Oblivious || Hikaru Hitachiin Love Story

Chapter Twenty-Three: Welcome to Karuizawa

It was finally summer break; no more school, no more responsibilities, and no more waking up early. At least, that was what I thought going into summer vacation, yet all of those annoying factors of the school year (except actually going to school) seemed to transfer into summer vacation. All because Uncle Ranka had sent Haruhi and I to work at a bed and breakfast in Karuizawa. Initially, I wasn't too keen on spending my summer working. The job sounded a lot like my job at the host club; cleaning, waitressing, and whatever else the person who ran the pension house decided they wanted me to do. But when I got to the pension, things started turning out better than expected.

Haruhi and I had arrived in Karuizawa early in the afternoon on our second day of summer vacation. Once we were dropped off at the pension, a man, er... woman, burst through the front doors and came rushing out to us. She greeted Haruhi immediately, enveloping her into a tight hug. She'd told me on the ride here that the owner of the pension was an old friend of her father's. In fact, he's also a transvestite and used to work at the same bar that Ranka did.

"Oh, Haruhi! You've grown into such a refreshing young woman!" he squealed, and spun around while holding Haruhi.

"It's nice to see you too, Misuzu." Haruhi gasped, trying to catch her breath as the man put her gently back onto the ground.

"And this must be your American cousin!" Misuzu said, turning to me.

I gave him a close-eyed smile and held out my hand for him to shake. "Yes, my name is Miyoko. It's very nice to meet you," I said cheerfully. I was surprised when instead of taking my hand, Misuzu gave me the same greeting hug that he had given Haruhi.

"Haruhi I had no idea that you had such a refreshing cousin!" he said.

"Is refreshing a good thing?" I asked Haruhi once he had let go of me.

"I think so," she said, and we both followed Misuzu into the pension with our bags in hand.

"Alright, girls," he said once we were inside of the cute building. Looking around inside, I saw that there was a large staircase directly in front of the French doors, and off to the right was a large room filled with dining tables, along with an array of large windows letting in the natural light, and more French doors leading outside.

"Since it's your first day, I won't have you do too much labour. I'll show you to your rooms so that you can unpack, then I'll show you around a little bit," Misuzu said and led Haruhi and I up the stairs, then down a long hallway.

"I only have single rooms left, so you two will have to bunk separately, but you'll be right next door to each other. Is that alright with you?" Misuzu asked, and stopped in front of one of the rooms. She took out a key, unlocked the door and opened it widely, then handed the key over to Haruhi. She did the same to me with the room next to hers. I stepped into the room, immediately walking over to the bed and dropping the load of bags that I had brought with me.

"Come back down to the dining hall once you've finished unpacking!" Misuzu said, then left us to get settled in. I looked around the room, inspecting the place that I would be staying. It was cute and small, but definitely bigger than my room at home. The walls were a pale blue, the floors a warm brown, and the light from the large window made the room glow. There was a single be with white sheeting pressed against the wall opposite to the door, and a bedside table that matched the caramel wood of the bedframe next to it. Beside the bedside table, there was a vanity desk, and on the left wall was a large dresser. Other than the furniture, many pictures frames and small plants adorned the room. All-in-all, it was beautiful.

I sighed happily and turned back to my bags to start unpacking. On the vanity desk, I put my beauty products, beside the dresser were my shoes, and currently I was trying my hardest to fit all of my clothes into the dresser. When I was having trouble closing the last drawer, I knocked on the wall that I shared with Haruhi.

"Haruhi! Will you help me?" I begged. I heard her shuffle around, then move down the hall and in through my door.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I can't close this damned drawer," I said.

She looked at the dresser drawer that I had completely stuffed with clothes, and rolled her eyes. "It's because you over-filled it. Try taking some clothes out and putting them in the other drawers.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I filled those too," I said sheepishly.

"Ugh, move," Haruhi said and gently pushed me out of the way. She tried pushing down the pile of clothes, then quickly pushing it closed, but to no avail.

"Why did you bring so much?" she asked.

"I over-pack a lot, it's a problem," I admitted.

Fifteen minutes later, once we got the drawer to shut, Haruhi and I went back downstairs to see Misuzu. When we found him, he was rushing around the dining room, trying to tend to his customers. I didn't see any other employees, so I was guessing that it was just Haruhi and I working for her.

"Do you need help, Misuzu?" I asked. He looked relieved.

"Yes! Dinner time gets pretty busy. I need one of you on kitchen duty, and one of you on the floor," he said.

"You're a better cook," I said to Haruhi, and she nodded in agreement.

Misuzu gave us both a frilly, light yellow apron to wear, which he said he had crafted himself when Haruhi's dad asked for us to come and work for him. I thought that they were cute, but Haruhi seemed to think that they were a little too frilly. I got to work quickly, rushing around and taking everyone's orders. There weren't too many people, but definitely too big of a crowd for one person to handle.

When the night came to a close, and almost all of customers had gone back to their rooms for the evening, Haruhi and I were just finishing cleaning the dishes.

"You know, at first I thought that I would hate working all summer, but I actually think it's really fun," I said, and dried the plate that Haruhi handed to me.

"Yeah, plus it's so relaxing here in Karuizawa. It's the perfect place to study," Haruhi added.

"I am going to miss the guys though." I sighed. "I feel kind of bad for not telling them that we left."

"They don't have to know everything that goes on in our lives."

"I know. Plus, knowing Kyoya he probably found out for himself and told the others," I pointed out.

When we were finished with our chores, we both headed upstairs and separated into our different bedrooms.

"Goodnight, Haruhi," I said and gave her a tight hug.

"Goodnight, Miyoko," she said back to me and returned the hug. When I closed the door to my room behind me, I changed into a nightgown and crawled into the comfy bed. I yawned, tired from my day of travel and work, and drifted off into a pleasant slumber.

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The next morning, I was woken up by the alarm clock that I had set up the night before. I looked at the time through one sleepy eye, and saw that it was 6:00am. I groaned, and pulled the blanket back over my head, but then remembered that I had responsibilities. I yawned loudly, and shut off the alarm clock that was still ringing. I slipped out of bed, and even though I felt like I was dead, I managed to get dressed.

I wore a pale blue shift dress, and matched it with a simple necklace and white strappy sandals. I tied my hair up into a high messy bun, put on some ChapStick and deodorant, spritzed on some perfume, then rushed out the door. There were some early risers, I noticed, that were mingling around the lobby, waiting for the kitchen to open. By the time that I got there, Haruhi was just tying on her apron.

"Am I late?" I asked, and put mine on as well.

"Actually considering how late I thought you'd be, you're early," she said and smiled. I stuck my tongue out at her. I told Haruhi that I could handle the kitchen while she worked on other tasks, like cleaning and laundry. I would much rather be cooking and tending to the customers than cleaning the place.

"Good morning, what can I get for you?" I asked kindly to a young looking couple. They ordered their food, which thankfully wasn't a tall order, and I got into the kitchen to start cooking.

A few hours later, just minutes after I'd looked out through the window to see Haruhi calmly hanging up some bedsheets on the clothes line outside, I heard a loud whirring of some sort of vehicle. It ruined the serenity of the pension, so I dashed outside to see what was going on.

There, hovering in the air not far from where Haruhi was standing, was a blue helicopter. The wind from the helicopter was blowing around all of the sheets that Haruhi had so carefully hung. Through the open door of the helicopter, I could very clearly see Tamaki standing with a bullhorn in his hand.

"Haruhi! Miyoko! Despair not, daddy's come to save you!" Tamaki yelled, and the helicopter flew onto the clearing next to the pension, and landed on the field. My eyes twitched as I watched not only Tamaki, but five other figures hop out of the helicopter and make their way towards us.

"Haruhi! Miyoko!" Tamaki yelled, and ran toward us while the others walked casually. When he reached us, he immediately grabbed both of us and squeezed us in his arms. "I was so worried that you'd gotten kidnapped!" he said breathlessly. I tried pushing away, but he held on tightly. I should've learned by now that there was no escaping Tamaki's hold.

"And we thought this summer was going to be relaxing," Haruhi said, and I sighed in agreement.