Chapter 40: How to Handle Attention Hogs!

Jin was granted half a second to look at Kyoya oddly, then she was being shaken around by two third year students while Tamaki tackled Kyoya to the floor. With the way everyone was screaming, even she was having a hard time distinguishing all the questions. She caught a few, like the continuous stream of 'when, when, when' coming from Honey, but Tamaki's incoherent screams were beyond even her linguistic talents.

When Kyoya finally managed to wiggle himself out from underneath the half-French boy, he stood and brushed off his uniform, "Yesterday, you idiot! I asked her when we got out of Lobelia's theater. It was a spur of the moment behavior."

"So you haven't been wanting to ask me out for months like you told me this morning?" The boy glanced at Jin over the rim of his glasses, continuing to straighten out his cuffs with a smirk. That, of course, only made the three boys freak out more.

"You guys are so unfair!" The twins unhappily threw themselves back down on the couch, "We wanted to blackmail you with that! How come you always suck the joy out of life?"

Haruhi looked at them, "You knew?"

"We saw them trying to swallow each other, if that's what you mean." Tamaki let out a ridiculously high note before deflating into a puddle on the floor.

"Kaoru…"

"What?" He stared at Jin, daring her to deny it, "It's the truth!"

"I hardly think a simple kiss deserves that kind of exaggeration." Kyoya cast a glance at his best friend, who let out another shriek when the kiss was confirmed. It was unclear whether his writhing was out of happiness or brain trauma.

"'A simple kiss'? Really, Kyoya-senpai?"

"That was 100% making out, and you can't tell us different."

"I was unaware you two were such perverts." Out of nowhere Tamaki suddenly started cracking up on the floor. How long had they been using that same line of him? Such sweet revenge!

Then a mental picture of Kyoya 'defiling' his 'sister' reappeared in his mind theater and he went quiet.

Honey finally relaxed enough to notice something, "Haru-chan? Are you not excited? We've wanted them together since summer break!" The short-haired brunette shrugged, but she was smiling.

"Nēchan give me a full run-through of what happened yesterday after she told Dad Kyoya-senpai asked her out. I actually had to beg her to shut up about it."

"Jin?"

The brunette looked at her American friends, who were watching the scene in utter confusion. She smacked her forehead, "I'm so sorry! I forgot you don't speak a lot of Japanese."

Mara lifted her hands, "It's okay. We've been studying since you've been gone, but… it's the speed we have to pick up on. What just happened?"

"Well… these guys didn't exactly know that Kyoya asked me out yesterday…"

"Aaaahhhh…" the four nodded.

"Yeah, so… are you going to be taking classes? How long are you going to be at Ouran anyways?"

"Only three days, and we'll be doing our own online assignments while we're down here. Mostly we'll be learning about the school days and curriculum in Japanese culture. We're staying at Ouran to get a look at private schools, and then we're heading to Higashi High for the public education."

Jin gasped, her eyes lighting up, "Higashi High? That's where Ben-kun is attending! And his little brother, Hiroshi! He's going to be so happy to see you all again!"

The others were immediately just as excited. Then Kat started bouncing on her toes, "Hey, Jin? Could you show us around Tokyo while we're here? Pleeeeeease? We're not going to be around for long, there's not much sightseeing planned out!"

The brunette paused, glancing at the rest of the Host Club, "I would love too, really, but the club kinda needs me…"

"Whatever do you mean, Jin? Of course you must help out your friends!" Tamaki had seemingly recovered, back on his feet and hugging his classmate tightly, "They need your guidance and wisdom to keep them safe while in a foreign country! You can't let them down!"

"Tamaki, you and I both know that the moment I agree to spend time with them, you and the others are just going to stalk us everywhere we go." The blond attempted to act offended, but one look from the girl and he sheepishly nodded. "Basically, it's an all or nothing deal for them to make."

She turned to the four Americans, who nodded their heads eagerly. Before she could blink, the rest of the hosts were chattering away about all the different places they should take the Americans over the next three afternoons. Though it jarred her a little how quickly that agreement had been made, Jin honestly wasn't very surprised. Mara and Kat were both eyeing the host club boys with interest, while the other two looked excited about spending time with her.

Well, this will be interesting.

A few minutes later, the host club and Jin's friends were piling into a train car heading for the city. They had left a notice on the doors saying the club was cancelled for the afternoon and the next two days. Jin maybe got half of the suggestion to stay for that day so their guests wouldn't feel cheated before she was physically dragged out of the school.

Jin sat down on the seat beside Kyoya and watched as her foreign friends were pressed up against the windows to have the different sights pointed out for them. Jin had to admit, the scene was cute, and it was nice to have a change in scenery during these hours of the day. Still, there was a question that was bugging her a little bit.

"Kyo-kun?"

"Mm?"

"I thought we weren't going to tell the club we got together until after the guests left for the day?"

Her boyfriend shrugged, "I figured with your other friends showing up, our plan was to be changed. It wouldn't be likely that we'd have a spare moment with just us and the club for the next few days and I didn't feel like suffering through the twins' poor attempts at blackmailing."

Jin cocked an eyebrow and turned in her seat, staring at her boyfriend.

"I also didn't appreciate the way Aaron was looking at you."

The brunette laughed, "And here I thought you'd be more jealous of Chelski! She's the one who confessed to me while I was in America." Kyoya looked somewhat shocked from that news, but before he could speak she leaned over and pressed her cheek against his shoulder, "Don't worry, Kyo-kun. Both of them are realistic, and good people. They live on the other side of the world, and I already have this pretty great relationship going on."

The ravenet smirked.

"Yeah… they wouldn't dare come between me and Haru." Jin laughed again as her nose was flicked, stretching to kiss Kyoya's cheek in a silent 'sorry'. The way he turned back towards his journal looking a little flustered informed her that the apology had been accepted.

"Those two are so cute, it's sickening." Kat leaned up against her own chair, watching as her friend and the glasses-wearing boy dove into that black journal he was holding. The rest of the club glanced at the couple before rolling their eyes.

"You don't know the half of it."

"They've been acting like that for months."

"I almost shoved them into a closet together a few times."

The Americans looked surprised and started eyeing the boy and girl a little closer. They said they had only become a couple as of yesterday, but they definitely seemed comfortable with each other. Little touches here and there, her resting her head on his shoulder, things that are often very tentatively done for newer couple that they performed without hesitation. Aaron was the one who addressed the elephant in the room.

"I always heard that PDA wasn't acceptable in Japanese culture."

Haruhi chuckled, "Well, that may be true for some of the older generations, but us 'youngins' have become pretty rebellious when it comes to those traditions. My parents were extremely loose with those rules. They held hands when we went through the parks, kissed our cheeks, and my dad never forgot to tell Mom he loved her… though that last one was more in private. Nēchan and I have always been comfortable showing our close relationship in public, besides. I'm more curious about Kyoya-senpai, actually. I figured he'd be incredibly conservative in public..."

"You may be, but there's something I've discovered in my years of knowing him." Tamaki gave his best friend a small smile, "Kyoya is very passionate in everything he does. I would only assume that would bleed out from time to time when he turned his passion to another human being."

Suddenly he frowned, "Except now I think I'm the third-wheel."

The twins cracked up, drawing the attention of everyone on the train. While she didn't know exactly why they were laughing, Jin found herself giggling along. She loved to laugh, and when someone else was laughing you could bet she'd start too, without even needing to know the joke.

Of course, with the way Tamaki was pouting, she could only assume it was at his expense.

The blond didn't get what was so funny about him being the third-wheel of his classmates, but when Jin began laughing along and Kyoya turned to watch her, well… he could refrain from smacking the twins out the window this one time.

"Jin, I almost forgot! Come here, I have a new list of songs for you!"

The brunette sighed, but stood up and shuffled up the train car, letting her fingertips briefly brush against Kyoya's shoulder as she left him alone in the seat.

*Time Skip*

"Wow… It's so tall!"

Craning her head backwards, Jin tried to spot the very top of the Tokyo Tower. The iconic landmark was a well-remembered statement in her memories of trips to the city, though she had never been up herself. Ranka was deathly afraid of heights.

"Do you want to go straight up or visit Foottown first?"

Honey slipped down from his cousin's shoulders, "I think we should go up, then go to one of the cafe's afterwards! That way if any of us get nauseous..." He left the statement hanging, but the others could imagine where he was going with it.

"Mmm."

The others agreed before making their way inside. Jin started pulling out her leather wallet when Kyoya gently cupped her hand, tilting his head toward her ear, "Did you really think I'd make you pay on our first date?"

She blushed, but whispered back, "Unless you're also paying for Haruhi and you're okay with sharing our first date with ten other people, then maybe you should save the chivalry for another time."

Kyoya chuckled and shook his head, pulling her hand down to rest by her side, "Well, we are going to be heading up to the Special Observatory instead of the lower deck. Perhaps I can simply pay the difference?"

And so it was decided. Each of the boys were "assigned" someone else in their group to pay the difference in the two offered tickets and then they were moving up in the elevator towards the very top of the tower. Kyoya attempted to keep his hand calmly wrapped around Jin's for the whole ride, but halfway up Mara slipped in between them to show Jin a new video. He frowned but didn't say anything that might be taken as rude or clingy. He didn't really need to be constantly touching Jin, after all.

Once they were up there, the group found that the Special Observatory was empty save for them. Jin and Haruhi quickly made their way to the closest window and leaned over. Their eyes widened at the height. They were almost 250 meters off the ground! And the view was beautiful!

Mara went up to the empty spot beside Jin, pointing excitedly out the window, "Mount Fuji! I've never seen it in real life!"

"The people look like ants from up here!"

"Wow… It's like you can see the whole city from here!"

As everyone continued to look out the windows, Kyoya noticed one member of their group still lingering by the elevator doors. "Aaron? Are you not going to join?"

The brunet shook his head, "I have a thing about heights."

Kyoya blinked, "If you had said something, we wouldn't have forced you to come up here."

"No, no, I don't want to ruin your fun. Besides…" his eyes flicked to Jin and back, "Everyone else wanted to come up here."

The ravenet felt something bubbling up in his chest. It was becoming a more common feeling, he realized, ever since he had become enamored with Jin. Jealousy. Is it really too much to ask for the rest of this world to have the common decency to not lust over his girlfriend? He realized she was a rare find -intelligent, kind, brave- but really, it seemed like every boy he came across had or once had developed feelings for her.

Probably noticing the impending threat of leaving the Observation deck the hard way (through the nearest window) Aaron quickly backpedaled, "Wait! I didn't mean it like that! Look, yeah, I kinda had a crush on her when she first came to America, but you two are together, and I promise I'm not trying to pull anything! Just be good to her and we'll be okay, right?"

Kyoya's eyes narrowed for a moment before Tamaki called out to him, asking him to join them at the opposite end of the deck. Deciding not to draw out any argument, as Jin was allowed to be friends with who she wanted, Kyoya let it go.

They spent perhaps fifteen minutes up there in the end, mostly making lists of places they could see that they would and wouldn't visit. The ravenet tried to move closer to his girlfriend but found himself cut out of the group, the three American girls surrounding her. Not even Haruhi was able to slip in between them and grab her sister's attention.

The boy gave Haruhi a look and figured she was thinking the same thing as him.

They weren't going to get much one-on-one time with Jin for the next few days… were they?

At the beginning of the third day, Kyoya was wondering how rude it might seem if he simply dragged Jin away from her friends. He knew there were only a few hours left before they were gone, but it was difficult. The occasional cheek kisses and lingering touches from their first day as an official couple were long gone, her American friends forming a sort of force field around the brunette.

He wasn't the only one whose nerves were being tread on. The other boys had gained the collective expressions of a group whose waiter had passed their table twelve times without taking their order, and Haruhi was taking the separation a lot worse than they were. As it turns out, Ranka had invited his eldest daughter's friend's to spend their nights in Bunkyo at their home, and Haruhi was always finding herself on the opposite side of the room from her sister. Jin would try to bring her into the conversation or make tea with her, but then Mara or Chelsea would cut in and offer their assistance or answer and Haruhi would be shut out again.

It was somewhat obvious that Jin was slowly losing it, too.

They were in a open air market with at least one box of every flavor of pocky scattered around them all, waiting to be taste tested. The whole group took up two tables, Jin and the four Americans at one, and the host club at the other. Kyoya purposefully kept his gaze on the wooden pattern of his table as Jin's attention was being dragged from one topic of conversation to another.

He didn't think they were shutting them all out on purpose, it was probably just because they hadn't seen her in so long and they still had a hard time speaking Japanese fluently, but it was bothering him how little contact he'd been allowed since early Monday. And, as the American's were also at school with them (and somehow got permission to hover in their classroom) the best Kyoya could do was watch her from afar for the past few days.

"I wonder how long Nēchan can keep it up."

"What?" Hikaru munched on a green tea flavored cookie, "Finding reasons to attempt to ditch us?" The redhead didn't seem to notice how the others were giving him a wide berth, worried he was less than half an hour away from another outburst like he'd had over the summer.

"No, being the center of attention for so long. I'm surprised she's still civil with them."

Tamaki tilted his head, "But… Jin is used to it, right? Her piano recitals, being in the marching band-"

"No, no, no. I mean she's an introvert. You might not expect it, but Nēchan needs time alone to recharge. You've noticed how she gets short with her answers after she'd been in public for awhile? It's because she starts… draining. Um… remember when you guys came to visit us at our home the first time? Nēchan had just gotten out of her volunteer shift and she was really snippy with you guys? She usually plugs herself into her music for an hour or so after we get home and… recharges. But without that…"

The host club had turned back to the group to see Jin staring at the table, her head resting in her hand and looking like she lacked the energy to even have facial expressions as her friends continued comparing the milk chocolate flavor to the original.

"Maybe you should tell them?"

Haruhi laughed bitterly, startling Tamaki who was sitting beside her, "Don't you think that if they listened to me at all I would've said something already? I've been ignored for the past two days, remember?"

"Hey, can we go check out the park over there?" Aaron stood up from the second table, looking across the road where a few people walked around on pathways underneath green, orange, red, and yellow trees. Mara and Chelsea stood up next, hoisting Jin up between them. The hosts couldn't do anything but trail along behind them as they started wandering through the park.

As they continued on, Katherine was the only one who looked concerned about Jin's lack of responses, glancing backwards at the host club while they walked along. She even gestured for Haruhi to come closer, moving away from her spot on Jin's left, only for Aaron to quickly take her place. The ravenette slowly fell behind the front group and looked at Haruhi.

"Is Jin okay?"

"She needs time by herself, and with her other friends. You could've asked about it before now, you know."

Kat winced and looked away at the harsh tone, "I know, I know… I just missed her. I had just moved when Jin showed up. She was my best friend, and then she was gone and I had no one willing to talk to me outside of school. And when we got here you all looked at us like we were untrustworthy. I was worried you would try to push us out of the loop."

"So you did it before we had the chance too?"

She bit her lower lip and nodded a little, "I'm sorry. But she looks like she's going to be sick. Are you sure it's just alone time she needs?"

Kyoya looked forward again at the question. Jin's steps were definitely slowing down, her posture deteriorating. His eyebrows narrowed, "Haruhi… you once mention that Jin sometimes doesn't take good care of herself. Did she eat this morning?"

Haruhi blinked, "I… I didn't see her eat anything."

"She didn't have any pocky, either." Kat now looked very nervous, "We need to say something."

"Oh yeah?" Hikaru and Kaoru looked to be caught between their own deep scowls and expressions of concern, "And how do you suggest we talk sense into the rest of your friends?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Jin suddenly fell backwards, knocking Chelsea to the side as she swatted her hands in front of her face. The three people walking around her had backed away, which was the perfect opening for the others. Haruhi, of course, was the first to take advantage of the opportunity and immediately latch herself to Jin's side, Kyoya a close second. The tall brunette was leaning off the cement by her elbows, not hurt, but eyes still wide.

"Nēchan? What happened?"

Jin looked at her sister for a moment before she blushed, sitting up further, looking embarrassed, "A… um, grasshopper. It flew straight into my face." The others were quiet as she pointed to the side of the pavement, where an inch-and-a-half long bug faced away from them, looking completely innocent.

Then they started laughing. Even the hosts were starting to crack up, despite the irritation they were still harboring from the past few days. Jin pouted, her cheeks still red, but the corners of her lips twitched in the way they did when other people were laughing. Then she got a funny look on her face and her head slowly drifted till it was leaning on Kyoya's shoulder. He looked at her and realized what Katherine had meant by 'she looks like she's going to be sick'.

Thankfully Haruhi noticed it too. She pulled out a box of chocolate pocky and pressed it into Jin's hands, "Nēchan, eat this. Now."

Jin nodded silently, opening the box and dutifully munching at the chocolate. Color began returning to her face as they all remained where they were on the pathway. There weren't many people walking around, as it was a little chilly out and a lot of students were still at their own extracurricular activities, so they weren't worried about being in anyone's way. But eventually the laughter died down and the tension from the past couple of days returned. Kyoya and Haruhi hugged Jin a little tighter to themselves when the Americans started inching closer. They seemed well aware of the glares from the Hitachiin twins, but attempted to ignore them all the same.

"You're afraid of bugs, Jin?"

The brunette frowned, "No. I can handle crawly things… it's the ones with wings I can't deal with."

"That's super funny. Well, let's keep walking." Aaron held out a hand, but withdrew it when Jin looped an arm around Kyoya's neck and he lifted her off the ground. Haruhi remained plastered to her sister's side and gave Aaron and the two girls at his side the most sour expression she could muster (Tamaki thought it just made her look cuter) and the three shuffled their feet.

"Is… something wrong?"

Kat was the one who responded, "We've kinda been hogging her, you guys. She has friends here, too."

"We haven't seen her in months!"

"That doesn't mean you can't share!" Haruhi pressed her cheek to Jin's shoulder, "You didn't even realize that she hadn't eaten anything all day!"

"She used to not eat breakfast all the time… We're sorry we didn't notice how she wasn't eating any pocky."

"Guys!" Jin was standing up by herself again. Two half-eaten pocky sticks were in her left hand, and her right was balled up in a fist that rested itself on her hip. "That's enough arguing. Usually I'd be trying to fix whatever problems you have with each other, but there's no longer enough time for that. So, instead, you're just going to have to play nice or at least pretend to for the next few hours, okay?"

Despite the cookies in her hand and how the memory of how she'd screamed at the grasshopper was still fresh in their minds, no one dared to argue. The brunette smiled, "Good. There's a playset a little further into the park. That's our first destination." She polished off the pocky sticks, looped and arm around Haruhi, and started walking.

The others hesitated for a moment, knowing that since the Fujioka girls probably wouldn't stand to be separated until they were at the playset, the two groups would be forced to walk side by side instead. Just the thought of it made a few of the boys feel irritated and awkward.

Then Chelsea smiled at Kyoya, "I wish you luck in any of your future arguments with her."

Just like that, the tension eased. The twins snickered at the little joke and the truth that ran beneath it while Kyoya rolled his eyes and started following the sisters, but a small smirk gracing his face at his relationship being recognized. It took them all about eight or so minutes to reach the playset, and by that time everyone had swapped their own 'How-I-met-Jin' stories and were transitioning over to 'Funniest-Jin-stories'.

"Wait, so she just… punched the newspaper president? Like that?"

"You should've seen his face."

"Jin did what?"

"I will never see sidewalk chalk the same."

The sisters were the only ones not talking. They were still leading the group, arms wrapped around the other, and trying not to trip each other as they stepped on as many fallen leaves as they could. As far as the others could tell, the two had made a game where the other sister earned a point every time the other stepped on a leaf and it didn't crunch. It was really adorable when, as they stepped off the cement and into the wood chips, Haruhi started running for the swing set telling Jin she had to push her because she won their game.

Jin smiled and went after her, calling out how she always pushed Haruhi on the swings even when she didn't win. The rest of the teenagers broke away from the pathway and started playing on the playground equipment. Some of it was too small for them, like the slides and such, but that didn't stop most of them.

The twins were quick to jump onto the wooden playset and start chasing each other over the bridges and towers, taunting Tamaki until he started chasing them as well. Mara and Kat took over the monkey bars, racing each other by Mara climbing along the top of the rungs while Kat swung herself below, tucking her legs up so her toes wouldn't brush the ground. Chelsea sat herself in the middle of the merry-go-round and Aaron and Mori stood on opposite sides of the wheel, taking turns in grabbing a pole and spinning the girl around.

And then that left Jin, Haruhi, Honey, and Kyoya. Haruhi and Honey were sitting side by side on a pair of swings while Jin stood behind them. She made a rhythm of pushing her sister, then her friend, smiling and laughing as they requested more height. Finally her arms got too tired and she said, "Swing yourselves, you freeloaders." The two just laughed, but did as she said.

Backing away so she wouldn't get brained by flying sneakers, Jin walked around to the next pair of swings. She sat down on the one closest to Honey. Not swinging just yet, but resting her arms from all the pushing.

"Aren't you going to push me, too?"

Jin wrinkled her nose at her boyfriend, "Ask me that again and I will push you off of that swing."

She attempted to pout, but Kyoya reached over, grabbed the chain of her swing, and pulled her over for a quick kiss. Jin reached out to grab hold of his swing as well, but he released hers before she could. Now she was pouting, but didn't go back in for another. They were in public. She was surprised Kyoya had even risked such a little peck where everyone could see.

"Since you won't push, then I'll just have to add this excursion to your debt. After all, we did lose three days of hosting to watch you have fun with your other friends."

Just as Jin was about to make a counteroffer to never kiss him again, Aaron bet her to the punch. Now, not only was Chelsea on the metal circle, but so were Tamaki and the twins. Aaron and Mori were taking a break from spinning and the four others were slowing down from a simple blur to a bunch of giggly teenagers. Hikaru was trying to pull his brother closer to the center of the equipment, as both of Kaoru's feet were dangling off the edge and the younger twin was too dizzy to do it himself.

"You know what, Kyoya?" The others turned to look at the boy. "You sure talk big and threaten a lot of people for someone who looks like he could be knocked over with a sufficiently strong breeze."

The next thing Kyoya knows is Jin is on the ground, her arms wrapped around her stomach as she screeched in laughter. Haruhi and Honey are no better, nearly falling off their swings. Tamaki and the twins are doubled over, faces growing red the longer they laughed. The Americans were also laughing, though not as hard.

"I fail to see the humor in that statement." Even as he spoke, Kyoya knew no one was really listening. Even Mori was burying his face in his hands as he tried to stifle his laughter. Jin is gasping for air.

He opened his mouth again, but stopped himself. The others hadn't been laughing like this for ages, and after the past few days… Kyoya glanced over as Hikaru and Kaoru started asking Aaron where he came up with that line. Perhaps I can let that one slide…

Jin struggled to her feet, still grinning and giggling stupidly. He smirked and brushed a wood chip off her her cheek, making her face redden anew.

Just this once.