BLOOMING HEARTS ▹ T. MORINOZUKA [✔]

one.

Kazumi wasn't happy.

Lately, all the girls at Ouran Elite Private Academy seemed to be more annoying than usual - to put it lightly. Something about a new member of the Host Club, a club where "the school's most handsome boys with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands" or whatever.

Kazumi couldn't agree more with the description, though. For a school whose motto was "Lineage counts first, wealth a close second," the Host Club was indeed very fit for it, yet very bothersome.

The female population of that school couldn't talk about anything but their precious hosts - or other frivolous things, for that matter -, that's why she was glad to be by herself and stay far away from Music Room #3.

She wondered, once again, what was wrong with her when she agreed to attend that school.

The memory of her mother kneeling on the floor, clinging to her waist, and begging, flashed through her mind. It was all very dramatic, all very pitiful, and she loved her mother to no end, so she complied.

But wearing the female uniform wasn't a sacrifice she'd make, considering she was already enrolling in a school in which architecture was inspired by mid-nineteenth-century Paris, shaded with freaking pink and lavender overtones.

Who in the world thought that pale yellow would make a good match? Who in the world decided on the color scheme altogether?

While walking down the corridors towards the rose garden, the dark-haired girl was surprised when someone bumped into her. She took a couple of steps backward in response as a short and slim boy fell to the floor on his back.

"Ouch, what just happened?"

"Are you okay?" Kazumi asked, offering a helping hand.

"Oh," he was startled to see a tall, dark-haired girl in front of him. Her male uniform made her look almost like a prince, he thought. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't pay attention," he apologized, accepting her hand.

As he rose to his feet, he noticed that he was a good five inches shorter. And as he crooked his neck to take a better look, he found himself staring into the most bright-blue eyes he's ever seen.

"Did you get hurt?" Kazumi curiously watched the delicate features and the petite body of the boy before her.

"Ah, no, I'm fine. Thank you again." He bowed. "You didn't get hurt, right?"

"Not a scratch," she gave a soft smile. "Please, forgive my straightforwardness, but are you, perhaps, a girl?"

The boy blinked, surprised, as she was the first one to notice it. Or at least the first to be blunt enough to ask.

"Biologically, yes," she put it simply.

Kazumi's smile widened a bit, pleased by how the girl formulated her response. She liked her already.