Chapter 4:

Country: Japan

Population: 127 Million

Infected: 29%

Date: Sunday • December 31 • 2016

Point of View: House Group

The group remained huddled inside a room upstairs, one of them frantically trying to call his twin, one of the others hoping to contact his crush.

"Ugh, why won't they answer anymore?"

"Relax, they might have just lost it. Or their battery died."

Tamaki's head snapped up.

"How are we supposed to know if they're okay?!"

"They can handle themselves. They know it's serious, so I highly doubt they'll do anything stupid. Their batteries probably just died. Or they're trying hard to conserve them."

"Why? Don't they have chargers?"

"I think they know the backup power will die soon. That's when they'll need to worry."

Tamaki narrowed his eyes a little at nobody in particular.

"Yeah... but now it's way to easy for them to hide horrible things that are going on over there. And you know Haruhi can get herself into bad situations all the time. Remember when we went to that private beach? And she thought it was a good idea to get in a fight with those guys?"

Honey looked down, remembering his two friends refusing to talk to one other for a good chunk of the night. At least until Kyoya scared her and prompted her and Tamaki to talk it out.

She didn't act scared, Kyoya and Tamaki saw her acting confident about the situation, when in reality what Kyoya did terrified her. Honey and Mori had always guessed that the incident was why she stopped looking at Kyoya the same way she did when she started as a host. Sometimes refusing to look him in the eye.

"Well, what if she did go and get us...? But by the time we got back something already happened? I'm not saying it was a good idea to run into trouble like that, but I can understand Haru-Chan's reasoning... those client's safety was our responsibility, and Haru-Chan knew that. She didn't feel safe leaving them alone with those guys. Besides, I thought you two made up about that?"

Kaoru spoke up.

"Plus, knowing Haruhi, she had it under control. She was probably separating them and would have run with the girls as soon as there was enough distance. She only got thrown off that cliff because you distracted her."

"Just because we made up about it doesn't mean I'm not still upset with her. She wasn't strong enough to handle them single-handedly, and she should have known that. That's not the only thing though... remember when we had that scare last year?"

That was enough to make the other hosts quiet. This time Mori was the one to speak up, having a concern in his tone that all the others noticed.

"I thought you didn't want to talk about that?"

"Right now, I do."

This made Mori's stomach sink.

"Please tell me you aren't still angry with her for that."

Tamaki nodded.

"Why wouldn't I still be upset? She consciously made a stupid decision that would have easily ruined her life had it not been a false alarm!"

"It was a false alarm though, Tama-Chan! And the way you're wording this makes it seem like this affected you worse than her! Do you think she wasn't aware of how serious that could have been?! Plus, I think you should have noticed by now..."

Tamaki cocked his eyebrow and tilted his head.

"Noticed what?"

"Tama-Chan, would Haru-Chan normally let you get upset with her without saying anything back? She was really quiet that whole time and just let you yell at her, that's not like Haru-Chan at all! Did you think this wouldn't affect her?!"

"But she still hasn't even told us who she was with! I would have hoped for at least a minor explanation on that front!"

"Tama-Chan, that's what I'm saying! It's been a year and she still doesn't talk about it! That has to mean she feels at least a little responsible! Plus, every time she does try to talk about it, you shut her up!"

Tamaki looked down, and Kyoya sighed.

"Well, Honey-Senpai is right, at least it was just a false alarm, and she wasn't actually pregnant."

Kyoya spoke again.

"I can't be certain of this... I also noticed that the silence wasn't normal for her, your explanation makes sense, Honey-Senpai... but something is telling me that there was more to that..."

"Me too, but Takashi and I don't want to press the issue with Haru-Chan if she isn't comfortable."

Tamaki huffed.

"Well, she'll have to talk eventually. Honestly she should have known better and waited till she was married. After all what if the guy she gets with cares about that and gets angry at her? I don't know about the four of you, but I don't want to see her go through something like that."

That sentence startled the whole rest of the group. Since he, up until that point, still hadn't let go of the "main character=love interest" thing. Had he accepted that Haruhi would get with someone else? That idea was so unlike Tamaki that half of them thought that it was an actual imposter speaking and not the real club president.

Honey and Mori stayed quiet, trying to ignore what Tamaki was saying, considering the guilt they were feeling for ignoring their best friend last year over something that turned out to be very minor.

But Kaoru did have a point. Something about that situation seemed off, like they were missing a serious detail—or two.

Haruhi wasn't the type of person to just let people get mad at her for those things. Usually she'd try standing her ground and defending her case. But last year, she was completely silent, she just sat still and let Tamaki get mad at her and yell at her. And even after everyone seemingly calmed down a little, Haruhi stayed quiet, and sometimes even looked like she was going to cry.

That wasn't like her at all, and Mori had known why for a long time. Which made his guilt even worse.

Not even he was sure about some of the details. The day itself was so eerily hazy that it hurt his head to try and rationalize it. One big, mess of yarn and thumbtacks. Different events as various colored strands. He couldn't pick out what happened first. Noticing Haruhi crying, her fainting. Kyoya getting mad at her for getting something red on her uniform. One big, tangled mess of "I think this happened" and "I think it happened before/after that".

It hurt his head to try and rationalize it.

But, regardless of the other foggy details, the dirty look the nurse gave Haruhi, and the conversation that Hikari and Haruhi thought was private were the only clear things from that day.

A dirty look that made Hika visibly infuriated, thanks to Haruhi's state of either mind or body—likely both. And the conversation that Mori never voiced. Something meant to stay between two people, stayed between three instead.

That look. That tone of voice. Tamaki's whole demeanor.

It reminded Mori of that nurse. Anger coursed through like water out of a broken dam. Words that he wished he had thrown at the woman for her insensitivity and audacity. She knew what happened. She knew that Haruhi and Hikaru were hurting. And yet...

Tamaki looked like that nurse. That damned nurse. Beating the couple when they were already down. Admittedly, Tamaki didn't know the true extent of the hurt. But still...

What had Haruhi done to deserve it?

"Hmm?"

Mori then realized that he'd said that sentence out loud.

"I said, what did Haruhi do to deserve it?"

Kyoya answered this time.

"I thought Tamaki made that answer very clear. She thought she was allowed to sleep with somebody before marriage without consequences."

Kaoru snapped back faster than a strike of lightning.

"Is that all you care about? Not the fact that her life could have been ruined, but that she willingly experienced something you can't even see?"

"Having something be invisible doesn't devalue its importance for some people! Why are you defending her? After she knowingly got herself into a scary situation without giving any acknowledgement as to why she was in it? After she nearly wrecked her plans for the future? Why are you defending an act like that?"

That was probably part of why Ranka was angry with Haruhi. Kaoru frowned at Tamaki's reference to Harvard, after Haruhi admitted that she was more interested in being a chef, or something else related to that.

"Because I know she doesn't deserve to get put through this! It's not that important of an asset, if I was marrying someone who wasn't a virgin, I wouldn't give a crap if I really loved them! Neither would Hika! And yet we made her feel like nobody cared about her over it. How are we supposed to expect her to trust us again?"

"Because, that treatment was for her own good. As pointed out earlier she wouldn't have learned any other way. It was necessary. We did it because we care about her."

Mori shot Tamaki a glare.

"That's your excuse? You ignored Haruhi and yelled at her for three months straight and you say that you did it because you cared?"

"Yes, I am, what's the problem?"

Mori didn't move.

"I'm just saying. If you really cared about her, you wouldn't give a flying fuck about that stupid outdated rule that only made sense three hundred years ago, and worry instead about her going to the nurse and having the risk of DYING. But no, you were too caught up in that petty anger to care, weren't you? And kept treating her like that for another two months. Hell you're still treating her like that to an extent! How do you expect Haruhi to think you all care about her?"

The two hosts went quiet, including Kaoru. Honey however jumped up and screamed what the Kyoya and Tamaki were thinking.

"Haru-Chan could've DIED?!"