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Chapter 3

How Many Zeros is That?

Haruhi wandered around Ouran High School's campus. She was just returning to school, but the place felt so foreign. She knew her goal was to become a great lawyer like her mother, and Ouran was the place to achieve that goal, but…she felt like something else was missing. Many female students greeted her, but Haruhi did not know who they were. Somehow…she felt like they were part of what was missing.

After classes ended, Haruhi went to one of the school's libraries. They all were crowded with socializing students. Haruhi grew annoyed at how noisy it was, so she set off for another library. She went through all four libraries of the campus, and did not find the peace and quiet she sought for. Haruhi began to feel a sense of déjà vu as she wandered the top floor, south wing. She came across a music room at the end of the north hallway. She could hear that it was completely quiet and unused. Haruhi hesitantly touched the door handle and opened the door.

A slow flurry of rose petals flew out of the door. Haruhi stepped inside where the door immediately snapped shut and locked. A chorus of male voices said, "Welcome."

Haruhi quickly focused her eyes on a group of guys – gorgeous guys, nonetheless. She quickly tried to unlock the door and get out of the room as fast as possible. There was something very strange about these guys.

"Welcome to the Host Club, Haruhi Fujioka, scholarship student!" Tamaki welcomed. It kind of hurt him to act under the impression that he was meeting her for the very first time…again.

"Why do you know my name?" Haruhi asked. She turned to get a good look of the eight guys. They really were familiar to her. "Oh…some of you were the boys I met at the hospital." Her eyes landed on Tamaki, and suddenly, her chest began to tighten and hurt. Among all the guys, Tamaki seemed to be the most familiar.

"That's right! Not only that, you are the special scholarship student here!" Tamaki answered, putting his arm around Haruhi's shoulders. "You are like a hero! Not only are you the number one student in your class, you are the poorest student in the whole school!"

Haruhi quickly removed herself from Tamaki's arm.

"Please, pardon me," She said. She tried to unlock the door again when Hunny grabbed her arm, dragging her back.

"Haru-chan, Haru-chan! Are you really a hero?" Hunny asked innocently.

"I'm a scholarship student, not a hero," she answered. "Wait a second, who are you calling Haru-chan!" she screamed. Hunny ran over to Mori, crying. This scene was getting to be very, very familiar.

"I was just trying to find a quiet place to study! So please, excuse me!" Haruhi yelled. She turned sharply, in a whirl of a second, she crashed right into a nearby pedestal, knocking over the vase on it. It crashed onto the floor and into pieces. Only the Host Club knew that vase was a fake replica of the Rune vase that Haruhi originally broke. They took Satoshi's advice to use a replica.

"That vase was by Rune," Hikaru commented. "It was going to be featured in our school's next auction."

"The starting bid was going to start at 80,000 yen, but not anymore." Kaoru added.

"80,000 yen?" Haruhi screamed. She began to count her fingers. "How…how many zeros is that?"

"Tamaki, how shall we handle this?" Kyoya asked with a devious smile. This smile…sent chills down Haruhi's spine.

"Haruhi, are you familiar with the saying, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do?' What about, 'If you don't have the cash, pay with your carcass?'" Tamaki asked. He pretended to look over Haruhi before declaring, "Yes! If you can gather 1000 customer requests, your debt shall be overruled!"

Haruhi stood on the spot, stunned. And suddenly, she remembered. She was a first year and it was her first day at Ouran when she first encountered the Host Club. There were six gorgeous guys in the Host Club, not eight. (Who are the other two? They look familiar, Haruhi thought.) There was that cute boy who was a third year, his cousin who was tall and taciturn, the incestuous twins who were in her class, the boy who was the Club's "Shadow King" and vice president, and the tall blond who she wanted to call an idiot. Her hair was messily cut back then and they all mistook her as a boy at first. Of course, no one was fooled for long, and this one, Tamaki didn't find out until he saw her middle school ID.

Her chest ached again. This wasn't part of her original memory. Why was she hurting every time she thought of this overly familiar boy?

In remembrance to her memory, Haruhi began to laugh. The Host Club watched her and asked themselves why this girl was laughing.

"1000 customer requests, was it?" Haruhi asked. "I wonder how many more requests I have yet to fulfill." She looked around the music room and said, "I was part of the Host Club before, right?"

"So you do remember!" Tamaki exclaimed.

"Only part of when we first met…"

"Haru-chan! Haru-chan!" Hunny cried out. "Do you remember who I am?"

"Hm…Hunny-sempai, 3rd Year, Class A, right?" Haruhi asked.

"Yes, but Haru-chan, I'm no longer a student at Ouran anymore!"

"Huh?"

"Takashi and I graduated last year! We're in college now!"

"I see."

"Ha-ru-hi!" The twins called. "Do you remember us, too?"

"The incestuous twins from my class," She said bluntly.

The boys sweat-dropped.

Haruhi turned around and pointed at Mori and said, "Stoic." She then pointed at Kyoya and said, "Shadow King." Finally, she pointed at Tamaki and said, "Idiot?"

Tamaki immediately went into a funk, and into his corner of woe.

Haruhi suddenly looked thoughtful as she wondered out loud, "Oh, just doing that reminds me of that one little girl. What was her name again? 'Kill Me?' No, 'Sashimi?' 'Creamy?' Oh, Kirimi! That's it!"

"This girl is…unbelievable." Yasuchika replied.

"Yes, but we all have to have patience," Kyoya answered. "She has to recover a year's worth of memories and a little more."

So the task of regaining Haruhi's memories truly began with an odd start. The only thing she ever got to remember from this encounter was the Host Club, their types, and Nekozawa's little sister, Kirimi. This was going to be a bigger challenge for the Host Club than they ever imagined. (Insert sinister music here.)

An interesting start, indeed. I did not intend for Kirimi's name to come up, but when I was writing the chapter, it just popped into my head. xD That is rather funny. I'll try to get as much done as possible before I get that new video game of mine. I have a good week and five days to get far, just as long as I don't slack off. xP Thank you for reading!