Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran Highschool Host Club.
Chapter 1: The Arrogant Girl
Kaede
I walked out of the office, satisfied at my arrival to Ouran Academy. It was my first day, and I looked around in disgust at the uniform. Green, poofy dresses. What a nightmare, I shuddered. The girl's uniform was an abomination, to say the least. And the pink walls? Nauseating. I wore skinny jeans, a navy blue collared top and a red leather jacket to top it all off. It gave off the vibes of "I can afford the uniform, I just don't wanna wear it."
My dad is the founder and CEO of the Shirai Company, one of the largest companies in technology today. I was born in Japan, but went to the States in middle school, as my parents had an intense business venture to be the go-to tech company, in the world. After a chain of events that left me unwilling to stay in the country, my parents let me move back alone to be a confident, self-sufficient, highschooler.
It was my first time stepping into this type of rich kid school environment, as I had lived as a normal middle class person in the U.S., having used my mom's maiden name to lay low. Yes, I was living the rich life before I moved, but I had been home-schooled in elementary, so I only had one friend from my childhood.
I wonder where he is now, I thought. It's been a while since we've come into contact.
I was quite excited to be here, strutting in with my cocky self and blatant over confidence.
But the minute I stepped in, I was bombarded. "WHAT SHAMPOO DO YOU USE?" "DO YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?" "OMG!"
I ignored all of them rather coldly and sat in my seat quietly, reading a book. As expected of Japan; I've read in mangas about how students swoon over the cool transfer student. How interesting. The teacher opened her mouth to ask me to introduce myself, but I made a visible "no" to her.
As I shooed everyone away, class started, and I took in my surroundings. To my left was a girl, possibly, with thick glasses and baggy clothes. To my right was an orange haired mischievous looking guy. When I looked farther, I saw he had a twin. Now that's trouble.
During the lesson, I started thinking that this place wasn't as prestigious as said. It was just so... easy. I found myself almost nodding off in class. I turned to the left. The girl also looked tired. She seemed out of it, so I just stared at her. She seems interesting. Judging by her clothes, she's a commoner. I think if I cleaned her up a bit, she'd be quite pretty.
After a hour or so of staring at the girl (who didn't notice at all), the bell rang and lunch began. Those twins I labeled as mischievous started making a move on me. "Who are you-" the first one started.
"My beauty?" the other one finished. I rolled my eyes and scoffed at their act. They were too close, and had roses in their hands. Whoa, how did they get those?
"Take five steps back please, my guards wouldn't like this and neither will my lawyer," I said, pointedly looking at the glaring shadows on either side of me. "I know that your position, Hitachiins, is very high, but mine is, unfortunately for you, higher." I acted the part of manipulating girl.
The twins looked at each other. I assume they were only greeting me under the instructions of their parents. My mom had told me about this.
"Okay, Kaede, be careful at Ouran. Every person is talking to you out of their own benefit. There's also idiots who talk to you with no ulterior motive, though, so I guess all I can say is good luck."
"So..." I scoffed. ""I take it you're not stepping back?" They quickly jumped back. I turned the cold shoulder, then exited with my guards. I'm glad I brought them today, I snickered. Now that was fun.
"Yes!" I cheered as I skipped out of the theater. It was after school, and I had just delivered the best audition for the lead role of the new play: the Boy with the Black Hair. I had cross-dressed as a boy and played it perfectly. They already said that I was to be the lead.
I was still in my boy clothes (a skater outfit with headphones), my hair tied up to accommodate the part (a trick from a dear cross-dressing friend). Next, I thought, taking out a list that my mom made to do after school. The audition had only been 5 minutes, so I had plenty of time before coming home to my cozy house.
The next thing to do was go check out the music rooms and practice piano there, since they didn't take the time to put a grand in my house. I made a beeline to the music rooms.
Many of them were occupied, and by many, I think all of them. "Oh shoot, I missed one." I stopped at the sign for the last one in the hallway: Music Room #3."Please be unoccupied, please be unoccupied, please be unoccupied..." I chanted, turning the knob.
When I caught sight of the inside, a rose petal got in my opened mouth.
"WELCOME!" Exceedingly handsome boys unraveled before me. I scanned the faces, recognizing the twins from before. A blonde, dumb looking guy seemed to lead the grand welcome.
And...oh, damn. It was Ootori. Ootori Kyoya. Bye, I'm dead. R.I.P. for poor old me. You haven't even got to know me that well too...
I'll explain.
You see, this calculating, notebook-wielding, money-craving man, is the son of my parents' best friends. We're what you call "childhood friends," despite the year difference. He was my only friend before I had moved to the U.S., and I had regretfully forgot to contact him in the years we were apart. We, unfortunately, were a lot alike, to the point of people asking if we were brother and sister. To see him in front of me now, after all this time, was surprising, to say the least. But then again, the rich world is quite small.
"It's another boy. Is gay the new cool?" asked the blonde guy. Whoa, what? They think I'm a boy? I touched my hair. Oh yeah...I didn't change out of my costume...I noticed a broken vase on the floor and that girl I observed in class huddling in the corner, talking about a debt or something.
"I was just here to play on the piano," I sighed, raking my hand through my hair and putting my other hand's thumb in my back pocket. It was a usual pose. Although, when I stroke this pose, they started sparkling.
"Waaa! Mommy, this boy's perfect!" the blonde guy ran to Ootori. Mommy? Yo, who's gay? "He's handsome and cool!" Ootori looked amused, and fixed his glasses.
"He sure is," he replied in amusement. OH, I think I know what these kinds of clubs are called. Host clubs.
"You're a perfect host!" the blonde guy once more turned to me. "Will you join?" I struck a look at Ootori (who was smirking), then fixed a hard gaze at the idiotic blonde guy.
"...No." I turned to exit, but was interrupted by a sudden wind on my shoulder. I turned around quickly, seeing a tiny blonde boy who looked like an elementary schooler. He tapped my shoulder with big eyes.
Behind him was a giant with black hair. What an eccentric group. "Let's be friends!" the cute little blonde boy smiled at me with big eyes, you know, the ones you can't resist.
Guess what my heartless self said? "No thank you." I opened the door and got the hell outta there.
Honestly, I thought I was home free. What I didn't expect was the host club opening the door and running after me. I sprinted. The host club started to lag behind in the seemingly endless hall, but that giant guy was close behind. Suddenly, he picked me up with tremendous force. The host club was catching up, and I was caught struggling. I slipped out of his grasp using my slim body and started running again. I froze when I heard a certain black haired, manipulative guy say, "Our parents are good friends, you know."
I turned back with a vexed face. "I know that, Ootori, don't think me stupid."
"I know you aren't."
"Don't think you can win against me: I know what you did!"
"What did I do?"
"I don't know, I just thought if I said that, you'd think I had something on you."
"Interesting as always," Ootori smirked. I rolled my eyes. Eh, whatever. These crazy people seem pretty interesting, anyways. I took another look at the faces. Plus, they're the sons of extremely rich people; it'd be a shame not to associate with them.
I sighed. "I'll join your club."
And so, I suddenly found myself sitting on a couch across from the host club.
"I'm Suoh Tamaki, and this is Ootori Kyoya, we're second years, Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachiin, first years, Haninozuka 'Honey' Mitsukuni, and Morinozuka 'Mori' Takashi, third years... Oh, and Fujioka Haruhi-kun, our new dog who joined minutes ago!" the blonde guy introduced the club, pointing out the members. Haruhi-kun? They thought she was a boy too?! I looked at Ootori. He smiled mischievously.
I went over the types of the people. The twins were the little devils, Mitsukuni-senpai was ultimate shouta, Takashi-senpai was the...er... fighter type, Tamaki-senpai was the princely type, and-I almost laughed at this-Ootori was the cool type.
"What's your name?" Mitsukuni-senpai asked cutely. Oh right, they didn't know my name. Uh...let's make a fake one.
"Katana Shiraishi," I said. "Is it alright if I call you guys by your first names?"
"Of course, Kata-chan!" Mitsukuni-senpai said. "You can call Takashi Takashi-senpai too!" He rolled on my lap. Aww... He was like my little cousin.
"Oi, Ootori, what type am I?" I asked the black haired guy who was passing by me.
"We'll see, Mr. Shiraishi," he smirked. I ignored the malice in his voice.
I stood up. "So, what we doin'?"
The Host Club is now open for business~
I observed the host club members doing their "work" with Ootori, who was writing in his notebook. "You still have that?" I asked, looking at his black notebook.
"You still have yours," he countered, looking at my own leather notebook in my hand.
"Touche." Silence followed. I guess 5 years really does take a toll on a friendship. I searched through my mind to think of anything we could talk about. "Oh hey, about those baby pictures I happened to acquire..."
"You're not the only one," he said, his glasses glinting. I raked a hand through my hair.
"I hate that our parents are such good friends."
"Don't we all?" We looked away from each other, as I continued observing the host club. The twins were doing some kind of twincest act, and the girls were squealing in delight. Gosh, that's weird.
Then there were the third years. The cutie act isn't as disgusting; even I could get on board with that. Oh man, did I just think cutie?
There was a conversation, though, that caught my attention. Tamaki-senpai was talking to a rather snobbish looking girl (although that describes quite a few people at this school).
Whoops, my hoe radar is going off.
"So, Tamaki-kun, I heard that you were keeping an unpedigreed little kitten..." Was she talking about Haruhi?! Frankly, I thought she wasn't bad compared to everyone else, although that doesn't say a lot. Anyways, who talks like that?
"Not a little kitten -well, speak of the devil!" he turned to a distressed Haruhi entering the room. "How was it, little piglet?"
I didn't get to watch the rest of it, as Ootori pulled me to a table with 4 girls. Shoot, now I have to do what they're doing. "This is Katana Shiraishi, our new host," he introduced me with a smirk.
"Hello," I said, flashing a charming smile. I sat down, resting my ankle to my left knee, spreading my arms comfortably. "So, any questions for me, princesses?" I asked, imitating the way Tamaki spoke.
One of them blushed slightly asking, "Do you go to school here, Shiraishi-kun?"
"Oh no, I'm a freshman honors student from Presch Gakuen, around here. I'm just hosting because of my friend Ootori," I said, looking at the boy who was standing next to the couch.
"Oh yes, a friend," he smiled. "That and I have quite a bit of dirt on this friend."
"You do? You don't even know what dirt is, you sheltered brat!" We started bickering.
I stopped for a moment, noticing that the girls had hearts in their eyes. Whoa, did I just unintentionally lead a gay boy act with Ootori?
I eventually got tired of the over-excited squeals as we argued about totally nonsense things. At any rate, noise had arisen from the other side of the room. "Did I just hear, 'I will drink the instant coffee' from over there?" I looked at Ootori, and went to join the commotion. I saw Haruhi pouring hot water for the rich people, sprinkling a powder in their cups.
Tamaki-senpai said blah blah this and blah blah that as the girls held a cup of coffee in their hands. "My father will be mad at me if I drink this...," said a girl uncertainly. Yet he lets you hang out in a host club all day? Tamaki-senpai suddenly moved to put the girl in one of those romantic dips.
"Would you drink it if you drunk it from my mouth?" he asked seductively. I almost gagged.
"I-I would," the girl stuttered. Self-respect who? The others squealed uncontrollably. I retreated to Haruhi, who was cursing about the rich people. I would too, but I'm also rich.
"Hey, Haruhi. I see I'm not the only one who thinks this is all revolting," I said, leaning on the wall beside her. "These people are so snobbish; they think that because they're rich, they're above the commoner ways." As I said this, Haruhi looked at me questioningly.
"But, Katana-" I cringed at the name, "-you are rich too," she pointed out. I sighed.
"That's true, but I was raised pretty normally, since I'm a second generation rich kid," I said. "Plus, I hid my wealth for quite a whi-" I stopped. Haruhi tilted her head in curiosity. I smirked. "Nevermind." I flipped my hair, only to find most of it was tied up, and joined Ootori. I left Haruhi with a confused look.
The Next Day,
At School Lunch...
"I see you're a girl again, as usual," Ootori commented. We were in the cafeteria, chatting. I did despise him a bit, but he was the only one who I knew. "You didn't have to go as far as to wear your fake glasses," he added further, referring to the spectacles I was wearing. I wanted to conceal my identity for now.
"Shut it, Ootori," I rolled my eyes. I took out my most recent test scores from my backpack. I scored 100% on all of them.
"You're holding back as always, Shirai," he said, looking over my shoulder.
"Yeah, like you don't," I retorted. "Haruhi scored 105% on them for finishing the tests in 30 minutes." Ootori snorted.
"You could've finished them in 5 minutes, Shirai," he rolled his eyes. Aw, he has faith in me. "You've been taking a liking to Haruhi, haven't you?"
"Well, I favor girls more than boys. As quoted from an acquaintance of mine, 'All boys are jerks.'" I stuffed the papers inside my bag.
"Oh, Shirai said 'jerks,' should I tell your father?" he teased. Ugh, he knew that I could barely even say dang without getting into trouble for such an "unladylike, immature act" also known as 'cussing.'
"Yeah, I still have those baby pictures I mentioned earlier, you know," I said. He frowned.
"How's oba-chan and oji-san?" Ootori asked, referring to my parents. They had always treated him well, as if he was their own kid.
"Same old, same old."
"How about Ryo-nii and Aki-nii?"
"Ryo-nii-san's doing business in China and Aki-nii-san went to Oxford for college." I sighed.
"So, it's confirmed? Ryo-nii's going to be the next president of the Shirai Company?"
I nodded. I put down my chopsticks, and frowned. "You know how it feels, Ootori, to hold back since you're the youngest? To not outshine them, but still be perfect at the same time?" Ootori and I were both the youngest in our family, but Ootori was leading in the fight to be the heir.
"I don't believe that anymore," he replied, glasses flashing. "I'm guessing you have a plan to overtake the company, or are you gonna be a pianist, like you used to say?"
I smiled (not smirked), and gathered my things. "Eh, I don't know, whatever's interesting."
Kyoya
After Shirai left, the host club, excluding Tamaki and Haruhi, came up to me with confused faces. "Who was that?" the twins asked simultaneously. "You don't hang out with girls very often."
"Don't you think she looks like Kyo-chan?" Honey-senpai gasped. "Is she a relative?" Snapping at that single question, a black aura surrounded me. I hated when people mistook us for relatives.
"She's... not my relative," I smiled angrily. They all jumped. "She's just a childhood friend." I was surprised at my words. Oh, yeah, I guess she counts as one...although I don't want to admit it.
"Oh, you refer to me as a childhood friend?" I froze. It was Shirai, flipping her hair in that somewhat arrogant way of hers. None of the idiots realized it was "Katana Shiraishi."
The host club, unknowingly, ogled at her. She noticed it, but made no move to show it. Her ego must be loving it.
"Why are you here, Shirai?" I said between gritted teeth.
"Oh, I was just getting my jacket; I left it here rather conveniently," she replied in her calm way. So infuriating. "Bye, Kyo," she teased, heading back to the library.
"Kyo?" Hikaru asked.
"So she's your girlfriend?" Kaoru grinned mischievously.
I glared at them.
After School
Kaede
I laughed inwardly as I walked calmly to the host club room. Ootori's the same as always. Even when we were little, he refused to call us "friends." We had agreed upon the title "future business partners."
I walked through the halls, and, before reaching the host club room, spotted a person's things in the fountain. It was Haruhi's; I knew it since the materials looked cheaper than 3000 yen. I ran to go downstairs, tying up my hair and removing my spectacles, bumping into Haruhi on the way there. "Haruhi!" I cried. "What happened to your things?"
"Katana?" she said in surprise. I cringed, hearing my "name."
"Did you get a makeover by the twins?" I asked, noticing her cute get-up.
She sighed. "Yeah," she replied.
"C'mon, let's get your things from the fountain. I'll find out who did it later," I started walking with her to the fountain. I already knew who did it, though; it was the red headed snobbish girl I saw talking with Tamaki-senpai. I cracked my knuckles unconsciously. From the start, I had been very fond of Haruhi. She was very blunt yet cute, and she seemed like the exact type of friend I'd want to cherish and care for. If anyone hurt her, they'd have to answer to me.
When we got to the fountain, I tied up my pants and rolled up my sleeves to help her acquire her things. "Is that all, Haruhi?" I asked.
"I still haven't found my wallet," she said. I looked at the big clock in the courtyard.
"I'll be going ahead; I'll tell Ootori not to make your debt bigger if you're late," I told her. Ootori had informed me of her enormous debt to the host club.
I ran to the host club room after seeing Tamaki-senpai's figure run towards Haruhi. I laughed. I'm such a good match maker.
When I reached the doors of the music room, I found that red headed girl waiting at a table. I walked to Ootori. "Haruhi's late today; you better not raise her debt," I informed him. His glasses glinted. Before he could respond, I asked, "And who is that red headed girl?"
"'Princess' Ayanokoji; Tamaki's regular visitor. She requested Haruhi today, but, as you told me, she is late," he said. Ayanokoji. That's her name, I thought.
"I'll be sitting with her while waiting for Haruhi," I said. Ootori opened his mouth to argue, but I walked away before he could speak. "Are you Ayanokoji?" I asked the girl, with a cold expression.
"Yes," she replied with her nose up high. "Please don't refer to me in such a disrespectful manner." I refrained from snorting at her snobbish ways.
"Aha...a name's a name, miss."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm just saying, you're lucky I didn't call you trash."
"How dare you! I'm a customer here!"
"We're in a rich school, lady. You ain't the only one who can do what you want."
"Wha-"
"-ahahaha, sorry princess, I'll be taking this boy for a bit," Ootori pulled me away.
"Wait, Ootori, let me finish my trash talking-"
"-nope, sit." He pushed me onto a couch. "She's the daughter of one of the Ootori Group's business partners; I'd like for you to calm down before you ruin my connections."
"Oh, shoot, sorry." Dammit, I just wanted to diss her.
I heard the door behind me open, as a soaking wet Tamaki-senpai and Haruhi came in. Then it begins. I didn't catch Ayanokoji's conversation with Haruhi, but soon, I heard a shriek and saw a confused Haruhi supposedly pinning a distressed Ayanokoji to the ground.
"Someone help! Haruhi suddenly pinned me to the ground!" Ayanokoji cried. I walked to the scene. I stood silently, smirking at the red head, and watched as the twins poured water all over Haruhi. Long story short, Tamaki-senpai said a totally unneeded speech and ended up banning Ayanokoji from the host club. As she walked out, I excused myself to talk with Ayanokoji.
I walked out of the doors, and shouted to her figure, "You should probably pay for dry-cleaning services after soaking Tamaki-senpai and Haruhi!"
She glared at me before turning around and briskly walking away.
I returned to the club room.
The girls were heading out; it was the end of the hour, and it was getting dark. I went to join the others, who were near the changing rooms.
Tamaki-senpai was staring at Haruhi's ID; oh, he figured it out. "Haruhi... You're a girl?" he asked. As an answer, Haruhi got out of her changing room with the girls' uniform of Ouran Academy.
"Well, technically, yeah," she said innocently. I broke into a small laugh.
Tamaki-senpai turned beet red, taking it all in.
"Is this the beginnings of love?" Ootori and I said in unison, not speaking to anyone in particular. I smirked. It was like a comedy show; these people were hilarious.
"Oh yeah!" I exclaimed, remembering something. The host club looked to me. "I'm a girl too." Their eyes widened as I tied loose my hair. "I'm Kaede Shirai, the new girl of 1-A. You two-" I looked to the twins, "-hit on me on my first day." I glared at them for a second before smirking again. I put on my spectacles and Mitsukuni and Takashi-senpai gasped in realization (the twins were still frozen by my glare).
"Kae-chan was the girl who Kyo-chan was talking to?" Mitsukuni-senpai asked with those big eyes of his.
"Mhmm. Oh, and another note, Tamaki-senpai," I said, turning to my beet red senior. "I'm not gay."
