*sniff* Last chapter… Thanks for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed reading The Imposter as much as I did writing it :D This is the first fanfiction that I've written, so I hope the ending is okay… *dies from cheesiness* As this is the last chapter, I tried to make it really long!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything apart from my Miyo-chan.

Chapter 27 (final) – Change

For the first time since Hikaru and I had found him in the classroom, Kaoru lifted his gaze from the fixation with his desk. His eyes were glazed and he was biting his lip nervously.

"I'm sorry," Kaoru repeated softly. "It's just… Hikaru… I…"

"You… you said…" I stuttered.

He blushed.

"Hey, let's get out of here," I said quickly, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him out of the classroom.

I couldn't look back at his face.

I wasn't even sure where I was leading him. Our familiar classroom had suddenly seemed too small. My head was still spinning with everything that Hikaru had said - before I knew it, we were standing in front of a large commoner shopping centre.

"Why did you take me here?" Kaoru wondered aloud.

I shrugged. But we had the opportunity, so…

"Do you want to go in and find a bookshop?" I asked nervously.

We found a bookshop on the second level of the complex. I ran in immediately, eager to escape from Kaoru. Romance novels always gave me courage. There was just something special about dramatic, unrealistic and cheesy storylines. I took the nearest book from the shelf and began reading. I frowned in concentration, but the words still seemed to flow right over me. My hands were shaking, and for the first time, books were not enough to take my mind of everything.

"Miyoko," Kaoru said, catching up to me and putting his hand on my shoulder.

I jumped at his touch. His amber eyes were as beautiful as ever,

"I'm sorry," he said for the third time before embracing me tightly.

I dropped the book in surprise. My heart was beating fast as I remembered all of the times Kaoru had been kind to me. However, I had never returned the favour to him by only thinking about myself. Perhaps it was time to start now. All I had ever cared about was becoming the President of the Chess Club, but thanks to him, I had made friends with Kita, Fuiju, Tamaki and everyone else in the Host Club. Slowly, I returned the hug.

"Thank you," I said softly. "You're such a kind person, Kaoru. I'm a self-interested liar, but you never got angry or frustrated even when I kept hitting you all the time. So… thank you."

I was incredibly glad that the store was virtually empty at this time of the evening.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled softly.

I broke away from him and closed my eyes. Would he accept?

"Well, to be honest I've gotten used to all of the… violence," he clarified. "It doesn't even hurt anymore…"

I opened my eyes. Kaoru was smiling for the first time in weeks.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I said through gritted teeth. "I just told you I was sorry! Do you even know how embarrassing that was? But no, you decide to further point my flaws!"

If he wasn't going to accept, then I would force it into him! However, Kaoru laughed as he looked at my determined face.

"W-What did I do?" I asked, blushing.

"Nothing," he replied, still chuckling. "You may be pretty self-interested, but I think that you're improving."

He hesitated, his face flushing.

"A-and I love you anyway," he said quietly, staring at the floor.

My eyes widened. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around his waist once more.

"Me too."

I didn't even know if I slept at all that night – the scene of Kaoru and I at the bookshop kept replaying itself over and over in my mind. At least the next day was Sunday, so I didn't have to go to school. I came down to the dining room that morning half asleep and incredibly grumpy.

"Miyoko, please don't tell me that you spent all night revising chess strategies again," Kameko said wearily as I took her coffee mug and drank it all in one gulp.

I grimaced at the taste. Why was it that I only remembered now how much I hated coffee?

"Sort of…" I mumbled, still reeling.

"Miyo-chan! Good morning!"

I turned around. Behind my sister, Kita and Fuiju were waving furiously. They looked as alive as ever. How did fangirls manage to have so much energy?

"They came at seven," Kameko explained cheerily. "I didn't know that you had such caring friends, Miyoko!"

"Let's go, Miyo-chan!" Kita said gleefully.

I frowned. Although smiling sweetly, her eyes gave off the impression of a lion stalking its prey.

"But I haven't had breakfast yet," I replied nervously.

"Let's go!" she repeated loudly.

Her smile turned into an evil grin as she took my arm. Fuiju and I were whisked away from the room before we could say a word in protest.

It was not until we had been pulled up the stairs and into my bedroom when Kita finally let the two of us go. As soon as the door was closed she barricaded it with one of the many piles of books. We were trapped, and worse still, she had found my secret stash of romance novels. Trembling, I braced myself for her reaction.

"Miyo-chan! Please let me borrow some of these sometime!" she exclaimed, picking up a well loved copy of 'Fool for Love'*.

"O-Okay," I mumbled.

"What's going on, Kita?" Fuiju asked, clearly just as confused as I was.

"Miyo-chan is in love with Kaoru!" she said, her voice high with excitement. "I wanted to hear the latest drama of the Miyo-Kaoru-Hikaru soap opera!"

My bare feet suddenly became very interesting. Why was she bringing this up again?

"Miyo-Kaoru-Hikaru soap opera…" Fuiju repeated, frowning.

Kita nodded vivaciously.

"You see, Miyo-chan is in love with Kaoru, but they have been torn apart by the forbidden brotherly romance that he also shares with Hikaru! In my last instalment, Kaoru had been acting strangely, presumably because he has been having difficulty between choosing his new, passionate flame and the brother which he has loved and cared for many years," she ranted excitedly. "So Miyo-chan, has he chosen? Has your heart been torn out of your body and stomped under the twin's symmetrical feet, or is Hikaru hiding in a corner, crying over the younger brother he has always harboured sinful feelings for?"

I caught Fuiju's eye and shrugged. Clearly, Kita was more of a hopeless romance novel fan than I was. That itself was quite an achievement.

"Um… that's not really what happened…" I said quietly.

"Oh no! Did he reject you? No need to hide it," she continued mournfully. "There's nothing wrong with loving him, Miyo-chan! I'm sure he cares about you, it's just that he has someone else in his life that has been there from the very start!"

She burst into tears.

"How dare he lead you on only to turn you down and shove you into the gutter of unrequited love!"

"Are you going to listen?" I asked irritably, handing her a tissue. "I told you that's not what happened!"

I didn't want to admit that what she had said about my feelings for Kaoru were true, but at the same time I couldn't simply leave her to tell the entire school about the forbidden love triangle behind the Host Club. However, I hadn't expected it to take two hours to fully explain what had happened to the hysterical girl.

"That's so cute, Miyoko!" Fuiju exclaimed gleefully.

All Kita could manage at this point was an excited hiccup. I grimaced, my face feeling hot with embarrassment. I was dreading the next morning – although I would be able to see Kaoru again for the first time since that afternoon, dealing with their fantasies at the same time was another matter altogether.

Thankfully I arrived at school before Kaoru that morning.

"Hi, Miyo-chan!" Kita greeted cheerfully. "Thanks for the book, I enjoyed it!"

She pulled 'Fool for Love' out of her bag.

"Oh, thanks," I said distractedly, staring at the door.

"Why are you interested in those sorts of books, Miyoko?" Fuiju asked curiously. "I thought that you'd only read books about chess or something."

I ignored her. Kaoru had arrived at his desk and was laughing at something Haruhi had said. He caught my eye as I was watching him and blushed slightly.

"Good morning, Miyoko," he said kindly.

I nodded shyly, instinctively clamping my hands over the mouths of Kita and Fuiju. I didn't need them squealing in the background.

"Are you going to request the twins from now on, Miyoko?" Fuiju asked curiously as we headed towards Music Room 3 that afternoon.

"No," I said simply. "Tamaki would be devastated, and I can't hurt him again. He's been so nice to me."

I was in heaven. It had been nearly a week since Kaoru had told me the truth, and he had asked me if I wanted to play chess with him after school in the library. I sighed dreamily. The lure of a chess table and chairs surrounded by countless books was always so comforting.

"Isn't it so nice and stuffy in here, Kaoru?"

"Yeah," he replied reluctantly. "Stuffy."

I may have been in heaven, but for some strange reason Kaoru didn't appear to feel the same way. If anything, he looked like he wanted to jump out of a window. I frowned. Clearly he needed educating on what was a fun way to spend his time. After all of our interruptions, I would have to make use of the rest of the school year to teach him.

"Prepare to be annihilated!" I said gleefully as we sat down.

I was already planning my strategy twelve moves ahead.

Kaoru was still as quiet as ever as we began our game. I remembered how reluctant he always was to play, and frowned. He clearly hated chess – but today he had asked me to join him.

"Why did you want to play chess with me?" I asked.

Kaoru shrugged, blushing.

"You love it so much," he replied quietly. "With everything that's happened to you recently, I thought that I should help cheer you up. It's partially my fault after all. I'm sorry."

I gritted my teeth. He was still apologising all the time

"Stop telling me that you're sorry!" I yelled, loudly enough to receive a death glare from the passing librarian. "You don't have anything to feel sorry for!"

"But I told you about your parents… and I got you kicked out of both the Host Club and

Chess Club…" he mumbled weakly.

I rolled my eyes.

"Firstly, I deserved to be banned from the Host Club – after all I was a spy… and I left the Chess Club of my own accord. You had nothing to do with it." I pointed out angrily. "Secondly, I needed to know about my parents! I couldn't keep thinking that they were coming home when – "

My eyes began to water as I thought of them. It had been a year… and now I knew that they were never coming back.

"What would have been the point of just waiting for them to come home without knowing anything – I couldn't live like that!" I cried.

I began to sob hysterically. It was the first time that I had lost control cried about my parents since my sister had confirmed what Kaoru had told me.

After ten minutes, I had cheered up enough to continue the game. However, Kaoru was clearly out of practice. It only took me twenty moves to cream him.

"Checkmate," I declared happily.

Kaoru smiled. I'd forgotten with everything that had happened that he'd invited me here to cheer me up.

"Thank you," I said nervously.

"What for?"

"Losing, of course," I grinned.

His smile widened. Kaoru was always so kind, and I loved him for it. My heart was beating fast as I kissed him. He blushed immediately as I pulled away.

"I – I – "he stuttered, looking away. "I think we should go to the Club now…"

"Yeah."

I opened the door. As always, the random sakura petals floated in spirals from nowhere, but I no longer felt bothered by it. I was smiling- and not the fake smile of an imposter this time. However, that smile soon faded when I saw what the club was wearing today. They were wearing traditional costumes again, this time from China. However, I don't think that Tamaki had noticed that he was in fact wearing a woman's qipao.

"Princess Miyoko!" Tamaki exclaimed cheerfully when I arrived. "Welcome!"

"Umm… hi…" I replied automatically, still stunned by his strange attire.

Of course they were as ridiculous as ever. But that ridiculousness had led to the happiness of everyone around them. As I looked at Tamaki's wide smile and strange clothes, I realized that that 'everyone' included me. I knew now that my parents had abandoned my sister and me, and it still hurt a lot of the time. However, being surrounded by laughter, screaming fangirls and hare-brained ideas had always allowed me to forget everything else. I was an 'imposter', someone who had used these people for my own personal gain – yet they had forgiven me. I realized that I treasured every moment that I had with the crazy members of the Host Club and I would never try and hurt them again.

*Don't know if anyone picked up on this, but this book is taken from the title of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Blame my twin sister for suggesting it because she thought it sounded romance novelly :D

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