Kicking a small stone along the pathway, she sighed in content. Birds were accompanied by rustling leaves as they sang their summer-y songs. Clouds were constantly passing over the sun, preventing her from getting too hot. Everything was just so, so nice.

Until she heard a certain voice call out her name not 100 feet behind her. Tamaki.

"Haruhi!" he cried out once more. It was then that she turned around to see him running towards her, being trailed by the rest of the hosts, including an angry looking Kyoya. She couldn't even begin to imagine how he had managed to get him out of bed so early, and to be honest, she didn't really care to find out, but that was mostly because she would have to speak to the youngest Ootori.

The two hadn't spoken since the Tuesday when he had accused her of reading through his notebook, and even though she knew it was pointless to hold a grudge (especially against someone like Kyoya), it had bothered her greatly. He should have been able to tell that she was telling him the truth; maybe he had chosen to ignore it instead. Maybe he was trying to pick a fight with her, but that didn't make much sense. Her senpai was in no way like that.

People do strange things when they're in love, Haruhi, a voice floated through her mind. Her mother's. It had been her answer to when she asked about a newspaper headline when she was very young. Something about a man killing a woman's boyfriend so that she would "have no choice but to be with him". Years ago, she had accepted the answer, but it was only until she had gotten older that she realized how sadistic and cruel it was. She didn't even think that was love.

Haruhi nearly choked when she thought of those words. There was no way that Kyoya could ever like her. Not even in a dream. He was simply too involved with people in his own social class to even do more than acknowledge her existence.

Not that she wanted more from him. She was perfectly fine with being friends, or so she tried to tell herself. She wasn't exactly sure why the words were so hard to come up with. There was no way they could ever be together, even if they tried to be something more. There was just no way.

As the six other hosts came closer, Haruhi greeted them with a smile. "Oh, hey guys."

"Are you feeling better yet, Haruhi?" Kaoru asked coming right up beside her. The auburn haired boy was soon joined by his twin.

"We missed having our toy with us at school," added Hikaru, wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

The girl wanted to just push him away, as she wasn't quite ready to have her space invaded yet. Sure she was feeling much better than she had a few days ago, but she was nowhere near being a hundred percent better. To be honest, she wasn't sure she would feel that good for a long time.

"I feel a lot better than I did on Monday," she started, carefully unwrapping herself from her classmate's embrace. "But I'm not entirely better yet."

Thankfully, Hikaru didn't seem to mind her separating herself from him. Instead, he took his place next to his brother, staring at the brunette, just like everyone else. Correction: everyone but Kyoya.

The Ootori's gaze was fixated on some point in the distance, which was a bit out of character for him, but she didn't question it, mostly because she didn't want to even think about her senpai at the moment. His accusatory words from Tuesday still made her upset at him, even though she shouldn't care about them too much.

As long as she knew that she hadn't read anything from his journal, then what did it matter? The fact that Kyoya didn't believe her shouldn't mean anything.

I don't need his approval, she assured herself as she turn her attention back to her group of friends.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" Haruhi asked to no one in particular.

Honey was the first to answer. "We wanted to come see you, Haru-chan!" he said in his sweet and childish voice. "We went to your house first, but your dad said that you went out to run some errands, right Takashi?"

"Mhm," his cousin hummed in response to being dragged into the conversation.

Tamaki was the next to speak up. "I wanted to spend time with my daughter!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms around her. "I haven't seen you in so long!"

Of course he would over exaggerate her absence.

"Senpai, I saw you on Tuesday," she said, trying to get her blond friend off of her. "I wasn't gone for all that long. Besides, I needed to rest. Kyoya-senpai's brother even said so."

At the mention of his name, the vice president looked over at the girl. His gray eyes burned holes into her flesh. A slight blush appeared on her cheeks as she waited desperately for someone else to speak, taking the attention off of her.

While she was happy to have someone else speak, she was not so grateful to hear the voice of Kyoya break the deafening silence. "I already explained this to you multiple time, Tamaki," he said in a slightly agitated voice. He was obviously fed up with his friend saying such things. "Haruhi needed to rest for a while or else it would have taken much longer for her to get back to the Host Club."

From the way he said it, Haruhi knew that she would be cleaning the club room for weeks to try to make up for their loss of profit while she took time off from school and club activities. It took everything that she had to keep from groaning or wincing. Returning to school was something that she was eager to do, but now, she dreaded this coming Monday.

"I should be back on Monday, Senpai," she said, directing this at Tamaki, but, unfortunately, Kyoya was the one to reply.

"Good, I am sure that your guests will be looking forward to having your company again," he said. HIs tone was cold enough to send chills down the girl's spine.

"We will be happy to have you back, too, Haru-chan!" Honey exclaimed. "Maybe we can all have cake together!"

His bright attitude made her feel slightly better. A laugh and smile made their way to her mouth and she said, "I would like that, Senpai."

"We can help you catch up on the work you missed," the twins chorused. Their offer was sincere, but it was laughable. There was no way that she would be able to study with the two of them. Maybe if it were just one of them, but both? She might as well just not do the work at all.

"Thanks guys; that's really nice of you to offer, but I think I will just ask our teachers for help if I need it, but I will definitely keep you two in mind if I have any questions," Haruhi said, still smiling. In the back of her mind, though, she knew that she wouldn't need their help. Their offer was still sweet, nonetheless.

"Hey guys," Haruhi said, suddenly remembering why she had left the house to begin with. "I have to run some errands, but you are welcome to come with me if you want."

A chorus of agreements came from everyone but one person: Kyoya.

"Alright," she said. "You guys lead the way."

With that, everyone started to move down the walkway towards the grocery store. Having got a few moments down the path, a certain black haired boy sped up a bit, trying to get to the front of the group. Haruhi probably wouldn't have noticed this if it hadn't been for the fact that she felt his hand brush up against hers.

She stopped in her tracks. Was it an accident? Surely he didn't mean for their hands to touch; the sidewalk wasn't very wide, so it must have been nothing.

Snapping her out of her own thoughts came a voice from Honey. "Come one, Haru-chan," he called out, causing the rest of the Host Club to turn their heads towards her.

Haruhi walked quickly to join back up with them.

He didn't mean it, she told herself. it was an accident. He didn't mean it.