Full Summary: Some girls grow tired watching their sibling on the banks of a river. However, some girls are too busy working to merely grow tired watching. When Yumi Taka was accepted to Ouran Academy, she thought she had found her jar of Orange Marmalade. However, when she discovers Haruhi's "little secret", her whole life goes awry. After a chase bullying incident, she finds her jar of marmalade to be frightfully empty. Not wanting to drop the jar, she descends into the adventures of the Host Club and Wonderland. Can they help her find her way home? Will she even want to go home afterwards? Most importantly, can they help her find herself? And just maybe, on the way back, she can fill her jar with just a little bit of Honey.
Chapter Two
Spotting the White Rabbit
Yumi awoke to the smell of baking bread. It was much better than the smells that she used to wake up to back in Karuizawa. The smell of a group home packed with teens and kids was nothing like the smell of a bakery. Grudgingly, Yumi swung herself up into a sitting position. She reminded herself just how lucky she was to have gotten where she was - to give herself the motivation she needed to get up and dressed when all she wanted to do was sleep more.
Getting from Karuizawa to Tokyo was really just a combination of luck and guts. By chance, Yumi had met Inoue Tarou the previous summer when he had gotten a flat tire just outside of Karuizawa. He had a spare, but wasn't able to change it on his own. Yumi had helped. At the time, Yumi didn't know that Tarou worked in Ouran Academy's staffing department. She hadn't asked him for anything for fixing his tire and when he offered to repay her she just told him that the sight of a fully grown man not knowing how to change his own tire was payment enough. She hadn't expected Tarou to remember her when a job opened up.
Tarou didn't have to the weight to get her the job, but an interview was more than Yumi could have swung on her own, and a letter of recommendation from a member of Ouran's own staff was no small thing either. Yumi had seen the writing on the wall as soon as she had gotten off the phone with Tarou. An opportunity like this wasn't likely to show up again, so Yumi had left Karuizawa for Tokyo on only the chance of employment.
It seemed like too slim a chance to jump at, but in Karuizawa there weren't a lot of jobs for group home kids. They were considered trouble, and weren't trusted. It wasn't entirely unwarranted. A lot of the kids who had lived in the group home were trouble, understandably, given their various pasts. Nobody came without some sort of baggage. The truth of the matter was even if Yumi hadn't gotten the job she would have been in Tokyo, a place where nobody knew anything about her or her past. It would have been easier to get a job in Tokyo then back home.
Yumi struggled into her work clothes. A shirt with overalls and ratty shoes that were nearly falling apart. She had been doubtful when this chance first fallen into her lap that she would even have the resources to get to Tokyo. Mostly because Yumi didn't have any tangible resources. What she did have, was the kind Youko Suzuki - who had taken an interest in Yumi's future when Yumi had volunteered to help the elderly woman around her house. Suzuki just so happened to have a young, ambitious granddaughter in Tokyo who had opened up a bakery. Her granddaughter also just so happened to have a room above her bakery that she wasn't using. And she just so happened to be in need of an extra hand with a pair of twins who had just reached school age but were still a handful. And just like that, Yumi had bed and board in Tokyo. All she had needed after that, was the job.
Still Yumi thought, as she carefully packed her nicer clothes into the bottom of her backpack to change into after her morning shift in the gardens, she had never even imagined she would get an education at Ouran. That part had been completely unplanned. It had just fallen into her lap. Tarou hadn't told her that there was reduced tuition for staff. It had been just luck that the reduced tuition had worked out to almost exactly her paycheck. Yumi wasn't earning much money, but she was getting a world-class education. Yumi just had to hope that it would balance itself out.
Thinking back, Yumi thought, as she yanked her hair into a side ponytail that looked decent and kept her hair out of her face while she worked, it was unlikely that she would have ever been able to get a job in Karuizawa. It would have taken a lot of work to get over the "group home kid" stigma. It had only been after Yumi had proven herself reliable and had done a lot of work for free before people would let her do things like paint houses or fix fences. Yumi had been ecstatic when she gotten a job as a paper girl. If it had taken that much effort to get a kiddy job. Yumi wasn't sure that she would have ever won enough trust to get a stable job. Even though it meant moving away from the only friends she had ever had in her life, Yumi knew that she had made the best choice for her future.
She headed down the stairs that led to the bakery where Himura Tamiko was already baking up a storm. Her twin daughters, Sora and Emi were at their favorite table in the bakery furiously doing whatever homework they had forgotten to do over the weekend, and pretending that they weren't.
"Hey you!" Tamiko said scoldingly as Yumi slipped under the counter. "Don't you try to run off without breakfast!" She shook her rolling pin in Yumi's direction. The twins laughed at Yumi getting caught like she did every weekday morning. Yumi stuck her tongue out at the twins cheekily, before ducking back under the counter.
Her breakfast was sitting in its usual spot on one of the two stoves Tamiko had, keeping it warm. Tamiko always brought over breakfast for Yumi and lunch as well. The lunch Yumi never pretended to forget or attempted to leave behind, just in case Tamiko didn't catch her.
Yumi snatched up her breakfast, trying not to burn her hands and sat in what had become "her chair" in the corner of the kitchen area. If the twins weren't doing homework, she would have sat with them, but she was nice enough not to bring Tamiko's attention to them by sitting beside the twins.
"I don't know why you always try to sneak out without breakfast," Tamiko shook her head, giving Yumi another scolding look.
Yumi grinned in reply, "I like to keep you on your toes," she teased.
Honestly, Yumi liked being scolded by Tamiko. It was a reminder her that someone cared enough to scold her. Yumi wouldn't do anything too troublesome. She didn't want to cause any trouble of Tamiko considering how much she was doing for her. But, pretending to sneak out without breakfast was a small enough thing. Tamiko had yet to get exasperated with Yumi about it, which was why Yumi kept doing it. It was a bit of a test, not that Yumi fully realized, to see just how long it would take until Tamiko stopped caring.
Tamiko shook her head at Yumi's explanation, "Eat." She instructed and Yumi obeyed without question. Tamiko's cooking was miles ahead of anything Yumi had back in Karuizawa, so Yumi ate anything Tamiko made for her gladly.
"How's school up at that prestigious academy you're going to?" Tamiko asked. She took it as a mark of personal pride that her ward had managed to get a job at Ouran Acadamy.
"It's going fine, Tamiko-san."
"One of these days you'll be calling be oba-chan," Tamiko sighed at Yumi's insistence on formality and distance. "Are you making any friends?"
Yumi shrugged, "I'm a commoner, Tamiko-san." She said by way of explanation.
Tamiko frowned, "No, you're Taka Yumi, and you're wonderful."
Yumi shrugged again.
"Now you stop that, missy. Don't be so worried about what they think that you don't even try." Tamiko scolded lightly as she rolled out some bread.
Yumi froze. Tamiko saw right through her evasive, bullshit answers as usual.
"You know that's not fair to them or you, Yumi."
Yumi sighed. The rational part of her knew that Tamiko was right. That knowledge didn't make it any easier though. Every time Yumi had an opportunity to try to be friendly or make a friend, she couldn't help but think about what everyone must think of her.
"Don't you decide that you don't fit in for them," Tamiko advised, throwing flour at Yumi to bring her back out of her thoughts.
Yumi stuck out her tongue and wiped the flour off her face with her sleeve. "I'll keep that in mind, Tamiko-san." She said as finished up her breakfast with one final, large bite.
"Well, you 'keep that in mind', and maybe eventually act upon it." Tamiko replied with her usual amount of snark.
Yumi laughed off how true Tamiko's comment was and dumped her silverware into the sink. She began to wash it quickly, since she had gotten dressed fast this morning she had time to lighten the extra burden she added to Tamiko.
There was a short silence between the two, with just the sound of Tamiko's baking, the clanging of metal against metal and running water, and the furious scratching of pencils against paper.
"You should go out for a club," Tamiko suggested, breaking the silence.
"I have work." Yumi dismissed.
"Nice try, but I know they give you club hours to yourself. What club had you been looking at?"
"The gardening club," Yumi sassed. Tamiko hit Yumi lightly in the shoulder with a towel.
Answering more seriously, Yumi told Tamiko that she worked her club hours which allowed her to leave school earlier. "I'm supposed to be helping you with the twins." Yumi reminded her.
"If I say you can go out for a club, I mean it. It's not a test," Tamiko told Yumi sternly, "Don't act like you don't help out around here already. You're a great help and I don't regret giving you my spare room for second. But don't you forget Yumi that you only have your youth for so long."
Yumi shrugged. In her opinion, she had done enough living in the moment back in Karuizawa. She didn't want to seem ungrateful. Although, to be perfectly honest, Yumi wasn't sure if she had the courage to try out for a club. Both she and Tamiko knew that, though to differing degrees of awareness. Yumi avoided acknowledging it, while Tamiko had figured it out after the first week of school. Yes, Yumi had other reasons for acting the way she did, but her avoiding rejection was the chief motivator. If it hadn't been just wanting to help out, perhaps Tamiko wouldn't be pressuring her so hard.
"School will be easier with friends."
"I have friends!" Yumi objected defensively.
"Friends from Karuizawa don't count."
Yumi winced. It was true. They really didn't count. She got a few calls from the group home but that wasn't enough to completely substitute social interaction. Especially when she was used to so much. Tamiko, her twins, and her husband couldn't fill the gap either, as great as they were. Yumi shrugged her shoulders hopelessly.
"Alright, alright. I'll stop pushing." Tamiko relented, "You get to work now, and have a good day."
Yumi ducked out under the counter and waved to the twins. They threw their homework in their backpacks and hurriedly zipped them up while Yumi went to fetch her bike from the back of the bakery. They met her at the front of the store and Yumi changed the sign from "closed" to "open" like she did most mornings.
Then Yumi began her morning task of escorting the twins to school. Neither Tamiko nor her husband wanted the twins walking alone to school, but were too busy to take them themselves. Yumi walked the twins to school to take one less worry off Tamiko and her husband's mind. It was early for the twins to be going to school, but when it had become clear that this was the only time the twins could be escorted to school they had been ordered to go out for a club with morning sessions.
They had gone out for drama, which fit them well. Yumi wouldn't be surprised if they would soon be moved out of the "kiddy" drama section and into the older section. If they managed to act like less goof-balls, Yumi guessed they would be moved by next year. The only question was only how the twins acted in class.
Sora and Emi were rascals but they were the good sort. Yumi had dealt with worse kids at the group home, so perhaps she wasn't the best judge of what was "good" and what was "bad" behavior. Still, the twins' hearts were usually in the right place. Yumi walked alongside the twins, pushing the bike Tamiko had given her for deliveries over the summer and also personal use.
Out of the two of them, Sora was the talkative one. Emi was more quiet, and tended to follow Sora's lead. Emi, however, was not to be underestimated. She was not just an accessory to her twin's plots but a willing participant who added to the mischief in her own way. Sora was impulsive, but Emi could plan things out. Combined they were the cause of several of Tamiko's grey hairs.
"Did you get your homework done?" Yumi asked cheekily winning a blush of shame from the twins.
"We managed to finish it," Sora said defensively.
Yumi arched an eyebrow skeptically.
"We did," Emi put in, defending herself and her twin.
Sora lied easily, frequently, and often for no reason, but Emi could usually be trusted to be tell the truth. So Yumi let the matter rest.
"If you need any help with your homework-" she began to offer.
Sora grinned, "Good, because we have a project coming up, and you're really good at history."
Yumi shook her head, feeling a little duped, though she didn't mind helping the twins, "Alright, when you get your project, let me know and I'll see what I can do."
Yumi waved the twins off when they reached their school. Once she saw them walk through the main entrance, she got on her bike and began to race off.
Yumi's day went on the same as most days, until lunch that is. She had been making her way outside, where she usually had lunch on clear days, when she heard someone yelling: Yu-chan, Yu-chan!
She vaguely recognized the voice, but she had no idea who "Yu-chan" was. It was only when the footsteps got closer and closer to her, that Yumi turned around. Mitsukuni was running towards her, only a few feet away from her, with Takashi keeping up with easy, long strides.
"Haniozuka-senpai?" She asked, confused.
(She had learned from a girl in class who had been talking about the host club that Mitsukuni was a third year, a fact that Yumi was still trying to wrap her head around.)
"Hani," Mitsukuni corrected, "And, yes, silly! Didn't you hear me yelling for you?" He asked scoldingly, though his cuteness undersold it.
Yumi pointed to herself, "Me?"
"Yes, you! Yu-chan!"
Yumi raised an eyebrow. She was Mitsukuni's junior so the honorific made sense, though she hardly considered herself on good enough terms with Mitsukuni for cutesy a nickname. Still, Yumi didn't really have the heart to tell him not to call her by that name.
"Oh er, I didn't recognize that as my name." She told him bluntly. It wasn't exactly what she wanted to say but Yumi tended to be direct when she was feeling awkward.
"Did you need something?" She asked, confused what two third years that she had only met briefly the day before would want with her.
Mitsukuni was staring at her very oddly, and Yumi shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.
"Uh..." she rubbed her sleeve against her cheek. "Is there something on my face?" She asked, remembering the flour Tamiko had thrown at her in the morning.
"You're my height!" Mitsukuni blurted, startling Yumi.
She stared at him confused, "You're just noticing...?"
Mitsukuni nodded at her. He was staring at her like she was some sort of strange, beautiful wonder. The way he stared at her made her stomach flip-flop in a way she pointedly ignored. He was just starting at her, there was no reason to get worked up about it. She had stared when she had noticed his heigh after all.
"I'm guessing that's not the reason why you were looking for me?" Yumi prompted when Mitsukuni's staring continued.
The short blonde blinked twice before seeming to remember why he had been looking for her. Yumi repressed a laugh. "We wanted to invite you to the Host Club! In fact, we were wondering if you could come a little bit before opening time."
Yumi shook her head immediately, "Sorry, even if I had money for that, I work during club hours." Yumi refrained from mentioning that the Host club wasn't her cup of tea, as Mitsukuni would no doubt take that as a challenge.
Mitsukuni seemed to panic a bit, not expecting Yumi to say no, "Then just before club then!"
Yumi arched an eyebrow, "Why?"
Mitsukuni and Takashi exchanged a look that made Yumi feel frustratingly confused.
"We need to talk to you about something." Mitsukuni said vaguely.
Irritation sparked at Mitsukuni's evasive half-answers. If they wanted something from her, Yumi couldn't understand why they just didn't come out and say it straight.
"Then talk to me about it now. I can't be late to work." She told them sternly.
Mitsukuni seemed to writhe in discomfort at her words again. Yumi was distinctly aware that she was not giving him the answers he wanted or acting the way he expected. Perhaps she should have cared, but Yumi was getting very frustrated with these rich kids not understanding that some people had actual responsibilities.
"But, but!" Mitsukuni stumbled. He widened his brown eyes and they began to water.
Yumi paled and quickly ducked her head in a small bow that was polite, dismissive, and kept her from falling prey to his tricks, "I'm sorry, Haniozuka-senpai. Morinozuka-senpai." She apologized, "I have to eat before lunch is over." And with that she spun on her heel and darted toward her favorite tree to eat in.
Besides that strange encounter nothing else happened that was out of the ordinary to Yumi for the rest of the day. But, for the second time, Yumi was unaware of the chaos she was causing within the Host Club.
last edited: 10/21/15
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