Eyes closed, hand extended. A dazzling, laser-whitened smile that appeared with the words "host club." He looked like a foreign model with the sun in his hair and theatrical pose. Tamaki Suoh opened his eyes cautiously when it sunk in, after an awkward pause, that I did not really care to reply.

I would have gotten up and left at that moment if not for the familiar translucent figure studying Suoh intently. I knew that look. A minute later, the form moved around the blonde, circling him, turning him over in his mind, sizing him up. Even as he passed in front of him, those wide, naive eyes stayed glued to me. There's a reason for that.

"Move over, Kaoru," the shadow said calmly.

I shifted against the fountain, sliding a step to the left and dragging my bag with me. Suoh gave me an odd, hurt look. He lifted a foot to step back in front of me before he was shoved into the fountain.

The figure laughed, a sweet, deep, rumbling sound that the rest of the world could not hear. I told him once that it was a shame, him having such a beautiful laugh and me being the only one who could hear it. And that had made him laugh a bit, and he swore that I was enough. I was his world.

It was the least I could do to make him my world. This host club would take away time and focus from him, so it was natural he would not be fond of the idea.

I sighed and shook my head, picking up my book to walk slowly off. I did not always like it, though, seeing him being mean to other people.

"Halt!" Suoh called after me.

I paused and turned my head slightly to the side, seeing the blonde in my peripheral vision. He scrambled over the edge of the fountain and toward me, not knowing that he stood with his shoulder almost touching my shadow's. The next words out of his mouth were, surprisingly enough, not about the invisible force that had pushed him into the water. "My offer stands. Our doors are always open to you."

"You're giving up? Just like that?" My shadow flicked the taller boy's cheek, who slapped himself as if he thought it was a bug. "What happened to your resolve? You'd be lucky to have Kaoru in your club!"

"If you can find my twin, I'll join your club," I blurted out, ignoring the shocked look my shadow gave me.

Suoh didn't speak to me for two years.

Two years later, I cut my hair and gelled it into a different position. When the hairdresser spun me around to look in the mirror, my shadow stood behind me and met my gaze. His hair was cut identically as usual, but parted on the opposite side. For the first time, looking at him face-to-face really did feel like looking in a mirror.

I asked him why it was different when we were alone.

"Now I can feel more like Hi-Kaoru." He broke his name into two parts, and for a second I thought he had pronounced his own name wrong. "You may think of me like a shadow or clone or something, but I am my own person."

What a depressing life he must have led, with only one in his world.

Thoughts like that always made me wonder if he really was a figment of my imagination, an old side of me or even an imaginary friend beneath the cobwebs of my memory. I can never remember a time when he was not by my side. Sometimes, I stared at him, trying to piece it all together. He was not a ghost. He could not walk through walls or fly. My twin, as I like to refer to him, was very much human, aside from two minor details: he could never be seen by anyone other than me, and even to me, his appearance had some oddities. He was darkly tinted and partially transparent. His clothes - old-fashioned Oriental-looking black silk, no shoes, and an out of place wristwatch - seemed to grow with him. Aside from the watch, he had worn the same clothing for as long as I could remember.

I had a white outfit myself, the closest thing to what he wore I could find. It felt right to match him. But this year, I would be wearing the school uniform.

"Kaoru," he whined. "You're pretty spacey today." He frowned and put his hands on my shoulders, the warmth sinking into my bare shoulders. "Come on, focus. It's the first day of your first year in high school. There will be new people who won't know that you're mine." My shoulders shook a bit beneath his hands, and he smirked at my reaction. "It's going to be a long day."

Hikaru moved over to our window and looked out at the limo. My- our driver waited outside already, I guessed from the look on his face, but I decided not to move until he continued. He inhaled, about to say something, but he let it out in a sigh.

My shadow turned and started downstairs without me.

My twin was sinking sullenly into his usual seat of the car when I got there. He hadn't even been at breakfast, not that he needed to eat. Something weird must be going on for him to leave me for so long. After all, when he wasn't around me, it was like he didn't exist at all.

"Something changes today," he muttered uneasily, not looking at me.

"Hm?" I turned toward him, my knee touching his leg.

"I feel bad." He grimaced.

I couldn't throw my arms around him with the driver in front, so I settled for grabbing his hand.

"Can we skip class today?" He met my eyes for the first time since we'd left, pleading.

Hikaru knew I couldn't just do that.

A frumpy little person was in the seat I had chosen at the open house, so I had no choice but to grab the less ideal beside him. At least, I thought it was a guy. With that formless sweater, it was hard to tell.

The boy's hair was in his face and his glasses looked dirty, so it wasn't likely that he had even noticed me come in. In fact, the guy continued on through the class without paying attention to anyone around him, aside from the teacher. Hikaru leaned on my shoulders and muttered that he'd heard a rumor he was the new commoner. Not that we knew of any old one.

At first, he was insignificant. This bizarre person was a little speck of dust on the windshield, so to speak. But at lunch, when I sat down at the only empty table with Hikaru beside me, the little commoner sat down across from us. This was unforgivable. I was unsurprised that someone would attempt to speak with us, but the fact that it was the goofy-looking scholarship student...

Fortunately, we were ignored at first. The textbook must have been more interesting than one (two) of Ouran's finest students. Alright, so this kid could be worse. He could be…well, that blonde idiot that thought we wanted to join his club two years ago. I suddenly wondered how that had turned out without me.

"Make him move." Hikaru elbowed me in the side.

"What, you can't move me yourself?" the little person remarked dryly in a vaguely feminine voice.

I didn't notice at first, but when I did, I jumped and froze, staring at him- that is, her. Hikaru blinked at her slowly, shock pushing his eyebrows up and jaw down. "Excuse me?" His voice suddenly sounded like he hadn't spoken in years.

"I said to make me move yourself if you don't want me here." She shoved one last bite of his mysterious bag lunch into his mouth before gathering up his stuff. "I'll go look for a quieter place to study." She looked up as if to say something else, then paused. "Why aren't you wearing the uniform? I thought everyone was so proud to go to this school."

Hikaru didn't look like he was going to answer coherently anytime soon, and I suddenly wanted this person gone more than ever. "Why aren't you wearing a uniform?"

"We have arrangements."

And she left.

Hikaru fumbled under the table for my hand.