Chapter Nine

There was a teenage girl in my house. On my way out the door to school I stopped and suddenly noticed her. She was wearing the Ouran uniform, like me. She had a headband in her hair.

Tentatively, I raised my hand to wave.

She waved back.

I felt uncomfortable. She looked uncomfortable too.

Slowly, I took a few steps towards her. She took a few steps towards me, and I found myself face to face with her much sooner than expected.

I raised my hand. She raised hers, and they touched.

It was from this brusque and unsettlingly cold contact that I realized it had been a mirror after all.

Without another word, I left for school.

Before I tell you about my date with Hikaru, which I'm sure you're dying to hear about, I should tell you what I did the night before. Because it concerns you. Yes, you.

After having calmed my rage against my father, I sat down at my computer. I decided that if ever I had a chance against Kyouya Ootori, I had better damned well be prepared.

So I began typing.

And that's how I got here. Not all at once, of course. But a little bit, every day. And now the world will know the pain I have suffered at the hands of an enterprising teenage boy.

Now then, on to school.

No one was very surprised when I arrived at school. The girls still said hi to me, and still called me Haruhi-kun and not Haruhi-san. Before it used to make very little difference to me, but after my hair-raising experience as an actual boy, I had become much more conscious of my gender.

I simply smiled and waved in reply, when it hit me:

They thought I was a boy cross-dressing as a girl.

That was an issue.

When I got to class, Hikaru and Kaoru made a big show of pulling out my chair for me, and taking my books for me, and calling me Haruhi-chan, and telling me I looked really cute that day, and you get the idea.

However, that didn't change the fact that all the boys in class were looking at me funny. The air was slightly more hostile than I had expected. I decided I would tell Kyouya that real people took to cross-dressing less happily than game-people.

I don't really talk a lot in class, so I managed to get through the day without the teacher noticing. I paid strict attention to my studies, like I always do, but found my eyes slipping to the right, where Hikaru was doodling strange curvy spirals on his notes. Kaoru, I knew, drew geometric shapes. If you pay enough attention to them, you can see that they're really not alike at all.

When Hikaru noticed me looking, he smiled. My heart did a funny ba-bump and I remember thinking I should see a doctor. It made me think about what Kyouya had said the day before:

"Don't you think, that if your sex drive were turned up, you would have been equally attracted to Kaoru? I mean, if it was strictly looks that were attracting you."

Did that mean that I had had some initial attraction to Hikaru? And why had he asked me out on a date?

I was so wrapped up in these musings that I failed to notice the looks going back and forth between the guys in the room.

To avoid attracting the attention of the teacher, I waited until he had left the room before even packing up my stuff. I'm a very non-confrontational person, I confess.

"Haruhi, I will meet you in front of the school in a few minutes. I have some things I need to take care of first," Hikaru said over his shoulder as he, followed by a rather sullen Kaoru, left the classroom.

I stood up to leave and follow, but my way was blocked by the ultra-meek class representative, Souga Kazukiyo.

"What's the matter Souga?" I asked, remembering the time he had begged my help about the test of courage. He's a coward, really.

"We should be asking you that, Fujioka," a boy I did not recognize said menacingly.

The rest echoed his sentiments. A cold feeling of fear began to seep into my stomach. I looked at Souga, wide-eyed.

"I looked up to you," he said, on the verge of tears, "We were fellow men!"

"Wait," I said, throwing my hands up in defense, "I can explain—"

I was cut off by a loud grown. I had used atashi, the female version of "I" instead of the male ore or boku that I used to use.

"You make me sick," a rather large boy said, shaking his head.

"Now guys seriously, listen, when I tell you the whole story you're going to laugh. I promise," I continued to plead.

"Laugh at this!" Souga shouted, and he pushed me back. I tripped over my chair and hit the floor hard.

"Souga, why are you—" I began, getting up and backing away. They pressed in tighter.

"Fujioka, take that—disgusting—thing—OFF!" they shouted, and at once all of their hands were clutching at my uniform. They gave a great heave and…

The front half of my dress tore off completely.

So, yes, I was standing in my undies.

Just for clarification purposes, my undies consist of panties and a bra for my small, yet clearly present breasts.

Now, since I did manage to successfully pose as a boy for a long-ass time, I can safely say that I'm no hot tamale. But I'm mildly proud/mortified to say that I did see a couple nosebleeds.

Hikaru picked that delightfully fun and happy moment to come in and check on me.

"Haruhi, what's taking so long?" his slightly arrogant voice echoed in the silent room.

At that point, Souga fainted and everyone else made a mad dash for the door. I have reason to believe that both Souga and Hikaru were well trampled.

"Haru…hi?" Hikaru said, mildly surprised by the stampede. He stepped in the room, but then recoiled immediately when he noticed Souga on the floor. Side-stepping the unconscious body gracefully, Hikaru said,

"Geez, Haruhi, what did you do to scare him so…bad…"

Yes, you are correct in your assertion that at the location of the first "…" between "so" and "bad," Hikaru looked at me for the first time. His face turned red. My face turned red too. I turned around, so that he could only see the backside of my yellow dress. It wasn't really like a dress anymore, more like a really long coat.

"What happened?" he asked, after a very, very pregnant pause.

"Oh, no big. They just thought I was cross-dressing," I said, sounding a lot more calm than I felt. My heart was racing.

"Let me go to the uniform office and get you a new one," he said softly. He walked out, his footsteps ringing in the hallway.

I let out a sigh of relief and then promptly began hitting my head against the wall. Why hadn't I turned around before he saw me? I was such a fool.

I heard footsteps in the hallway again, and turned around to face the wall like before. Hikaru announced himself softly and then walked up behind me, holding the uniform in front of me, his arm sort-of around me.

"Thanks," I said, and I twisted around a little to make eye contact and realized that he was closer than I had originally thought.

Much, much closer. Our lips were almost touching.

However, we soon snapped out of it and he excused himself to let me change. My heart-rate had once again escalated to a dangerous level. Again, it occurred to me that I might need a doctor as I pulled on the new dress.

"I'm ready to go," I said, trying to keep calm as I stepped out. Hikaru looked flushed.

"Let's go. How does sushi sound?" he asked, smirking at me.

"Delicious," I replied, returning the smirk.

Once again, the same sushi place I had visited both in the game and with Kyouya. Hikaru ordered me a huge amount of ootoro, and we talked about school for a while.

"Calculus is raping me," he sighed, taking a long sip of water. I waited until I had finished chewing before replying:

"If you want, I could tutor you." He looked up and smiled.

"Thanks, but Kaoru's doing well, I'm sure he could help me…" his smile faded and he looked sad.

"What's wrong? Are things not going well between you two?" I asked, before attacking another piece.

"He's sleeping over at Honey's tonight. He says he needs to think by himself," Hikaru said, looking as though he didn't understand at all.

"You should leave him be for now. Why don't you come over tomorrow? We'll work on the next assignment together," I insisted. Where was all of this confidence coming from? Why did I want to help him so much?

Hikaru looked like he was asking himself similar questions, but in the end he agreed. We finished off the meal by making Tamaki-jokes. I felt a little guilty, but he really sets himself up for it, you know?

It had been, overall, a very good day.