Eponine walked into Music Room #3 the next afternoon to see that the entire room was redecorated to resemble nineteenth century France.
There were antiquated-looking buildings and shops on every wall, the marble floor had become stone pavement, the ceiling was painted like it were the sky, and in the center of the room was a mountainous barricade of wooden chairs, shelves, desks, cabinets, and doors. Tables were set around the room and female guests sat, being entertained by the hosts. The room looked as if it were three times larger than it was the first time Eponine entered, and she was stricken with a wave of surprise once she saw everything.
"Eponine, there you are."
Eponine turned around and saw Combeferre, dressed in a strange-looking outfit. "Oh, hey Combeferre," She said, looking around the room once again. "What's with the extravagant setup?"
"Oh, these decorations are based off of nineteenth century France. Enjolras selected this theme for today." He replied, emphasizing Enjolras's name. "Our costumes were also selected by Enjolras, which were supposedly based on the fashion of French citizens one-hundred eighty years ago."
"You don't appear to be very comfortable." said Eponine.
"None of us are." said Combeferre. "Would you like to join in on our cosplay?"
"No, I'm fine with my uniform and my hat." She replied.
"I should remind you," Combeferre added, "that you will need to involve yourself in our cosplay in the future. I'll let you off the hook, since it's your first day."
After a short moment of silence, Eponine asked a question.
"Combeferre, how does this 'hosting' thing work anyway? I honestly don't get it; do you just sit there and compliment your customer on how pretty they are?"
Combeferre pushed his glasses higher up his nose bridge. "Well, in the ABC Host Club, each host has an exclusively unique personality." He said, and pointed toward Enjolras. "Enjolras over there is the princely type."
Eponine couldn't help but laugh.
"Courfeyrac is the naughty, flirty type. Jehan is the romantic, poetic type. Joly and Bossuet are the mischievous type, and Bahorel is the strong, tough type." Combeferre continued. "The host types are made to fit the needs of our guests."
"What about you, Combeferre? What is your host type?" Eponine asked.
"I'm the calm, intelligent type." He said. "I am rarely with guests, because I devote most of my time here to keep the boys organized, and make sure events go as planned."
"Okay," Eponine said. "But, what do hosts do?"
"You can observe for yourself." And with that, Combeferre walked back over to his desk where he continued to manage the club's funds and finances on the computer and did paperwork and other official procedures.
"Okay then," Eponine said to herself, and began to observe her fellow hosts at work.
She first examined Enjolras. She spied him at the top of the wooden barricade, with his fists raised in the air, giving a lecture of some sort, as girls surrounded him and swooned. Every so often he would take one of their hands and kiss it, and whilst the girls giggled and blushed he would turn around momentarily and wipe his mouth on his red jacket. This made Eponine laugh. He also would say stupid things such as "you fill my heart with desire almost as much as France does" or "your shimmering eyes are as beautiful as the bravery of the martyrs who battled in the June Rebellion of 1832 in their valiant efforts to overthrow the monarchy" and whatnot.
Then, Eponine studied Courfeyrac. He seemed to be very expressive and sentimental with the ladies, and would often invade their personal space (which apparently made the girls wild over him). She heard him tell several dirty jokes, some of which were terribly clichéd. He would seductively whisper in their ears, and pin them down against the couch and smirk as the girls squealed "Me next!" while hopping up and down excitedly.
As Eponine perceived, Jehan seemingly charmed the ladies with sweet gestures. He would endearingly give his guests roses, gently play with their hair, recite lovely poems, and give them soothing flute performances. The ladies would be smitten by Jehan's charm and grace.
Bahorel would charm his guests with his brute force. He'd tell intense stories about encounters with gangs, boxing tournaments, etc. etc. He appeared to be outright talkative. But the girls would swoon over him, and feel his muscles, and giggle and blush. Every now and then he'd say something sappy like "I will always protect you, my beautiful damsel in distress" causing the women to feel giddy with delight.
Joly and Bossuet had quite an odd, yet interesting act. Eponine watched with curiosity as Bossuet and Joly would demonstrate excessive brotherly love towards each other, holding each other tightly as tears bubbled in their eyes, creating a sparkly homoerotic aura which made the girls go hysterical as they squealed "What a tender embrace!"
Her thoughts were disrupted when an inebriated Grantaire tapped her on the shoulder.
"Young girl," he said groggily. "If I were you, I would escape before it's too late." Grantaire took another gulp of his wine.
"Grantaire, you're drunk." Eponine said, irritated.
"Wine makes me forget about all of my sorrows and distresses," He replied.
She snatched the bottle and downed the rest of the wine.
After she finished, she looked back at Grantaire. "Aren't you a bit too young to be consuming alcohol?" Eponine asked.
"I am eighteen," He replied. "Aren't you a bit too young to be consuming alcohol?"
Eponine shrugged. "My father's an abusive drunkard. I'd have thought of drinking at least once. Like you said, it makes me forget about my sorrows and distresses."
Grantaire smirked. "Oh."
"Hey, Grantaire…" Eponine remarked. "Are you one of the selected honor students that passed the entrance exam? I couldn't help but notice that you aren't wearing a school uniform." Eponine's glance paused on Grantaire. He still wore his dark green hoodie, along with some faded jeans and worn out red sneakers.
"No, I'm not." Grantaire replied. "I'm not very intelligent; I am nothing like you. I have actually had to repeat my senior year twice. I come from a wealthy family, you see."
"Oh." Eponine said.
Just then, Enjolras approached the two of them.
"Oh, Eponine, you're here." he said.
"Enjolras…" Grantaire said softly. Enjolras didn't look at him.
"Eponine, you must get to your guests right away. The ladies are looking forward to meeting the new host we told them about." Enjolras said sternly.
"Alright already, I'm on it." Eponine snapped.
Three smiling girls sat gathered around Eponine at a small rounded table to the left of the wooden barricade.
"So, Eponine," Said one of the ladies. "What product do you use on your skin? It's very pretty."
"Your eyes are so beautiful, almost like a girl!" said another.
"Tell us about yourself," said the third.
Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Jehan, Joly, Bossuet, Grantaire and Enjolras happened to be eavesdropping on their "little newbie" whilst she was hosting, just to see how she would do.
Eponine, for the moment, was entirely speechless. But her taciturnity had ceased when she once again thought of the 71,000 franc debt she had to pay off.
"All I need is to get 100 customers to request my service, and they'll forget all about my debt." She thought. "I know what to do."
"Well, you see," Eponine began, "I don't come from a wealthy family at all. The truth is, my family is somewhat struggling with money due to the current bad economy. My household isn't perfect; my father reunified his gang, and my mother doesn't pay attention to me and my little sister anymore. But I always try to be there for her… I make sure to believe there is still something good to hope for. Even though our lives aren't perfect, my sister and I managed to make it through okay." Eponine finished off with a gentle smile, and the ladies became teary-eyed.
"Um, is it okay," said one of the girls.
"… If we request to sit with you again tomorrow?" the second girl continued.
"Yes, that would be great, mademoiselles!" Eponine smiled.
All that she said was true; however she cleverly expressed and worded the story to make it superfluously heartbreaking. It was a beneficial technique she used when going door to door asking neighbors for alms.
In the meantime, the boys had been in astonishment as to how Eponine was able to charm the ladies so easily, and still as a beginner.
"She's a natural," Enjolras said.
"Our little rookie is all grown up!" Courfeyrac gushed, wiping at his tears.
"It looks like Enjolras is going to have some competition for highest request rate," Combeferre teased, as he scrawled something onto a clipboard. Enjolras frowned.
"That surely won't happen, Combeferre." Enjolras implied, assertively.
Enjolras was unaware that he had forgotten about his guest who waited for him.
This particular mademoiselle was one of Enjolras's regular guests. She had beautiful long, blonde hair, sapphire blue eyes, rosy lips, and fair skin. She usually wore earrings with the French flag pattern, emblematically showing her love and adoration for her country. Her name was Patria, and she was Enjolras's favorite customer.
"Enjolras, have you forgotten about me?" Patria sighed.
"Oh," Enjolras said, turning around. "Forgive me, my lady. As you could see, I was just observing how our new host was doing. Let me introduce you to… him." He said, hesitating a bit on that last word.
"Eponine, come over here." He called out to Eponine. "I would like you to meet one of my guests." She approached the two of them.
"This is Patria," Enjolras explained. "She is one of my daily customers."
Patria greeted Eponine with a phony smile. Eponine forced a smile in return.
"It's such a pleasure to meet you, mademoiselle. You are very beautiful." Eponine said, tenderly taking Patria's hand.
Grantaire, Joly, Bossuet, Jehan, Courfeyrac, and Bahorel all squealed. Even Enjolras seemed somewhat pleased.
"Eponine, that was adorable!" Courfeyrac pounced onto her and smothered her with hugs to the point of her near suffocation.
"Courfeyrac… I can't… breathe…" Eponine managed to whisper between chokes.
"That impression of bashfulness was perfect, Eponine!" Jehan said, as he joined in on aggressively cuddling her.
"Oh, you're so cute!" Joly and Bossuet exclaimed, giggling.
"I must admit, that was impressive, Eponine." said Enjolras.
Combeferre nodded in agreement.
As all the hosts gathered around Eponine, praising and fawning over her, Patria shot them a piercing glare.
"Where is my schoolbag?" Eponine said to herself.
The Host Club had just closed up, and all the ladies were now absent from the room.
Eponine ran out into the hallway and looked out the window. In the Main Garden in front of the campus entrance, she saw that her bag was floating in the middle of the pond.
"What? How did that happen?" She whispered.
Eponine ran as fast as she could down the North Hallway and toward the Garden, but was stopped when she ran into someone in the corridor.
It was Patria.
"Oh, it's you, Eponine." Patria said, apathetically. Eponine said nothing.
They stood there for a minute, drinking in all of the uncomfortable silence, until Patria continued.
"I bet that you love getting all of the hosts' attention." She said, twirling her golden hair in her fingers. "But no matter how much they dote over you, it's all useless. You will always remain a lower class citizen."
It took every bit of Eponine's self-discipline to restrain herself from getting Patria into a headlock and punching her pretty face. Eponine controlled her internal rage, and without saying anything, she continued making her way toward the Main Garden.
Eponine had a feeling that Patria threw her bag into the pond. But she knew that it didn't matter anyway, because she had to focus on getting her schoolbag back.
"All of my classwork and textbooks are in that bag," Eponine thought worriedly, as she walked toward the pond once she reached the garden. After rolling up her pants, she waded through the pond and retrieved her bag, along with all of her soaked folders and textbooks.
"We can replace those," she heard a voice say behind her. When she turned around, she saw Enjolras standing at the side of the pond.
"Oh, thanks." Eponine said quietly. "I just can't seem to find my money for food…"
Just then, Enjolras rolled up his pant legs and sleeves and stepped into the water as well.
"Uh, you don't have to do that, Enjolras." Eponine said. Enjolras shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. A little bit of water never hurt anyone." he replied, smiling empathetically. "Also, we're friends."
Friends. Eponine smiled a little, too. But her smile ended quickly, and her face turned red.
"Stop being so nice to me, it's awkward and unnatural!" Eponine said, as she quickly looked away from Enjolras's confused expression.
Eponine was never familiarized to kindness. Being exposed to it made her… uncomfortable.
After a few hushed minutes of searching in the pond, Enjolras finally found Eponine's wallet and held it up.
"Is this what you're looking for, Eponine?" Enjolras said. Eponine nodded, and took the wallet.
"Thanks, Enjolras." she said, lightly blushing and avoiding eye contact.
"How did your bag end up in the pond, anyway?" Enjolras asked. Eponine shrugged.
"I guess I might have accidentally dropped it out the window," she fibbed. Telling Enjolras that Patria threw her bag into the pond would do nothing but make him think Eponine was a liar, so she just didn't say anything about it.
The next day at the Host Club, Patria requested to sit with Eponine.
"I see," she said, sipping from a cup of tea, "so your bag fell into the pond. That must've been terrible. I don't know what I would possibly do if that happened to me!"
Eponine's eye twitched a little bit. "Why did she request me when it's obvious that she doesn't like me at all?" she thought.
"Yet, you actually made Enjolras search in that disgusting pond with you. How outrageous," Patria continued. "You do know that Enjolras and all of the other hosts are not commoners, right? The only reason you are getting all the attention is because they are trying to turn you into a gentleman." Patria sneered roguishly. "Don't start thinking that they care about you, just because they're fawning over you."
At this point, Eponine couldn't contain her rage. She stood up abruptly, causing the table and the tea set to topple over onto the floor, and slapped Patria hard.
"I have a good idea," Eponine roared. "Why don't you just leave me alone and keep your feelings of jealousy to yourself? I couldn't care less that I am a lower class citizen. Now, if you would stop shoving the fact that I am poor in my face, I would be quite glad. Thank you for your kind consideration!"
Eponine was near to tackling Patria and getting into a fist fight with her, until she heard Enjolras's voice.
"Eponine." he said harshly. "Stop that."
Eponine turned around, shocked and afraid, and looked Enjolras in the eye. His expression was pure anger, and it seemed that his wrath was pointed directly towards Eponine. She felt her heart stop.
Eponine had only been looked at this way by her father, who would then beat her until she quivered and trembled underneath the table, weeping.
"Enjolras, I-" She couldn't finish her sentence.
"Get out of here. Just get out of my sight, now!"
Enjolras's sudden outburst scared her more than it was supposed to. She felt so much fear from being looked at this way by Enjolras, someone who had called her a friend. Before she knew it, tears began to stream down her face and her heart trembled and began beating faster than it ever had before.
She was crying.
Crying wasn't normal for Eponine. She never was afraid of anything; she always had acted brave. "No, no, no!" She screamed at herself in her mind. "I can't cry. No way! Oh, why is this happening?! This isn't like me!" She put her hands over her face, but the burning tears kept coming down.
Jehan, Courfeyrac, and Joly (being the caring and tremendously affectionate people they were) almost immediately ran to her and began to console her. Eponine would have pushed them away, but she just couldn't. Not now.
"Eponine," Courfeyrac said, holding her thin, shaking body close to his.
"Don't worry 'Ponine, Enjolras just can't control his temper sometimes…" Joly whispered, petting her shoulder and giving her a handkerchief.
"Why did you do that to Patria, Eponine?" Jehan asked.
Grantaire sat noiselessly at the back of the room, miserably watching the scene. Bahorel and Combeferre tried not to look. As for Enjolras, he ran to Patria and helped her up.
"Oh, Enjolras," Patria wailed. "Did you see that? Eponine just attacked me! That selfish, bratty boy assaulted me! How troublesome and ill-mannered he is… Why don't you teach that commoner a lesson?" She insisted. Enjolras shook his head.
"Eponine," he said. "Come over here."
Eponine, with her tears dried, approached Enjolras. Before Enjolras could say anything, she started defending herself.
"Enjolras, I know that you love Patria, but today was not entirely my fault." She began. "Patria was the one that threw my bag into the pond, and-"
"I know that." Enjolras interrupted. Patria's mouth dropped open.
"What? You don't know that. Do you have any proof that I did?" Patria protested.
Enjolras held her hand and stroked her chin. "Patria, you are a beautiful girl," he began, "but I'm afraid that you will no longer be permitted to be the ABC Host Club's guest."
He put an arm around Eponine's shoulders, and half-hugged her. "If I know one thing, Eponine is an honest, fair person.
Both Eponine and Patria were speechless. Tears welled up in Patria's eyes, and quickly ran out of the room crying "Enjolras, you idiot!"
All the hosts assembled around Eponine once again. Combeferre and Enjolras gave her devilish smirks, causing her to shudder.
"Now Eponine," Enjolras crossed his arms.
"You do know that we have to punish you for causing all this commotion, right?" Combeferre continued. "Also, you shattered one of our newest tea sets…"
"I know." Enjolras said, patting Eponine on top of her hat. "Your quota will increase to 1,000 guests!"
Eponine nearly collapsed. "One thousand?!"
"We have high expectations for you, 'Ponine!" Courfeyrac winked.
When Eponine got home, she flopped onto her bed wearily.
"What's wrong, 'Ponine?" her sister Azelma asked, putting a hand on Eponine's shoulder.
Eponine sighed, and sat up. "You know," she said. "Perhaps being a host and getting fussed over by a bunch of girls won't be so bad."
"What?" Azelma asked.
Eponine just laughed to herself. "I wonder how I could pull it off."