Author's Notes: My thanks to those who have taken the time to read and/or reviewed this story. It is my hope that this piece might spark people's imaginations about the series and the couple featured here (alas, we are all shippers in the end).
Umehito Nekozawa and Houshakuji Renge: Ten Encounters
vii.
The rain continued to pour well into the afternoon, adding humidity to the already stifling heat. It was on such a day that Renge found in the mailbox outside her dorm suite a letter from France, one she had expected long ago.
She came to Ouran to chase a fairytale, and finding none she tried to create one. After that, with no particular incentive to return, she stayed to watch—sometimes help—the host club make fantasies come true for other people.
It had been like a dream, but as the paper bearing the short but clear message reminded her, it was time to wake up.
viii.
"… And so, as per my father's request, I will be returning to Paris."
It was raining one week later when Renge broke the news to the club, and though it was still early in the afternoon, the room was shrouded in a shade of gray from the sunless sky outside. The announcement was brief, and the club members in the room sat silently as each digested the news in their own way.
"But why can't you just transfer permanently to Ouran? We have plenty of students here who have done so." Tamaki asked, the first to speak up.
Renge kept her hands folded formally before her. "I came in the middle of a school term, which is highly irregular… besides which all of my family and their future plans for me are in France."
The club room returned to silence after that until Kyouya, notepad in hand and pen in the other, spoke. "Nevertheless, it would have been nice to hear about this earlier, instead of the day before your flight."
"We don't even have time to give you a farewell party!" blurted out Honey, who was holding back tears.
And Renge was able to smile a little when she saw the baby-faced third year wipe his eyes furiously. "I didn't want anyone to go to any more trouble for me. The club has been busy, particularly with the new customers being brought in."
"Speaking of that… whose going to train him after you leave?" asked Kaoru.
"Nekozawa-sempai has made remarkable progress in hosting and general social skills." She drew a silent, steadying breath before she uttered the next words. "He should continue to improve even on his own, without me."
At that moment, the dull sound of something hitting the floor turned the club members around, and they saw Nekozawa standing at the doorway, his book bag on the ground and the blank look on his face stabbing the manager painfully in the chest.
"… Well, I still have packing to do, so I'll excuse myself now. The time was short, but I'm glad to have met you all." And with that Renge left, her head kept low and her pace brisk as she brushed by Nekozawa, never once looking up at the stunned third-year, who didn't react until the echoes of her footsteps were disappearing down the hallway.
Her hands clenched against the front of her dress when she heard the sound of his rapid strides catch up from behind. Then they both stopped, ten paces apart in the middle of the hallway that was quiet but for the sound of his heavy breathing and the beating of the rain against the window panes that reached from floor to ceiling.
In a voice dry from catching his breath, he only asked one word. "Why?"
And she felt her resolve waver at the confusion in his voice. Why are you leaving? Why are you abandoning me? She bit her lip, and blinked back the tears that she wouldn't let out until later when she got back to her room and locked the door, and she turned around and smiled her best smile for him.
"Because you don't need me anymore."
ix.
The host club was in session the next day, but instead of the usual ambiance of hushed laughter and soft chatter, a quiet taut with tension filled the air, and at the center of that tension was Umehito Nekozawa, seated in a tall-backed chair, his body bent forward so that his hair obscured his face and whatever struggles that took place underneath. All around him, fellow hosts and their patrons waited as the minutes and seconds ticked away audibly on an antique timepiece. Honey clasped his hands as if in prayer, and aware of the graveness of the situation, the twins stayed silent as they too looked upon the brooding third-year.
"Sempai…" Haruhi approached him with a look of concern. "Are you alright with this?"
Nekozawa remained seated in his rigid posture. "… Of course, like Renge-san said, her family and life is back in France. It is only fitting that she returns to where her most important things are." And though he spoke the words plainly, Haruhi saw that his hands were wrung so tight that his knuckles had turned pale.
At that point, Nekozawa noticed a shadow fall over the floor beneath his feet, and looked up just in time for Tamaki's karate chop to land right between his brows.
"You idiot!" And the third year cowered a little as he held the sore spot on his head, the man in front of him looking as if he was about to hit him again. "Haven't you realized why she gave us such short notice of her leaving? Why she came to the host club early yesterday to tell everyone but you? It's because the hardest thing about leaving here… was leaving you!"
And Nekozawa's eyes grew wide as Tamaki's words hit him like a hammer. "Renge-san… me? I never…"
"You never knew because you never dared to find out, and if you don't do something quick in the next forty-five minutes, you may never find out. So what will it be? Sit here and let her walk away, or go after the one thing which you've been too afraid to hope for all your life?"
"I… I…" His hands trembled with the tumult of emotions inside until he felt a solid hand on his shoulder, and looking up he saw the stoic face of Mori above him, who did not speak, but looked hard into Nekozawa's eyes and nodded just once, conveying in that single gesture all he needed to say.
Go.
And the trembling stopped, and as he stood he vaguely recalled that only two times in his life had he felt the way he felt now: when he held that flashlight to his face with his finger on the switch, and just before he crashed through that second story window; determined to change himself the first time and in order to race to a loved one the second time.
This time it was both.
"Forgive me, but I need to go see about a girl."
