Quilla: hello everyone! We're sorry it's been so long, we left this story sitting forever! :(

Alice: But we are back, and so continues the story! We were going to introduce all of the hosts at once xD but we agreed that would probably give our poor protagonist a heart attack, and it lacked originality in this series - so we decided that we'd introduce them in pairs/individually over the next couple of chapters.

Quilla: It may not seem like much, but we worked hard on this chapter, and hope you enjoy the first introductions :)

Alice: let us know what you think!

Heartstrings

Chapter 2

Emme Hatsuhara was quick to leave the classroom as soon as the bell rang, signifying the end of the period. Holding her book-bag close to her chest she ran down the hallway and out of the building into the courtyard.

Finding a bench to sit on she took a deep breath and sighed. For a moment she sat there, taking in the view of the beautiful sakura trees. Then she remembered bumping into the boy who sat beside her, and her face became flushed.

"It's only the first day, and I've already made a fool of myself in front of my classmates." she pulled her hood over her head and curled up on the bench, hiding her face from any passersby.

Several minutes passed by, and Emme closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep. The bell for the first, second, third and fourth period bells rang, and still the girl slept through them all. She had only been in Japan for three days, she was still adjusting to the new timezone*. She may as well have continued her long nap on that bench until after school, but as the lunch bell rang, two college students stepped onto the campus.

The two of them would frequently visit, helping out their former club and eating all of the cake - wait, that cake part wasn't very relevant - and on this particular day they were helping with the preparations for the welcoming party for a new friend-to-be.

The first thing that you'd notice about the two, was the bizarre difference in appearance. One was rather short, shorter than the protagonist (though not by much), and the other was rather tall (he was easily mistaken to be a professional basketball player, which, he was not.) The taller of the two had a mature, quiet disposition about him, the other a more childish one further stressed by his child-like appearance and stuffed bunny in his arms.

Whilst the blonde boy ran ahead, giggling and waving hello to people he recognized, the raven-haired boy walked slowly, hands in his pockets. He looked around him, expecting to see nothing out of the ordinary but stopped in his tracks. There was someone sleeping on a bench.

A homeless person?

"Hey, there's someone sleeping there!" Mitsukuni exclaimed, eyes wide. "They have a school bag, so they must go here!"

Honor student. Takashi thought, thinking back to one year before, when Haruhi walked into the host club by accident.

Before he could say anything to Mitsukuni, the blonde had poked the person on the shoulder, waking the person up instantly.

Sitting bolt-upright, Takashi's eyes widened in surprise as the hood slid off of the girl's head and she looked around, sleepy green eyes filled with a mix of confusion and alarm.

Her eyes met his for a moment, and then she quickly looked away, and to Mitsukuni.

"..."

"Why are you napping in a place like this?" Honey asked the girl innocently.

"...I-I didn't mean to!" The girl said, face flushed as she looked down at her lap. Dark locks of hair hid her face, for the neat braid she had before was coming loose. She was thankful for that; these two strangers were staring at her, making her feel a bit uncomfortable. "Sorry, I'll move.. I need to get to class."

Emme reached for her bag and got up, when the blonde stopped her by grabbing onto her sleeve.

"Eh? But you can't go to class yet; lunch break just started."

"O-oh!"

There was a long pause, and then the girl gave a cry of surprise as she reached into her hoodie pockets and checked for herself what the time was on her phone.

"Noo! I- I can't! I didn't?!"

The two of them stared at the girl, surprised by her outburst.

Takashi, figuring that the girl was new, and therefore might be the friend of Renge's, asked the girl for her name. "Who are you?"

She looked up at him, and said slowly, "Emme.. Emme Hatsuhara."

The shortest one of the three gasped and smiled widely at the girl now. "Oh, you're Emme-chan! Ren-chan said you'd be coming here!"

"Mm," Takashi nodded his head.

"Um.. who are you?" Emme asked the two, feeling a little less uncomfortable. They had mentioned Ren-chan, her friend, so surely they weren't all bad.

"I'm Mitsukuni, but everyone calls me Honey!" the blonde said cheerfully, pointing at his face. "And this is my friend Takashi!"

The raven-haired boy bowed politely.

Emme nodded her head and gave a small smile. "Well, um, Honey-kun, Takashi-kun, it's nice to meet you both."

Honey opened his mouth to ask the girl to eat lunch with them when Takashi interrupted him. "Mitsukuni." just by saying the boy's name he got his point across: they needed to go and help out the club.

The blonde boy giggled and waved to Emme, "We've gotta go now! We'll see you later, Emme-chan!"

The two of them left, and Emme sat there for a moment before getting up.

Looking around, she asked aloud, "Now where.. where's the cafeteria?"

"Oh hey it's the new girl."

"Emme, right?"

Quilla: *fangirling* It's the twins' introduction next chapter!

Alice: yes yes xD way to give it away.

Quilla: eh? but I thought we made it obvious at the end

Alice: sarcasm Quilla. sarcasm.

Quilla: ooh xD

*Timezone: Emme lived in Paris until very recently. While it was 9 in the morning in Tokyo, it was 1 in the morning in Paris - so sleepytime for Emme xD