Back when it was the summer before Rei’s third year of middle school, money continued to be tight     &    was quickly getting unmanageable. Once they were finally unable to continue paying for their living arrangements, her family was forced to pick up     &    move to Bunkyo: the business district. Their new place was a small apartment complex where the rent wasn’t so terribly high...     &    where they began their interactions with the Fujioka family. 

              To put it plainly, things started out bad,     &    then got worse. 

              The very first day of moving into the complex, Fujioka Ranka     &    his daughter Haruhi came over to their apartment to welcome them     &    bring them a small homemade dinner. It was Rei’s mother, who had been drinking, that opened the door. Right away she misunderstood the situation     &    blew up at Ranka, claiming he was accusing her of not knowing how to feed her children...completely ridiculous, of course. Ranka, understandably offended     &    not wanting to be yelled at, tried to turn     &    abruptly leave. It was only thanks to Mizuki that they stayed, for she came to the door as well     &    used her good people skills to defuse the situation. She even insisted they stay for dinner.

              For awhile, things were nice  -  everyone was introduced  -  save for Rei     &    Haruhi, because: as Mizuki put it, her sister was off `   making trouble.   ` Even their mother behaved herself…until the oldest son, Daichi, made a comment regarding Ranka as a lady. He was politely corrected,     &    then Daichi began snarking at him about his clothing choices     &    such. His mother joined in too, angry that a  `   transvestite   ` was in her house     &     `   corrupting her children. Ranka got increasingly upset, until they all got into a full blown argument about it     &    Ranka stormed out of the house, dragging Haruhi with him. 

              When they got back to their front door     &    Ranka was opening it, Haruhi looked over     &    saw Rei walking up the stairs. They made eye contact for just a moment before the Fujiokas went inside, but it was long enough to be significant.

              That was the first time they saw each other,     &    the only time that Ranka saw Rei for that matter. Not only because Rei was never home, but because after that it became an all out war zone between their two families. It didn’t matter where they saw each other  -  if they ran into each other, they would start a fight. The whole neighborhood knew this,     &    they all scattered any time the families were in the same vicinity  -  discounting Haruhi     &    Mizuki, who took no part in it. 

              That had been it for Haruhi     &    Rei’s encounters, until about a month later. Ranka had been working a late shift,     &    Haruhi had taken public transport to buy groceries from a yearly food festival in one of the other districts. Rei had been doing something she wasn’t supposed to,     &    had ended up getting in a fight. Haruhi found her completely battered at the top of the apartment complex’s stairwell, thought about leaving her there,     &    ultimately took her into her own apartment     &    patched her up. But when Rei woke up, instead of thanking her, she took one long look at Haruhi     &    split as fast as she could.

              After that, the only times Haruhi     &    Rei had any sort of run-ins was at school, seeing as both attended the same one  -  attended being a loaded word for Rei because she wasn’t there too often. When she was, however, she     &    Haruhi almost always ended up crossing paths with each other…though Rei always ended up completely ignoring her. In fact, she often pretended like she didn’t even see her, leaving Haruhi more than a little confused    (    though not bothered by it too much at all.    ) Ranka talked her ear off repeatedly about staying away from her, after all, because the fights were endless. Full on brawls between Ranka     &    Rei’s mother  -  the two even dragging their work friends into them, obstructing each other’s property, mail, etc.  -  destroying each other’s reputations,     &    on the last day of middle school, Daichi even stuck gum in Haruhi’s hair so that she had to cut it off. 

              Later that same day, it was Rei that had stormed into Haruhi’s house, dragging her little brother by the ear     &    shoving him to the ground whilst demanding he apologize. She was obviously surprised to see Haruhi sitting on her knees, mid-haircut, pieces of her previously long brown hair scattered all around her. Daichi ran away without apologizing because she had been so surprised     &    he’d seen his chance,     &    she wasn’t the only one  -  Haruhi was surprised too, because Rei had finally spoken to her     &    acknowledged her existence. 

              She tried to run off again, but Haruhi stopped her     &    that led to a long, awkward conversation, which led to a mutual understanding,     &    then a very strange friendship that weirdly enough, complemented both of them rather well.

              This friendship continued developing throughout the following summer vacation,     &    though Ranka was beyond mad that Haruhi was associating with the daughter of his enemy, once he actually met Rei, he was surprisingly fine with it. He thought she wasn’t really a bad kid,     &    since Haruhi always had her nose buried in her studies, she was the first person she had ever shown a desire to further connect with. He even came around to her siblings. Since her mom was often not at home    (    except for the weekends    ) she wasn’t really a problem to the kids     &    their relationship.

              However when school started again, they had to part ways. Because while Haruhi got a scholarship to the prestigious Ouran academy, Rei had barely gone to school at all     &    therefore only graduated middle school by the skin of her teeth. She ended up in a public high school, one where delinquents ran wild  -  aka one where she had no chance of improving the person she was     &    developing her brain through her education. 

              Of course it was lonely to go from finally having a friend to having none again, but Rei managed okay    (    though her delinquent behaviors got worse again without Haruhi around as much    )      &    they still hung out. However, while Haruhi’s life got better, Rei’s went slightly more downhill. Her mom lost her job again after getting into a fight with her boss,     &    fell into depression, refusing to look for another one. Because Rei’s education wasn’t getting better either way, she dropped out of high school so Mizuki wouldn’t have to,     &    got a job at the mall nearby her house. 

              At the same time, she got deeper     &    deeper into the delinquency lifestyle,     &    even joined a pretty hardcore gang. Therefore, during the night she participated in her gang activities,     &    by day she worked as a fast food joint manager.

              This went on for another month or so before the fateful day that the host club entered Rei     &    Haruhi's apartment complex’s premises. 

              When they were driving there, from the cars they saw Rei engaged in a terrible fight. Not knowing Rei personally, they mostly didn’t care…until they came upon her again once she walked into Haruhi’s house while they were all having tea. Recognizing her as the person they saw fighting     &    upon learning that she was, evidently, Haruhi’s friend, Tamaki immediately began badgering her about being his friend too. 

              Of course that only made Rei push him away more, as well as act positively repulsed by the boy. It was when he started babbling about them being kindred spirits that she finally went storming out of the apartment after she had enough     &    completely exploded at him over a well meant comment about fathers     &    family. All Haruhi said about it in return was to leave it alone, because Rei didn’t like people,     &    she didn’t like family. This prompted Tamaki to ask about her having friends at school, to which Haruhi confirmed couldn’t happen, because she didn’t go to school.

              Even though he was finally at Haruhi’s house, Tamaki spent pretty much the entire visit after that trying to figure out a way to help Rei  -  though he was stumped. The family had no money,     &    even if they were okay work-wise, as far as Rei’s education went, he couldn’t just hand out scholarships for no reason  -  even if he was the son of the chairman. 

              He continued thinking about this all day, even as he joined Haruhi on her errand to the supermarket to buy ingredients to make dinner for the host club. That was when they saw another fight breaking out  -  it was Rei again, but this time she was cornered. Tamaki tried to say something,     &    in return, Rei started shouting at him to take Haruhi     &    leave. Seeing that Haruhi was obviously someone important to her, instead it was the rival gang who took her     &    …well, left. About to freak out once he looked up     &    saw Haruhi gone, Tamaki pulled his phone out to call Kyoya in a panic, but then promptly dropped it on the ground at what he saw  -  Rei breaking into a run unlike anything he’d ever seen. She was able to catch up to them     &    stop the car, but as she was fighting there were too many people,     &    she was quickly overwhelmed…but then Tamaki had caught up to her,     &    gave her one of his infamous motivational speeches about relying on her friends, leaving Rei near speechless. 

              When all was said     &    done     &    the police had come, Haruhi heading to the supermarket after checking on Rei, she     &    Tamaki were left outside, where she asked him about what he meant, quickly getting defensive     &    talking about how she didn’t have friends to rely on. His response was that she did now,     &    he pulled out his phone     &    grabbed hers, exchanging their phone numbers before dropping hers in her hand once more. 

              With that, he reintroduced himself, apologized for offending her with his whole `   family   ` game,     &    told her that she needed to make a better effort to communicate, because if she didn’t speak up, if she didn’t put in the effort to get close to other people, then nobody would ever be able to understand her.

              For a moment, it looked like she would get angry at him, maybe even hit him, but then to his surprise, she spoke up. She told him about her dad,     &    how her no good mom was out of work, how hard Mizuki worked to keep the family afloat, how she had to drop out of high school,     &    even how she was worried her little brother Daichi, beyond talented in music     &    formerly fully involved     &    devoted to it     &    his schoolwork, was starting to follow in her delinquency footsteps. 

              Nothing happened for a moment,     &    then Rei was hit on the head by Haruhi, who had come out to check on them     &    heard everything. She scolded Rei, calling her `   incredibly stupid   `      &    declared that even Tamaki made good points sometimes  -  she needs to rely on her friends. She then informed her that she’d get her dad to help out,     &    make him pull some strings to get Rei’s mom a job since they both worked in the adult entertainment industry. Then she told her that she definitely has to go to school, to which Rei just informed her wasn’t important anyway

              For a few moments after that, Tamaki was quiet. Then, he abruptly offered her a sports scholarship to Ouran academy, revealing that he had already checked in about it with his dad while the police were interviewing Haruhi     &    Rei. He informed her that he wanted to watch her grow as a person,     &    even thought he could learn some things from her. He didn’t stop there though. To add to the matter, he even told her that if she joined his club, then he’ll arrange a scholarship for Daichi too, as well as tutor him personally in piano.

              Rei, of course, stopped thinking about it as soon as Daichi's well being was mentioned,     &    immediately accepted, without even knowing what the club was.

              They finished shopping after that, Tamaki     &    Rei going back into the market with Haruhi only to find the rest of the host club     &    Ranka, who had followed them. When they got back to Haruhi’s place, they had dinner,     &    then as the host club was leaving, they all ran into Rei’s younger sister Keiko outside, who was waiting with a stern look on her face. After scolding her     &    being smacked on the head by Rei for acting like a `   self righteous brat,   ` she introduced herself     &    bowed her head to all of them, apologizing for Rei     &    stating how she hoped her big sister didn’t cause them too much trouble, to which Kyoya took the reigns     &    charmingly denied the need for apology, explaining that in fact it seemed Rei was joining their school,     &    their host club.

              All at once, both Tamaki     &    Rei’s jaws dropped, simultaneously shocked, horrified,     &    completely blindsided by those two facts    (    HOST CLUB     &    SISTER.    ) Even though her outlook on the host club was negative     &    mostly filled with anger, they’ve grown on her since she’s joined     &    she’s found herself becoming closer to them every time they meet. 

⚤ She used to be a very generic Ouran OC  -  not a lot of background    &    very little unique traits or personality. Then I decided wait, this is Ouran    &    I have canon permission to create a character that says fuck you to gender roles. Right away I knew I wanted somebody with a traditionally masculine    &    delinquent personality  -  Rei kind of created himself from there.

⚤ I was unsure about pairing her with Kaoru at first  -  I know Hatori-sensei listed in an early chapter that he was homosexual, but judging by his behavior with Haruhi later on, I deducted that he’s probably somewhat biromantic, or maybe homoflexible. Regardless, I am very aware of his listed sexuality     &    in no way do I want to erase it for the sake of a pairing, but in keeping his canon romantic interests in mind, Kaoru seems to take romantic interest in people masculine presenting, though sexually he may only be interested in those of the same sex.

⚤ I considered pairing Rei with Kyoya  -  but decided against it very quickly. Those two in a relationship seemed like a recipe for disaster.     &    while I think they could have feelings for each other at first, Kyoya would very quickly decide that he was not happy in the relationship    (    as would Rei    ), so it wouldn’t last very long. That said, I do have an AU where the two end up together, as well as a second one where they’re in a poly relationship with Kaoru.     &    finally, my guilty pleasure  -  OT8 with the rest of the hosts.

⚤ Rei’s a pretty interesting character in a lot of ways. You look at Ouran,     &    you see this comedy story about a cynical person getting swept up in the world of lovable rich kids, learning how to love themselves     &    the people around them. For Rei though, I don’t think that would be the case. He has such an intense distrust     &    general dislike of other people, that I think his growth would be a LOT slower than Haruhi’s. By the end of the series, he’ll definitely have learned a lot     &    grown to love the other hosts     &    certain members of their families, but he won’t have fostered any feelings towards other characters the way Haruhi would. People such as Renge, Kurakano, etc. wouldn’t matter to him     &    in fact will probably still cause him the same amount of disgust as when he first met them. Still, it will be a huge improvement for him     &    a rather big deal that he opens his heart to the host club members.

⚤ During her time at Ouran    (         &    after, for that matter    ) you’re not going to see her in feminine clothing often, if at all. She strongly prefers a more androgynous or masculine type of style. It fits her personality,     &    it fits her gender fluidity. The only thing  `   feminine   ` about her, in fact, is her long hair.