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Saiki walked back to the Host Club, after being properly bribed by the sweets, it seemed like the club had already entered the foot of the house, which Haruhi begrudgingly allowed them to come to. She felt like she was going to kill every one of the club members for doing this to her, and to say the least: Saiki didn't exactly blame her.
But it seemed that Hikaru never took his manner classes seriously, and he loudly and bluntly said to everyone, including Haruhi. "It's kinda shabby if you ask me."
"No one asked you," Saiki said as he made his way to the front of the door, and patted Haruhi on the back, making her tense up then relax under Saiki pathetic way to comfort someone
It didn't, take long for Hikaru to get into trouble, as Suoh was quick to take the reins by yelling at the orange-haired boy, and pulling on his cheeks as if his cheeks could come off. It seemed that Haruhi heard him, but didn't mind commenting on it. Her patience grew very thin, very quickly, and Saiki knew he couldn't blame her after they had come over to his house with nothing as much as a text. (Maybe they did text him, but Saiki muted them, so he never actually bothered to read their texts leaving them on delivered or 'read')
"A wood-built, two-bedroom unit. Well, that's about normal for a two-person, father-daughter commoner family." Ootori said the moment he stepped into the house, making Saiki give him a side glance of how he knew that so quickly after being inside for less than a minute, it was more disturbing than 'quirky'
"Yeah," Kaoru agreed, but Saiki knew there was going to be more to it, "At Haruhi's size, she won't go hitting her head on the low rise ceilings." the boy said, and it almost seemed as if he was complaining, over something he had no part of.
"Good grief, can't you just hold your tongue? " Saiki complained and hit the twin on the head. The boy let out an 'ouch' but did as commanded and held his tongue.
"Well, I think it's an absolutely darling little room!" Haninozuka said, and Saiki rolled his eyes.
Take the little out of it, and you'd have a complement. he said, maybe Saiki didn't need a coffee jelly cake or any tea. Maybe he'd just go home and enjoy being alone, and who cares if his mother was going to yell at him into the next week, being away from the host club was much more painful than that.
"You know, you don't have to force yourself to complement the room if it doesn't meet up to your rich people's taste," Haruhi grumbled tiredly, as she stepped inside for the Host Club to pass in. Saiki was already beginning to take off his shoes.
"Hold on," Haninozuka said, as he noticed Saiki taking off his shoes, along with Haruhi as the two commoners in manner stepped inside, without tracking their shoes in, that would stain the floor. "Haru-chan Ku-chan, should we take off our shoes?" the little boy asked, and Saiki looked to Haruhi.
"Don't ask me," he said, and looked at the club, "But yeah."
"Yeah, if you don't mind." Haruhi agreed. Seeing it strange that the Hosts didn't take their shoes off before entering the house, as they were all (in some way) Japanese.
"Did you hear that? We have to take our shoes off!" the senpai said happily as if he had never done it before. Saiki was quickly finding it obnoxious and was desperate for cake at the moment, as he tried to rush the hosts in for cake time. "It's kinda like going to the dojo, isn't that right?" Haninozuka sparkled in delight, like a three-year-old child who just got a new Cyborg Cyder Man Version Two action figure.
"Yeah, yeah. Just like going to the dojo." Saiki said quickly as he began to push the club members into the house, and nudge them to take off their shoes, "Now the important stuff: cake."
"Do you have any slippers we could use then?" the Hitachiins said, as the had yet to step a single foot in this house because they didn't want their custom made socks touching the peasant floors of the building, which were tatami-floored rooms in half of the apartment.
"Oh, there's a tatami-floored room right over there." Kaoru perked up, like a genius he isn't.
What are you, blind?
"Well, in that case, let's go inside, we don't need slippers with tatami mats in the room," Hikaru said, and Saiki agreed to let them inside.
'Is Saiki-senpai that desperate for cake?' Haruhi thought.
Yes, now let's get moving.
"Ho-ho, talk about small." the twins said as they entered the room, Saiki pushing on Mori's back to get him to move faster, which didn't seem to be working, but the effort is all that counts in the end.
"Ouch." Morinozuka bumped his head on the roof but did his best to sit down at the low rise table.
"Careful!" Kaoru said as he pulled Saiki to the side quickly, just as Mori took a seat on the floor, "There's a light hanging right there, you don't want to get hurt." Kaoru said, with worry, and as much as Saiki wished he was being sarcastic, the quiet twin wasn't, as Saiki already began to sit on the floor, Kaoru sat next to him.
"This commoner household is greatly unpleasant, but I think I have underestimated commoner housing," Suoh said as he scrunched himself up to himself, knees pressed tightly onto his chest, and the rest of the club did the same, even Mori and Haninozuka did the same, but Saiki knew what to do. He sat crisscrossed and put his hands on the table.
"I know it's tight in here, men, but do what you need to do!" Suoh commanded them, "So everyone just sit gym-style and put your knees to your chest." rather than this helping Haruhi, it really just made her mad. Saiki couldn't help but just feel annoyed. "You know, commoner's have specially designed this position to preserve space." Saiki rolled his eyes at the falseness of that statement.
Low rise tables are used to save space and money, rather than needing to buy multiple chairs and an expensive table, but it was also a traditional Japanese table, which has been used for centuries, these low rise tables are also called Chabudais, but due to modern technology and the expansion of Western culture, high rise tables were commonly used nowadays.
This was classic Japanese culture, that many people have in their homes, but culture doesn't seem to be a word used in Suoh's dictionary.
"I'm going to go make us some tea!" Haruhi said, as she turned away from the table, and towards the small kitchen, which was suddenly very clean after what Saiki had done to her a few weeks back, with the ruined yam, and the meals he was supposed to make for the club.
"Oh Haruhi," Hikaru said, "Here's an idea: as far as tea goes. I have this black tea that our father had brought back from Africa as a souvenir." he said, holding a rather cute bag of tea (Saiki wished it was coffee, however) "Here, try it." he said and passed Haruhi the bag.
Other than the girl being rather surprised by the lavish gift, she thanked the twins anyway and began to set up the kettle.
"It's best as a milk tea!" Kaoru added happily, "Do you have any milk."
The question was put as a thought, as Haruhi tapped her chin and wondered. "I think, but I'm not sure the last time I brought milk..." she wondered to herself.
Saiki noticed she must not have had multiple cups of coffee in the morning as he did, Saiki usually never drank his coffee black and needed milk and a few cubes of sugar to wake him up.
Suoh took that in the wrong context, as he gasped at Haruhi, and then the twins, pulling on both boys, and bringing in Saiki with him, who was seated closer to Suoh then Kaoru did. "You idiots! How could you do something like this to her?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Saiki asked as he tried to pull away, but he was practically laying on Suoh's lap and his legs on Kaoru's.
"Are you trying to embarrass Haruhi by giving her that kind of stuff? Look! Look at how Haruhi is at total loss over what to do!" he gasped, but mistook heating and lighting the stove as a 'loss of what to do.'
"Don't be stupid." Saiki pushed him away as the kettle already began to heat up, and standing to his feet to help out Haruhi, and leaving the twins and Suoh all by themselves to think of the worst-case scenario and then cry and do nothing about it, just like what most western people did.
"Need some help?" Saiki walked up to her. "The three of them are seriously starting to annoy me, give me something to do so I don't hurt one of them."