BLOOM [OHSHC]

Chapter 35 - Drop Dead (Gorgeous)

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For days, weeks, months... Renge kept a massive secret.

She'd been lying to all of her friends, and to herself. Honestly, she never really wanted Michiyo Kimura to join the host club. No. The last thing she needed was someone stealing all of her spotlight... or her man.

If her video games taught her anything, Renge learned that love was fickle and there was always someone else prettier, smarter, nicer, and all-around better than her, someone that would swoop in to steal her boyfriend after all of her hard work. From day one, Michiyo fit that bill precisely—beautiful, smart, funny, confident, talented... the whole gamut of perfection—and any fleeting admiration Renge had for her flew out the window.

But there were other forces at work besides Renge's eternal pessimism and internalized misogyny. A mysterious man pulled up alongside Renge after school one day in the spring of the new school year, offering her exorbitant amounts of money in exchange for photos and videos of Michiyo. Renge took less than a second to think about it before accepting. Of course she wanted the money. Fuck Michiyo Kimura.

From there, it was just a matter of getting her into the Host Club so Renge could keep an eye on her. What better way to get pictures and videos? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?

Then, just to cover her bases, Renge told Kyoya not to catch feelings. That way, he'd naturally catch feelings for Renge instead, and—with the universe's blessing—they'd be dating well before they went off to college.

But, there were complications. Michiyo Kimura got in the way. Renge tried to get her out of the club, tried to sabotage her on the sly. She hoped that turning the host club clients against Michiyo and pushing her down the stairs would help, but Tamaki caught wind and ended that plot; Renge tried to create problems between Michiyo and Kyoya, urging him to keep secrets, but that didn't change much of anything; she told her patrons which onsen the host club was staying at, hoping the trip would be ruined before Michiyo could do something stupid with Kyoya; Renge even spilled coffee all over Michiyo and got her to wear the stupid yellow dress uniform, hoping it would demoralize her, but it was the opposite — Michiyo came through unfazed.

For the last week, Renge watched as Kyoya and Michiyo tried and failed to keep their budding romance a secret, which drove Renge to madness. She waited for that same sleek car in their drop off location, told them her plan, handed over the blog post she'd written, and the wheels of fate began to turn once more in her favor.

Knowing Kyoya's family and their obsession with appearances, Michiyo and Kyoya's fledgling relationship would be over before it could lift off the ground, dead as a baby dodo thrown from the nest.

With Michiyo Kimura out of the picture, Renge could have Kyoya all to herself.

And that's all Renge ever wanted.

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"Has anyone seen Michiyo recently?"

Before he would allow himself to panic, Kyoya had to cover all of his bases. He adjusted his pink velvet jacket as he approached a cluster of his friends, trying to keep his cool. Sure, he hadn't seen her in nearly half an hour—almost the entire intermission—but he initially assumed that she hid among the masked guests, schmoozing and drinking sparkling cider and dancing the night away... you know, being a good host. Now he was growing truly worried.

"I saw her by the snack table with my beloved Haruhi at the top of the intermission," Tamaki said, rubbing his chin in thought. "But she excused herself to get some fresh air, and Haruhi and I got pulled away by some of the guests for dancing."