Ouran High School Host Club Fan Fiction ❯ The Solitary Twin ❯ First Day In Class ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I do not own Bisco Hatori's Ouran High School Host Club and I also do not make profit of this fic

Chapter 3

Etsu learned a valuable lesson the next day in school... She loathed teachers with a passion. As soon as she had set foot in the cursed very full classroom, the bastard teacher had greeted her with some bullshit small talk about being happy to have her there. Not pleased with that, the man that was going to be her sensei until she found a way to get the hell out of Japan clapped his hands a couple of times to get her 'temporary' classmates to take their seats so she could introduce herself.

That was why she hated it. There was nothing worse than having at least a couple of dozen pairs of eyes belonging to strangers appraising you from head to toe to see if you were lacking. She wasn't conceited or shy, but she sure hated it when people measured her through narrow-eyed stares. It was like when both her and her sister had gone to school for the first time... Everyone in the small colorful pre-school room had just spun their heads at the same time to openly gawk at them as if they had come from another planet.

The only difference now was that she was older and alone. No mirror-like copy of her was standing by her side. Only her standing there with placid features and a rigidly straight back as her eyes stared vacantly ahead of her.

"Now, class, this is Sakoi Etsu and though she is natively from Japan, she has been studying abroad in England..." and just like she knew they would, everyone stared and some people in the sea of unfamiliar faces were open enough to start whispering behind their hands while eyeing her.

This stupid mother-fucker..., keeping her left eyebrow from twitching at the teacher's tone that reminded her of a Japanese version of Barney for some reason, she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from cursing at him.

I can feel it coming... 'Now, give a warm welcome to Sakoi-san and show her some Ouran hospitality'.

"- and I hope that all of you show her some Ouran hospitality."

Not quite, but close. I've got this routine shit all figured out.

"Sakoi-san," she looked at the teacher as he spoke and a small dose of satisfaction almost had her cracking a smile at seeing how he blanched a couple of shades at her heavy stare, "do-do you wish to say anything to your new class-classmates?" his faltering voice was humorous to her, but she managed to mentain her face relaxed, devoid of any emotion.

"No, sensei, may I please take my seat?" her tone was monotone, soft and so blastedly girlish, though the flatness of it had her new teacher's Adam's apple bobbing apprehensively. She loved to create that effect on people. It was best to let everyone in Ouran know that she didn't desire to make any friends. Getting attached to at least one person among the strangers currently gaping at her would make it difficult for her to return to her real friends in England.

Somewhere in the classroom a loud snort rung out and she stiffened upon hearing it because she knew who it belonged to without looking. It had to be one of the twits she had insulted the day before at that man-whore-she meant host club thing.

Refusing to acknowledge the boy who had made the scornful nasal sound, her eyes didn't so much as flicker in his direction.

I promised everyone and if I let any of the losers in this school to see the true me, all of the work I put into my transformation would have gone to waste.

"Ah... yes! How rude of me..." clearly wanting to get her the hell away from him, he nervously signalled towards an empty desk that was close to the door of the classroom. "That wo-would be your seat Sa-Sakoi-san..." his stuttering was begining to irritate her.

Quickly dismissing him, she frowned at the seat and then mentally shrugged before walking over to sit down on the stiff wooden seat, settling her school-issued bag next to her legs.

Stupid seats. Isn't the Teacher's Pet the one supposed to sit close to the door? I hate sitting close to doors. Everyone that walks in here is going to see me first.

What was her first day actually taking class in Ouran began like any normal first day in school. The teacher saying side-comments her way about what they had been working on before she had enrolled in the damned academy and students quietly working on the in-class assignments given to them.

It was tedious merely sitting there working on shit she already knew. She had heard that Ouran Academy was a one of the most prestigious schools in Asia. A school that not only boasted the highest creme de la creme in Japanese society, but also some wealthy Europeans and Americans. She had yet to see any actual foreigners in the school, but she had done some research before leaving England so she knew that there were rich brats from all over in the stupid place.

For being such a high and mightly academic wonder, they were sure behind on the study schedule. The stuff given to her to 'catch up' had been taught to her a year earlier. That was why she thought that the school wasn't all that wondrous... then again the boarding school she had gone to gave classes from eight in the morning to five-thirty. Nine hellish hours in a single classroom with a habit-wearing nun talking in a drone-like voice about history, math and so on. At least, she had to give her new teacher some credit for not boring her into a nap or into her dreaded escape plan called 'Step B' which was safely hidden in a safe-compartment in her new school bag.

I should have pulled it out when mother started her fit last night. She hates my theatrics.

No one knew what 'device' she carried around, but her mother had seen her pull the 'Etsu Suicide Escape Method' far too many times to believe it anymore. The last time she had pulled out the noose she carried still made her smile.

She had draped it over the staircase at a dinner party while loudly declaring that she would kill herself because her mother wanted her to date some pimply-faced heir of some well-known hotel line. It had been so shameful to Sakoi Sayuri to have the English aristocracy and celebrities seeing her daughter doing such a morbid humorless act. The woman actually had a nervous breakdown that led her to be hospitalized for three weeks. Just the image of her fainting after giving a high-pitched scream of terror had Etsu's heart fill with joy.

I have to change my escape plan. Maybe carry a razor to pretend to slit my wrists...

However, just because her mother no longer believed the suicide routine, didn't mean that people that didn't know of her usual antics wouldn't be convinced by it.

Etsu was proud to say that she was flawless at acting. In fact, before leaving England, she had practiced endlessly in front of her mirror in making her face as a cool as possible. Her friends had helped in changing her hair color and getting her black contact lenses that looked 'normal' since most contacts in that color were meant to look falsely freakish. For hours, she had acted out the 'corpse Etsu' in front of her giggling friends that were stunned by the attitude change.

Being trully bitter inside, her 'new Etsu transformation' was coming naturally. She hated being surrounded by happy strangers and being inside the same house as her mother that was always glaring at her when she thought she wasn't looking. Only the girls at her old home knew what she was hiding. They knew of her craziness. In fact whenever something of the messy variety happened in the school, everyone would just say 'Etsu did it, duh'.

The thing was that she was indeed a cold person. It was rare for her to allow anyone in. Most of the people she was open with were people that had befriended her soon after her arrival in England eight years earlier. Other than that, the other girls had thought she was a stuck up, rather intimidating bitch.

She just wasn't good at handling strangers or showing them the nice side of her. People that had just met her always discovered that she was a very disturbed individual that had a knack for pulling pranks, having a dark sense of humor and being crudely sarcastic. She had done so many things to unsuspecting victims over the past couple of years, that nothing really impressed her anymore. The fun of her stunts had begun to lose their allure. Now, she mainly did them to get revenge, cause her friends to laugh during a long boring day or to escape the school altogether.

"How could you, Etsu?!" her mother shrieked at her red-faced while Etsu stared at her boredly. "Do you know how humiliating it was to have Yuzuha find out exactly what kind of monster you are?!"

"It wasn't humiliating to me, but to you, mother dearest," to rub it in, she said the words lowly without any hint of emotion. It was just a blunt fact. She hadn't shamed herself. Sayuri was the one that had been embarrassed.

Her mother's face became an ugly shade of mottled red at her words.

"You... You have to be a demon!" gripping her hair, her mother's own violet eyes stared at her in both terror and disbelief, "Just what the hell are you?!"

"A demon," she calmly answered.

"That's it! Go to your room!" feeling pleased at her mother's order, Etsu turned with a military sharpness to gracefully head to the grand staircase leading to the second floor.

"And don't you even dare come down to dinner until you have apologized to those boys."

Yeah, right. It'd be a cold day in hell before she did that. That very morning before she had been driven to school, the head maid of the manor had given her a note that Sayuri had left before going to the main Sakoi offices speaking of just that.

The note had been simple:

You are only allowed to leave to go to school.
You will have all of your meals in your room
and are NOT allowed to go out on weekends...

The rest of the letter was of course utter nonsense. She had already balled it up and tossed it out the window of the moving limo before completely reading the dumb thing.

She must think I'm a pushover. What a idiotic woman.

Feeling rather proud of her strategy, she smiled inwardly during the rest of the morning classes.

***

I really hope no one is in the girl's bathroom!, Fujioka Haruhi rushed through the hallways, mentally repeating that as a mantra. She usually used the bathroom in the music room that was employed for the host club, but on that day someone had decided to lock the doors until club hours. It wasn't the first time something like that had happened and it was annoying to her that she had let her guard down again. Normally, in that kind of situation, she would run quickly into the girl's restroom and lock herself into a stall until all feminine voices faded away.

She really had to go! Just running at such a breakneck speed was making her bladder contract painfully.

And there was no way in hell she was going into men's bathroom. How would she explain to other guys why she didn't use the urinals? As far as she knew the stalls in male restrooms were only used for... well, doing something that wasn't urinating. To top it off, she had heard that all male restrooms were filthy even in such a school as Ouran.

She wasn't willing to risk it.

Finally reaching a door with a small sign with a pink feminine siluehette drawn on it, she pushed it and ran blindly into the nearest stall.

Sighing in relief at her luck at not hearing any other girl's there, she set out to do her 'business' after locking the small swinging door of the stall.

That was when she heard it.

"Stupid contacts. Why the fuck didn't I just get some eye tint to make them black? Damn it!" the hissing voice that came from a couple stalls from hers was eerily familiar. Haruhi was having a hard time placing the voice with a face. Besides that, it was the first time she had actually heard a girl in Ouran curse so openly.

"Man! My freaking eye is on fire! I'm so stupid!" some gasps followed those furious loud whispers.

Gulping, she tried her best to finish quickly to not be discovered by the angry girl she had yet to see. Zipping up her pants after flushing the toilet, she opened the door of the stall to rush out as silently as she had arrived towards one of the sinks for a quick rinse of her hands when the female voice called out.

"Oi! I need some help here!"

Wincing with her back towards the girl that had shouted that, she slowly turned around to see the new girl, Sakoi Etsu stepping out of the last stall in the bathroom with one hand rubbing her teary left eye vigorously.

"Hellooooo...?" Sakoi's voice had an edge of annoyance and Haruhi guessed that she wasn't surprised at her appearance since one of her eyes was covered while the other one was scrunched shut in a grimace.

I guess I have no choice then. Hopefully she won't scream about a 'boy' being in the girl's bathroom once she gets a good look at me.

"Um... yeah," she began awkwardly not knowing how to approach the unfamiliar girl that was waiting for her response.

"Could you please help me? I'm new with the whole contact lenses thing and some dust fell in my eye. When I rubbed it kind of fell out and now I can't get it back in," her voice was as soft as in the classroom earlier that morning yet Haruhi was somewhat shocked to see that the girl wasn't as formidable as everyone had begun to suspect.

"Sure...," murmuring that lowly, she supposed that the sooner the girl had her lens back in the place, the sooner she could leave. Maybe even escape without having her real gender detected.

"Thanks."

Reaching the girl, she timidly asked, "Do you have the lens with you right now?"

"Yeah...," raising the one hand that wasn't covering her hurting eye, Sakoi showed her a curiously dark lens that was bent in half in the middle of her palm.

It's obvious she doesn't know a thing about contacts if she held it in a fist like that.

"We'll need to clean it," Haruhi sighed mentally. All she had wanted to do was go to the bathroom.

Making a face without opening the eye that wasn't hurt, Sakoi said flatly, "Front pocket of my bag. There's some cleaning solution there."

Okay... I'm lucky she's in too much pain to open that eye., looking about the large pale bathroom, her eyes spotted a school bag thrown on the floor right in front of the stall Sakoi had been inhabiting. The girl must have tossed the thing there because some of the bag's contents had spilled on the floor.

Though it felt odd to go through someone else's bag, Haruhi knew there was no other choice. The girl's eye was probably itching and burning so much that she probably couldn't see straight even if she wanted to. Using contact lenses herself, she knew the feeling all too well.

After giving her a last wary glance, she headed over to the bag to search for what she needed. Finding the cleaning liquid as well as some eyedrops, she took a deep breath and faced the girl, prepared to do the task at hand.  

The work was done in silence; not like they needed to talk during it. All Haruhi had to do is take the mangled plastic lens from Sakoi's hand, squirt some liquid on it, rub it until any dirt on it was rinsed off and see if she could clean her teary eye.

When the lens have been cleaned, she began to have her doubts again. Now she needed to carefully open the girl's eye to put some eyedrops and the lens. The girl in front of her said she couldn't put it back in so it was logical to think that she would have to do it for her.

Murmuring some apologies to the strange girl for imposing in her personal space, she gently tilted her head back and slowly pryed the girl's fingers from the eye was surrounded by red puffy skin.

Now Haruhi felt bad for having wanted to rush out of the bathroom moments earlier. One look at Sakoi's eye was enough to tell her that if it didn't get taken care of soon, she could get an infection.

It took some gentle coaxing to get her to relax enough to open that eye and when she did, Haruhi was confused at see that among the bloodshot white was a nearly purple orb that looked luminous under the harsh light of the bathroom.

Frowning, she looked at the lens she had readied on the tip of her index finger.

Why the heck would she want to cover her eyes up with this? It doesn't make that much sense.

Shaking her head of her questions, saying inwardly that it was none of her business, she applied some eyedrops as Sakoi gasped and blinked rapidly at the odd sensation of the liquid falling on her sore eye.

Seeing that she was as ready as she would ever be, Haruhi set out about putting the lens in. Thankfully, Sakoi knew how to stay perfectly still and barely even flickered an eyelash when she slid the pitch black lens over the deep violet iris.

"Should have figured you were a girl."

Her eyes widened as she backed away from Sakoi that blinked and grimaced, trying to get used to having the lens back in.

But she hadn't even been looking at me!

Once she stopped making a face of discomfort, Sakoi eyed her up and down measuringly through narrow dark eyes. It was nerveracking for Haruhi. There was absolutely nothing in the other girl's face that said she was even surprised about her 'secret'.

"Thanks for the eye thing," her jaw dropped as Sakoi casually shrugged before turning around to pick up the discarded school bag. Staring at her dumbly, she watched as the girl calmly walked towards the bathroom door as if nothing otherwordly had just transpired.

"And by the way. I won't tell anyone your secret if you don't tell anyone about my eyes," that being said the door swung shut behind the girl's retreating figure, leaving Haruhi confused and alone.

What was... that?!, other girls in her place would have probably shrieked in terror or in some horrible fangirl fit, have jumped on her. However Sakoi had acted as if she had known the whole time without so much as looking at her.

That explains why she got on the twins' bad side., she had noticed how Hikaru and Kaoru had been quietly glaring at the new girl throughout the morning. When she had heard Hikaru's scornful snort after she had first spoken during her surprise class introduction, it became clear that Sakoi Etsu was the girl that had embarassed them the day before at the club.

Relaxing her tense shoulders, she gave up. Even though she barely knew the girl, her blunt honesty had seemed genuine. For some reason that was enough to reassure her. Sakoi's bored attitude clearly showed that she was a person that didn't care about appearances. Heck, she had been the only girl to ever set foot in the host club that had insulted two of the most sought after hosts. Usually most girl's had nosebleeds or giggle fits when dealing with the twins.

Guess not all rich girls are the same, right?

Knowing that it was just a matter of time before some other girl came to the bathroom, Haruhi left the place hurriedly, her mind steering away from the strangely behaved Sakoi. She had far too many things to deal with to analyze unreadable people. One of the many horrifying things she had to put up with was Tamaki-senpai that had become even more dramatic than usual.

Yeah, she definitely had a long day ahead of her.

***

Sometimes days became so boring in its normal drag that Hikaru often wondered why he didn't just ditch school to go elsewhere. The only thing that kept him from leaving was Kaoru that seemed to want to stay there until the very end of their club activities. He knew that deep the down his real reason for wanting to stick around until the very last host had left was because of Haruhi.

It didn't upset him like it should have since he too liked being around the girl host, though over time he had been forcing himself to not think about her as a possible girlfriend. Not only wouldn't it be fair for Haruhi, but it wouldn't be fair for Kaoru as well.

Due to his unconventional relationship with his twin, he didn't bother with girls as he had done in the past. Once or twice, he had done things with them but when he suggested getting Kaoru involved the girls would automatically shut down. When he got to think about it, girls were far too annoying for him. Why bother with something that annoyed you? He could admit that he found some girls worthy of a second glance, yet when it all got down to getting to know them better, he became easily irritated.

Hearing giggles every five seconds and getting sappy eyed stares wasn't precisely a turn on for him. At least both him and Kaoru had each other to keep the edge off and thinking about it now, he realized that he liked Kaoru much better than some giddy teenaged girl. His twin was oddly more comfortable to deal with in bed and out. They already knew what the other one wanted, so they didn't have to put up false fronts to get on each other's good side. They only left the gentlemanly act for their time spent in the host club.

Man, this headache is killing me!, grimacing, he rubbed his temples as he walked alongside his twin into the Hitachiin manor.

Tamaki had been especially annoying that day. For the last couple of weeks their mentally damaged 'leader' had become more theatrical. It made Hikaru wonder if some guys had hormonal moodswings like girls during their time of the month. That day Tamaki had gone off about some girl asking Kyoya if Haruhi could do a 'private visit'. They didn't get to see who the girl was since the request had been done out of club hours but Tamaki had burst into tears when Kyoya had calmly told him that he had talked it over with Haruhi and that she had accepted to do a private off-club hours date.

He could never get those two. Kaoru had said a thing or two about about their boss and Haruhi, though didn't elaborate further as if afraid of his reaction.

"Hey, sounds like someone is visiting," hearing Kaoru's voice, he glanced over at him before looking at the slightly ajar doors of the sitting room close to the entrance hall. It took him a while to recognize the voice speaking with that of their mother's, but once he did a glower immediately appeared on his face.

"Its that Sakoi chick's mother."

That girl, in spite of not even glancing their way during the day, had gotten under his skin. It was like her dark presence had zapped out the enthudiasm in the whole classroom. Even the teachers and people that had passed her in the hallways of the school had become easily frightened of her. When both him and Kaoru had heard the whole school begin to whisper about the evil aura surrounding her, he hadn't been surprised one bit. Being a frosty bitch seemed to come quite naturally to her and people had noticed it just by seeing her for the first time.
I even heard some people say that Nekozawa-senpai is thinking of asking her to join his club. That's how depressing she is.

On the other hand... Why was that woman Sakoi Sayuri coming over to their house? He knew that there was some type of contract underway, but that wasn't enough for the woman to build a friendship with their mother.

But mother will be mother. She talks to anyone that so much as looks at her.

As if reading his mind, Kaoru said more to himself, "I wonder why she's here again."

"I don't know," he shrugged one shoulder, annoyed by the fact that the rather fake woman was coming around. He didn't know why he got the feeling that the woman was false in her politeness... She hadn't shown any malice like her daughter during the short while they had been in her presence. There just was something about the woman that irritated him. To be honest, Sayuri's sudden presence was nauseating compared to the cold Etsu's.

"Maybe we should see what they're talking about," surprised at that, he shot a glance at his younger brother. Kaoru wasn't the kind that liked to eavesdrop, so that could only mean that he got the same belly knotting sensation as him.

"Whatever. It's not like we have anything else better to do," brushing off the sick feeling in the pit of his belly, he shrugged and gave his brother a nod.

When they got close enough to the slightly parted doors to overhear what was being said without being detected, he bit his lower lip to keep from interrupting the conversation taking place. He really couldn't stand having the woman there.

Why should I care who visits? It's not like that woman has done anything personally against us.

"I told her to apologize as soon as she saw your boys. I honestly don't know what got into her! She swore she would talk to them about what happened! She was so sorry for making your sons go through something so terrible!" Sayuri exclaimed with a fake scandalized tone.

"Children will be children! You should have seen my boys when they were little! No one could keep them still! They were always getting into some kind of trouble!" their mother laughed, recalling their antics.

Both Kaoru and Hikaru looked at each other at the same time, wearing mirroring confused expressions.

"She was supposed to-"

"-apologize to us?"

"Etsu has been a little hard to control...," Sayuri sniffled, "... since it happened. The only person that could really get through to her was her sister and with her... go-gone now, she just doesn't listen to anyone."

"Oh, my dear...!" their mother gushed in genuine sympathy. "Your poor girl must be going through a very hard time... I heard that it happened eight years ago, am I correct?" a small pause that Hikaru guessed was Sayuri's nod passed. "I might not know from personal experience, but seeing how close my sons are to one another, losing a sibling at such a young age must be difficult for anyone. You're very fortunte to have one of your daughters with you, Sayuri."

"I-I know...!" the sound of the woman choking that out ate at him. It actually escalated his annoyance to new heights.

A dead sister?, strangely the news of Etsu having a deceased sibling disturbed him, especially since their mother compared him and Kaoru to what the girl used to have with her sister. It didn't make any sense to him why she would use them as an example.

"Hikaru, haven't you noticed something strange about that girl?"

Blinking, he tiredly looked over at his slightly surprised twin. He was already bored with the little information they had discovered if it could be called that.

"What do you mean? Everything about her is strange if you ask me." He didn't even like talking about her. Ever since she had insulted them, his temper had been flaring over the smallest of things.

A slight smile played on Kaoru's lips, "Sakoi wants us to hate her."

Still not interested in that right now., if he hadn't been in such a bad mood he would have become excited at the possibility of wreaking havoc, but at present, he just wanted to go up to his room to lay down or at least get to the nearest medicine cabinet.

"Listen, Kaoru," he winced before rising from his crouching position beside the half-closed double doors of the sitting room, "I've got a headache and I'm tired. Can't we just drop this Sakoi business and go upstairs already?" His tone was whiny to his ears and couldn't help wincing once more at the sound of it.

Looking at him as if he were clueless, his brother said slowly, "What I'm trying to say is that if we make her mother think that we're her friends, were messing up whatever plans she has."

He stiffled a yawn behind his hand, "And what good... is that going to do us?" He didn't want to let his brother see that he had been thinking the same thing since the day before. The only difference now was that he finally knew that Sakoi was intentionally offending them. What he'd had in mind had been just annoying the girl, not something as elaborate as what Kaoru was suggesting.

This could be fun if we do it the right way.

At his question Kaoru stared blankly at him before finally answering after a couple of seconds.

"It could be fun."

Taking a deep breath, he then mustered up a smirk. Starting a new game wouldn't be that bad. With the daily boredom they had in their daily routines, making Sakoi's life a living hell by deceiving everyone around them into thinking they were anything but trouble sounded promising. They knew exactly how to trick her mother into believing that they were little angels, just like their own mother thought that they were incapable of any evil.

"Let me just get some painkillers," Kaoru smiled at his words, since it meant that he had agreed to it.

But I'm calling all the shots. Kaoru can be too soft sometimes.

***

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