Haruhi kept her head down as she concentrated on the math questions in front of her. As she looked up to copy the next problem off the board, she could see some of the girls that sat close to her hurriedly stop talking. Giving Haruhi a quick disgusted glance, they buried their heads into their books. Once Haruhi placed her head down again, however, the whispering continued.

Haruhi sighed. It had been like this for days, ever since the leaflet going by the name "The Common Problem" had appeared. The content was crude and mainly false propaganda about "commoner" people, but they had caused a stir at Ouran high School. The people who were once her friends were now looking at her like she was dirt beneath their feet. No one knew who the makers of the leaflets were, but they had made Haruhi's school life very hard.

"He thinks he's so clever, I bet he only got into this school because he threatened his way here,"another girl giggled

"I heard his mother slept with the headmaster and begged him to let her son in."

Kaoru and Hikaru were scowling fiercely at their classmates. Hikaru stared at Haruhi; with her head still buried in her book and, and felt anger bubble up inside him. "Haruhi, can you not hear them!? While I'll!" But he was soon cut off

"Just leave it. Don't antagonise them, I'm sure it will blow over soon," she said, keeping her head down firmly to avoid attention.

"But Haruhi!" Kaoru objected angrily. "The things they're saying!" Haruhi shook her head.

"If you retaliate, more people will believe the lies of that leaflet, so please just ignore it!"

Hikaru and Kaoru looked at each nervously before grinding their teeth and getting on with their work.

The leaflets were jam packed with hateful articles. Yesterday, it was full of bogus facts, such as "one in every three commoners ends up in prison at one time of their life" and "85% of commoners will rather cheat and steal than work hard". "Factual" statistics everyone at the rich, prestigious high school believed, having grown up ignorant of "commoner" life.

Today's was a bunch of sob-stories related to what commoner people have done to them. One story was about a boy who had been running a charity event only to be beaten up and robbed of the money he had raised. The other was about a girl who was kidnapped from her mansion and used for ransom to get money from her family.

As the lesson drew to an end, the students bowed to the teacher and left for lunch. Haruhi was just stepping out of the door when a noise caught her attention.

"Oi, Fujioka!" Haruhi turned to see a couple of students sneering at her from further down the corridor. "You think you're big because you got in here despite being poor! Bloody commoners are all the same. You don't have to pay for this like we do! Guess it's true that all people like you would rather cheat than work hard."

"Uhhhh, look at him, invading our high-status school. Disgusting!"

"Filth," another spat, all looking at Haruhi with loathing. Haruhi kept her head down again as the twins quickly stood in front of her to form a shield.

"Haruhi" the twins started but Haruhi carried on shaking her head.

"Just take me to the music room okay" she said in a small voice. They sighed then Kaoru grabed her as Hikaru barged their way through the crowd heading towards the music room. Taunts could still be heard in the back ground.

"I heard his farther killed his mother" One girl giggled nastily

"Well I heard his father's a jobless tranny..."

They finally managed to get to the music room. Opening the door, Haruhi quickly stepped inside feeling relieved to be away from the vindictive crowd. Kaoru and Hikaru were breathing deeply in anger.

"Those bastards!" cried Hikaru. Tamaki, Kyoya, Hunny, and Mori had gathered around the three and stared anxiously at Haruhi.

"It's getting worse; we actually had to barge Haruhi out of the crowd this time!" exclaimed Kaoru, still panting.

Mori looked at Haruhi, who was regaining her breath. How could anyone be so cruel to her? He could see the fear and sadness reflecting in her eyes and he felt a sudden pang of sadness mixed in with a uncontrollable anger which was most unlike him.

Haruhi carried on shaking her head. "You can't retaliate, because then it will just convince more gullible people it's true. We have to just wait it out. It will be over soon."

Haruhi stared up at her friends crowding around her and felt slightly at ease. At least she had these friends to stick by her she though sadly. Heading towards one of the large arm chairs, Haruhi sunk down into it, catching her breath. The rests of the host were still looking at her with worry. Haruhi didn't think she had ever seen Tamaki look so stern and then twins were still fuming and glaring at the door.

Kyoya sat down on the sofa next to her before opening his laptop. His eyes seemed glazed as he started scanning the screen.

"Kyoya, do you know who is writing it yet?"

Kyoya shook his head, though he remained calm had an air of anxiety to him.

"My resources tell me it's defiantly not the newspaper club. I have also questioned them to see they have connections with any other writing club but they didn't know of any that would publish something like this. So we still have to clue who is spreading this atrocity, but we will find them." His threatening tone made everyone shiver slightly as he pretended not to notice.

Mori stared at her as he felt a painful sweep of empathy for the small girl.

Haruhi felt Mori's eyes on her and looked up to meet his eyes. "Are you okay Mori-senpai?" Mori averted his gaze as he felt himself flush before turning back to stare her in the eyes.

"Haruhi," spoke Mori looking at her again still feeling slightly flushed. Tamaki stared at the clock. It was time the host club should be opened. He looked nervously at Haruhi.

"Haruhi i think we should close the club for today..." But Haruhi yet again shook her head, massaging her forehead gently.

"No, please just try and keep everything normal. Plus i wouldn't want to be a pain to the club".

Everyone turned to glare at her and Haruhi gave a small smile.

"I know you don't think I would be a pain at all" She said still smiling slightly, "But i still think it is best to carry on as normal".

Tamaki and the twins nodded before heading outside to check the people wanting to come in were here for the right reason. Haruhi left herself shrink into the chair, feeling fear creep inside her. She stood and braced herself as she began following her duties. Just as she was about to make coffee however, Mori stood in front of her looking deadly serious.

"I will protect you." He stared straight into Haruhi's eyes with such intensity that Haruhi found herself unable to break the contact.

"eh?" Mori carried on staring at her, though she noticed he had gone pinker than before.

"I will protect you" He repeated still withholding the sombre eye contact.

She was slightly relived Hunny called Mori from the other side of the room. Mori gave Haruhi a quick, serious nod and then walked towards Hunny. Haruhi was still staring where Mori had been standing mere seconds ago. With the intensity of his words still running though her mind, she felt her unease lift slightly at this promise.

The club finally opened, but Haruhi noticed that it as wasn't full of swarming girls as normal. In fact, the numbers had been whittled down to nearly half of what it used to be. Haruhi found she had a lot less customer than normal as well. Most of the girls who came to talk to her chatted to her normally, but she noticed that some of them were looking uneasy. A few even kept flinching and looking at her apprehensively.

Haruhi looked around at the other hosts. They were working, but she noticed they kept looking at her in worry, all apart from Kyoya who was frantically pressing buttons on a calculator and scribbling things down.

Haruhi sighed. She could tell this was going to get worse before it got any better.

A/n

Ok well here's the first chapter! I hope you liked it and didn't think it was to cheesy. I tried to keep everyone in character as much as i could! Absolutely huge thanks to my brilliant Beta reader WhiteLightning for all her help with my appalling spelling and grammar errors!

So please red and review!

xxx