The following moment, Taka-niichan was covering me with his body. His uniform was torn and colored red where the bullet had grazed him. Mitsu-niichan was in fighting stance, guarding us. The others, Tama-niichan, Kyo-niichan and the twin, had jumped back, a surprised look crossed on their faces.
"Haruhi!" Tama-niichan called my name in panic. "Are you all right?!"
I nodded in a daze. "Y-yes!"
We all watched in anticipation whether there would be a next attack or not, but nothing happened and Mitsu-niichan and Taka-niichan lowered their guard. The moment Mitsu-niichan turned around, a masked person jumped in through the broken window.
"Mistukuni!" Taka-niichan warned his friend. The small boy blocked the blow and hit back, missing his opponent on a couple of centimeters. Everything went too fast to recollect. Mitsu-niichan and the stranger were nothing but shadows, they almost seemed to move faster than light itself.
Taka-niichan and I recognized the person as the assassin who tried to kill me when Hika-niichan had gotten kidnapped. Both parties, Mitsu-niichan and the assassin, jumped back but Mitsu-niichan threw kunai-like knives and pinned his opponent to the ground. One of the knives grazed the assassins face and because of a sudden movement he made, the mask fell off, revealing his face.
Dumbfounded I stared at the face of my bodyguard.
"A-Arata?" I called him. Arata noticed his mistake and hesitated for a moment, a moment long enough for Taka-niichan and Mitsu-niichan to overmaster him and turn his hands on his back so he couldn't move. Arata kept struggling until I called his name again but he refused to meet my eyes.
After all, I had been right to have my doubts about his loyalty. Though, I must admit, I was kind of disappointed in him, he had been the only person I actually could ask for help when in trouble. I could ask my Niichans too but I wanted to get them involved as less as possible.
"Oi, oi." Tama-niichan said. "What's going on?" he asked and pointed at my 'bodyguard'.
"Isn't he your classmate?" he asked me and the twin. We nodded. Then he pointed at me.
"Why did he attack you, Haruhi?" he asked, his facial expression was serious, not something you see every day.
"Calm down, Tamaki-senpai." Kao-niichan said to him. Tama-niichan slowly looked at every host, when he looked me in the eyes, I had to fight the urge to look away.
"You guys are hiding something from me, aren't you?" he asked suspicious.
"Of course not, Tono." The twin said, lying for my sake.
"Don't be ridiculous, Tamaki." Kyo-niichan also lied.
"Stop it." I said, Kyo-niichan and the two brothers shut their mouths. "It's true. We were hiding something." I said, Arata made some noise but I ignored it since he still didn't want to meet my eyes. Then I realized we were still standing in the hall.
It was late so there wouldn't be a lot of students any more, except for those with club activities but they were seated in other parts of the school builing, but a teacher could have heard the noise.
"Let's go somewhere else first." I said and so we ended up in the clubroom again. After some hesitation I finally told Tama-niichan and Mitsu-niichan my secret. I started to fidget while the room filled with an uneasy silence until Mitsu-niichan smiled.
"I already knew." Mitsu-niichan revealed.
"Eh?!" I voiced astonished. "You knew? Since when?!" It even seemed to surprise Taka-niichan.
"Since the beginning."
Everyone looked dumbfounded at the loli-shota host, including Arata.
"H-how did you know?" I stuttered. He smiled brightly.
"I would recognize Haru-chan everywhere and any time." He said, after the shock went over, my attention went to Tama-niichan, who sat silently in his chair.
His back was bent and his hands were intertwined. "I'm sorry for not telling you… Tamaki-senpai." I didn't know whether it was a good idea to call him Tama-niichan or not since Hika-niichan's reaction had scared me off. The leader of the hosts went with his hand through his blond hair.
"I'm… a bit confused right now." He announced. It's true that none of the hosts had ever seen Tama-niichanso silent, not even Kyo-niichan had. He must be really confused.
I felt guilty as well as happy. Guilty because I had kept is a secret for so long but happy that they finally knew. Though the fact that Arata was the one who wanted me dead spoiled the joy. I thought that if I hadn't distrusted him from the beginning, the shock and pain would have been bigger.
I looked at him and sighed. He sat against the wall, his hands were tied behind his back by Taka-niichan. He seemed to look rather miserably to me.
"The broadcast…" Tama-niichan muttered. "was that your idea?"
"It's a scheme of my aunt to force me into revealing my identity as princess." I said. I told them everything from the very beginning; me meeting Arata, the time at the party with Akito, Shiori's scheme and my meeting with my aunt. They were utterly shocked. Even now Tama-niichan stayed silent, what began to worry me.
"Tama-niichan… Are you not feeling well?" I asked and touched his shoulder. Tama-niichan looked at me as if he had been electrified by me and turned as red as a tomato. "T-T-That… I-I'm fine." He stuttered and the twin started laughing.
"Getting nervous around your first love, Tono?" they teased him.
"O-O-Of course not!" Tama-niichan denied, turning possibly even redder. "I-It were you guys who liked her!"
This time it were Kao-niichan and Hika-niichan whom turned red. "D-don't be ridiculous!" Hika-niichan said.
"Like we would fall for such a brat!" Kao-niichan added.
A vein popped up my head. "I'm standing right here." I scolded them. They were still snobby rich bastards after all. The boys, who had forgotten I was here, turned redder.
Mitsu-niichan chuckled and took my hand."I'm glad we're all together again."
I smiled. "Me too."
Kyo-niichan cleared his throat and pointed his finger at the tied bodyguard. "Now, what are we going to do with this gentleman here?" he asked and shoved up his glasses.
Here's, as promised, the next chapter :) Please enjoy ^^