Ayaka
Today in club we were all wearing kimonos made by the Hikaru's and Kaoru's mother. I heard Tamaki talking to his customers and some girls discussing more picture books with Kyoya. I relax into my spot and talk with my customers.
"A-Aya-chan. Aya-chan." I hear Mitsukuni cry. I kneel in front of him. He rubs his eyes and shows me his bare feet.
"I don't know how but I lost one of my sandals." He whines.
"But Mitsukuni you were wearing them just a second ago." I comfort him. Takashi came over with his sandals and put one on for him. They made eye contact and then hugged. I patted Mitsukuni's head and smiled.
"Tears are popular with the ladies today. But I wonder on how they can cry so easily." Haruhi asked as she backed into Kaoru, who dropped his fake tears bottle from his kimono sleeve. She gave him a board look and I snickered. These guys can't fake cry? What amateurs. Hikaru and Kaoru give Haruhi a small flower candy in small plastic box. Hey candy! I sneak up behind the twins and grab their kimonos. I give them puppy dog eyes begging for the candy.
Everyone sees my small action and scream about it's adorableness.
"I didn't know that you like sweets Ayaka-senpai." Some of my first year customers say.
"Um uh yeah. My mother and I shared a wonderful fondness them before she passed away. I only eat candies in her memory now." People stare at me shocked. People don't really know about my mother's passing, even though she was a famous movie star. I blush and quickly swipe a few tears.
Suddenly I'm buried up to my neck in candy and Tamaki is fawning over me. Kyoya is writing in his book off to the side and Mitsukuni is sleeping in Takashi's arms. Tamaki starts acting princely in front of Haruhi who is paying attention to a girl that is staring at us.
"My romantic overtures do not seem to be reaching you for some reason. Perhaps I should add a little more panache to my character." He said, but he then noticed the girl in the doorway.
"Looks like the host club has a brand new guest." The twins say together.
"Come on in. What are you waiting for?" Kaoru says offering the girl a rose.
"Watching from afar is no fun." Hikaru joined him and offered another rose.
"Stop that! How many time do I have to tell you boys to be more courteous to our first time guests? Please you don't have to be afraid, my princess." Tamaki said seriously put her chin in his fingers. " I welcome you to the Ouran Host Club." He sounded gentle and semi-genuine.
"No don't touch me! You're phony." She screamed pushing Tamaki's face away from her. We all looked surprised. Tamaki held his face with tears in the corner of his eyes.
"What do you mean I'm phony?" He asked.
"Just what I said you're phony. I find it hard to believe that someone like you is the prince character of this host club. You shouldn't go spreading your love around so easily like that you stupid. You must be a dimwitted narcissist. You're incompetent. You're a commoner. You're disgusting."
Tamaki looked horrified. Every word struck him in the heart. Tamaki fell backwards in slow motion.
"He's created a new- technique." Hikaru sounded surprised.
"One-man slow motion." Kaoru named the move. It looked like he had been struck by lightning, he fell on the floor. Kyoya had a look of recognition on his face.
"I don't suppose you are-" He began.
"It's you! Kyoya!" The girl ran to Kyoya with tears in her eyes and stomped on Tamaki's back.
"Oh how I've longed to meet you. My one and only prince charming." She jumped into his arms and hugged him.
----
"Your fiance?"Hikaru asked.
"Kyoya-senpai?" Kaoru followed up.
"Of course. My name in Renge Houshakuji and I'm transferring into Ouran Academy's first year class A tomorrow." Tamaki sulked by the wall. We all watched him.
"Why is he sulking?" Hikaru asked.
"Cause Mommy was keeping a secret from Daddy." Kaoru answered.
"Whatever. Why does everyone insist on referring to us like we're husband and wife?" Kyoya complained.
"Ours is a story of love at first sight. I couldn't resist the way you were adoring those flowers in the backyard when you thought no one else was looking. And how sweet it was when you reached out to that poor little injured kitten." Renge day dreamed.
"I think she has the wrong guy." I whispered to myself.
"No way I could recognize my love from anywhere! He's a gentleman whose kind to everyone and doesn't ask for anything in return. He like solitude but in fact he sometimes gets lonely. He looks like the star of the popular dating sim Uki-doki Memorial. You're my real life Ichijo Miyabi." We all deadpan and stare at her.
"Uki-doki?" Mitsukuni muttered.
"OTAKU!" Tamaki screams.
"OTAKU?" Hikaru screams back to him.
"Hmmn?" Takashi grunted quietly. Has he never heard that before?
"I've never seen one." Kaoru says. I turn my attention to Kyoya who is sitting on the couch, thinking. We all sort of quiet down and go to him.
"Oh I get it now. You're in love with that character. You're projecting your love onto me and somehow deluded yourself into thinking that we're engaged. I assume this Miyabi character probably wears glasses as well." Kyoya rationed out.
"So she made it up. She's not really your fiance right?" Tamaki asked.
"Well no I don't ever remember asking for her hand in marriage. Besides this is the first time I've ever met the woman." Kyoya stated pushing his glasses up. We all let out a sigh of relief. He could have mentioned that a bit sooner. She calmed down and sat abnormally close to Kyoya. Her hands were clasped together.
"According to my research I understand that you're in charge of managing the club, is that true Kyoya?" Renge looked like she had stars in her eyes.
"Yeah that's right Kyo-chan is our director." Mitsukuni intruded in the one sided conversation.
"You're the club's director, oh that's perfect! I've made up my mind from now on I'm going to be the manager of this host club." She declared. The twins let out an irritated sigh. I massaged my temples and walked in circles.
"Aya-chan are you okay?" Mitsukuni whispered from Takashi's shoulders. Tamaki went to Kyoya with the matter.
"Um listen Kyoya-" Tamaki stuttered.
"Ms. Houshakuji is the only daughter of a very important Ootori family client. So please be polite and try not to offend her, alright." He said writing in his book.
"Well boys I can't wait to work with you." The 'manager' said excitedly.
"Hey I'm a girl." I almost screamed at her. The next day we had a club meeting about Renge.
----
"I thought about it a lot last night, maybe having a lady manager isn't such a bad idea." Tamaki shared his idea.
"Why do you say that?" The twins asked together.
"Well it's fairly obvious isn't it? Renge just transferred into the same class as Haruhi. So if Haruhi has a 'girlfriend' around it could bring out the female within her. Renge's girlish air of tenderness might be able to stimulate Haruhi's own sense of femininity." Tamaki smiled like he was a genius. Haruhi looks bored with the idea. What am I chopped liver? I can have a girly tender air or whatever influence on Haruhi...if I wanted to.
"Nows our chance to help Haruhi get in touch with her feminine side. This is an important project men. She doesn't have any friends in class except these two shady twins. That's no good for her."
"Like you have room to talk?" The twins tilt their head and snap back. Just then Renge comes into the room.
"Hey everyone, You'll be happy to know your new manager Renge had baked all you some cookies."
"Oh isn't she ladylike? I'm so moved by your generosity." Tamaki totally over exaggerates on her simple kindness.
"I didn't bake these cookies for you. You phony prince." She growls at him. Tamaki collapses in surprise and crouches by the wall. She offers them up to Kyoya but he doesn't take any.
"Sorry I burnt them a little bit. I did the best I could and I already know what you're going to say."
She goes into her own little imagination, but he still doesn't eat a cookie. While she fantasizes Mitsukuni eats a cookie.
"She wasn't kidding these cookies really are burnt." He muttered with a full mouth.
"Don't eat that Mitsukuni. It's bad for you." Takashi and I agree in unison. Renge's hair turns into snakes and she screams and chases us around the room. God she's terrifying. Takashi has Mitsukuni in his arms as he ran and I stay slightly behind them to keep her away from them. Haruhi picked up the cookie bag and took a bite of one.
"They're not that bad at all. They've got a good flavor to them." Haruhi agreed. The twins get an idea as they see Tamaki still depressed by the wall. Hikaru lifts Haruhi's chin and takes a bit out of the cookie hanging in her mouth. Tamaki head snaps so that he's paying attention. Kaoru turns Haruhi face towards him and says there are cookie crumbs on her cheek and process to lick her cheek. Tamaki growls and gets up, in a fit.
"Did you see what they just did?" Tamaki complains in the background.
"And suddenly the trio of classmates are closer than they've ever been before." Kyoya says in his usual monotone.
"You know you could have just told and I could have wiped it off. And if you wanted to try one there are plenty here." She held up the small bag of cookies. Tamaki snorted and held Haruhi by the sides of her face.
"That's not the way you're suppose to react Haruhi. You have to stay strong and reject them and casually brush them to the side. Do you understand?" Tamaki screamed in her face.
"This is sexual harassment senpai." She says with a smirk.
"SEXUAL HARASSMENT! If this counts as sexual harassment than they're twice as guilty."
Renge had stopped chasing us a few minutes ago and now I saw her off to the side thinking about something. I saw that Mitsukuni offered her something in a cup.
"Lukewarm. Every single one of you, except for Kyoya, all of your characters are lukewarm." we all jolted," Each of you needs to have some sort of darkside, you understand? Girls are vulnerable to handsome young men who are troubled. If you keep carrying on like this it's only a matter of time before the girls get tired of you and stop coming altogether. Are you trying to ruin my precious Kyoya's business? As your manager it's my duty to change your character backgrounds." She pointed at us accusingly. Most of us had on a nervous face. What does she plan on doing to us? She pointed to Mitsukuni and he let out a small worried scream.
"Let's start with you. If you are as cute inside as you are out then you're no different than a baby. From now on you are the baby faced thug." Mitsukuni cried in horror, "And Mori-senpai you're his childhood friend: The Flunkie. The twins will be basketball players enslaved in their own world. Haruhi you're an honor student who is constantly being bullied. Ayaka-senpai you have abandonment issues that causes you to put up a wall so that your not hurt again." I freeze and glare at her," And for you, Tamaki, you are the school idol admired for your good looks but you actually have an inferiority complex you're hiding from the world, the lonely prince. And Kyoya you are perfect the way you are now, so I want you to stay as kind and affectionate as you are now." Renge changed all of us in some way. Tamaki stumbled about the room saying the role was perfect for him. I grab Kyoya's collar and bring him into the huddle made of the twins and I.
"Come on Kyoya do something." I urge him, the twins nod vigorously in agreement.
"Why? The Boss seems into it." He points to where Tamaki is against the wall doing poses for a lonely prince character. Renge complimented him on doing a good job.
"Let's just wait and see how things turn out. I bet it will be interesting. It always is." Kyoya said as I gave him an unforgiving glare. He only returns a smirk.
----
Hikaru dribbled the ball down the court as the large crowd cheered him on. The ball sunk into the net and he had a happy smile on his face. It faded when he heard the sound of worried people and someone saying get the stretcher. Kaoru was on the floor clutching his knee. Hikaru ran to his side.
"Kaoru? Kaoru! Kaoru." Hikaru kneeled by the stretcher. The coach begged him to get back in the game. Hikaru batted the hand away from him.
"Hikaru, listen to me. Please don't worry. There's nothing you can do. You can't share my pain." Kaoru touches his cheek." You're not the one that got hurt. Now go on." Tears formed in Hikaru's eyes as he clutched his brother's hand.
"I can't. It hurts. It hurts Kaoru." Hikaru said.
"Your pain is my pain," Renge started narrating." It doesn't matter to me if no one else understands as long as we have each other we can go on living."
Suddenly the scene changed to Tamaki standing in the rain alone. His hair over his eyes.
"I'm sorry but I'm envious." The twins were on the ground, also in the rain, they looked up to Tamaki. "The way you two support each other like that."
"But Suoh-senpai.." Hikaru started.
"How can you be envious of us? You're the school's idol." Kaoru finished.
"An idol, right." He flicks his hair with his hand," I hate that people worship me for something so superficial as my appearance. It will be much better for me to be alone." He stands with his hands crumpled together by his stomach in the rain looking actually quite alone.
"One lonely heart meets another. They pass each other wounding one another." Renge picks narration back up. The scene changed from Tamaki to me trying to run away from Takashi but he grabs my wrist and pulls me back. I sigh mentally but then put my all into my lines.
"No leave me alone. I can do it on my own!" I try to sound afraid but angry.
"Ayaka put down your wall and let me in. You can trust me." I look into his solemn face as a tear runs down my face. Of course we're in the rain as well. The next scene is Haruhi running from Mitsukuni but she runs into a tree.
"You can't run away forever." She turns around and sees the baby faced thug. She sinks to the mud.
"I'm going to show what happens to anyone that crosses me." Mitsukuni said threatening.
"Will it be the light of salvation that ultimately awaits these boys or will it be something else?" Renge tries to sound touching.
"You know it really pisses me off when people don't know their place." Mitsukuni looks really scary but then he goes all teary eyed and jumps into Haruhi's arms.
"Wahh I'm so sorry Haru-chan. I can't do this anymore." Mitsukuni cried.
"CUT! CUT! CUT! What's wrong with you? You've got to stick to the script." Renge screams with her hair turning into snakes again.
"But I can't."Mitsukuni says.
"Stop rolling Cameraman." Renge said sternly to the man behind the camera.
"Yes Boss." The guy back off the camera.
"I want the rain to make things seem dramatic-" Renge continued to rant while the twins started talking.
"How did we go from changing our characters to shooting a movie about them?"
"And why is there an entire film crew here to shot it?"Haruhi asked.
"Apparently she flew them in from Hollywood. Don't you recognize the director? He directed the vampire movie Meninial Snow. It was the number one grossing box office hit in the movie theater." Kyoya informs us.
"And how come this stupid script portrays Kaoru as the pitcher?" Hikaru asks. I just barely hold back a snicker.
"Yeah." Karou agreed.
"What does that mean?" Haruhi asked. I burst out laughing.
"If you don't know nevermind." They say in unison. I held my aching stomach as Haruhi looked at us with a curious gaze. Later I saw Renge talking to a couple of rough looking guys. Tamaki was talking to Haruhi and looking shy. I shook my head and went to see what Renge was doing. I knew the guys she was talking to. Their families were into some illegal stuff so I don't know what will happen.
"Hey Haruhi you're on." Renge called. Haruhi came around the corner and looked worried at the sight of the two guys. I gave her a small nod and she seemed to relax.
"These two gentlemen have just agreed to make a special appearance in our film." Renge said happily.
"In your film? What are you talking about?" One of them asked.
"After all we're going to need some tough guys for the big climax." Both the two guys and Haruhi looked shocked at that information." That's when all of the club members come together to fight the real villains of their school. According to the script these two are from a wealthy family that got their wealth from being apart of the Japanese mafia. Don't you think that's a brilliant casting choice?" I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. Why did she have to say that?
"What's with this girl?" One asked, angrily.
"Whatever my dad does has nothing to do with me." The other defended as if Renge knew what their families do, but really it's just a script. Haruhi put her hands up trying to calm everyone down. Renge pulled one of the guys by the arm and told them to wait for their cue. He pulled out of her grasp and yelled at her.
"Hey you think you can push me around. You don't even know me."He shoved Renge towards to boards and pipes. Haruhi got behind Renge and took the hit. She sunk to her knees and held a hand to her forehead.
"Oh, are you okay Haruhi?" Renge asked.
"That guy was right Renge. You can't do that. If you judge people by their appearance you're stereotyping them and you'll never see the person inside." Haruhi spoke gently.
"I don't understand what you're trying to say." Renge sounded confused. Just then Tamaki came around the corner and saw Haruhi. As soon as Haruhi looked up and I saw tears I grabbed the punk by his collar and lifted him off the ground. I glared daggers and they shivered like scolded five year olds. Tamaki rushed to Haruhi when he saw tears in her eyes.
"Come on Yamaguchi you heard what that girl said. She was giving us a hard time." The other one defended the one I was holding.
"Their right Ayaka-senpai. It's not their fault they were provoked." I growled at them and dropped him. They ran away. I walked towards the approaching Kyoya. He whispered something in my ear and I nodded. Haruhi's face was in Tamaki's hands as he asked if she was okay.
"Yeah it's just my contact. I guess it slipped out." She looked unsurprised. Tamaki looked surprised and started laughing.
"You..you. Please tell you got that on camera cameraman." Renge turned around full of excitement.
"Yes Boss." He gave her a thumbs up.
"Other than Haruhi's contact falling out that was an ideal ending scene. Now all it needs is a moving narration by my sweet Kyoya." Renge fanned.
I balled up my fist and slammed my elbow into the lens of the camera. Kyoya stood a few feet in front of me. Everyone turned their attention our way. They cameraman yelled about what I did to his camera but I ignored him.
"Why? Was something wrong?" Renge asked in a small voice.
"I'm terribly sorry but I can not allow their to be any record of a club member engaging in violence. I think you've caused enough trouble around here Renge. Please stop being such a pest." Kyoya said coldly.
"A pest?" She echoed with tears starting to drip down her face,"But you're suppose to pat me on the head and tell me not to worry. You're suppose to be kind and affectionate Kyoya. Why are you acting so differently now? Tell me why." She cried.
"Because that's not the real Kyoya." Tamaki said. Renge looked at Tamaki and fell to her knees quietly sobbing. Haruhi walked up to her.
"Does it really matter? I mean who cares is Kyoya is a little different than you expected him to be. Take a good look at the person inside and get to know him little by little. It's a lot more fun that way."
Several days later the ladies came through the door. This time a few guys came too just to get an appointment with me.
"I bought the video of that film you made."
"I did too."
"Me too."
"HUH?" We all sounded confused as the guests blushed and praised us. We all looked at the girls who talked about the video. I saw Kaoru's look of disbelief. Tamaki raised his hand and looked like he was about do to do his normal snap and talk.
"Kyoya?"
"I may have told Ayaka to break the lens but the video we already shot wasn't damaged. But naturally I did cut out that one violent scene. Sales have been good so far. That Hollywood film crew did a fantastic job, but then that's to be expected." Kyoya analysed.
"Is this what you meant by interesting?" The twins asked in unison.
"It's best if I have as much money as I can in the club's budget." Kyoya smirked.
"Good day everyone." The small brunette greeted us.
"Renge? I thought you went back to France." Tamaki said.
"I can't believe I didn't realize this sooner. It was so chivalrous of you to risk your life to protect me. I could feel the love when you lectured me about judging people. When you said it was fun to get to know people little by little you were talking about me." Renge grabbed Haruhi's hand. Tamaki looked baffled and I started laughing. Renge dragged Haruhi out of the club by her arm.
"Hey Kyoya-senpai are you okay with that?"The twins asked.
"Why wouldn't I be? Everything Renge said was true." Kyoya said.
"NO IT WASN'T." Tamaki screamed.
"I thought you were the one that wanted her to have a female friend in the first place." Kyoya smiled deviously. I could only laugh harder, holding on to Takashi so that I didn't fall down.
"Well yeah a female companion. Not a girlfriend." Tamaki revised his words.
I held my stomach as tear slipped out of my eyes. Tamaki chased after Renge and Haruhi. Ah, maybe having a girl manager isn't so bad.