Follow Orders Or Follow My Heart? (Kyoya Otori Story)

Kyoya's Motive?

I was awakened the next morning by a face I hadn't been expecting to see. It wasn't even someone I wanted to see either.

"Come on Rin!" the excited voice of Renge called to me, followed by her pulling me up out of bed.

Why is Renge here? It's not like I'm supposed to be helping the Host Club, I complained in my mind. I'd never actually say that out loud though, not with the mess with my father. Better to be safe now rather than be sorry later.

"Come on! Wake up already!"

"I'm up," I mumbled, trying to keep my eyes open. I'm not a morning person. Coffee doesn't even help either. "Why are you waking me up?"

"You have to get ready! Kyoya's up already," she informed me. That definitely caught my attention.

Since when is Kyoya up early? This is getting more and more suspicious. The more I thought about it, the more confusing it was. Kyoya asking me to go somewhere with him rather than telling me, Renge waking me up, Kyoya actually being up early on his day off, none of that really added up.

"Don't fall asleep on me now." Renge's voice jolted me awake. Without realizing it, I'd started falling asleep standing up.

I feel like a dress-up doll with all the times she's done this now, I thought as Renge rummaged through my clothes. Lucky for me, she was limited to what was already here, which consisted only of clothing I approved of.

Even so, she still managed to make me feel the same as she always did. Only she could make my own clothing feel so different. But then again, that's Renge for you. Always messing with things that don't really need to be messed with, but always making things work out better in the end.

After about an hour of "Let's Dress Up Rin," my time working as Kyoya's personal assistant for the day began.

For the first half of the day, I merely followed him around. It seemed really unnecessary for me to even have been there. All that I really did was do whatever little task he asked, which really wasn't much other than writing down notes in a notebook he'd asked me to carry around for the day.

Only after a few hours of wandering around did I realize we were in my hometown. One more suspicious thing to add to the list. Coffee sounds pretty good right now. Realizing how random that second thought was, I shook my head to try to clear my mind. Though if you've ever tried that, you know it doesn't usually work.

"Is something wrong, Rin?" Kyoya's calm voice brought me back to reality.

"It's nothing, Mr. Otori," I said, debating on whether or not stopping to get coffee would be a good idea. There was a nice little coffee shop nearby that was run by the family of a friend from school. He helped out around there sometimes, so I wondered if I'd see him if I were to stop there. "Though, I was thinking that some coffee would be nice... If you don't mind me stopping there a moment, there's a place not far from here. That is if you would allow it? It wouldn't cost you anything but maybe a moment of your time."

"If my data is correct, that would be the same shop that you would visit every day while working with your father," he said, reading from his notebook that I hadn't realized he'd been holding. I just nodded and gave a little smile, hoping he'd allow me this little bit of freedom. "Very well, you may go on ahead. Do try to be quick about it though."

As I walked on ahead, Kyoya waited patiently. Of course, when I'd asked, I hadn't considered I may owe him for being so kind. It wasn't until I was where I was going that I'd thought of it.

"Hello Rin," a woman said to me. It took a moment before I'd realized that it was my friend's mother. "It's been a while, been busy with your father?"

"Not exactly, Mrs. Satori. I've been busy with... a job of mine." Explaining the situation with Kyoya would take much too long, so the simplest way was the best for now. "My father can explain it some other time."

"Rin!"

A small child jumped on me, almost knocking me over. "Hello, Izumiko."

She smiled up at me the way she always did whenever I stopped by. "Kyo's not here today. He's been sad because you haven't been in school! Why? Don't you like him anymore?"

"I was transferred to Ouran this year, but I still like Kyo as much as ever." I knelt down so I was at eye level with her. "Kyo will always be my friend. I just have been so busy lately. I haven't even had a chance to see dad in a while."

We talked just a moment more before I got my coffee. Thinking a moment, I decided to get some for Kyoya as well, which triggered a question from Kyo and Izumiko's mother.

"Are you on a date with someone?"

"No!" I'd probably said it a little too fast. But she just laughed a little and said nothing else. "It's for a friend."

I wouldn't exactly call him a friend, but that was the best word for the situation. What else could he really be? My boss? Technically he would be, but his father would better fit that. We didn't exactly work together, so that wasn't it.

After joining back up with Kyoya, we wandered about for a while more before I found myself in a very familiar place. This was the business my father owned. Was this what he'd had in mind the whole time? That might make sense. If he'd noticed I'd been feeling down because of not seeing my father, it would explain things a bit. A happy worker is a good worker.

If seeing my father made me happy, then I'd work a lot better. But then, what was Kyoya getting out of this? Just what was going on in that head of his?