Chapter 2 : Slow Latte
"It's insanely bright in here," Yori comments as soon as the doors open, "Wow!" She exhales, eyes widening, impressed, "It's like a tea party in here! Oh, everything looks super yummy!" Yori grins, stepping in. Immediately, she bumps into a tall blonde boy.
"Oh! Geez, I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going -"
"No need to apologize, my dear, " The blonde pats her shoulders, "I don't believe I've seen you around here," Tamaki notes. Yori looks past him, taking in more sights. Girls with different colored haired sat dainty, be it in chairs at a table or at sofas, kicking their legs about. Yori attempts to look for the second Hitachiin twin.
"And who might you be, my lovely rose?" Tamaki raises her hand to his lips. She snatches her arm away, placing it against her side, ready to bow once more.
"I'm Hamomoto Yori," She says. "I'm pleased to meet you Mister…?"
"Oh - Suoh. Tamaki Suoh, at your service." Tamaki chuckles, eyeing Haruhi questioningly.
"Tamaki Suoh," Yori repeats. Before she could bow, Haruhi sticks her arm out to stop her from bowing too deeply.
"You don't need to bow so low, Hamomoto-san." Haruhi explains when Yori turns towards her questioningly.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I tried learning how, but I didn't really understand. I just know to bow to be respectful,"
Hikaru raises a brow. Kaoru soon joins when he finishes up a conversation with a couple girls he and his brother were hosting before Hikaru had left.
"What's going around here? Oh." Kaoru glances at Yori, "You're that girl in our class."
Yori grins, "You recognize me!"
"Who wouldn't? No one in school has curly hair like that."
"Not to mention you're one of the few people in school with brown skin."
"Ah…" Yori smiles meekly, looking at who she thinks might've been Kaoru, "I'm sorry to bother you...um…"
"Hitachiin Hikaru and Kaoru," A voice says from afar.
"Two of the three first years in our club. I believe you met Hitachiin Hikaru and Fujioka Haruhi already."
"Of course!" Yori nods, careful to bow as low as Haruhi's arm had allowed her, "I'm -"
"Hamomoto Yori," Kyoya smiles kindly, bowing in return, "Yes, I heard. Word gets out quick when a new student is enrolled in Ouran High."
"And you are?"
"Pardon me, I'm Ootori Kyoya." Kyoya bows his head politely. Yori nods her head back. Kaoru kocks his hip against Hikaru's, cocking his head into Yori's direction. Hikaru watches Yori knock her curled fist into her thigh. He tsks.
Dumb habit for a teenage girl to keep at, if you asked him.
Yori, in the middle of the conversation, trails off. She smiles and nods to Kyoya, as if he hadn't been conversing with her earlier.
"We have maids in the households who take care of us like this," she says suddenly, watching two host members wait on their ladies,
"I've got my own personal maid! She's just lovely, she's from Brazil! Her name's Miranda. Do you know anyone from South America?"
The twins watch as Kyoya goes quiet, blinking once.
"Even Kyoya's lost on the girl," Hikaru chuckles.
"Not everyday you meet someone who talks a mile a minute," Kaoru comments.
"And seems to get off topic a mile a minute."
Yori's eyes widen when she realizes Kyoya is searching for words. She excuses herself, walking off to the window, shoulders hunched. She stands there, knocking her fist on her thigh once more, back towards the students in the room.
Kyoya and the rest stand there, confused. The twins sigh and dismiss themselves from the group, going back to those they were hosting next before their break. Kyoya raised a brow at Haruhi, who shrugs and goes to prepare Yori her cup of coffee. Tamaki laughs it off but dismisses himself to tend to the girls he had left waiting.
"What a view, I haven't seen this part of the school yet!" Yori breathes against the glass. She watches the water ripple in the fountain, focused on how the light reflects on it.
"Hamomoto-san?" A voice calls out. Yori turns and smiles when she sees it's Haruhi.
"You said you wanted coffee?" Haruhi hands her a cup and saucer.
"...I did, didn't I?" Yori says sheepishly, taking both the cup and saucer from Haruhi, "Thank you, Miss Fujioka."
"If there's anything else I can do for you…"
"No...that should be it Miss Fujioka. I shouldn't - "
Clink clink.
Oh dear, how long had that sound been going on that she was just now realizing it was all around her? She takes a careful sip of coffee, taking a step back from the window and begins walking around the room. Each sound of teacup clinking against saucers was making her brain twitch.
"Are you alright, Miss Hamomoto?" Tamaki asks as he walks past her, holding a pitcher of water, as he was requested for a drink by one of the girls.
"Oh...Oh!" She laughs, scratching the back of her neck. "Yes, It's just. Isn't the music room too loud? So many clink clinks. I can hear people swallowing tea and coffee. How do you think in here?"
"...right," Tamaki chuckles awkwardly, "I suppose so... but we wouldn't be very good hosts if we aren't tending to the ladies as such."
Yori hums. "I'm going to sit over there," She says suddenly, dismissing herself once again.
"Alright, Miss Ha...hm." Tamaki goes quiet as the girl leaves without another thought, walking towards the corner of the room and making herself comfortable there.
Hikaru eyes her from afar, clicking his tongue in annoyance as she opens a notebook she held in her messenger bag, taking her phone out as well. She plugs ear phones into it, listening intently as she wrote in her notebook. Her foot taps on the ground.
As the minutes passed, Yori would suddenly get up from the table, accidently scraping it against the floor without her noticing. She paced back and forth, tugging on the ends of her hair, which eventually frizzed out.
Honey, who had just gotten wind of the new girl in the room, walks to Haruhi, Mori following behind him.
"Haru-chan, is she okay? She looks like she's having trouble."
"What do you mean?" Haruhi looks up from her own group of ladies to Yori. Yori sits herself back down, a frustrated look on her face.
"She looks like she's trying to study, Maybe she doesn't understand?"
"That doesn't sound right. She's in class 1-A with the twins and me." Haruhi taps her chin with her finger, "Then again, I missed lunch and the lecture for a doctor's appointment." She whispers thoughtfully.
"Maybe she was misplaced in the class, then?" Honey shrugs.
Mori stares at Yori for a while, looking back to Honey and Haruhi.
"She looks upset. Maybe she needs a break." Honey suggests.
"A game could make her feel better." Mori offers.
"Yeah!" Honey smiles, clinging to Mori's leg, "I always feel better after playing a game! Hika-chan, Kao-chan!"
The twins looks up from their DS once more. They were currently on break and decided to keep up on playing their Pokeman game.
"Our new customer needs some cheering up!" Honey points over to where Yori sat. Her chin rested on her hands, her foot tapping against the floor once more.
"Yoro?"
"Are you going to keep changing the vowels in her name after she introduced herself six times?" Haruhi grumbles, shooting an unimpressed stare at the twins.
"She wanted to ask you for the notes," Haruhi points at Kaoru, "Since your brother," She points to Hikaru, "Was more than ready to blow her off when she needed help."
"Yeah but it's not really up to us to baby her," Kaoru purses his lips.
"She's in the club without a member hosting her," Haruhi points out, "And you two aren't busy. Just play a game with her, distract her for a while. That's what your job requires you to do."
Hikaru sighs loudly and Kaoru rolls his eyes.
Yori blinks rapidly, trying to focus on the words she'd written in her notebook. She wasn't soaking up anything.
"Hey Yori~" She hears to voices above her. She looks up to see the twins standing next to each other, grins on their faces.
"We heard you're having a tough time, so we thought you'd want to play a game with us,"
Yori puts her pencil down, looking up at the two questioningly.
"In the host club," Kaoru explains as his brother presents him with one of the iconic green messenger boy caps they wear for this game, "We have our own little game…"
"The which one is Hikaru game!" Hikaru shouts. Almost all girls raise their heads and their line of sight is on the twins instantly. A couple girls even come up to the table where Yori sat. She introduces herself to the few girls around her, a few ignoring her and a couple introducing themselves in return.
"...did you get that?" one of the twins come up to her. Yori, who was paying attention to a girl who was introducing herself, looks up sheepishly.
"Uh...yes. Yeah." She fibs. The twins look at each other shrugging.
"Ladies," Hikaru smirks to the girls around Yori, "You might want to explain the rules to our new guest. She tends to miss a lot of information."
Yori frowns, face heating up as the girls laugh around her.
"Hamomoto-chan," the girl who never finished introducing herself taps her on the shoulder, "The game isn't very hard - at least the objective isn't. You just guess who Hikaru is and you win!"
"But I don't know who is who… I don't even know them by name very well!"
"That's okay! There's still a fifty - fifty chance you'll get it right!" The girl encourages.
"That- "
"Alright Yori," The twins announce, cutting Yori off mid sentence, "Which one of us is Hikaru?"
"The… left- no, right! Uh,"
"Make a choice," The twins hum.
"I…" Yori points to the one standing on the left, "You! You're Hikaru!"
The girls go quiet, waiting for the answer. They whisper behind their hands as the twins stand up right.
"EHHH!" They shout in unison, making Yori jump in her seat. The twin on the left laughs, good-natured.
"I'm Kaoru," Kaoru grins, taking off the hat, revealing his left-parted hair. Hikaru takes off his own hat, showing his hair that parts to the right.
"Can I borrow your notes, Kaoru…?"
"Huh?"
"I forgot to ask earlier…" Yori says. The girls around her groan, not wanting to hear about school work until they were out of school. They scatter immediately.
"It's...I just…" Yori wrings her hands. She sighs, placing them on her lap. Kaoru watches the girl fumble, watching her expression. It was obvious she was upset. Kaoru smiles kindly.
"...Sure," He says. Hikaru raises a brow.
"Yeah. Let me just go grab them. Did you need anything else?"
"...Can I have some coffee?" Yori looks up from her lap, "But not decaf, please?"
"Hikaru?" Kaoru turns to his twin, "Why don't you serve her some coffee while I grab the notes from my locker?"
Hikaru shrugs, "Okay. But I get to play an hour on my own on the DS."
Kaoru sighs, "Fine."