Chapter 1 – Invitations
One week before the new school year starts…
Miyu finally made it back to her home from her light jog. She took off one of her earphones and thanked the mailman as he was leaving the property. She opened up the mailbox and walked back to her house as she went through the letters. She finally stumbled upon eight peculiar letters; all the same type of envelope but each had a different symbol on the wax seal. There was a white lily, musical note, scroll, drama mask, chef hat, a black rose, a notebook and pen, and a judo gi. Miyu brought her lips to a small smirk and entered the house.
She passed by all the different puzzle portraits of her family and friends on her way to the kitchen. Something about puzzle portraits has a very significant meaning to her mother; something about her parent's relationship blossomed from one. Big or small pictures, her mother would convert them into puzzle format, as long as they were a significant part of her family life. Her mother chose the picture frames very carefully; they had to be sturdy. If there were ever an earthquake, the portraits would survive; God help them if the portraits ever fell apart. There were more puzzle pieces in this house than a store.
This is the second house Miyu has lived in. The first one was the one her parents first started out in. By the time Miyu turned 4, her father decided it was time to move. This place was bigger and stored more memories for Miyu than the previous home.
She entered the kitchen to see her parents eating breakfast. The kitchen table was small and fit enough for her family. Only when they have guests, do they go to the dining room. She sat down across from her mother, diagonal to her father. Her mother looked up to smile at Miyu and looked at her hands which held the letters; she narrowed her eyes to the ones on Miyu's right hand.
"You have a lot of letters for yourself there, sweetie. Are those your club invitations?" Miyu's mother brought that up as she reached over the table for the ones in Miyu's left hand, going over her and her husband's own mail.
"Yes, mother. I'm invited to the White Lily, Musical, Academia, Drama, Cooking, Black Magic, Newspaper, and Judo." Her mother was amused and teased her daughter, "Black Magic? What have you been up to?"
Miyu returned a teasingly secretive smile, "Nothing you wouldn't do yourself, mother." Chiyo laughed at her daughter's retort. Chiyo looked to her left to see her husband's face buried in the newspaper, she nudged him to put down the newspaper. Miyu finally gets to see her father's face this morning.
"Look at all the letters your daughter's received." Chiyo nodded toward Miyu's letters. Kyoya looked down to see Miyu's letter spread out on the table and looked back at Miyu, "Well done, Miyu."
"Is that it?" Chiyo asked incredulously.
"Well done, Miyu. Well done. No daughter can ever measure up to your excellence and you make me proud every day." Kyoya slow clapped for his daughter while sarcastically staring at Chiyo. Miyu laughed at her parent's exchange.
"It's okay, mother. I know what he means. I can decipher him as well as you can." Chiyo turned her head back to Miyu's direction and laughed, "Oh sweetie, I'm sorry, but you really don't."
"Sometimes. I'm getting better at it." Miyu defended. She so desperately wanted to know how her father was thinking, and even more desperate to prove it.
"You'll get there. You're just not there yet." Chiyo's words were words of encouragement and challenging, but Chiyo would slip in some ego-shattering words every now and then; one manipulative Kyoya was enough. One day her daughter will be her own person, and Chiyo hoped that as brilliant as she was, she'd be more humble than Kyoya was when he was her age.
"I bet your friends will call any minute." Chiyo said, taking a bite of her breakfast. They heard the phone rang. Kyoya looked over the top of his newspaper and raised an eyebrow to Chiyo. He wasn't sure whether he should be impressed or annoyed. Chiyo had such a sixth sense sometimes; he had so much respect for it and her intuition, it's got him out of so many predicaments.
Chiyo returned a smug expression she naturally learned from Kyoya and took another bite of her breakfast. You know how the longer couples stay together, the more they start to act like one another? Yeah, that one.
Miyu and Kyoya looked at one another. The eyes in the back of Chiyo's eyes were so strong, they could hardly tip toe around her. Miyu went to get the phone. As soon as she put her ear against it, she yanked it away as far as her arm would stretch out.
"So which clubs did you get into?!" Miyu waited until she heard no more screaming and slowly put the phone against her ear again.
"Kunio, chill out. We'll all be meeting today so I'll tell you then." Miyu ended the call without another word. The moment she set the phone down, the phone rang again. She sighed and answered it.
"That was very rude coming from you, Miyu. Tsk, tsk." Kunio teased over the phone but she could hear his whining pout.
"I'm sorry, Kunio. I will see you all in a couple hours. Let me finish my breakfast and let me have my morning to myself, alright? Goodbye." She hung up and went back to her seat.
"Where are you guys meeting?" Chiyo asked.
"Just the café by Ouran. Hiniku says that the clubs start tagging people a week before school starts. So after we grab some coffee, we're going to visit the different clubs." At Ouran Academy, club members are "tagged." The term means that the student belongs to that certain club. Each year, that student may choose a different club unless they have a final tag, which means they will remain in that same club for the rest of their high school career. If the student is a senior, which ever club he goes into technically is defined as a final tag. Students may or may not be an official/regular member of any club, depending on how the student wants to experience high school, but it looks better on the college resume when the student is tagged.
Miyu felt excited even though she didn't show it. She's the type of person who doesn't normally show all her emotions, like her dad in that sense. She stared at her invitations on the table; she didn't know which club she'd join yet. She, and the rest of her friends, also didn't expect the results.
Emi was the first to show all her invitations.
"I got the Drama club, the Fashion Club, White Lily, the Musical Club, and the Newspaper club." She held her head up proud with all her invitations. Emi was the prettiest of Miyu's close-knit friends. Like her uncle, Hikaru Hitachiin, she wears bold patterns, compared to her cousin, Hiniku, who seemed to act and dress more like her father.
"I only need one, but…" Kunio smugly showed the Ouran High School Host Club invitation clipped between his index and middle finger and then fanned out the four other Musical, Drama, Academia Excellentia, and the Cooking club invitations.
"It may not be a lot, but I realize, only these clubs dare to bring my prestige and excellence into their club. The other clubs can only dream." Kunio ran his hand through his dark brown hair he inherited from his mother, Haruhi.
"I'm already a final tagged member of the Ouran host club. I have no need for invitations." Hiniku shrugged. He was a humble yet adventurous and extroverted being. He had himself final tagged in the very beginning. It showed Miyu that he was outstandingly stable and unwavering; he was the one Miyu respected the most.
"I don't understand why you didn't final tag yourself to the Host Club, Kunio. You won't have to do initiation or be invited to any other clubs again." Emi wondered aloud. Her remark echoed Miyu's inward question. She looked to Kunio before he answered, knowing that he would.
"Are you kidding me? The invitations are the best. It makes me feel special and important." Kunio boasted like his overzealous father. Miyu slightly snorted in amusement, what a predictable guy. Like his father, Kunio always craves for the spotlight, something he naturally gets.
"I got Musical club, White Lily, and Drama club." Mihoshi's small but proud and happy smile always affected Miyu on the inside. Mihoshi was such a happy child like her father. Her sister on the other hand…
Hotaru didn't say a word but she did drop her invitations on the table: Black Magic, Musical, White Lily, Academia Excellentia, Drama club, and Newspaper. Hotaru and Mihoshi's face were absolutely identical but their hair was an automatic giveaway. Unlike Uncle Kaoru and Uncle Hikaru, Hotaru and Mihoshi had always used their hair to differentiate themselves. They were just as close as Kaoru and Hikaru have been but polar opposites. Hotaru is older than Mihoshi by seven minutes. Mihoshi is like her father, Mitsukuni, while Hotaru takes after her mother, Reiko. Together, they formed a balance like no other.
Hotaru and Mihoshi's distant cousin, Katashi Morinozuka was also silent when presenting his invitations, the Host Club, Gendai budo, Judo, and Musical club. Katashi was the only guy in their group who was never part of the host club, but the host club invited him every year. Katashi only assumed it was based on his father's legacy of being part of the host club. Katashi has been part of the Gendai budo club for the past three years now but as Kunio, he had also never final tagged himself in his club.
Now everyone looked at Miyu, who was the last to show her hand.
"White Lily, Musical, Academia, Drama, Cooking, Black Magic, Newspaper, and Judo." Miyu throwing out each invitation onto their table as she announced the clubs she was invited to. Everyone marveled at all her invitations, currently the highest record of their group, possibly the whole school record.
"You're so amazing, Miyu." Kunio's eyes brightened at his beautiful friend. Miyu only gave him a small smile, but inwardly, she was prouder than any of her friends, as she had the right to be.
"Oh, with all these clubs, you won't have any time to visit the host club!" Kunio whined.
"Don't worry; we will make sure we are your consistent customers." Emi showed support to her cousin and friend. Katashi made a quick glance at Emi, which Miyu caught.
The gang left to visit the different clubs of Ouran Academy…
A/N: And here we are, at the beginning of the new story! It's been...over half a year since I've announced the sequel? That's cool. Sorry for making everyone wait so long! Since you're here, you've probably read It's Strictly Business. Like that one, it takes a couple of chapters for the story to start rolling. So, I've put up three chapters, one because it's my apology for making you wait long, and two, because I need you guys to read the three of them first before you make a decision to continue or not.
BTW, unlike the previous story, I've not laid out every detail, so it will take longer time for me to post a new chapter. And also, I'm on my last year of college, woohoo! So yes, I have other priorities, and I've recently got into KPOP and I'm making short fics on tumblr as well. I'm super BTS trash right now (Kpop band). If you like them, and you like my writing, you can read it. I'm oneofthemillionARMY on tumblr. And because they're shorter, I update those more often in between these stories. Maybe I'll upload my BTS fic here too. Idk, it wouldn't take much time, but whatever, I'm too lazy.
One more thing, forgive me. I'm excited right now so I've probably got a lot of errors in these three chapters, rushing them out, as well as the prologue. I'll check back on them later to fix them. Enjoy!
