Chapter Two

Kyoya-The Elites and the American

The presence of a certain American woman had sent the Host Club into complete chaos. For me, anyway.

Fortunately, I had plenty of time to prepare my responses to their questions while we entertained our guests for the evening.

We were considered "open" from 5 PM to 9 PM three days a week, while the weekends were reserved for our more demanding patrons. Girls who wanted a live-in boyfriend experience, an escort to dinner, or late-night companion paid quite well for our services. Not like any of us needed the money; though it was quite satisfying to think of the astute businessmen we were screwing over while we fucked their daughters senseless.

Our weekday visits were more lighthearted, innocent. Boring. I rarely took on conversation partners, but I had the occasional request for a weekend fling. My role was running the business, ensuring funding was present, and ensuring the absolute confidentiality of ourselves and clients.

Confidentiality that the American had nearly destroyed.

Ouran University was built on the backs of rich families wanting to appease their spoiled children while giving them the best education possible. Many of the students here were destined to take over their family businesses, the American included.

The news had painted her out to be innocent, putting her hair in soft curls and pink lips for all of her hearings. She was easy to look past, despite whatever flaw she had discovered in her father's financial software. The books for many websites and businesses were exposed, the Host Club's included. Perhaps that was my punishment for using my own name to operate.

Or my saving grace, considering no one bothered to look at my own records once my father's were exposed. Why he chose to use the software for his healthcare empire, I'll never know. His response, however, puzzled me even more. Rather than pursue her legally, he paid for her to fix the damn issue then brought her here to study.

I spent the last hour of our business hours re-reading everything I knew about Kanami Inao. She was the daughter of Tatshiro Inao, owner of Inao Industries. Her mother was an American-born child actress that continued her fame in Japan long after her own country had forgotten her. Ms. Amelia Claire had a close working relationship with the Hitachiin's mother, though I doubted either of them had heard of Kana before today.

Their combined worth was at least $3 billion yen.

Kanami had never been photographed publically with anyone other than her father, and was reportedly reclusive. That would explain her strange way of speaking-her Japanese sounded as if she had only been listening to formal conversation or her dad's personal conversations.

Had it not been for the stunt she pulled, she might've gone completely unnoticed until she had taken over Inao Industries with a spotless reputation.

Tamaki began ushering out the night's guests before I realized it. I shut my laptop and braced myself for the onslaught of questions that was sure to follow.

The first, unsurprisingly, came from the prince of our club himself.

"How do you know her, Kyoya?"

Then the younger Hitachiin.

"Why do you get to play with her first?" Kaoru gave me a pout that would wreck any woman.

"Yeah, what if she wants to be with us?" Hikaru was curled almost protectively around his twin on the couch they had been occupying. "I've never slept with an American."

"Is Kana-chan going to come back?" Honey, of course.

"She isn't the type, Honey-senpai." I said.

Hikaru jolted up, "You mean-"

"We get to seduce her?" Kaoru's eyes widened.

"No." Takashi frowned.

"Do you not like her Takashi?" Honey gasped.

"Of course he likes her Honey-senpai! He just doesn't realize it yet!" Tamaki sat down beside me. "Are you going to answer my question, Kyoya?"

"Do you remember when some of my financial information appeared on the dark web?" I hadn't told them much about the brief data breach we had experienced. "As you know, my father was also affected. In fact, he was the one who originally paid the guilty party to fix the damage they caused."

"Was it someone in Kana-chan's family?" Honey had a way of projecting his feigned innocence on to others.

I shook my head.

"You mean-that sweet princess was the one who did it?" Tamaki's jaw dropped and his hands grasped his cheeks.

"She's not a princess," I learned back. "We shouldn't treat her as such. From what I can tell, her father has kept her sheltered. Her intelligence was likely fed because of that."

"But Kyoya, isn't that a fairy tale? Princess kept away in a tower?" Tamaki grinned.

"Jeez, what he means is that she's not going to fall for your shit Tamaki-senpai." Hikaru rolled his eyes. "You're lucky Haru-chan fell for you in the first place."

"Hey Senpai, didn't you say you wanted Haruhi to have more girlfriends?" Kaoru quickly jumped in.

"They do both sleep with other people…" Hikaru smirked.

"Do you think we can start offering a sisterly love package?"

"STOP IT YOU TWO!" Tamaki's face turned a shade of red that only appeared when his beloved Haruhi was mentioned. "I will not let my Haruhi be involved in , she won't be back until the semester's over."

"We shouldn't expect her to come back here. I don't know the exact conditions of her remaining above the law here, but something tells me she's not going to have time for our brand of extracurriculars." I pushed my glasses further up my nose.

"You probably scared her off, didn't you?" Honey pouted. "I wanted to be friends with her, her accent was so cute!"

"Quite the opposite, Honey-senpai. She turned me down."

I felt the room go still around me. It wasn't often a girl discovered us only to decide not to participate in our little games. Still, Kana had barely seemed fazed by our antics. She was uncomfortable if anything, judging from her face.

"She's always alone. I have an analytics course with her." Takashi's low voice broke our silence.

"Feel free to observe here further Mori-senpai." I nodded. His eyes met mine briefly, conveying his uncertainty on the matter. Takashi was a man of very few words, but anyone close to him could easily read the messages behind every gesture he made. Truly the master of nonverbal communication.

"Should we play a game, Kao-kun?" Hikaru's arm tightened around his brother, his eyes lighting up like a child's.

I stood abruptly and made my way to the door, ignoring Tamaki's protests. I had no intention of playing any games, especially when they involved Kanami Inao.