Haruhi sat under the cherry tree where her host table was set. The weather was pleasant, so Tamaki arranged for an outdoor club day, which the girls around the school always buzzed about. They loved the fresh air and scent of flowers, as it made the mood much more soothing, magical, and romantic. Kyoya definitely loved that it improved business.
Before the customers arrived, Haruhi was intensely concentrated, poring over her math notes, as finals were already coming close and she needed all the time she could get. However, one particular person was being a bit distracting.
"Haruhiiii." The oddly endearing, excitable, and certainly obnoxious Host King suddenly appeared by her right side and was trying to get her attention, but she was trying to ignore him. Upon her silence, he draped his arms on her shoulders and pressed his face against the top of her head, which startled her and made him laugh. She tried to wiggle out of his hold, but her seating position made it very difficult and awkward.
"What is it?" she finally asked. "I'm busy." Honestly, he was being a bit bothersome.
"I want to go to a commoner's movie theater soon. They seem so fun!" Tamaki said. He let go of the light hug he had her in and sat in one of her guest seats. He propped his head up in one hand and leaned to face her.
"You know they're just movie theaters right? We don't normally call them 'commoner's movie theaters'" Haruhi said. "And really," she added, "I don't know that I've got extra money to spend on that." She had to spend carefully with her budget, and that didn't include Tamaki's whims and fascination with the lower class. She wanted to tell him he could just go on his own, but she also feared the chaos he could cause, even if he was supervised by Kyoya.
"Oh come on Haruhi! You work so hard you should be able to enjoy yourself now and then, and they're surely not that expensive. I'll pay for you. Don't even worry about it adding to any of your debt," he pleaded. Haruhi was cruelly reminded of the debt, and the image of the first day incident was recalled in her head as clear as when it happened.
"No, I really couldn't ask you to do that," she responded, as politely as she could.
"You're so cute!" he exclaimed, wanting even more to spoil her. "What could I do to convince you to come with me?" he asked.
He sounded pretty desperate and... oh Lord... he had such innocent, begging eyes. Maybe it would be fairly harmless to let him treat her...
"I think the weekend after exams would be nice to unwind," she said. Tamaki's face immediately lit up, and he jumped out of his seat with a shout of joy and gave her a very sudden and overwhelming hug, uncaring of her annoyed mutters.
Then he gave a shout of fear as he saw the Hitachiin twins on the other side of Haruhi. She turned to locate the source of his outcry, and found herself unsurprised to see Hikaru and Kaoru, grinning and leaning on each other.
"Hey Boss, did I hear you say you wanted to go to a commoner's movie theater?" Hikaru asked, no actual seriousness to his question whatsoever. His tone was perfectly accompanied by his mischievous smile.
"Oh no no no! Not with you two!" Tamaki said, pulling Haruhi closer to him and earning muffled protests from her.
"Aw, but we're in Haruhi's classes. It would only be fair for us to have fun after exams with her too," Kaoru said. Again, there was no innocence between the pair of brothers as they did their best to get a rile out of Tamaki. Sure, they may have wanted to join in the commoner novelty, but there was always more to it.
"Yeah and we wouldn't want to leave her alone in your pervert hands in a dark space," Hikaru said, which caused Tamaki to yell his defense as the twins laughed.
Suddenly, Honey, who had been eavesdropping the entire time, piped in, "Takashi and I want to go to a commoner'a movie theater with Haru-chan too!" Mori gave a singular, confirming nod. The party was adding up quickly, which seemed typical around these guys, Haruhi thought.
"It could prove an interesting experience," Kyoya added from a nearby table, not looking up from his black book he was working in.
So it seemed the entire club invited itself to hanging out with Haruhi yet again. How did she let this happen so easily? As Tamaki argued, primarily with the twins, she had to interrupt.
"But I'm only going to go if I meet my goals on my scores," she said. "I have them set at a minimum of low As. If I accomplish that, I'll go with you guys to the movies."
"Of course! You're so smart that it'll be so easy for you!" Tamaki replied. Echoes of agreement between Honey, Hikaru, and Kaoru made it clear they didn't get the point.
"What I mean is I need you all to leave me alone so I can focus," she explained. She felt a little bad for crushing their smiles, but she needed to be able to take a couple of subjects more seriously and with approximately six less forces of disturbance.
"Currently, the club will begin soon anyway. I suggest you all get to your places before customers arrive," Kyoya told them, closing his book and standing. And so it began.