A/N: Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Remember to write a review if you'd like! Criticism and comments are my favorites!


School next Monday was excruciating. Hiina's body was still sore and stiffly bandaged, and as if to add insult to injury, practically everyone was talking about her. She was sure they all meant well and were only concerned, but it only made Hiina feel self-conscious. The nurses of Ouran Academy were informed of her condition and required to check in on her after every class period, only making the poor girl even more embarrassed. She wished her mother wasn't so worried about her sometimes and that she could change a bandage herself if needed, but that argument was quickly shot down. To continue her frustrating day, a group of her classmates stood in front of her desk after lunch and presented her with a handmade 'Get Well' card, Tamaki Suoh giving them the idea.

"He said that commoners did it for their friends," a kind, yet dim-witted girl named Sachi said with a bright smile. Her friends agreed and signed it for Hiina, though lingered after she accepted it, hoping the girl would reveal how she received her injuries. When she wouldn't budge, her classmates gave up and returned to their seats, continuing with their guesses as to what could have happened. Hiina groaned quietly and laid her head on her desk, wishing she could disappear or that her mother would have just let her stay home until she healed.

"Good afternoon, Miss Kikugawa," a smooth voice said above her. The girl looked up to see Kyoya Ootori peering down at her past his spectacles, lenses flashing as he readjusted them.

"Good afternoon, Ootori," Hiina returned the greeting, wary of him. The two hardly spoke, let alone before class. She knew that this could only mean trouble. The girl sat up straight when he reached into his black notebook of secrets and fished out an envelope. Placing it in the middle of her desk, Hiina tilted her head in question. He held up a hand before she could ask, an easy smile on his face.

"Don't worry. It's not a confession," he gave an almost teasing smirk and shut his notebook with a snap. "An invitation, if you will. To the Host Club." Hiina's eyebrows scrunched together, taking the lavender envelope in her hands.

"I don't understand. I have a membership good for another three months," she examined the rose-imprinted seal of the envelope, looking back up at Kyoya. "Is there an event I am unaware of?"

"No, no. It's just a gift, as you seem to be in quite a deal of pain recently," his eyes flashed in interest, though he was polite enough not to pry openly. "Please, use it as you will. Now, if you excuse me," Kyoya gave a polite bow and returned to his seat as if nothing happened. Hiina stared at the envelope, perplexed, yet tucked it into her bag as class started. She would deal with Kyoya's mysterious envelope later.


Hiina was grateful for the dismissal bell, the teacher reminding students that their physical exams will be coming soon in the next few weeks as everyone was packing up. Hiina moved slowly as she placed her pencil case and books into her bag, slinging it onto her shoulder. She winced when it bumped into her side, and rubbed it gingerly, her friends waiting outside the classroom again.

Since it was Monday, Hiina had her calligraphy club activities.

"Couldn't you skip just this once? I'm sure they would understand you need to relax," Machiko pleaded. "The Host Club would totally be all over you and treat you super nice if you went with us! Like that one time that first-year, Mayu, hurt her leg in tennis and all the hosts catered to her hand and foot!" Hiina smiled slightly, but shook her head.

"Sorry, I really need to go. I would be upset if I learned my clubmates skipped to go to the Host Club, so I shouldn't either."

"Aww, you never hang out with us anymore, Hiina-chan…"

Hiina felt slightly guilty, but reminded herself it was her idea to join the club in the first place and it wouldn't be fair to the other club members if she didn't show up. She quickly departed from her friends, much to Machiko and Nagisa's protests, and walked as swiftly as possible down the halls. Hiina switched her bag to her other side so it wouldn't hit her bandaged ribs, the students in the halls thinning out around her. She could sense some of them looking at her and turned to smile at them. They returned the gesture and Hiina continued on her way, some of them looking a bit nervous they were caught staring.

She stopped at a old wooden door across from a large window, hidden behind the bend of the hallway. It was an older room, used only for small club meetings or school festivals, nestled in a quiet corner of the castle-like school. Hiina stepped in, greeted to the smells of sumi ink and the sound of iron weights smoothing over hanshi paper. She saw her other clubmates were silently at work, each sitting at their own large desk, backpacks laid at their feet as they picked up their calligraphy brushes. Hiina looked to the board, seeing that the kanji today was "star" and strode over to the last open desk, right in front.

Supplies were already laid out, waiting near the edges of the desk. She quickly donned her small smock that was laid over the back of the chair, to prevent ink stains on her uniform and tied her hair back tightly. She smoothed her paper over the soft, black mat laid in the center of the desk, using the special iron paperweight to keep the paper in place. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed her hair again then picked up the sumi ink stick along with the deep well to grind her ink, pouring a small bit of water as she did so. Soon, the well was filled partway with ink and she lifted her brush. Glancing at the board once again, she tried to balance the brush in her stiff fingers as carefully as possible, deciding how to begin with her kanji.

There were nine strokes in the kanji for "star", but Hiina decided she would do it with only seven. She dipped her brush, watching the pale bristles blacken. She imagined the night sky with stars as endless as the eye could see, galaxies swirling high above as she and her sisters laid and watched, imagining stories as the night went on. She smiled, smelling the summer grass, hearing the cicadas cries as they laughed together. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Hiina's brush made the first stroke, but a jolt of pain suddenly shot up her side. She let out a small yelp of pain, black ink smearing on the fresh sheet of paper as she clutched her side, dropping the calligraphy brush. Some of her clubmates stood, chairs scraping against the tiled floor as they crossed over to her.

"Hiina! You look awful. What happened?" An older, third-year student asked, her dark brown eyes wide as if she saw Hiina's bandages for the first time. Her the other club members began to gather around, muttering their concerns for her.

"A-are you okay, Kikugawa-senpai?" A first-year chirped, peering from behind the third-year. Hiina smiled at both of them, recalling their names as Sena and Mikoto. She didn't blame them for not noticing her injuries right away, as they were all focused on their writing, but tried to brush them off.

"I'm fine, really. Just a little uncomfortable pain, I think," the girl said with a soft chuckle. Sena frowned and put her hands on her hips, obviously dissatisfied with her answer. Hiina felt someone standing over her work and looked to see the club's president, stern-faced third-year Hiro Tanaka. He was frowning, not too unusual for him, especially when it was at Hiina.

There weren't many people in the Calligraphy Club to begin with, but there were at least eight now, Hiina included. A lot of students joined when they heard Hiina joined, nearly quadrupling their club size. Most of them seemed to want to be friends with the girl due to her success in the calligraphy world, as Hiina as won high-profile showings since she entered middle school. Others were ordered by their families to make nice with her, as a way to get to know their heir-less family. Either way, Hiro was less than enthused to learn that the sudden interest in his club was because of a mildly-famous student calligrapher with a family line needing a heir.

"You wasted your supplies, Kikugawa," Hiro said, not bothering with looking at her, his eyes squinting at the inkblot. She stiffened at his cold tone and stood to bow, even though it pained her side.

"I apologize, senpai. I will pay for my mistake," Hiina said to the desktop, now staring at her paper with him. Her calligraphy brush was bleeding onto the paper and slowly dripping down, heavy ink drops smearing on the soft mat beneath the it.

"Stay after club activities. You will help me clean up," he said and turned on his heel, going to the board to write a new kanji for them to practice. Hiina sighed and sat, rubbing her side ruefully.

"Club leader! I think that Hiina would be in too much pain to clean," Sena spoke up as everyone went back to their desks. Hiina looked up at her in surprise, her senior smiling with a wink. Hiro turned back to them and his frown deepened, bright blue eyes looking between Hiina and Sena.

"You do not have to subject yourself to helping her, Kujiki-san," he said in a quick voice, obviously frustrated at his classmate's attempt to lessen Hiina's punishment. Sena just laughed and shrugged.

"You know me! Always needing to help a damsel in distress," she smiled and patted Hiina's shoulder gently before going to her desk, Hiro glaring daggers at her back the whole way. Hiina smiled warmly when Sena retreated, but quickly looked down when she saw Hiro glaring at her too, fixing another paper to begin practicing with.


The room was dustier than Hiina imagined, and she almost thought that Hiro never cleaned the room as thoroughly as he insisted she do it. However, Sena was alongside her so she didn't have to bare Hiro's punishment alone. The girl was grateful to the upperclassmen, who was currently talking about her shopping vacation with her mother they took to Paris in spring break, going on and on just to fill the silence in the clubroom (and to annoy their club leader).

Hiro was pinching the bridge of his nose as Sena went on about the crepes she had, and how they weren't the same type of crepes you could get downtown in Shibuya. If Hiina was being honest, she couldn't care less about crepes but was still politely listening, asking questions and nodding to show she was interested as she swept behind a filing cabinet. Sena was scrubbing the blackboard clean, happily chattering on before Hiro slammed his hands onto the desk he was wiping down.

"That enough, Kujiki," he said loudly, his uniquely blue eyes cutting into her. Sena and Hiina hushed themselves and turned toward him. Hiina flinched at his hard eyes, reminding her of ice, but Sena just pursed her lips in defiance.

"Oh, please. You know that face doesn't scare me, Hiro," she teased him, his face almost white as he was straining to glare at her. Hiina uncomfortably looked between the two upperclassmen, then glanced around, realizing the room was now cleaner than it has ever been, probably before the club even opened.

"Senpai, may I leave? The room is entirely clean," Hiina asked meekly. Hiro sighed heavily, turning away from Sena, and nodded while gesturing to the door.

"But not you, Kujiki," Hiro said, a severe tone in his voice that made Hiina nervous. The girl bowed and collected her cleaning supplies to put away, quickly escaping, but not before casting the older girl a thankful glance. Sena just grinned and waved her out, Hiina shutting the door behind her.

Hiina was halfway down the hall, catching her breath and trying to stretch stiff muscles before realizing that she left her bag.

'Oh damn,' she thought, not wanting to somehow get in trouble for forgetting her bag, but she couldn't risk not finishing her homework. Turning around quickly, she dashed as painlessly as possible back to the clubroom. She opened the door suddenly, already apologizing, but froze when she saw the embrace that her upperclassmen were currently in.

Hiro was kissing Sena deeply, her arms wrapped around his neck as his hands pushed into the small of her back. Hiina flushed brightly when they yanked apart, both obviously flustered as they stared at the second-year who mumbled about coming back to grab her bag.

"W-what?" Hiro asked, looking toward the place floor that Hiina was pointing at. "Oh." He grabbed it to hand it to her, avoiding eye contact purposefully. Hiina snatched the bag from him with a hasty "thank you" and ran from the clubroom, face still on fire from bursting in on her clubmates' private moment together.

'S-so they're together?! How weird. I guess opposites attract, but, t-their kiss was like they've done it so many times before. I wonder what it felt like,' she was so caught up in the thought of Hiro and Sena's kiss that she didn't realize she was walking straight towards someone until it was too late.

"Oof!" The girl stumbled, almost falling back but steadied herself. Hiina had to look up at who she ran into and almost squeaked when she realized who it was. "M-Mori-senpai!"

The boy towered over her as he turned around at the sound of his name. Seeing the blushing girl, he raised an eyebrow, but he visibly tensed when he noticed her bandages. Her face began to turn red for a different reason now, ears even growing hot as she blushed. Hiina self-consciously tried to hide her hands behind her back and look downwards to hide the large gauze on her chin, noticing that he was staring.

'Oh, kill me now, please. I don't need him to see me like this!'

"Red," Mori spoke up, poking her cheek without warning. Hiina flinched away when his finger pushed against her warm skin, shocked he would do such a thing, but relaxed when she saw his smile, small and easy, and only for her in that moment. The girl felt herself swooning, but cleared her throat, long ponytail swaying as she looked away to collect herself.

"Sorry for running into you, senpai. I should have watched where I was going," she bowed to him, realizing she has apologized quite a bit today. 'Must not be my lucky day.' She heard him hum in acknowledgement and straightened herself, smoothing out her uniform before giving a quick smile.

"I-I must be going. See you around, senpai."

Another hum, but this one was different, almost disagreeing. Hiina looked up at him, confused, but he was as stoic as ever. He held his hand out to her, eyes moving to her bag. She blinked slowly before coming to the conclusion he wanted to take her bag, and she quickly held up her hands, waving them in refusal. "No, no! You don't have to help me, senpai! I'm alright!"

His eyes watched her hands, before he reached out, taking one within his own. Hiina flinched, the callouses just now starting to heal up, but he was gentle when examining. She knew her face was tomato-red again but refused to notice it, biting her lower lip instead as she wondered what he must think of her. Her mother's words replayed in her head: "You know it is not becoming as a young woman to have callouses and to be participating in kendo…"

"What happened?" He then asked, bringing Hiina out of her thoughts. She tightened her lips into a thin line, wondering if she should really tell him, or just brush him off like everyone else.

'Surely he doesn't gossip, right?' But then she remembered that flash of knowing she saw in Kyoya's eyes during class. Her family's physician was hired under Kyoya's family, the Ootori's and Kikugawa's on friendly-enough terms together, but she knew when Kyoya wanted information, not even doctor-patient confidentiality could keep him from getting it.

"Ootori probably told you by now," Hiina then said levelly, giving him a serious look, growing angry at the thought that he was playing dumb with her. Mori's dark silver eyes gave hints of his emotions she realized, and she saw she hurt him with the accusation, but it was true.

They all knew.

The girl sighed, taking her hand away from him as an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, and almost disappointment, washed over her. Her mind was numb, the nagging sensation of her sore ribs the only thing she could think of. "Senpai, I'm sorry. I just want this day to be over."

The host let her pass, watching her go down the hall until she disappeared. Mori stared for a few moments before his blond counterpart hopped down the staircase he was waiting by, large brown eyes looking far-off and mature again.

"Kyoya gave her the letter," Hunny said, stopping a few steps before the bottom, almost level with Mori's height. "Maybe we can help her, huh Takashi?"

"Yeah," Mori said, unable to look away from the hall. "Maybe."

'It's a host's duty to make every girl happy, afterall.'