-Chapter 11: Let Me Just Be Perfectly Clear That This Was Not My Fault.-

Remember the first time we played that game?
When no one could tell us apart.

It was a normal day, as long as you ignore the fact that it wasn't. It never is with this group. My guests were a guy and a girl who had been coming to visit me often. The girl was really sweet but could be very loud when she got excited. The guy was soft-spoken and mild-mannered. We were currently talking about our classes. Like normal students. I excused myself to grab some more snacks and headed over towards the back room again. I got some miniature sandwiches, another pot of tea, and some mini pastries. Coming back, I passed by the twins playing another round of the Which One Is Hikaru? Game. They would put on identical green caps that weren't super flattering and would say things simultaneously.

I sat down again nearby as Haruhi passed the pair, saying "That's the dumbest game I've ever heard of." The twins took it as something like an insult and I chuckled, pointing out the encounter to my guests. That would keep their attention occupied off of me for a bit.
"What? Have you got a problem with it, Haruhi?" She turned to face them.
"Not really. I just don't understand why the two of you are so popular." Oh sweet, sweet, innocent little Haruhi. If only your mind became rated M and you could see the gayness and twincest that came from their act. It would make almost any fangirl have a bloody nose. Plus, they're chill guys. They're fun to have around when you want to have a good time.
"That's not very nice." They both said.
"I'm disappointed," said Hikaru.
"Apparently you don't understand the merits of having a pair of twins as members of the host club." Kaoru finished. They had taken off their hats and moved to be on either side of Haruhi. And here comes a crash course on the Hitachiins.
"Listen up!" started Hikaru. "Having a couple of good looking guys with homosexual tendencies gives the club high points. It also helps that the two struggle between their attraction and their friendship." Hikaru had something of a smart grin on his face. Kaoru added onto this lecture.
"And in our case because we're twins, our relationship is taboo."
"And therefore more intriguing!" Hikaru finished. All the while, they were doing poses that could make a normal person's face turn tomato-red. Hugging and touching and leaning against each other. There were even red hearts all around them. It was almost too much for my little gay hormones! I bit into a miniature sandwich, focusing all my attention on it and anything but the lewd display the twins were putting on. Looking up, I saw they had decided to pick in a girl as their plaything for a few seconds.
"And besides, who hasn't thought about being with a pair of twins. Having two loves is better than one, don't you think?" Hikaru moved to her right side, placing the tips of his fingers under her chin.
"It's a young woman's romantic fantasy." Kaoru Said, with a bit of a husky tone. He too, moved close to her face. Forget about a woman! It's a gay guys fantasy! Tearing off their shirts and having both tackle you to the end and- shit. This isn't right. My hormones were getting the better of me. I stared for a few more seconds at my sandwich as the girl exploded from the fan-girlishness.
Suddenly, Tamaki ran the pair of twins, his teeth looked like sharp triangles and he was visibly upset.
"Hikaru! Kaoru! When I gave you control of the club's website, I did so in one condition: that you take it seriously!" His eyes were wide and angled, you couldn't even see his pupils. It was a weird and funny sight.
"We take our job very seriously, Boss." Hikaru replied.
"In fact last night we worked on it till dawn!" Kaoru motioned his hands like waves towards the angry blond. Now that I think about it, Kaoru always seems to be adding onto Hikaru's ideas. Was that just a thing? Or was it planned? I shrugged, pushing it aside. Tamaki frantically showed them their creation, also allowing guests to see.
"Is THIS what you spent all night creating?" It was photoshopped pictures of Haruhi on body-types similar to hers, but male ones. I let out a snort chuckle. I had to admit, they did a pretty good job. Seeing the photos, Haruhi turned stone white. The girls all surrounded the photos, thinking this was what Haruhi looked like under her uniform.
"You look great, Haru-chan!" Mori had lifted up the blonde senior so that he could see the photos above all the girls. They seemed to like it while Tamaki was still upset. I giggled a bit, getting a glance from Kyoya-senpai. And as always, Tamaki misread the situation.
"Tell me when!" he asked the twins. They filed their heads to the side in confusion. "WHEN DID YOU GO AND TAKE NAKED PICTURES OF HARUHI!" I snorted into my tea at that. He really was clueless. He fell to the ground, turning white and clutching his hair.
"You bribed her! Didn't you?" "You're imagining things." I got up and patted Tamaki on the back. "Senpai, those photos are clearly photoshopped." I consoled him.
Whispering in his ear, I said "You should know that Haruhi doesn't have a chest like that. She has boobs." He flushed red a bit, thinking of naked Haruhi again.
"But if you're going to alter her can you do her into this idol photo-book? Hmm? Please?" He began begging the twins to do it and they flatly refused.

Meanwhile, Haruhi was still in shock and I tried knocking on her forehead, checking if she was dead. I checked her pulse.
"Hmm. Not dead! Nice. Just in deep shock." I turned to find the Shadow King behind me, peering curiously at the Haruhi and myself.
"Where did you learn to do that?" he asked me. I shrugged and gave him an innocent smile.
"You'd be surprised how much I know, Kyoya-senpai." I went back over to my guests, seeing how they were a bit quiet and I started up another conversation with them. In the background, I heard talk about toys and an eerie voice joined in on the conversation.
"You want a toy?" I turned to see a dark doorway I had never noticed before. Was it magic? If reincarnation can happen, then I believe anything is possible. The twins and brunette looked over to where the eerie voice was. It had a strange accent as well.
"Toys. Toys! If you like toys, then you should come and visit my Black Magic club. We've opened a marketplace for black magic items across the globe!" Black roses seemed to appear around the doorway as well. It looked like a cute place. Something I would enjoy.
"If you visit right now," the eerie man added, "I'll even throw in a free Belzenef the cursed doll!" Free stuff? Oh, heck yes! I excused myself from my guests and trotted over to the dark doorway.
"Wait! Don't go in there Sasaki-chan! You'll be cursed for the rest of your life!" Tamaki had a strong grip, so I twisted my arm and came free from his grasp. I smiled at the eerie man as he welcomed me inside. I waited patiently in the doorway as he tried to entice the other club members in. Looking over, I saw an impish grin appear on Hikaru's face when Nekozawa-senpai mentioned Belzenef the cursed doll and how it worked. Meanwhile, Tamaki was terribly frightened of the student in the dark cloak.
I saw Kaoru pull out a flashlight from thin air and ask his brother, "Supposedly, he hates bright lights. I wonder what he'll think of this!" A hand tapped me on the shoulder and I whirled around to face the dark room. A hand held out a figure of a cat. It was a gray plushy and really round. It was cute! I smiled and thanked the hand, as it disappeared into the dark room again. In the club room, the twins had shined the flashlight directly in Nekozawa-senpai's face, causing him to shriek and run back to the safety of his dark room. He shoved me out of the way and slammed the door behind him. I stumbled a little from his push, but regained my balance, clutching the stuffed animal tightly around me.

Tamaki began scolding the twins as they walked away, ignoring him. The twins sat down, sighing and acting bored. I shook my head, sighing a bit at this nonsense and went back to sit down with my guests.
On my way back, Tamaki ran into a corner and sniffled, "My dignity as the club's leader is being ignored." Haruhi sweat-dropped at the overly dramatic blonde. I smiled as one of my guests went on to talk about what her father did for a living. Apparently he owned some kind of technology company and did some other stuff that I really didn't care about. My other guest's parents owned a big bank of some kind. Again, I didn't care. I wasn't one for knowing what people's parents did. I was just here to pay off my debt.

"No way in hell, Senpai." I heard Haruhi say. My ears perked up a bit and I started listening to their conversation. My guests also seemed to be interested in the quad and we all watched the interaction.
The twins donned their green caps again and proclaimed, "We can settle this with a game! If you can't pick out which one is Hikaru, then your penalty will be the two of us coming over to your house later tonight." I chuckled in my mind at that. A few weeks ago, I had asked Haruhi how she was able to tell the difference between the two of them. I knew of one way to tell them apart, but I wanted to know how she did it. She told me. It was just a matter of getting to know the two. I sidled up to Haruhi, smirking a bit as she stared at me. Showing a smile only I saw.
"It's not hard to tell you two apart." I told the twins.
After they mixed themselves up a bit, they stood in front of us, asking "Okay, so which one is Hikaru?" Haruhi pointed to Kaoru saying, "This one's Kaoru." She pointed to the other twin. "This one's Hikaru." I nodded, agreeing with her choice. Knowing the twins though, they would just tell her she's wrong to get what they wanted.
"Uh-oh! You got it wrong!" I shook my head, a hand on my hip as they gave us their professional smiles.
"No, I know I'm right. You guys may look alike but you're very different." They just blinked in shock at this. They had no idea how to respond. It was a change from what they were used to.
"How'd you do that, Haruhi?" a guest asked. "Whenever they wear those hats to cover which way they part their hair, it's practically impossible to try and figure out which one is Hikaru and which one is Kaoru." Another guest came up to the two of us asking, "How can you tell them apart?" I thought for a moment.
"It's rather simple to see. Kaoru has a raspier voice than Hikaru. While Hikaru's is smoother." I shrugged and smiled at the ladies. "Guess I just have a good ear for these things."
Haruhi added onto my reasoning, "It's kinda difficult to explain," I nodded at that. "But Hikaru's speech and actions make him come across a little more mischievous than Kaoru."
"He also seemed to be slightly more dominant than Kaoru is." I butted in.
I looked up to see a sign and red arrow point at us, reading "No offense intended." Kaoru chuckled into his hand a bit.
"I'm sorry, Hikaru! I don't mean to laugh." He let out something that sounded a bit forced. Hikaru still looked annoyed at our remarks.
"Well, I don't see what's so funny. I'm honest, I speak my mind and I don't hold back" 'And sometimes that's a bad thing, Hikaru.' I thought. In this world, you suck up your opinions and don't say anything to get you in trouble. Learn to hold your tongue and thoughts from spilling out.
"It's sneaky people like Kaoru who are the troublemakers." Kaoru stopped laughing.
"Don't turn this on me, Hikaru. After all, I'm always the one who's always going along with all of your selfish game." Now that. That didn't sound like Kaoru. Something was up.
"I may suggest them but you're the one who really gets into them, Kaoru. If you hate them so much then why don't you just stop?" Were they arguing? No. They'd never.
"Because I'd hate to see you make an ass out of yourself in front of everyone. It was your idea to call Haruhi our toy, but I noticed you were quick to make a pass at her. Admit it Hikaru, you're actually in love with Haruhi, aren't you?" I raised my eyebrows at that last part. Great. Now they're dragging Haruhi into this. Plus, even if Hikaru did make a pass at her, she wouldn't notice it. The girl was woefully blind when it came to relationships. Just last week I remember the cashier giving her his phone number on the recipt and Haruhi simply threw it out on our way back to her apartment.

I remember some guys talking about her the next day when I went to go fence. I had to put those jerks in their place. Needless to say, they left practice that day with more bruises than a normal practice. Hikaru looked away, seeming to have lost this fight, while Tamaki started freaking out as well.
He tried to get back into the argument, saying, "You've got it all wrong, Kaoru! Man, you're such a freakin' idiot!" Tamaki tried butting into the argument. I wandered over to where Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai were sitting.
"Mind if I joined you?" I asked, pulling up a chair. Mori made a bit of noise and Honey-senpai gave me a sweet smile.
"Of course, Sasa-chan! Here, have a piece of cake!" He handed me a slice and I started chomping it down, still watching the drama from across the room. Hikaru claimed the cross-dressing girl looked like a raccoon dog. Which I had to admit, was kind of right. While munching on the chocolate cake, I watched as the two continued their argument about everything and nothing. It seemed kind of pointless. Tamaki started making a fuss in front of the twins about Haruhi.
"Awesome! This is just perfect!" a voice echoed from somewhere, but we couldn't tell. I looked around, trying to identify who's voice that was. Then it hit me.
I hated that voice.
The ground started to shake and I held onto my chair, trying to maintain my balance. Renge stood on a motorized platform that rose from the ground, spinning around and around.
"Our beloved Haruhi is in the middle of a beautiful yet poignant four-sided romantic relationship!" I blinked a couple of times, trying to register how Renge could have put in a motor without our knowing.
She continued on, "And to make it even more exciting, two of Haruhi's admirers are twins, torn apart by love! She spun around on the top, roses blooming in the background.
"Just the thought of it could make me eat three bowls of rice!" Oh god. She was acting like Tamaki as well. I sweatdropped a bit. And three bowls of rice was a normal amount. Right?
"Oh, butt out, otaku." The twin simultaneously commented. She started crying crocodile tears.
"You guys are so mean! You shouldn't say stuff like that to your manager!" She ran into a corner of woe, just like a Tamaki would. The blonde idiot came over to Renge, trying to cheer her up.
"But Renge, I thought you had feelings for Haruhi, as well?" Her eyes began to twinkle as she turned to face Tamaki.
"Oh, I do, but I have no problem with Haruhi having a homosexual realtionship on the side." Tamaki sweat-dropped at that.
"I'm confused," Haruhi added. "I thought that you had decided to go back home to France, Renge." She gave the brunette a smile.
"Well, I was going to start up a host club of my own but, I don't think France is ready for a host club just yet." Aaaaand she's French, to top it all off. Was there nothing about this girl I liked? Yeah. She would attack the club and be pretty annoying. She didn't hold back. And she had a nice bow. It was really nice. Haruhi sweat-dropped at her response.
I turned to hear Hikaru cry, "Cut it out already! You're the one who's always crawling into my bed! Talk about annoying!" The twins were almost head-to-head at this point. And you could easily tell that this was a fight. It felt like it was going to be a big one.
"I only do that cause you look lonely. I wouldn't choose to sleep in your bed, you idiot!" Kaoru snapped back. Even though they were fighting, the girls were loving this. But that response… it seemed too fake. It wasn't a good response. Was it fake-fighting? No. When you're angry, your judgement becomes more clouded and reasoning can get foggy. I wouldn't hold that kind of stuff against them. So maybe this was a real fight.
"Who are you calling an idiot? You're the one who sucks at math!"
"Oh yeah? Well, you're failing your foreign language class, you big dummy!" I noticed Kyoya looked at the two of them and wrote something down. Probably the information they were spouting about each other as blackmail, if necessary.
"The way you grind your teeth is deafening!"
"At least I don't toss and turn so much that I fall out of bed!"
"Sex pixie!" Huh? I've never heard that used in name-calling before.
"Sicko!" That one's a classic.
At the same time, they yelled, "Your mama wears too much makeup!" Wait… but they're twins.
"That's it! We're over!" All the hosts sweat-dropped at that. They headed separate ways, even though they ended up going home together. Then again, I didn't stay around much longer. Club hours were over so I left, needing to get home before a tutoring session with the Shadow King.

"You didn't get this one right Sasaki. Try again." Kyoya tapped his pencil on number 34. I stopped working on number 36 and cursed a bit, muttering to myself. Dang it. I thought I got that one right. Stringing curse after curse under my breath, I grabbed another sheet of paper and started working on the problem again. This time, the megane watched me. I finished it, and got the same answer as before. Now I'm getting pissed off. What the heck heck was I missing? It seemed to be okay. I turned the paper around so he could see my work. Scanning it for a few seconds, he chuckled when I crossed my arms and pouted a bit. My lower lip jutting out.
"It's really simple. You just need to apply your basics." He turned the paper back to me and began writing down what was to be done upside down. You could tell it wasn't as neat as when he wrote facing him, but it was still pretty impressive. He flicked my forehead once. Hard.
"Ah! What the heck was that for?" I massaged the spot where he flicked me.
"You weren't paying attention. It's my job to tutor you and for you to pay attention and learn. So don't go day-dreaming so easily, please." I sighed and nodded, taking another swing of my Gatorade before settling down to focus again.
"You are doing well, Sasaki. You just have to make sure you don't lose your focus so easily."
"Easy for you to say," I muttered. "You're Mr. Perfect. You always get problems right and you're in the top of your class. I'm just doomed to fail these courses."
He gave me a frown and said, "You're not going to fail. Not on my watch. Now, looking at this problem…" And the night proceeded from there. He came to my place on Wednesday's, after the club. I would come home, eat a quick meal, and by the time I would finish showering, he would be ringing the doorbell, punctual as always. He would sit across from me in my living room for two hours and we went over the dreaded physics and calculus. He used simple methods, not taking shortcuts or expecting stuff to be done in your head. He showed me everything, explaining it step by step. His handwriting was impeccably neat. Almost like reading print! Mine, on the other hand, was a bit sloppy but neat in some places. If I didn't do well and started to daydream, he found that flicking my forehead was a great motivator. The anger fueled me. But he never strayed off topic about other things or tried to pry into my life. Never commented on my house or why the walls were so bare. He was professional, and that's all I wanted to keep it at.

We love slow burns, don't we? Eheheheh ಠ‿ಠ