Though the general public was ignorant of Kyoya's small character flaw, the members of the Host Club were very much aware of it. So, as soon as Kyoya walked into the club room everyone noticed the bitterness that seemed to roll off of him in waves.
"What's gotten into Kyoya-senpai?" Hikaru asked, observing the ravenette as he sat down at a table and whipped out of his laptop, silently going to work.
Tamaki sighed as he looked at his friend. He knew there was only one person who could elicit such a reaction from his usually composed best friend.
"Did the stock market go down?" Kaoru guessed
"Maybe it's the club budget?" Haruhi supplied.
"Does he have a tummy ache from eating too much cake?" Honey wondered.
Kyoya's lack of response told them the answer to all of their guesses was a no.
"It's because of Sakamoto, right?" Mori piped.
At the sound of the young woman's name, the second year stiffened and an irk mark appeared on his forehead confirming Takashi's suspicion.
The club members looked at each other in confusion. Save for Tamaki, none of them completely understood the relationship between Kyoya and Reiko Sakamoto.
"Who's Miss. Sakamoto?" Haruhi asked.
"She's a girl in Kyo-chan and Tama-chan's year. I heard she's really smart and pretty!" Honey exclaimed.
Tamaki nodded in agreement. "Indeed she is, and from the looks of it. I'd say she's beaten Kyoya's score on the mock exams."
Everyone's jaw dropped in shock: even Mori looked up in surprise. Kyoya had always been the smartest. Always.
"She must be really smart then," Kaoru offered.
The blonde nodded. "I've heard she's some sort of child prodigy."
"What do her parents do?" Hikaru asked.
Tamaki shook his head. "No one knows. She's an incredibly private person and never reveals anything about her personal life."
"Kyoya-senpai probably knows," Hikaru offered as he turned to the raven-haired male. "Kyoya-senpai, can you tell us?"
The second year clenched his jaw. Talking about that girl was the last thing he wanted to do. "It's just as Tamaki said. No one knows," he responded.
The group gasped loudly. Not only had this mysterious girl surpassed Kyoya academically, but she had managed to avoid his in-depth investigation as well.
"Whoa..." Kaoru said, his eyes wide.
"For Kyoya-senpai to not know anything about someone..." Hikaru trailed off.
"She must be a spy!" Tamaki blurted. "But which country sent her here?" his imagination was already starting to run wild, trying to figure out where she was from. "Based on her appearance, one would think she is Russian! But she has such a mastery of German and French, she could only be from one country." A shadow crossed over the male's expression as though he'd thought of something terrible.
"Where's she from, boss?" Hikaru prompted.
"America!" He exclaimed.
The club members stared at him blankly. "Huh?" they chorused. None of them had any idea how Tamaki could have come up with such a random location.
Noticing their disbelieving expressions, the blonde whined loudly and started shaking the person nearest to him (which so happened to be Haruhi). "Don't you see?! The mastery of European languages combined with her living in Japan, she can't be from any place but America! It's the perfect cover story!"
Hikaru crossed his arms. "I'm not buying it."
Kaoru shook his head in agreement. "Yeah, me neither... sorry boss, it's just too far-fetched. It doesn't make any sense"
Tamaki looked at Haruhi with desperation. "Haruhi... you believe daddy right?" he asked tearfully.
Haruhi's gaze drifted to the floor. "I dunno... you're not the best with information like this senpai," she said honestly.
The blonde collapsed to the floor in tears and crawled to a corner of the room and started growing mushrooms to cope with the betrayal.
"Why don't we just ask Rei-chan where she's from!" Honey suggested.
"That won't work," Tamaki sniffled. "I've tried talking to her before, but whenever I start asking her question, she changes the subject until I forget I even asked her anything"
"She's a master of deception then," Kaoru quipped sarcastically.
"Maybe the boss is right. Maybe she is a spy," Hikaru joked.
The sarcasm was entirely lost on Tamaki who took their words seriously and instantly brightened up at the notion of someone believing him.
"I've got it!" he shouted. "Tomorrow at school, we'll follow her around the whole day! That way we'll be able to see if she's really a spy or not and if she is... Honey and Mori=senpai will subdue her so we can turn her in to the authorities!" he announced.
Always on board for one of their president's ridiculous plans, the twins gave him a thumbs up. "Okay!" they chorused.
"Sounds like fun! Maybe we can become friends!" Honey cheered. Mori nodded, going along with whatever his cousin wanted.
They looked at Kyoya- the original catalyst for the current turn of events- "I suppose any intel we can get on her could be useful."
Everyone cheered, and then they turned to Haruhi, the only club member who had yet to confirm their participation in the plan.
"Sorry senpai, but I have a test coming up and I need to study, so if I could please be excused..." she trailed.
Tamaki visibly deflated but nodded in understanding. As it wasn't an official club activity he couldn't exactly force her to come. "It's alright I guess. Studies do come first after all."
"Thanks, I really appreciate it."
Tamaki sighed and turned to the rest of the group. "Okay men! Time to come up with a game plan!"
Moving towards an empty table in the club room, Haruhi momentarily glanced at the other club members as they turned on the room's projector. Displayed was the school picture of one of the most beautiful girls Haruhi had ever seen. She almost understood why the boys were so curious about her. Quickly shaking such useless thoughts from her head, however, she turned away to begin studying.