For the next few weeks, Haruhi avoided Tamaki and hung out with the rest of the host club.

But she was always careful.

She had to be.

Sometimes she'd see the others look at her, worry in their eyes. She'd see them wondering about her, trying to figure out what was different about her.

None of them were stupid and they could all see something was wrong but she didn't confide in them and she assured them she was fine if any of them questioned her.

A part of her wondered if her continued silence was right; wondered if telling the truth wouldn't be better.

But then she would see how the other boys interacted with Tamaki and she watched the girls swoon and sparkle in his presence and it hit her all over again that he was admired, loved by all and part of a powerful, wealthy family while she was merely a poor commoner who had no proof of what he'd done.

Who would believe her?

And so she went through the motions every day, never showing that she spent most nights huddled in her bed, kept awake by nightmares.

She learned to hide the bags under her eyes using artful appliance of makeup.

The makeup kit her father had given her last Christmas was definitely coming in handy now.

But she knew they were suspicious.

She knew they could tell something was wrong.

And this may have gone on for months longer except eventually Tamaki forced the issue and confronted her when they were out in the gardens playing another game of hide and seek. She'd waited for Tamaki to run and hide and then she'd gone in the opposite direction. She's thought everything was fine until she realized he had doubled back and followed her to where she was hiding.

"Haruhi."

His voice jarred her and had her breath coming out in terrified pants. She 'd looked up from where she'd crouched on the ground to see him standing over her, looking so much bigger than her that it made her consider screaming and fleeing.

She slowly stood up, ignoring his hand. "What is it, senpai?"

"You're ignoring me and I don't like it. I haven't wanted to seem like a crazy ex-boyfriend so I haven't said anything but now I can't help it."

"What do you call this? You followed me."

"It was my only option. You can't keep avoiding me forever," he said angrily.

His anger reminded her of another afternoon a few weeks ago and she almost shrank away from him but stopped herself. "Can't I? I told you to stay away from me."

"I can't and I won't. I don't see why you're so angry. I've left you alone to calm down and now you should be okay. I don't think I did anything wrong and I also think it's time to get back together."

She gaped at him. "Get back together? Are you crazy? I will never date you again. You may have convinced yourself you did nothing wrong but that doesn't matter because you did, you actually did. I didn't want to. I said no. And you should have respected that. You should have accepted my decision. I didn't deserve what happened. Just because you think it's okay doesn't mean it is."

"I only did what we'd already done together. We'd already made love and I only wanted to prove to you that we are meant to love another. I love you and I know you love me too. If you didn't, you would never have agreed to sleeping with me in the first place."

Haruhi suddenly cracked. "You pushed me into it!" she shouted. She took a deep breath and continued in a quieter voice. "I wasn't ready to sleep with you but you kept pressuring me and complaining and I just couldn't deal with it anymore so I gave in and said yes. And I truly realized you're not the kind, generous, gentlemanly person I always thought you were. Now I can't even look at you without feeling like throwing up and screaming out, in front of everyone, that you raped me, repeatedly, and that you didn't care when I pleaded with you to stop. You didn't care. When I've read about men who do that sort of thing, I've always thought to myself how lucky I am that I didn't know anyone who would be capable of doing that. I felt comforted when I thought of how good and gentlemanly all of you were. However you are not like that. And I should tell and maybe I will eventually. Do you get that? Do you understand what you've done to me? I can't help but wonder about every guy I meet." She rubbed her head and looked at him with accusing eyes. "You know, senpai, I never would have fathomed you'd be capable of hurting any girl. Especially me." She pushed past him and walked away, fighting tears and praying that he wouldn't follow her.

She couldn't bear the thought of dealing with him anymore today.

She couldn't take this anymore.

Tamaki's actions today showed her that he wouldn't leave her alone, that he wouldn't stay away and that he didn't see how he'd hurt her.

She'd have to tell the other hosts what happened.

Maybe they wouldn't believe her. Maybe they would be hard to convince.

But she couldn't let that stop her anymore.

What if Tamaki hurt someone else? And she could have stopped it? Then she'd have to live with that guilt for the rest of her life.

And she wouldn't do that to herself. She deserved more than that from life.

She'd tell the other hosts the next moment she was alone with them, without Tamaki there to interfere or stop her in any way.

One way or another, they'd know what the Host Club King was really like.