The first time they asked her to play that stupid game was almost twelve years ago. The Hitachiin's private playroom was crowded with everything children their ages could ever want. Play houses, a miniature carousel, dolls, costumes, building blocks, and an assortment of other toys lined the walls and littered the floor in a sunshine yellow room. Five year old Hanako Negida stopped brushing her doll's black hair. The twins stood in front of her, side by side with matching blank expressions. "Play a game with us," they demanded flatly.
"What game do you want to play?" their big sister asked with just a touch of impatience at their rudeness. She wasn't that much bigger than them, and her face was just as round as theirs were.
"The Which One is Hikaru Game," they answered in unison.
"Which one of us is Hikaru," the twin on the right started.
"And which one of us is Kaoru." The twin on the left finished for his brother. They looked at her with expectant expressions, and she couldn't have known how much they were counting on her to tell them apart. She had never thought too much about it, and they never asked her outright to tell them apart. The young girl narrowed her round caramel eyes at them in scrutiny, and the brothers held each other's hand as they waited.
"Your game is stupid," she decided with a nod.
"It's not stupid!" both Hitachiins protested.
"Nee-chan, come on!"
"Play our game with us!"
But the little girl didn't budge when their insistence started to become a tantrum. She brushed her doll's hair and thought about the game. "Why isn't it the Which One is Kaoru Game?" she asked instead of answering. Their cheeks ballooned, and their little eyebrows furrowed.
"Hikaru's older," they chorused before falling into their separate complaints.
"Quit stalling," the noisier of the two whined.
"C'mon, we need to know if you can tell us apart," sniffled the twin who looked like he was close to tears. They just started preschool. It was the first time that those two were ever in an environment where they were surrounded by people other than each other. Hana wasn't old enough to comprehend why it mattered so much to them.
"I can tell you apart," she asserted.
"Prove it!" they stomped their feet and whimpered.
The girl crossed her arms over her chest, just above her round belly. "Why does it matter? I'm stuck with you two either way." The brothers groaned in frustration, unable to get an answer out of her. The twins looked like they were going to argue some more, but the door opened. Their mothers strolled into the play room arm in arm, looking like sisters with how comfortable they were side by side They couldn't have looked more different with Akina's long dark hair juxtaposed with Yuzuha's short auburn locks, but the warmth in their similarly colored eyes as they swept up their respective children was the same. Hanako's chubby arms went around her mother's neck, and Akina cradled her daughter against her chest. Her mother smelled of chrysanthemum oil and vanila, and she nuzzled her face into the pretty scent.
"Oh, Kao, Hika," Akina crooned at her godchildren, reaching out with her free hand to ruffle their hair, "did Hana make you cry?" Hanako whipped around so quickly that her pigtails whipped against her mother's neck. Hikaru and Kaoru were indeed sniffling angrily against their mother's shoulders, and Yuzuha just patiently rocked them from side to side.
"Drama queens," the tiny heiress grumbled, sticking her tongue out at the brothers as Akina put her down for a firm but fair scolding about why she shouldn't bully the twins.
{OR}
Hana's world grew as she entered into elementary school. She was seven years old on the day of her godmother's garden party. The Hitachiin manor had the most beautiful gardens in Japan, and on that day in the spring, they threw a party dedicated to the blossoming flora. Mitsukuni was almost nine, and Takashi was eight. The girl wore a daffodil colored frock with lavender ribbons and white frill, and Akina pulled her silky black hair into two pigtails to match the twins'.
"Mi-nii," Hanako sang, running around the blond cheerfully now that she found him. "It's your turn to find us!" She found Takashi first, hiding under a bench in his gray suit. He was only a few inches taller than his cousin, but Mitsukuni chose much better hiding places. They called it an exercise to appease their fathers who watched in amusement as their children played.
Mitsukuni closed his eyes, and Hanako and Takashi split up to hide. The Hitachiins covered their courtyard with round tables for guests once the luncheon was served, and Hanako thought that Mitsukuni would never find her with so many of the tables to search. She crawled under a white tablecloth, giggling to herself in victory. They were supposed to play in the garden, so as not to bother the adults, but Hanako knew that the best hiding place was right there.
"I'm worried about the twins," Hanako heard her aunt admit. Two chairs were pulled out, and Hanako shuffled back quietly as her mother's blue espadrilles and Yuzuha's black flats came into view. The little girl tucked her knees under her chin and listened to the conversation taking place above her. "They don't play with the other children the way Hana does."
"There's nothing wrong with that," Akina assured her best friend. "They're good boys, Yuzu-chi, and most of those other kids are spoiled brats. They have each other, and they have Hana. Who else do they need?"
"Jeez, you're such an only child," Yuzuha teased.
"Thank god for that," Akina laughed heartily. "Could you imagine if my mother had another child?"
"They'll never survive in our world if they can't network," Yuzuha said in a sad, serious voice. It was, perhaps, the first time that Hanako realized how strange it was that the twins never joined in on the games with other kids. She invited them every time, but as soon as they saw the other children behind Hanako, they decided that they didn't want to. "The Hitachiin name will only get them so far."
Even after Mitsukuni found her under the tablecloth, Hana didn't stop thinking about what her godmother said. She wasn't supposed to spy on the adults, but she wanted to know what was going to happen to Hikaru and Kaoru. The garden party came to an end that evening, and Hanako said good bye to the twins who were still in their wigs and dresses. She thought about them from her spot between her parents in the car that Tachibana drove back to her house.
Her father carried her in his arms, safe and strong, up the grand staircase to her suite. The room was far more luxurious than any child would ever need, but her parents balanced the luxury with efforts to humble their little girl. Akina helped Hanako change into her baby blue pajamas, and Hanako finally asked her parents about Hikaru and Kaoru.
"Why does Auntie Yuzuha dress the boys up in skirs and wigs?" she questioned as she climbed into the soft cushions of her single sized mattress. Akina drew the comforter up around Hanako's arms and settled next to her on the bed. Hana's mother hadn't changed out of her sky blue dress or taken off her makeup yet, but she relieved herself of the bothersome heels she was wearing and tucked her feet under her on her daughter's bed, thinking about how to best answer the question.
"Yuzu-chi thinks they look cute like that," Yuudai answered bluntly from the doorway, loosening his tie and laughing to himself at the oddity of his wife's best friend.
Akina rolled her kohl-lined caramel eyes at her husband and pursed her cherry red lips, thinking of a better answer to give her. "It's easier for other people to tell the twins apart when they're color coordinated," she elaborated.
"Can she tell the difference between them?" Hanako pressed, suddenly worried that her aunt couldn't figure out which of the twins was Hikaru and which was Kaoru. Did that mean that they switched who was who every day? That had to be bad.
"If there are two things that woman has an eye for," Akina said confidently, patting down Hana's hair with slow caresses, "it's fashion and her children."
Hanako nodded along as she gained a better understanding thanks to her mother's insight. She looked from the parent beside her to the one watching lovingly at the door. "Can you tell the twins apart?"
"I can," Akina grinned devilishly and stage whispered in Hana's ear, "but your Papa still can't."
Yuudai let out an indignant huff at his wife's playfulness before turning his coffee colored eyes onto his daughter, "Why're you asking so much about the twins, bud?"
"I've never seen anyone tell the difference between them," she shrugged. It was normal for other people not to know the difference between Hikaru and Kaoru. She wanted to know if that was right or if she was wrong, and it was normal for people to tell the difference.
Yuudai's pager sounded, and he checked it before slipping outside of the room, saying, "Gotta take this. It's Yoshi." Akina just nodded, and gazed down at her daughter with adoration.
"Hika and Kao got in trouble for pranking their auntie at the party," Hanako told her mother, remembering the scolding that the twins got from their maid in the lawn.
"I know," Akina acknowledged with a small nod.
Hanako rolled and curled up against her mother's side, "How can you tell the twins apart?"
Akina put a thoughtful finger under her chin and tilted her head to the side so that her pin straight hair fell over one shoulder, "Well, Kaoru used to cry more frequently when he wa a baby, but Hikaru always cried more loudly. That kid really has a set of lungs on him."
Hana's nose wrinkled as she frowned. That wasn't helpful at all. "They're not babies anymore, Mama," Hana protested.
"I know, sweetest," Akina sank down onto the pillows next to her baby girl and smiled, "and neither are you. You're their big sister, so you know what that means?"
"I have to tell them apart," Hana pouted.
Akina poked her nose and rolled her eyes, "No. It means that you're there for them. As a unit and as individuals, you're the oldest so it's your job to take care of them. Good night, Hanako." Akina pressed a kiss into her daughter's hair and rose to her feet next to the bed.
"Good night, Mama," Hanako yawned, burrowing under the blankets as the exertion from the day finally caught up with her. Akina lingered by the lights and admired her drowsy daughter before turning off the lights and closing the door. Hana drifted into a peaceful slumber, and the dreamless sleep lasted even when her parents returned to her bedroom in a hurry and carried her down to the car. She slept through the drive from her house to the Hitachiins', and she didn't wake up until the car stopped. Her eyes opened slowly, and the manor looked fuzzy in her sleepy eyes. Confused, she looked at her mother, who was sitting beside her with her lips in a tight line. The door on her left opened and closed in two beats, and her father ran up the stairs into the house with a group of other men dressed in black suits fanning out around the house with their orders. It was late at night, and the full moon peeked out from behind dark clouds.
"Mama?" she mumbled, rubbing the rest of the sleep from her eyes as her mother hushed her.
"Come on, sweetest," Akina said in a perfectly composed voice that contrasted starkly with the worry in her eyes, "There was a theft, and Auntie Yuzuha needs Papa's help tonight. Let's go find the boys, hmm?" Slowly coming to full alertness, Hanako got to her feet outside the car and held her mother's hand as they entered the manor that they left just a few hours ago. Yuzuha rushed into Akina's embrace as soon as she saw her friend, and Hanako gazed upon the adults cluelessly.
"Ara, did we wake you, Hana?" Yuzuha said to her goddaughter with a weak smile. "The twins are in the parlor right now. Why don't you sit with them while the adults talk?" She took her auntie's hand and let the pixie haired woman guide her to the sitting room where Hikaru and Kaoru were seated in their matching pajamas. The children were left alone but their mothers were just on the other side of the door, not wanting to trouble them with the details.
The twins sat on the pink cushions holding their joined hands between them. The little heiress passed her gaze over them and stepped up in front of the pair, "I'm glad you're okay. Do you know what happened?"
"It was the maid." They seemed more reserved than usual. Their faces were blank, and the mischief was gone in their eyes. As young as she was, Hanako recognized that her first conclusion had been wrong, and the twins weren't okay at all. It was the first time that Hanako felt truly angry. She had been angry with her parents when they said no to something she wanted, and she was angry when the twins tugged on her hair a little too hard. However, this was the first complex blend of fear and anger she felt on their behalves.
"What happened?" she demanded, "Did she hurt you? We have to tell Papa right away! She can't get away!" She started to turn towards the door where she could hear the adults talking in low, muffled tones, but when she looked back, she saw that neither of the brothers had moved. They hadn't said a word like they usually would. They weren't throwing a tantrum. Their faces hadn't even changed. Hanako settled down and looked between the two of them. "What did she do?"
"We told her, we'd give her the code."
"If she could win our game."
"She broke her promise."
"She said she couldn't tell us apart."
"She said no one will ever be able to tell which one's which," they concluded like two little robots. There are moments in a child's life that define how they grow. This was such a moment for Hanako and the Hitachiin brothers. She had seen them cry and whine, and she knew their bored expressions well. But the hollowness she saw then was one that she never wanted to see again.
"I told you it was a stupid game," she finally said. The events of that day caught up with the twins, then, as their big sister criticized the game they played. Fat tears filled the brothers' eyes as they finally processed the betrayal, and Hanako wrapped her little arms around their shoulders, pulling them into her body, as close as they could be. "Your maid's more stupid. The most stupid."
{OR}
From that day forward, wherever Hanako went, Hikaru and Kaoru went. Anyone who wanted to talk to the Hitachiins had to gain Negida's approval. Their big sister was friendly and social, and they shied away from any attention that Hanako's friends turned onto them. Met with Hanako's suspicion and discouraged by the twins' standoffishness, their peers learned to pretend that Hikaru and Kaoru weren't there. They were in elementary school when they started to take an interest in their mothers' work. Ten year old Hanako rummaged through the makeup kit at her mother's mirror in Yuzuha's studio while the twins expressed their different levels of interest in whatever their mother was sketching.
"Which one do you like more?" Yuzuha asked the children, holding up two different satins of the same shade. One of the green-clad twins slid off his stool and examined the swatches in earnest while his brother spun around on another stool, growing more and more bored with the afternoon.
"Hana-nee," Hikaru sang, "I'm bored." The twin buried his hands in his hair and ruffled the auburn mop until tufts stuck out every which way. Hopping off his stool, he ran to his brother and did the same thing until their parts were lost in the messes.
"Let's play the Which One Is Hikaru Game!" they declared, running up to her enthusiastically.
She looked away from her mother's makeup box and considered their request. They asked her whenever they were bored, and every time, it was the same answer. "No way. It's still a dumb game," Hanako opened a palette of eyeshadow and closed it when she saw the bright colors. "It's totally rigged."
"It can't be rigged!" Hikaru argued petulantly.
Hana raised an eyebrow in challenge, "What are the rules?"
"You can't guess randomly."
"And you have to pick which one of us is Hikaru."
Hanako looked between the two boys. They always had the same expectant look on their faces when they asked her to play, as if they'd finally get her to play once they asked enough time. She scoffed and passed her hand over the rows of lipstick in a drawer, "The game literally just has players give you two attention and pick one of you." Anyone who bothered to spare them a second look or exchange three words with them would know enough to win.
"No, it's not!" Hikaru protested. She always did this. She always made fun of their game, and when they asked, she didn't play. Kaoru watched Hanako pick up one of their Auntie Akina's red lipsticks and twist the tube up and down, completely ignoring Hikaru's mounting frustration.
"The game doesn't sound fun at all," she admitted.
"It's not about being fun," Kaoru pouted.
"If you guys are so bored, why don't you let me do your makeup," Hana turned one of the red wax sticks on the boys with a mischievous grin on her face.
"Big Sis!" the twins protested in unison, backing up as she advanced on them with bright red lipstick at the ready in each hand. They turned around and ran when she started to chase them, completely forgetting about the game they challenged her to play. They had such fun that day. Yuzuha and Akina indulged in their children's playfulness until their recklessness and energy grew too raucous. Every time they posed that question to her, she would refuse to play. Kaoru was the first to realize that she knew them. It was a slow realization. First, he noticed that she gave him fewer of her peppers than she gave Hikaru because as much as he liked spicy food, Hikaru had a higher heat tolerance. Then, he realized that they spent more time in the studio together because Hikaru didn't care as much about the family business. Finally, she started calling them by name. It was such a gradual thing to notice that they had no idea when Hana started knowing which one of them was which, and they didn't bother asking.
Kaoru had no idea when Hikaru figured it out, either. There just came a day when they stopped asking her to play that game. They had already known that they were the most important people to her, regardless of whether or not she knew which of them was which, but this just proved what they already knew. They didn't need to ask anymore.
{OR}
Hikaru, Hanako, and Kaoru were sitting together in the Negida family home on that fatal day when Akina Negida fell onto the catwalk. The last thing they heard and saw before the screen cut to white noise was the gunshot and Akina's collapse. There was nothing in the world that could have prepared them for that day.
Yuzuha and Yuudai planned the funeral, but it was nothing more than a series of motions. The Hitachiin family mourned as if they had lost one of their own, and the Negidas leaned on their chosen family for comfort as the world came crashing down around them. The sea of reporters in front of the Negidas' manor ebbed and flowed around the cars trying to reach the reception. The twins were left alone in the solemn mansion as their parents consoled their uncle and helped him through the difficult day. The brothers wandered through the halls, accepting whatever condolences were passed their way as they searched for their sister.
Finally, they found her. Hanako huddled on her knees at the center of a mess of assorted fabric in her mother's closet. It was Akina's space. The part of the house that was wholly hers, and lingering in the room and on the clothes was the weakest note of chrysanthemum. They couldn't see her face from where they stood, but their hearts broke when they breathed in that fragrance so synonymous with their auntie's memory.
"Hey, Hana-nee," Hikaru started cautiously, unsure of how she would react.
"People are wondering where you are," Kaoru finished in a small voice.
Their godsister's prone form rose into a proper kneeling position, pulling an ivory gown into her lap as she moved. She didn't want to go outside into that awful world where everyone was talking about her parents and voices clamored just outside of the gates. She had seen the news in the brief moments when her father tried to change the channels and hide the papers from her. She heard what people were saying about her Mama and Papa when they thought nobody was there. The Negida family had done nothing but try to keep them safe, but as soon as they were weak, the pretenders attacked.
"Let them," Hanako's hard, unforgiving voice sounded. Tentatively, Hikaru and Kaoru joined her in the closet. There was nowhere in the entire world that they wanted to be other than right there next to her. They had never been through anything without her throughout their entire lives, and at that moment, they needed each other more than anything the universe could offer them. Hikaru let go of Kaoru's hand, and he sank to his knees next to Hanako while Kaoru slumped against the wall on her other side. Roughly drying her eyes on the back of her arm, she rasped, "Your parents are going to be looking for you soon."
"Our parents are going to be looking for you soon," they echoed back at her, each taking one of her fisted hands in theirs.
"We're not going anywhere."
"If you're not there."
The twins looked around the room, trying to offer her some privacy that she so rarely got those days. Kaoru's eyes found a sewing form encased within the wall, displayed behind glass. "I made that," he said in awe, seeing it for the first time. It was the first shirt he ever sewed. From start to finish, he designed and constructed it with his own two hands. Kaoru remembered making a miscalculation that turned the dress he intended on into a tunic. He made it as a birthday gift for his godmother years ago, and she wore it to their family dinner that very week.
Hikaru spotted something on the opposite side of the room. Framed in gold above a wall of shelving, he recognized the crudely drawn maze from their vacation in France three summers ago. They were waiting for brunch at the chalet, and he had taken a crayon to the linen. Akina had laughed it off and played through the puzzle. "She kept that?" Hikaru's voice broke towards the end.
Hanako finally lifted her head and looked to the boys sitting at her sides. Their eyes were glued on the walls, and their hands squeezed hers tightly. "She kept everything," Hana's eyes burned but she smiled. "No matter what it was. As soon as you gave it to her, she'd look at you and you'd feel like you were the most brilliant person in the world."
Kaoru was the first one to start crying, but Hikaru's loud wailing followed soon after. Hanako blinked away salty tears of her own, exhausted and dry from all of the tears she spent before they found her. They clung to each other like one of them would disappear if they ever let go, and for a while, they thought that this would be the last time their family would suffer through that kind of loss. They were selfish and spoiled, but they would have given anything if it meant that their family could be whole again. They'd live in a hut if they could buy back Akina's life. They'd leave the Hitachiin legacy behind if their mother could hold her best friend again. They knew the world didn't work like that, but they bartered with god all the same. Take anything you want, Kaoru prayed, clinging to his siblings, but keep us together.
{OR}
Life and death, of course, were not so kind. By Hana's third year of middle school, a rift so deep and wide had formed between her and the twins that neither she nor they could have bridged the gap even if they tried. It was the fall semester of Hanako's last year in middle school. They were in the process of accomplishing Tamaki's idea for a club, and Hanako and Kyoya were finalizing the formal proposal that would go to the school while the upbeat blond rounded up other members. Tamaki's proposal was a grand undertaking, and if it was anyone else, she might have said that it was impossible. At that point, he had already convinced Mitsukuni and Takashi to join his club.
Hanako sat beside Kyoya in the class 3-A homeroom. Her young employer immersed himself with a book while she filled out some of the forms they needed for the club application. The white doors to the classroom creaked open, and both Hanako and Kyoya looked up. The blond trudged to his desk in front of Kyoya and slumped onto the chair.
"I thought you went to go see the twins today," Kyoya remarked.
The transfer student sighed heavily, "I did but they ran away."
"Can't blame them." The dark haired boy returned to his book, but Hanako kept her attention on Tamaki. She was starting to recognize how he revealed seriousness in his features. He was an earnest person, and as easily as he could switch from daydreaming to complete solemnity, every emotion he displayed was genuine.
"Would you help me out here, Kyoya?" he demanded in frustration. "It's for the club!"
"Let it go. I mean, we can still form the club without them, right?"
Tamaki turned in his chair, and his violet gaze passed over the girl sitting beside Kyoya. Her young employer didn't see the way a frown pulled on her lips when he said that, and Tamaki doubted that she even knew she was reacting. "No, we can't. I want them to be a part of it."
A sigh escaped from Kyoya, "Let me guess. They're also what you refer to as 'our friends', is that it?"
Tamaki considered the problem thoughtfully with his chin held between his thumb and his forefinger, but he looked up at the question. "Well, yeah," he turned back to face Hanako. "Hey, Hanako, you know them, well, right?"
Maybe not as well as she once did, but she knew them as well as she possibly could. She knew the classes they were taking and where they loitered between periods. She knew who left notes in their desks, and she knew what they did after that. Just because there was a cavern between them didn't mean that she ever stopped caring. "I do," she acknowledged.
"How do I beat their game?" his eyes shone with a determination to achieve more than just winning their game. He wanted to tell them apart, and it came from a place of camaraderie and love for two strangers who had been deprived of such things for so long.
"You know, I've never actually played the game before," she admitted with a small shrug, "and even if I did, I'm not going to help anyone cheat on their game." She wasn't some kind of cheat code that came with the twins, and despite how strongly she disapproved of their game, she knew how important it was to them.
"I don't understand what they're thinking. If they want people to tell them apart, why don't they wear different hairstyles or something?"
"Maybe they don't want to be told apart," Kyoya suggested.
"But that's the whole point of the game, Kyoya."
"Well, then they do want to be told apart." Hanako listened to the boys go back and forth about the paradox that the twins lived. Without any contributions to make, she thought about the struggle that Hikaru and Kaoru wound themselves up in. Their appearance was part of what tied them together and set them apart from the rest of the world. They were separate hearts, bodies, and minds, but they shared a singular soul. They couldn't be recognized as separate without admitting that they weren't the same, and in doing so, they'd lose part of themselves. Their co-dependency worsened when she chose a path that diverged from theirs, and she believed that it was the right thing to do. They needed each other, and they needed to be strong for each other in a way that she couldn't be.
"Why haven't you ever played the game before?" Tamaki's voice disrupted Hana's reflection, and she looked up into the richest shade of violet in the world. Nobody had ever asked her that. In all of the years that her so-called friends inquired about the Hitachiins, nobody ever pressed further after she told them she never played.
A sad smile came onto her face, and her eyes softened, "I've never been able to bring myself to do it." She didn't want them to think of her as an other, and if she played their game, even if she got it right, they'd still see her as an outsider. They knew which of them was which, and so did she. She never felt the need to prove it.
Kyoya and Hanako left the classroom together as Tamaki strategized at his desk. The two of them were starting to find a rhythm that they could work with. Kyoya led, and Hana followed. "So, do you think he's going to figure it out?" Kyoya asked on their way to the library.
She maintained five paces behind him as they walked through the halls, and with his back to her, he couldn't see the hopefulness on her face when she said, "If anyone can, it's Tamaki."
The twins' game with Tamaki continued over the span of two more days, and Hanako always saw them out of the corner of her eye when she followed Kyoya through the halls. She didn't stop to greet them, and she didn't acknowledge them whenever she passed. Yet, they were always at the forefront of her mind. She knew that they would grow bored of Tamaki sooner or later. They always did, like devilish cats tormenting their prey before losing interest in its corpse.
When Hanako cut herself out of their lives, she knowingly closed a door that had always been open to her. She had been their gateway to the rest of the world, and when she learned how cruel and merciless that world could be, she did the only thing she believed would protect them. She locked them in and locked herself out.
She and Kyoya watched from a window as Tamaki enacted his Hail Mary. That was the closest she ever allowed herself, and she was grateful for all the times that Kyoya patiently entertained himself while she watched from that window overlooking the courtyard. They never knew that she was up there, but she never left the unguarded.
She watched another girl in pigtails run away. The third one that week. Hana ran a hand through her freely flowing black curtain of hair, thinking that someone ought to tell these girls that the pigtails are out. Then, Tamaki burst out from behind a pillar in the courtyard, and Hanako watched Hikaru lower the letter as Tamaki made his guess. She couldn't hear them across the distance, but she read their body language as easily as characters on a page.
The brothers marched up to Tamaki, mirror images of each other as they advanced, and the princely blond didn't recoil as they invaded his space.
"It's always like this!" Kaoru grit in frustration. "We're the only ones who can tell the difference! No one will ever be able to win the Which One is Hikaru game, and we've known that from the beginning!"
Tamaki gazed at the boys, and it was no wonder to him why his newfound friend loved them so much. Unlike the brothers, he knew that she spent every afternoon perched up in that window at Kyoya's side, staring down upon them like a hawk. "Then why don't you tell me something? When someone guesses wrong, why do you look so sad?" he turned to ask them, and their amber eyes widened in shock.
That was what Hanako had been saying to him when he asked, and it was what he started to see over the course of those two days. "Even though I may not be able to, someday, somewhere, someone's going to come along who can tell the two of you apart. But I know this much for sure. If you guys keep living in your own little world, like you do now, chances are, you're never going to meet that person. Here's what I think. We should open the doors of the Host Club together! Let's try to expand your world, together."
Kyoya and Hanako watched Tamaki walking away from the twins, completely unaware of what he had said to them. Yet, the girl only needed the fact that they had stayed to know what happened. It wasn't every day that they were stunned into place like that. He won.
"Seems he figured it out, after all," Hanako mused with some admiration as Kyoya moved away from the window. She spared a second longer, considering the promise that Tamaki made to her. At first, she hadn't believed that it was possible, but with every passing day, he managed to surprise her.
One month later, Hikaru and Kaoru opened the door to the music room, and the first thing they saw were a pair of warm caramel eyes that belonged to the girl who had been waiting for them at the foot of the tower for a very, very long time.
A/N... I love writing the twins. Bit of a revelation in this chapter that Hana, Hikaru, and Kaoru were all watching the live feed when Akina was killed. I really debated writing a chapter about Hana's life before she became Kyoya's bodyguard, and I decided the story and OCs need the background.
Also, I finally went through and responded to all of the reviewers. I'm trying to respond to all reviews before I post next chapters, now. I have five more chapters to write for this story! Thank you all so much for being a part of this!
Special thanks to purplekittycatofthemoon, kaigirl16, and CritiqueGirl101 for your reviews on the last chapter!
What do you think of Yuudai?
Next time... A flower in winter: a look into Hanako Negida and her relationships with the hosts before they were ever a club