The Charismatic Host Club II

The crowds came in waves and soon it was time for my afternoon session.

"We got this," Kuma assured me. "You can go."

I realized that I was reluctant to leave, not because I was worried how they'd be without me, but because I didn't want to miss this atmosphere of everyone cooperating together and having a good time.

When I entered the same session room from this morning, there were some girls already waiting nervously.

"Ah, Nakajima-san, there you are," Saruwatari said with his weird grin. "There might be a few more, so I'll stand outside."

The girls looked at me curiously as I sat awkwardly in the single chair placed in front of the room. They seemed to be a mix of junior high school and high school girls.

"Hi, I'm Nakajima Kana," I said.

They bowed their heads awkwardly at me.

"Does she really go to this school? She looks so normal."

I heard some whispers in the back. As usual, Shirokin's reputation preceded us.

Saruwatari came back at that moment with a few more girls who looked like they had been coerced into attending this session.

He began a whole spiel about how Shirokin had become a coed school and was working hard to change into the ideal educational environment yada yada yada. I forced myself to not roll my eyes.

"Now, Nakajima-san, please tell these ladies about how wonderful your school life is," he said, turning to me.

The girls leaned forward.

"I...enjoy my school life here at Shirokin," I began after taking a breath. "The school has a pretty nice campus, the teachers are nice. I'm getting a strong education here. My classmates are friendly. I feel comfortable as a girl going to a former all-boys' school."

I basically just listed off the things that Saruwatari had told me to say. Technically, none of them were lies...

But I could tell from the girls' faces that they didn't believe me.

Saruwatari went straight into the Q&A part when he sensed the awkward atmosphere.

"How many other girls are there?" one girl asked. "We didn't see anyone else."

Saruwatari immediately jumped in. "Some...most of them are sick! And others are busy with school festival things! Only Nakajima-san could give up some of her time to talk to you today."

"Don't the boys bother you because there are so few girls?" a girl asked.

"The boys here are gentlemen! They wouldn't do that! Right, Nakajima-san?" Saruwatari said in a rush.

I immediately thought of Abe and that whole thing. "No, they don't," I said through gritted teeth.

Saruwatari seemed to relax when the girls asked about the cafeteria food and the uniform and the class schedule and such, which he deemed mundane enough to let me answer on my own.

Suddenly, Washio burst into the room, breathing heavily as he clutched his suit. "I'm sorry to interrupt Sawatari-kyotou but 3-C accidentally sent a whole cake flying out the window and it landed on your car!"

Saruwatari let out a strangled noise and jumped up. "Nakajima-san, I will only step out for a moment! If there are any difficult questions, you can just wait until I return!" He gave me a pointed look, as if to warn me, before rushing out with Washio.

The girls looked at me and I didn't know what to do.

"Any other questions?" I asked hesitantly. Please say no…

"...do you really like it here?" one girl asked. I turned to her and figured she was in junior high school. This was the kind of girl Saruwatari wanted to get me to enroll here.

I opened my mouth, about to say something Saruwatari had made me rehearse, when I remembered my promise to be honest with Sawada.

I closed my eyes for a moment then made a decision.

"I do," I said firmly. "I...was a troubled student. I used to go to Momojou." The girls gasped at this and I let out an awkward laugh. "Yeah...so I was supposed to have it together and be the perfect schoolgirl but I got mixed up with the wrong crowd and before I knew it, I was kicked out and had nowhere to go. When Shirokin opened enrollment for girls, I knew it was my last chance. But it's not out of gratitude that I say I like it here. I really thought I was going to hate it."

I paused, smiling a little as I thought back to my first day and all the chaos back then.

"What happened?" the girls asked me.

"Well, I got put into the rowdiest class, the one with the kind of guys you hear rumors about. I thought that either I was doomed to feel tortured every day or I was going to fall back into my old ways...but then I ended up with this really strange homeroom teacher. She's clueless about a lot of stuff and says the weirdest things...but she's tough and she really cares about us for some reason."

"...that sounds really nice," the junior high school girl said.

I smiled at her. "Yeah. And she's not the only one like that," I added, thinking about Kawashima and Fujiyama. "But she's definitely special."

"But aren't the guys huge troublemakers?" a different girl asked.

"I can't deny that they get into trouble a lot," I admitted. "They're hotheaded and think they can solve everything by punching their way through situations...but it's because they're so desperate to protect the things that they care about and feel like they can only trust themselves. But...they're changing for the better, little by little. And I'm changing too."

The girls and I smiled at each other. At that moment, my alarm went off, marking the end of my time in this session. Thankfully, Sawatari hadn't come back and didn't seem like he would.

I stood up and looked at the girls. "I won't say that it's easy being a girl at this school. There's a lot of tough situations you have to deal with that no one tells you about. Your classmates might misjudge you, the teachers might baby you in unhelpful ways, you get looked at in a certain way just by going to this school. But if you find the people in your class to stand by you in any situation, and if you have a teacher who will believe in you no matter what, you'll have an unforgettable experience here. But I might be one of the lucky ones."

I went to stand by the door as the girls gathered their belongings.

"Could we hang out with you more?" they asked me.

I was surprised by their question. Girls usually never wanted to spend more time with me, especially not after knowing about my background.

"Um...sure? I have to get back to my class...we're doing a host club. Wanna come?"

The girls' eyes widened at the mention of host club, but they began to murmur to each other curiously.

"You can meet my friends," I said a little more strongly, and they nodded.

I led them towards 3-D, glancing nervously about in case Saruwatari saw us, but we made it unseen.

My classmates whooped in excitement when I walked in with the girls. I was glad to see that there were still customers and it seemed to be going well.

"I told them that you were all good guys. Treat them well," I warned jokingly.

"Of course!" the guys all replied enthusiastically.

Kuma kindly led the girls to different seats and they began to excitedly look at the menu, both of the boys they could choose from and all the fun drinks. I was a little surprised to see Ami, the girl that Kuma had saved from the Shinguji guys a little while ago and a couple of her friends. No wonder Kuma was especially cheery. I was happy for him.

"And you call me an overachiever," Sawada murmured to me as I passed him.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"I did what I promised," I told him. "I kept our deal."

"Good for you," he said with a smile. "Obviously it worked."

I didn't know what to say, so I ducked my head in embarassment and went to make drinks.

"Is that your boyfriend?" the junior high school girl, whose name I found out was Honoka, whispered to me when I brought her drink over.

"No," I laughed when I realized she was talking about Sawada.

"Then what about that one?" she asked, pointing at Uchi who turned at that very moment. Our eyes met and he looked away, looking embarrassed for some reason.

"No," I said again.

"Can I ask for them then?" she asked me innocently.

"Of course!" I said, patting her shoulder. She was so cute!

Things were going smoothly until about twenty minutes later when Horibe stumbled into 3-D, clutching his bleeding nose and sporting a black eye. Some of the girls screamed at the sight of him.

"What happened?" I asked, Sawada, Uchi and Minami immediately coming close.

"Ma-Matsudaira got taken by Daigin High guys. I think it has something to do with his girlfriend."

Sawada and I exchanged a look.

"You go. I'll hold down the fort here," I said.

"You sure?"

I nodded.

"I'm going with you," Uchi said to Sawada, who shook his head.

"Stay here and help Kana out. It's important," Sawada said.

Uchi looked at me.

"Please," I said and he nodded.

I grabbed Sawada's arm as he was about to head out.

"I'll have someone tell Yankumi," I said. He nodded and put his hand on my shoulder for a moment before taking off. I took a breath, then turned.

"Minami, go find Yankumi and tell her what happened," I said. Minami immediately went out the door.

"Uchi, help carry Horibe to the bathroom and help him clean up before taking him to Kawashima's."

He nodded and helped Horibe out the door.

I turned to the guests who looked incredibly freaked out by this turn of events.

"Shirokin is unsafe after all," a couple of girls whispered to each other. A couple of groups even got up and left and the guys looked at each other uneasily.

"I'm really sorry that this happened and for causing inconvenience and worry," I said as clearly as I could, thinking about the times when Shun would apologize when something would go wrong in the cafe. "Our staff is taking care of it, so I hope you will stay and continue to enjoy yourselves. Allow us to offer the next round of drinks for free."

"It's going to be fine!" Noda said cheerily as a follow-up. "Shin is taking care of it. Let's enjoy ourselves, yeah?"

This seemed to spark something in the guys and they began to do their best to pick up where they left off in conversation with the girls after a short apology for the disturbance.

"I'm sorry," I said to the girls who had stayed. They looked at me, clearly still frightened. "I can't lie and say that these things don't happen. But we do our best to protect our friends, and we don't get into meaningless fights anymore. Please believe me."

"...I'll believe you, Nakajima-san," Honoka said and the other girls nodded. "You all clearly care about each other. Otherwise, the atmosphere here wouldn't be so comfortable and fun."

"Thank you, Honoka-chan. Please, call me Kana," I said, squeezing her hand. "What do you want to drink next?"

"But are you sure Sawada-kun isn't your boyfriend?" she asked me. "Your teamwork right now was so cool!"

"That's called a power couple," one of the high school girls said, leaning over to tell Honoka.

"We're not a couple though!" I insisted.

"But they are the leaders of our class," Noda said and the other guys nodded along.

"Really?" I asked, stunned. Clearly, Sawada was the leader, but me?

"Of course you are!" Minami said, coming back. "I told Yankumi and she took off," he said quietly. I nodded to him.

"Thanks Minami."

"Alright, let's keep having a good time!" Minami said and the guys cheered in reply.

I couldn't help glancing at the clock every so often. Was Matsudaira okay? Why weren't they back yet? Uchi kept saying things would be okay every time he caught me looking at the clock. I would nod, smile then return to conversation but couldn't help worrying at the back of my mind.

I let out a huge sigh of relief later when Sawada texted me that he had just dropped Matsudaira off at the nurse's office and was on his way back. Everyone cheered when Sawada appeared in the doorway, a little disheveled but intact nonetheless.

"I'll tell you all later," he said, taking a seat. I gave him a look and he smiled reassuringly. "Everything's fine. We took care of it."

I nodded, knowing that "we" included Yankumi. When she appeared later with Kawashima and Fujiyama to "check" on us, I felt even better.

There was only a little over an hour left, and there was a comfortable lull in the number of new customers. Most of the girls from my session had stayed and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Suddenly, Fujiyama tapped me on the shoulder and she and Kawashima took me by the arms and pulled me out of the classroom. I threw a bewildered look at Sawada who looked just as confused. To my surprise, Yankumi also looked confused but she followed after us.

The two women pulled me into the girls' restroom and locked the door after Yankumi came inside.

"Change into this," Fujiyama said, holding out a bag at me.

"Why?" I asked, taking the bag hesitantly.

"The boys are doing their best, don't you think? And so are you. So you need to relax and just enjoy the rest of it."

"And this will help me?"

"You stand out by being in your school uniform. You have to look the part!" they said as they pushed me gently into the stall.

I closed the door to the stall and looked into the bag. A dress?

"Just try it on!" they urged.

I couldn't believe I was doing this. I managed to pull it on but couldn't do the zipper myself.

"It looks so good on you!" Fujiyama said, clapping as Kawashima did my zipper. Yankumi nodded enthusiastically at me.

I stared at myself in the mirror. It was a simple knee length black dress with lace sleeves.

"I wanted you to wear a brighter color like red or even a kimono but Kawashima-sensei said it's be too much and you wouldn't like it," Fujiyama explained and I shot Kawashima a grateful look.

Kawashima sat me down and began to do my hair with a curling iron as Fujiyama began to apply makeup on my face despite my protests.

"Just a little," she insisted. "You look pretty without it but it's to just bring out your features a little more. You are the manager of the host club after all!"

Yankumi was hovering, trying to be helpful but not really knowing what to do. I had no doubt that she had helped rescue Matsudaira, but it was pretty funny to see her out of her element here. But who was I kidding? So was I.

"Should I dress up too, since I'm the homeroom teacher of the host club?" she wondered aloud.

"No need!" the other two chimed and I almost laughed at her crestfallen expression if it wasn't for the two tugging at my hair and touching my face.

"Okay done!" they said, pulling me to my feet. It was still a little much for me, but I was glad that Fujiyama had gone light on the makeup compared to what she had on. My hair was curled into big loose waves that I was sure weren't going to stay but it did look nice.

"You did bring the shoes, right?" Kawashima said to Yankumi.

"I did!" she said, holding out the bag she'd been holding.

"They're a little plain but I guess they'll do," Fujiyama said, pulling out black flats. "I thought you were going to bring heels!" she said to Yankumi.

"I didn't know what you meant by nice black shoes! I had these or the shoes I wore for my interviews. And I didn't know you meant we were going to dress her up!"

"These are great," I said to Yankumi. Simple black flats were the best after this whirlwind of surprises.

The guys looked surprised when I returned to, or rather was pushed into the classroom.

"Kana, you look so pretty!" Noda exclaimed and the guys began to chime their agreement.

"Don't stare!" I growled, covering my face with my hands.

But the longer I stood there awkwardly, the more everyone kept making comments and I wanted to just leave.

"Kana," I heard Sawada say. I looked at him, expecting him to be smirking. But he wasn't. "Sit here," he said, patting the space between him and Uchi.

I gratefully walked over and sat, glad to be out of everyone's direct line of sight. Uchi was staring at me but looked away when our eyes met. It made me feel even more embarrassed for some reason.

"They forced me into this," I gestured helplessly at myself.

"It looks fine, right?" Sawada said to the girls at his table.

They nodded. But I couldn't tell if it was because they truly thought so or were smitten with Sawada but I was pleased nonetheless.

"They were telling me about your Q&A session," Sawada said.

"We really appreciate that you were honest with us," Honoka said to me. "I wouldn't have given Shirokin a chance otherwise. Now I really want to come here."

"You should!" the guys around us said excitedly. "We'll be waiting for you!"

Sawada gave me a look as we both realized the guys were forgetting they wouldn't be here by the time Honoka and the other junior high school girls came here, but we both shrugged. Why burst their bubble now?

Before we knew it, the school bell went off, marking the end of the school festival. The guys nervously said their goodbyes and I saw quite a few of them muster up the courage to ask for phone numbers. And unlike previous situations, the girls didn't make faces or run away. I smiled to myself. I ended up exchanging phone numbers with the girls who came to my info session, including Honoka.

When all the customers left, Minami insisted that we take a group picture and despite my protests, they made me sit in the center. Kuma promised to have the film developed as soon as possible with copies for everyone and the thought of having another picture to pin up on my wall at home made me more excited than I expected. We ended up skipping the closing ceremony to clean up so we could get on with the after party, as Minami explained seriously. Cleanup was actually quite easy as everyone was participating for once, most of the leftovers just went in the trash, and a lot of the guys wanted to keep the decorations like their host club pictures.

We decided that we'd keep the flower arrangement from Tatsu-san up in the classroom for as long as possible. Noda, Minami and Kuma kept whispering over the flower arrangements we had received from Kawashima and Fujiyama but since I wasn't interested in flowers, I ignored them and went to the bathroom to change.

When I went to the teacher's room to drop the dress and shoes off, the three female teachers surrounded me and began to tell me that I had done a really good job. Luckily, Saruwatari was nowhere to be seen.

"It wasn't anything really. The guys worked hard…"

"Kana, don't be afraid to be confident that your hard work paid off," Kawashima said.

"And the boys thought you were very reliable," Fujiyama added.

"I was right to pick you as the leader," Yankumi beamed, patting me on the shoulder.

I shied away from their compliments and took my leave, face flushed. But it was super nice to know that I had support like this from older women. It wasn't something I'd ever had recently, so it was a little jarring but I couldn't pretend that it didn't make me a little happy.

3-D ended up in the same diner as we usually went to for afterparties and large group gatherings. We ate and conversed and had a good time as we usually did, but as things were wrapping up, Minami and Noda stood up and clapped their hands to make everyone quiet.

"We owe the success of the host club to a couple of key people so we'd like to present the biggest flower bouquets to those people."

"First off, to the number one host who brought in the most number of girls, Sawada Shin!"

The guys cheered and made a very reluctant Sawada stand up and accept his flowers.

"And to our host club manager and class representative, Kana!"

"Speech!" the guys shouted at me amidst cheers and I looked at them, horrified.

"Come on, Kana. Just this once!" Noda insisted.

Minami hauled me to feet and handed me my flowers with a huge grin and I sighed, knowing there was no way out of this.

"Um...I honestly wasn't that excited about this to begin with," I began hesitantly and the guys quieted. "Yankumi forced me into being the class leader, you guys were all so excited about the host club when I thought we'd never be allowed to do it. I didn't think it'd even be that hard to do even if we were."

I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking back to Sho, going to the host club, becoming resolved. "But then someone showed me that I can't halfass things. And everything takes a lot more work than I expected, especially when we want to do a good job. But you guys showed me that being a leader isn't that bad if you have people willing to work hard with you. So thanks...I had a good time."

"Thank you!"

"You're an awesome leader"

"You were super cute today!"

"We can count on you!"

I sat down quickly, super embarrassed about all the compliments my class was showering me with.

"The rest of the flowers, we'll divide by rock paper scissors!" Minami announced. The guys got super riled up, saying that they'd give the flowers to the prettiest girls they got numbers from today. Then they got the brilliant idea to call the girls and see if they'd come to karaoke with them after this.

"I have to go home," I said immediately, and despite lots of groans and protests, the guys knew they couldn't keep me, thanks to that whole living in Tochigi thing.

"I'll walk you to the station," Uchi said. "Let me just run to the restroom first." He disappeared before I could protest.

"Here," Sawada said quietly as we all got ready to leave. He handed me his flowers.

"What, why?"

"Do I look like I want flowers?" he said, shoving his hands in his pockets so I couldn't give them back. "Good work today."

"Thanks. You too," I said and he nodded at me before going to join the others.

When Uchi came back, the guys went off to karaoke after I said bye and Uchi told them he'd catch up. I thought I saw him glance at the large bundle of flowers I was holding but didn't say anything.

We didn't talk as we walked toward the station, but it was fine. I felt like I had talked enough today to last me a month. And Uchi didn't try to start a conversation either, which was nice.

At the station entrance, I turned to him and thanked him for walking me.

I was surprised to see him hold out a handful of white flowers at me. I stared at him. They were no doubt his portion from the arrangements, but I hadn't even noticed that he had been holding them. "Oh, did you win at rock paper scissors?" I asked. He nodded.

"Then what about the girls from today? Didn't you exchange numbers?"

"That doesn't mean anything," he said, his voice flat.

I looked at him as he stood there, expression unreadable.

"I thought you guys were going to give the flowers to the prettiest girl you met today."

"I am," he said softly as he pressed the flowers into my hands.

I froze at the sudden compliment. I looked up, expecting to see him laughing as a joke. But he wasn't. I dropped my gaze back down to the flowers in my hand.

"I'll see you next week," he said when I didn't say anything. "Rest up."

"Thanks," I stammered. He put his hand on my head for a moment before turning and going back the way we came.

I couldn't really remember how I got home. But by the time I did, I had somehow convinced myself that Uchi was just being nice, that he was just getting carried away with the atmosphere of the host club, that it was the makeup and the dress and that I was making a big deal out of nothing. But a tiny nagging part of me thought that maybe that wasn't true.

I ran straight to Sho's room when I arrived home.

"Sho, I...oh my god! What happened?" I exclaimed when Sho turned and I saw him sporting a cut on his mouth and a huge bruise on his cheek.

"A drunk guy ran into me and then got mad saying I ran into him," Sho explained. "I'm fine though. Tell me about your day! Wait, are you wearing makeup?!"

I looked at him worriedly, especially as he winced when he sat on the bed, but he looked up at me and patted the space next to him so expectantly that I sat down and launched into recounting the events of the day up to the end of the festival.

"I wish I could have gone," Sho said. "Too bad I had to work."

"Yeah, too bad," I said, but not really feeling bad. "By the way, I told the guys that you were my cousin, if anyone asks. Not that you'll ever see them again."

"Cousin?" Sho asked, eyebrow raised. "Would they still think so if they knew you sleep in my bed sometimes?"

"Sho!" I shouted at him, shoving his shoulder.

His face contorted in pain at the sudden touch, and I immediately apologized.

"No, it's fine. I'll just be sore for a few days."

"You sure you don't need to get it looked at? If you tell Shun…"

"No!" Sho suddenly said and I jumped at his raised voice. "Sorry no. Don't tell him. It's not that serious."

"...okay, but don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

"Alright," he said with a smile. He leaned over and ruffled my hair. "Proud of you."

"It's all thanks to you, really. Thank you for taking me to the host club...I wouldn't have been able to do this without you…" I trailed off, not used to being so gushy all in one day. "I was going to sleep here tonight, but since you're in pain, I'll leave you alone."

"In case you injure me further in your sleep," Sho said and I had to stop myself from smacking his arm in retaliation.

"Where's Shun by the way? I didn't see him coming in," I said as I stood up and headed for the door.

"Hmmm? I...have no idea," Sho said.

"Okay. Guess I'll just talk to him tomorrow."

I should've noticed the way Sho's eyes didn't meet mine when talking about Shun. Then maybe I would have been able to see a lot of the unspoken things happening around me. But exhausted and content from the school festival, and a little uncertain about Uchi, I fell asleep immediately.

Author's Note: And that's the end of the school festival! To be honest, I struggled with finishing this arc because it wasn't part of a drama and it wasn't in my original story. But after reading the manga and knowing that a school festival arc is absolutely necessary for all school stories, I wanted to try it! It was a lot more challenging than I thought and maybe that's why it took so long, but once I got back to it, it was super fun to write. And now the story's moving along!

They'll be hitting summer vacation next which won't be a very long chapter (you will see why) and then back to events correlating with the drama!

Also is anyone an Arashi fan? What a GREAT anniversary weekend celebration.

Thanks for reading! Comments much appreciated! :)