Part 4

"Can you please explain the sudden surprising development in our auditions?" Haruhi stared at Sato Uehara.

Kyoya's eyes narrowed in irritation. How would he explain to his rigid father about this? He thought it was a closed audition. "What's this one-day nationwide search?"

"We're on TV!" Hikaru held a V-sign totally ignoring the weird situation they were in.

"Live!" Kaoru joined his brother's lead.

Hani tapped Sato's lap, "This is great. But we thought it was a closed audition since we got a gold invitation card from President Goro." He looked at Sato than at his friends to the audience and panelists for confirmation.

"One day?" Mori asked suddenly out of the blue, "Marathon?"

Sato Uehara, the TV entertainment announcer was ecstatic as he caught their bemusement. "Just look at their faces. Aren't they bishounens? Even in their stunned state, they're good looking boys."

"Uehara-san," Tamaki stood in front of him, with obvious anxiety in his eyes, "You've still to answer our earlier questions?"

Sato nodded, "Your worries will be answered after the deciding evaluation by the top management based on their assessment of your performance of course. So, be patient, boys."

They were crestfallen. Kyoya rubbed his forehead in frustration. Hani looked at Mori with glassy eyes and hugged Mori for comfort. Haruhi looked bewildered. Tamaki was flabbergasted. The twin frowned in dissatisfaction at Sato's answer. The reactions were all in their minds. Here, on stage they couldn't show such bleakness in their situation. But, for the fangirls back at Ouran who might be watching, they flashed a smile. Even if they were feeling down, as entertaining hosts they'd to put aside glum thoughts. They didn't want to disappoint the audience.

The audience upon witnessing this, made some noise, cheering in delight and some squealed in glee. It was something the host club members were already accustomed to. Though, they were still trying to get the answer from a person of authority, regarding the sudden development, they felt obliged to comply and they bowed again to them. The twins blew kisses to the audience. Hani waved with two hands, Kyoya gave his half smile, and Mori managed a small smile. Tamaki winked and Haruhi held a 'Fight-O' fist indicating that they were boys. That gained more screams.

Sato stared at them in amazement, "Wow," he exclaimed, "This is a first in entertainment history that a new boy band gained instant recognition from the audience in and out of the auditorium." He looked at the panelists, "What say you we start with the judging?"

The judges nodded. Sato introduced the judges to them and the audience, "The first judge is Nagase Nagano, an acclaimed music director/composer." The first judge was a man in a black suit held his hand up to the audience. Sato continued, "The second is the beautiful Mika Hasegawa, a J-pop artiste." The lady stood and smiled at the audience, and camera. Then, Sato announced the last judge, "Hiroshi Yamashita, the famous Rising Sun theatre critic." The man in traditional costume bowed his head rigidly.

The first judge looked at the boys, "A medley of five songs isn't easy to sing without practice. But you've done it in a short duration and with the ease equaled to pros. Good timing and the swift transition from music to music as a few of you introduced the songs and singers were excellent. There weren't any flaws in your musical synchronization. You did well. I haven't a doubt we'll work well together." He gave two thumbs up.

"That's the first verdict," Sato announced to the audience excitedly, "Two thumbs up from Nagano-san."

The club members bowed in appreciation, "Thank you, Nagano-san." Tamaki added mischievously, "We'll do our best to make it interesting for the both of us."

"Now, let us hear Hasegawa-san's evaluation of this boy band." Sato smiled at the beautiful lady and then to the camera.

The second judge smiled sweetly at the boys and their response was a charming smile of their own. Her eyes gleamed in pleasure, "I can see why you were popular in school. I love your camaraderie with your comrades. You look out for each other, which is an important element in singing groups. Without that you can't perform harmoniously. The medley had all the drama with the five singers keeping eye contact with the audience."

She continued cheerfully, "I liked Haru-chan's segment where he went nearer to the audience and winked at them. That actually perked people's attention to stay glued to the next performance. It was cute that each singer would wave to the audience to indicate it's the end of his session and the next singer would introduce the previous singer and the song sung. Everyone was in tune, and in rhythm. It was entertaining." She gave two thumbs up.

The club members bowed in appreciation, "Thank you, Hasegawa-san."

The audience cheered, "Haru-kun's cute!" A chorus from a group at the left section, "Hani-kun's so cute!" And they clapped loudly. Somewhere in the middle of the audience section another group cried, "The twins were better!" There were loud cheers to that. Then someone in the upper seats screamed, "Mori's so dreamy!" Then another wolf-whistled and a group screamed, "Tamaki and Kyoya are hot!" More screams from the audience.

"Oh, they've got instant fans!" Sato clapped in exhilaration, looking back at Mika, "Hasegawa-san has also given two thumbs up." He announced, rather grimly, "The last deciding judge is Yamashita-sensei."

The firm looking middle-aged man stared at the group with hard, unwavering eyes. His eyes were piercing to the very core of their being. It was as if he was 'peeling' their resolve and talents layer by layer. His penetrating stare made them uncomfortable and gave them the creeps. His voice made them jump, as well as Sato. The audience hushed as he spoke.

"It may be well and good that you've managed to rouse the audience with your medley. But," He shook his head, "So could monkeys."

The group went pale. Haruhi's jaw dropped in shock. Mori's eyes flashed. Kyoya clenched his teeth. Hani's mouth formed a horrified 'O'. The twins looked like they were about to put a stake through his heart. But, looking at Tamaki's reaction, they quickly made a grab for his shoulders and arms before he could zoom towards the third judge protesting, "Not true!" into the old goat's face. Tamaki closed his eyes to calm himself. He wasn't the only one. They all checked themselves. This wasn't the time for them to lose control over a scarring remark. The audience jeered at the shocking evaluation the third judge.

The judge held a hand up, "I've not finished. When I said monkeys, I didn't mean that you've made a spectacle of yourselves. No. I meant that you were good communicators. You made full use of your talents and you were very accommodating even though I could sense that you would like nothing more than squeeze the life out of me. You've adapted well in any given environment or situation. It was nice to note that your actions weren't superficial and you were quick to recover."

He looked at the group. "You did well alone but you function best together. As a trained dramatist, I saw that you'd cover the other so that there were no flaws in your presentation. No one was outdoing the other. You were having fun entertaining the audience. Even when I said you were monkeys your reactions were interesting to watch. I was offered with a variety of facial expressions and body gestures which was fun to watch."

He continued his assessment, "You were quick in your decisive actions, gave your utmost best in your performances and were determined to succeed not only for the sake of your fans but for yourselves too. I'm also a humanist. I look for these traits in all the new artists. But I know that you were not after fame but more for entertaining people. You were all born entertainers. The boy with glasses seemed to disagree with me. Why?" He looked curiously at Kyoya.

The group looked at Kyoya, each was hoping he wouldn't turn into DoS (a person with an extremely sharp tongue). In the past, his tongue could save them from certain loss. But, here with Yamashita-sensei it might prove disastrous.

"Life isn't all about entertainment or entertaining people." Kyoya shrugged as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "It was hard work and for us to be hassled and haggled into doing something out of the whims of some people," he looked at Tamaki who quietly shifted his eyes towards the ceiling as if it was not his doing that they were all here. His eyes drifted back to the third judge, "It could take a toll on us."

Then, Haruhi stepped forward looking at the judge. "Forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn. I don't think it turned out that bad," She glanced at Kyoya, tilting her head slightly, "I saw you enjoyed yourself thoroughly in your 'butai' presentation. But, you gave your all when you were with us. It wasn't a hassle or haggle on your part. You felt you needed to challenge yourself and proved that you were more than Kyoya, 'the calculator.'

Yamashita-sensei's eyes glittered in understanding as he looked at Kyoya. Kyoya glared at Haruhi. She was too damned perceptive at times. It irked him that she had hit the bull's eye.

Sato, the TV presenter looked from Haruhi to Kyoya. "What's this I hear about Kyoya-kun being a calculator?"

"Nothing," Tamaki intervened, trying to evade the inquisitive TV presenter from asking too much. "It's just something he's famous for back at school."

"Interesting," Sato seemed to perk up.

"He's the treasurer for our club." Hani supplied with the desired answer.

The audience uttered, "Waaahh!" They were excited to get that bit of info on Kyoya.

The twins slapped a hand on their foreheads. Tamaki blanched and looked at Kyoya. His expression was bland. His eyes shifted from Haruhi to Hani then to Tamaki. He closed his eyes in an attempt to clear evil thoughts from his mind.

"I'm convinced that you're such a person." Yamashita-sensei nodded his head. "Just as Haru-kun said, you're a logical person thrown into chaos by a group of equally unique set of friends and I've a feeling that you've somewhat accepted your fate with them because you've realised that you have something worth holding on to and didn't want that feeling to fade away. Am I right, Kyoya-kun?" He smiled knowingly at Kyoya.

The audience preened their necks to hear Kyoya's answer. He just stared at the judge. He was assessing his own feelings about what Yamashita-sensei said. He was right. He did want to hold these precious moments spent with his friends. They were special to him as were his friends. "Yes." That was all he said and that was quite enough to confirm his acceptance of his fate. "It wasn't all that bad."

The audience cheered. Tamaki couldn't stop himself from hugging his best friend and rubbing his cheek with Kyoya's. That earned more cheers.

Kyoya managed to fend him off, "It's enough with the twins."

"Can't father show his love towards mother?" Tamaki blinked and looked at him with happy puppy's eyes.

"Like I said," Kyoya sighed, "The twins are enough."

Sato perked up again, "What's this I hear about Tamaki-kun being a father and Kyoya-kun as mother?" His eyes were shining, "I smell scandal."

"Weeeee…" The audience screamed, "Kyoya!" Then, they shouted, "Tamaki!" Suddenly, "We want you!"

"Chotto matte," The twins chorused, "We need to hear Yamashita-sensei's conclusive review."

The audience cheered in agreement with the twins.

"Ah," Sato looked a little disappointed, but he suddenly brightened up. "Yes, the twins are right. Yamashita-sensei, my apologies for distracting you," Sato looked apologetically at Yamashita.

Yamashita held a hand up indicating it wasn't a big deal. "Obviously, you deserve to be informed that you're all qualified as JR's new boy band. Why? Simple, you love entertaining the crowd and the crowd loves you for it because you deliver. Also, another winning point was that you went with the flow and weren't swept away. You stood out without ever needing to show off. That was the very essence we were searching for in our new boy band. On top of that, you're talented, so that's a plus."

"Congratulations!" A resounding clapping from the JR's president, Moriko Goro appeared and was standing by the group's side. He addressed to all, "After months of searching and found the falsity of many groups, JR's top management came up with a solution." He faced the seven individuals with a wide smile. "I know it seemed a mad idea but we thought the old format of choosing a group was tedious, time-consuming and cumbersome. It was a total failure because we could not propel any unique group that could beat the storm. Now, that we've found you, we needn't beat the storm because without storm there wouldn't be lightning and that's what you guys are."

He continued, "The top management had decided to do a sudden live, one day nationwide search while throwing in little skits about the members on-air and online through the videos sent by their agents or themselves. So, the audience could choose which group they thought had the potential to be the new boy band through calls, sms, mms, emails, IMs. Your ratings sky-rocketed the moment your one and only unfinished video was displayed. It was overwhelming. From the ratings we had to quickly reassemble the groups chosen by the mass audience to be judged like how you guys were judged earlier.

"So," Sato finished for Goro-san, "this is how we'll be conducting the search for the best group to be signed as JR artistes from now onwards."

Mika Hasegawa cleared her throat, "Excuse me," The camera zoomed at her, "Have you a name for you band?" She looked at the group.

Everyone else did the same.

"Mika-san's right. The other groups had names. But when I introduced this group it slipped my mind to ask them that important bit. That goes to show how entertaining these fellows were until a professional such as I could forget an important thing like this." Sato looked intently at the seven perplexed individuals. "What's the name of your group?"

They looked at each other in realization that they haven't gotten a name for their band. They couldn't possibly go by with 'Ouran Host Club.' It would be ridiculous. Hikaru and Kaoru clapped their hands and announced together, "Lucky," They looked at the twins like they'd lost their marbles.

"Cute," Hani smiled approvingly.

"Ah," Mori said only that.

"That's a dog's name," Kyoya muttered dissatisfied at the plain name.

Tamaki held his hands in slight protest to Kyoya's retort, "No, it isn't. It's like a cereal brand name."

"I like it," Haruhi pursed her lips in thought, "It's simple and nice."

The audience laughed and they even managed to say, "awww…"

The twins clapped again, this time with forming the L signs with their thumbs and forefingers.

Kyoya scoffed, "We aren't taking pictures."

"Are we playing charades?" Hani queried happily, "Hey, that right hand looks like L," then he tilted his head to the left. It made the audience go, "sooo cute…" Hani pointed at the twins' left hand, "and that looks exactly like a 7."

Mori nodded and spoke briefly because it was easy for him, "L7."

"L7?" Sato asked, "What is it then?" He couldn't contain his excitement, "This is also a first that a band came up with a band name on air. These guys are truly amazing!"

Tamaki spun as he caught on the twins' wave-length. "It's brilliant!"

The other members caught on too. Haruhi concluded for them all, "Lucky Seven. That's who we are."

That was how Lucky Seven was born.

THE END