A/N: Don't own OHSHC. Please enjoy chapter twenty-five.
New A/N 12.2017: I recently rewrote this story to change an important element in Caine's backstory that I wasn't satisfied with. I hope you all are as content with the change as I am and continue to read and review my story.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Why Are You Really Here?
The hosts waited by the front gate of the zoo, finished with their day out. They had seen everything the zoo had to offer and Caine had to admit it seemed like everyone, himself included, had enjoyed themselves. Although everyone had made their way to the zoo on their own, Tamaki wanted them to all leave together, having insisted, this will make the perfect ending to our day out, in the voice which, as usual, was impossible to say no to. Now, he and Kyoya were standing a ways off, Kyoya on the phone with his family's staff to get a car, and Tamaki excitedly buzzing around him. The twins had taken one unimpressed look at Tamaki's over-enthusiasm and said they were going back in to get something to eat, and Honey was chatting animatedly at Mori about how amazing it had been to finally see a white tiger, so Haruhi, Caine, and Jonomura were standing alone.
Jonomura, who had been trying the whole day to get Caine to talk about whatever he had been talking about when they first met, whispered, a little less secretively than he meant to, "Caine, think about it. I could really help you with your problem…"
Caine, who saw where this was headed, hissed, "Shut up," quickly and in a voice that said the temperature in his immediate vicinity had decreased sharply.
Jonomura, who hadn't heard him, continued, "especially considering my line of work…"
Caine, who saw incredibly clearly where this was headed, sharply repeated, "Jiji, shut up," a fraction louder.
Jonomura shut his mouth, but the look in his eyes said he wanted to finish the sentence. Haruhi, adamantly pretending she hadn't heard anything, concentrated silently on wondering what he had been about to say. Jonomura and Caine didn't notice her, focused as they were on exchanged pointed and furious looks, a telepathic fight. The area descended into an awkward silence, broken only when Tamaki and Kyoya returned to the group.
Tamaki, as usual, didn't seem to notice events had occurred in the world in his absence.
"Kyoya got us a car!" he exclaimed in his typical excited voice. Kyoya shrugged his shoulders and nodded as if to say, yes, it wasn't that hard.
A few moments later, the car pulled up to take them all home.
At the Yabatsukuni house, later that night, Mira was both surprised and delighted to see Jiro when he and Caine returned to the house from the zoo. Usually the twins only saw their uncle when they visited him in Okinawa, but she knew he'd lived in their Kyoto house with her father when she and her brother were little, acting as a surrogate mother. He had abruptly dropped out of their lives for a few months when they were nine, when his father back home in America had sickened and died. When he'd returned, it was with his boyfriend Shino in tow, and the two of them had moved into a house in Okinawa. She and Caine had gone to visit them there the first summer and had ended up making it a habit to stay there every summer.
The car pulled up and Caine and Jiro got out.
"Good evening, Mira-sama, goodbye Jonomura-san, Caine," Mira heard some of the host club members shout as the car pulled away.
"Jiji-chan!" she exclaimed once the car was gone, "to what do we owe this pleasure?"
"MIRA!" shrieked Jiro, grinning as broadly as his mouth would allow. "It's so great to see you!"
"Um, you know To-san's not here, right?" she asked. Both she and her brother were well aware Jiro had once been in love with their father, in the days before he had met Shino.
Jiro made a face and rolled his eyes, "Yes, I know."
"Then, I mean, as much as I love the fact that you're here, why did you come?" Mira asked, attempting delicacy. "I mean, you've never been to the Tokyo house, right?"
Jiro shot a quick look at Caine, then said, "I'm avoiding my editor, and Shino…"
He was interrupted by a look from Caine. He tipped his head, silently saying, you might as well. At the permission, the immense enthusiasm that usually characterized Jiro drained out of his face, and he sighed deeply. Mira was immediately suspicious. She had never seen Jiro like this. He was always showing his silly side, so much that it sometimes seemed as if he didn't have a serious side. She had always suspected he had one, since it would have been necessary for him to have a serious side to do so many of the things he'd accomplished. Coming to live in a foreign country as a teenager, becoming friends with one of the sons of the most famous family in the country, becoming an acclaimed writer, dealing with his father's death, his relationship with Shino. But he always seemed to be smiling and suggesting something ridiculous.
"Okay, I came to help Caine," he said, "although I am avoiding my editor at the same time."
"Help Caine?" Mira repeated. Her mind flashed back to the call she'd made two days ago to her father. Whatever helped him in Hokkaido is needed here now, she had said. But there was no way this was related. Jiro didn't even live in Hokkaido, he lived in Okinawa. Or at least that was where she had always seen him before. But now that she thought about it, she realized there was no way Jiro owned the Okinawa house. It was simply too well situated, too lavish, too… Yabatsukuni. Which meant he had been at to the house for summer vacation, just as they were. Which meant he had another, non-summer house. In Hokkaido, it seemed.
"Mira?" Caine asked, peering at her. She had been gazing vacantly into space for too long, then.
"You're whatever helped him in Hokkaido?" she said slowly, in disbelief. Jiro nodded, smiling his way back to his usual cheerful self.
"Okay," she said hollowly, still trying to work through it in her head.
"Sorry I didn't say anything," Caine apologized. "Really, there wasn't any reason to keep it from you, and I'm not sure why I did."
"I can't believe I never realized the Oki summer house was a reference to the fact we own the house I always thought was yours," Mira said to Jiro, laughing. "But Hokkaido? You live in Hokkaido?"
"It's a peaceful writing environment," Jiro defended himself, "besides, it's where Shida's from. One of his, ah, secret boyfriends had willed him his house pretty much out in the middle of nowhere before he committed suicide. We found out about it after The Confrontation and decided to live there for a while until we picked another place, and then we just never did."
"Can I visit the house sometime?" asked Mira.
"Sure, but I don't know that the remoteness will be your cup of tea," replied Jiro.
"Still, I want to see it."
The three of them headed into the house. As they went in, Jiro realized they hadn't covered the big issue at hand.
"You don't want to know what happened in Hokkaido?" he asked Mira as the twins walked into the house ahead of them.
She turned back briefly.
"I trust you," she replied, momentarily serious. "Besides, whatever you did, it worked."
It was quite late that night when Haruhi was finally able to sit down and think about what she had heard that day at the zoo. When she had gotten home, her father had made a big fuss over her and made her describe the day in tediously vivid detail, even though they had been to the zoo together before. He was fascinated to hear what the rest of the host club had gotten up to and what everyone had said to everyone else, especially what was said to her and what she had replied. She had mostly left out Jonomura and what he had said, saying only that the new host's uncle had dropped by momentarily. Ranka had taken an instant liking to Caine the day Haruhi had told him he was gay, glad his daughter wouldn't be threatened by another overly-flirtatious boy. He had told Haruhi to stick with Caine, that the other hosts were troublesome boys but that Caine was part of the family. When she mentioned Jonomura and said he had mentioned something about crossdressing, her father only redoubled his praises of the silver-haired boy. Once she had finally managed to wrap up the story once and for all, she had homework to do, and since she had wasted the time she had planned to use to do it at the zoo, she worked more urgently than usual. Still, when her mind had time between assignments to wander, and, later, when she sat in the bath, she thought again and again of Jonomura's words. Caine, think about it. I could really help you with your problem… What on earth could he mean? What was Caine's problem? She couldn't imagine think it had anything to do with the host's hidden sexuality and how his flirting in Host Club went against it–Caine clearly didn't mind being perceived as straight. And other than that he didn't seem to have any problems. Haruhi had heard he was almost as smart as Kyoya, and he had close connections to the high-status Yabatsukuni family through his childhood friendship with Mira. What else could there be to worry about?
Then she remembered what had followed. Especially considering my line of work… That meant she might be able to understand what Caine's problem was if she could figure out what Jonomura did for a living. But what in the world was it he did?
She got out of the bath and toweled herself dry, changing into her pajamas. Going into her bedroom, she pulled out her computer and did a search. Jonomura… what was his first name? Oh, that's right. It was Jiro. Jonomura Jiro. She clicked on the first link.
Jonomura Jiro, better known by his pen name Zhai, is a contemporary writer of shojo manga.
Zhai, she thought, that name sounds familiar. I don't usually read shojo manga–I find it much too formulaic and totally unbelievable–and here she paused a moment as her mind flashed to Tamaki and how unbelievable he could be–but I think I might have read something by him. She turned to look through her books.
It was only later, as she finished re-reading Zhai's book and was thinking, I remember why I read this, it's not formulaic or unbelievable at all, that she remembered she had looked into what Jonomura's line of work was in order to find out kind of problem Caine could have that his work would help her with.
Jonomura was a shojo manga writer.
Shojo manga was about romance.
Caine's problem was… Romance?!