Fanfic / I Think We'll Be Okay

Kyoya (left) and Kosuke (right)

I Think We'll Be Okay is an Ouran High School Host Club fanfiction by iamconstantine. The story follows two main characters, Kosuke and Kyoya.

Kosuke Nakahara is a young woman in the mountain town of Karuizawa. Her life is fairly average: she lives with her family in a restaurant owned by her mother and stepfather and is finishing high school alongside her best friend and boyfriend. Unfortunately, Kosuke is extremely lazy, which starts to raise concerns with her loved ones—especially her mother, whose relationship with Kosuke is already tremulous. Kosuke's future is already uncertain due to her lack of motivation to do anything. However, following the sudden and tragic deaths of her parents, Kosuke's entire life is thrown off-course as she steps up as the caretaker to her younger siblings.

Kyoya Ootori has finally been given the opportunity by his father to break out of his identity of "the third-born son" and prove himself as a worthy addition to the Ootori family business. Kyoya's attention to this would be undivided if it were not for his heart, split between his two best friends, much to his annoyance. Kyoya's dream come true is thrown for a loop when the Ootori family cuts ties with a very important partner, putting the empire at risk of collapse.

One day, Kosuke is suddenly sought out by her estranged father, who turns out to be the CEO of an incredibly successful health technology company. He makes her an offer to provide for her and her siblings for the rest of their lives: accept the title as his heiress and marry Kyoya Ootori to join his business to the Ootoris'. For Kyoya, this is a demand, not an offer—but he sees it as his duty to prove his loyalty to his family, even if it means sacrificing his own desires.

Their respective circumstances causes Kosuke and Kyoya's engagement to have a poor start. Over time, however, the two forge an unexpected friendship that begins to progress into even more.

The story is available here and here. It is currently in-progress.

The art pictured to the right was commissioned by lipasnipis.

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This fic provides examples of:

Tropes A-D

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The story follows the anime continuity, wherein Kyoya's main source of conflict as a character was his pressure and frustration with being the third-born son of the Ootori family. In this fic, he also has romantic feelings for Tamaki and Haruhi both despite them being engaged. His struggle to meet his father's expectations is also compounded with the dysfunction of the Ootori family becoming more evident in the wake of his parents' divorce.
• All for Nothing: Kosuke goes on a compensated group date in a desperate attempt to get quick money in light of her debt to a loan shark. The whole experience is incredibly uncomfortable as she plays pretend with a group of strangers in an unfamiliar environment, but the worst part is when one of the clients comes onto her and even grabs her. Kosuke is very shaken by it all, and when she returns home, she realizes that the money she got is only going to cover one week of the debt's pay.
• All Take and No Give: Even though Kosuke sincerely loves her boyfriend Kohta, her lack of effort to do anything extends to their relationship as well. Kohta isn't convinced that she's going to make an effort to keep the relationship going once they're off to college. This is why he ultimately breaks up with her, albeit delayed because of her parents' deaths.
• Always Someone Better: Kosuke is hailed by her friends and classmates as the best cook in the culinary department, until Amaya Domen comes along. She has years of training under her belt, has been praised by celebrity chefs, and has won several cooking competitions. She can also cook sweet and savory food, unlike Kosuke, who can turn sugar into ash. Kosuke isn't bothered at first and is even starstruck until she realizes just how pompous Amaya truly is.
• Anachronic Order: Due to the Switching P.O.V.. While chapters 9-11 detail how Kosuke meets her estranged father and agrees to his arranged marriage idea, chapter 12 goes back in time to show Kyoya's side of the story during the same time period.
• Animal Motifs: The loan shark Kosuke is faced with in "Blue" is likened to actual sharks as he smugly bestows Marti's debt onto her. That he licks his teeth at one point only drives it home for Kosuke.
• Arranged Marriage: As in the original source material, this is a common practice among the upper class, to the point that Kyoya fully expected to be in one himself just for Ootori Medical's benefit. The plot of the main story kicks off with the arranged engagement of Kosuke and Kyoya. In "Thunderstorm", Ootori Medical has their very important partner DomenMed pull out, which will ensure financial ruin for Ootori Medical—the only solution Yoshio Ootori finds is to have Kyoya (his only unmarried son) be put into an arranged marriage with the heir of another successful company to replace DomenMed, Amida Health. Said heir is Kosuke, and its a position just very recently offered to her by her estranged father, who will ensure financial stability for her and her siblings if she agrees.
• Artistic License – Law
  • Kosuke is considered a legal adult who can care for her siblings and keep ownership of the house at 18 years old, but the legal age of adulthood in Japan will only be 18 in the year 2022. Thus far, it has been 20.
  • Kosuke's compensated date takes place at a luxury hotel that has a casino at one of its floors. Casinos have been illegal in Japan for many years, and attempts to change this have all been shot down thus far.
• Big Eater: Kosuke can easily stuff herself full of as much sugar and salt that she wants. She once ate ten bags of gummy bears in one sitting.
• Blind Date: Kosuke and Kyoya both meet each other at a dinner also attended by their family members to "finalize" the engagement. This is also how Fuyumi met her husband Tetsu, and isn't considered abnormal for people like them. (Though siblings tagging along is.)
• Both Sides Have a Point
  • Kosuke and Kyoya's argument in "Record Scratch" is told through Kosuke's point of view at first, but neither she nor Kyoya are totally right or wrong. On the one hand, Kosuke has legitimate reasons for not knowing that much about Amida Health yet and is certainly not trying to embarrass Kyoya, and in any case she doesn't need to be scolded like a child. On the other hand, Kyoya isn't wrong in that from his perspective, Kosuke agreed to run a company she knows nothing about, and people are going to start asking questions as to why someone as educated as Kyoya is engaged to her. Kyoya shouldn't be scolding her for embarrassing him when he stormed out of their first meeting, Kosuke shouldn't be scolding him for talking on his phone when she was texting Haruhi, and so on. Many of their issues come from simple misunderstandings, but the argument spirals out of control.
  • Happens again later, in "Broken Pieces." Kosuke acts buddy-buddy with Kyoya, pretending like they're best friends, and gets angry when he calls her out on it—basically deciding that he wasn't "allowed" to be angry anymore, otherwise he'd be the bad guy. However, instead of voicing this, Kyoya just continues to be condenscending by just telling her to stop because "he said so." This leads to another argument blown out of proportion, though this time they thankfully work it out and apologize.
  • In "Apples and Oranges," Kosuke ignoring a pain in her arm leads to it developing into a muscle strain. Kyoya, who has been frustrated with Kosuke's tendency not to be honest about her struggles for some time, reprimands her for not taking care of herself. Problem being, not taking care of himself had just recently gotten Kyoya an ambulance trip to the hospital.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Hitsuji in "Behind in the Count" is in the middle of what Kosuke dubs a My Way Phase—demanding his sisters to do whatever he says with no questions. This includes not allowing them to look at the flamingoes at the zoo, and telling Minami she can't get the same kind of popsicle as him. The final straw is when he screeches at Kosuke to take him on their planned boat ride despite the weather. Kosuke finally snapping at him seems to set him straight, as he's calm for the rest of the chapter.
• The Bus Came Back: By the fifth chapter, "Law of Balance," Kosuke has lost ties with everyone in her regular group: Tomoko and Jet being friends of friends who were never close to Kosuke to begin with, Kohta having broken up with her and leaving town for college, and Okina having moved eight hours a way due to her father's job. Fifty chapters later, in "Raspberry Kiss," all four return when Kosuke runs into them by chance at the mall.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Kosuke teases Okina for having a crush on her classmate but being unable to say anything to him about it.
• Cerebus Call-Back: In "Small Hours," Kyoya pokes fun at Kosuke for genuinely fearing that her accidentally stepping on someone's toes during a dance would have dire consequences—and brings it up again in "Empathy and Sympathy." However, in "Stepping on Toes," this is exactly what happens: her embarrassingly bad dance with a family friend of the Ootoris earns her derision from the onlookers.
• Character Development
  • The first seven chapters have Kosuke going from a lazy, immature couch potato to a hard worker driven by her need to take care of her siblings. She also finally finds something to be passionate about with cooking, whereas before she could hardly get out of bed in the morning.
  • One of Kyoya's greatest concerns with marrying Kosuke is that she's so uneducated in the world of the elite that he fears she'll embarrass him and their families, as it would make it clear that the Ootoris were desperate for any kind of partnership. This leads to his fight with Kosuke, and though he apologizes later, it does remain an issue. However, when he hears two women gossiping about Kosuke's lack of education in "Stepping on Toes," he's furious and reassures Kosuke that she did nothing wrong.
• Character Tics: Kosuke twists her toes on the floor when she's nervous or embarrassed, which Kyoya notes many times.
• Color Motif: The color blue comes up several times in distressing contexts: Kosuke's very uncomfortable compensated date takes place in a place known as the Blue Tower, the perverted customer who later comes onto her is wearing a Blue Suit (and is thus only referred to as such), Shigeo's eyes that Kosuke is very upset to have inherited are blue, Kosuke's dress for her and Kyoya's upsetting first meeting is blue, etc.
• Cool Old Lady: While running from a pursuer in "Tokyo Streets" (who turns out to be her grandfather), Kosuke buys a walking stick from an old woman to defend herself. Thankfully her pursuer means well, but witnessing Kosuke swinging at him from afar, the old woman comes to help by dual-wielding two walking sticks.
• Compensated Dating: After being demanded to pay debt to a loan shark, Kosuke becomes so desperate for money that she signs up to go on a compensated group date for 76,000 yen. (Almost $720 in US dollars.) Kosuke herself notes that while going on paid dates might not be bad in and of itself, she does acknowledge that pure and innocent dinner dates aren't what everyone thinks of when they think of compensated dating.
• Cuteness Overload: Kosuke is so enamoured with the kitten Kyoya gifts her on her birthday that she can't even manage a coherent thank-you.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to its source, which was a dramedy story that became more dramatic as the story progressed, I Think We'll Be Okay starts off much darker right from the get-go, with one of the protagonists losing her parents in an abrupt accident and dealing with the fallout. Other topics include dysfunctional families, loan sharks, sexual harrassment, and more.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Kyoya passively mentions a classmate, Sakura, who was head over heels for Lin Oshido, who her parents would never let mer marry, being a partying playboy.
• Deconstruction: Kosuke’s laziness at the beginning of the story is at first Played for Laughs, but is later shown to have serious consequences. She’s basically failing P.E., and she misses out on potential scholarships because she couldn’t be bothered to write the essays. Her friends and family do love her, but are very annoyed with her behavior—and in her parents' case, are incredibly concerned for her future. Her lack of effort into her relationship with Kohta makes him feel like he’s pulling the entire relationship, and ultimately results in the two mutually splitting ways. Her refusal to almost ever go out also means that she hasn't made any strong friendships, so once her best friend Okina moves away, she's left alone.
• Determinator: Kosuke and Kyoya both. Following her parents' deaths, Kosuke steps up as the family's breadwinner and does everything she can to keep her siblings safe and healthy. Kyoya fights tooth and nail to prove his father wrong and establish himself as a beneficial addition to the Ootori Medical company. While their ambitions themselves aren't wrong, their efforts are unhealthy for both of them, as they both work themselves far past the point of exhaustion and refuse any and all help.
• Disappeared Dad: Kosuke's father was a long-standing mystery in her life, and she didn't even know his name, let alone if he was still alive or not. Emiko refused to even speak about him despite Kosuke's attempts. "A Question" reveals that he is alive, he and Emiko divorced, and he is an incredibly wealthy business owner.
• Disappointed in You: The crux of Kosuke's conversation with Marti in the second chapter. He may not be as blunt about it as his wife, but Kosuke's lack of drive to do anything at all has left them very worried about her being on her own. Kosuke inwardly admits that she'd rather be yelled at then calmly told she's disappointing her parents.
• Double Date: Tamaki absolutely insists that Kosuke and Kyoya go on one with him and Haruhi. Kyoya only comes around to the idea when Haruhi considers it as typical hanging out with friends—and bitterly admits to himself that some part of him wanted to "prove" to Tamaki and Haruhi that he could move on from them (despite neither knowing his feelings.) They do end up on a double date: Kosuke forgets about the date, but Jin shows up as a surprise.
• Double-Meaning Title: Many of the chapter titles are doubly (or more so) applicable to the events within. Examples include "Blue," referring to both the Blue Tower (where Kosuke's compensated date takes place) and the Blue Suit (the customer who harasses her at the end), and "Surprise," referring to both the surprise party the Ouran students throw for Kosuke and Kyoya and Kyoya's discovery that Kosuke already knows Haruhi and Tamaki.
• Double Take: Kosuke's first conversation with the twins entails one.
  Hikaru: So Kyoya says you’re from Karuizawa. Is it weird, going from commoner to all this?
  Kosuke: It can be…a lot to take in, I’ll admit. But I’m trying to—Did you just say ‘commoner’?

Tropes E-O

• Establishing Character Moment
  • Kosuke's first moment in the story is lying face-down on the track because she's too lazy to do a single lap. She has to literally be carried back by her boyfriend and best friend, all while ignoring their concerns over her.
  • Shigeo is introduced offering Kosuke help for her and her siblings, but is deliberately mysterious about what and why. When Kosuke presses the issue, he acts like the whole situation is as tedious as his coffee order taking too long.
  • Amaya is first seen properly by putting on a flashy (but dangerous) show in the student kitchen, for no other reason than showing off. Then when Kosuke introduces herself, she's unreasonably haughty and condescending towards her—which Kosuke later learns is from jealousy for her engagement to Kyoya.
• Foreshadowing: In the second chapter, Kosuke is talking to her father when she notices a handwritten letter on his desk. It contains words like "owe" and "don't be stupid", but Marti sweeps it under the rug when she asks about what it is. Five chapters later, it's revealed that Marti previously dealt with a loan shark and had racked up a large debt.
• Fake Relationship: Kosuke and Kyoya decide in "Record Scratch" to pretend that two already have feelings for each other despite just meeting, just to keep their friends from worrying about them. The already tricky act is only made worse when right after, they get into a huge argument. Once the two make amends and even become close friends, it's much easier to keep the act up.
• Fish out of Water: Kosuke struggles greatly with her introduction to the elite world, from the idea of spending thousands upon thousands on clothing to living in a mansion that could house an army. This is most evident at the ball Shigeo takes her to, as she has no idea who anyone there is, or the brand names everyone is discussing. Even when she starts to relax at Ouran, she still feels physically repelled when students wear their designer fashions or talk of their villas in the Alpines.
• Foregone Conclusion: Because the Official Couple of the story is set to be Kosuke and Kyoya, it's a given from his introduction that Kosuke's relationship with her boyfriend Kohta won't last.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Jet, one of the teens in Kosuke's friend group. He's loud, reckless, and overall acts like a 10-year-old boy rather than a man about to go to college. No one in the group seems particularly happy to have him around.
• From Bad to Worse: Kosuke does manage to get her situation in an at least manageable place by the end of chapter six, though she isn't happy about it. In "Blue", however, she's forced to take up her father's loan shark debt that will take half of their wealth away by the time it's paid in full. If Kosuke doesn't comply or goes to the police, she and her friends and family are under threat of being hurt. As of "Responsibility", it looks like the Nakaharas' financial situation is about to get a lot better, but at the expense of Kosuke having to agree to an arranged marriage with a stranger.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Kosuke starts off with her hair dyed bright red and as a lazy, unmotivated couch potato. After stepping up as her family's caretaker, Kosuke matures into a much kinder and determined person—she dyes her hair back to her natural blonde.
• Happily Married
  • Tetsu and Fuyumi are head-over-heels for each other, and are generally on the same wavelength in all their decisions.
  • Marti and Emiko were also remembered by Kosuke as being very happily married. She remembers that their wedding day was the happiest she'd ever seen her mother.
  • Airi and Sugimoto's marriage is 40+ years strong, despite their differences and occasional bickering. In "Steel and Cloth" Sugimoto mentions being offended that Airi doesn't wear any of the clothes he makes for her, while Airi defends herself by saying they're too pretty to get dirty.
• I Hate Past Me: Aside from the need to take care of her siblings and create a stable life for them all, part of Kosuke's determination stems from her regret of spending so many years being so lazy and not doing anything for herself. She outright fears that her parents died knowing that if something ever happened to them, she'd be the only family Hitsuji and Minami would have left.
• Hate Sink:
  • The loan shark. Thus far his only contribution to the story has been blackmailing Kosuke into paying off a debt her father left her, otherwise her friends and family will be targeted.
  • The Blue Suit has only appeared in one chapter, in which he drunkenly makes perverted comments towards Kosuke until he finally propositions her and grabs her when she declines.
• Hypocrite:
  • Yuzuru asks Haruhi and Tamaki's friends to write them personalized letters for their wedding day. When talking to the twins about it, Kosuke accuses them of writing something in their typical poke-fun-at-Tamaki fashion, and is surprised when their letters are genuinely thoughtful. Hikaru claims offense that Kosuke thinks so low of them...but it turns out that Kosuke read his second later, and his first was telling Haruhi it wasn't too late to change her mind about marrying Tamaki. Hikaru defends himself by saying he at least changed his mind.
  • Kyoya and Kosuke both in "Apples and Oranges," when Kosuke develops a muscle strain after ignoring a sore arm. Kyoya is a hypocrite for reprimanding her for not taking care of herself when he'd just recently been hospitalized for pushing himself too hard. Kosuke is a hypocrite for foolishly ignoring her health after reprimanding Kyoya for doing just that.
• Important Haircut: When her younger brother is afraid of a haircut, Kosuke gets her own cut short and dyed back to its natural blonde to comfort him. It's one of the many selfless acts she does to care for her siblings, in stark contrast to her selfish nature towards them before.
• Innocently Insensitive
  • Fuyumi innocently attempts to make chitchat with Kyoya by talking about Haruhi and Tamaki's engagement and Kyoya being Tamaki's best man, unaware that he's in love with both of them and is tackling his feelings on the matter.
  • In "Porcelain," Tamaki tells Kosuke that Kyoya has been in much better spirits ever since he and Kosuke came together, and thanks her for it. Kosuke is overcome with guilt hearing it, as Tamaki is unaware that she's been bringing Kyoya nothing but misery.
  • Following the announcement of his parents' divorce, Kyoya is constantly hearing words of comfort and reassurance from others. He knows they mean well, but he's grown sick and tired of talking about it and being reminded of it every day.
  • Airi and Sugimoto instantly welcome Kosuke, her siblings, and even Kyoya with open arms—calling them family, asking about their lives, etc. But it's too much for Kosuke (who has only just met them), which she confesses to Kyoya.
• Inter-Class Romance: Kyoya and Kosuke are technically both "blueblooded," but whereas Kyoya has been raised in wealth his entire life, Kosuke has only recently come to the upper class by her estranged father. Prior to this, she lived a very average life.
• Internal Reveal
  • As the story is told from Kosuke and Kyoya's sides, the readers know full and well that Kosuke already knows Haruhi and Tamaki before she meets Kyoya. Kyoya himself doesn't find out until "Surprise," however. Kosuke has the same reveal in the following chapter, "Record Scratch."
  • Amaya (and her obsession with Kyoya) is mentioned several times throughout the chapters centering around Kyoya, but Kosuke has never heard of her. This is why she's so utterly baffled by Amaya's hatred of her when they meet in "Where There's Smoke".
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: On top of knowing he will likely end up in an arranged marriage with someone else anyway, Kyoya's main reason for not saying anything to Tamaki or Haruhi about his feelings for them comes from not wanting to split a couple that are clearly meant for each other.
• Kids Are Cruel: Kosuke recalls a time in school in which some of her classmates spread a rumor about another girl that she went on dates with older men for money.
• Leg Focus: One of the reasons the Blue Suit makes Kosuke so uncomfortable at the compensated date is him complimenting her legs. When she arrives at the party in "Surprise," Hikaru also gives them praise.
• Lethal Chef: Played straight, averted, then played straight again. At the start, Kosuke is such a bad cook that her siblings are terrified when she cooks for them. Turns out her cooking was so awful because she didn't really pay attention or care—once she takes it up again and realizes she has a passion for it, she's actually an incredibly good chef whose cooking gets nothing but raving praise. However, she is still an awful baker. This Kosuke cannot explain, because even when she's as careful with a formula as possible, it always turns out disastrous. In "Where There's Smoke", her batch of cookies requires the entire wing of the building to be evacuated.
• Loan Shark: One comes to Kosuke in the seventh chapter. Apparently, despite The Lily Bowl's success, Marti had to turn to one at some point to keep them all afloat. After Marti's death, the shark expects Kosuke to pay it. She not only realizes that not only was the interest rate much higher than the legal cap, but that the shark purposefully waited so long after Marti's death to get more money out of it.
• Mood Whiplash: "Broken Pieces" has Kyoya and Kosuke getting into a visceral fight, tearing into each other, hurling insults...until Kosuke sprays bugspray into her eyes, spinning the tense mood into comedic.
• Mysterious Parent
  • Kosuke's birth father hardly gets any mention in the chapters leading up to "A Question"—before and even after her mother and stepfather's deaths, his absence is such a non-issue that all that's made clear is that Marti is in fact Kosuke's stepfather. "A Question" reveals that he's actually an extremely wealthy business owner, and though it is not yet known why Emiko left him, they clearly parted on bad terms. His appearance kickstarts the rest of the plot, as he arranges Kosuke to marry Kyoya to connect his and the Ootoris' company.
  • In "Tokyo Streets," Kosuke meets her mother's father, Sugimoto. He seems polite and kind, but Kosuke is very wary of him, as he admits that something happened that made her mother run away from home and never speak of her parents. He declines to explain what so that they can talk when Kosuke's grandmother, Airi, is also present.
• No Name Given:
  • The Loan Shark who demands Kosuke pay back her father's debt is only referred to as such, as he never gives Kosuke a name.
  • The men that Kosuke goes on a date with do have names, but Kosuke is so uncomfortable that she doesn't catch them. The Gray Suit wants to have fun, the Black Suit is charming, the Blue Suit is flirty-bordering-on-perverted, and the final man is only referred to as being older.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging:
  • When she refuses to pay back her father's debt, Kosuke's place of employment has one of its windows destroyed. The store owner is unaware of the loan shark, so when Kosuke apologizes to her about what happened, she tells her that it "wasn't [her] fault."
  • Tamaki tells Kosuke in "Porcelain" that being with her has lifted Kyoya's spirits tenfold, and thanks her for it. Tamaki is unaware that Kyoya and Kosuke hate each other at this point, and Kosuke is currently torn as to whether she's made an undeserving person feel miserable.
• Oblivious to Love: Both Tamaki and Haruhi are completely unaware that Kyoya is in love with both of them. Kyoya has kept tight-lipped about it, but he does admit surprise that Haruhi hasn't figured it out—though he also acknowledges that her observational skills can be hit-or-miss with romance.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Kosuke is chilled when she realizes that the strange man who has barged into her home is a loan shark here to collect a debt.
  • Kosuke panics when she realizes Tamaki is at the party Shigeo has taken her to, putting their story at the risk of being revealed if he sees her and unknowingly says anything about her home life.
• O.C. Stand-in:
  • In canon, Fuyumi's Happily Married husband never makes an appearance, nor is it known what his first name is. He is only referred to as "Mr. Shido." Here he's a side character who accompanies Fuyumi to Kyoya's meeting with Kosuke.
  • Kyoya's mother is also not seen or named in canon—there is only one line in the manga from Kyoya about her being away on a business trip to confirm that she's even alive. She's also a side character in this one, and becomes a central part of Kyoya's story when she announces that she and Yoshio are divorcing.
• Odd Name Out: Of all the Original Character names in the opening chapter (Kosuke, Emiko, Minami, etc.), "Marti" is the only one that isn't Japanese.
• Opposites Attract:
  • Kyoya's own observation on his feelings for Tamaki and Haruhi. Tamaki is opposite his personality, being very emotional and flamboyant and unafraid of wearing his heart on his sleeve. Haruhi is opposite his upbringing, being a commoner who has never had to worried about family businesses or relations. He concludes that if he were to ever fall for someone else, they would also somehow be his opposite.
  • Airi is a very loud, very strong woman who loves any hobby that's "nitty and gritty"—mostly blacksmithing. Sugimoto is a quiet, soft-looking man who enjoys daintier past-times like embroidery, knitting, etc. Despite being polar opposites, their long marriage is still going very strong.
• Original Character:
  • Due to Kosuke being one herself and one of the two protagonists of the story, there are several characters related to her story that don't appear in canon. The first five chapters follow original characters exclusively—Kosuke herself, her family (Marti, Emiko, Hitsuji, Minami), her boyfriend Kohta, her best friend Okina, etc. It isn't until chapter six that canon faces arrive in Haruhi, Tamaki, and Ranka. Later, we also meet Kosuke's father, Shigeo, and her grandparents.
  • Amaya Domen is introduced as the heiress of the DomenMed corporation, a spoiled girl obsessed with making Kyoya fall in love with her—even after he gets engaged.

Tropes P-Z

• Parents as People
  • Emiko loved her children dearly and sincerely, but didn't mince words about how disappointed and annoyed she was at Kosuke's behavior. She also kept the truth about Kosuke's father a secret all her life—Kosuke's last attempt to get it out of her only ended in Emiko falling into tears, which guilted Kosuke into keeping quiet while also only angering her more. The relationship has taken such a strain that overt displays of affection, like combing her hair while she sleeps and just telling her "I love you," confuses Kosuke.
  • Marti was also a very loving father of three, including his stepdaughter. He's very supportive of them all, almost to a fault, as he's a little bit of a pushover. Unfortunately, it turns out that he was so willing to do anything for his family that he went as far as to deal with a loan shark to keep their restaurant afloat, unintentionally leaving Kosuke with a debt to pay after his passing.
• Parody Sue: That the beautiful and charismatic Amaya was able to skip out on the culinary class's prerequisites out of sheer skill is just the tip of the iceberg. She's also catered many events single-handedly and has been begged by celebrity chefs to work with them...in high school. In college she's founded several clubs, will have a classroom named after her, and a statue outside the women's dormitories. Kosuke is starstruck until the twins tell her that Amaya is clearly trying to tick her off.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: Tomoko, one of Kohta and Kosuke's friends. She hardly spends more than three seconds away from her phone or some kind of gaming console.
• Poor Communication Kills
  • Several times over, only worsening Kosuke and Kyoya's situation. Kyoya (understandably) keeps it to himself that with his feelings for both Haruhi and Tamaki, he's wildly uncomfortable with his engagement to Kosuke, so his stiff behavior comes off as cold and uncaring. Kosuke texts Haruhi under the table to make sure her younger siblings are okay, but to Kyoya, it looks like she's ignoring him in favor of her phone. Kyoya doesn't tell Kosuke that his phone is ringing over and over and that's why he's leaving to go answer it, making it look like he's just storming out of the conversation. These issues are brought up in their argument in "Record Scratch," but not to clarify anything for the better.
  Kosuke: [...] Instead of doing what a normal human being would do and just saying, ‘I’m sorry, this could be serious, I need to go answer this phone call real quick,’ you just huffed and puffed and left without explaining why! [...] If you’d just explained to me why you left when you ‘apologized’ before—Well, I still wouldn’t be happy, but it makes more sense than just letting me think you’re some proud jerk.
  • While Kosuke is out in Tokyo, she realizes that she's being followed by a stranger and panics. He manages to chase her all the way through a subway and into a park before she finally arms herself with a walking stick to fend him off. It turns out it is her estranged grandfather. She outright tells him that he could have just called out to her instead of stalking her down—it would have spared him being very nearly clobbered.
• Promotion to Parent: Kosuke takes her deceased parents' roles for her younger siblings. She acknowledges that it's caused their relationship to be more complicated now that she's the authority figure and not so much their sister anymore.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kosuke and Kyoya deliver back-to-back ones to each other in "Broken Pieces." First Kosuke rips into Kyoya for his condenscending and self-righteous attitude, and his hypocrisy of doing the same things he tells her not to do, like embarass him in public. Kyoya responds by calling her out for putting him in a position where he'd be the bad guy unless he did as she said, and acting like she was trying to make things better when she was really just pretending nothing bad had happened in the first place.
• Tranquil Fury: In "Stepping on Toes," Kyoya and Kosuke overhear two women gossiping about Kosuke being clumsy and uneducated. Kosuke thinks at first that Kyoya's resulting quiet iciness is directed at her for embarrassing him, but he quickly makes it clear he's furious on her behalf.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: While talking to Kyoya over lunch about Tamaki and Haruhi's engagement, Fuyumi notices his quietness and correctly asks if he's jealous. Kyoya is caught off-guard...until Fuyumi clarifies that she meant jealous that he is not in a relationship, not because he has feelings for the two.
• Running Gag: Whenever Amaya appears, it's guaranteed she'll go off on a long, Wall of Text speech about some amazing accomplishment of hers, much to the annoyance of the other characters.
• Serious Business: Kosuke absolutely loathes the idea, let alone the action, of wasting perfectly good food. Seeing her fellow culinary students toss their potatoes used for dicing practice into the trash nearly sends her into cardiac arrest. She makes a soup from her own batch and enlists the entire student body to help eat it just so she doesn't waste any potatoes.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Kosuke thinks Tamaki and Haruhi are absolutely made for each other despite all their polar opposites. Part of the reason she gets used to Tamaki's larger-than-life personality is his real, genuine adoration of his fiancee.
  • Kyoya is also a shipper for Tamaki and Haruhi...despite being in love with both of them. Part of his reason for keeping that to himself is not wanting to interfere.
• Strong Family Resemblance
  • When she finally meets her estranged father, Kosuke notes with shock that they have the exact same blue eyes. Though according to Kyoya, all of their other similarities are abstract.
  • Kosuke immediately sees the resemblance between Kyoya and his father in their shared eyes, hair, and sharp angles. Though she gratefully admits that he's been spared his father's severity.
• Surprise Party: With Tamaki and Fuyumi's guidance, the students of Ouran University throw a surprise engagement party for Kyoya and Kosuke.
• Switching P.O.V.: After the first seven chapters revolve around Kosuke's past and how she gets into her current situation, the chapters switch between Kosuke and Kyoya's points of view.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Kyoya is point-blank described as much in "Surprise." When Kosuke meets him for the first time, she notes that she probably would have swooned over him when she was in high school.
• Tell Me About My Father: In the past, Kosuke attempted several times to get more information on her absent father, but was always shut down. Her last ditch effort when she was a teenager only resulted in Emiko crumbling and begging her not to bring it up ever again.
• The Beautiful Elite: The whole world of Ouran, as in canon. One of the things Kosuke has to get used to in her new life is seemingly every person she meets being attractive at least and drop-dead gorgeous at most.
• Trauma Conga Line: The prologue chapters detail how Kosuke's life completely spirals, only starting with her parents dying in a car accident. She has to give up on her hopes to attend college to watch her siblings full-time, and not long after breaking up with her boyfriend, her best friend is forced to move away—the two of them slowly but surely losing contact. After this, she's confronted by a loan shark her father dealt with who demands that he repay the huge debt Marti left behind. She's left with no other option but to comply, and turns to compensated dating for a quick cash grab. During this date, a drunk client sexually harasses her. At the end, she concludes it was All for Nothing, as the money she got from the date will only cover slightly over one week of her debt. Kosuke finally gets a "break" when her estranged father returns with the offer of providing her siblings for life...by entering an arranged marriage, robbing her of any chance of another relationship.
• Wall of Text: Played for Laughs. When moving into Shigeo's mansion, one of the staff members tells Kosuke "everything she needs to know" about living there, which takes a massive paragraph just to get through. Kosuke is overwhelmed.
  She—
  Um.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Despite her overwhelming nervousness in her first meeting with Kyoya, Kosuke can't help but admit that she finds his gray eyes to be pretty.

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