Chapter 15: October (part 2)

The weeks following the autumn festival incident were awful. The twins and I were back at square one and they didn't even want to try to make amends. I went back to being another maid to them, someone to tidy their rooms and that was about it. They didn't even demand for me to go run errands for them; in fact, they were so mad that they started getting things for themselves. I only caught a few glimpses of them here and there but they both refused to even look at me. But most of the time they were out of the house, usually with their host club friends.

It seemed as though all hope was lost for me ever going back to the way things were, but everything changed on October 30th.

It was late in the evening when Yue was making herself dinner. The house was very quiet – none of the residents were home and all the help had already excused themselves to their rooms. She had just finished garnishing her ramen and was heading back upstairs when suddenly she heard a group of voices behind the front door. The lights were off so she tried to quickly move upstairs, but she wasn't fast enough.

The door opened and the lights flickered on. Ah damn.

"Hello princess! Long time no see."

Yue turned and smiled. "Ah. Yes, hello Tamaki. It has been a while, hasn't it? What brings you by?" She noticed that everyone had costumes and boxes of decorations in their hands.

"Well we're planning a Halloween event at Ouran. A haunted house filled with beautiful boys from another world." He did a turn and widened his eyes. "What do you think about that idea?"

"Um…" Yue didn't have the heart to tell him that really, a haunted house with beautiful boys didn't sound much like a haunted house at all. She put her noodles down on a ledge and walked towards the group, trying to figure out what to say. "Sounds great! I'm sure all the girls at Ouran will love it."

"But why didn't Hikaru and Kaoru tell you about this?"

"It didn't seem important Tono." The twins replied in unison.

"Uh…and besides," Yue started, "I guess we're just…not really friends so I'm not really all that offended that they didn't tell me." From the corner of her eye, Yue could see Haruhi raise an eyebrow. "I should make my leave. Sorry to disturb you all."

"Wait!" Tamaki called, "It would be rude to allow you to leave before I could formally invite you." He took Yue's hand and knelt down on one knee, looked up into her eyes and asked, "Miss Yue, it be our pleasure to have you attend the Host Club Haunted House tomorrow evening."

Yue's heart did a pitter-patter.

"Oi, lay off the charm. She's just a maid!" one of the twins called. The other shrugged and crossed his arms, seeming to agree.

"Well, it's no way to treat a lady." Tamaki stood with Yue's hand still in his. "Please, princess. It would be lovely if you could come."

She began to panic and shake her head. "I couldn't Tamaki, really. I'm not…I'm just not the haunted house type of girl. And…" she noticed Tamaki's eyes fall, and a frown began to find its way on his face. Yue sighed and said, "actually, maybe I can go after all."

Tamaki grinned and jumped for joy. He squeezed Yue's hand and said, "You'll have a great time Yue, I'm sure of it!"

Yue glanced over at the twins; one looked annoyed and the other was giving her a very faint smile. They both beckoned for the rest of the group to follow them up the stairs, leaving Yue alone with herself once again. She picked up her ramen and took a bite.

"Aw, they've gone cold."

"Yue-senpai?"

Yue looked up. At the top of the stairs stood Haruhi, looking very concerned. She coughed and said, "Haruhi, aren't you supposed to be upstairs planning your haunted house with the others?"

Haruhi began to walk down the steps. "Kyoya-senpai has everything taken care of. They don't really need me here, I think they just want to put me in an angel costume."

"O-oh."

Haruhi met Yue at the bottom of the stairs and gestured for them to sit on the bottom steps. Once Yue sat down, Haruhi asked, "Is there anything going on between you and Hikaru and Kaoru?"

"You mean they didn't tell you?"

Haruhi shook her head and said, "They've just been acting weird. Weirder than they usually do. And I thought maybe you'd know."

Yue slouched and put her face in her hands. "Haruhi it's not fair. How am I supposed to tell them apart? How is anyone supposed to be able to tell them apart? They don't make it easy and they say you're wrong if you're right but then they just…they get so mad if you are wrong. What am I supposed to do?"

Haruhi nodded, understanding. "Hikaru and Kaoru are very sensitive, even if it doesn't always seem that way."

"Can't you tell them apart? How do you do it?"

"I don't know. I wish I could tell you. Hikaru is Hikaru and Kaoru is Kaoru and that's as simple as I can make it." Haruhi frowned and pulled her knees up to her chest. "But, I don't think that they hate you."

"Come on Haruhi, you saw the way that they treated me."

"It's different. The first few times I met you is when they hated you. But then they started to like you. They talked about you sometimes at school."

"They talked about me?"

Haruhi smiled and said, "Yeah. They'd sometimes mention hanging out with you over the weekend and Hikaru told me about meeting your family. Tamaki-senpai always asked why they never brought you around but they'd never answer." She paused and then stood and continued, "Yue, I think they want to be your friend, they just don't know how yet."

"Well it doesn't matter because it's all been ruined anyway."

"You should come to the haunted house. Even if it doesn't help you, you're always welcome to talk to me."

Yue laughed and said, "Thanks Haruhi. You're a good friend."

The next night Hikaru and Kaoru took me to Ouran High School in their lim. The ride there was in complete silence, with the twins sitting on one side of the car and me on the other. They were wearing matching devil costumes, and I had on an old leather jacket and ripped jeans. I felt ridiculous being so nervous around them, but I knew that trying to start a conversation would be like walking on eggshells.

When we arrived at their school, they immediately ditched me and ran off to their clubhouse, leaving me to wander the hallways alone.

"Hello?" Yue called out. "Is there anyone there?" She walked through bright pink hallways, wondering how anyone managed to get around the school – it was huge!

She turned down another corridor, but it was hopeless. Everywhere looked the same. And almost all the doors were locked. Yue sighed to herself and leaned against the wall. She was lost and no one was going to find her now. Suddenly, all the lights went out and she heard the faint sound of a music box.

"Guys?" she called out hesitantly. She looked around, but it was pitch black and she couldn't see much further than a few inches in front of her face. She gulped, but decided to follow the music as it was her best chance to get back to the others.

Yue put one hand on the wall to guide her through the hall. She felt her heart pumping faster, even though she continually told herself that there was nothing to be afraid of. "It's a haunted house for beautiful boys. It's not supposed to be scary."

Thump, thump, thump went a set of footsteps behind Yue. She turned, breathing heavily. "H-hello?" No one responded to her. She turned back and kept walking when she heard another thump, thump, thump. This time, when she turned, she tripped over her feet and fell to the ground. Before she had time to pick herself up, something grabbed her left ankle. Yue screamed gave whatever it was a swift kick with her free foot and then got up and ran as fast as she could. Down the hallway and around a corner when there was a flash of light and something resembling the Grudge was illuminated.

"HOLY FUCK!" Yue screeched before turning and sprinting away as fast she could. She could hear other screams behind her but she didn't stop to worry about them. She began pulling on all the doors before she found one of the unlocked janitor closets. She slammed the door shut, turned on a light, and then sat in the corner of the room, head buried in her knees. Tears started to fall down her cheeks and onto the floor. She was so scared. Scared and alone.

Half an hour had passed and Yue still hadn't moved. She didn't want to go back out into Ouran's halls alone, but she knew that no one was going to come to her rescue.

The closet door was suddenly pushed open. "YUE!"

She looked up and saw Hikaru and Kaoru standing in the doorway. She breathed and sigh of relief and sniffled. "You guys came looking for me?"

One twin stepped towards her and sat down on her left. "Sure."

The other twin followed suit and sat on Yue's right. "Why did you come in here?"

Yue shook her head and managed a weak chuckle. She said, "I don't know…it was the first open door I found. I was…really scared. Your haunted house was better than I thought it would be."

"You didn't even walk through the whole thing. You ran in the opposite direction."

"Oh." Yue suddenly felt very embarrassed. She always believed that she wasn't easy to scare and now here she was, afraid of the entrance to a haunted house. "Well you guys did good."

"Listen…" one twin started, grabbing her hand, "we were talking."

"And we decided…" the other twin continued, grabbing her other hand.

They looked at each other, nodded, and then finished, "We're sorry."

Yue was in shock. She took a few deep breaths before asking, "Really? You mean that?" They nodded in affirmation. She leaned her head back and then asked, "Well…what made you change your minds?"

"I just…didn't want everything to turn back into a pumpkin again."

"Huh?" Yue tilted her head, "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't want everything to fall apart if we open up to other people. Hikaru and I don't have many friends, so we're trying to…trying to keep everything the way it is until it all unravels. And you were changing how things were supposed to be. So when your friend said that we didn't mean anything to you…"

"It's as though the transformation started?" Yue asked. Kaoru nodded.

The three gave a collective sigh. "So what do we do now?" Hikaru asked.

"That depends," Yue started, "on what I am to you. Am I your maid or am I your friend? Am I someone you want to hang out with because you like me or because you're bored? Or…do you just want me around so no one else can have me?"

The twins stood and looked down at Yue. They each offered her a hand to help her up. Kaoru said, "Tonight you're our guest to the Host Club Halloween After-Party."

Yue smiled and said, "I'd love to go."

We walked down to the Host Club clubroom and enjoyed a night full of candy, soda, and Halloween spirit. Most of the other guests were customers of the host club, and they were actually pretty welcoming. I spent most of the night at Haruhi's table but I'd look over at the twins occasionally. They mostly flirted with each other (which made me shudder) but sometimes they would look back at me and smile.

It was actually a pretty fun night. And even though I still had no idea where I stood with Hikaru and Kaoru, at least things were looking better.

After the party was over, the twins and Yue said their goodbyes and walked to the limo. They all climbed in and sat on the same side. They were all pretty exhausted from the long night, but Yue had to ask them, "Hey, tonight I was your party guest…what am I going to be to you two tomorrow?"

Their faces had gone hard. Yue knew that meant nothing good. One twin brushed a lock of her hair back and said, "It's complicated."

Yue shook her head. "No. No it doesn't have to be. You like me. I like you. How much more simple can it get than that?"

"Yeah," the other twin started, "but I think you've already started referring us to 'twin on your left' and 'twin on your right' by now. Haven't you?"

"You don't know which one of us is which anymore; isn't that right Yue?"

Yue was at a loss for words once again. Was this always going to be their default argument whenever they made progress? She let her hair fall into her face, which was all the answer that the twins needed.

"I thought you didn't want things to go back to being a pumpkin? Was that all a lie?" she asked desperately.

One twin looked at her, pity in his eyes. "Yue, you have to understand that we're always going to put each other first. We don't want the carriage to turn into a pumpkin, but it's what's going to happen eventually. I know you don't understand. I know it's not fair. But it's just easier if we all keep our distance."

"That's a defeatist attitude Kaoru and you know it!" Yue said furiously, "I don't understand how you two keep up with yourselves. One minute you're apologizing and want to take me to a party and the next minute you're telling me you want nothing to do with me anymore. Can't you just pick one side and stick with it? You're both putting me through hell and I want to tear my hair out. At this point it might actually be better if we did go back. Hating you was easier than dealing with this mess!"

The limo came to a halt and the group was outside the Hitachiin mansion. Yue was about to get out when a voice said, "Hey, why'd you think I was Kaoru?"

Yue turned to look at the twins. She shook her head and said, "I don't know. A long time ago you said I was getting better at guessing. Maybe now it's finally showing. I have no reasoning, I guess, besides the fact that you were talking about pumpkins earlier." She got out and started walking up the front steps. "And anyway" she called over her shoulder, "Kaoru, you're much more reserved. The defeatist attitude fits you better than it does Hikaru."

Yue heard the twins whispering to themselves but didn't look back. She walked straight into the house and up to her room. The twins could sort their own problems out, she figured, but she knew exactly where she stood. She sat down on her bed and took a deep breath. "Geez, no one told me this job was going to be so complicated." She fell over on to her side. "This is not what I signed up for at all."

There was a knock on her door. Yue quickly sat up and called, "Come in!"

A twin walked in, one hand scratching the back of his neck. His eyes refused to meet hers. "Hey, listen…about today…"

"It's…nothing, really." Yue reassured. "You've made yourselves clear. This was supposed to be a professional relationship anyways."

"A bit late for that, don't you think?" he asked teasingly, eyes suddenly mischievous. "Already kissed your bosses and worked your way into their circle of high and powerful friends."

"Well, I try." Yue responded, a smirk starting to form on her face. "You really like to poke fun at me whenever you can, don't you?"

"Depends. Can I sit?"

Yue nodded and the twin sat down on the opposite side of her bed. Yue moved over and asked, "So where's your brother?"

"In his room. I just wanted to talk to you alone."

"Who are you?"

The twin only grinned and said, "You know, I think I'll let you try and figure it out for yourself. You are getting better at it. That was Kaoru earlier you know. We were both surprised."

"You shouldn't be." Yue said dismissively. "It was still only a guess. I'm no Haruhi. So…what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

He thought about his words carefully and then said, "We have our own little world, you know? It's hard for us to bring in more people, more friends. We were so against letting anyone in. We didn't even want to join the host club. It's like, everyone was an enemy to us because they didn't care. Hikaru, Kaoru. It made no difference. Girls especially, didn't care about which twin they got so long as one of us. It's not anything personal. It's just who we are, and we thought you should know that."

Yue tried to take this information in and said, "So it's impossible for any kind of friendship to work?"

"Not impossible."

"This is ridiculous. We're going through so much trouble, doesn't that prove anything?"

"Why do you even want to be our friend Yue? We're not nice to anyone, we live in a bubble, we're mean to you and apparently your friends. Everyone else hates us, why do you bother even trying?" his eyes met hers and he winced.

"Because I've seen the other sides of you. Because, even though you've done awful things, you can be really cool people. My family likes you, Sora and Misaki like you, and clearly you have your own set of friends who must like you since they're around you so much. If you two would just open up a little bit more you'd realize that life will greet you with open arms. But if you stay closed off you're just going to hurt and be hurt."

They sat looking at each other for a few minutes, neither one knowing what to say. Finally, the twin leaned forward and kissed Yue's forehead. He got off her bed and headed for the door. He turned back, just slightly, and said, "Thanks, Yue."

"You're welcome."

"Did you figure it out? Which twin I am?"

Yue shook her head no. "I'm sorry. I wish I knew. I wish more than anything that I knew. But I haven't the slightest idea."

He looked at the ground, a look of disappointment spreading across his face. "Good night."