CHAPTER 9

Kyoya's POV

She didn't go to the music room that night.

I sat down across from her at breakfast the next morning, taking my chopsticks from their napkin and placing the napkin on my lap. She had her hood over her head and her head resting in her hands.

"Why do you insist on sitting with me?" Miss Konanawa asked.

"I've been assigned to keep an eye on you."

"You could easily do that from over there," she pointed out, motioning to where Tamaki and the twins sat. Tamaki kept stealing furtive glances at Miss Konanawa and touching the fading bruise on his face.

"Are you suggesting I leave?" I asked. The glare she gave me told me that the answer was an obvious yes. "I need to stay to make sure your eyes don't turn red, and I can't see your eyes from over there."

She immediately looked up.

I had never really noticed how Miss Konanawa looked; I had just thought of her as a troublesome young woman and paid no further attention to it. But then, without her usual scowling mouth and glaring eyes, I noticed.

Miss Konanawa possessed unblemished pale skin, though she showed very little of it; full, rose-pink lips; a delicate nose, unkempt but straight eyebrows, and dark hair perpetually pulled back into a ponytail. What truly caught my attention at that moment were her wide eyes which seemed impossibly green. I was caught off-guard for a moment.

She was… pretty.

"How did you know about the eye thing?"

That brought me out of my trance. I blinked before answering.

"My father told me to look out for it. I know no more than that they change colors," I said coolly. How had I not noticed she was pretty?

She sighed in relief and rubbed her eyes.

"Okay," she said with a wince. "Okay."

"Is there anything else I should know about your situation?" I asked. Oh my god she was pretty.

"If my eyes turn red get me to Jotanu as soon as possible," she said. "If that's impossible then cut me."

I almost choked on my rice.

"The only thing that brings me out of my red-eye episodes is pain," she explained. "And I can't do it myself. Or I won't do it myself."

I looked at her for a moment.

"What exactly are you being treated for?" I asked. "From what you've told me it can't simply be that your eyes change colors."

"Can we change the subject?"

I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose.

"What do you suggest we talk about instead?"

"I suggest silence," she said.

"I would actually like to know more about you."

"Tough luck."

I almost broke a chopstick. This girl was impossible.

No matter how pretty she was.

"Please tell me something about yourself," I said.

She laughed. She laughed that quiet, shoulder-shaking laugh that she had laughed when Honey-senpai had complimented her right hook. Her green, green eyes sparkled oddly, almost like the light behind them was forced.

"Fine," she chuckled. "I don't know why you're so eager to know."

"I do research on every student at Ouran," I explained.

"I see."

"Continue."

She sighed, still laughing at me but not looking forward to talking about herself.

"My full name is Oleander Adalynn Konanawa, I'm half Japanese, I was born and raised in Texas, I went to an animal science summer camp in Missouri for five years in a row, and I'm fifteen years old."

"Fifteen?" I questioned. "How are you in my classes?"

"I skipped two grades in middle school."

"Do you know your IQ?"

"It was 140 when I was ten."

I made a mental note. She was far from unintelligent.

"Now you owe me some information."

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"You know what I'm talking about. I told you about myself and I refuse to have you know more about me than I know about you."

I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose again.

"Alright," I said. "I am the third of three sons, I have a cat named Noel who is very attached to me, I am seventeen years old, I have a sister named Fuyumi, and I do not like to get up in the mornings."

She nodded and hummed, picking up her chopsticks and taking a clumsy bite of rice. She swallowed before speaking.

"And your best friend is Tamaki Suoh."

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"You are the only boy that he hugs. He hugs the girl in the boy's uniform-"

"I'd prefer if you didn't make that part known."

"I figured. I'm not going to tell anyone she's a girl."

"Thank you."

"Anyway, he hugs her but I think that's probably because he's in love with her. You also hold a special place in his heart, but I'm going to assume that he's not gay for you. So, therefore, best friend."

It was my turn to hum.

"You are very observant."

"It's something I've had to develop."

"Why have you had to develop it?"

"We're even. I'm not telling you that," she said, her face paling slightly. Her pretty face. I couldn't stop looking at her.

"If I tell you something else about myself would you tell me?"

"It depends on what you tell me. It's a very sensitive topic for me."

"I think it's best we leave it alone, then."

"That's what I thought."

"You should still tell me something about yourself. I haven't been able to find anything about you on the Internet and my father won't tell me anything."

"I take it that you like to research everyone you meet?"

I nodded.

"It helps me know what to expect from people."

"If you want to know what to expect from me, just expect constant sarcasm and antisocial behavior," she said.

"I'm more interested in why you are sarcastic and antisocial. Background information would be useful."

"Okay," she relented. "I'll tell you something stupid though. Like a story from camp."

"Tell me anything. I can almost assure you that I can come to a conclusion about you."

"Okay, a story from camp it is," she said.

She told me a story from her time as an intern at the summer camp. A child had come into the room where snakes were kept and asked to hold a snake that was about to shed. I had not been aware of this, but whenever a snake sheds its eyes cloud over, making it very difficult to see; for this reason, interns were not permitted to let campers hold shedding snakes. However, this snake was only getting ready to shed, so the intern in the snake room had allowed the child to hold it. The snake bit the child and attempted to swallow his thumb, so the boy began to cry and scream "what snake is this" as he was convinced it was a venomous snake. At that moment another intern ran into the room, worried about the screaming he had heard. The intern in the snake room sent the new intern to get an animal specialist. The animal specialist and the intern managed to pry the snake's jaws off the child's thumb, the child still screaming "what kind of snake is this" the entire time, and place the camper onto a golf cart that was stationed outside. They drove the camper to the health lodge, the camper screaming "what kind of snake is this" the entire way. Supposedly Miss Konanawa was the only person in the entire camp who had not heard the child scream as he was driven to the health lodge.

By the end of her story we were both laughing, though my laughter was incredibly quiet and not nearly as shoulder-shaking as hers. I coughed into my napkin in an effort to dispel my chuckles. Once Miss Konanawa's laughter subsided she looked at me with residual tears in her eyes.

"So," she said hoarsely. "What were you able to glean from that? Other than that my intern friends are incredible and that child was a dumbass?"

"Considering that your story did not contain you, nothing," I admitted.

She smiled down at the table and chuckled once more.

"I miss that place, though. Wish I could go back."

"Could you go back once your treatment is finished?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"No," she said. "No, I won't be going much of anywhere once my treatment is finished."

"Any particular reason for that?"

"You already know more about me than I know about you."

"Fair enough," I said.

Just then the bell rang and we were signaled to go to class. Miss Konanawa, for the first time, had held a pleasant conversation. And, for the first time, I didn't want to strangle someone as I headed to my first period class.