Woolfish

Outside Looking In

Chapter One: Good Cop/Bad Cop

Shiori Aoki cringed away from the all-too-eager face of Tamaki Suou. In her mind’s eye, the blond upperclassman reminded her of a puppy that was about to attack its favorite chew toy. Based on their antics (rumored or otherwise seen), the girl knew that members Host Club were a strange bunch but this was just ludicrous.

The Third Music Room was usually bathed in light and in an equivocal splendor. It was utterly flamboyant and ridiculously colorful at times. So with these facts in mind, it still didn’t explain why the infamous room was now shrouded in shadows, why Umehito Nekozawa would feel right at home at this very moment.

The only source of illumination was a lamp hanging from the ceiling and it kept swinging back and forth, back and forth; it was making her nauseous. Adding more to her discomfort were her arms were bounded to a chair’s armrests (her skin was also chaffing on the straps) and someone used a sock to gag her mouth. She prayed to whatever deity that watched over her that said sock was at least clean.

And then, the lamp stopped swaying, the sock was taken out of her mouth, the straps were loosened and light slowly engulfed her surroundings. She blinked and shook her head, straining her eyes in order to adjust to the sudden brightness. The girl sighed when she started to rub the raw skin on her forearms.

“You know, this isn’t really necessary,” a soft voice spoke, interrupting Shiori’s ministrations.

“Hah-Haruuuuhiiiiii!” This other voice made the girl flinch and cover her ears. “Ha-how can you not see that the situation is dire?? Dahaa-hiiirrreeeeee!?”

Well, you would too if Tamaki Suou’s yell was unfortunately in definite earshot.

The younger boy sighed and replied calmly, “As usual, everyone — especially you, Tamaki-senpai — are blowing this out of proportion.”

“‘Out of proportion?! ‘Especially me’?? BUT I’M YOUR FATHER!”

“I only have one father! ONLY. ONE.”

The last retort made Tamaki retreat into one corner of the room, somehow darkening the aura surrounding it.

“Is… is Suou-senpai well?” Shiori asked, craning her neck to get a better look at the gloomy upperclassman. “Huh. There are mushrooms growing…”

A chuckle made Shiori look up. The first thing she saw was a clipboard and then a pen scribbling something down. Lifting her chin a little, she caught Kyouya Ootori’s enigmatic smile.

“It may be hard to believe at first but this is actually commonplace, Aoki-san.”

“‘Commonplace’, you say,” she said, throwing a quick glance at the Host Club king before looking back at Kyouya. “And I thought the Visual Arts club had interesting people.”

The bespectacled boy let another chuckle escape. “Hmm.’Interesting’ is putting it nicely….”

She was about to say something else when someone tapped her shoulder. She turned and saw the famed baby-faced member, Mitsukuni Haninozuka, looking at her with dewy eyes.

“Shi-chan?” he hiccuped. Uh oh.

“Ha-hai?” Shiori found herself swallowing a lump in her throat. It looked bad; his lip started to quiver.

Man, why did she feel like she just kicked a kitten senselessly?

Whatever the little blond wanted to say was lost since he started to sob. Fellow senior and cousin, Takashi Morinozuka bent down to Honey-senpai’s level and patted his head.

“T-Takashi?”

“Aa.”

“Uwaaaa! Takashi!”

She watched in mute horror as the loli-shota clung to his cousin, burying his little face into Mori-senpai’s chest. The girl rose from her seat and quickly searched her pockets for something, anything she could offer to her smaller upperclassman for him to wipe his tears.

Who knew a handkerchief would be so elusive right now?

“Ah, here… Anou, Honey-senpai?” she said, gingerly tapping the older boy’s shoulder.

“*sniff* Ha-hai?” Mitsukuni rubbed his eyes before turning to face her fully.

“Um,” The girl knelt down and gently dabbed his cheeks with her handkerchief. “Please don’t cry, senpai.”

Shiori heard a whimper in reply. When she got a better look of her upperclassman’s face, she felt her heart twist at Honey-senpai’s crestfallen state.

“I-I’m… not quite sure what’s going on but it’s upsetting you,” Shiori sighed; she paused to tuck a stray hair behind his ear with her free hand. “I’m sorry. I-I wish I knew what to say to make it better… somehow.”

She wanted to say more but Mitsukuni shook his head, taking the hand that was wiping his tears into his own.

“Mm, it’s okay,” he chirped, gently squeezing the girl’s hand. “Now I know Shi-chan’s a nice person!”

The blonde couldn’t help but blush at that. People commenting on her kindness was something Shiori couldn’t get used to. Unlike the other instances, she was able to recover quickly and return a shy smile. She also squeezed the older boy’s hand in response.

“I’m glad.” she mumbled, finally turning away from her senpai’s direction. Mitsukuni released her hand in order to take up his cousin’s offer to ride the taller boy’s shoulders. Takashi grunted, making the girl look up at him.

He surprised her by patting the top of her head and giving a small smile of his own.

Her heart wasn’t twisting in agony anymore. It was now spluttering frantically against her chest. The worse part was she liked it.

“Um, you’re welcome?”

“Aa.” he patted her head again before making his way to one of the tables; Honey-senpai in tow.

Before she could even gather her bearings, two pairs of hands came out of nowhere and shoved her back to the chair she vacated earlier.

“Hey!” At least they didn’t tie her up this time. “That hurt!”

“Che. You’re no funnnnnn,” Kaoru Hitachiin cooed, plopping himself on a table that was in front Shiori’s chair all this time. “We didn’t even get to play ‘good cop/bad cop’!”

“Yeah!” Hikaru Hitachiin echoed his brother’s movements. The only difference was that he leaned towards the girl, wanting to close any physical distance between the two of them. Shiori tried to lean back but her head bumped against the head rest with a loud thump.

The older twin chuckled. “Is this bothering you?” he leaned even closer for emphasis.

For goodness sake, yes!, she screamed the thought in her head.

In a desperate attempt to evade the boy, Shiori leaned back; not realizing that this would make the chair she was sitting in to tip backwards. Before she could realize this, she was jilted forward; her abdomen almost colliding into the table.

“Hikaru! She almost tipped over!” With a slight tilt of her head, the blonde saw Haruhi’s hands gripping either side of the chair. Then she felt something tightening on her forearm. Shiori squinted at the pale hand that had her arm in a tight grip; it belonged to the younger Hitachiin.

“I could’ve sworn you were going for ‘intimidation’; not ‘flirtation’, Hikaru.” Kaoru chuckled, dropping the girl’s arm in the process.

The older twin simply shrugged the statement off. “Both could work,” he turned to the blonde and smirked,”… as long as you get the results you wanted.”

He said it so casually; in such a blase way that it left the girl speechless. His amber gaze caught hers and Shiori felt her blood simmer.

The devilish smile he was her giving right now had had made throngs of teenage girls swoon at the very glimpse of it. But given the context of her current situation, that smoldering gaze had a very condescending undertone to it.

It was like he was utterly confident if he scared her witless; if he dazzled her, she would be all-too-willing to tell him everything he needed to know.

She balled her hand into a fist at the thought. Pliable. Easy to mold. Easy to manipulate. Like clay…

But before Shiori could even voice out her indignation, a soothing voice somehow managed to quell the anger that was rising inside her.

“Aoki-san?” Haruhi gently patted the girl’s shoulder to get her attention, making the blonde uncurl her fist. “Are you all right? Were you hurt anywhere?”

When she didn’t answer (Shiori’s throat suddenly felt parched), the rookie shooed the twins off the table and moved in front of the blonde so he would be able to look at her fully.

“Did you bump your head?” the brunette placed both of his hands at the table, leaning to closer to get a better look of their priso-er, guest. “Please. You have to tell me…”

“I-I’m f-fine!” she manage to sputter out; crimson crept into her cheeks at sudden her outburst. “A little shaken but I’m fine.”

“Good,” Haruhi smiled and Shiori felt her face burn. “But two people here owe you an apology.”

“But we’re not sorry~~”

“NOT SORRY??!”