Kumiko's POV
A/N Okay sorry about all the misspellings and typos in the last chapter but my wonderful beta (that was for her, the wonderful part) had to post my chapter on my account for me and she can't spell so I am the one that is mainly checking her typos. Oh yea and don't change this insert-beta-name-here! (She wants to remain anonymous.) Oh, yea and sorry for no author notes last chapter because I was going to add them in the end, I normally do authors notes before and after the chapter but that time I just dove right into the chapter. She had to post my chapter because my computer, Max, doesn't like my friend who also wishes to remain anonymous so he decided to break the internet modem, stupid Max!!
Kumiko
I was sitting in chemistry class the day of the ball. Everyone was chatting excitedly to one another. Except me. I was still a bit non-plussed about the whole thing. It was probably going to last all night leaving me no time for my homework. I'm usually already sleepy in the morning! And now you're telling me that I'm going to have to stay up all night to finish my homework? The fact was that I was going to end up falling asleep in class. Ootori-san sat down in his seat beside me.
"So Kumiko-chan, are you coming to the ball?" I mentally rolled my eyes.
"Yes, Ootori-san. I don't appear to have any other choice."
Souh-san was listening in to our conversation and popped up in front of our joint desk.
"Good, good, very good! So I'll see you there!" He scampered away happily, back to his desk where his fangirl was awaiting him.
Apparently, this is what makes the Club happy. Just because on girl in the whole school wasn't coming, they had to drag her in. Didn't they have enough girls there to do whatever it is they do with them? My imagination went wild and I suddenly had a flash of the host club really being a vampire coven and feasting on damsels in distress.
Emi
Today was the day of the cherry-blossom ball, and every one was excited and chatting happily. Though all of the conversations differed (Talking about what they were wearing, how they were going to do there hair, making plans on where to meet each other.) none of them caught my interest, only one thought continuously played in my head;
I wish Kumiko were excited about the ball. I thought forlornly.
I was in my seat waiting for class to start, happily daydreaming about the ball. Hikaru sat down beside me.
"Hi, Emi-chan. Coming to the ball?"
"Of course, who isn't?" I replied grinning happily at him.
Happy, happy, joy, joy! Can someone be too excited about this? If so then I don't care! I'm just soo excited, I can't wait for school to end today.
Ironically, school felt like it flew by! I got minimal homework because the teachers seemed to take pity on us. (They all knew we would be up all night.) But that promised a ton of homework tomorrow. (Well, there's only so much pity a teacher can give)
Kumi-chan met me at the door finally, I always seemed to beat her there.
"Hi, Kumi-chan, how was your day." I chirped.
"Getting worse by the second." She grumpily replied.
"Well, buck up! Today is the day of the ball!"
"Oh, my! I forgotten about that! I'm now so excited." She said sarcastically walking a bit faster.
"Oh, come on Kumi-chan! Look at the bright side."
"There is no bright side."
I caught up to her and stepped in front of her. "Kumi-chan, don't be such a downer."
She pushed me aside and continued walking at her fast pace. "I'm not! I just really don't want to go."
"Well, what if I gave you something to look forward to."
"Like what?" she snapped back at me. "Leaving half-way through?"
"No, like a game."
She looked at me, quirking an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? Game?"
I thought about it for a second. Maybe I shouldn't tell her, she wouldn't want to go even more if I told her. "Never mind."
She looked at little irritated, well, more irritated than she already was.
"Whatever."
We arrived at our house, finally. Maybe I could get Debbie Downer to buck up a little if we started hair and make-up. She's acting so irritably that it's like, she's a different person. She's never been this annoyed.
Did I make a mistake in forcing her to go? Well, she'll just have fun at the party!
I got out my keys and opened the door. "It's time for hair and make-up!" I said, trying to put a little excitement in Emi-chan.
"Wooooo!" She said, her mock excitement suffocating me, twirling her fingers in the air.
"Aaw, come on Kumi-chan, you can go first!"
Kumiko
"So, okay hair first." She said twirling a piece of my short, light brown hair.
I normally just wore it in two clips pushing it back on one side. "I don't know how much you can do with it, it's pretty short." I said doubtfully.
"I'm so proud of you!" Emi-chan said.
"For what?"
"For, starting to accept your predicament!"
I rolled my eyes. "So, you actually admit it's a predicament that you've gotten me into." I glared accusingly.
"No hard feelings, right?" She said, flashing me a cheesy grin, then getting out a curling iron.
"Hey, wait a minute. What are you going to do with that?"
"Curl you hair of course! I've been thinking about what to do with it for awhile now and I thought it would look cute with some pretty little ringlets in it!"
I sighed. "Sure, just don't burn me!"
- -- -
I looked at my hair. It was all in ringlets making it shorter than it was before. It is now to my chin, where as before it was a bit above my shoulder.
"Now, for make-up!" Emi-chan said putting the final touches to my hair. She turned the chair around.
"What are you doing?"
She frowned. "That's the second time you've said that Kumi-chan. You should trust me more."
"You're avoiding my question." I said narrowing my eyes.
"It's a surprise. Don't worry it won't look bad."
After awhile of doing make-up she declared she was done and shoved me out of the room, closing the door in my face.
"Hey! Wasn't I supposed to do your hair and make-up too!" I yelled at the closed door in front of me.
"Yea, but you'd see your make-up if I let you do that, and I want the over all look to be a surprise, and I want to be there so go put on your dress and come back in here, then you can see yourself."
Her voice was somewhat muffled-sounding through the door. I walked into my room obediently avoiding the mirror and grabbed my dress. My back facing the mirror, I started undressing, and then redressing into the slip the dress came with, probably because the bottom part would be itchy without it, and them the dress itself. It was very flowy. I couldn't restrain myself from giving a little twirl and watching the dress prettily flowing in the motion.
I walked back to the door and knocked.
"What took you so long?" She said opening the door, revealing a distressed Emi-chan.
She had her long dark brown hair in one of those cool buns with the braids in them and she had done her make-up.
She turned around. "Will you help me with the zipper?"
"Only if you'll help me with mine." I replied, pulling up her zipper and turning around. Maybe this ball wouldn't be so bad after all. I did get to wear this pretty dress.
- -- -
We were standing beside the punch bowl, talking about random things and laughing. Truthfully, I was having a great time, even though I wouldn't admit it. I reached over to get a refill on my punch. I looked up to see Emi-chan looking at me guiltily.
"What's wrong? Aren't you having fun?" I asked, concern making me frown.
"Yea, it's just. You're actually having fun and laughing and we both look so beautiful. But I can't help but feel guilty."
I gave her a confused look. "Feel guilty about what? You didn't do anything wrong . . . right?"
She stared at me for a while, debating on what she should say. "Kumi-chan, I-I'm sorry but, this, this was all a . . ." She trailed off guiltily.
"All a what Emi-chan? All a what! Tell me, spit it out!" I said urgently.
"It was all a setup, the Host Club told me. They gave you the free tickets so you would choose a host." I smiled.
"Oh, I know that, they already told me-"
"No, no that's not all, to do this they are each going to-" At that note I started heading towards the door. I am not going to put up with this, or whatever they were going to do.
I was suddenly grabbed and pulled towards the dance floor. Spinning and spinning and spinning… I could barely make out the culprit.
"Isn't dancing fun Kumi-chan." 'The culprit' said with a high voice. I was beginning to feel woozy.
"How do you know my name?" I asked, trying to dig my heels into the floor and stop the spinning.
"Hey, you're the guy who eats the cake over at that table." I realized, finally getting a good look at the person I was dancing with.
"Yup my name is Mitsukuni, Haninozuka. But you can call me Hunny." He said with a cute little smile on his face.
"What grade are you in Hunny-san? Aren't you a bit young to be in the Host Club?"
Hunny-san's lip quivered. "No, I'm a third year!"
"Oh! Gomen! Gomen Sempai!" I answered, quickly hoping he would accept the apology.
"It's okay, I get that a lot." He said returning to his smiling self.
Hunny-san bowed out as two different hands grabbed mine and pulled me to a different section. They turned to face me and I recognized them as the twins at the Host Club.
"Want to play a game?" One said.
"It's the which one is Hikaru" the other said.
"gaaaame." They both concluded.
They started spinning. "If you get it right you get to dance with Hikaru first and, if you get it wrong, Kaoru."
They stopped spinning and asked me which was which.
"Uum, the one on the left is Hikaru? I didn't even know your names before this."
"Wrong!" They said together. "You get to dance with Kaoru first."
Kaoru-san dragged me to the dance floor.
"Don't keep my beloved brother too long now!" Hikaru-san said as we walked away.
"Did you enjoy the game?" He asked putting one hand around my waist and the other around my shoulders. I shuddered.
"What's wrong?" He frowned.
"Oh, well, the game was fine, but . . . It's just, this is the first time I've ballroom danced." I said sheepishly, then added, "Well, besides Hunny-sempai but, does that count as dancing?"
He laughed. "No, I guess not."
We danced all the way back to an awaiting Hikaru-san. "I hope you didn't enjoy her dancing more than you enjoy ours!" Hikaru-san said, taking me from Kaoru-san.
"Never dear brother!" Karou cried, grabbing Hikaru's hand and giving him a tearful look, while still holding mine tightly, not giving me any escape route.
We were dancing again, except this time with Hikaru-san-- at least, I thought it was Hikaru .
"Um, Hikaru-san. I have a question." I said, looking at my feet so as to not step on his toes.
"Sure." He said, looking down at me.
"Excuse me for asking this but . . . Are you gay?"
He looked at bit surprised, but then laughed. "No, that's just an act me and my brother do to get fangirls."
"Well, it kinda freaks me out." I said offhandedly. Then I looked up, astonished at my bluntness. "Oh, um I mean, it's okay . . . for other people." I looked at the floor, blushing. "Gomen." We returned to the silence, well, except for the music that was playing forlornly in the background.
"Why are you dancing with me, don't you have other fangirls to please?"
He looked at me. "Because, it's the pick-a-host gaaaaaaame."
What's with them and games?
"Well, if that's all this is, then I forfeit." I said, pulling away from Hikaru-san only to be caught and dragged into another dance, without missing a beat.
"Mori." Said the man who had just stopped me from leaving. We continued dancing. My heart was racing. Why did the Host Club feel the need to torcher me so?
"Is the whole Host Club going to dance with me?" I asked, looking up at him.
He nodded, "Nn."
I sighed. He was really tall. I only came to a little bit above his mid-chest. When I looked up at him, I nearly broke my neck. He was the least talkative one so far. Kinda the strong-and-silent type. This had been the best dance I had had so far because he was so quiet, you know, not so bad.
Someone tapped Mori-san's shoulder to cut in, the next host. And you'd never guess who it was. Cooking-boy slash Fujioka-san. We started to dance.
"Sorry about this, but apparently you've been mercilessly dragged into one of the twin's games and one of Sempai's crazy quests." He said apologetically.
I sighed, I had already given up on trying to get away, and since this was my 5th dance, I was somewhat comfortable. Plus, this wasn't bad either, just chatting and occasionally me stepping on his toes. Like I said, this was the first time I have ballroom danced. Oh yea, and he doesn't just talk about cooking.
Ootori-san cut in. "I believe it's my turn to dance with the lovely lady."
I blushed. "I'm glad you actually decided to come." He said smiling.
I accidentally stepped on his toes. "Sorry! This is my first time dancing, well, technically because of this game it's my . . . never mind." I blushed again and looked down.
"I'm sorry, you're probably flustered with all this dancing and such." I looked up at him hopefully.
"So, you'll let me go?"
"No, I also am controlled by the games rules unfortunately and you must pick a host to designate."
I stepped on his toes again (this time a bit on purpose.). "Ugh, sorry."
We continued dancing. The song ended and he let go of me.
"It's over?"
"Nope." A familiar voice from behind me said. I turned around to see Souh-san. The last Host, finally.
He bowed, took my hand, and kissed it. "It's my turn to dance of course! How could you forget about me?"
Of course how could I forget about him, I thought sarcastically.
He put his arm around my waist and the other around my shoulder, the usual stance for dancing.
It was quiet for a while until I asked. "Don't you have other girls to dance with?" He looked down at me and pushed my chin up, caressing it with his thumb.
"Yes, but now I'm dancing with you." I attempted to push away which, bad move, mad him pull me in closer. I could hear his heart beat, which, in comparison was turtle-pace to how fast mine was going.
A sudden thought flitted across my brain, doing a small 'haha you have too dance with an idiot' jig. What's with this guy and chins?
"Souh-san-"
"Please call me Tamaki." I stepped on his toe.
"Nm, gomen Souh- I mean Tamaki-san."
He looked down at me happily. "Thank-you."
The song ended. I pulled away from him gratefully. "Can I go home now?"
Emi
The dances were over, I had been watching the whole time. I had seen all of the blushing, toe stepping, and attempts to get away. Now it was my turn to dance-- hopefully. I walked up to Tamaki-kun and Kumi-chan, who had just finished their dance.
"May I dance with you Tamaki-kun?" He smiled at me with that million-dollar smile of his.
"Of coarse princess." He bowed, I curtsied, and we began to dance.
Dancing is fun, I don't get why Kumi-chan kept pulling away.
"I love dancing with the lovely ladies. It makes me feel so important to be adored my so many."
"I like dancing with you too Tamaki-kun. Thank-you for accepting my offer after dancing with so many girls. You must be tired." He stroked my hair, which had fallen down out of its bun because I had messed with it so much.
"I could never tire of dancing with you princess." We continued our dance but, the song, unfortunately, ended all too fast. Well, at least I got to dance with him. Some girls aren't even going to be able to do that. Lucky Kumi-chan got to dance with all the members! But I'm not going to be mad at her because it was kinda my fault too.
I returned to a grumpy-looking Kumi-chan. "Sooooo, how did it goooo?" I questioned hesitantly.
She sighed and didn't reply. "Do you know who you are going to pick?"
She looked down at her feet. "Do I have to pick?" She whined.
"Yes, unless you don't want to come with me to the Host Club."
Please say you want to come, pleeeeease say you want to cooome!
"Well, of course I want to come with you I just, I just wish that I could stand around like last time."
There was silence for a few moments in where I took the liberty of taking a few bites of my cupcake.
"I think I will designate Mori-sempai and Hunny-sempai." She said.
I giggled. "Why the sudden interest in older men." There was a pause, had I gone over the line? She looked up at me with a mad face, which suddenly cracked to show a joking face. I laughed along with her, happy she wasn't mad with me.
A/N Gomen if this wasn't a good chapter but I just thought it would be fun to get
Kumi-chan in awkward situations. Which ultimately came back on me, I shouldn't have been so evil to Kumi-chan. Because, once I got to the part where they dance I stared at the page and willed it to type itself. I hope I did a good job and stuck to their characters! What do you think? Now, all messing around aside. I will move on with the original plot.
Gomen nosai for not updating soon!! If anyone blame by beta!! I know on this chapter I was like 'oh yes nice beta' but now it took her forever to send me the story back T.T so that's why it took me so long!! This chapter is 10 pages though! does't that make it better?? Please!! T.T So please review and continiue enjoying my story!! I promise I will do better! And I promise my beta will also do better glares threatiningly at beta right?! (gomen beta)
