CHAPTER THREE: THE WALLFLOWER FRATERNITY AND THE UNDERLING

While Haruhi was cooking some omelet in her apartment, she was thinking about what Tamaki meant about a crisis. Why he was so desperate of making Renge like him. Was he really serious? Or is he just using Haruhi as a bridge to get to Ren? If that is the case, Haruhi would've seen malice in his eyes. She would've avoided him. But it seems like he is just a normal guy who falls in love with a girl. The only problem is that Renge is a little slow when it comes to that point: L-O-V-E. "This is going to be interesting," Haruhi told herself. "Let's see if Tamaki could get Renge to fall in love with him." Her cell phone rang. Haruhi picked it up just as she was almost at school.

"Boss, we're out! We're out! All of us!" a rough voice said, and then there was a lot of cheering on the background. It was clearly a happy atmosphere. "Where are you now? Let's celebrate! We'll pick you up right away!"

"Greg, is that you? What do you mean celebrate? I'm almost at my school. Wha-"Haruhi was cut off at mid-sentence when she heard shouting at a distance.

Crap, if the teachers saw me now... she thought.

She was about to run inside the school but an iron hand caught her. It was Greg, the smell of him. Wow, they're fast, Haruhi thought. The jail was 7 kilometers away from the school. Then he held her collar at the back so she looked like a cat being carried at the back of its neck. Only now she regretted telling them her cell phone number and what school she's in.

"Greg, let me go! We have our classes later. We'll celebrate this evening." Haruhi promised, finding a way to break free.

"Boss, c'mon. Just this once, besides, we still have our old habits, like, cutting classes." Greg mused. "Right, Guys?"

There was a lot of cheering from the back.

"I said later! If they caught me now, I'll kick your ass!" Haruhi threatened. "And don't ever call me Boss. My mother was the boss!"

Students from the second and third floors were watching from their windows. Haruhi's heart was beating fast. If a teacher saw her...The main windows from the second floor balcony are opening. Tamaki came out, looking very annoyed.

"Hey, what's taking you so long?" Tamaki shouted from the building. "The class will start by ten minutes and I didn't have my lunch yet!"

Haruhi squirmed. A lot of grumbling flew from the back.

"Tamaki, if you want your lunch it's right here." Haruhi shouted back, showing him the lunchbox she brought.

"Do you expect me to go over there? Geez, you're such a slowpoke!" Tamaki cackled." And who are those guys? Are they your relatives? Ha! I can see the resemblance!"

"How dare you insult our boss!" a voice that belonged to Mitchell shouted from the back.

The bell is about to ring and all the teachers will leave the faculty room. If they see Greg and the others they might get arrested again, Haruhi thought. Just as she was about to kick Greg in the face, Tamaki jumped down and came running to them. Greg put down Haruhi and seized Tamaki.

Haruhi felt herself sleep again. When she woke up the school bell rang, signaling the first class in the afternoon. When she looked around, the gang was hiding behind the walls and Tamaki was lying unconscious on the ground. "Greg, go to Strawberry inn. Look for apartment number 12. Stay and don't make any noise" Haruhi called as she tossed the key behind the wall. Then she carried Tamaki at her back and went to the infirmary. The nurse was still gone so Haruhi raided the cabinet for bandages. Haruhi laid down Tamaki on a bed and sat on a stool next to it. When Tamaki woke up, Haruhi was securing the bandages on his arm.

"What the heck happened earlier?" Haruhi asked, struggling to remember.

"Well, you sort of, shouted at us in a different voice. You told us to shut up or you'll kick our asses." Tamaki rubbed his head. "That's all, now, give me my lunch, I'm starving."

"I spoke in a completely different voice?" Haruhi asked.

"Yeah," He said as he gulfed down the omelet. "But you kicked me after that. I demand an apology."

"Sorry," Haruhi sighed. Even when he was kicked head on he could still talk big.

"Who are they, anyway?"Tamaki scrunched his eyebrows. "They looked like middle-aged delinquents. Why are they calling you Boss?"

"Long story," Haruhi mumbled, looking at the window. "Those guys are my only family."

Haruhi remembered the time when she and her mother visited them for the first time. She was 5 back then. They were pretty shocked when they saw her. They said Haruhi looked a lot like Reyna, her mother. Since then, Haruhi and her mother visited them every week, especially, on holidays. They'd plead the police officers to let them in the cell so they could eat together and made merry.

"I have ears, you know," Tamaki said. "And all I know about the Wallflower Fraternity is that they're ferocious delinquents who fought all the delinquents in the city for power. They were legends about them, stories that their leader was a monster who could summon a thunder."

"No, that's just my mother screaming," Haruhi giggled, delighted about the funny legends. "She's a loud talker and whenever she's upset, she screams."

"Well, that's a surprise."

"What's to be surprised about?"

"Nothing."Tamaki continued eating."Give out the story; don't forget the details about your mom." Then he grumbled.

Haruhi was pretty sure he said, yours, too.

'Maybe he is a fan of my mother.' Haruhi thought.

"They were considering of making me their leader," She looked at the trees from the window, wondering if they still might be there lurking.

"But I don't want to. Those guys still have a life to live up to. Like, work their asses off for their family or something."

Haruhi started telling about them with a story. "Those guys used to be the Wallflower Fraternity. My mother formed them. I don't know the cause but they are delinquents with good intentions. They did not use their strength for violence-"'Yeah, right,' Tamaki chuckled-"okay, maybe a little, but they used it for good measure. They stopped robberies, murders, even reducing the delinquent density in the area, etc. Except that no one ever knew but them and all the other delinquents in the city. It's like they're protecting the city secretly.

"Then there's something that came up, a small group, did something bad and framed up the Wallflower. Police came after them, arrested the whole gang, and ruined their future, except my mom and a lowly underling's. The gang begged the police that my mom and that boy didn't do anything. Then they were released.

"My mom got drunk one night, almost got an accident, but the underling saved her and took her in. They sort of fell in love with each other and then they had me. But the underling, my father, had to go. He's kind of rich in some ways and he is an heir of something big. He had to leave, but he promised to be back. But he never did.

"Mom got work, 3 sidelines. Cashier by the day, housekeeper by noon, Waitress at night. And I wasn't sure about the waitress thing because she comes home every night, exhausted and beat up. 'Keep the thing you believe in alive,' she used to say. I had a vague suspicion she wasn't working as a waitress by night because I could tell she was still fighting. When I was 12, she got into an accident while going to work. She died that day, the day when I was going to get my 1st honor award.

"I was lucky that I had my mom. She didn't leave me without anything. She's saved a lot of money from those years. I used it to get into school. Then I found work for myself, the end."

"You make it sound like a fairy tale." Tamaki yawned, already finished eating the food.

"I took this chance to tell this secret to someone." Haruhi said, cleaning up the box.

"So now, we're BFFs?" Tamaki snickered. "That's kind of awkward."

"How could you trust someone you don't know?"Haruhi asked. "You could get betrayed or something."

"Oh, it's that how it is? I thought if I scared someone to death, he will never have the guts to betray me."

"Then I was right, you never had friend," Haruhi laughed.

"I have," Tamaki grumbled.

"Really, how many?" Haruhi raised an eyebrow.

"Two," Tamaki said smugly."You and Kyoya"

"Who the heck is Kyoya?" Haruhi said, thinking that Kyoya was Tamaki's imaginary friend.

"He is-," Tamaki stopped, and then he called to the windows. "Kyoya, would you come up here?"

The next thing that Haruhi remembered what happened is that a gust of wind danced around the room from the window, and then a tall, shadowy figure came in.