The last bell of the school day rang, ending the excruciatingly long day, well almost. I still had an hour of tutoring today, then I could go home...home, a place where you're supposed to feel safe at is where I'm the most terrified to go. Probably after tutoring I'll just hang around the school for a bit longer.

"Hikaru?"

I snapped out of my thought and looked up seeing that all the other students have left. How long have I've been sitting here? The only other person here was Mr. Hirota who was sitting at his desk organizing some papers.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." I said as I began packing up my belongings into my bag. "I was just lost in thought."

After I put my last notebook in my bag, I headed towards the door.

"Hikaru, wait." Mr. Hitora called out, making me stop a couple feet away from the door. "Come over here for a second." I sighed and turned on my heels away from the door before making my way over to his desk. "Please take a seat."

I pulled out a chair from another student's desk and pulled it up to his desk. I slumped down in it, draping my arm over the top rail of the chair. I stared at him with a bored expression, waiting for him to speak, but he just sat there staring back at me, which was starting to get uncomfortable. I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"What?" I asked, a bit more curtly then I meant it to be.

He placed the stack of papers to the side, not taking his eyes off me. "I know that there is something going on in your personal life. You don't have to tell me, but if you don't I won't be able to help you through whatever you're going through."

I scoffed, almost laughing at what he said. I ran a hand through my disheveled dark hair before answering. "And how could you be able to help me if I am in a dangerous situation? You're just a teacher," I huffed, looking away from him as I played with the collar of my jacket, "it's not like you can give them a detention for hurting me. You'd be useless in a situation like that."

"I may be a teacher," he said, not offended by my last statement, "but I can do more then give out detentions you know?"

I looked away up from my jacket, back at him. He put his elbows on his desk to get comfortable as if he was about to tell a really long story. I tried my best to suppress a growl as he began speaking.

"When I first began working here about ten years ago, there was this girl in my class. Her name was Kyoko Fujiwara and from what I noticed from only being there for a couple months was that she was a popular girl. Blonde hair, green eyes, all the boys crazy about her, but even though she had all these boys chasing after her and all her friends she still kept her grades up." His expression began to turn sullen. "But one day, I noticed that she was acting different. She wasn't her usual happy, giddy self. She turned quiet and reserved. Her hair was messy, she didn't wear makeup, and she always covered up her arms even on hot days. For the next couple of months I just watched her deteriorate, not knowing what to do. I even told the counselor that I was worried about her, but they just said that unless she told us about what happened we couldn't do anything, so I just continued watching her break down day by day until…"

I could see the tears welled up in his eyes, I've never seen him this vulnerable before. It made my chest start to hurt seeing him like this.

"Until what?" I asked.

"Until it was finally too much, and she died. Her body just couldn't take it anymore." He responded, letting a tear fall. "I found out a couple days later that she was being abused by her heroin addicted father. He touched her, hit her, called her worthless," he shook his head in disgust, "made me fucking sick to my stomach. He killed her by hitting her in the head multiple times with a vase," he began to grow angry, "and that fucker tried to cover it up by injecting some heroin in her system, making it looked like she overdosed." He sighed, calming down as he rubbed his temples. "I just wished she would have talked to me like I offered. I could tell she wanted to, but she was too afraid. If she did talk to me, I could've helped her by having the school call the police and take her somewhere safe while they arrested her father." He looked back at me, a slight glare on his face. "I might be a teacher, but I'm not useless in situations like this. All you need to do is tell me and I can help you. I don't want to lose another student like how we lost Kyoko."

I just stared at him, in shock by the story, and scared at how similar it was almost to mine. I crossed my arms and faced away from him again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I just didn't know you could do anything." I said, almost whispering the last part.

"So, now that you know that I can help, would you like to tell me what's going on?" Mr. Hitora asked.

I played with my glasses that were hanging off my shirt, debating with myself if I should tell him or not. If I told him, mom wouldn't be able to hurt me anymore and I wouldn't have to worry about what happened to Kyoko to happen to me, but also if I did tell him mom would more than likely get arrested and I didn't want that to happen. I know that deep down she was still the mother that loved me, she was just being controlled by the devil in the form of liquid.

"Not...Not right now," I finally answered, making Mr. Hitora's expression fall, "but if it gets any worse I'll tell you."

He sighed, but nodded. "Alright, I guess I can agree with that, but promise me that if it gets too bad that you'll call the police immediately, don't even hesitate, alright?"

I nodded. "I promise." I looked over at the clock that was hanging on the wall. "I have to get to tutoring or Yuzuru is going to be on my ass for being late."

"Don't worry, I'll tell him I kept you after for a bit." He gave me a small smile. "Thanks for listening to me Hikaru. I know that we don't always get along, but I hope that this could help you a bit."

I nodded as I grabbed my bag and stood up, heading towards the door as I put my aviators to hide my black eye.

It was fifty minutes into our tutoring session; we only had five minutes left because I had that talk with Mr. Hitora, so we had to cut the session down by five minutes.

I was finishing up some math problems silently as Haruhi was working on another assignment while she waited for me to finish. I would occasionally glance up at her from the top of my aviators then back down before she could notice. The session today was awkwardly quiet on both parts. I was too exhausted to pick a fight with her and I think she could feel something was up.

I finished the last problem then flipped my notebook and pushed it towards her. "Done."

She looked up from her homework and looked at the problems. She took the notebook into her hands and looked at the problems, biting the end of her pencil as her eyes went through problem to problem. I tapped my foot to a song in my head as I waited for her to finish it up.

She took the pencil out of her mouth and looked up at me. "You got them all correct except one." She placed the notebook down and faced it towards me before sliding it back to me. She pointed to the problem with her pencil. "You didn't switch the x and y." I cocked an eyebrow at the problem, then rolled my eyes over to her. "What do you mean?"

She sighed tiredly and moved her chair close to me so we were next to each other. I glared at her sudden movement to be closer to me.

"I don't want to be this close to you either, but this is the only way to show you how to do the problem." She said which I just rolled my eyes in response. She pointed back at the problem. "You have to switch the x and y so you can find the inverse function," she wrote out the problem on the side, going through step by step showing me what I did wrong, "and that's the correct answer." She looked over at me. "Does it make sense now?"

I scanned over the problem, feeling it actually click in my brain. "Yeah, it actually does. It makes a lot of sense."

"Well I'm glad it does, that means I'm doing my job." She looked over at the clock and got up. "It looks like our session is over for today, finally." She said, whispering the last part. She began packing up her supplies and was about to zip up her bag when she noticed that I haven't moved out of my seat and was just quietly doodling in my notebook. "Hey, we're done for the day. You can go now you know?"

I looked up at her, then back at my notebook. "I know it's just...I don't want to go home yet."

Haruhi noticed the strange way I was acting, just scribbling lines and random shapes on a blank sheet of paper in my notebook. Yesterday I couldn't wait to go home and was bugging her because of that. She looked at the bruising around my eye that was exposed by my aviators sliding down my nose as I had my head slightly tilted down. She pushed up her own glasses and sighed out of frustration, blowing her bangs out of her face.

"If you don't want to go home, would you like to go to the club room with me?" She asked, making me stop doodling and look back up at her. "I have to stay until 5:30."

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "Club, like in the host club?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

I let out a short laugh before going back to my doodling. "Yeah right, like I would ever be caught back in that fucking hell hole."

She just rolled her and zipped up her bag before picking it up. "Whatever, but you can't say I never tried to be nice to you." She turned and began walking towards the door, giving me a small meaningless wave without looking at me. "Have fun driving home."

The smirk on my face immediately fell as her words hit my ears. The memories of what happened yesterday began playing in my mind in vivid detail that I could feel every ounce of pain she inflicted on me. My palms began to feel sweaty at just the thought of going home right now, knowing that mom was there, most likely in her drunken state. I bit my lip and looked over at Haruhi, contemplating if I should take her up on her offer to go with her, but that means I'll have to see "them" and I knew they weren't too fond of me.

I huffed, looking up to the ceiling. "Wait."

Haruhi stopped as her hand was on the handle of the door and faced me. "What?"

I turned my head to face her, seeing the slight agitation on her face. "I'll go with you."

She just blinked at me, confused by my sudden change of action. "Huh?"

"I said I'll go with you." I murmured, putting my notebook in my bag as I stood up from my chair and began walking towards her. "Anything to keep me away from home."

I opened the door and exited the library, walking the direction to the club room that was still imprinted in my memory. As I was halfway down the hall Haruhi exited the library and caught up with me.

"Hold on," she said out of breath, "what's with the sudden change of plans?"

"You offered me that I could come with you, so because I don't want to go home I'm taking you up on your offer. Even if I don't really want to."

"Hikaru…" She grabbed my arm, making me stop. I turned to her with a glare, but noticed her doleful expression. "What's wrong, why are you avoiding going home?"

"Because," I hissed, yanking my arm out of her grip, "there's nothing to do there. So instead of being bored at home. I'd like to stay here."

"Hikaru, if there is something going on I could try and help-"

"Help with what?!" I snapped angrily, making her jump from the sudden change of tone. "Even if there was something going on at home with me, what could you possibly do?! You're just a commoner who probably has a happy family where you're parents are still together happily and love you!" My glare hardened at her. "So what could you do to fucking help?!"

Haruhi just stared at me as I was panting, my energy drained from me yelling at her. I turned away from her, about to walk away and leave the school instead of going to the club when she spoke up.

"I may not be going through what you're going through, but I'll tell you one thing and that is my life isn't even close to being perfect." She said, swallowing the lump in her throat before continuing. "My mom passed away when I was four from a sudden illness. My dad had to work days and nights to earn enough money to support both of us. Sometimes he would skip meals to make sure I was fed three times a day. So no, I don't have a perfect life, not even close but that doesn't stop me to try and live my life to the fullest. Even if there are some drawbacks." I just stood there, my back to her, clenching my fists. "I know that we're usually at each other's throats, but I want you to know I'm here to help-"

"My mom is an alcoholic!" I blurted out, a big feeling of relief being weighted off my chest. I soon began feeling tears welled up in my eyes and slowly began to trail down my face. "She's an alcoholic…"

She saw my shoulders shaking and realized that I was crying. She looked at me sadly. "Hikaru…"

I began wiping the tears from under my glasses, but more just came out. "When she's drunk she abuses me for the littlest things. Yesterday because I left our new neighbors house during dinner and talked back to her she punched me in the eye and forcefully held my head underwater in the bathtub for so long that I almost passed out." I sobbed, not even trying to hold it back anymore. "I just don't know what to do."

I was suddenly cut off when a pair of arms wrapped around my waist from behind into a hug. I was shocked by the impulsive action, and usually I would've been repulsed by it, but this time I wasn't. I was rarely ever vulnerable to people anymore, not even to Kaoru because I felt like it was duty as the older twin to protect him and not let him worry about me, but this sudden change felt good. Years of grief and abuse finally being let out after being bottled up for so long made her arms bring me comfort, letting more tears fall.

Haruhi opened her eyes when she began to hear whispers and unwrapped her arms around me. She turned around and saw students whispering to each other and some female students glaring at her.

She grabbed my arm. "Come on, let's go somewhere more private."

I didn't say anything and I let her lead me to the closest empty classroom. She shut the door, ignoring the glares that she was receiving; she then led me to the front of the classroom where I sat down, my back to the wall and brought my legs to my chest. I finally stopped crying, but felt like I could burst again at any moment. Haruhi got a box of tissues from the teacher's desk and handed them to me, but I politely turned them down. She sat the tissues next to her before sitting down next to me.

"So was your mom the one who gave you the black eye?" She asked solemnly. I nodded, feeling tears began to welled up in my eyes again. "Is this the reason why you act out in school, because of what's happening at home?"

I wiped the tears from my eyes before they could fall. "No, not really. I do it to protect Kaoru."

She looked at me confused. "What do you mean?"

I let out a big sigh, I can't believe that I was going to tell her about my personal life, but I just needed to let it out.

"I haven't always been like this. I was actually a decent person believe it or not."

Haruhi snorted. "Yeah, I find that really hard to believe."

I smirked at her. "Fuck off."

We both chuckled which wasn't awkward, it actually felt nice, but my expression soon turned back to serious.

"Anyway, after my dad's sudden disappearance and with the police not being able to locate him; my mom soon masked her sorrows into alcohol. She would drink every night when we were in bed so we wouldn't see her, but we knew what she was doing. Then after a couple weeks she began drinking all day long because she couldn't deal with being sad anymore and that was when she started being abusive." I swallowed the lump in my throat, trying not to cry as I continued. "At first she would hit both of us if we angered her. In the beginning it affected us greatly, where we would cry and cower in fear every night because of how bad it was, but after a month of the abuse, we just got numb to it. I usually got abused more because I have a temper and my mom didn't like that, but one day I did something really stupid."

I clenched my fists, feeling a mixture of anger and sadness hit me. Haruhi gave my arm a comforting squeeze and I let out a shaky breath before continuing.

"My mom got remarried about a few years ago and Kaoru and I didn't like him, still don't. When they just got married Kaoru and I were in the living room and I saw their wedding topper. Our mom treasured it, but we hated it. I was already having a bad day because of my step dad and when I saw it on the living room counter I just snapped and broke it without realizing it. We were both shocked at what I just did then grew terrified when we heard her footsteps coming down the stairs. We hid in the closet and slightly opened the blinds to see what was happening. When she saw the topper broken on the floor she grew livid and immediately knew that it was me. She yelled my name multiple times, getting angrier and angrier when I didn't come out. I was terrified, I've never seen her that angry before. I knew that when I step out that I was going to get a severe punishment. Kaoru saw how terrified I was and hugged me, he then whispered into my ear "Don't try and stop me, alright." We knew that mom couldn't tell us apart when she was drunk When I realized what he was doing I tried to convince him not to do it, but when he left the closet he locked the door so I couldn't get out…The beating…"

I shook my head, a small tear escaped and trailed down my face remembering that day. It might've been years ago but it was still vividly embedded into my mind.

"It was brutal. I tried everything to get the door open, but it just wouldn't budge. I just sat there and cried." Tears began falling down my face again as I continued. "I cried as I watched my baby brother get beaten for something I fucking did...I actually thought I was going to lose him that day, but luckily mom stopped before he could fall out of consciousness. When she finally left he slowly got up and staggered to the closet and unlocked the door….His face….His face was covered in red marks and cuts that were bleeding badly. He was so weak that he could barely stand, and what was weird is that he smiled at me. I don't know why but he did and then collapsed into my arms, barely breathing. I dragged him to a neighbor's house and made up a story about how he was jumped so the neighbors would take him to the hospital without them getting suspicious."

I took of my glasses, wiping the tears with my sleeve, ignoring the dull pain from my black eye.

"He had a bad concussion and the doctor said that if we had brought him in any later that he would've died. Just thinking about it still brings a chill down my spine. I stayed with him overnight. The next day his body was covered in black bruises and cuts. I told him that I was sorry and cried in his arms, but the only thing that he told me was that it was alright and he was ok, but it was obvious that he wasn't."

I sighed before putting my head in my hand, my expression saddening.

"It should've been me in that bed, beaten not him. So that day I made a promise to myself that I would do everything in my power to protect Kaoru no matter what. I started getting into trouble at school, the start of high school I started smoking to try to get in more trouble and reduce stress from everything that was happening around me. My mom got all these calls and emails from teacher and the principle about my behavior that she said I was a disgrace to the Hitachiin name. She would beat me, but nothing close to what happened to Kaoru. Kaoru would even try to convince mom that he was the one who got in trouble but our mom would never believe him. He hates what I'm doing, but it's the only way I can protect him. After what he did for me, risking his life for a fucking idiot like me, there's nothing in the world that I could do to make it up to him. I don't care if I got beaten, I don't care if it looks like he's the good son and I'm the bad son, as long as he's safe I'm ok with it."

I looked over at Haruhi and saw that she was mortified at what I just told her. She's known Kaoru for a couple years and would've never suspected anything this horrific was happening to him. He always seemed so bright and happy, always nice towards her and everybody else. She wondered how he could be so bright when at home it was so dark.

"What was the worst thing she's done to you?" She forced out, afraid to know the answer.

I bit my lip nervously, then began untucking my shirt, revealing a medium size scar on the left side of my abdomen. Her eyes traveled down to it. "My mom got severely drunk one night," I retucked in my shirt, "Kaoru was on an overnight trip last year that I couldn't go on because I got on trouble for punching a guy who was trying to seduce a girl who didn't want anything to do with him. Mom got angry when she saw me home when she got home from the bar because she remembered why I was there and not on the trip. We argued loudly with each and when she was starting to get out of hand I tried to calm her down, but that only made her angrier. She grabbed an empty beer bottle and smashed it over my head, then stabbed me in the side with the broken bottle." I put my hand on where my shirt was covering my scar. "I was tempted to call the police that night...but I just couldn't…"

"Hikaru," she said softly, making me look over at her, "you have to tell someone about this." She grabbed my arm and tried to get me up. "Let's talk to the chairman; he'll know what to do…"

"I can't!" I hissed, ripping my arm out of her grip.

"And why not?!"

"Because," I sighed, looking away from her, "I know that's not my real mom, it's just the alcohol that is making her do this. I can get her clean." I said looking back at her. "I've done it once before I can do it again." I grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes. "Just promise you won't tell anyone this unless I let you, please...I can't risk losing my mom, especially after what happened to my dad."

Haruhi just stared at me, seeing my pleading expression. She was a bit shocked that the guy with the "Bad boy" reputation at the school was acting this way towards her, but now she understood. She probably would've done the same thing if she was in his shoes. Whenever her dad was drunk he wasn't violent but he did sometimes acted like different person, but never to her. She was glad he didn't drink like he used to, but he would sometimes come home from work a bit tipsy.

She sighed. "Fine, I won't tell anyone." She then glared at me. "But if you get severely hurt again, I'm not just going to stand by and watch, alright?"

I smiled at her. "Alright," I gave her a big hug, which was surprising for both of us because I've never really been affectionate towards someone at school and when it was it usually awkward or I just didn't care about them, but with this my body just did it on its own, and it felt good. "Thank you."

She wrapped her arms around me, feeling a bit awkward that the person who hated her not even ten minutes ago was now hugging her, but even though it was awkward, it was nice. When I was about to let her go the door suddenly opened.

"Am I interrupting something?"

We separated, our arms still loosely around each other as we looked over towards the door where we saw a male teacher with his free hand on his hip and the other holding a stack of flies.

Haruhi and I both blushed and let go of each other before standing up.

"We're sorry." Haruhi apologized. "We weren't doing anything bad, I promise."

"Yeah, sure." He said, obviously not believing her. "Just get out of my classroom."

We both grabbed our bags and left the classroom without another word. For the rest of the way to the club room we were silent. I put my aviators back on when got to the third floor and stopped in front of the door to the music room. I looked at them, feeling my heart began to beat fast from being nervous. I haven't been here in two years, and I haven't really seen the guys either.

Haruhi noticed the way I was acting and looked up at me with a questioning look. "What's wrong?"

"It's just...I haven't seen the club members in about two years and we didn't really leave off on good terms."

"Let me guess, you were a dick?"

"Yeah, I guess you can say that..."

"Well, how about I go in and talk to them for a bit, then call you in? Would you like that?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I would like that very much."

She grabbed the door handle. "Ok, I'll call you in soon." She then opened the door and walked into the club room.

I shifted from one foot to the other, growing more nervous by the second. I don't know why I was suddenly so nervous meeting them. Before I would've just gave them a snarky remark like I usually did to people, but I guess because of my talk with Haruhi, my emotions were all out of whack. A couple minutes slowly passed by and I was contemplating if I should leave or not.

"Alright, come in." I heard Haruhi call out.

I took in a deep breath, grabbing the door handle. Was it really worth it? I could find something else to do instead of this stupid club, but I did tell Haruhi I would come with her, though I never really kept promises…

I shook my head. "Fuck it."

I then slowly opened the door, the fresh smell of roses instantly hitting me. God what did I just get myself into?