The Snow-Colored Sakura
Chapter 1: Shakuhachi
Author's Notes: This is my first OHSHC fanfic. Enjoy!
Dear Diary,
Every day, I take pink origami paper and from my hands, sakura bloom. Around me on the walls are all the sakura flowers I have made ever since my brother died in that fire that was supposed to take my life. Everything in my life has changed so much that I'm not even sure if things will ever return back to normal. My aunt enrolled me into Ouran Academy and I just want to stay at home. There's no point in going to school if I can't be myself.
-Sakura
The first day Sakura Umenokoji stepped onto Ouran Academy's grounds, she felt something different. It seemed so much different from her other school, where people just clustered in their own little groups and whispered mean things about students passing by. At Ouran, everyone was friendly to each other. They all seemed to smile and laugh as if life was perfect. Sakura envied each and every one of them. They had lots of friends to be with, while she had no one. All her friends from her old school believed she was dead, just like everybody else who heard about the fire. Sakura had started to distance herself away from people, preferring to be by herself instead of with other people.
As Sakura was walking along the path, she stopped under the cherry tree and looked up at the pink blossoms. Some of the girls walking by stared admiringly at her, but she paid no attention to them. Sakura Umenokoji had long black hair that was tied into a high ponytail. The white hair ribbon that tied back her hair danced in the wind, making her look just like a samurai. Ever since her brother had died, her aunt had insisted that she pretend to be her brother, which was something she never understood. Her aunt had listed her name down as the twin who had died in the fire and her brother's as the twin who had survived. Their mother and father had also died in that fire and even now, nobody knew how the fire had started. Sakura was now going to school under the name of Yukiko Umenokoji, a first-year in high school. The uniform was alright, but she would've worn the girls' uniform if she had a choice.
The most noticeable feature that drew everybody's eyes to hers was the unusual color of her eyes. Sakura had piercingly silver eyes and a somewhat unreadable expression on her face. Her eyes had a mysterious sadness, which usually drove the girls to have a fan girl attack. After looking up at the cherry blossoms for a minute or two, she walked inside the building and went to find her class. The building was extremely elegant and beautiful with their beautiful pink walls and gleaming chandeliers. After wandering around for a little bit, Sakura found her classroom, 1-A. When class started, she was at the front of the room, introducing herself. There was another boy behind her, the scholarship student.
"My name is Yukiko Umenokoji. Starting today, please take care of me," Sakura spoke, bowing in front of her new classmates. The girls in the front row went crazy after right after she said that, as expected. What caught her eye were the two orange-haired twins. They seemed to be watching her with their strangely golden eyes. Sakura suddenly took a sharp breath as she seemed to see her brother, watching her from the crowd. She hurried to her seat, her thoughts whirling about and inside, she was crying. The scholarship student quickly introduced himself. He seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the public eye, which was something she could relate to personally. When she heard the name Haruhi Fujioka, she was shocked. Haruhi was her childhood friend from when her mom and Kotoko Fujioka were friends. Why was she here? The teacher directed her to a seat right next to Haruhi. She had cut her long brown hair and now wore thick glasses. Haruhi was wearing a baggy brown sweater, which was a rather strange clothing choice. Sakura noticed that she had changed so much since they were little. Class began and soon, it was lunch time. Sakura went over and walked next to her as they went down to the dining hall.
"Do you remember me, Haruhi?" Sakura asked quietly. Haruhi jumped, seemingly startled. She turned around and stared with shock at Sakura. Sakura doubted that Haruhi would remember her from the way she looked now. Her appearance was exactly like her brother's and not like herself.
"No, I don't remember you. Perhaps you have the wrong person?"Haruhi spoke hesitantly. Sakura realized with a sigh that Haruhi wouldn't have remembered her. It had been so many years ago since they had last played together. She turned around and left the dining hall and wandered around Ouran. Sakura found herself outside under the same sakura tree that she had stopped under in the morning. She sat down, took out her flute, and began to play softly. The sounds of her flute echoed throughout the school and reached the ears of the Host Club. They were eating lunch in the club room and had suddenly heard the sweet sounds of a flute being played outside.
"Isn't it pretty, Takashi?" Honey asked cheerfully. Takashi nodded, silent as usual. The twins were listening intently, wondering who was playing the flute. Kyoya was sitting there on his computer as he always did, expressionless. Tamaki, however, was listening to the sound with an extremely ecstatic look on his face.
"Kyoya, what if this person could be potential Host Club material? We could use his musical talents to bring in more ladies!" Tamaki spoke eagerly. Kyoya looked up from whatever he was typing and turned around to face him.
"The chance of the person being a female student is more likely than a male student. It is, however, worth investigating," Kyoya replied. He whipped out his calculator and began furiously typing on the keys to see how much profit the flute-playing student could potentially bring.
"It is our mission to find this mysterious, flute-playing student as soon as possible! Search in all the classrooms for this person!" Tamaki ordered as he suddenly stood up from his chair.
"Yes, sir!" The twins, Honey, and Mori saluted back in reply. Kyoya searched through the data base to find the mysterious student. The student was most likely a new student who had recently transferred to Ouran. He could deduce this because of the fact that none of the students that had previously attended last year had played flute. The only students that had transferred over to Ouran were the scholarship student and a student named Yukiko Umenokoji. Clicking on Yukiko's information file, he noticed that Yukiko was soon to be the heir of the Umenokoji Law Firms and played shakuhachi (Japanese flute). This was the student they were looking for. Yukiko Umenokoji.
Author's Notes: What will happen to Sakura next? Will she meet the Host Club? Read on to find out!