— Chapter 01—

A Bunch of Weirdos Called the Host Club

A school library should have been relatively noiseless on some level, especially if there were more than one in the building. This clearly wasn't the case at Ouran Academy. I ran back and forth between all three, hearing incessant chatter among students before even completely opening the doors to each of them. Maybe going to such a fancy school was a little overrated.

The top floor of the south wing seemed to be one of the only remaining options. Upon taking this into account, I let out a sigh and made my way up the grand, red-carpeted staircase.

I stared at one of the first pairs of double doors that caught my eye, debating on whether to open them or not. A sign hung above it with an intricately detailed golden frame around it. It read: Music Room 3.

No sound seemed to be coming from inside, but I still felt a little wary. I didn't want to walk into a room full of people who were in the middle of something. Placing my ear to the surface of the door and still hearing nothing, I figured I'd give it a shot; the worst that could happen was an awkward situation. However, I certainly didn't expect to see what I did see once I turned the knobs and pushed the doors open.

I was first blinded by a bright light. I wasn't sure if I was being played around with or if this was some sort of photography club. "Not here," I thought, helplessly trying to feel for the door to shut it. Rose petals were being blown into my face.

"Welcome!" a chorus of friendly voices called out.

I gulped. "I'm not dead, am I?" I muttered.

After I was almost sure that my soul was going to drift upwards, I could see my surroundings more clearly. I was relieved to find out that the petals and the light were only effects, and I could now make out what the room I'd walked into looked like.

There were six guys who stood in front of me (except for one; he was sitting in the center). Two of them were identical twins. They stood in a very confident stance, and their mischievous grins somehow complimented their short red hair. A little boy with blond hair stood next to a man with black hair who towered over all of them. The one sitting in the chair, who was also blond, appeared to be a rather princely and charming man. He was smiling at me from where he was.

There were two other guys as well. I first looked at the boy with brown hair and a warm smile, and then turned my head towards the other man. I barely got a glimpse of him, though, since my eyes immediately snapped towards the one I first looked at.

This wasn't a boy. This was a friend of mine that I could have recognized from a mile away. I'd known about her haircut, but it looked much more neat than she usually wore it. I just wondered what she was doing in a guy's uniform.

She laughed. "Hiroshi?" she asked. "Don't tell me you're a customer."

"Huh? What are you doing here, Haruhi?"

"You know her?" one of the twins asked straightforwardly, breaking the supposedly dream-like aura that surrounded all of us.

"She has classes with us, you weirdos," Haruhi replied blankly, rolling her eyes. "You really haven't noticed?"

He took a good long look at me before responding. "Oh, right," he and his brother replied in unison. "She's the one who doesn't wear a uniform."

One twin eyed me carefully and then walked over to me with the other. "We've got a cutie on our hands," the both of them chuckled. Their faces were a little too close to mine for my liking.

There wasn't much room for me to speak.

The blond, princely-looking guy pushed him out of the way to take his place inches away from my face. "My darling," he began, tracing his finger along my jaw line. "Join us, will you? I'll shower you with the love that beauties like you deserve."

"Personal bubble here," I replied sternly, stepping back farther than an arm's reach from him.

The one man I hadn't seen had his back facing me and began speaking to the blond. "Now, now. Don't scare her off."

"But Mommy!" the blond whined with a pout on his face.

He completely disregarded this melodramatic guy's complaints and turned around to face me, and I was able to get a clearer look at his phsyical appearance.

His raven-colored hair was parted to the left, and a few stray bangs fell across his forehead. He had a very fair complexion seemed to contrast that dark hair color of his greatly. It also seemed that his version of a smile involved a closed mouth and the resemblance of a smirk; the left corner of his mouth was tugged up just slightly more than the other side.

He pushed his glasses up just slightly with his middle and index fingers. "I apologize for his... whimsical nature," he began. "I certainly hope he hasn't given you the wrong impression of our club."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" the blond shouted indignantly.

The guy with glasses peered over at the blond with a blank expression and then sighed, turning back towards me. "Allow me introduce myself properly; my name is Kyouya Ootori. I'm a second-year," he said. "I suppose you could consider me the manager of our host club."

I eyed him with a weird expression on my face. I didn't even know that host clubs were even real, much less that there would be one at the school I attended. "I see," I replied awkwardly.

"From what I've heard, you're another one of our honor students," he continued, opening a thin black notebook and scribbling something down. "Hiroshi Katou... this is also a common boys' name, is it not?"

"Uh, you know my last name?" I queried.

He didn't do so much as shift his attention from what he was scribbling down.

Before I could speak up again, Haruhi turned towards me. "So what are you doing here?" she inquired.

"I asked you first," I replied, laughing halfheartedly. "I was just looking for some peace and quiet, but all of the libraries were too noisy. Ironic, huh? So much for that."

"Contemplating your next design?"

"You could say that," I replied with a shrug. "By the way, mind telling me why you look like some cute teenage boy who stepped right out of a shoujo manga?"

"It's because she's trying to," one of the twins said, resting his elbow on Haruhi's shoulder.

"Uh, you could've told me about your preferences sooner, you know," I stated blankly.

I didn't really care which gender she preferred; I just thought I'd be one of the first people she told in addition to her dad.

Haruhi sighed and shook her head from side to side in attempts to get rid of my confusion. "No, no. You've got it all wrong. You see..." she began.

Her voice trailed off once the twins had fallen to the floor in a fit of violent laughter.

"Shut up, guys!" Haruhi huffed with a scowl, crossing her arms.

Kyouya, the only one whose name I knew at the moment, pushed his hand to his forehead and sighed. "This isn't how you treat a guest, Hikaru and Kaoru."

The both of them stood up again before wiping their tears. "Sorry, Kyouya-senpai."

"So as I was saying before being rudely interrupted,—" Haruhi glared at the twins momentarily, "—I have act as a male host in order to pay my debt to the club. I accidentally knocked one of their vases over and it shattered to pieces. Tamaki-senpai over there practically pushed me into it."

"For breaking a vase? Why couldn't they just replace it with another one?" I asked suspiciously.

She sighed. "Well, at a school like this, with people like this, each piece of furniture and decoration costs a lot. The vase itself was worth eight million yen."

My eyes widened. "What kind of person would think of—?!"

"Trust me, you're not the only one who's surprised here," she muttered, looking towards the other hosts with an irritable expression on her face.

"Then I guess they're really that wealthy, huh," I said nervously as I looked in the direction of the others as well.

"That's an understatement."

"Welcome, pretty lady!" the littlest of the group giggled, jumping up and scurrying over to me.

He looked like more of an elementary school student to me; that uniform must have been made in a much smaller size than the others.

"Hi there," I smiled. "I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name before."

"Haninozuka Mitsukuni, but Hani-senpai is fine!"

"Senpai?" I accidentally muttered.

"Oh, I'm a student here! I'm a third-year," he giggled with a good-natured, sweet smile on face.

I almost gasped as a response. It was difficult to believe that someone three-quarters of my size was two years my senior. I was already short enough as it was, too.

I stared at the pink stuffed bunny that he was squeezing to death as he looked in the direction of the tallest guy.

"Takashi!" he half-shouted and half-giggled. "Come over here! Introduce yourself to Hiro-chan!"

Once he made his way over, he seemed to tower over me.

"Nice to meet you," I replied with a nervous smile.

"Hello."

He certainly seemed more stoic than the others. "Morinozuka Takashi," he muttered with a throaty and monotonous tone of voice. "Mori."

"Now that you've officially met everyone, Hiroshi, would you care to be one of our customers?" Tamaki asked.

"No thanks."

"Why not, my dear?" he asked, tracing his fingertips along my lips with a seductive expression on his face that made me incredibly uncomfortable.

"Back up, buddy," I muttered, smacking his hand away.

"You seem pretty close with Hiroshi, Haruhi," Hikaru said. "Have you guys met before?"

"We've been friends since elementary school," she replied blankly as though she'd already said it a million times before.

Hikaru and Kaoru eyed me up and down. "Oh, another commoner? Figured as much."

Haruhi merely raised an eyebrow at them, as if she already heard them call her a commoner in the past.

"So, what's she going to do here if she doesn't wanna be a guest?" the twins asked in unison.

"Actually, it's alright," I replied. "I've gotta get a few other things done, anyways. I'll find another room."

I backed away slowly, turned around, and began pacing a little more quickly towards the door.

To my dismay, my attempted exit didn't go as smoothly as I hoped it would. I tripped on my shoelace and landed on the floor with a thud as a few loose pages in my sketchbook flew up.

"Ah, really," I muttered.

It wasn't too long before I saw a pair of legs in front of me, and I looked up slowly to see that Kyouya was standing above me with an odd expression on his face. After a few seconds had gone by, he held his hand out. What the heck was with this guy?

"I'm alright," I said quickly, standing up on my own and dusting myself off. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to—"

"You missed a spot," he said, looking at my left arm.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you..."

"It seems that your sleeve has dirt on it," he replied matter-of-factly, pulling me closer by my shoulder and dusting my arm off with his free hand.

I figured I'd let him help me a bit since it would only last for a second or two, but he stood in that stance for quite a while as he continued to pat my sleeve. The way he leaned in undoubtedly made me feel even more uneasy.

"Are you finished?" I asked, peering into his face.

His hand gradually came to a stop, and he looked back up. Our faces were way too close for comfort, but for some reason, I found myself unable to move.

Slowly, the corner of his mouth began to tug up again. Something weird was going on in my chest; my heart seemed to be beating a little faster than usual.

"Are you alright, Miss?" he asked in a cordial tone of voice despite his smug expression. "Your cheeks are rather flushed."

"It's just hot in here," I muttered irritably as I jumped away from his grip.

The twins began to giggle. "How's that possible? The school's ventilation systems in are flawless!"

Narrowing my eyes, I hoped my face would get back to its normal pigment. Unfortunately, I could still feel my cheeks burning slightly.

I puffed my cheeks up and exhaled before seeing the pair picking up a few of the loose sketches that had fallen out. Before I could say anything, one of them began to make remarks about them.

"Hm," Kaoru began. "Hikaru, check this out, will you?"

After his twin took a second to look over, he stared at the paper with a pensive expression on his face. "They're really not half bad," Hikaru replied.

I jogged over in an attempt to retrieve the sketches from them. "Could I have those back, please?"

The twins persisted. "No, let us see them! You know, they'd be great designs for..."

Their voices trailed off. They turned to look at each other more slowly than their grins took over their faces. "Hey, Boss!" they called out in unison, turning towards Tamaki. "Aren't we wearing yukata for our meeting this week?"

"Why do you ask?" Tamaki wondered in a melodic tone.

They held the sketches up. "Let's make something out of these!"

Tamaki took a little while to process their statement, and they turned towards me again. "We didn't know you designed," Hikaru said.

"I mentioned it to Haruhi earlier. Weren't you listening? Hey, give it back! Sheesh," I huffed, "I never said you could—"

"These really are great, Hiro-chan!" Hani cut in, becoming starry-eyed at one of the designs. "Could we use them?"

I peered over at my sketch pad. "Wouldn't you guys prefer to hire a professional?"

Kyouya sighed. "We know better than to let our wealth go down the drain so easily. These sketches would likely do the job; this may very well save time and money."

Hani-senpai looked at me with his humongous puppy eyes, clenching onto his pink stuffed bunny. "Please, Hiro-chan?"

I told myself I wouldn't give in despite the fact that it would be really difficult not to go along with this cute kid.

Smacking my hand onto my forehead, I'd immediately remembered that he was a high school student.

I sighed and opened my eyes back up. "Well... if it'll really be easier for you, I don't see why not."

"Lovely!" Tamaki sang. "Hikaru and Kaoru, scan these sketches immediately," he instructed as the twins saluted him and ran off with my sketchbook. He then turned in the other direction. "Kyouya! Find someone who can turn designs into pure magicalness!"

"Magicalness, Tama-chan?" Hani wondered out loud. "Is that really a word?"

"Boss has always been this way; don't be too surprised," the twins whispered to me simultaneously once they caught sight of my confused expression. "He likes to make the most of life by over-dramaticizing things."

I figured as much. I had to admit, though, I was looking forward to seeing my designs come to life. It couldn't hurt to find out this so-called host club was really about, anyways.