[ chapter three : partners ]
"Uhm, Kaoru-kun?"
The timid voice broke through his thoughts. Kaoru pulled his gaze away from the window to look at the girl who was standing by his table. As soon as he did so though, Miyuki looked away, her side-locks assisting in hiding part of her face. She was nervous which he didn't understand. But he was mostly just confused as to what she was doing here at all. "Yeah?"
After confirming that she had his attention, Miyuki spoke shyly. "Y-you're supposed to pick a name..."
Kaoru looked down to see she was holding a little box half-filled with folded pieces of paper. He looked around to see half of the class standing, talking among themselves. He looked directly to his right to see his twin looking back at him, an eyebrow quirked. Oh.
He remembered then. Ouran was holding a Spring Festival and every class was required to participate. Their class, Class 1-A, decided to have a mini bake sale and they were splitting off into groups of two to handle a certain part of their booth.
Right.
The boy stuck his hand into the little box and rummaged around before pulling out a piece of paper. Miyuki moved on to the student behind him and held out the box again. Phew, that was nerve wracking... Half the class, including Miyuki, wrote their names down on pieces of paper and the other half got to pick their partners by random. The class teacher thought it would more fun that way—more chances for the students to interact with one another. Whoopee.
"Who'd you get?" asked Hikaru, drawing the attention of a lot of the girls.
He unfolded his paper and read the name aloud. "Kazehaya Miyuki."
CLANG! CLANG!
"S-sorry!" Miyuki bent down to pick up the fallen box and paper pieces, drawing the attention of the remainder of the class.
"Awh, Miyuki-chan got one of the twins? I'm so jealous!"
"Hehe, you're so clumsy, Miyuki..."
"I hope I get the other!"
The twins had turned in their seats too, surprised by the loud noise. The girl's face was blocked from view due to her side-locks but he could tell she was flustered. The new bob haircut was cute, really, but Kaoru couldn't remember the last time he properly saw her face.
She stood and moved on, acting as if she was perfectly calm. She wasn't. But she guessed she'd have to deal with that later.
"Oh boy..." Kaoru murmured with a slight sigh, facing his brother.
His brother snickered. "I would say it's not too late to change but you did say her name out loud."
"Tsk. Why couldn't we have just paired up together like we always do?"
"Majority vote," Hikaru answered simply, shrugging. "You want to switch?"
"Can we?" Nobody knew which of the twins already got their partner, right? They could just pretend it was the other.
"We'll see..."
They didn't end up switching partners. Hikaru pulled out Haruhi's name and decided he wanted to stick with her. Kaoru understood, as usual. Besides, surely the incident of two years ago would never come up, right? Hopefully, Miyuki wouldn't waste their time by fawning over him... But he knew he could handle it even if she was a fangirl; he couldn't say the same for Hikaru who could get really nasty when he was annoyed or upset. Kaoru had always been more of the mature one, though most people didn't see the difference.
Miyuki saw it though. It made a huge difference to her. If Hikaru was her partner instead, she wouldn't be as flustered as she was now. Nobody probably realized that... except maybe her friends because when they learned just which twin she got partnered up with, they gave her knowing looks. Then again, they could just be teasing her.
Well, no choice but to suck it up! And that was exactly what she did when everyone was instructed to go to their partners and discuss the beginnings of their plans. Miyuki was the last to do this because as class representative, she had to assign everyone their tasks. But finally, she pulled a chair and sat across from Kaoru at his table—and she was very sure it was him because the other twin was talking cheerily with Haruhi. Her fingers fiddled between each other on her lap, a clear sign of her nervousness.
Kaoru blinked at her, waiting for her to initiate conversation, but she just sat there, her eyes on the table between them as if there was something interesting there. "So...?" he drawled expectantly.
She jumped slightly, the sudden break of silence surprising her. "Oh right..." She inhaled. "Er, Kaoru-kun and I will be doing the f-fliers for our class booth."
"That's it? That sounds pretty simple."
Miyuki's shoulders hunched upwards awkwardly. "D-designing isn't that ea—"
The boy interrupted, "That's not what I meant, Miyuki." He smiled. "I mean... everyone seems like they have more work, you know?"
"Oh..." She gave a smile too though it was small. "I have to supervise the whole thing anyway so that might take up a lot of time and I didn't want you to get stuck with so much work alone because that would be—"
"Okay, okay, I get it," he interrupted again with a chuckle. Jeez, this girl was a dork.
His classmate smiled properly then and for a moment, raised her eyes to meet his. "I'm sure the others will need help with the general baking and getting ingredients and stuff so... for now, all we have to do is design the fliers and get them printed."
Nodding, Kaoru leaned back in his seat. "So when should we meet up?" She looked genuinely confused so he continued. "Well, I doubt we have much time left before our next class. Designing isn't that easy," he echoed teasingly which made the girl blush. "How about after school, at the library?"
"Don't you have your host duties, Kaoru-kun?" she asked hesitantly.
"Not till a little later. And I could miss a few minutes; it's not a big deal."
It actually might be a big deal, Miyuki knew. Without Kaoru, customers couldn't get the whole Brotherly Love package thingy. She knew plenty of girls who would rush over to the Host Club as soon as it opened so they could see the twins in action.
But... if Kaoru was okay with it, then she would be too! Might as well get this over with as soon as possible before she lost her courage.
