Chapter 7: Recognition (by Serina)

The next few days passed without any incidents, but the thought about the new girl wouldn't leave Kyoya's mind. The new information about her prior condition put a seed of doubt in his heart. There were so many things that seemed just so familiar about her. He would catch himself silently following her movements, her conversations with the clients. What if it was the same girl? They even had the same name: Haruhi... Just where was she? What did happen to her? Why didn't she ever come back? He had waited in that same park for so many days until the sun would set, but she never came.

It was that afternoon that Kyoya came up with a rather crazy plan, something that he first naturally rejected, but then reluctantly agreed to. He wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to proceed with it, but there was a slight determination in his mind. Haruhi, the girl from his childhood, had a scar on her upper leg. She fell down when they were playing and acquired what he would think to be a nasty scar. Maybe he could check it and confirm for once and all. He knew it would be highly inappropriate, but he couldn't stand it anymore. Everything about this girl reminded him of her.

The club was, as usual, busy with their cosplay and guest entertainment. He didn't exactly know why they were dressed into these ridiculous costumes, but the clients liked it, and Tamaki apparently knew what he was doing. His usual guests, Yuriko and Azusa, were just staring at him, drinking tea and smiling, while he was working on the budget of the club.

He dared a glance at Fujioka girl. She seemed blissfully oblivious of what was happening around her. Momoka Kurakano and her group were staring at Harruhi Fujioka in awe, as if she was some kind of sparkling prize on a pedestal. Kyoya found himself annoyed at the way these girls were surrounding her, and it was, to say the least, ridiculous.

She seemed to be pleasant with the girls, and they looked very smitten with her. She kind of looked like a boy, didn't she? She was a pleasant conversationalist and had a bold attitude. Girls according to Tamaki's boring lectures liked those qualities. Did she, Haruhi, like it too? It appeared she didn't care either way.

He continued typing in his computer and wondered if any of the hosts guessed that she was a girl. If they did, they didn't show, although, he was pretty sure, Tamaki was too daft to actually find out that she not a boy so soon. He would enjoy the moment of the blonde oaf discovering the truth. A small, playful smile curled his lips, but then he frowned. He needed to find out the truth about her too. It was nagging and annoying him, and he needed to find out really soon if his suspicions were true. He realized they were quite baseless, but still something about the girl wouldn't let him drop the subject.

Tamaki's sudden desire to play the piano hindered his attention and he looked up, his grey eyes falling on Fujioka girl. She seemed to be enjoying the music. Tamaki was a talented pianist. His playing was smooth and clean and precise with the rhythm. Kyoya sighed and closed the laptop, grabbing the attention of the girls sitting in front of him.

"Would you like some tea, ladies?" he smiled politely and leaned to take the teapot.

He looked at Haruhi again. Her brown eyes were sparkling as if she was bemused at something. He found it awfully irritating that he couldn't quite read her face nor understand her as easily as he would with others. Her body was completely hidden in her uniform, and he could never check her upper leg. Of course not, if only he didn't intend to undress her in the middle of the room. The idea was almost tempting.

"Kaoru, when you left for atelier all alone without me I was so hurt," Hikaru mumbled, dramatically and fiercely looking at his twin―the girls gasped, "but then I realized you were working on the swimsuit sketches I have started and didn't know how to finish."

"I wanted to help you, Hikaru," Kaoru replied in the same exaggerated tone, "it was your first attempt at making your own line of swimsuits, and I wanted mother to be proud of you."

The girls lost there, and Kyoya turned his head lazily, only to freeze in place with surprise. How had he never thought of it before? Of course, there was no easier way to get the Fujioka girl naked without being creepy than getting her into a swimsuit. Hosts annoyed him for a good vacation anyways. He could secure the Aqua garden that was a restorative health park Ootori group had built and yet hadn't been tested out. He could find out the small detail about the girl and test the safety and other aspects of the resort park.

He quickly checked his computer and decided to organize the event to the pool park sometime next week.

――――

Twins seemed to be rejoiced with the news, Haruhi looked absolutely terrified and Tamaki was quite ecstatic. Kyoya stared at the silent host and his super cute companion for a second and caught Mori-senpai staring at Haruhi. Was he aware that she was a girl? Normally, the silent host was very stoic in his interests, but now he looked at her with actual interest―not suppressed curiosity, but real substantial interest, and it reached his eyes. Kyoya found himself scowling and a little annoyed. He was never a particularly possessive person, nor he had any reason to be possessive of that disaster of a girl Fujioka, but the feeling was there and couldn't make anything of it.

The Aqua park was quite pleasant. After its construction it was the first time he was there and he liked it. The noise that the twins and Tamaki were making was giving him a headache, on the other hand. It appeared to be some sort of argument on what Haruhi should wear. Kyoya shook his head. Those idiots knew that Haruhi was a girl. Was he too busy to notice? Apparently, he was and he missed one of the most amusing things in the world.

Haruhi came out from the dressing room dressed in a pink swimsuit, but before Kyoya could glance at her Tamaki gave her his long jacket and completely flustered asked her to get dressed. Kyoya sighed. Now he would need to find a new way to take a close look at her legs to detect the scar if it was there. He wasn't sure how he would react if it was and more importantly if it wasn't. Would he be disappointed?

Everything was quite well until Honey-senpai disappeared. Kyoya sighed and called the security team to find him. And all of that was the fault of those stupid twins and Tamaki. For God's sake, they were adults, not little children who needed to be taken care of. They started a big water gun fight and Honey-senpai was separated from the group.

His cousin looked very worried. He was sure nothing would have happened to the cute blonde, after all, he was not as harmless as he looked, but it was unfortunate to have the entire trip ruined because of those three oafs.

It unnerved Kyoya for some strange reason that Haruhi joined Mori to go and search for Honey. He closed his laptop and got up. Tamaki was already on his way to go after them anyways. He didn't know why he was so jealous, but he was and it was odd. Kyoya Ootori never had a reason to get jealous over such petty childish things.

It took them around 10 minutes to find Honey-senpai. The Ootori police had surrounded both Haruhi and Mori thinking they were attackers. Honey had intervened and it ended very gravely for the Ootori Police team. After all, Honey-senpai's martial art skills were legendary. Haruhi hadn't been shaken even one bit that guns were pointed at her a few minutes ago. She was muttering some insults under her nose, how she didn't want to be in that damn place with those rich bastards. He chuckled amused. She had some really entertaining personality.

"Thanks for helping me to collect important data," he said when he realized everyone were staring at him for staring at Haruhi.

"I knew it," Hikaru mumbled under his breath.

Kyoya gave them a lopsided smile and moved back. He didn't like the way everyone concentrated on him. He felt safer in the shadows, where he could safely think and contemplate about his next step. Being in the center of the attention was Tamaki's thing, not his. He glanced at the short-haired commoner and sighed. He had started this whole thing just to check if she had the small scar on her leg, which was completely insane to begin with, and he felt tremendously stupid, but now he was upset he didn't manage to check and throw away all his suspicions. Surely, she wasn't that girl, right?!

――――

She knew that everything was going to end in some nasty way, when they announced about this trip. This group of morons were absolutely hopeless. And their evil, secret lord was brooding the entire time, glaring at her, perhaps, plotting her death. She wasn't sure, but whatever it was, it was not good. She needed a nice book, warm bath and a good cup of tea to forget about everything that happened today. When the people with guns showed up, she actually felt terrified.

She walked down to the resort's dressing room to change into something more comfortable for her travel back home. She officially declared the last few hours utter waste of time. Getting hold of her shirt, she quickly rolled it over her head and threw it into her backpack. As she was undoing the zipper of her shorts, she heard a strange noise, coming from outside the dressing room. She froze for a moment, concentrating her hearing, trying to sort out what it was. When nothing was heard anymore, she decided she just imagined the noise, after a very stressful day with the world's most annoying stack of boys.

She tossed away her shorts and stood there in her underwear and bra. She folded the discarded clothing and put it into her backpack. As she was about to get her pants on, she heard a loud bang. She stilled and tried to peek out of the key-hole. She couldn't see if there was anything outside. And she didn't want to scream her lungs off, letting whatever it was to know about her existence in the dressing room. If that thing was dangerous, then it, in fact, was in her interest to make her presence unknown. If it was one of those morons, she was sure there was nothing to worry.

But suddenly someone opened the door and jumped in. It was a strange man, who looked a little terrified if anything. Seeing the near naked girl, his eyes widened and he stared at her shocked. But then before she could say anything, he grabbed her by the shoulders and closed her mouth with his hand.

"Please don't scream," he whispered.

She wanted to say she won't scream if he let her go, but the man's grip was too tight and she ended up blabbering something incoherent. She tried to push him away, but it only served for him to tighten his grip. He was looking around scared. She realized he was hiding. She tried to stomp on his foot, but the man managed to step away. She started to claw his hand with her nails, but it didn't help.

"I will let you go," he said with a wince, "if you stop fighting."

Haruhi stilled and decided to give it a try. After all, fighting didn't really help. She needed to get away. The man paused for a moment. His grip loosened and then he pulled his hand away. Taking advantage of it, Haruhi kicked the man and tried to run away, but he quickly recovered and grabbed her.

"I told you to stay still," he said now angrily, "I wasn't going to hurt you, but now―"

――――

"Where is dasaoka-kun?" Tamaki questioned as he looked around and didn't spot Haruhi.

"He went to change his clothes," Hikaru said, "his were partly dirty, because of the little adventure in the jungle."

"Maybe you should check on your assistant, Kyoya?" Tamaki said, looking at his raven haired friend, who seemed completely forgotten about the reality surrounding him.

He looked at Tamaki, clearly annoyed and shook his head, "He will turn up," everyone looked at him quizzically and he added, "eventually."

He turned his attention to the computer screen and continued to work on his calculation of the latest changes that occurred in the stock market. It was quite fun. He knew nobody understood his fascination with mathematics and economy, but then again, he didn't understand Honey-senpai's thing for sweets, nor Tamaki's enthusiasm for flirting with random girls. Everyone had their own ways to relax.

That is until he got a notification from his head of father's security team. The man was asking about their whereabouts. It turned out a stranger broke into the resort facility. Kyoya scowled, trying to sort out how much trouble this will cause him at home. After all, his father would claim that the incident happened when he was in the resort. He sighed and dialed for Tachibana.

"Did you get the notification alert, Tachibana-san?" he asked blankly, "yes, we are all at the entrance, inside the cars and are ready to leave―"

He interrupted himself. It wasn't true. Not all of them were inside the car. The little commoner was changing in the dressing room and she didn't show up yet. His heart started to beat up faster, and he couldn't even understand why. Surely, he wasn't worried about that rude, little girl, was he? Where was she anyways?

He looked through the window and, not spotting her anywhere, cursed under his breath, "Chikushou!"

Everyone stared at him for a moment surprised, but he ignored them and, getting up, hurried to the resort facility, where the dressing rooms were located. He strode through the asphalted path and went directly to the building. He was sure she was fine, and he was worried for no reason. That girl knew how to stand up for herself if she indeed was in trouble. But these thoughts didn't calm Kyoya at all, if anything he became more aggravated.

When he reached the dressing-room area, he stopped. There was a banging sound and a small whine. He walked towards the room that the noise was coming from.

"I told you to stay still," Kyoya heard someone growl angrily, "I wasn't going to hurt you, but now―"

He pushed the door open before the man could finish his sentence. He froze in his place. The girl was nearly naked, wearing only beige underwear and bra. And a strange man had pressed her against the wall. He was trying to choke her. And she was trying to push him away. He was so shocked that he stood there for a short second and stared at the crazy scene in front of him.

The man let go of her, seeing Kyoya standing right in front of them. She fell down on the floor with a thud. Her face was bright red, and she was breathing heavily. But before the man could step forward, or Kyoya could even do anything, she kicked him again. The man fell down and launched forward to grab Haruhi, but Kyoya managed to grip her by the shoulders and pull her out of the dressing room. He quickly locked the door when she was out, leaving the man trapped inside the dressing room.

"What are you doing?" she questioned, looking at him sternly, not one bit concerned that she was nearly naked.

"What am I doing?" he asked confused and tried not to stare at her chest, "I am trying to suspend the intruder, until my security team arrives, so they can deal with him."

He stared at her face. She was breathing unevenly. "Are you alright?" he asked cautiously, "how did that man get there? Are you hurt?"

"As if you care," she rolled her eyes, "I am fine and as you have seen I was doing fine."

He sighed relieved and texted Tachibana, giving him the coordinates and informing him that he found the intruder.

"Can you open the door, so I can get my clothes?" she spoke irritated, "I really don't feel comfortable with the idea of standing here like this."

Kyoya gave her a glance and averted his eyes, not wanting to stare, "We can't open the door, until the security arrives. He should stay there."

The guy was banging at the door, trying to break it and escape. Kyoya took out his jacket and threw it on her shoulders, and as he was about to stand back, he saw it―the scar on her leg. It was her―that girl from his past. The girl he had been searching for all this time. His heart skipped a few beats and then started to beat crazily. He couldn't believe his eyes. She changed so much. What was he going to do? He didn't know if he should be happy or disappointed. He expected her to be a lady-like, young woman, not whatever she was, kicking random men like this and not caring that she was exposing too much skin in front of a boy.

"Haruhi," he mumbled as if trying to taste her name. She looked at him curiously.

"Thank you, I guess," she mumbled suddenly, "I mean I was doing fine, don't get me wrong. I still would manage to do fine. But yes, your arrival kind of helped and..."

She looked at him sideways and realized he was staring at her. What was it with him? He looked like he was going to cry or something. She felt strange under his gaze and wrapped herself in his big jacket. Hot blush covered her cheeks, when she recognized the look in his eyes.

"I will..." she mumbled, "I... I mean thank you for the jacket."

――――

"You seem very preoccupied," Fuyumi noted, looking at her younger brother, "did something happen?"

Kyoya raised his head and looked at his sister. He scanned her face, trying to understand if she knew anything, but she looked completely oblivious. He smiled.

"I suppose," he said with a wink.

"Something really good?" she wanted to know, "I haven't seen you like this before."

"Who knows, nee-san," he smiled and looked away, "who knows!"