Comes up Roses

Chapter 1: Love Letters and a New Host

The scent of cherry blossoms was heavy in the air as Masae left home on Monday. It had been an uneventful weekend, free of irritation from the Hosts, which was strange. As much as she tried to ignore it, Masae was uneasy about their lack of contact.

Her car was waiting at the end of the driveway. Masae opened the door to the backseat to find five brightly-colored pieces of paper. She pushed them aside to sit down.

"Good morning Aoki," said her driver. She met his gaze in the rear mirror as she echoed the greeting. "Some boys gave me those notes to pass on to you. They said it was important you read them."

Masae's eyebrow twitched, knowing immediately who he was talking about. This was her anxious feeling about the Hosts coming to fruition, she realized. What had Suoh done?

She wasn't going to open them, wasn't going to give into this silly little charade. Masae flipped through the five letters

Two of them were in the same style of cream-colored envelope without seals; one was in a small pink envelope and smelled faintly sweet; another was stuffed full, straining against the red-rose seal holding it; the fifth was in a neat medium-sized envelope with her name written in the corner in dark blue cursive, a perfectly round seal of the same color to match. There were only five letters; she figured Ootori hadn't been roped into this scheme.

Masae sighed as she tucked the notes into her bag. The Hosts were so obvious. She didn't know how she was going to see them after school.

As she finished packing the notes away, her cell phone rang. Masae sighed deeply, figuring that Suoh had somehow gotten ahold of her phone number and was too excited about the letter he wrote to wait until she got to school. Debating whether it was worth it to get angry at him, Masae didn't realize until the man on the other side of the phone spoke, that it wasn't Suoh calling her. It was Ootori.

The Ootori boy's voice was smooth and unaffected as he said, "Good morning Aoki."

"Good morning Ootori," Masae replied. Why was he, of all people, calling her? She couldn't remember the last time they'd spoken on the phone. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I'm sorry to call you so early on your cell, but there's something rather important I have to tell you before school," he replied.

Masae's interest was piqued. Her first assumption was that it was about the notes, but if that was the case it was already too late to warn her. She stayed silent, letting him continue.

"A new member joined our club after school on Friday: a first-year scholarship student. It's just to pay off a debt, I can't imagine it to be a long-term arrangement, but I didn't want you to be surprised when you saw a new Host."

Well, it was too late for that. Masae didn't think it was possible for a new Host to join– the only new Hosts they'd had were the Hitachiin twins, who were shoo-ins since the club's creation. And what did Ootori mean this boy was paying off a debt? Perhaps she shouldn't have left so quickly on Friday.

Ootori used her shocked silence to add in one more comment. "Oh, and Haruhi is a rather unique case. She is to be referred to as a male, in the presence of the guests. I'll see you at school."

"What—" Masae cried, but Ootori had already hung up the phone. Masae stared at her cell for a few seconds before shoving it and the five love notes in her backpack.

🥀🥀🥀

The day passed in a daze. It was irritating– Masae couldn't seem to focus. Between Suoh's love letters and the new Host, her thoughts were already accounted for.