After a long, grueling, (not to mention broiling) Monday, I felt a strange calm surge through me as I made the trek to the Literature Clubroom for my daily dose of Haruhi eccentricity. As aggravating as that girl is, there's something about her attitude about everything—always acting as if the world is her sandbox (despite not knowing how true that is)—that just makes me feel at peace. Maybe all this time I've spent with her has actually made me enjoy the oddity of her personality. After all, a little bit of uncertainty with your day-to-day life does tend to make things more interesting.

Of course, seeing Asahina in a maid outfit doesn't hurt. I mean, call me a dirty old man, but that girl is too cute for her own good…

The truth of that statement haunts me. Especially when I consider how it was her looks that brought her to Haruhi's attention in the first place.

But still, I can't help but feel that a little bit of Haruhi has rubbed off on me since I met her last year. I used to groan as I went along with her ridiculous schemes in order to prevent the end of the world, but I must say, lately I've found her little adventures, well, exciting.

I mean, don't get me wrong, she still gets on my nerves every now and then…..okay, almost all the time. But it's worth it. And as the door to the clubroom comes into my sight, I feel my feet picking up the pace almost against my will.

No doubt whatever Haruhi has planned for today, I'm gonna be the grunt who does all the heavy lifting, or other such menial tasks, but I don't care. Because whatever it is, if Haruhi's involved it's sure to be exciting.

I reach for the doorknob and twist.

Yup, it's going to be a great day at the SOS Brigade.

"That's it, I am sick and tired of how you treat me," I had never heard Asahina being so forceful in her tone, "every day you treat me like I'm your doll, and I'm through. Find some other toy to play with."

Asahina turned, trying to get past me out of the room. With fury in her eyes she turned her head up to me. My feet, moving of their own accord, moved me to the side, allowing her to storm out the room. Nagato and Koizumi both sat at their respective seats acting as if the exchange never happened.

"Hey," I walked up to the only other male member and whispered in his ear, "what just happened?"

"Oh, I'm sure it was nothing. She'll be back," he lowered his voice, "her supervisors won't let her abandon her mission that easily."

I straightened up at this. Damn it, Koizumi, haven't you known her long enough to at least be somewhat genuinely concerned for her? Or is she still just someone working toward a similar goal?

I looked over at Haruhi, sitting motionless at her computer with her head held slightly down and a pout on her face. Talking to her would be useless. If I want to get to the bottom of this, I'm going to have to talk to Asahina directly.

Without a word I left the clubroom, closing the door behind me, and started jogging down the hallway.

Luckily I managed to catch up to her on the staircase, "Wait, Asahina."

"Kyon, I'm not going back to the clubroom." She doesn't turn to face me. Asahina, you can be so cold sometimes.

"I just want to know what happened." I see Asahina's hand tighten on the railing. Something tells me this was more than just a simple case of irritation.

"I know it's my job to watch after her. To observe her and to make sure that she stays entertained, but I can't sacrifice myself any longer for such a cause." I can see her starting to shake. Is it anger….or sadness?

"What did she do?" Come on, man, at least show her some sympathy. Cheer her up, be a gentleman.

She stood in silence for a moment; then she turned and faced me. "Kyon, I might be going away for a while. Promise me something." She paused and stared at me for a moment, her eyes were looking at me in a way that I had only seen in her future self. "No matter what happens to me or the other club members, stay by Haruhi's side. Whatever it takes, do not let her leave your life."

She turned back around and started running down the stairs.

"Wait," she stops at the bottom step, "When will I see you again?" I pause, "or is that classified?" I didn't intend for that comment to be so harsh. But the way it came out almost sounded like there was quite a bit of malice behind those words. And to be honest, I'm not convinced it was an accident.

The silence in those next few seconds was almost painful. "Kyon," Asahina said, finally breaking the silence, "I've already warned you not to get too close to me. Please, don't fight this." And with that she ran out of sight.

I stood there at the top of the steps for a few minutes before finally resigning myself to head back to the clubroom. But when I got there, Nagato and Koizumi had already left—how they made it by me is a mystery. But Haruhi sat with her head on the desk, buried in her arms.

"You want to tell me what that was about?" I sat down in a chair at the table, not expecting an answer. But what came out of her mouth next…well….

"Kyon, do you hate me?" I sat there, to an onlooker I would have looked as if the question had not fazed me, but the truth is I was so shocked that I couldn't even move. Haruhi never cares about what people think….that's why she's Haruhi.

How do I answer this? Do I explain to her that she has friends…..well considering the company she keeps, I should say friend. Do I level with her and explain how she's exciting, but her personality can be annoying at times? "No." Kyon, you are the pinnacle of failure.

I sat there, looking at Haruhi's depressed figure, feeling somewhat inadequate as a friend when she looked up at me. "You know, I don't believe it."

What is she getting at? "Believe what?"

"What if I told you that everything I've been doing this past year….the only reason I did such things was because I wanted to drive people away?"

I didn't know what to say. I just sat there, waiting for her to continue in the hopes that I could piece together what she was getting at.

"I told you last year about the baseball game my father took me to and what it made me think about? To be honest, I liked that. The idea that maybe I wasn't unique or anything. I liked the solitude, the lack of a peer's expectation. But then something happened that drove me away from it all…." She sat up and glared at me with the most intense stare I have ever seen in my entire life, "I met you."

Earth to mothership, we have made contact. Did the girl who, in her introduction, mentioned that she was only into time travelers, espers, and aliens just tell me I'm the reason for everything? "What are you getting at?"

"When I was little I was obsessed with all that supernatural and extraterrestrial stuff, but I pushed it aside. And as much as I like that feeling of insignificance and solitude, you just kept fighting, forcing me to converse with you. I tried everything. I did strange things, wore strange hair styles, all in the hopes that it would get you to think I was weird, but all it did was get you more interested." You got that right. "But before I knew it, I started getting interested in that shit again. And then talking with you became fun, and it wasn't long before I started wanting to be social. But then I started being afraid that you, the only person who I hadn't scared away, would stop talking with me. But when you suggested making the club, it gave me the idea. I figured that since you were interested in all that paranormal stuff-" What? "—I could get you to hang out with me if I formed a club for that." She sat back in her chair and folded her arms, "It didn't take long for my interest to come back. Hell, I couldn't begin to describe how much fun it was doing all the things we did. But no matter how had I tried, I couldn't bring back the same beliefs I had when I was children. And now that I angered Mikuru, I think it's time I level with you. I don't believe in Time travelers, Espers, or Aliens."

This was a side of Haruhi I would never have thought existed. This was someone who had been beaten down so much by her own beliefs and her own desires in life that she finally cracked. But still, to think that I was the reason behind her zeal. The irony being that if it wasn't for her, I would never have believed in any of those things in the first place.

The others will probably want to hear about this. "Hey, Haruhi, do you know where Koizumi and Nagato went?"

Haruhi relaxed a little and tilted her head as if she were confused…that's odd, "Koizumi? Nagato? Who're they?"

Huh…. I can feel my eyebrow twitch. Is this some joke? Was everything she just said the set up to some prank that she's about to pull.

"Are they in a different class?"

No, Haruhi wouldn't be able to hid something like this, she's far to energetic—and based off prior knowledge, disorganized—to pull off any sort of prank….But what does that….

Then it hit me…. At that point I fully understood why Nagato and Koizumi had left. My eyes shot open in terror and my heart started pounding…

Haruhi, not knowing the truth behind her self, created Espers, Time Travellers, and Aliens because she wanted to believe. But now that Haruhi has given up on believing… Asahina never came to the past…..Koizumi never transferred…..Nagato, I felt my heart clench at this thought, Nagato was never created…..

Frozen, I sat in my seat as Haruhi moved to the computer. "So Kyon, any ideas on how we can get new members? I hear there's interest in the Literature Club this year, so if we don't get enough signatures we might actually have to find a new place to stay."

I didn't say anything. But this just seemed so unreal. How much has the world changed in the few minutes since I talked to Asahina? I look a Haruhi, typing away on the keyboard when a thought struck me. "Haruhi, how did you get that computer?"

"What, you don't remember?" she looks up from the screen, "I gave the Computer Club president a picture of me in my panties and he went head over heels." She chuckled a bit, "Don't you remember? You followed me the whole way trying to convince me not to do it."

Hmmm. "And the laptops?" I pointed to the stack of laptops on the desk.

She looked at me with a puzzled look, "We won them in that weird game of theirs. You recruited Tanaguchi, Kunikida, and Tsuruya to help."

So the world is kept somewhat similar. Well that's a relief. I let out a sigh and lean back in my chair. Then, the clothes rack catches my eye. "Well, what about those?" I point over to the rack with my thumb and Haruhi crosses her arms.

"Kyon, are you okay? I hope what I said didn't affect you too much."

"No I'm fine."

"Well, they are mine, so of course I'm the one wearing them."

"Huh, you don't say." Considering her treatment of Asahina, that seems a little strange…but when you think about it, she was more than willing to don a bunny suit of her own to hand out flyers last year.

"Why…" she looks at me with some strange flirtatious look. Too be honest, she can pull it off very well, but it kinda creeps me out to see such a look coming from the girl who has unknowingly put me in far too many life-threatening situations for me to count, "would you like for me to try one on?"

"No," I hold up a hand and shake my head, "that's fine."

"Really?" she stands up and walks over to me. Standing behind me, she puts her hands on my shoulders and slowly lets them fall over my chest. I feel her lowering herself against my back and putting her head in the crook of my neck. "That's strange, normally you jump at the opportunity."

Okay, danger, danger, something's not right here. Haruhi never acts this way. What the hell is going on?

"Remember when you convinced me to actually buy that bunny suit to hand out flyers in? I thought I couldn't pull it off at first, but you really convinced me it would work."

Okay….what the hell is going on. Without Asahina, would Haruhi have doubted such a tactic?

"Of course, I was willing to after that. After all, any boy who asks me out and makes it past the first five minutes must be good with decisions."

Heh, the memory of Tanaguchi's response when I suggested he was the unfortunate five-minuter came to…..wait a minute…..

Did she just say asked out? CODE RED, CODE RED…..soemthing's not right here….what the hell is going on. Why would I ask her out, if anyone I would have asked out….then it hit me. Asahina's not here. I did think Haruhi was beautiful….and I did talk to her every morning….. But she also told me she didn't have much interest in relationships anymore….

There's only one way to find out if we are actually together, or if it was just a one time thing… "Umm, Haruhi, how long have we been going out now?" Thinking back, it would have been better to just ask her straight, but hey, Freud would be rolling over in his grave if I said I didn't…well… you get the picture.

"Hmm," I feel her head shift a little in thought, "if memory serves me correct" She stands up and walks in front of me. She leans down to look at me at eye level and I can feel myself blushing "….one year ago today." She leaned in and kissed me….

This….is not good…