Her apartment building is huge, and the name is some fancy French words. The entire building is painted a sort of peach color. The top of the building and the outside of the windows were all white. When we walk through the front doors we are greeted by a bunch of maids and butlers. It feels really awkward. I just hide behind Karei. That is surprisingly hard considering she's shorter than me. We FINALLY get up to her apartment. "I'm sorry, but this is why I'm not a big fan of rich people. They spend so much money on things that are useless. When I met Kaoru, he had a gold lidded jar with tons of jewels on it. Why? There is no reason why you can't just go out and get a normal jar. Jewelry and outfits are different, though, as long as you wear them often. If you just wear them one time, that is just totally wasteful. There would be a lot less homeless people and more people with jobs if rich people would just not waste all of their money on stupid things." Karei just stares at me. "What?"
"Are you done now?" I put my hands on my hips in anger. "Good, because I have some questions."
"Okay, like what kind of questions?"
"Well, what kind of things do you like? I know you dislike rich people. Don't worry, I'm not offended by the stupid rich people thing."
"Okay, I thought I might have offended you. Well, I like red, butterflies, my pet cardinal Sora, I actually love carnations, only the red kinds though, I absolutely adore raspberries, Haruhi is really nice, I love children, that's why I like Mitskuni and Takashi."
She tilts her head. "Wait, who?"
"Oh, sorry. I mean Honey and Mori. I really like them."
"And Kaoru."
"Yeah-wait, WHAT!? Nuh-uh!" I feel my entire face heat up in a serious blush.
"You can't deny it~ You basically admitted it earlier." She laughs at me while we get the rest of her things.
"W-well, what about you and Hikaru?"
"Nah, man, we're just total best buds." We go down the stairs. "Oh, wait! I forgot something. Can you wait for me in the lobby?" She gives me the puppy dog eyes.
"Uh, sure." She runs back up the stairs. I think I saw an evil grin on her face. Maybe I'm imagining things. I call my mom. "Hey, mom, I don't know how long I'm gonna be out tonight."
"Oh, oops! I guess I forgot to tell you! My bad~"
"What did you forget to tell me? Do we need anything?"
"Yes, actually, I need you to get some milk and eggs. Also, before I forget, I won't be home tonight either. I have to stay late, and one of my coworkers lives really close, so I'm going to stay with him."
"Wait, did you just say 'him?'" I hear a click. "Did you just hang up on me?" I wait a few seconds. "You just hung up on me! She just hung up on me! Grrr, oh she is so going to get it!" I try re-dialing, but she turned her phone off. "Are you kidding me!?" At that moment, Karei decides to re-appear. She laughs at me. "This isn't funny." I begin to pout.
"You want to go eat somewhere?" I nod my head. "Okay, how about we go to Chinatown?" I nod my head, again, this time a bit happier. I like Chinatown a lot. She leads me out to the car waiting for us. We talk a bit on the way there, but I'm still upset. How can she do this? He's only away on business. He hasn't left us, yet. We finally get to Chinatown. "We can skate back to Chou-chan's place." The driver tips his hat and drives off. "Well, where do you want to go?" Before, I can even answer she drags me over to a dress shop.
"Karei, why are we in a clothing store?"
"Because."
"Good enough." We walk towards the back of the store. "Oh my gosh, this is so pretty!" I hold up a red and gold, off the shoulder, crop top.
"Well, then, try it on." With that, she pushes me into the dressing room. She comes back a minute later. "These, too." She hands me a black and gold, short skirt, a pair of black and red wedges, a few black bracelets, red heart earrings, and a gold headband. "Don't even think of coming out of there without them on!" I sigh. She is gonna have me die of embarrassment, isn't she? Yes, yes she is. I finally put it all on and get the nerve to show her. "Wow, you look so cute-wait. One more thing." She comes up and puts my hair in a ponytail. "There! all done!" She yanks me to the counter. She bought herself an entirely new outfit too. "Where do you want to go now?" AGAIN, before I can say anything, she pulls me toward a ramen shop. She's really pushy, but in a nice and endearing way. I can't help but go along with her. It's fun having someone else decide for you. Me and my mom aren't exactly people who can make decisions quickly, so this is a lot better. "Excuse me, we need two seats." She slips the lady a piece of paper, and the lady smiles.
She takes us to our seats. "Hey, Karei!" I hear a very familiar voice. I look over and see Hikaru and his little doppelganger. I turn towards the waitress.
"I'm sorry, but is there anywhere else we can sit?"
She smiles and shakes her head. "I'm afraid not. All the other seats are taken." I look around and see, like, five open tables. She actually pushes me to the booth. "I will come back in a minute to take your order." Hikaru stands up and pushes me into the seat next to Kaoru. I'm too busy blushing and hiding my face to notice that he and Karei slipped off to another table.
"Hey, Chou. You, uh, look great."
"Th-thanks, Kaoru." We sit there in silence for a few minutes. "Um, K-Kaoru, I'm-"
"Wait." He reaches over next to him and pulls out a bouquet of red carnations. There is a small red and gold butterfly figurine in the middle. "I-I wanted to say I'm sorry."
I shake my head. "No, I'm sorry. I was being over-sensitive."
"What I said was actually supposed to be a complement, but I guess not."
"No, it was. There's just a bad memory behind that statement. Today's been kind of rough really. My dad's out on a business trip, but my mom isn't coming home tonight because she's spending the night at a 'friend's' house, and that 'friend' just happens to be a guy. I don't know what to do with her. She's like a two year old, and men are candy." He looks at me strange, and I wave my hands in front of my face. "Uh, that w-was just an analogy, don't take it literally. I've just had a really weird roller-coaster day today. I found out I have a cousin, today was my first day of school, I met the Host Club, my mom stressed me out major, and I almost died!"
"That's quite a productive day." We both begin to laugh. "I'm glad I came in when I did."
"You do know it's your fault I almost died, right?" He looks shocked. "You scared me, and in turn, I scared my bird." I smell the flowers. "Do you smell raspberries?" He reaches down to the ribbon holding the bouquet together and hands it to me.
"It reminded me of you. When-when you were sleeping I smelled a mixture of raspberries and something else. I found a gold ribbon and sprayed it with raspberry perfume." He looks really red from his admittance that he smelled me. I don't mind really. My mom calls me her 'little raspberry' because I blush a lot.
I lean down to smell the flowers again. "Kaoru, you're my hero." Both of our faces begin to blush. "I-I can't thank you enough for that, Kaoru. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you." I lift my head up to look at him. His face is really close to mine.
"I know what it is." I give him a questioning look. "The other thing you smell like. You smell like a mixture of raspberries and pinna colada. It's intoxicating." He leans forward. Oh, god, this is really happening! Chou, you can't! You just met him, you can't kiss him! All of these thoughts screaming at me, but I can't help but to lean in.
"Just kiss her, already!"