School was finally dismissed for the day. As the bell rang, every student exited their classrooms, all but Lisa and Ruby.
"Ughhhh..." Ruby groaned, laying her head down on the desk.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Lisa asked. She was seemingly in a good mood a while ago, so why the sudden change?
Ruby sighed, "I really wanna help Rudy with his club, but..."
"But?"
"I know he wants to do this by himself… Without any help. I don't wanna interfere or anything."
"Nah! Everything's gonna be fine! Even if it's a little awkward for you, it won't be that bad. Maybe you won't cower in shame for the rest of your life!"
"Wow, that's… Reassuring. But thanks. You wanna hang out with the girls now?"
"Yeah, but can we visit Rudy's clubroom first?" Lisa jumped out of her seat, and grabbed Ruby by the hand.
"Uhh, sure. Sounds good, but—"
They both jolted out of the classroom, making their way upstairs.
…..
"They don't have one," Lisa flatly spoke.
"I was gonna tell you…"
"I walked up SUPER long stairs for this." She panted, "Look at how tired I am. This is your fault."
Ruby's eyes widened. "W-What?"
*****
"Good afternoon." Nagisa greeted.
Rudy replied, "Oh, hey Na—"
He was interrupted by the sight of Nagisa dragging Min-Jun by the arm. He was already waiting for Nagisa to arrive for a while, but to then witness whatever this was…?
"W-Why did you drag me here in the first place?! Let me go!" Min-Jun ordered, which resulted in Nagisa letting him go anyway. Rudy flinched.
Yeah, why…?
"He's gonna help us. He said so," Nagisa spoke with a deadpan look.
"No, I didn't. And I didn't even want to come out here. You can't just drag people around like that!" Min-Jun jabbed, pointing to Nagisa dramatically.
"Okay, uhh..." Rudy wondered, "...So, Nagisa invited you to the club, and you accepted, right?"
"Absolutely not." Min-Jun mumbled, which was ignored by Rudy.
"Okay, since Nagisa is the only one here I can trust, I know that you agreed to help, which is actually pretty rare." He turned over to Nagisa. "You must've done something to him…"
"Why is everybody ignoring me?!" Min-Jun attempted to get their attention, which he finally succeeded in. After starting to relax a little, he sighed. "Anyways, have y'all even filled out the form yet?"
"Oh, that form for, uh, school-approval, right? I heard you need to do that," Rudy replied.
"Yeah. You need to register your club and make it official. You can just go to some teacher or whatever. But you gotta explain what your club's about."
"Oh, How do you know so much about forming a club? I thought you weren't interested in them."
"F.Y.I, Hyun-a's been in a few. She even told me how it is, too. And she's way smarter than you are."
Why does he always have to mention her? Rudy thought. He then cleared his throat, and brought out a folded piece of paper from his backpack, as Nagisa sat down beside him.
"So, I ended up writing down everything I had in mind on this piece of paper here last night. I wrote down: 'Chess Club, Writing Club, Photography Club, and Sculpture Club.' I wasn't able to think of more. It was getting too late."
"Meh, a few of them are cool I guess, but chess is boring. Same for board games." Min-Jun added, "Nobody likes those."
"Well, it's all I could think of. I like to play some board games with Ruby sometimes..."
"Well, if you're gonna do a Photography Club, why not have it be a Yearbook Club? You'd be better off with that."
"What's a yearbook?" Nagisa questioned midway. Min-Jun raised an eyebrow at them out of confusion.
"...How do you not know what a yearbook is? It's that book that gets published annually."
"What does 'annually' mean?"
"J-Just look it up yourself!"
"You guys..." Rudy muttered, hoping to be heard. He sighed and folded the paper back up.
Do I have to deal with this every day now?
Before he could continue, he heard a familiar voice in the distance, calling out his name.
"Rudy! There you are!"
Ruby called out to him, and ran towards the trio, alongside Lisa. They both quickened their pace, and finally approached Rudy.
"We thought you already had a clubroom!" Ruby panted. "And we had no idea y'all would be over here! We were chatting with the girls earlier and they said you guys weren't outside. We—"
"I ran up stairs," Lisa groaned.
"Sit down guys," Rudy whispered, not wanting to attract any attention, for a few students were already staring at them. "So, what were you gonna say?"
Ruby and Lisa both exclaimed in unison, "You guys should make an Anime Club!"
"What?" Min-Jun hissed, "First of all, who is even into that here? It probably won't work out anyways. Second of all, I'm not with them." He took a pause, "Third, hi Ruby."
"Hi," She replied, "Man, it's been ages. How's it going?"
"Nothing, just being forced into something. Again. But it's fine. Totally."
"Cool, cool."
"...I was being sarcastic.
"Oh, sorry, I couldn't tell."
"Ahem!" Lisa pulled the attention to herself, "So, Rudy, are you going through with this idea or not? I think it's neat!"
Rudy looked to the side, "No, but…Thanks for the help. I'm not into it anyway."
"Yeah you are! Ruby told me so! Apparently, when you're not playing games together, it's all you talk about!"
He stuttered, "N-No, that's not true. I don't know what you're talking about, I swear."
"Lisa…" Ruby muttered.
"Sorry," She relented, "I thought you wanted me to say it!"
"...Look bro, I'm just saying, I think it's pretty cool. We're not gonna force you though." Ruby gave Lisa a quick glare.
"Ahah, but wouldn't it be unique?" Lisa asked. "I mean, if you really like it, then just make a club for it. It's not like anyone else would!"
"Pigtail is right," Nagisa agreed.
"Hmm...." Rudy lifted his head up to face his sister. "But what would we even do? Like Min said before, we need to tell a teacher what we're all about and stuff."
"Well..." Lisa stopped to think, which was rare. She normally just says the first thing that comes to mind.
Finally, after moments of silence, Min-Jun decided to speak up. "Just disguise it as an Anime Club or something. Don't even do activities. It's not my problem if you guys get in trouble, so just do whatever, I don't care."
He was just about to grab his backpack and leave, but Ruby grabbed him by the arm and dramatically gasped. "Min, you're a genius! That's perfect! Thank you so much!"
"Wait, what? A-And stop pulling on my arm!" He continued to beg Ruby to let him go.
I can't believe I'm being dragged into this… This… Whatever this is.
"Well, I guess we're good. Let's tell a teacher tomorrow when school's over," Rudy suggested. "After that, we can meet up in our clubroom." He paused for a second and looked towards Lisa and Ruby. "Oh, are you joining, Lisa?"
"Of course I am!" She beamed. "I need to find some people who'll help me with my music and stuff. And I think Ruby is in too, right?" Lisa patted Ruby's back and grinned, which alerted her.
"Wait, I am?"
"Of course you are! You said you were going to eventually, right? So why not now?"
"That's not what I meant, but…"
"C'mon, it ain't a crime!"
"Alright, if you really want me to."
Both Lisa and Ruby got up and waved goodbye to the others.
"See you guys later!" Lisa exclaimed.
"Bye! I'll see you at home bro," said Ruby.
Rudy and Nagisa waved back, and Rudy noticed Nagisa scooting towards him. He took a look at his watch and noticed that it was only 4:00PM, so he figured using his phone would help time go by faster. Ruby would always go home around that time, but middle schoolers were only allowed to leave thirty minutes afterwards.
Min-Jun got up and spoke, "See you guys tomorrow." Nagisa noticed that he went back into the school building again, just like yesterday, but tried to ignore it this time. Rudy waved back, but looked up from his phone, realizing what Min-Jun just said.
"He said he'd see us tomorrow..?" He questioned. He wasn't complaining though. Maybe he'd be able to make amends with him, after a few years. Nagisa looked over Rudy's shoulder and rested their head on it, noticing his phone's lock screen photo.
"That's a lot of pink," They stated.
"W-What, I didn't—" Rudy turned off his phone in panic. "...Did you see my password?"
"No."
"But you saw the… Dang it…"
"That's a lot of pink."
"T-That was just my favorite character. She's a magical girl and stuff, and… Nevermind, I should probably shut up." He put away his phone out of embarrassment and sighed.
"But I like pink. Lisa likes those."
"Wait, how do you know that…?"
"Lisa's my friend. She likes pink."
"You're kidding, right? Does she like magical girls?"
"She li—"
"This is the best day of my life…!"
"Okay." Nagisa grabbed their backpack and took out the same book they were reading before.
Rudy was able to catch what it was about, and it was a book focused on ocean life.
He thought, They've been mentioning things about fishing, or making a 'Fish Club.' Hmm… Maybe they go to that aquarium around here. He figured that he might as well ask.
"Hey, Nagisa, do you visit that aquarium nearby?"
"Of course. Every weekend. Every Saturday," They responded.
"That's a lot. Do you go with all your family, or…?"
"Yes. They own it."
"Oh— Wait, hold up! Your family owns that aquarium?!"
"Yes. Ever since we moved here. Years ago."
"That's pretty nice! Reminds me of how I wanted to make my own business a couple years ago…"
"What's it about?"
"It was supposed to be for selling books, but I gave up on it. I started playing on my guitar after that."
"Books? What kinds? Fish ones?"
"Uh… I'll tell you later."
"Make a song for me."
"Oh, a song? With my guitar? I'm not that good at it though."
"Make a song for me. With magic."
"How am I gonna get magic…?"
"Believing. Just believe in yourself."
"That… Isn't really my thing."
Nagisa didn't know what to say. What even was his thing at this point?
They blurted, "Then you're not my friend."
"I don't get you. Are you joking?"
"Is the deep sea located below the thermocline and known as the Abyssopelagic Zone?"
"...Yes?"
"Correct. Question two, what kind of fish live there?"
"You're giving me a quiz now?!"