is do what we can do because there's no wrong or right. I'm also a stranger so I can't say much about it"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to answer your question, to be honest I want to enjoy school life to the fullest, because since I was in primary school,” Ayame sighs.

“I was always busy with studying and stuff, and never socialised with other students, so this time I'm going to do it. I want to make friends, have fun with them and do something fun like camping, sports festivals or cultural festivals," Ayame said while looking up.

"But you can join other clubs, I think other clubs will welcome you with a party or ceremony, unlike us who don't really care about anything. We are here because of the same hobby, which is playing games and also developing new games."

"Other clubs, yes, I've tried them all but most clubs rejected me because of what they might call the common thing that I don't get along with them and also they don't believe that they and I have anything in common."

"So you came here because of Senior Takumi, who's not strict about such things?"

"You could say that, but as far as I'm concerned, this is a new experience for me, at least for now."

Senior Takumi entered the club room without a word out of his mouth. Senior Takumi immediately sat down at his desk and continued with his usual activities.

I took the initiative to ask "Senior, how come you're late for the club, are you usually the first one in the club?"

Senior Takumi turned to me and said "That's normal, for academic matters they want me to fill out a form on what I want to do after graduating from this high school."

We continued developing the visual novel game with only 3 days left. It was only a quarter of the way to the finished game but some unexpected things happened.