Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC or any of the things originally within the story.

Monster 'Man'

Written by Aaron Ledgers
Dedicated to Saelind, the heroine of this tale

This is very loosely based on a true story about my best friend: please be gentle, because some of the events you're about to read really happened.
Aside from, you know, the part where Sael-chan meets the host club. Lmao.

Prologue: Scarface!

Incomprehensible babbling... traffic... and the endless sound of shoes against the pavement: those three elements had become the center of her world.

Saelind irritably tried to stop glaring at the faces towering above her as she walked along the crowded streets, but all of the gawking stares were seriously getting under her skin. She didn't like being stared at by people, especially since she'd gone through so much trouble selecting her clothes to hide her body for that very reason. When a fat Asian man rudely shoved her aside without even bothering to apologize, however, the skinny girl twisted her body and tripped him without breaking stride. The man slowly got to his knees and turned to let out a snapping complaint, but Saelind merely turned her head and silently threatened him with a glare.

He froze like a mouse under a cat's claws; then he simply got up and hurried away.

Apparently, he was already aware that there was no point in complaining about a bruise to a person like her, which had saved Saelind some trouble.

The girl shook her head in disgust before withdrawing deeper into her hood, slowly lifting her arms and staring at the sleeves that hung off her hands in an almost ridiculous manner. A glimmer of her barely-visible aquamarine eye shifted through her dark hair as she stared at herself with hatred: she had gone through all the trouble of choosing her clothes to hide herself from everyone at her new school... but she had been horrified upon going inside.

It was a Private Academy... and not only that, but an Academy with a completely horrible uniform selection.

She'd been told on her first day that instead of wearing some casual clothes like she'd been expecting, she would have to wear the standard girl's uniform, which was really nothing more than a dress with anciently-styled puffed sleeves... and to her utter disgust, it was the most revolting shade of yellow she'd ever seen. She'd already lied to the school and told her superiors she couldn't afford it: they'd let her off easy, and told her that she could continue wearing her casual clothes until she could afford a proper uniform.

In truth, the outfit went hand in hand with all of the horrid frills that went along with being a 'cutesy' little Asian girl.

Unfortunately, she wasn't cute... nor was she Asian, or really anything like the girls in her new school: she didn't even have a Japanese heritage, since she was literally one-percent Korean and ninety-nine percent Russian all the way through. Back before the fire, she'd had extremely pale skin, rippling blue-green eyes, and somewhat pretty features: a typical teenage girl, really. In truth, she'd have looked like any other Caucasian female if it hadn't been for the shape of her eyes... they'd made her face look exceedingly exotic.

As a result of the unique way they'd slanted, her eyes had soothed other people no matter how she'd looked at them, angry or not.

That had been a long time ago, though... an unreachable past.

The New Saelind was a monster who horrified everyone she looked at: that's why she had hidden herself.

The day she'd transferred into Ouran High School, hushed murmurs had erupted down the hallways: however, unlike everyone around her, she had been wearing an enormously baggy green sweatshirt that ended just below her knees, and a pair of overly large blue jeans that crumpled near her ankles. Despite her absurdly tiny physique, her hood had been pulled so far over her head that nobody had been able to see her face clearly.

Then, much to her dismay, a girl had walked up to Saelind with a friendly smile and set a hand on her shoulder.

And, like she always did whenever someone touched her, she'd hissed like a snake and slapped the girl's hand away with all of her strength.

Then she had lifted her head, looked right at the offending Asian girl, and practically spat the words she'd wanted everyone hear.

"Don't touch me," she'd hissed, glaring into the girl's eyes. "Ever. I swear to god I'll bite your fingers off if you put your hands on me again!"

And with that, she had grumpily shoved past the offender and continued on her way. Dead silence had immediately reigned free, since a terrified 'popular' girl had been left in her wake. She'd slowly sank down to her knees and hugged herself with shaking arms. When her friends came rushing over and fretted over her bruising hand, she didn't even notice: her brown eyes had gone blank with horror.

"His face!" she'd whispered, slowly bringing her hands up and shakily covering her mouth. "His face... it's gone! He's a monster!"

And that is how, in all honesty, Saelind's odd reputation as the 'Monster Man' had been born.

Which pissed her off in two ways, since everyone had apparently mistaken her as a boy: she wasn't pretty, but she sure as hell wasn't that ugly!

When she finally stopped in front of her empty apartment, the shadowed teenager struggled to move her legs in order to head inside.

However, she couldn't seem to make her feet budge: she was reluctant to go into the empty void that claimed her hours after school, because her home merely made her realize that much further how alone she was... made her realize that there would never be anybody waiting for her. As she stood there in front of her apartment door, struggling to move, a woman with reddish brown hair noticed her rigid posture and stopped on her way into the extravagant building just next door.

For several moments, she merely stared at Saelind.

"Did you get locked out?" the woman finally called in a shockingly manly voice, making Saelind jump and whirl to face her. "If you did, you're welcome to stay at my place until your parents get back... after all, we neighbors have to be courteous to each other, right?"

Saelind opened her mouth to snap at her, to tell her not to butt in, but the woman was already grabbing her hand and dragging her away.

This was the biggest reason why she hated being so small: anybody could manhandle her and she was helpless to do anything. The woman pulled her up a flight of stairs and gently unlocked the door to her old-fashioned Japanese suite before pulling the hooded girl inside and closing it; Saelind merely stood there with her head lowered and her fists clenched, muscles shaking with barely concealed anger. Apparently, the woman mistook her rage at being manhandled for fear, since she glanced at her quivering body and covered her mouth in a motherly manner.

"Don't worry," the woman drawled in a manly tone, patting her head without noticing how she recoiled away. "I'm sure your parents will come home soon."

When she pattered off into another room and sat down, Saelind merely stood where she was, mouth twisting up in hatred.

"Parents?" she inaudibly sneered, feeling the urge to break something. "Good one."

She instantly shook her head and wiped her stinging eyes: she didn't even want to start thinking about that; she didn't want to remember why she'd ended up living all alone in a dingy one-room apartment halfway around the world. She didn't want to remember why she'd been sent to live alone in a foreign country by herself. However, her reality was impossible to hide from: the reason for this change had been permanently etched onto her face.

Her father had walked out on their family after the accident had destroyed her looks, and her mother had purposely sent her away.

After a moment of standing in the middle of the stranger's entryway, calming down her anger, Saelind slowly moved forward until she'd made it to the nearest chair: the woman had already flopped down on the couch and flicked on the enormous flat screen. She was currently watching a soap opera with a fairly bored expression. After a moment, however, Saelind narrowed her eye and looked closer when she noticed a gray area on the woman's chin.

Facial hair? she abruptly wondered, blinking in confusion when the woman scratched her chin with a yawn. No way... I'm seeing things.

However, for the first time in a long while, the girl very nearly jumped out of her own skin since the woman actually pulled her hair off with a sigh.

"Holy sh—!" She squeaked, flinching backwards in shock. "I… I-I… um, I'm, uh...! I'm, uh—!"

"Yeah, I know," the drag-queen sighed nonchalantly, rubbing a cloth over his make-up dabbed eyes with a sigh. "I get those reactions a lot."

Saelind chose not to make a comment, since she was sure the words that came out of her mouth would have been less than pleasant.

However, when she sat down and shrugged her backpack off, he... she... it glanced at her, so she purposely lowered her head.

For several moments, she sorted out the schoolwork she'd ignored in class... but then she flipped open her textbook and started working on it.

Ever since the accident, she'd been having issues with not being able to concentrate around other people, so she'd come up with an ingenious strategy to get out of doing her work in school: she would simply daydream until class was over, then walk up to the teacher and ask him or her for everything she needed to complete the work outside of school. As a result, she'd gotten past her issues with socializing and getting called on in class.

"Is that a calculus worksheet?" the drag queen suddenly asked, taking note of her high school textbooks with raised eyebrows. "Wait... how old are you?"

For a long moment, the girl's fingers froze: there was a lengthy pause for several minutes afterwards, broken only by the sound of the television.

"I'm Fifteen," Saelind finally muttered, scowling at the sound of her own high-pitched voice. "I'll be sixteen in two months."

"You're the same age as my daughter!" the man gasped, eyes lighting up in surprise. "That's kind of shocking, though... when I first saw you, I actually thought you were in elementary school because of how small you were! That's why I got nervous and brought you in here... this isn't exactly the safest neighborhood in the world, so I apologize if I upset you or made you feel uncomfortable. It's a mother thing, you know?"

"No," the girl bluntly retorted, sliding the sleeve covering her right hand up and revealing her small white fingers, "so I won't pretend that I do. And anyway, only women can be mothers."

Her response elicited a startled silence from the man.

"Well, if you say so," he finally sighed, flopping back down with a sigh. "Haru-chan is probably going to come home around dinner time."

Saelind, however, was too busy scrawling down the answers to her math problems to care.

She was getting her work done at an abnormally rapid pace since everything she'd been given was absurdly easy. The girl had personally asked her teacher for an advanced form of math since he'd been teaching things that were already well beneath her level of skill. Her instructor had looked highly offended when Saelind had calmly informed him that he was teaching stuff that kindergarteners could figure out, but it was the truth: the differences in Japanese schools and Russian schools were incredibly vast.

All of the stuff her new Japanese high school was 'teaching' would have been considered Elementary back in Moscow.

Her level of study was already college level in Japan since the educational expectation was a lot lower there than it was in Russia.

Everything that Saelind had been taught back home was something that everybody had to know in order to survive: it was common knowledge. However, in Japan, her intelligence was extremely advanced compared to the people around her as a result of the different cultures. On top of that, she had no language barrier since she'd been raised in a family that constantly spoke in English, Russian, and Japanese: to put it simply, she already felt as though she were surrounded by a bunch of idiots.

"Hmm... not good," the drag queen suddenly muttered, lifting a finger and tapping his chin. "I forgot that Haruhi has a job to do with that club of hers, so she won't be back until much later. I wonder what I should order for dinner tonight? Chicken wings or pizza?"

Saelind's hand froze and she instantly grimaced in disgust.

"Neither is healthy for you," the girl muttered without thinking; however, she winced at her own stupidity when the man blinked at her. "What? It's true: the companies who run those types of restaurants load their food with ingredients that aren't good for the body. Some companies even add a highly addictive chemical that can cause a minor withdrawal... it's a chemical that makes your body crave their food."

"EH?! No way!" the man squealed, sitting up with a startled expression. "Are you serious?! Why have I never heard about that?!"

"How the hell should I know? It's common knowledge all over the world," Saelind sourly explained, lifting her head and regarding him with a half-hidden teal eye. "Ordering take out can even lead to health problems in the long run, depending on how much you eat. Once in a very long while is all right, I guess, since it'd be like going to a fancy store or eating unhealthy cakes... but doing it consistently isn't healthy for you at all."

"I never knew that! What should I do, then?!" the man asked, covering his mouth in horror; Saelind frowned at him, wondering if the man was really a parent like he'd claimed. He was acting more like a woman himself than a grown man, which was extremely weird to her. "My daughter loves pizza and take-out chicken wings, and I don't know how to cook! The last time I tried, I almost burned this apartment down!"

The drag queen looked at Saelind as though he expected her to have the answer.

"Learn how to cook," the girl suggested coldly, lowering her eyes down to her paper and finishing the last three problems. "That's all I can say."

"I can't do that in one night!" the man wailed, falling over and kicking his legs in horror. "I'd be a failure as a parent if I let my daughter eat food with drugs in it, so what the heck can I do?! I don't know how to cook! Ahhhh! What am I gonna do about dinner tonight?!"

"Shut up already," Saelind finally hissed, snapping her book shut and ignoring how the man gawked at her in offense. "If it bothers you that much, I'll make something edible for you two to eat. It's really not that difficult, so please stop whining like a baby and act your age. Aren't you an adult?"

For several moments, the man's mouth hung open and he looked thunderstruck by her insulting demand.

"Thank you for the offer to make dinner tonight... I'll gladly accept it," the drag queen muttered, frowning at her in obvious offense. "However, that statement you just made was completely out of line. I'm going to inform your parents about it the moment they get home. That reminds me... when are your parents getting home? I was so excited when I heard that a new family was moving in next door that I didn't sleep at all last night! I was kind of hoping to make friends with them."

Saelind froze where she was sitting and slowly seemed to turn to marble.

"Sorry to burst your bubble," the girl chuckled darkly, not lifting her head from her papers, "but those hopes of yours were meaningless. I don't have parents, so the friends you were so eager to meet are never going to come. Not like it would matter even if they did... people like that are worthless."

With that, she stood up and shouldered her bag before heading for the doorway, leaving behind a gaping Asian man with stunned brown eyes.

"W-where are you going?" he demanded, looking at her with an uneasy expression.

"My apartment... and the store," the girl retorted, pausing with her hand on the knob. "I'm going to grab everything I need to make a proper meal since I don't feel comfortable using your belongings. Then I'm going to get all of the ingredients required to make a proper meal. End of story."

With that, she opened the door and stalked outside, wondering why she was bothering with such an annoying and creepy person in the first place.

Her first day as a freshman had been pretty uneventful aside from getting slapped across the face by a girly Asian boy, but the random students who had tried to become chummy with her had been properly warned away. She didn't want any false friends like the ones she'd had back in Russia... she had been popular all through junior high simply because she was pretty and rich. That was all: they'd never liked her for the kindness she'd shown.

However, Saelind hadn't cared about her appearance: in fact, most of the time, she'd been kind of oblivious to her looks.

The most she'd ever really done was brush her hair, and that was for reasons that she didn't really want to think about.

Even now, she didn't care... nor did she care about what people thought of the scars on her face. Aside from her burns, the color of her eyes, and her hair, everything about her was ordinary: her height didn't want to extend over the five-foot mark, so she was currently stuck being four feet and six inches tall. Her hair was the only interesting thing she had to offer in the way of appearances now... but she saw no point in showing it off since she didn't really like people.

And yes, that also included male people: forget trying to find a boyfriend... in a school like hers, no decent guy would ever be hanging around since everyone was totally spoiled. She hated the fact that their lives were so easy, but even more than that, she hated that they took it for granted... as if it was their right to be living in luxury.

It made her want to vomit.

After heading into the grocery store and grabbing everything she needed, the hooded girl stalked through the crowded sidewalks and went into her apartment for a skillet: the only items she personally owned were cooking-related, which was kind of a downer, but at the same time... she didn't care, since she didn't plan on staying after she graduated.

Once that was finished, she went next door and knocked on the entrance to drag queen's home.

"Come in!" he trilled in a singsong voice, making her wince. "I know it's you, kiddo!"

Saelind merely wrinkled her nose and opened the door before carefully bringing everything in.

She ignored the girly man's mesmerized stare in favor of bringing the bags into his kitchen and unloading them.

"When do you think your daughter will be home?" the small girl demanded, not turning around. "I need a time frame in order to start this."

"She'll be back around seven tonight," the man explained, blinking in surprise. "I think it's time we introduce ourselves, though... my name is Ryoji Fujioka, but you can call me Ranka since I don't like being addressed with my given name! It makes me feel like an old man! What's your name?"

"Saelind Heseroph," the skinny girl curtly retorted, already turning the stove on and oiling the skillet. "This should take about an hour to make properly, so it should be done by the time your daughter gets home. After that, I'm going home."

"Aw... aren't you going to stay for dinner?" Ranka asked, frowning at the girl when her muscles tensed. "Come on, I'd feel bad if you didn't."

"Fine," she muttered, mouth pressing into a flat line. "In return, don't ever bother me again. Please."

Another long silence ensued after her alarmingly cold statement.

The drag queen merely stared at her hooded back with furrowed brows, but Saelind was so lost in what she was doing that she didn't even notice when he left the room and flopped back down on the couch. The pale girl cooked and sauteed everything the way she'd been taught in order to make her father's famous stir fry turn out right, and by the time it hit six fifty eight, it was ready. When she walked out of the kitchen and sat down on the floor in the corner of Ranka's old-style living room, he blinked at her and got up, puttering off into the kitchen.

However, a disturbingly high-pitched shriek immediately split the air, making the girl jump.

"WOW!" Ranka shrieked, tearing out into the living room with stunned eyes. "Did you really make all that?!"

"Yes," Saelind curtly retorted, not lifting her head from her knees. "It's a simple dish, though... there's no need to get so worked up."

"Are you kidding?!" the man exclaimed, running back into the kitchen with a cry of delight. "Even with Haruhi's delicious cooking, the last time the two of us had a meal like this was ten years ago at a fancy dinner party! This is anything but simple, and on top of that it looks absolutely delicious! Where on earth did you learn how to make it?!"

Saelind didn't answer: she saw no point in disclosing anything about her father's culinary skills.

Or even the fact that her father was a famous chef who often appeared on television.

She sat in the corner for about ten minutes, listening to the sound of clanking dishes and silverware coming from the dining room nearby; however, she flinched when the man unexpectedly appeared out of nowhere and tapped her arm, letting out a serpentine hiss. Ranka immediately drew back and stared at her with a startled expression since seeing a teenage girl hiss like an animal was extremely uncommon.

"Don't touch me," Saelind hissed, speaking in an extremely low voice. "I don't like being touched... ever."

"Well, if you say so," the drag queen mumbled, staring at her with a wary expression. "I was only going to tell you that the table is ready."

"Then say so without touching me," she muttered, getting to her feet with an irritated posture; the man followed her path with his eyes, looking somewhat disturbed and confused by her personality. After a moment, he followed her into the dining room and watched as she gripped the plate he'd set and switched it over to the farthest edge of the table: he furrowed her brows when she folded her hands and murmured, "Blagodarnost' za yedoy."

"What did you just say?" Ranka asked, taking a seat as well and watching as she popped a mouthful of food into her hood. "I didn't understand it."

"It was Russian," Saelind absently explained, speaking in a monotonous deadpan. "It's an honorary way of giving thanks. It's similar to the custom that people here in Japan have... you know, how they say a little thanks before they eat? You could say it's our version of that."

"Oh, so you're from Russia?" Ranka asked, winding some of the stir-fry around his fork before popping it into his mouth; the man's eyes instantly went blank since an explosion of delicious flavor rocketed into his nerves. For the first time in his entire life, Ranka almost broke down and cried after having one taste of food: it was so shocking to him that he didn't even know what to do. "Dear Lord... this is... wow! It's amazing!"

Saelind merely ate in silence, refusing to acknowledge his enthusiasm.

She had always been like this, though, even at her previous school. In class, the teachers had never called on her: they'd acted as though they couldn't see her. At lunch, she'd practically vanished from the world after slipping into the hallways: nobody ever really paid attention to her unless a new rumor had spread. After school, she'd always sat on the steps out front, waiting for someone... anyone... to come rescue her.

Rumors upon rumors had flooded around the longer she'd stayed at her last school, ensnaring her...

"Oh, my God! Carlisle, look at her face! I can't tutor that child!"

Tormenting her...

"She's a freak, so don't hang out with her during lunch: I heard from Maria that her face is all messed up because she tried to burn some guy to death with a tank of gasoline! Stay away from the burned girl unless you want her to go psycho on you!"

Twisting her...

"Why does that girl even go to class? She never talks, she never moves, she just sits there and stares at her textbook cover for hours without moving a muscle. It's actually very disturbing, and several of her classmates have already complained that they can't focus when she's in the room. Can't we put a cubicle in the corner so the other students can study better?"

And breaking her.

Even though she'd done her best to fade away into the shadows, the few who noticed were never nice: she had been perpetually branded as an outcast.

This hadn't always been the case, though... shockingly enough, there had once been a time when Saelind had been the most loving and tender-hearted girl for miles around. A long time ago, her former self had given her things to people more in need of them... she had been recklessly kind and had always believed that, when the time came, someone would be there... anyone.

But no one had come.

In her darkest hour, not a single person came to help her... and the kindness in her heart shattered with the cold reality that she was alone. A reality that came with pain that had etched itself so deep into her subconscious that no amount of love could ever heal it. Because that time had been crucial: she had finally stretched out her hands for someone, anyone, to help her the way she'd done for them... but what she'd gotten instead was an unending chain of cruelty. Unlike the physical injuries she'd sustained, these had come after the burns had been inflicted on her.

She'd loved them, trusted them, did everything she could to help them, and in the end... she was trash. Filth.

Nothing.

Once Saelind had realized that she was completely alone, the darkness that filled her soul was so black that it had nearly crushed her. She'd felt as though she hadn't been able to breathe... as though she'd fallen beneath an ocean of shadows... and her kind expression had gone dark. Had stayed dark, even when months began to pass and people once again started needing her help and comfort.

However, the girl they'd been looking for had been destroyed.

They had come, one after the other, only to find not the loving girl that had always been there to make people feel better... but a frigid young woman who's undamaged eye was so cold that her glare shot clean down into the soul. She had been left alone in the dark... alone, unloved, harassed... and because of it, her heart had shattered like a mirror in the face of the world's hate.

During the time when everyone had turned their backs on her, Saelind had forced herself to become empty... she had become a living doll in order to endure the pain of being alone... but there had been no escaping. The darkness had never truly faded: it had merely filled the emptiness she'd created, eating at the pieces of her heart from the inside. It had turned her so bitter and angry that she now wanted to loathe the world instead of love it.

And so, she had returned the feelings of suffering that had been inflicted upon her by doing the same thing to everyone who'd needed her.

She had left all of the people who'd truly needed help to face their agonies alone.

After all, Karma was the biggest bitch in the world... although, Saelind was well on her way to catching up to it.

The girl was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of the front door opening.

"Dad? I'm home... Tamaki-senpai threw an entire dance for the girls at the Host Club on top of the normal activities, so that's why I'm a bit late," a tired voice called, letting out a groan before the footsteps paused. "Hey, something smells really good! Did you order fancy food? Oh, never mind... you won't believe what happened at school today, though! Some new kid smacked Renge, and I ended up getting detention for slapping him back! Can you believe that?! The jerk smacked a girl and got off free!"

"Really?!" Ranka called, eyes widening in surprise; Saelind finished the last bit of her food and set her fork down just as a girlish boy with glossy brown hair walked into the dining room. He was wearing the standard navy school blazer for boys, as well as a red tie, and a pair of black school slacks. He had slender legs, large honey-brown eyes, and flawless skin.

"Yeah, really!" the boy sighed, hanging his coat on the rack without even glancing at the table. "He was really rude. Anyway, what's for dinner?"

"Oh, it's absolutely delicious!" the drag queen gushed, popping another bite into his mouth. "Our new neighbor made it for us!"

"Eh? What new neighbor?" the brunette asked, turning and glancing at the effeminate male for the first time; however, when his eyes flicked past his father and he noticed the figure in the green hoodie sitting at the end of the table, he gasped and dropped his bag. "No way... what's he doing here?!"

"What do you mean, Haruhi?" Ranka asked, frowning at him in confusion. "He's our new neighbor."

"Seriously?" Haruhi snorted, lifting his arm and pointing with half-lidded eyes. "Um, Dad? This kid is the same one I slapped. You sure he isn't a stalker?"

Saelind immediately stood up and slammed her fork down.

"Sorry, but who would even want to stalk someone like you?" the tiny girl hissed, lifting her head and glaring with a barely visible teal eye from within her shadowy hood. "I don't even want to be here, so I'm going home now. Enjoy your dinner... and please, tell this transvestite to leave me alone from now on."

With that, she swept towards their front door and left the room, not even noticing how Ranka glared at Haruhi.

"What got into him?" Haruhi wondered, blinking in confusion. "I was only kidding about the stalker thing."

"That wasn't very nice," the man stated in a soft tone, giving the brunette a reproachful glare. "He spent an hour doing this for us, you know..."

"So what?" Haruhi deadpanned, looking at her father with a disbelieving expression. "Like I said, I was only joking."

"He didn't see it that way, so I want you to apologize first thing tomorrow morning, young lady," the man retorted, making Haruhi turn pale. "Also... walk with him to school."

"Okay, fine," the girl-in-disguise sighed, looking totally baffled. "If you think I should, I will... but really. I wasn't serious."

"Once again: he obviously thought you were," Ranka firmly explained, getting up and bringing his plate into the kitchen. "Now... go to your room. What you just did was wrong."

"Yes, sir..." Haruhi mumbled, heading down the tiny hall and throwing her door open. "Wow... last time I got in trouble like this was... twelve years ago?"

However, when she sat down at her desk and started reaching for her lamp to turn it on, she noticed something strange about the window that had always been not even a meter away from her own. Because the buildings in her neighborhood were so close together, it wasn't all that shocking to find windows on opposite buildings facing each other.

In fact, a lot of people would sometimes open their windows and have conversations with each other.

The window across from her own had been dark for as long as she could remember, but now... a light was shining in another room. However, her eyes widened in horror and she ducked down when the hooded boy from earlier walked into the room: his shoulders were sagging and he looked completely worn out... but for the first time that day, he took his hood off. And the girl stared, not comprehending what she was really seeing.

From behind, all she could see of his head was a bulge of shiny black stuff.

Then he lifted his arms and took off his hoodie... and Haruhi's eyes widened in shock: the moment he pulled his baggy shirt off, his Jet black hair immediately slid down around shoulders and tumbled down to his thighs like a rippling waterfall. Tendrils of his beautiful hair slid against his pale skin as he moved over to the wall and slipped his shirt onto a coat rack. Then, he reluctantly pulled a yellow outfit out of a box and stared at it.

Haruhi watched with uneasy eyes: he was shirtless, but that had only revealed to her how small the kid really was.

He was abnormally slender... and on top of that, his proportions seemed to be a little underdeveloped: he looked younger than fifteen.

However, when he turned around and held the yellow outfit out, the girl twitched since she noticed it was a dress.

And not just any dress, but the Ouran Academy princess uniform for girls.

Then Haruhi saw 'his' chest and froze.

Apparently, the new kid wasn't exactly a boy like everyone thought because 'he' was wearing a bra.

However, then she caught sight of Saelind's face.

And froze.

The way her bangs had been styled did a damn good job of hiding it, but the new girl's face was covered in burn scars. And in truth, right then, Haruhi didn't even realize just how bad they were until the girl shifted her hair to the side and started brushing it. The entire left half of her body had been covered with this same scarred flesh: there wasn't an inch of her on that side that had been left unaffected.

Even her hand and arm had been burned.

"Oh, my god..." Haruhi whispered, slowly sliding down and pressing her back against the window sill. "What the heck happened to that girl?!"

However, because of the moment she'd chosen to turn away, Haruhi didn't see how Saelind stepped over to the corner and slid to the ground.

She didn't see it when she buried her face in her knees and curled up into a little ball.

She didn't see any of it.

And sadly, she didn't even want to.

Her life was hectic enough at school with the host club... but now, she had a feeling that her home life was about to get just as difficult.

"What a way to start a new week of school," Haruhi muttered, head thumping against the wall. "Yay."