Random Curiosity

Summary:
Although he’s trying to apologize to Haruhi, Ritsu instead walks in and sees her changing, and hence realizes that she is a girl. As he runs out, the twins - with eyes the size of truck headlights - ask him whether he’s seen anything. While he stammers through trying to explain what he saw, all the other members of the club show up, with Tamaki pale and out of it. When Ritsu admits that he saw Haruhi changing, Tamaki’s inner dinosaur and volcano explode. The twins want to beat him up but Kyoya instead talks about conditions with a threatening consequences. Haruhi comes out at this point and says it’s ok. Ritsu blushes at her, and Tamaki is fading into another world again as the twins comment that Ritsu is in love with Haruhi.
Back home at the Kasanoda residence, Ritsu is not eating his food. The gang members are worried - they wonder if the young master already knows that they admire him very much and they have already collected so many cans so they can play “kick the can” with him. Tetsuya says that he saw Ritsu pulling petals from flowers and playing the “I like her, I don’t like her” game except with “I like her, I love her.” In other words, Ritsu is in love with Haruhi, and Haruhi is very cute…as a guy. All the gang members are of course quite shocked to hear this. All the while, Ritsu has been hallucinating scenes with Haruhi and falling deeply in love. He vows to himself that he’ll keep her secret.
The next day, Ritsu shows up at the Host Club. The girls are thinking that maybe he wants to be a host too, but he surprises everyone by asking for Haruhi. Renge rises out of the ground and everyone suspects that Ritsu has special interests. He, on the other hand, is wondering why no one is freezing up to his icy glares like before. Instead, everyone’s eyes are burning. When Haruhi appears with tea and cakes, Ritsu’s legs start shaking and his heart starts pounding, all because of Haruhi’s gentle and humorous conversation. The twins are mad and ask Kyoya to kick Ritsu out, but of course Kyoya says it’s only business, especially since Ritsu is actually attracting more guests. It seems that Renge and the other girls are asking all their friends to come and see this sight, thereby getting a record number of guests to come to the Host Club.
When Honey becomes curious as to why the twins haven’t gone over and distracted the couple, Kaoru says that Haruhi will be mad if they try to disrupt her conversations with her friend. Tamaki is meanwhile still in another world, and the twins decide to throw him toward Haruhi and Ritsu. However, Tamaki acts like a robot and is not really distracting the two. The twins called him and warn that if Tamaki doesn’t do anything soon, Haruhi will join with Ritsu and will be the “Big Sister” in his gang. Tamaki envisions what that will be like and ends up going a little crazy, saying that if Ritsu wants to get close to Haruhi, he’ll have to defeat Haruhi’s dad (aka. Tamaki). But Tamaki’s demanding tone blows away and his soul flows out into space when Ritsu challenges Tamaki’s status as Haruhi’s dad, since he’s not really her father nor does he have anything to do with Haruhi’s mom. When Tamaki wakes up, he wonders why he is so worried about Haruhi (especially when she is with someone else) if he is not her dad. Everyone realizes that Tamaki is a bit slow in understanding his feelings for Haruhi. Across the room, Haruhi and Ritsu are wondering what’s going on with Tamaki and the others. When Haruhi mentions that Tamaki is like her dad in some ways, Tamaki hears it and immediately becomes confident again. He is overjoyed about the fact that although he is not her dad, he is like her dad.
Ritsu then asks if he can come to visit Haruhi again, and whether it would be a relief to her if someone who knows her secret comes once in a while. Of course, Haruhi says it would be her pleasure. Ritsu gets so excited that he starts trying to confess, but he can’t seem to finish his sentence and tell her that he likes her. All eyes in the room are on them as Haruhi finally says that it’s good to have a friend who shares the same values and who she can have a conversation with about such things. Ritsu is crushing by the surrounding girls’ words that Haruhi rejected him, but he feels that Haruhi must have a lot of troubles since she have to pretend she is a boy. He vows to always be her friend, causing everyone in the room to start crying. They are all so touched by his words that run up to him, saying they will be his friends too. Sitting on the side, Tamaki admits to Kyoya that when he considered Ritsu’s feelings, his own heart was pained for a moment. Kyoya finds that strange since Tamaki is supposed to be the father - there shouldn’t be any reason for Tamaki to feel that way.
Sometime later, everyone goes out into the fields to play kankeri, with Ritsu being “it”. Tamaki and Haruhi end up hiding under a marble table in the garden, but the twins and Kyoya find them there. Tamaki tells them that this is a hiding place only for him and Haruhi, since it’s only natural for a father and his daughter to hide together. Hiding at the top of a nearby tree, Honey comments to Mori that Hikaru gradually developed a conscious liking for Haruhi whereas Tamaki obviously likes Haruhi but doesn’t know it himself because he’s super-slow. He thinks that the problems are Kaoru and Kyoya, who may like Haruhi too but they are hiding their feelings. Honey wonders if they will all make a bit of progress before they graduate. Back down below, Tamaki, the twins, Kyoya and Haruhi are all squeezed in under the table. Tamaki tells the other guys not to touch his Haruhi, causing the twins to point out that Haruhi doesn’t belong to him. A very annoyed Haruhi says that she is no one’s thing.

Preview:

Hi Everyone,

I am Stacy, I will be doing the summaries for the rest of Ouran High School. I apologize now for the late post this week, I have been moving. In general, Ouran comes out on Tuesday night and I will usually have the summaries done by Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I have to say in advance that I don’t know Japanese so I don’t do the summaries from watching the raws. Instead, I download the Chinese fansubbed episodes and I write the summaries from watching the Chinese subtitled episodes. Ouran 22 has been posted and here is Ouran 23. Enjoy!

Omni’s note: Chinese subs isn’t a problem because I’m personally reading over these summaries for accuracy anyway (and making any appropriate changes). Fortunately, editing doesn’t take anywhere near as long as writing a summary does, so I’m quite grateful for Stacy’s work.
As for this episode, I thought it was the funniest one since the Zuka Club episode. This episode raises questions of whether Haruhi will end up with anyone of the other Host Club members by the end of this series (only three more episodes!) or not. It’s highly unlikely that she does, but in the off chance, I’d bet it would be Tamaki. At the very least, as goes with the theme of this episode, the Host Club members will realize how much they all like Haruhi.