Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. There would have been romance by now and I would have been rolling in money instead of typing a story on FF.

Chemicals Collide by Boys Like Girls

"I got a couple of problems
A thousand puzzles runnin through my head
But I think that you can solve them
You're always just one step ahead"

Chapter 7:

THE NEXT DAY...

Halley was glad that she didn't have to go to school that day for mainly one reason: she could sleep-in. By the time she was awake, it was around 12 o'clock. She had a bed-head and really needed to brush her teeth. Halley slowly rose from her bed and got ready for the day, slipping on a dark brown hoodie and white sweats. Soon afterwards, she requested for a maid to prepare lunch.

After lunch, Halley returned to Ouran. She was just in time to see the Host Club open. She smiled slightly as sight of the many familiar faces.

"Yay! Lee-Chan's back!" Honey jumped for joy, and ran to her for a hug. Halley was expecting this, so she opened her arms and prepared herself. Honey was warm, and he smelled like strawberries. Halley suspected this was because of all of those cakes he eats. "Isn't this great, Takashi?" Mori silently nodded, his staid expression remaining the same.

"It's good to be back, Honey-Senpai." Halley responded.

Haruhi walked up to Halley, glad to see her there. "It's great to see you back, Halley. But I couldn't help but notice: Did you just refer to him as Honey-Senpai?" This earned them some stares, mixed in with a few glares, courtesy of the customers.

"Yeah. I'm going to be a student here, starting next week!"

MEANWHILE...

While Halley and a few of the Host Club members were celebrating her acceptance into Ouran, Kyouya did a little investigation. Ever since the first day they met, he had been a little curious about her. Did she deliberately not tell him her last name? If anybody was going to discover her secret on their own, it was Kyouya Ootori.

Kyouya sat down at his desk and opened his laptop. This was an everyday occurrence for Kyouya at the host club, so it seemed perfectly normal. This time, when Kyouya searched her name on the school's database, her name did pop up. Kyouya smirked. Halley Parker, eh? Well, it certainly sounds American. He continued searching her file, looking for anything odd or suspicious. Were there any blank spaces? Did she lie about her parent's occupation? Did she have a criminal record?

After searching for a while, his expression turned grim. He had yet to find anything suspicious. Could he have been wrong?

"No, that's impossible," Kyouya muttered aloud to himself. There must have been something he did not notice. Maybe he missed a small detail? He scoffed at the thought. Kyouya turned to the next page in the file: her contact information. Kyouya squinted his eyes as he looked at the phone number. The number looked a bit odd to him. It seemed familiar, in a way. He searched the phone number, only to find that the number also belonged to Kaoru Hitachiin. Living together temporarily is acceptable, but to have the same phone number? Isn't that a little odd?

Kyouya immediately pressed a few buttons, which led to the computer comparing the files of Halley Parker and Kaoru Hitachiin. What he discovered led to a very confused Kyouya. What the hell?

THIRTY MINUTES LATER...

Halley Parker knew the Host Club members like the back of her hand. So, it was pretty obvious to her that if Kyouya called her and Kaoru to talk privately, that meant trouble.

Kaoru was fidgeting in his seat, playing with his tie, while Halley did the exact opposite: she refused to show fear in front of Kyouya Ootori. He wasn't worth it to her. That did not stop her from growing uneasy when the sly vice-president of the Host Club began to smile. No, that was not a typo. He couldn't hide his happiness at all, which left him with an unfamiliar smile. As he fixed his glasses, Halley saw his eyes were filled with emotion, as well. As if, he knew something. It was almost like he won some sort of game...

Kaoru's eyes widened, his mouth agape. Halley's left eye was twitching. Whatever Kyouya found, it was the jackpot. It was probably something that would embarrass them, and Kyouya showed no attempt at hiding it.

"Well, Halley," Kyouya began, the smugness clearly etched in his voice. "I was looking through the school's records, today…"

Halley stayed calm on the outside, but was going crazy internally. Does he know? Damn, I knew I should have changed my name in the paperwork! "What does that have to do with me, Kyouya?" Acting innocent was the best shot that they had.

"That's an easy question," Kyouya remarked. He circled around Halley and Kaoru's chairs, which, conveniently, were place next to each other in the middle of the room. Now that he thought about it, Kaoru thought that it looked more like an interrogation room, if anything.

"In case you were wondering, I do a background check on everyone who steps foot into the third music room. Seeing as how you were finally in the system, I did a little digging. At first, everything was normal, I'll give you that. But when I noticed your phone number, it captured my interest. It looked so familiar, so I looked it up. And what do I find? None other than Kaoru Hitachiin's phone number.

"Naturally, I began to compare both of your files. Do you know what I found next? Every single grade from every single year was identical. You know what was the icing on the cake for me, though? It was the fact that your tuition, Halley, was paid for with Kaoru's personal credit card."

Kaoru was visibly distraught. Halley couldn't imagine what was going through his mind right now. She was disappointed in herself, she could have done much better. Halley was also shocked that Kyouya had found so much in such a short amount of time, but she was also fairly confident that he was checking her file for other reasons. A background check, my ass.

What would this lead to though? Kyouya had proven that he was more of a prying asshole than Halley was a good liar. He won.