Haruhi kept a careful eye on both the twins, and on Renge-chan during classes the next day, though there were times when he wasn't in the same class as them. Still, Renge-chan seemed to be a dedicated enough student in class, and while the twins were cautious around her, they didn't do anything in reaction to her presence there.
It wasn't until the girl joined them in the third music room that it happened.
"Not good enough!" she snapped at them all angrily, completely out of the blue, and proceeded to rail against the Hosts all being too one-dimensional to be able to truly capture the hearts of girls for any length of time, how she would not see any shop of "Kyouya-sama's" fail, and then started assigning them seemingly random attributes.
Except for Kyouya-sempai, who she claimed was perfect and didn't need to change at all. Then again, she was still looking at him through the rose-coloured glasses of delusion, and didn't know a thing about him (or any of the other Hosts, really) at all.
Frankly though, they couldn't really act out any of Renge-chan's fantasies while hosting. Not that she particularly cared. She'd called in a film crew before most of them even knew what was going on, and was handing out scripts that she either must have written in class, or written while waiting for the film crew she'd called for to arrive.
Haruhi was putting his money on the latter since, as he looked over the script, he couldn't help but think it was, really, very weak. It would make for half an hour of film at the most. At the most, and including credits. Half an hour was a TV episode, not a movie. Jun-chan and Misa-chan were flitting around surreptitiously as well though, taking 'behind-the-scenes' pictures as they sat in their canvas chairs and talked about the lousy script they'd been handed or tried to dry off between their shots in the 'rain'.
Even professional crews used a hose held by a man standing in a high place for that special effect it seemed.
Hani-sempai was having a hard time with his role – he'd been cast as a bully, and had to bully Haruhi specifically. It just... didn't mesh with the diminutive senior's personality. He ran crying, sobbing apologies, into Haruhi's arms before he could finish the whole scene. They were friends after all, having had several chances to talk between guests at the sakura-viewing feast and while waiting for their turn in front of Jun-chan and Misa-chan's cameras.
Haruhi had, in fact, won Hani-sempai's loyalty and friendship forever when he had supplied home-baked cookies to the 'playing doctor' photo shoot, and subsequently provided the recipe he'd used so that the Haninozuka chefs could make the cookies for him any time he liked. They'd already been pretty good friends just based on their quiet conversations during the photo shoots, the cookies made it a done deal.
In their conversations, it came up that Hani-sempai was particularly happy that Haruhi paid just as much attention to his cousin as to him. Apparently, not many people did. Even for the movie, Renge-chan had given Morinozuka-sempai a very small role, hardly any lines, and nearly no screen-time.
Haruhi couldn't help but think that was a waste, before he was distracted from his thoughts by conversation.
"Why is Kaoru the 'seme' in this script?" Hikaru complained, unhappily looking over the script again.
"Yeah," Kaoru agreed with a huff. Their scenes had been shot first, and it was over now, but they were still in the basketball uniforms, and complaining about the script.
"What, you've never experimented with changing things up?" Haruhi asked them with a raised eyebrow as he joined them, a towel over his shoulders from his own scene in the rain with Hani-sempai and Morinozuka-sempai.
"Eh?!" the twins asked, a little confused.
He couldn't help but chuckle at their surprised looks. He wasn't totally naïve after all, and had a lot of experience in such things from the okama bar. "Don't worry about it. It's just a case of Renge-chan not being able to tell you apart well enough to get that detail right," he advised.
The twins sighed, shrugged, and let it go.
"Haruhi-kun!" Renge-chan called some five minutes later. Long enough for Haruhi to dry his hair, mostly dry his uniform, and become caught up in a conversation with Tamaki-sempai. "It's your turn! Over here please!"
"Hai!" Haruhi answered. Anything to get away from a Tamaki-sempai who was enjoying the idea of being tragic.
Along with Renge-chan, a couple of older male students were waiting for him.
"I've asked these gentlemen for a special appearance," Renge-chan said happily.
"Appearance?" asked one.
"What are you talking about?" the second asked.
"For the climax, we definitely need villains," Renge-chan said, a fist clenched in enthusiasm.
The two older boys looked thoroughly shocked by this revelation.
Haruhi didn't blame them, especially when Renge-chan started going on about 'disunited club members becoming one to fight evil'. When she said that the two boys she'd somehow roped into this were sons of Japanese mafia members – and therefore perfect to play the role of villains – well, Haruhi didn't blame them for getting upset either.
"What are you talking about?" demanded the first.
"Who our parents are has nothing to do with us!" the second joined in. Both on the verge of tears.
Really, what Renge-chan was doing was tantamount to bullying, but she couldn't see that for the stars in her eyes.
"Come on, this way!" Renge-chan said happily, completely ignoring them even as she grabbed the arm of one and started tugging him towards the set.
"Saying whatever you want, don't get so cocky!" the boy objected as he pulled free from her grip and pushed her away from himself. Incidentally, towards some junk left over from setting up the sets.
"Watch out!" he called. Haruhi moved quickly to catch the annoying girl. After all, just because she was annoying was no reason for her to be hurt. He succeeded in preventing harm to the girl, but was himself slammed rather solidly into some uncompromising metal poles. "Ouch," he grunted, and then winced as one of his contacts slipped. Quickly, he pulled them both out, put them in their container, and switched for his glasses. He couldn't fix them without a mirror.
"Haruhi-kun?" Renge-chan cried, surprised, relieved, and concerned all at once that he'd gotten hurt saving her. "Are you alright?"
"Renge-chan, you owe these boys an apology," Haruhi scolded as he carefully stepped away from the stuff he'd crashed into, conscious of where he'd probably be bruised later. "You can't continue to classify people the way you've been doing, putting people into categories and expecting them to fit. If you keep doing that, you'll miss out on what's really important."
"I'm not sure what you're trying to say..." Renge said, confused.
Haruhi sighed and turned to the other two boys. "I am sincerely sorry that you got dragged into this," he told them, bowing slightly, unaware of the other members of the Host Club appearing around the corner, having come running when they heard the crash.
Still, congregated there, they remained silent – but were in full view of the two boys Renge-chan had tried to get to play villains.
"Eh, it's... alright, Fujioka-san," the first one said, and gave an uncomfortable shrug.
"Not your fault," the second agreed. "We're going to leave now though, if that's alright."
Haruhi nodded, not the least bit surprised that two students he'd never met knew who he was. As Kyouya-sempai had put it the first time he'd wandered into the Host Club, he was somewhat famous for having managed to get the scholarship. Lots of people he didn't know in the school knew who he was – a state made more prevalent by his being a Host.
"Haruhi-kun..." Renge-chan said softly, still confused.
Haruhi sighed, and turned fully to her, finally spotting the other members of the Host Club. An idea... "Renge-chan, what do you actually know about Kyouya-sempai?" he asked gently.
"He's kind and -"
"No," Haruhi cut her off. "You're thinking of the character in your game. What do you know of Kyouya-sempai?" he asked firmly, but still kindly, as he pointed over her shoulder to where the teen in question (and the rest of the club) stood.
Renge-chan turned sharply, eyes wide and seeking out the object of her affections. Those eyes grew wider when she saw him looking at her so coldly.
"You planned on having a scene of the members of the Host Club being violent," he said coolly. "I am sorry to say, but I cannot permit any such thing to be recorded. To cause us trouble like this is extremely unpleasant."
"Why?" Renge-chan said softly, as tears rolled down her face. "Kyouya-sama would have said 'do not worry about it' and gently caressed my head!" she nearly screamed. "A person so full of affectionate love like you... why?" she asked, now nearly broken, eyes shut in an effort to stem the tears.
"Because that's not who Kyouya is," Tamaki answered easily, a slight smile on his face.
Renge-chan gasped, as though pained, and her eyes snapped open just a bare moment, and took in the whole Host Club – but particularly Kyouya-sempai – before falling to her knees and letting herself cry.
"That's alright though, isn't it?" Haruhi asked the girl gently, and crouched down to look her in the eye when she finally looked up. "If someone is different to how you imagined, then you should try and look at how that person really is, rather than how you imagined them to be. It's fun, getting to know people properly, gradually, and learning all about them."
Renge-chan just bowed her head, tears still in her eyes.
Haruhi stood, gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze (no way was he going to give her a pat on the head after her earlier comment), and went to the other Host Club members.
"Cut," Kyouya softly instructed the film crew.
Haruhi chuckled to himself. The whole thing, caught on film. The customers would love it.
"What did I miss on this side of the building while I was keeping Renge-chan out of the way?" Haruhi asked as he walked back with the rest of the Hosts.
"We may have made a few alterations to the script," Kyouya-sempai allowed with a smirk.
~oOo~
Taka watched as new scenes were performed by Tamaki and Kyouya, and performed in another herself with Mitsukuni – where again, she didn't have many lines. But that was alright. She didn't mind that. Years of not saying much so that no one would notice that she wasn't as much of a bass as she pretended to be had taught her the value of silences.
It was only recently, with Fujioka-kun wanting to talk with her, rather than simply at her, that she was beginning to get a feel for the enjoyment that could be had in conversation. She still wasn't totally used to it though, so, for now, fewer lines was alright with her. She just had to keep her secret until graduation.
When the filming was done, Kyouya supervised the editing before having the completed movie produced for sale to the clients. Taka would not admit it – and she knew that Kyouya would keep quiet about it – but she had also bought one of the copies. In years to come, the acting would be something to laugh at while she reminisced of the fun times she had in the Host Club. For now... for now she had no idea why she'd bought it if not for those reasons, but her heart thumped a little faster every time she saw Fujioka-kun's face, larger than life, on her television screen in her bedroom.
When the girls in the club started to exclaim about having bought the video, and which parts were their favourites, Taka noted with a sort of detached sadness that not once was her name uttered by the girls. Not once. Not even from her own customers.
"The rain scene was the best!"
"The prince of loneliness!"
"Comforted by Kyouya-sama!"
"Hikaru-sama and Kaoru-sama's relationship was so good!"
"I want to see Hani-kun's fiendish nature again!"
"Haruhi-kun's agonising look..."
Alright, so she agreed with that last sentiment, but...
A hand wrapped around her arm gently, and Taka looked down... To find Fujioka-kun standing there.
"I thought you were wonderful," he said softly.
Taka smiled, just a little, and did her best not to blush (she was even fairly sure she'd succeeded this time) at the softly spoken compliment. But did that mean...? Taka frowned a little as the thought occurred to her. Had Fujioka-kun also bought one of the tapes? Or was he talking about when he'd been watching as the filming was done?
She was just about to ask when another voice interrupted – one of the girls actually talking to them, rather than proclaiming raptures with the other girls about them. "Good day," she said.
"Oh? I thought you'd gone back to France?" Tamaki asked, speaking up first when they all turned enough to see the girl.
Houshijaku Renge-san.
"I noticed..." she started, and slowly raised her clasped hands from in front of her to rest her cheek on them dotingly as she had done when fantasising about Kyouya. "The gentleness that protected me with his body, the deep love that harshly scolds at times..." She stepped forward quickly and took hold of Fujioka-kun's hands. "This is what it means to look at someone and fall in love with him, right, Haruhi-kun?" she asked, eyes shining.
Taka felt that knot tie itself up around her heart again, the knot that had untied itself not long after meeting Fujioka-kun. Aware of it now, it felt more painful than it ever had before.
"Excuse me?" Fujioka-kun answered, and pulled his hands free of hers carefully. "Thank you," he said, and firmly (but still gently) pushed her hands away from him.
The knot in Taka's chest undid again, and she released a breath she hadn't even noticed she had been holding.
"Oh," Houshijaku-san said softly, and took a step back. "I'm sorry."
Fujioka-kun only nodded silently, and then moved to fetch tea things for his guests.
Taka didn't understand her reactions to what had just happened. However many hours she would spend after this, nearly lost in thought, trying to figure it out, Taka had a feeling that she probably wouldn't, either. She'd chosen a psychology course for one of her electives this semester in the hopes that it would help her understand what was going on. So far, it was very interesting... but not very helpful.
Well, not for the reason she'd elected to take it, anyway.
~oOo~
"It's the 'which one is Hikaru-kun' game!" the twins announced as they stood from their chairs, matching green hats on their heads to hide which way each of the twins had parted their hair – the only way most people really had for telling the two apart.
The girls who had designated them chirped, cheered and clapped happily.
"Well then, can you tell which one is Hikaru?" the twins asked together.
"Oh, that's so hard," one girl answered, her tone more of admiration than complaint.
"You two are so identical!" another added happily.
"So far, no has been really able to tell who's who," the twins declared with an air of pride.
"What a worthless game," Haruhi offered as he walked past them with his books. He had a moment spare, and so was going to do some homework while he waited for his next guest to arrive.
"What?" the twins asked, put out. "Is there something you don't like about it?"
Haruhi shrugged. "I just don't see the point of it," he answered.
"It really seems that Haruhi..." Hikaru started, and rested an elbow on Haruhi's shoulder as he came up beside him.
"... Does not understand the benefits of us, the twins, being in the Host Club," Kaoru finished, hands on his hips as he stood on the other side of Haruhi to his twin.
"Listen," Hikaru began, finger raised to make sure he was listened to – before he pulled Kaoru into an embrace as he talked. "Just the fact that we're handsome types and homo scores a lot of points, and while our act that swings between friendship and homo is favourable enough..."
"... In our case," Kaoru picked up as he twined his fingers through Hikaru's hair, "we use the highest taboo of being twins as our biggest weapon."
"On top of that," Hikaru continued as he and Kaoru separated and moved to stand either side of a chair occupied by one of their customers, each resting an arm on the back of the chair while Hikaru bent down to gently catch the girl under her chin with his fingers. "This set up of also being loved simultaneously by these two tightly bonded twins..."
"... Is a maiden's ultimate romance," Kaoru finished, gently slipping his own hand in to take the girl's chin from his twin and direct her attention to him instead. "Right?" he asked softly.
"Eh... eh... me?" the girl asked, hesitantly. "I can't take it any more!" she exclaimed happily as a blush overtook her face and she very nearly swooned. The girls she was sharing a table with, who had designated the twins at the same time as her, squealed happily.
The twins gave a "Hm!" of pride as they turned back to Haruhi.
Before Haruhi could respond though, Tamaki-sempai charged up with a laptop in his hands, yelling at the twins.
"I said you could be in charge of the club's website on the condition that you took it seriously!" he scolded them furiously.
"We are taking it seriously," Hikaru answered with calm aloofness.
"We were up until the early hours yesterday morning finishing it," Kaoru added.
"Then what is this?!" Tamaki-sempai demanded harshly, opening the laptop to reveal the Host Club homepage and hitting the keyboard furiously.
The whole page was just a picture of Haruhi. One that had been taken at the 'playing doctor' photo shoot before Haruhi was given a corset and the two-year-old nurse uniform. It was a back-view of him looking over his shoulder and smiling at the camera. The background had been modified to be full of red roses though, with a frame of more red roses in front.
Haruhi jerked in surprise himself at the sight of it.
"Haru-kun, you're so cool!" Hani-sempai noted, having been lifted by Morinozuka-sempai so that he could see the screen more easily as the customers all gathered around to admire the picture.
It was one that hadn't been released in the photo collections yet after all, and they all wanted to see.
The girls around the computer were all rather enamoured with the picture, and exclaiming over how handsome Haruhi was. This allowed for a few of the Hosts to have a conversation while they didn't have to worry about neglecting their guests, just for a little while.
"Why?!" Tamaki-sempai demanded. "Why is Haruhi the picture for the homepage?!"
"I'd like to know that as well," Haruhi interjected. "Without my permission. I don't mind Kyouya-sempai selling the photo collections, since we actually talked about that when I brought Misa-chan and Jun-chan in to take the photos. But what do you think I am that you can just get away with this?" he demanded.
The twins gave an amused hum together, smirks on their faces. "That's obvious," they answered together. "You're our toy."
"And so, to enjoy this boring life as much as possible..." Hikaru explained.
"...You need an exciting toy," Kaoru finished.
"I am not a toy!" Haruhi informed them sternly.
Not that either of them cared.
"Toy..." a voice called hauntingly, drawing their attention to a very different looking door where a dark figure was only just peering out. "Toy... toy... if you like toys," the figure said, "then come to my club: the Black Magic Club. The world black magic item market... is now being held," he declared.
Haruhi sighed softly and headed to his table. He would have guests arriving shortly still, whatever the other Hosts got up to, and he did still want to get some homework done before they arrived. It was a bonus, to Haruhi's thinking, that the guest he was due to have next was very homework focused – it was something they'd be able to talk about while they sat together. A sort of private study session. He may end up tutoring the girl who had designated him for the length of that shift, but that was still helpful to him as well.
He didn't bother to listen to what else was going on with the twins and the mysterious figure at the door. He'd asked Kyouya later who that actually was.
"Ne, Haruhi!" the twins called not even two minutes later. "We've got a favour to ask."
"What?" he answered, not looking up from his text book.
"On our next holiday," Hikaru started.
"Can we visit your home?" Kaoru finished.
"No," Haruhi answered flatly, not even caring what their reason for asking was.
"No matter what?" the two of them asked, surprised.
"No is no," he said simply, and waved them off without looking up as he tapped his mechanical pencil to his note book. "Besides, it's rude to invite yourself to someone else's house."
"Not even if we beg?" they pressed.
"No," Haruhi affirmed.
"Actually," Tamaki-sempai said, trying to be as charismatic as possible, "I was thinking that I should greet your parents."
"Definitely not," Haruhi answered him sharply, writing out the working for a mathematical equation.
"Then how about this," they suggested, and grabbed Haruhi's arms to spin him around at the same time as they grabbed the hats they used in their game. "If you guess wrong at the 'which one is Hikaru-kun' game, then we're going to visit your house as a penalty."
Haruhi sighed, frustrated, but gestured for them to go ahead and put the hats on for their game.
The two switched places a few times, hats on, and finally announced "Okay!" as they stopped, side by side. "Which one is Hikaru-kun?"
"This one's Kaoru-san," Haruhi said, pointing to the one on his left, "and this one's Hikaru-san," he finished, pointing to the twin on his right.
"Bzzt!" the twins proclaimed happily. "You're wrong!"
"I'm not wrong," Haruhi countered with a slight smirk. "And you're not coming to visit my house," he said firmly as he returned to his table.
"Ne, ne, Haruhi-kun," one of the girls called softly – a regular customer of the twins. "How can you be sure you were right? I really can't tell who's who after they hide the way they part their hair to the left or to the right."
"How were you able to tell?" another girl – also a regular customer of the twins – asked hopefully.
"If I were really wrong, they'd have taken their hats off to prove it," Haruhi answered easily. "Also, I sit between them every day in class, so I've learned to tell them apart. Their characters are really very different, even if they look the same. Apart from that..."
"Apart from that?" the girls urged.
Haruhi chuckled. "Well, it's like a much easier version of the shell game really," he answered.
"Ne, what's the shell game, Haruhi-kun?" the girls all asked.
"It's a children's game, and sometimes played for money. If it is, then the child running the shell game will put down a coin, and any child who wants to try and win that money puts down a coin of the same value. If one child wins, he or she gets to keep both coins, and so has a little bit more pocket money to spend," Haruhi explained with a smile.
He judiciously decided to leave out the part of the explanation where con-men on the street used the game to swindle people of their money. These rich young ladies most likely wouldn't ever come into contact with such unscrupulous men.
"How about I show you all tomorrow?" he suggested to them. "I'd need a few things to set the game up before I can show you, so we can't play it today," he pointed out with an easy smile.
The girls all nodded. "Tomorrow, Haruhi-kun!" they all promised.
"What will you need for this 'shell game', Fujioka-kun?" Kyouya-sempai asked softly, taking the place of the guests as they left.
"I have everything I'll need for the game at home, but if you and Tamaki-sempai decide that you'll run a casino theme to go with the one little betting game I'll be teaching our guests..." Haruhi suggested with a smirk.
Kyouya-sempai smirked silently back, giving no answer at all.
"I always wear a haori when I run a shell game," Haruhi stated with an easy shrug.
"It will be discussed in a meeting after the guests have left," Kyouya-sempai said firmly. "Your next guest is here."
"Running a casino will also provide a lot of games to the twins, who seem to be bored right now," Haruhi added softly before he turned to welcome his guest with a smile.