The music room was alive with the romantic buzz of naïve young women being charmed by sultry young men. The princely protégés wooed the young girls effortlessly with their unnaturally intense good looks and their arguably immense natural talent. The girl standing outside and peering in through the door tried to imagine the possible reactions she'd receive when she walked in. This world that she was witnessing, the entire entity of it, felt so foreign, so unreal. Everything felt so uncertain.
Finally, Tamaki-sempai, one of the only two people here she knew, caught a glimpse of her in the doorway. Immediately, he politely excused himself from the girl he was talking to and bounded over. "Mika-san!" He called. Not expecting anything less, Tamaki threw open the door and spun her around a couple times with his arms around her neck. "Mika-san! When did you get back? I knew you'd come!"
Rather than placate Tamaki with a response, Mika found herself preoccupied with the attention he had now drawn to them. "Uh, Tamaki? People are staring." she muttered.
Tamaki glanced up to see the semi circle that had formed around him and his guest. He paused for a moment and slicked back his hair. With a perfect half grin of sorts, Tamaki proclaimed, "Gentlemen, may I introduce, Suoh Mika, my twin sister."
After a few moments of an awkward silence, two boys who Mika assumed were identical twins, started laughing obnoxiously. "Twin sister?" they both chuckled.
"Yeah, right boss." one said, as they both began to circle around Mika like sharks.
"You do realize that just because you're both blonde doesn't make you twins right?" the other smirked, twisting a lock of Mika's hair.
"Hey, quit it." She tried to move herself away as the twins started pulling and playing with her hair and shirt, but her discomfort only encouraged them.
"Wow, are you really Tamaki's twin sister? That's so cool! Would you like a piece of cake?" a small boy asked. Mika appreciated the blonde boy's attempt to be friendly, but it was hard to appreciate his offer over the twins' taunting.
"I didn't know Tamaki had a sister." a rather feminine looking boy thought aloud.
"Hey you two!" Tamaki shouted, trying to get to Mika, "She's really my twin sister, we're fraternal, why would I be lying?"
Finally, Kyoya slammed the book he'd been writing in shut, drawing everyone's attention to him. "This is neither the time nor the place for inquiries." He gestured to the hoard of girls that had formed around them. "You all have services you need to attend to. Ms. Mika, if you would like, you may wait in the other room until all the appointments have been taken care of. If you would follow me…"
Looking at the girls apologetically, Mika slipped in between the twins and followed dutifully behind Kyoya, the second person she recognized here. "I'm sorry if I've caused trouble, Kyoya."
The dark haired 17 year old didn't look back as they weaved in between tea tables to the back of the room. "No apology is necessary. You cannot blame their curiosity."
He opened up a door, and Mika stepped into a room that looked as though it was a kitchen. Without turning around, she heard the click of the door closing, leaving her alone in the small room full of sweets. She pulled out a chair and sat down with a low sigh. With nothing else to do, she took a small, elaborately folded piece of paper out of her pocket and started playing with the edges.
"So Mika…" Mika jumped, startled by the voice, and was surprised to see Kyoya still standing by the door. When she had heard the door close, she had thought Kyoya had left. He hadn't. Instead, here he was, staring at her with those knowing and plotting brown eyes, cool over the thin rim of his glasses. The way he harmlessly leaned against the door was casual, but the air that filled the kitchen seemed thick and suspicious. "What are you doing here?"
Mika stood up, straightening her back while trying to nonchalantly hid the paper she had pulled out. She smiled coyly, trying to distract him, "Can't I just say I was in the neighborhood and wanted to say hi?"
"Funny, considering how you tend to leave the neighborhood without saying goodbye." Kyoya took a step forward, like a cat prowling towards a bird with a broken wing. "First you leave in the middle of the night two years ago…. And now, you expect me, expect us all, to believe you just decided to come back, with no explanation, for no reason?" Another step. "We both know better than that, Mika."
"Don't try to pretend like you care." Mika spat, though immediately embarrassed by how much bitterness she still had shown. "I'm here because I've decided I want to be here for my brother, all right Kyoya? That's it. Not all of us have ulterior motives."
Having gotten even closer to Mika, Kyoya smiled slightly and reached out to touch her cheek. A chill ran across her chest, and Kyoya smiled at her discomfort, "You know me too well." He turned back to the door, leaving Mika standing, blushing in the middle of the room. "Oh, and by the way, Mika." He pushed his glasses up his nose and gave a knowing smirk. "Welcome back."
