Haruhi's POV:
"Can you all please stop fighting? What is the matter with you people?!" I cry out madly as I stand in the entrance of Music Room Three. I just walked in after school for an Ouran High School Host Club meeting that Kyoya –Senpai has planned for, for the past three weeks. The Shadow King himself has spent a large amount of his free time contacting all our regulars and rescheduling appointments for this meeting. And what do I find when I walk in? A mess of the Host Club screaming at each other and even the calm and collected Kyoya-Senpai and Mori-Senpai and the happy-go-lucky Honey-Senpai were all just as angry as the others. It was a strange sight to say the least.
I close the vast, white grand doors and cross my slender arms over my chest and shoot my most disappointed look at every single one of them. In milliseconds, six heads have been lowered and no one is making eye contact with one another – not even Hikaru and Kaoru.
"Is any of you morons going to explain what you guys were arguing about?" No answer. I huff cruelly and my brown eyes narrow on none other than Kyoya-Senpai. He is the most likely to actually inform me calmly. "Kyoya-Senpai." Nothing. Considering the twinge of movement in his broad shoulders, I've almost cracked him. Kyoya-Senpai may act intelligently detached from his emotions but his emotions are as strong as anyone of the other Host Club members, even the crazy and overdramatic Tamaki-Senpai. Kyoya-Senpai may be smart but I am as well. I know the exact words to make him break. "Kyoya Ootori, answer me." Finally, Kyoya-Senpai raises his head and his eyes met mine. In that moment – I've got him and he knows it. Kyoya-Senpai sighs and others peek looks at him, questioning the great and evil Shadow King.
"We were fighting over you in relation to you in a romantic format with each of us individually." Kyoya-Senpai explains in his usual collected fashion but the dryness of his throat is evident.
"Not necessarily individually." Hikaru and Kaoru say together happily with two mischievous winks, wrapping their muscular arms around one another. To anyone else the ginger twins would be exactly symmetrical in this moment of cheekiness but I can see Hikaru's arm above Kaoru's, which is an obvious sign of it being the more dominant twin. Interrupting my calculative thoughts, I hear the racket of my friends yelling at one another once more.
"Shut up, you morons!" I almost tear my vocal cords as I attempt to be heard amongst the loud idiots that I, for some reason, am in a club/friends with. What the heck did Kyoya-Senpai mean? Me in relation to a romantic format with the other Hosts? I know that Tamaki-Senpai sees me as his "daughter" in a way and that Hikaru and I went on a date in Karuizawa but I had no idea that any of the others thought about me in that way.
When the room lowers its volume to a quiet hum, my brown eyes scan the annoying men in front of me. Hikaru and Kaoru luckily are holding hands with Kaoru resting his ginger head on Hikaru's right shoulder. It's a relief to see that they are not going to be dramatically broken up over this whole commotion. Mori-Senpai is as quiet and reserved as always with Honey-Senpai resting on his large and defined shoulders; digging into a large plate full of strawberry cake as Mori-Senpai holds onto Usa-Chan for him. Tamaki-Senpai is almost bursting with anger and is redder than his average skin tone. Honestly, you could hold a tomato up to his face and not see any differences. Kyoya-Senpai is as serene and tranquil as he usually is but his navy-blue/black eyes show a completely different tale. He is conflicted and his emotions are beginning to show themselves which is a rare occasion for him.
In my mind I try to decode Kyoya-Senpai's explanation but I sight Kaoru fidget nervously with the dark leather belt of his uniform and my target is set.
"Kaoru, what is going on here?" From my stern, don't-mess-with-me voice, I'm pretty certain that he doesn't want to be on my bad side. The last time he got on my bad side, to an extreme, was when he and Hikaru played a prank on me and the others and pretended to be fighting just so I would let them come over to my house. From that encounter, I'm sure that both of Hitachiin twins know that to lie to me is the equal of grabbing a shovel and digging your own grave.
"Haven't you noticed, Haruhi?" Kaoru says with the Hitachiin signature smirk that means that they are up to no good. Kaoru and Hikaru move to being symmetrical once again with one of their hands on their hips making their bodies move inward on one another. The twins link hands and that shows me that the one of the right is Kaoru and Hikaru is on the left as if I hadn't heard Kaoru's soft voice come from him.
"The entire Host Club is in love with you." Hikaru finishes and I see that indeed everyone in the room squirms or begins to fidget slightly, confirming the twins' story. Kyoya-Senpai swiftly snaps his head to the left, away from me – with the knowledge that I can tell what he is thinking from a simple look in his feeble, emotional eyes. Tamaki-Senpai draws his dominant right hand to his face to hide the crimson that is spreading there. Honey-Senpai scratches the back of his head whilst his adorable auburn eyes stray from mine. Mori-Senpai stares emotionlessly at me for a moment and in the second that I take my eyes off him, I catch an inaudible sigh leaving his mouth.
"Mum, are you seeing this from heaven? This is where that broken expensive vase has led me to." I whisper as I run one hand over my pale, exhausted face. I had a mathematics exam, a biology green frog dissection – where I had to do all the work since Kaoru was throwing up and Hikaru refused to leave his twin - and a conversational French assignment due, so I am extremely tired and this entire situation is just annoying me.
Suddenly, I feel six pairs of eyes boring down on me as though they may have well have been red hot lasers. I look up to find that the other Host members appear sad. For a moment, I'm extremely confused and then I remember that I had just spoken out loud to my deceased mother. I roll my eyes, not at all in the mood to explain myself to them. They don't need to know that I've been talking to my mother almost every day since my young self, accepted that she was not on Earth anymore.
"So. What is the outcome of this, Kyoya-Senpai?" I inquire, dropping my heavy bag of textbooks onto the marble flooring next to a luxurious couch that I then relax on the couch, my head lessening against the gorgeous white velvet. Kyoya-Senpai is always three steps ahead of everyone else so I'm certain that he has already figured out the solution to this big dilemma. Kyoya-Senpai raises his eyebrow slightly, surprised but a sly smile makes its way onto his face.
"A competition." Kyoya-Senpai simply states. I huff exceedingly annoyed and entirely jumbled at his uninforming, unadorned response. At my physical reaction, Kyoya-Senpai nodded softly in my direction and went on to reason with me. "Every day for six days, you will go on a date with each of us. The dates will not be planned by you but by the person in which will accompany you. On the seventh day, you will chose whom you want to be with, if in face you do want to be with any of us by the end of the dates." Unfortunately, I understood every word he said and by the nodding Host Club, so does everyone else and they obviously agree. Honey-Senpai giggles happily and flings his legs back and front as he still positioned on Mori-Senpai's shoulders. Don't get me wrong, I like all the guys in the Host Club; most likely more than I should. That's why I'm not objected to the idea and that Kyoya-Senpai has given me that chance to not have anything come of this, if that's what I want.
"Fine." I sigh and lay my full body length on the couch. My head aches painfully as it usually does whenever I get sucked into one of their overly Tamaki-Senpai-inspired plans.
"We have to find a way to strategically place ourselves into the six days." Kyoya-Senpai informs the Host Club members as he turns to face them. Suddenly - somehow – the Hitachiin twins are pulling a large stand-up whiteboard out from a curtained area of the large abandoned music room and the entire Host Club minus myself is gathered around it. I hear snippets of conversations which fills the room softly. I sealed my eyes and relaxed for the first time today and tried to focus on the decisions that were being made and individual noises. Some people think that ocean sounds or classic music is calming – I used to but my new meditation-type sound is the dull, cheerful conversations of a wild club of attractive young men that I was forced to join.
"I want the first date." A composed, stoic voice says over the already senseless group. I open my eyes slightly in shock and lift my head. As I had assumed, the sentence's owner was none other than Mori-Senpai. Everyone else was just as surprised as I was, so Kyoya-Senpai scribbled up his name neatly into the perfectly drawn table. After around a half hour of me trying – and failing - to get some English homework done, Honey-Senpai rushes over to me with Usa-Chan held tightly in his grasp.
"Come on, Haru-Chan! We're done!" He giggles joyfully and grabs my skinny wrist, pulling me up from my seated position. As I stand, my text book and notebook fall off my lap and onto the ground. I huff for the second time. I feel like I'm going to be doing that a lot with this whole 'game show where you date all your guy friends whilst pretending to be a guy' thing.
Every one, mainly the Hitachiin twins and Tamaki-Senpai, stand next to the board like army soldiers ready to be deployed into the midst of battle. I sigh and look to Kyoya-Senpai.
"Kyoya-Senpai – oh!" Before I finish my sentence, a small notebook, turned to a fresh page, and a black pen into my hand. I take note of the day, time and person and carefully rip out the page. The table look something like this;
Day 1: 6:40pm – 10:30pm. Mori-Senpai. The Morinozuka private estate.
Day 2: 5:30am – 8:30am. Honey-Senpai. Ouran Academy entrance.
Day 3: 6:15pm – 11:30pm. Kyoya-Senpai. Ouran Academy entrance.
Day 4: 5:30pm – 11:00pm. Tamaki-Senpai. Ouran Academy entrance.
Day 5: 5:40pm – 11:15pm. Hikaru. The Hitachiin private estate.
Day 6: 5:40pm – 11:15pm. Kaoru. The Hitachiin private estate.
At least most of them don't last two long or start a little after the Host Club hours end so that I can get my homework done and a bit of revision for my history test. It dawns on me that I don't know what I'm going to be doing for any of these dates therefore I don't know what to wear. As I furiously write the last place of the time table, I ask to no one in particular; "What do I have to wear for each date?"
"The morning of each date, we'll have our maids drop off your outfit and your make-up." Kaoru clarifies and I huff indignantly. I had accepted that I would have to dress up and be waited on but wearing make-up is something that sends me horrid flashbacks from the Zuka club.
"So?" Tamaki-Senpai inquires expectantly as he and the others look at me, waiting on a verdict with hopeful glances. The situation is incredibly annoying and troublesome but I accept that it is the most intelligent way to come to an educated decision. It wasn't a strange or surprising fact that the other Host Club members liked me – loved even – instead it was my own emotions that left me in the dark, muddled, confused and questioning myself.
"Fine, I'll date you guys." I say, ignoring the weirdness of the sentence.