Hide Away

Chapter 11: A Lady Manager?!

The new school week started, and Setsuko found herself sitting in the club room wearing a sunrise themed kimono, the main colored featured on the piece of fabric was an inky blue that faded into a pale orange near the bottom. At her shoulders, within the darkest part of the blue there were small specks of glitters which shimmered as she moved. She had also been given a hair clip with a cluster of flowers, each a different shade of blues and oranges.

Aside from the Kimono's, the hidden theme of the day were tears. According to Tamaki in the meeting right before club started tears made a man vulnerable, and that vulnerability helped to bring in the ladies. Setsuko had to hold in a very strong grimace when he had announced that, but it's not like she could refuse his ideas, Kyoya had already approved it and had eyedrops on hand for each of the hosts, save for Haruhi, who had gotten to the clubroom a little late due to her getting hung up studying.

Currently Setsuko didn't have any customers, so she was free to wonder around the club room and watch everyone else in their acts. Except the twins. She refused to watch them willingly.

"Haru-chan. Haru-chan!" A voice sobbed and Setsuko looked over towards where Haruhi was situated, seeing a barefoot Honey walking up to her with one of his sandals in his hand and the other hand wiping at his eyes which were starting to water. "I don't know how but I lost one of my sandals."

"But you were just wearing them, weren't you?" Haruhi asked walking up to the now crying third year.

"Mitskuni." Mori said, walking up to Honey and crouching down to slide a sandal on his foot.

"Takashi." Honey said.

"I noticed you dropped it."

Honey jumped forwards and engulfed Mori in a hug, still crying but now with a smile on his face. "Takashi!"

"How sweet!" One of the watching girls said.

"Looks like tears are popular with the ladies today." Haruhi muttered, taking a step back from the scene, "But how are they able to cry so easily?" She continued moving back and bumped into Kaoru, where Setsuko heard something fall to the ground.

The tear drop bottle Kyoya had given them earlier before the club. Haruhi crouched down and picked up the bottle before holding it up with an unamused expression on her face. "What is this?"

"For your information, it's common for a host to use eyedrops." Kaoru said

"No woman alive can resist a man on the brink of tears." Hikaru added, walking up to join his twin brother.

"That's cheating." Haruhi stated.

"Oh, don't be such a party pooper." Hiakru said with a grin, draping an arm over Haruhi's shoulder and poking her cheek.

"Here, Haruhi." Kaoru said, reaching into his sleeve and pulling out what looked to be one of the fancy candies they were offering the ladies that day. "This if for you."

"It's for me?" Haruhi asked, her eyes sparkling as she looked down at the candy.

"Wow, Haruhi, I didn't know you liked sweets!" One of the girls said.

"Well to be honest with you, I don't really. But you know, I think it would be a nice memorial offering for my mother."

Setsuko perked up and looked over at Haruhi, she lost her mother? She had heard the host mention her mother from time to time, but not specifically saying she had passed. Sure, the tone she used when talking of her did make Setsuko think something happened to her. Thinking of what happened to Haruhi's mom made Setsuko think of her own. With everything that had been happening lately it's been a while since she last visited her- in fact it's been a while since she's visited any of her family. As she was thinking, she watched as Tamaki piled on candies in Haruhi's hands, speaking on how admirable Haruhi's devotion was to her mother's memory.