Note: Please note that I only use Japanese when it comes to the addressing of characters. For example, Tamaki will call Kyouya okaa-san, and the twins will call Tamaki tono, or 'my lord', as some of you are more familiar with. I try to avoid using Japanese in speech for the benefit of those who do not understand the language. If any of you still do not understand anything, please leave me a message and I will try my best to clarify it with you.
One more thing – 'aa', when the characters say it (especially Mori), means 'yes'. It is very different from the exclamatory 'ah'. Please take note of this. Thank you all for reading, and feel free to leave your comments.
2: Fun, Fun, Fun
14:00 – The last Sunday of the school year
"Haru-chan, we're going to WONDERLAND!" Honey-senpai whirled around me as we strolled down the steps of my block of units to the waiting limousine.
"Honestly, you guys didn't have to-" I began, indicating the luxury vehicle.
"HAAARUHIIIIII! HAVE FUN!" Dad screamed from above. I sweatdropped.
"Okay, ehehe, bye," I waved weakly, turning back.
"Let's go!" Honey-senpai pulled me along and waved to my father at the same time, who waved back enthusiastically before popping back into the unit. Then I felt Honey-senpai tug my arm.
"Ah, Usa-chan!" Honey-senpai shrieked as the rabbit went rolling down the stairs.
"TAKASHI!" was all it needed for the tall figure waiting at the bottom of the stairs to take action. I rushed down the stairs as well, attempting to catch the toy.
Mori-senpai was a blur as he dived to catch Usa-chan. Of course, being Mori-senpai, he caught it with ease. I breathed a sigh of relief as I got to the bottom step just half a second late.
"YAY! You're the best, Takashi!" Honey-senpai bounded down the stairs cheering for his cousin, who handed him the plushy. Mori-senpai just gave Honey-senpai the tiniest of smiles and prodded him towards the car. Honey-senpai entered, and Mori-senpai looked expectantly at me, holding open the door.
"Thank you, Mori-senpai," I gave him a warm smile as I started to climb in, only to be immediately greeted by the twins' boisterous arguing with Tamaki-senpai.
"No, Haruhi sits with me!" protested Tamaki-senpai to the twins.
"She would never sit with you! Right, Haruhi?" They looked at me. Tamaki-senpai realized I was there and turned back to look at me with puppy dog eyes.
I looked at Kyouya-senpai for help.
He pretended not to see me.
With my eyebrow twitching, I quickly climbed out again.
Mori-senpai shot me a quizzical look, still holding open the door.
"I'm sitting with the driver…" I muttered, opening the door to the front section. Surprisingly, Mori-senpai followed me.
"Don't you want to sit with Honey-senpai?"
Mori-senpai looked at me for a moment. "There's actually a lot of cake inside," he said in his usual deep tone, gesturing to the longer section of the car.
"I get you," I laughed, getting into my seat beside the driver, hearing vague cries of "SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" from behind me.
x
Mori-senpai gazed out of the window and didn't speak, as usual. However, I found his silence comfortable, compared to the Suou family chauffeur. I peeked at the driver from the corner of my eye…
…And when he suddenly looked at me I was so shocked that I jumped.
"Mm?" Mori-senpai turned to look at me.
I waved my hand in front of me and said, "Ahaha, I'm okay…"
He nodded and I embarrassedly looked away from the driver, whom I swear was trying hard not to laugh.
"How many guests have designated you already?" Mori-senpai suddenly murmured. I looked at him and tilted my head in consideration, trying to ignore the loud thuds that the twins and Tamaki-senpai were making on the glass barrier separating our section of the limo from theirs. From the rearview mirror, I saw that Honey-senpai was enjoying some cake with Usa-chan and trying to convince Kyouya-senpai to eat some.
"I think I'm getting more popular," I laughed, folding my hands on the turquoise skirt that Dad chose for me and turning back to Mori-senpai. "It's gone to about four hundred."
Mori-senpai's lips turned up at their corners. "Haruhi is a different kind of girl."
"Mori-senpai…?"
He ruffled my hair affectionately, replaying yet another one of his unMori-senpai moments.
"Both you and Honey-senpai will visit regularly, right?" I asked as I felt a sudden pang of loss. Both the third-years were graduating in less than a week.
"Aa," he affirmed.
"Where are you going after high school?"
His eyes wandered to the windscreen.
"You are still going to be with Honey-senpai, aren't you?" I prompted.
"Mm," he nodded. I smiled.
"That's expected," I leant into the seat with a satisfied sigh. "Let's make this outing a memorable one then!"
He didn't say anything, but that was enough for me to know he agreed.
x
14:17 – Just before reaching Wonderland
Somehow, I just couldn't resist looking at the chauffeur one more time…
He doesn't even look away to hit the signal lever. But that is expected of an experienced driver, isn't it? It must be difficult driving such a big car on such a small road… It's a good thing we came at a good time otherwise there would be a jam…
I was lost in my thoughts, my gaze still fixated intently on the middle-aged man sitting beside me. Suddenly, he looked at me, his eyes piercing into mine.
"AAAHHH!" I couldn't stop myself.
"We're here," he curtly announced, ignoring my outburst.
Flushing, I shooed the puzzled Mori-senpai out of the car and said a muffled thanks to the chauffeur.
x
"IT'S WONDERLAND!" cheered Honey-senpai ecstatically from his vantage point that was Mori-senpai. Meanwhile, Tamaki-senpai was hovering around me, his grumblings all about me abandoning him with the twins. Hikaru and Kaoru had their arms linked with each of mine, chatting to me happily in a bid to annoy Tamaki-senpai. Kyouya-senpai was, as always, walking alone with his black book open.
I wondered to myself, How on earth did I get entangled with this group of people?
My gaze averted to Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai, who were fronting the group. They can be adorable or silent, and sometimes even mad…
"Haruhi, you're my good daughter, right? How can you side with outsiders?"
"Tono, we're Haruhi's buddies, you see."
They can be silly and idiotic…And very troublesome…
"Oh yes, Haruhi, you pulled off some leaves from Honey-senpai's costume the other day as you were bringing the coffee to his table, so you have to get 50 more designations."
And extremely calculative…
"But they're nice people, all the same," I grinned to myself, not knowing that I had spoken that aloud.
"Eh?" the Hitachiin brothers and Tamaki-senpai looked at me.
"Ah, nothing," I laughed, shaking my head. "Let's go in!"
I rushed to the gates, hearing Kaoru murmur to Hikaru, "She's particularly upbeat today…"
x
"Okay, who's afraid of thriller rides?" Kaoru lazily quizzed. Tamaki-senpai gingerly put up his hand.
"As we expected," Hikaru laughed. Tamaki-senpai ran to a lamppost, squatted down and decided to draw circles on the floor again. I sighed.
"Well, I don't particularly like thriller rides either," voiced Kyouya-senpai.
"Kyouya-senpai's afraid?" I spun around in surprise to face him. He pushed his glasses up his nose. "No, it's just that I've been riding on them for a long time. It gets boring after awhile."
"The theme park belongs to his family," whispered the twins into my ears. I glanced back at Kyouya-senpai in stark realization.
"All right then, Kyou-chan will stay on the grounds with Tama-chan and we will go ride the Mega Twirl!" enthused Honey-senpai, pointing at the spiraling humongous contraption swinging about in the sky.
It looked positively vomit-inducing.
"I think I'll pass too," I politely spoke up, thinking of the lunch I had consumed not long before.
"EHHH?" the twins protested. Tamaki-senpai grabbed me from behind, saying, "I knew you wouldn't leave me behind like that, Haruhi!"
As I twisted his wrist away from my arm (I believe he whimpered but it had happened too often for me to pay attention), I provided them with an answer. "I just had lunch, so you guys run along."
"Okay then…" Kaoru and Hikaru complied in unison, before spinning around and skipping to the ride. Mori-senpai gave us a half smile as he piggybacked a waving Honey-senpai.
"Okay," Kyouya-senpai looked at Tamaki-senpai and me. "Let me bring you two to a place where we can really have fun."
"What?" Tamaki-senpai and I exclaimed in slight horror, rather alarmed at Kyouya-senpai's suggestion.
Kyouya-senpai just gave us a wicked look, and pushed us towards the left wing of the park.
x
14:47 – The ride that has no name… yet
What on earth is this…
"This is our latest ride that hasn't been launched yet," Kyouya-senpai gestured, as if reading my mind (as always). "I need the both of you to write me a one thousand word review on this, so please have a go."
"EH? WHY US!"
Kyouya-senpai looked at us intensely. "Because if I got the whole club to go on the ride together, there's no chance of all six of you writing a constructive review. Actually," he tipped his palm towards the sky, "I wanted to go alone to ensure the best review to be written, but since I have someone else to do it for me, I might as well, right?"
"Kyouyaaaaaa…" whined Tamaki-senpai.
"I'll be sitting at the back observing the ride as well."
These rich bastards…
"How did you know I wouldn't be on the Mega Twirl with the rest of them?" I asked, eyebrow in twitch mode (nothing new there).
"He doesn't know these things, Haruhi," Tamaki-senpai threw up his hands in despair. "He just acts according to the circumstances. That's Kyouya's strong point."
"Thank you for the compliment. Please, get on the ride," Kyouya smiled pleasantly.
Honestly, I had the urge to hit him.
x
"Is this a scary ride, Kyouya?" Tamaki-senpai turned back to ask our vice-president after the barricades clamped down over us. Kyouya-senpai just replied, "I am only here to observe. You two are the ones doing the review."
"Argh," Tamaki-senpai put his face in his hands, knowing it was useless to protest further. The machine started whirring into life, and the ride, which seemed to be made of white fiberglass, lurched into a tunnel that was we had not seen upon arrival because it was covered by machine-operated artificial shrubbery. (It did look very real.)
It was pitch dark everywhere, and we had no idea what was going to happen. It seemed rather disconcerting, being strapped in a ride tightly and not being able to see what was in front of us at all.
Then-
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"HARUHIIIII! WE'RE FALLING!"
"I KNOW, IDIOT! YOU'RE CLUTCHING MY THIGH!"
"KYOUYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"For Pete's sake, Tamaki. Concentrate on the ride."
"SENPAI, GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY THIGH!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! KYOUYA I HATE YOU!"
We stopped abruptly.
"Oh, we've stopped, we've stopped-" I felt Tamaki-senpai's hand leave my stinging thigh. He then started thumping his palm against his chest, muttering incoherent death threats directed to our vice president – one of which included using Nekozawa-senpai's wooden cat doll.
"We're not moving," I realized after a while.
"That's good," I heard Tamaki-senpai give a feeble chuckle amongst the cursing. Twenty seconds passed.
"Kyouya-senpai, we're not mov-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WE'RE SPINNING AND FALLING!"
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO GIVE ME A COMMENTARY! I'M ON THE RIDE TOO!"
"Concentrate, you two… I need the review."
"I THOUGHT HARUHI ISN'T AFRAID OF SUCH THINGS!"
"I AM NOT WHEN I CAN AT LEAST SEE WHERE I'M GOING!"
"Are you two listening to me?"
"HARUHI I'M SCARED!"
"YOU'RE BREAKING MY ARM!"
"Concentrate on the ride!" Kyouya-senpai growled ominously.
Terrified of the evil presence of our vice-president, Tamaki-senpai and I instinctively clutched each other. I started to wonder if Kyouya-senpai was human.
"Haruhi…" I heard the blond whisper weakly.
"What," I hissed irritably.
"I think I'm going to puke."
"Aww, don't say that…" I had been resisting the urge not to as well.
"No, really-"
"Haruhi, you can reach to your left and find a small casement drawer. There are some bags inside you may want to use," the curt voice behind us sounded in the tunnel.
"Wow, thanks for the information, Kyouya-senpai," I replied sarcastically. The ride was moving at a comfortable pace at that time (in a somewhat comfortable diagonal direction), but I could tell how frightened Tamaki-senpai was.
"Don't throw up, Tamaki-senpai, please," I pacified our president as my hand coincidentally found his. It felt like sashimi – cold, clammy and lifeless.
"We'll kill Kyouya-senpai later, all right? Tamaki-senpai?"
It really scared me when Tamaki-senpai didn't respond.
"Tamaki-senpai?" I cried, alarmed.
"What's wrong?" Kyouya-senpai had a tinge of worry in his voice as well.
"I-I'm… fine…" Tamaki-senpai squeezed my hand lightly. I quickly fumbled for the said drawer and pulled out as many bags as my hand could close on.
"It's going to be over soon, right? Kyouya-senpai?" I looked to the rear for an answer even though I couldn't see him.
"Yes. Soon. But…"
I had a bad feeling about that 'but', and my feeling came true when the carriage zoomed forwards, upwards and forwards – we were upside down! – before it spun five times and zoomed forwards, downwards and forwards followed by a series of zigzags: upwards.
This time, we didn't even bother to hold it in.
x
"The ride doesn't have a name yet, right?" I asked Kyouya-senpai after I got out of the restroom.
"No, it doesn't."
"Good, then you can name it 'The Ride from Hell'," I said in a clipped tone, walking over to poor Tamaki-senpai, who had at least five full paper bags at his feet. He couldn't even walk the few steps to the toilet, and Kyouya-senpai had to sit with him by the ride as he threw up everything he had (or didn't have) in his stomach.
Tamaki-senpai was the kind of guy that was stupid but adorable (at times), and most of all fiercely loyal. I didn't like to see him in such a sorry state, and for a moment there I was genuinely angry with Kyouya-senpai for putting him through this for a stupid review.
"You're angry with me for putting Tamaki through this just because of a stupid review, right?"
These rich bastards think they know everything.
I didn't want to answer, and fussed silently over Tamaki-senpai by giving him a piece of tissue and patting his back as he retched violently. It was a good thing the ride was in the 'Under Construction' area and we were the only ones there.
"It's not a stupid review, Haruhi. I just need you to know that. As for Tamaki… He should know why I put him through this."
Tamaki-senpai looked up and gave me a wan smile.
"Kyouya's just trying to help," he rasped. I raised my eyebrows, expecting an explanation, but obviously Tamaki-senpai was too sick to continue as he returned to the bag.
"Okay then, Kyouya-senpai shall explain," I stared at him angrily.
The subject in question sighed. "I'll let him explain to you when he gets better."
With that, he got up from his white fiberglass perch and exited the area, leaving Tamaki-senpai and I alone.
x
"Feeling better?" I handed Tamaki-senpai a bottle of water as we started to go back to look for the rest. He took a sip.
"Hey, Haruhi…"
"Hmm?"
"Don't blame Kyouya, all right? He was just trying to help."
"Trying to help. Right."
"No, really…" Tamaki-senpai stared up at the sky. "When I first got to know Kyouya, he invited me here. I had never gone on such rides before and wanted to try each and every one. But the moment I went on my first scary ride… I didn't even have time to get off the ride…"
I sweatdropped. "You don't have to tell me."
Tamaki-senpai gave me a small smile. "Some girls from school saw the incident and wanted to tell everyone the next day, when they went back to school. Kyouya heard about it and told the girls something, I have no idea what it was, and they promised never to let that embarrassing incident be known to the rest of the world."
Why am I not surprised he had such influence even as a kid from junior high…
"Ever since that year, he's been trying to help me overcome my fear of fast, thrilling rides. Every year he'd bring me to this place and pay for all of the rides, before making me go on them. He doesn't even mind getting cursed! Kyouya's a nice guy, really… Don't be angry."
I shrugged, my heart softening. So Kyouya-senpai was doing it all for his friend…
"But what about the review?"
Tamaki-senpai sighed. "It must be one of those Ootori assignments again. Every year Kyouya's father will assign him and his brothers a project to do, and whoever gets the most marks gets another step closer to being the next Ootori successor. I bet this year it's on Wonderland. The review is only a tiny part of the project – Kyouya has to come up with proposals, statistics and financial projections."
"That's so stressful."
"Of course, it's the Ootori family we're talking about here," Tamaki-senpai laughed, and I was rather relieved that he was looking less pale.
"Seems like you're feeling better now," I commented, giving him a quick once-over. He appeared to be delighted by this statement and immediately lapsed into hyper-Tamaki mode.
"After what happened just now I am convinced that Haruhi cares for me!" he closed his eyes as if in deep emotion and put a hand delicately to his chest. "You are an angel, Haruhi."
"…Okay…"
"When you held my hand in the tunnel just now I felt that you were my salvation, you were the one who could bring me out of the darkness into the light!"
"It was a coincidence that our hands met, senpai, nothing else."
"Do not deny your love, Haruhi – love should be respected and not brushed away like that!"
"For goodness' sake, senpai."
"Haruhi! Listen to me, you cannot withstand-"
"IT'S HARU-CHAN AND TAMA-CHAN! I FOUND THEM!"
I never thought I would have been that happy to hear Honey-senpai's voice and practically bounded over to the small-built senior in extreme joy - leaving Tamaki-senpai to his ramblings.
x
18:23 – And the day ends at the ice-cream parlor
"I think Haruhi looks nicer in pink," Kaoru mused. Hikaru shook his head.
"Pink isn't really Haruhi's colour – I think she would suit reds or oranges. Colors that make her stand out more."
"Mm. On second thought, you're right. Her skin color really does not set off pink as a contrast, it make her look rather pale-"
"Excuse me," I unclenched my jaw finally, releasing my grip on my glass of iced tea. "Would you two stop talking as if I weren't here?"
"Aww Haruhi, couldn't you be more sporting?" the brothers tried to pacify me with their double choconut sundaes.
I declined (not very politely).
"Haruhi doesn't like sweet stuff," Tamaki-senpai winked at me flirtatiously. "Right, Haruhi?"
I shuddered.
"It seems exceptionally quiet," I mused, wanting to change the subject.
Honey-senpai's constant cheering was missing.
Kneeling on my seat to peer into the next booth, I saw Mori-senpai entirely captivated with Honey-senpai's massacre of the upsized dessert menu. He was working on a large banana split, and I have to admit it was quite a spectacle. The three other guys in my booth copied my stance and squeezed into the space beside me.
"That's scary," Hikaru looked at Kaoru. Kaoru nodded vehemently, and looked at the already gawping Tamaki-senpai. I laughed softly at his ridiculous expression and Kyouya-senpai tore his eyes away from the book he was reading to look up at me, upon realization that I was there.
I gave him a small smile. "Sorry if I threw a tantrum at you just now," I peered down at him.
He shrugged.
"Kyouya-senpai is a really nice guy, in actual fact," I nodded happily.
He paused and looked up at me – I could have sworn that his glasses actually gleamed in mischief.
"Oh yes, Haruhi. I just want to inform you. For all the barf bags that you used today, I'll have to add it to your debt."
These rich bastards.
