I left Karuizawa that day and when I got home, did the same thing I did before: collapse in bed. It really was like my old 'dark days'! The lights were out, absolute silence, the door was locked, and I was crying my heart out. I rarely emerged from my room for meals and I even skipped out on the next day of school. No one dared try to pull me out because they knew I was armed and dangerous! Finally, I worked up the courage to go back to school and face life again. Kimi was the first to notice that something was wrong.

"Senky-chan, what's up?" she asked worriedly.

"Nothing." I replied, my eyes staring off into space.

"Are you dozing off into another universe?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure." I answered with no emotion at all

Of course that was a lie! My depression had shut off all creative flow in my brain and in fact, my mind had been turned off entirely. I stopped talking with Kimi at lunch, I stopped going to the Host Club too, and I would ignore any calls on my cell. Especially the twins'. I'd get at least two calls from them every night and their phone numbers were dominating my missed/ignored call section.

"You've missed coming to the Host Club for a really long time, Senky-chan. Don't you want to come this time?" Kimi asked timidly.

"Meh." I grunted.

Kimi only grabbed me by the arm and dragged me by force all the way to the club room! When got there, the hosts had already started planning for their next event and as their assistant manager, they wanted my input.

"Uh…sure," I responded half-heartedly when the club asked me a question.

"Do you even know what the question was?" Haruhi asked.

I didn't respond to that but instead just turned away and scoffed.

"What's with you?" Hikaru asked.

You of all people should know! My mind screamed and I shot him a death glare.

Kaoru looked quite concerned about me and he seemed to be one of the few who knew what was wrong with me. Honey was the other and every time the club asked me a question or snapped at me for being so gloomy, they'd stand up for me.

"Hey Miss Gloomy! You feel like talking?" Hikaru teased.

"Cut it out, Hikaru," Kaoru mumbled.

"What?!" Hikaru hissed back at him.

"Just don't bother her," Kaoru told him.

"Why not? I was just teasing her," he retorted, "You're cool with that right, Senka?"

"Meh." I grunted at him.

That's just about how every host club meeting went and after a few meetings, I just stopped going all together. I guess I had missed about three days of school through my two-week-long depression and that's when Kimi decided to stage an intervention.

"Senky-chan?" her sweet voice broke the deafening silence.

They must've let her in. I thought, groaning as the door was unlocked and opened.

"Come out from under there, Senky-chan!" Kimi ordered.

I climbed out from under the covers and looked at my friend with a dead look in my eyes.

"I had some milkshakes made for us, why not join me in the kitchen and have one?" she asked encouragingly.

I just stared at her as if to say 'really?' and then I collapsed on my bed again. Kimi had to drag me out of bed and push me all the way to the living room where there was a rather tasty looking milkshake. It helped me feel a little more talkative at least but I still felt like crawling back into a hole.

"Now tell me what's eating at you," Kimi ordered, "You've been sulking for two whole weeks and I deserve to know what's going on!"

After a long silence, I muttered, "I'm giving up on Hikaru."

"THIS is what this is all about!?" Kimi screamed, "He's just ONE guy, Senky-chan! It's not like he's the only guy out there for you!"

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, "You know NOTHING about how I feel! You aren't even into guys, miss lesbian!"

Kimi just stared at me with tears in her eyes and I immediately regretted my actions.

"Oh Kimi, I'm sorry," I said hugging her, "I didn't mean that."

It took a little while for her to stop crying and then I continued on.

"I was too late. Hikaru went on some date with Haruhi and I seriously think that he's madly in love with her." I sighed, "So it's over for me."

"You can't let that one thing get to you." Kimi said, squeezing my arm, "You can't give up! How about this, the next time you hear from him, try actually acknowledging him instead of ignoring him like you have been lately."

"I can't…I'm mad at him." I pouted.

"Well you can't hold this grudge forever," Kimi replied, "You need to move on."

"I don't want to…" I pouted again.

"C'mon, Senky-chan! Tomorrow we'll go back to the Host Club and we'll start over, okay?" she asked hopefully.

"Fine…" I sighed, falling over on the couch and retreating back into my depressed state.

Kimi sat there with me for a few minutes, patting my head and telling me encouraging things. After I started to feel a little more confident, a maid walked in and tossed me my cell phone with the 'Still Alive' ringtone going off.

"Holy crap!" I squeaked as I sat bolt upright on the couch.

"Looks like your chance has come early!" Kimi chirped, looking at the caller ID: Hikaru Hitachiin.

"But I can't…" I started.

"Yes you can! Now answer it!" Kimi demanded me with tough love.

I just sat there for a few seconds as the ringtone continued, 'But there's no use cry over every mistake, you just keep on trying until you run out of cake.' Finally, I hit the answer button for the first time in two weeks.

"Hello?" I asked weakly, looking at Kimi for a reassuring glance.

She had a huge smile plastered on her face that almost looked homicidal!

"Uh, hey," Hikaru's voice said over the phone, making my heart do a jig…if hearts can do jigs.

"Hi…" I mumbled into the phone again.

Who is he, Captain Jack Harkness? I thought, giggling a little.

"So…listen," he said, seeming a little uncomfortable, "I was wondering if you were open this weekend."

At this, I looked up at Kimi with the same homicidal smile on my face of enthusiastic happiness.

"Yeah…I have some free time on Saturday," I said, mentally scratching off a chance to write another chapter off my calendar.

"Well I was just wondering if you wanted to go out Saturday night," Hikaru said, his voice becoming more and more awkward.

My face reddened at this and I could hear Kimi trying to hold back chuckles. I wondered if Kaoru was coaching him through this like Kimi was for me.

"Sure…what time? And where?" I asked, blowing at my bangs a little.

"I was thinking I could pick you up around seven and…do you like Italian?" he asked awkwardly.

"YES!" I squealed into the phone, most likely startling him, "I love Italian!"

"Great because there's this Italian place I know about that I can take you to," he said, sounding a little less uncertain.

"Ok…so I guess I'll see you then." I asked sweetly.

"Uh…sure," he muttered, "Bye."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Click.

A long silence went across the large room and Kimi and I just stared at each other with massive, toothy grins. Finally I spoke up, my voice echoing through the entire house and probably reaching my father.

"I'M GOING ON A DATE WITH HIKARU HITACHIIN!" I screamed at the top of my lungs and Kimi replied with a girly scream as well.

We danced on top of the couch and screamed as loud as we could in absolute insanity! My blues were gone and I had a hot date! Why? Well who cares!?

Kimi and Senka: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Twins: Ow! You're going to break our eardrums!

Kimi and Senka: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Twins: Oh never mind.

Kaoru: Next time, you'll learn the reason for that abrupt question in the next chapter: Restaurants and Reasons.