BLOOM [OHSHC]

Chapter 5 - No Big Deal

It took Tamaki three school days to muster up the courage to apologize.

Or, at least, that's what I tell myself.

Maybe Kyoya just forgot to tell him what I said.

Either way.

Quartet practice was my one solace at school in the meantime. Word had somehow gotten out that I had "'"'beef'"'" with the Host Club, and girls followed me everywhere, assaulting me with thinly-veiled threats and jibes, and only once with actual physical violence. A girl tripped me and I fell down three flights of stairs.

Casual girl stuff.

I'd taken to rushing from one class to the next or hiding out in the bathroom until everyone passed by.

I felt like an idiot. A weakling. Like my life was out of my hands yet again. All I wanted was to finish high school with minimal issues, to pass through the halls of Ouran Academy as a ghost.

And then the second I turned eighteen... I'll disappear.

But more on that later.

I backed into Music Room 2 for quartet practice, trying to watch out for wayward elbows and flying gourmet slushies - hello, this isn't Glee - and inadvertently backed right into Tamaki Suoh. "There you are, Miss Kimura!" He grinned, immediately clapping his hands on my shoulders to steady me. "I've been waiting!"

His optimism and debonair demeanor overwhelmed me like a wave of cloying aftershave. "Uh, hi? Suoh senpai, nice to see you," I managed once my brain turned back on. I backed away from his touch, into the door. "What brings you to string quartet practice?"

"You, of course!" Tamaki cheered, spinning on his heel and breezing right past a stunned Rika Ito, our other violinist. "I came to apologize for my uncouth behavior the other day. I'd like to believe that I hold myself to a higher standard than that, and I deeply apologize for the undue stress and emotional turmoil I caused both you and your sister." At the end of this monologue, he turned and bowed deeply toward me. "Please forgive me."

Floundering, I looked to Rika for help; she shrugged back at me with a helpless expression. Thanks for everything, Rika. Super grateful. "Sure, senpai. I forgive you." I sighed. "Can you just call off the Host Club girls?"

He popped his head up, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

"The Host Club customers," I said, talking with my hands as I deposited my bag into an empty chair. How much did I need to tell him? Deciding as I went to fetch my cello, I added, "They've been bothering me since they heard something happened between us."

"Bothering you how?" Tamaki waited in the doorway of the instrument closet for me, his normally calm, suspiciously beautiful face creased with concern.

Cello case gripped tight in my hand, I looked him up and down and gestured for him to move out of the way. "Just normal school stuff: tripping me, starting rumors, threats... a slushie or two." Rolling the case out to my usual spot, I shrugged. "No big deal."

Tamaki stood frozen in place, rooted to the hardwood. "They... they did those things?" He whispered, his gaze unfocused. "Are you alright, Kimura?"

"I'm fine, really, senpai." I shrugged out of my uniform jacket, draping it over the back of my chair and rolling up my sleeves. "Just talk to them, please." With the black scrunchie from my wrist, I pulled my dual-colored hair up into a messy bun. Hopefully I pulled that off nonchalantly enough that Tamaki wouldn't freak out, but also so that he'd take me seriously.

But he was at my side in a flash. Tamaki's fingers were gentle, lowering my exposed elbow down between us, cradling my wrist in one hand and running his soft fingertips up my bruised forearm. Long, purplish stripes crisscrossed my entire body from falling down the stairs, and Tamaki's eyes raked over the bruises he could see. "This... was them?" He asked, eyes flickering up to my face.