None of them had a clue what Narumi was on about. His eyes flickered across the room, taking in everyone's expressions. Why did they look so surprised? Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck.
"Don't be so rude." Ochiai had poked hard him with his index finger. "Just because you have this weird 'only my haircuts look good' issue doesn't mean that the rest of us feel the same." He walked across to the edge of the changing room and looked out, watching Kiri as she packed her things away. "Look, the flow, the bounce; everything's perfect. It suits her surprisingly well. I expected it to look awful too, but it's actually pretty good. Or, is your only reason for disliking it that you can no longer call her 'Mussy-head'?"
"I just don't think the image suits her." Narumi huffed, leaning hard against the wall.
"Since when did you care what suited her?" Billy interjected. "You're nothing but rude to her, maybe it's time you treated her as an equal rather than your rival."
"Now now gentlemen!" Tamaki stepped forward, rose petals permeating around him. "Now is not the time to fight! It would render her sacrifice entirely pointless! How about we all calm down and enjoy some commoner's coffee?" He held out his arms in a welcoming fashion and winked. Billy and Narumi began to twitch.
"You know, you're not helping by calling them commoners, Tamaki sempai." Haruhi whispered. "I have an Idea, why don't I give you a school tour. It'll help you when you're trying to find your way around for the next few days." Trying to change the subject worked surprisingly well, the majority of the scissors project mumbled in agreement and began to follow Haruhi from the room. Narumi stayed where he was, looking sullen. He watched as the host club and scissors project members filed out of the door. Kiri was the last to leave; she turned as she reached the door.
"You're not coming, Narumi?"
"Why would you care?" Kiri shrugged at followed the others through the door which she snapped shut behind her.
Narumi leant his head back against the changing room's door frame and closed his eyes. Why was everyone in such a good mood about this place? As soon as that boy, or girl rather, 'Haruhi' had explained what the club did, he began to feel uneasy. Sure he was used to having girls swarm around him 'cut my hair Narumi sempai', 'give me a makeover Narumi sempai', but for some reason, the idea of the entire scissors project being part of that atmosphere felt wrong.
"Narumi-san!" His eyes opened in a flash. Inches from his face stood the tall, golden haired boy. He was leaning over him with a stern look etched across his face. "You need to be more careful or you'll be left behind! Think of the bad image you'll force upon your scissors project if you're seen as the anti-social club member! Come, come! I'll show you where they've gone!" Tamaki grabbed hold of Narumi's right arm and began to drag him from the room, pulling on his blue checked shirt.
"Hey! Get off me!" Narumi stepped back as Tamaki pulled forward on his shirt, the consequence of which was a nice long rip along the seam of the sleeve. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! This is one of my favourite shirts!" Tamaki let go and slowly backed away, his expression portrayed the emotion that he was slowly dissolving at the inmost depths of his soul. He flumped to the floor next to one of the clubroom's many windows and sat in the foetal position making low humming noises.
Narumi was taken aback. He was used to people who understood that when he was angry, he was, well - he was inclined to over express it vocally. But this guy was shaken and by such a small degree of anger? He must be a spoilt brat; that was the only explanation. But still...
"Hey look, I'm sorry. It's not that big a deal. Our overnight stuff is all in that limo; I can just get another shirt." Tamaki looked up, wide eyed and teary.
"The limo's already taken your things to the mansion, I'm...SO SORRY!" He crawled across to Narumi and clung to the hem of his shirt. "Please forgive me!"
"It's ok, really-"
"But what if you don't have enough money to buy new shirts?! Mori and Honey sempai both told me that you were all very surprised to see the limo, perhaps you'd never seen a car before?! And now I've ripped one of your only shirts! The life of a commoner must be so difficult!"
"Hold on a second! Who said that-" Tamaki stood up at this point and raised a hand to silence Narumi.
"I will make it up to you! You are now an honorary member of the host club! I shall fetch you a fresh uniform!" And with that he rushed off, leaving Narumi utterly bewildered.
