Yellow Umbrella: Tamaki Suoh Love Story

Chap. 4: Kiichigo Ice Cream

The diner finally cleared out. The boys, Haruhi, and Atsumi sit in an uncomfortably thick silence. Hikaru, Kaoru, and Kyouya sit on one side of the table while Honey, Mori, Haruhi sit on the other side of the booth. Atsumi stands next to Tamaki as they all stare at eachother. Clearing his throat, killing the silence, Tamaki speaks.

"Okay, so, Atsumi knows Haruhi's secret. There's nothing we can really do about it now, is there?" he states. "How do we know she's trustworthy enough to keep the secret?" the twins raise a brow at Atsumi, who folds her arms across her chest. "Maybe we should explain Haruhi's situation." Kyouya suggests. "That should be a good idea." Haruhi rolls her eyes.

"A while ago," Haruhi starts. "Before I became a host, I knocked over a very expencsive vase that was to be auctioned off at 80,000,000 yen. Not beig able to pay it back, I joined the host club, trying to reach 100 requests as a way to pay off my debt." she explains rather quickly. Atsumi giggles her hushed giggle.

'They're so goofy.' Atsumi thinks with a small smile. "So, now that you know her complication, you must keep it a secret. If you so happen to try to breath a word about it, well...let's just say I have a few teasing photos that could somehow end up on our website." Kyouya threatens, pulling up some photos of Atsumi: sleeping, eating, all the embarrassing photos. Tamaki finds one picture of Atsumi hidig behind the rest.

She's holding a serving tray with a milkshake on top, in her uniform. Her head is turned around, as if she knew someone was snapping the photo. Her long brown hair trailing behind her. Tamaki blushes. "Where did you find this one, Kyouya?" he asks. "I have my ways." Kyouya smirks, pushing up the glasses that gleamed in the light.

The twins' stomach begins to growl. Atsumi jumps slightly at the sudden noise. "You guys are hungry?" Haruhi asks. "Yeah! That's why we followed you, Haru-chan!" Honey smiles. Atsumi holds up th eback of her clipboard for the guys to read.

She takes down all of their orders - which mainly consisted of an easy sandwiches and the diners best dessert, Strawberri Ice Cream Heaven - and headed to the kitchen to prepair their food. All the while, Tamaki enters with  smile. Atsumi shoos him away. "I want to help you." he insists. Atsumi smiles and points to the sink. "It's great that you already have a job, Atsumi. Learing to be independant early can go a long way." Tamaki says with a smile. Atsumi nods in agreement as she begins to cut up the  strawberries for the ice cream cake.

"Here, let me try." Tamaki gesutures toward the knife and strawberries. Atsumi hands him the knife and steps out of the way, instead, she prepairs the rest of the sandwiches. Tamaki hovers over the fruits, not knowing what to do. "Uh, Atsumi..." he calls out. She faces him and chuckles her lifeless chuckle and walks over to help the helpless.

She slips the knife from his hands and slices up one strawberry. He stands, clueless of what happened. She places the cutter in the boys possession and takes his hand in hers. His face slowly fading into a dark pink. Atsumi looks up at the young man with her smile showing brightly.

"A-Atsumi..." Tamaki stammers over his words.

The two eventually exit the kitchen with food on their serving trays. "Took you guys long enough." the twins complain. They quickly hand out the delicious foods and watch their friends devour it all, except the tiny burnette. "Haruhi? You're not going to eat?" Kyouya asked. She's pulled out of her trans by Kuoya's sudden comment. She nods and starts on her food.

Atsumi claps her hands in delight as she watches her friends enjoy their food and throw their [positive] comments her way.

'Goofy and weird.' Atsumi thinks with a delighted look on her beautiful face.

. . .

"You got home pretty late, Atsumi. How was work?" Stephany asks sweetly. Atsumi nods as she chows down on her ice cream. "Good. Well, since you don't have school on Sunday, how would you like to meet your parents?" her aunt asks casually. Atsumi's eating pauses. With an abashed look about her, Atsumi nearly throw her ice cream and glomps her aunt. "You're welcome, you're welcome. Look, I'm not gonna be there. They say you should go on your own. But listen, call me before the meetings over, I wanna meet the people who may take my beautiful Atsumi away from me." she hugs back. Atsumi nods vigorously. "Now, get to bed." she says.

Lying wide awake in her large, roomy bed, Atsumi can't help but to smile. 'I hope they like me. I wonder what kind of people my real parents are... I hope they'll learn to love me...' countless numbers of thoughts zip through her mind about her family. But then again, she felt bad about leaving the one person that took her in when she needed it. What was she going to do?