"Right Here Waiting" Revised Edition 2013 © natsu_no_sora
Ouran High School Host Club 2002 © Hatori Bisco
I do not own anything. Support the mangaka by buying her works.
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Chapter 05: Vanished
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The raging first demon slammed the door shut with such force the hinges groaned. Ootori Yoshio looked up with mild surprise to see his youngest son turning red in anger. Behind him was Suzuki Mayu, looking furious but much more composed.
"This isn't part of the deal," Kyouya seethed through his gritted teeth as soon as he met his father's eyes. He didn't care anymore if he was being rude. All he just wanted was to be with Haruhi and not with someone he barely knew, was it too much to ask?
The man sitting behind the large dark mahogany table regarded him calmly. "I don't remember signing a deal with you, son."
Damn it! Kyouya was ready to give his old man the punch of a lifetime but Mayu restrained him by his arm.
"Ootori-sama," she spoke up. "With all due respect, sir, but my father didn't inform me any of this arrangement. I don't think it is right for you to decide-"
"Don't worry, dear." Yoshio smiled and stood. "Your father is very well-informed of the engagement. It's good timing that both of you are here because he'll be joining in a few minutes."
"But he haven't ask me if I want to marry your son," she insisted. Her patience was thinning out as heard in her sharpening voice.
"No one's asking for your consent," Yoshio countered coolly.
Mayu gasped. Her dark eyes narrowed and her nails dug into Kyouya's arm. She was about to say something really impolite but a loud knock on the door stopped her.
"Ah, he's here." Yoshio smirked. The door opened and a middle-aged man entered the study. One look at him and Kyouya knew he was Mayu's father. He was the exact male version of his daughter.
"Father," Mayu breathed even before he could speak.
"Mayu? What are you..." the man frowned confusedly at her.
"Kyouya," Yoshio cut in. "This is Suzuki Hiro, president and CEO of Suzuki Medical Enterprises. Mayu's father. After the engagement became official, our corporation will merge with them and the marriage will finalize-"
"Father," Kyouya said firmly. "I already did what you want me to do but we didn't agree to this." He eyed his father piercingly.
"Dad, please, tell me this is all just a sick joke," Mayu pleaded her father.
Hiro looked at her with pity. "No, Mayu. Ootori-sama and I already talked about this. You and Kyouya-kun are going to be married-"
"NO!" She exploded. Everyone in the room stared at her in surprise. "You can't do this to us. You can't just go around throwing your children in a marriage of convenience!"
Kyouya watched her with admiration as she strongly defies her father head on. How he wished he could do that without earning a slap and getting kicked out of the family.
"Listen here, my dear," Yoshio spoke instead of her father. His patience was going down fast; he got a lot of more important things to do than to deal with stubborn children so he resolve to second option: "If you don't marry my son, you better say goodbye to Suzuki Enterprises."
He was expecting her to be horrified. Succumbed miserably and agree to the marriage. But he was taken aback when Mayu glared ice daggers at him. No politeness or sense of inferiority considered, she spat through her teeth: "Excuse me, Ootori-sama, but I don't fucking care about that goddamn enterprise. You can have it all you want!"
Kyouya held his breath as his eyes widened. He looked at his astounded father. Surely, no one had ever spoken to him that way. The young Ootori was shocked; it didn't occur to him that this timid, sweet-looking girl could say something so lethal.
"Mayu!" Hiro snapped horrifiedly. "How dare you-"
"I'm sorry, dad," she looked at her father. Tears formed in her eyes but she held her gaze. "I can't marry Kyouya-kun."
Hiro's frown deepened; his face was asking, why?
Mayu answered his unspoken thought. "I have a boyfriend, dad. And I love him. I'm sorry but I can't give up on him just for the company."
"What?" her father whispered. He looked like he was having a coronary attack on the spot.
"He is just an average guy. He's neither from a wealthy nor a well-known family. He's supporting himself to study in Tokyo University. He's hardworking and very kind. Despite his difficult schedule between school and work, he always finds a way to make me smile. He sees me for what I am and not for my money. I love him, dad. I love him very much." Mayu continued wiping her falling tears but kept her steady gaze deep into her father's eyes.
"Oh, Mayu..." Hiro said exasperatedly.
"No matter what you say, it will never change my mind. I'm so sorry, dad. I know the company means so much to you but I just can't. I'm sorry." Mayu bowed to him and ran out of the room, leaving all three men flabbergasted.
Silence fell around them for a long time until Hiro chuckled.
"I am sorry, Ootori-sama. I'd never seen Mayu like that before. She's usually calm and shy. She really is in love with this guy," he sighed. "I apologize for her rudeness." The man bowed lowly before them and straightened up with new perspective in his eyes. "Even though this meant I lose my company, I am glad. I'm glad that she's all grown up now. She knows when to fight for her own happiness. I guess... this call off the engagement, Ootori-sama. I am very sorry for the trouble." He bowed again and left the room with a smile on his face.
Kyouya envied Mayu. She had the strength to fight for her boyfriend. She faced a challenge without fear and stood her ground. Compared to her, he was a big ass coward. But he was about to change that.
He turned to his still-speechless father and said before leaving, "I hope you learned something from them."
It was early in the afternoon and Haruhi was all set: her baggage, her documents, some dollars and a never-before feat in her pocket: a cellphone. Ranka insisted it and for the sake of his sanity, she reluctantly agreed. Her plan was to call him via pay phone every day when she's in America because she was worried the host club might track down her cell once they learned she left the country. They're rich bastards, after all. They can get what they want through whatever ways they have; whether it's legal or illegal.
The university sponsoring her studies pulled her out of Ouran. It meant that Haruhi will be finishing her last year of high school in America. That was to ensure her slot and it'll make her admission flow smoothly to college.
"Have you called your friends, Haruhi?" Ranka appeared by the door of her room.
"Yes, dad. They already know." She didn't turn to look at him. She was a horrible liar and her father will know better than Sherlock that she was lying.
"Oh, honey!" Ranka bounded to her and gave her a choking hug. "Daddy will miss you so much!"
Haruhi patted his back. "Yeah, I know. I'll miss you, too. I'll call once the plane touched the solid ground, I promise."
"You better," he warned as he brushed her bangs. He caressed her face lovingly. "You're really not planning to tell me where exactly in America you'll be studying, are you?"
Haruhi made sure her dad knew the general info but not the specifics. She didn't tell him where exactly in the American continent or even the name of the school. It was an extremely difficult mission to execute but she managed. She said it was a farewell game: The "Guess Where Haruhi Is Going" game. Her father seemed excited.
"No, dad. That's cheating!" she nervously laughed. "But you can ask the host club. They know," she lied. Her friends know absolutely nothing.
"Okay," he pouted childishly. "I'm sorry I can't send you off to the airport," he looked at her apologetically.
"It's alright, dad. I understand," Haruhi thanked her lucky stars her father's shift started early that day.
"Is Kyouya coming to send you off?"
"I... don't know," she shrugged. Haruhi told him the host club would be there in the airport. If they knew for real that she was going away, would Kyouya be there, too? She didn't really know.
Her face must've been so miserable her father didn't push it. He sympathetically patted her head.
"I hope you'll find a better guy in America and when you do, I want you to slap it to that four-eyed guy!" he joked.
"Dad!" Haruhi giggled and shook her head. "I'm going there to study, not to man-hunt. Besides, I don't think I'm ready to... you know," she grimaced.
Ranka smiled at her. "If Kyouya isn't really the one for you, then in the right time, you will."
Haruhi smiled back uncertainly. Maybe.
There was a car honk outside and Ranka sighed. "That should be my ride. I'm sorry, honey but I gotta go first. Take care, okay? Call me once you get there and every day, that's an order! I love you." He kissed her forehead, cheeks and nose then he was gone.
Haruhi was suddenly filled with sadness. She'll miss her dad and her friends. She'll miss the host club and Ouran. And as much as it hurts to think, she'll definitely miss a certain shadow king. The guilt about lying to her dad was almost as much guilt as killing someone. And the thought of her friends going completely ballistic if they found out...
Think about what will happen in America, not of what will happen here after you left, idiot! She mentally reprimanded herself.
Haruhi took a deep breath. I can do this. Of course, I can. This is my only option now.
She said her goodbyes to her mother's memorial and gathered out her things. The airport taxi will be there to pick her up in a few minutes.
An hour after the cab took Haruhi to the airport; someone's being phone-harassed by a blonde dude somewhere.
KYOUYA!
Tamaki's voice boomed out of Kyouya's BlackBerry as he answered the insistent call of his best friend.
"What do you want, Tamaki?" He sighed exasperatedly.
Kyouya, our daughter was not feeling well last night. We're going to visit her, he said.
It wasn't a question. It was a demand. In normal circumstances, he would probably get pissed off but right now, Kyouya didn't mind as he was already in his car, on the way to her apartment. But it wasn't the part that caught him; not feeling well?
"How'd you know she wasn't feeling well?" he asked coolly.
My dad told me he found her on a bench somewhere in your house and he sent her home because she had a fever. We're on our way now. Where are you?
"I'm coming over," he simply said and snapped off his phone.
After Kyouya left his father, he immediately jumped in his car and ordered Tachibana to drive him off to Haruhi's apartment.
Kyouya wanted to apologize to her. For all the pain he had caused her, for breaking up with her and for being a coward. He wanted to say sorry for all that. He wanted to explain to her the real reason. And tell her how much he loved her and that he wasn't about to let her go again. He was determined to win her back. If he had to get down on his knees and beg. If he had to do it in front of their friends, then so be it.
Tachibana parked the limo in the familiar streets of Haruhi's neighborhood. Kyouya spotted Tamaki's car. The gang was standing there. He got out and approached his friends.
"Kyouya," Tamaki greeted. Everyone else waved at him. He noticed that the host club was once again complete in attendance. Well, subtract Haruhi.
"What are you all doing down here?" Kyouya asked, wondering why they haven't knocked the door.
"No one's home," one of the twins said.
"Maybe Haru-chan's in the supermarket?" Hunny-senpai suggested.
"But she's sick," Kaoru (or maybe Hikaru) said.
Everyone started muttering all at once, with Tamaki's voice being the loudest. Kyouya ignored them as he looked at the closed door of her apartment. The spare key went heavy in his pocket and he was tempted to use it. But he decided against it.
They waited there for a few hours, thinking that she probably went out. The King became agitated like a kid with ADHD as the minutes passed while the twins played their usual game on the blonde dumb. Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai were inside the car, eating cakes. Kyouya just leaned there on the car, waiting patiently. But his insides were burning as the thoughts of her invaded his mind.
Darkness veiled the neighborhood, still no Haruhi appeared. Kyouya suppressed a sigh as he watched his best friend went into hysterics. In the end, the host club decided to come back the next morning. They bid their farewells to each other and got into their respective cars.
Unbeknownst to them, Haruhi was already cruising through the clouds in JAL's Boeing 747-400 at a speed of 500 mph, 35, 000 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
There was a very grumpy transversal the next day in Fujioka residence. It was still early in the morning when someone mercilessly banged on his front door. Ranka, being a low-blood pressure demon himself, glared at his unwanted visitors with disheveled hair.
"What the hell do you want?" he growled.
"G-good m-morning, Ranka-san!" Tamaki trembled before the murderous aura of Haruhi's father. He cautiously cringed away from him and hid behind Kyouya.
Ranka stopped short. He opened his half-lidded eyes and once his brain registered their faces, he blinked confusedly at the host club. He frowned; what are they doing here? They shouldn't be here...
"Ah, Ranka-papa-san! Good morning, we're here to visit Haruhi," the twins said simultaneously.
"What do you mean visit Haruhi? Are you kidding me? You were just with her yesterday!" he said incredulously.
"No, we haven't seen her all day yesterday, Ranka-san," Kyouya spoke calmly, though he wasn't feeling anywhere near calm.
Ranka looked at him, his expression hard. He didn't know what to feel towards the bespectacled guy who had broken his daughter's heart. But he didn't know the whole story so he didn't have any rights to judge him.
But that didn't matter right now. The fact that the host club was here, looking for his long-gone daughter, only meant one thing. Ranka was wide awake now, confused and with surging anger.
"That girl..." he muttered as he realized what Haruhi did.
"What? What is it? Where is she?" asked Tamaki.
Just by looking at Ranka's tight face, Kyouya knew something's terribly wrong.
"Are you sure you weren't with her yesterday?"
"No, sir. We went here late in the afternoon but no one's home," Kyouya answered.
Ranka massaged his temple and exhaled. He looked at them seriously and said, "Haruhi's gone."
There a beat of total silence. Then-
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GONE?! IS SHE DEAD?!" Tamaki exploded.
"NO, YOU IDIOT!" Ranka smacked him upside the head. He huffed indignantly and he turned seriously to Kyouya. "She left yesterday."
Kyouya frowned. "Left? To where?"
"When is she coming back, papa-san?" the twins asked.
"That... I don't know!" He groaned in frustration. How could he let this happen? How could he be so foolish? Letting Haruhi flew off without knowing exactly where, total idiot.
"Ranka-san, what do you mean you don't know?" Kyouya asked slowly. He was desperately holding his emotions at bay.
"I don't know means I don't know! Haruhi said you know! She said it's a game, the 'Guess Where Haruhi is Going' game. Shit, who taught her that silly game, anyway?!"
Tamaki whipped his head towards the twins with you-are-so-dead expression. But Ranka didn't notice.
"If I can't guess it right, she said I should just ask you. And here I thought you knew! She even said that you'll send her off to the airport! Oh, that girl, really..." he shook his head weakly.
"Airport?!" they chorused horrified, except for Kyouya. He was too stunned to even breathe.
"Yes. She's probably standing on US territory right now!"
"US?!"
"Stop shouting to my face!" Ranka swatted their faces away as they inched closer to him with every word he said. "Haruhi got a full scholarship package from a university somewhere in America."
"What? But she didn't say anything about that," Tamaki said indignantly.
"Yeah, I can see that," Ranka said sarcastically.
"How did she manage to get a scholarship from America?" Kyouya said inquisitively, his Shadow King instincts kicking in.
"She said Ouran offered it to her." Ranka stopped short. Then all eyes turned to Tamaki.
"What?" he blinked and held up his palm like they had accused him of murder.
"Tamaki, your father must know something about this," Kyouya said.
The blonde in question frowned then smacked his forehead. "That old man flew off last night. He went to Europe for a series of business conferences!"
"When will he return?" The twins asked.
Their King grimaced, "Not for another two months."
"That's long!"
"Yeah, well, you can't visit all the countries in Europe in just one day, can you?"
Kyouya closed his eyes briefly. Just as he was about to confess to her, she vanished. Some devil must've hated him. When he snapped his aching eyes open, Ranka was staring intently at him. He stared back with strong resolve. They sort of had a mental conversation that probably said: We're going to find Haruhi, no matter what.
"So, what now? We don't have any clues to where she is, except America," Hikaru said.
"But America is so large. How do we find her?" Kaoru added.
"Maybe we can get some information in the airport?" Tamaki suggested.
Kyouya spoke, "Airports and airlines don't easily give out their passengers' information. Even if you're the prime minister, you got to have an order from the court."
The rest of the host club winced.
"The thing I couldn't understand is why did Haruhi hide this from us? It's not like we're going to sabotage her scholarship or anything," Hikaru voiced out, almost pouting. The others muttered in agreement.
Kyouya felt an imaginary punch landed in his gut while at the same time, he wanted to laugh. His friends, they'll never know the reason why Haruhi gave them a slip was because of him. They'll never know he broke her heart. At least, not yet.
Ranka glared at them. He was beginning to feel sorry for Kyouya. He could see how much pain and hurt the young man was shouldering. He also felt the strong emotions coming from him and the overflowing affection this raven-haired guy had for his daughter.
Everyone was in their own deep thoughts.
"Haruhi promised me she will call," Ranka broke the heavy silence. He might as well talking to Kyouya alone as he looked at him with meaningful expression. "I'll give you whatever information I could extract from her."
"Oh! Thank you! Thank you!" Tamaki bounded to Ranka to give him a hug but the transversal swiftly maneuvered out of his open arms and the dumb blonde slammed on the solid wall.
"Thank you, papa-san!" The twins snickered at their severed King.
"Just to be clear, I don't want you harassing my daughter once we located her. Haruhi must've foresee that you'll annoy the life out of her if she told you where she would be studying, that's why she hid it from you. We just want to know where exactly she is, and we'll leave it at that. Understand?" Ranka said sternly.
"Yes, sir!"
"Well then, get out of my house and let me sleep!"
The host club scampered out of the apartment. Except for Kyouya. Ranka had anticipated this and he looked at him expectantly.
"I'm sorry," the Shadow King bowed.
"What are you apologizing for?"
Kyouya straightened up with slight confusion. "For hurting Haruhi."
Ranka snorted. "I'm not her, so don't apologize to me." After a beat of silence, he sighed. "I don't know what happened between the two of you. But I know you love Haruhi-"
"Very much."
"Yes, I know. That's why I'm giving you the second chance to prove it to her," he paused for a moment as if he was thinking of something more to say. He took a deep breath and said gently, "Kyouya-kun, I want you to know that... you're the only one who brought back emotions in her eyes since her mother passed away. All she did was to study and study and study. She was like a robot; always aiming for perfection; always the good girl; always missing out the fun in her life. Until she met the host club. Until she met you. My naive little girl is in love with you so much. I see sparks in her eyes. She blushes whenever I ask her about you. She smiles unconsciously when I say your name. Please don't take that away from her. I'm counting on you, Kyouya."
Kyouya was surprised. Hearing that from a father... it surely was something. "I love her more than anything. I will find her and I'll make it up to her, Ranka-san. I promise. Thank you so much." He bowed again.
"Use your second chance wisely or I'll shred you to bits," Ranka threatened. "Now, go. You still have a stubborn girlfriend to find. Oh, and I want a lot of pretty grandbabies in the future. Just so you know." He gave a playful giggle before closing the door.
Ootori Kyouya was elated, and it wasn't for the fact that Ranka wanted grandbabies; he had granted him a second chance. And he was about to go all out. No corner of America will be left unturned.
The Shadow King allowed a smirk, Operation: Girlfriend-Hunt, now commencing.
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01/30/13 OWARI
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SORA'S RAMBLING CORNER:
Whoa. I can't believe I've finished writing this. Is the story too fast-paced? I hope it's just right. And I did another long chapter again! :)
Well, uh... I'm not really good at interacting a lot of characters all in one situation. But this one, I wanted to focus on Ranka and Kyouya. I purposely laid low the other characters so it won't take longer than this.
I'm sorry for the mistakes and grammatical errors I didn't notice. The massive OOCness, that's given.
And I love you for all the views, reads, reviews, follows and favorites you've put in my email. Thank you! I really appreciate it :D
Please keep on supporting my KyoHaru fic. Ja~!