Chapter Three: Beautiful Narcissus
The next day, the absurdly boring normality that came with high school caused rumors to die down, so people forgot about Saelind's transfer.
However, during the last ten minutes of her last period, Haruhi was thrown through one of the most shocking loops of her entire high school existence.
There was no way this could be happening... it just wasn't possible.. it couldn't be!
But it was, and the girl was openly stunned since it severely complicated things: Suoh Tamaki himself had come into her classroom without warning and approached Saelind with a bright gleam in his eyes, not even paying attention to how all of the girls immediately swooned. He really was a handsome young man, all things considered... he had creamy skin, dreamy sapphire eyes, platinum blonde hair that had just the right wave, and a dashing smile. On top of that, he was athletically toned because he played tennis, and his school uniform was always being worn neatly since he was a very refined young man. He looked, for all the world, like the son of a prince: hence why the girls adored him so much.
Compared to an antisocial recluse like Saelind, who had no charm or even any masculine sex appeal, Tamaki shone like the sun.
So, why the hell was her big-time crush speaking with the girl that everyone thought was a boy?
Better yet, why did Saelind even look okay with it?
"This might not end well," Haruhi droned, furrowing her brows and drawing the attention of the twins. "It's an accident just waiting to happen."
"What is?" Kaoru droned, sounding thoroughly bored. "You mean what Boss is doing?"
"Yep," the brunette deadpanned, folding her arms and watching with a quirked eyebrow. "He's chatting with Saelind. With his kind of personality, it's literally like watching a puppy try to paw at a snake."
"Well, Saelind Heseroph is in a fairly odd situation," Kyouya Ootori suddenly stated, making all three of them jump; he was looking at some papers from behind his glasses, and when Haruhi tried to catch a glimpse, she was startled to see a picture of Saelind on one of them. "According to my intel, every day after school, he flies through the work he skips here and sits in a corner until it gets dark. The boy doesn't even own a futon: he literally curls up on the floor like a dog each night and goes to sleep. Very odd indeed."
"Uh, and you know all this... how?" Hikaru instantly asked, lifting his head with a curious expression. "I don't get it."
"Yeah, how do you know that?" Kaoru added, blinking in confusion before he shared a shrug with his brother. "Did you do another background check?"
"Oh, yes, but I couldn't find any solid info on what kind of a person Saelind is," the pale boy sighed, flipping through another paper. "I've requested to have his old school files transferred here since I'm actually rather surprised that someone like him made it into our school."
"I can see right into... his... apartment from my bedroom window," Haruhi quietly pointed out, making all three of them stare at her; she shrugged and looked at the black-haired girl with a sigh. "Still... I think there are lots of misunderstandings floating around here."
"Honestly, the only thing I know for certain is that Saelind is an Honor student like you, Haruhi," Kyouya snorted, glancing up with a hard flick of his eyes. "I can understand why Tamaki would want to approach him, especially since you seem to be a very likeable person. Still, he's rather naive: not everyone is as polite and kind as you are. Let's just wait and see what happens."
"Why don't we keep an eye on him when we drop over at Haruhi's place tonight?" Hikaru mischievously suggested. "Sound like a plan?"
"Yeah!" Kaoru agreed, eyes shining in delight. "That way we can find out what he does after school each day!"
"No!" Haruhi stated, crossing her arms like an 'x' and shaking her head. "Not happening!"
"Aww, come on!" the twins begged simultaneously. "Please?"
"No!" Haruhi repeated, then winced when they gave their best puppy dog eyes. "Kyouya-sempai, help me out here!"
"I personally don't care one way or another," Kyouya snorted, flipping through several more papers with a frown. "Do whatever you want."
For a long moment, the twins merely stared at him with an open mouth... but then they cheered, and Haruhi let out a disheveled sigh.
"Look," the girl pointedly muttered, ignoring how the redheads gawked at her instead. "You two just openly suggested that we spy on someone we don't know very well. Saelind is a genuinely quiet person, and he doesn't like being touched... but he's not antisocial like everyone thinks, and spying on him would technically be considered a crime."
"Are you kidding?" the twins deadpanned at the same time, giving her two identical half-lidded looks. "That kid is the definition of antisocial."
"Did you ever take into account that he's not even from this country?" the brunette asked, frowning at the twins with furrowed brows. "Remember what our teacher said when Saelind first transferred here? He's from Russia!"
"So what?!" Kaoru snapped, throwing his arms into the air. "Who cares if he's from another country?!"
"That boy isn't normal," Hikaru agreed, giving a nod. "He's bipolar and he's also... kinda creepy."
"You're over-thinking things," Haruhi sighed in dismay, patting her cheeks to wake herself up. "Stop worrying about Saelind so much!"
Around that moment, the last hour bell rang and everyone started collecting their things... aside from Tamaki and Saelind, who somehow seemed to be lost in a conversation with each other. Shockingly enough, the tiny black-haired girl didn't look as though she was irritated by being bothered: the last time someone had tried talking to her like this, she'd hissed like a snake.
On top of that... it had been revealed that her canines were unbelievably sharp-looking.
"I guess we should get going," Haruhi muttered, glancing at the conversing boys. "We shouldn't keep the girls from the Host Club waiting."
"That's right!" the twins chanted simultaneously. "We need to get things ready for the upcoming pool opening!"
"Er, yeah..." Haruhi sighed, shaking her head and crumpling up the paper she'd been writing on. "Just let me grab my things."
"Haru-chan!" Honey squealed from the doorway, jumping onto Mori's leg with a laugh when the tall boy ducked into the room. "We came to get you!"
"Be ready in a sec!" the girl called, then glanced at Mori to see that he was staring right at Saelind with a startled expression: when she followed his gaze, she saw that the dark-haired girl had stood up and was now sitting on the open window sill. Her skinny legs were swinging back and forth as she listened to whatever the hell Tamaki was babbling about. "Uh-oh... doesn't Mori-senpai like small things?"
"Hmm? Relatively speaking, yes," Kyouya explained, glancing down at her in surprise. "Why do you ask?"
"That," Haruhi groaned, pointing at the giant's glazed eyes and dazed expression. "He apparently just noticed that Saelind is really, really tiny."
Kyouya immediately followed her finger and snorted when he saw the boy's face.
"Well, this is an interesting development," he muttered, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I've never seen him look so out of it."
"Haru-chaaaaan!" Honey called, climbing up to Mori's shoulders and waving at her once he was sitting there. "Come on!"
"I think it would be best if we wait for the Boss in the club room," Kaoru agreed, nodding. "We should wait for him there."
When the girl nodded and left the classroom with her friends, however, Haruhi couldn't help but glance back over her shoulder at Tamaki, who was still ranting about something in an excited tone. Then, despite her reluctance to leave the room, the brunette shut the door and swept down the hall after the Host Club. The blonde boy twitched in surprise after it closed and glanced over his shoulder, since he hadn't even noticed that everyone had already left the room; then he turned back around.
"Is that really all you did, though?" Tamaki asked, looking thoroughly mesmerized. "Somehow, I just can't believe it... Ami-chan is a really quiet girl, and she almost never says anything good about her step-mother, not even to me! The fact that she came to school this morning dancing in circles and singing like a lunatic is totally outrageous! How did you do it?!"
"I told you seven times," Saelind deadpanned, expression completely blank. "I lent her an ear, allowed her to rant, told her about my situation because she demanded to know about it, and then gave her some constructive advice. That's all."
"I don't know what to say... I'm positively speechless," Tamaki gasped, swirling around and pressing a dainty hand against his forehead. "You broke through Ami-chan's barrier so easily! You must be a prince in disguise, nay, even better than that! Ami-chan is one of my regular guests in the Host Club as well as one of my classmates, and she did nothing but gush about you when she came to school this morning! She was babbling, my friend... and normally, she's the kind of girl who prefers reading a good book instead of talking to people. She told me, quite loudly, that her family had been having lots of misunderstandings because they'd never really sat down to have a serious talk in order to explain their feelings."
"Almost all minor misunderstandings with families stem from a situation where someone is being unclear," the tiny girl snorted, closing her eye with an irritated expression on her face. "In order to fix a problem, you first need to find out the cause: this can be done by clearly and respectfully talking about the issues you're having. If you get past that, the stress you're dealing with can easily be resolved... however, major family problems are a different story: those can be hard to fix... if fixed at all."
For a long moment, the blonde boy merely gaped at her; Saelind, however, took the silence as her cue to pack her things.
"You're an impressive young man," Tamaki finally sighed, shaking his head in amazement. "I never thought I'd ever hear such an ingenius statement coming from someone my own age. It seems like your maturity level is well above the norm. Tell me, would you like to join the Host Club?"
"No, I wouldn't, since I really don't like talking very much," the black-haired girl countered, hefting her bag. "And anyway, what I did for that girl wasn't really anything special, okay? She was pissed, I got annoyed, so I told her how to fix her situation: that's all. When you're living on your own like I am, you need to grow up fast. However, that doesn't mean I like anyone, okay?"
And with that, she stiffly headed for the door of the classroom.
"Still, thanks for helping Ami-chan," Tamaki called, giving her a cheerful wave; Saelind instantly paused with her hand on the door handle, not really comprehending what she was hearing. "She's one of my most loyal guests, so... I'm glad that you made her feel better!"
"Don't mention it," the tiny girl muttered, giving a little shrug as she opened the door. "Seriously."
Especially since even you can't tell that I'm a girl, she sadly added, feeling more than a little depressed. Everyone really thinks I'm a boy.
Feeling irritable and bitter, she left the room and started making her way down the empty school hallway, completely ignoring the blonde who poked his head out and stared at her drooping shoulders in admiration. Saelind made her way home the way she usually did, stopping off at the grocery store and grabbing a snack since she wasn't feeling all that hungry for dinner. However, when she made it back to her apartment, she didn't even manage to make it inside before Ranka stopped her.
"Saelind!" the drag queen called, giving her a smile and a womanly wave. "Would you make dinner for us again tonight?!"
"No," she coldly retorted, not even breaking her stride. "Please leave me alone before I file a restraining order."
"Aw, don't be so stingy!" the man pouted, hopping up her stairs two at a time and flapping a hand in front of her face in an attempt to make her smile. "You did it for us yesterday, remember? Also, Haru-chan is going to be busy again tonight, so I could really use your help!"
Saelind didn't respond, but she did let out a sigh of dismay before grouchily turning around.
Ranka squealed in delight when she headed over to his apartment and stalked up the stairs.
The girl spent a total of two hours creating a difficult Middle Eastern recipe, then set a plate on the table and wrapped up the rest so they could have it as leftovers. With that, she left the man's apartment without telling him, heading back over to her own and leaning against the wall once she was in her barren living room. Little to her knowledge, Haruhi and the rest of the Host Club members had walked around the corner just as she'd left and had stopped dead in their tracks with expressions of disbelief.
They'd been on their way to Haruhi's house from Ouran and seen the girl leaving the Fujioka home: Tamaki, however, practically burned a hole in the concrete running over to the front door. Once he was inside, he found Ranka eating dinner at the table with an expression of genuine delight.
"Oh, hello, Tamaki," Ranka sourly greeted, rolling his eyes; then he saw Haruhi and the others and happily waved his fork. "Welcome home, Haruhi! Also, welcome to all of you! Anyway, you've got to try some of this! It's a new dish!"
"Who was it that just left this apartment?!" Tamaki excitedly asked, leaning forward with an intense expression. "I saw someone leave!"
"We all did," Honey added, clinging to Mori's back like a spider monkey. "Was it the boy in the green sweatshirt?"
"Oh, that's just the new neighbor boy," the woman explained, giving Tamaki another sour expression. "He made us some awesome concoctions today and yesterday: he comes off as a little sharp and rude, but he's really a nice boy and he deserves a lot better than he has."
"Oh?" Kyouya asked, pushing his glasses up his nose. "And what exactly does he have?"
"Well, he's living by himself, since he has no parents," Ranka gushed, flapping his hand before he yawned and removed his wig again. "Lord, this thing itches."
"All right, all right," Haruhi finally sighed, shaking her head in dismay. "Let's just eat and hang out. This is a sleep-over for studying, isn't it?"
"Yeah!" everyone cheered, thrusting their fists in the air. "Study sleep-over!"
However, after everyone had eaten and had gotten situated, Honey developed a sweet tooth and started craving candy.
"Haru-chan! Haru-chan!" he pleaded, tugging on her sleeve. "Do you have any candy?"
"Yeah, actually," the girl absently murmured, scratching her ear as she struggled to solve a difficult math problem. "In my dresser: go check the top drawer."
"I'll go, too," Mori muttered stoically, unfolding himself from the ground when Honey cheered and ran down the hall. "He'll overdo it."
After following Honey into Haruhi's room, however, the tall youth realized that the adorable blonde had already found the bag of chocolates. He was already on his way out: humming happily, Honey skipped back down the hall towards the rest of the Host Club. Mori took a deep breath and was just about to follow him when a flash of movement over by the window caught his eye. Turning slightly, he examined the sill and frowned since he didn't see anything unusual.
Then he caught a flash of green and blinked, slowly moving over to the window and carefully pulling the curtain aside.
His eyes widened and he froze when he saw a half-naked girl with extremely long black hair standing with her back to him. He wanted to move, to run out of the room, to call for somebody... but his body had frozen up on him, and he couldn't do anything but watch in horror. However, then the girl turned, and his face flamed even brighter red since she was wearing nothing but a pair of crumpled jeans and a pale pink bra. However, after a moment, he frowned since there was a familiar green sweatshirt behind the girl.
What's that doing in there? he wondered, still frozen in place. Doesn't that sweatshirt belong to the boy who transferred into Haruhi's class?
However, then the girl lifted her face, and his breath was knocked out of his lungs from the shock.
A familiar teal eye had been revealed when the girl's long hair had shifted: Saelind wasn't a boy at all... she was a girl.
Then he saw the burn scars... and he gasped, eyes widening and mouth dropping open in shock for the first time in his life.
That's why she wears that hood, he dazedly realized, blinking in a stunned manner. Ouch...
It was around that moment when he realized that the girl was looking at an opened letter.
For several moments long moments, there was no expression on the visible half of her face ... but then, her soft lips twisted in anger and she tore the letter into shreds without even bothering to pick up the pieces. Then she practically tripped on her own jeans in her attempt to run over to the window; Mori twitched and finally pulled himself out of view, pressing himself against the wall when the sound of sliding glass met his ears.
When he heard the girl breathing hard, he shivered... but then, he paused because she sounded as though she were struggling not to cry.
Oddly enough, he was right.
A few seconds later, she took a deep breath and let out a mournful wolf's howl.
Mori jumped and and slowly slid down to the floor with a startled expression, hugging himself as the girl frantically howled over and over again, howling until her voice cracked and she couldn't do it any longer. Even then, she tried... and when he hesitantly took a peek through Haruhi's window, he saw that the girl was clutching the sill with trembling hands: her head had been lowered.
She looked broken.
However, far off in the distance to the north, a wolf howled in response... and soon, more howls began to erupt, baying at the sky in a harmoniously wild song. The sounds made Mori twitch in surprise and he immediately pulled back, heart thumping wildly: Saelind lifted jer teal eye and glanced at the barely visible sky with a solemn expression. Her long hair had been undone and she was shirtless aside from her underwear.
Which had, in truth, done nothing but expose her horrible scars.
"Never," the girl whispered hoarsely, high-pitched soprano echoing into Haruhi's room. "I'll never come back... after all, he only came back because you promised you'd send me away, right? It doesn't matter what you say to me now: even if you're getting a divorce for my sake, what you did to me was unforgivable. I'm never coming back, Mother... so you can grow old alone for all I care."
With that, she slammed the window shut and stormed into the bathroom; a few minutes later, steam started wafting into the hall.
Mori clutched his heaving chest with a frightened expression.
Haruhi, however, was peering into her own room with a solemn expression since she'd seen the last of it.
If howling was Saelind's version of crying, she figured that the girl must have just had a serious baby-like breakdown in her own way.
It made her feel sick, and she slowly started wondering what had put her new neighbor in such a bad mood.
Then she wondered why she was even worried about her in the first place.
However, she blinked when Mori slowly sat up and took another peek through her window... which he regretted fully and completely.
His face instantly flashed bright red and he yelped before covering his eyes and ducking beneath the sill.
Saelind had just walked out of the shower completely nude, with nothing but a towel held just in front of her chest to conceal her body: he had only caught a glimpse of her slender figure, but she really was extremely tiny for a fifteen-year-old girl. In fact, the uninjured side of her face had a surprisingly childish quality: large teal eye, smooth cheek, soft lips...
She looked like a little kid.
Finally getting up, the red-faced youth stumbled out of the room and bolted right past Haruhi.
He didn't even notice that the girl had been standing there.
