Chapter Text
“Listen, Haruhi, why don’t we just go back to my place to study? We can rent some books from the library and take them with us, but I really don’t think we’re going to find somewhere on campus.”
“I think that might have to be the case, Hoshiko. Let’s try one more room before we leave, though.”
“But you said that three rooms ago.”
Ouran Academy did not skimp on size or excessive rooms. While most students have already gone home for the day, there was a sizable population still on campus. The libraries were full of them, way too loud, and every other classroom we checked had a club meeting going on. You’d think I’d have gotten used to this, seeing as how I’m in my second year, but it doesn’t get any easier to deal with. My feet were throbbing with every step as Haruhi and I approached a large door at the end of yet another corridor. A sign above the door read Music Room #3.
“I promise, this is the last place. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll leave.”
“Fine. Last one.
Haruhi and I would study together almost every day after school, sometimes at school, sometimes at each other’s houses. Even though I was a grade above her, we were both honors students and gravitated towards each other due to this. At a school full of rich teenagers, it was difficult to not feel like an animal at the zoo when walking the halls. Haruhi gripped the ornate golden handle and pulled the door open.
“Welcome!” A chorus of voice called to us. On one hand, I was glad to be able to study at home. On the other, I need to apologize to whoever we just walked in on. After a moment, I recognized the club sitting in front of us, and a small part of me wishes I hadn’t.
You can’t attend school at Ouran Academy for very long without hearing of the infamous Host Club. One of the boys in my class started it in our first year with his best friend and a couple others and it had gotten wildly popular. Tamaki Suoh was charming, if not a little obnoxious, but he still had every girl wanting to be with him and every guy wanting to be him. His best friend was Kyoya Ootori, third son of the Ootori family, top of our class, and persistent pain in my neck. While he’d been top of our class for all of high school and apparently since middle school, I was stuck in second, much to the chagrin of my parents. That is to say, we don’t get along. There were also a pair of twins that had to come up from the middle school last year but are now in their first year. I didn’t know much about them considering the only first-year who mattered to me was Haruhi and she didn’t have friends in her class anyway. I recognized two third years as well, Honey-Senpai and Mori-Senpai. They were hard to miss when walking around campus, considering Mori towers over everyone around him and Honey was almost always heard giggling.
Of all the clubs on campus to run into, it had to be this one.
“Oh wow, it’s a boy.” The twins chorused. They turned towards me, “Oh! And the second-year commoner!” Like I said, animal in a zoo.
“Hikaru, Kaoru, I believe this young man is in the same class as you, isn’t he?” Kyoya questioned.
“Yeah, but he’s shy. He doesn’t act very sociably so we don’t know much about him.” The twins shrugged in response.
Kyoya hummed quietly, “Well, that wasn’t very polite. Welcome to the Ouran Host Club, Mr. Honor Student.” He turned towards me. “And to you, Hoshiko.”
“Ootori.”
“You must be Haruhi Fujioka!” Tamaki exclaimed, looking at Haruhi in astonishment. “You’re the exceptional honor student we’ve heard about!”
“Uh, how do you know my name?” Haruhi nervously questioned.
“Why, you’re infamous. It’s not every day a commoner gains entrance into our academy.” Kyoya smiled, “You both must have an audacious nerve to fight your way into this school as honor students.” I glared at the bespectacled man.
“Well uh, thank you, I guess.” Haruhi stammered. She usually flies under the radar so all of this attention on her must be unnerving.
I sighed and checked the time on the wall. I was expecting to be home and studying by now. This is eating into my study time before I have to leave for supplemental classes. I looked up and Haruhi had disappeared from my side, now being treated to a speech about beauty and being a gentleman from Tamaki. I grabbed my bag and sat at the only table available. One that just so happened to also be occupied by Kyoya.
“Can I help you?”
“I won’t bother you. I simply have work to get done and not a lot of time.”
He stayed quiet but hummed in response. Somehow, I found myself doing my homework with Kyoya Ootori of all people, while listening to the distant sounds of Tamaki trying to woo yet another student. Dropping from second place was not an option, and I had to work hard to maintain my place. Everyone else in the school could afford the best tutors to teach them lessons and concepts they didn’t understand, but Haruhi and I didn’t have that luxury. I finished my math work for the day, and glanced at the papers Kyoya was pouring over. The number of papers had grown since we’ve started working and there’s a slightly irritated look on his face. I scanned one of the papers close to me.
“You missed something here.” I pointed to a part of his calculations with the end of my pencil. I turned the paper towards me and reworked the equations on my own paper before sliding them back to him, all the while, he stared at me like I was a mythical creature; either he couldn’t believe he could make a mistake, or that I would catch it before he did.
“See? This part got mistranslated which almost cost you,” I caught the edge of his calculator with the eraser of my pencil and slid it towards me, typing some numbers in, “300,000 yen.” He reviewed the papers and recalculated other parts of his work. The irritation slowly left his face.
“You’re quite the clever one, Hoshiko.”
“I wouldn’t be the second top student in our class if I wasn’t.” I turned my attention to my next subject. Before I could read the first question, I heard glass shattering. My attention shot to where Haruhi and Tamaki were and saw a previously unsmashed, light blue vase now in pieces on the ground. Haruhi was bent over the podium it previously stood on like she just missed catching it.
“We were going to feature that renaissance vase at an upcoming school auction. Well, now you’ve done it, commoner, the bidding on that vase was supposed to start at 8 million yen!” The twins said, peering over Haruhi’s shoulder at the broken vase.
The sound of 8-million-yen smashing replayed in my ears. Haruhi nearly passed out, desperately trying to grapple with that number.
“I’ll have to pay you back, huh?” Haruhi rubbed at the back of her neck like she was trying to find a way to get that much money together.
“With what money? You don’t even use the school uniform.” Haruhi has gotten special permission from the chairman to use her normal clothes since she couldn’t afford the uniform. My parents, however, got me one as a gift for passing my entrance exam. The pale-yellow dress wasn’t the most comfortable thing, but the fabric was at least soft.
Kyoya bent to the floor to pick up one of the shards. “So, what should we do, Tamaki?”
“You must know the saying, Fujioka. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since you have no money, you will pay with your body. From now on, you’re the host club’s dog.” Tamaki announced, laying lazily in his chair.
Haruhi froze in her place, completely unresponsive as Honey-senpai poked her shoulder. She started to fall, but I caught her before she hit the ground.
“Woah, Haruhi!” I scooped her small frame into my arms and carried her to a nearby couch. I laid her down gently, her head resting on a pillow.
“So, Second Year.” The twins started.
“I have a name, you know.”
“How do you and Haruhi know each other?”
“That should be obvious. Being the only commoners in a school full of rich kids is alienating enough.” I watched her expression as her chest rose and fell slowly, “At least we have each other.”
The next day was Haruhi’s first day as the host club’s servant. I was hoping to walk her there, but she was gone by the time I got to her classroom. Music Room 3 was in the same building as her classroom, so it didn’t take me long before I was climbing the red carpeted stairs and entering the club room.
It was almost identical to yesterday, save for the chair that had been in the middle of the room was now pushed near one of the coffee tables. The room was filled with bundles of girls around each table, chittering and giggling at what I presumed was one of the hosts in the middle. I scanned the room for Haruhi but didn’t see her anywhere.
“Hoshiko?” I turned around to see Kyoya approaching me.
“Ootori.”
“Are you looking for Haruhi? He’s out running errands at the moment, but he should be back soon.” As if on command, the large doors behind us opened. Haruhi had returned and was carrying a little brown bag.
“Thanks for doing the shopping, little piglet! Did you get everything on our list?” Tamaki called. Haruhi seemed kind of peeved at being called a piglet, but just let out a sigh, handing Tamaki the bag of groceries.
“Hey, what is this?” Tamaki held up a little bottle of instant coffee.
“Just what it looks like. It’s coffee.” Haruhi responded.
“Do they really not know what instant coffee is?” I asked. Tamaki, the twins, Honey, and most of the girls were surrounding the bottle, trying to figure out if what they were holding was real.
“Well, we don’t have to worry about that. Our coffee is made for us.”
“Not knowing about a product and not using that product are two different things.” I rolled my eyes. Tamaki had declared he was going to try the coffee and sent Haruhi to make some. I joined her, helping her set out the rest of the cups.
“How are you doing?” I asked her.
“I’m fine. I just don’t see why they have to be this dramatic over such mundane things.” She grumbled, spooning coffee powder into each teacup.
“Well, give them a chance. They’ve never seen instant coffee before. They don’t make their own coffee, period.” Haruhi poured the last of the hot water into the cups, handing me two.
“Here, I figured you wanted a cup before you start studying. Can you bring the other to Kyoya-Senpai?”
“Sure thing.” I walked back to where Kyoya was working and set the cup in front of him.
“Here. Careful, it’s hot.” I said, taking a sip of my own. The hot liquid burned my tongue a little, but I savored the bitter taste. My dad would make coffee in the morning and always made sure there was enough for me too. When I opened my eyes, I caught Kyoya staring at me.
“Something caught your eye, Ootori?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I just wasn’t expecting you to bring me one.”
“Haruhi asked me to. If you don’t want it, don’t drink it.” He didn’t say anything, simply turned his gaze to the coffee and took a small sip.
“Hm, how intriguing.” Kyoya said, “I was expecting something completely undrinkable considering it was made from water and powder, but it’s not terrible.”
“I’m surprised you were even willing to try it.”
“It’s rude to refuse a gift, no matter how small.” He smiled. I stared at him for a second, trying to gauge if he was joking or not. I must have stared a little too long.
“Something caught your eye, Hoshiko?”
“Drop dead.”
The host activities continued after that. Haruhi was serving drinks and snacks to customers. The hosts kept flirting and talking with their customers and soon, it was a constant stream of giggling, sighing, and squealing. Like yesterday, Kyoya and I sat at a table off to the side and worked. With an upcoming exam in one of my supplemental classes, I had extra work to do. After a while, she joined us at the table to take a break.
“Is that boy really a third-year student?” Honey-Senpai and Mori-Senpai had just arrived and joined their waiting guests. Honey-Senpai looked like he’d just woken up and was rubbing his eye.
“Honey-Senpai might seem young and childish, but he’s a prodigy. And then Mori-Senpai’s allure is his strong and silent disposition.”
Almost on cue, Honey-Senpai ran over to us and clung onto Haruhi, spinning both of the around as he did.
“Haru-Chan! Want to go have some cake with me?” The intense spinning made Haruhi extremely dizzy, but Honey-Senpai didn’t seem bothered at all. The noise level was bothering me though, so I dug my headphones out of my bag and tried to block out any outside noise. Eventually, Honey-Senpai left to rejoin his guests, and for some reason, left his stuffed bunny with Haruhi. My headphones were doing a poor job blocking out noise and I quickly grew more and more irritated. I pressed too hard on my pencil and snapped the point off. I groaned in frustration, before closing my notebook and shoving it back in my bag.
“Is everything alright, Hoshiko?” Kyoya questioned. I’d forgotten he was still at the table.
“Fine. I have an important exam coming up but it’s too noisy in here to study properly.”
“An exam? I’m sure I didn’t miss Sensei mentioning our next exam yet.”
“Surely, you aren’t too rich to have not heard of supplemental classes.” He hummed in response, adding to my irritation, and I turned my attention to Haruhi. Tamaki had decided to give her tips on being a host and a gentleman. It was like watching a golden retriever bounce around a very uninterested cat. I watched the twins slowly lift Haruhi’s glasses off her face and then immediately freeze. Tamaki barreled through them and immediately lit up.
“Hikaru! Kaoru!” He snapped.
“Got it!” They sent a salute and hoisted Haruhi into a curtained changing room on the other side of the room.
“Kyoya! My hairstylist!”
“Here he goes again,” Kyoya sighed as he flipped his phone out.
“Mori-Senpai, go to the eye doctor and get him some contact lenses!”
“What about me, Tama-chan?”
“Honey-Senpai!”
“Yes, sir!”
“You… go have some cake.” Honey sulked into his cake; unhappy he wasn’t more included.
“Uh, Senpai?” The curtain on the other side of the room opened to reveal Haruhi. She wore a boy’s uniform and her hair had been evened out and shortened. She cleans up quite nicely. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to keep this uniform?”
“Cute! You’re as pretty as a girl! Adorable!” Tamaki squealed. I was used to people referring to Haruhi as a boy at this point. I was curious to see how long it would take for everyone to find out.
“Don’t worry, we’ll just add it to your existing debt.” Kyoya answered, noting it in his book. “Who knows. Maybe he’ll bring in some customers.”
“You know, that was just what I’m thinking!” Tamaki dramatically pointed at Haruhi, “Our errand boy is moving up the ranks. Starting today, you are an official member of the host club. I will personally train you to be a first-rate host. If you can get 100 customers to request your service, we will completely forget your 8-million-yen debt.” Haruhi, once again, was not sure what she got roped into. I let out a long sigh and grabbed my back, organizing my work in my head based on priority of completion.
“Leaving already, Hoshiko?” Kyoya asked.
“I’m not done with my assignments, but it’s too loud here to produce quality work, so I’m going home.” I waved goodbye as I walked towards the door, “Good night, everyone.”