DISCE, OHSHC.

⁺ ♡ the tragic type

"I'm sorry your time here wasn't to your liking," you said, the sheepish smile on your face now stiff. "Hopefully I can improve things for you during your next appointment."

"I don't know if there will be a next time," the girl said, glancing over her shoulder. She grimaced slightly. "This just wasn't what I was looking for."

"I understand. Still, thank you for coming." You bowed your head, keeping it down until the girl had left and you could let the music room doors swing shut.

Since she was the last guest, you let out the enormous groan you'd been keeping down since your first appointment.

"How did this happen," you lamented into your hands. If you could have melted into the floor just then, you would have. Whatever dignity you had left had been trampled and beaten dead. You were barely even a human being anymore.

You felt someone softly pat your back. You couldn't read Mori's face, but at least it wasn't pity.

Even though that would be perfectly warranted.

"Today was your first day," he said. "Don't beat yourself up."

You smiled weakly. "Yeah. Sure."

"Don't look so sad," Honey said, coming up beside you. He raised Usa-chan to make it seem like the bunny was giving you a pep talk. "You did a great job! Those guests were just having a bad day, that's all!"

You patted Usa-chan's head. "Yeah. Sure."

"You couldn't have expected to do great on the first day," Haruhi said, in her signature pragmatic way. "You've only spent a few days in the Host Club. You know next to nothing about it."

Haruhi's words only had a few seconds to make you feel better before Hikaru said, "But you did great on your first day, Haruhi."

"Better than great," Kaoru said. "Everyone was head over heels. You were a natural. Guests even preferred you over the Boss himself. You barely needed any training at all."

"I wasn't that good," Haruhi tried to say.

"Haruhi had twenty guests on her first day alone," Hikaru said over her. "There were so many guests they had to book appointments just to come back."

"And Haruhi wasn't even trying," Kaoru said slowly, as though only now remembering. "People just draped themselves all over her!"

"Are you two done?" Haruhi muttered.

"Aw, don't cry!" Honey exclaimed, tugging on your arm. "It's alright that you're a terrible host!"

"Who's crying?" Tamaki yelled from across the room, his head shooting up. "What's wrong? Do they need a hug?"

To put it bluntly, your first day had been terrible. In your head, being a host was the easiest thing in the world. The guests were looking for mindless entertainment. Flowery words and half-lidded gazes and errant brushes of contact. They would eat up any kind of bubbly, rose-tinted nonsense you gave them.

They did not, in fact, eat up anything you gave them. Your offers of cake and tea were pointedly declined. None of your pick-up lines worked. Your smiles were met with awkward shifting. Not even your jokes, which you took great pride in, landed.

It was like all of your game had packed up its things and jumped out of the nearest French window. Amongst all of the charm and elegance of the other hosts, your awkwardness was palpable.

"I just don't get it," you said. "I did exactly what you guys did. Same tone and manner and speech. When you do it, it's 'dreamy' and 'charming', but when I do it, it's 'unsettling' and 'weird.'"