Chapter 29: Nino Nakano #1

"Where are the others?" Nino Nakano asked.

"You mean your sisters?" The creep with the rotten dead fish eyes smirked. It sent shivers down her spine. My god, he was such a creep, Nino thought. It didn't help that he talked like a creep as well. "Don't worry about them. Let's focus on you for the moment. Now my name is Hachiman Hikigaya. I will be your tutor this fine evening."

Nino Nakano felt her temper rise already and all he did was introduce himself. But the way he did it, the way he put a note of sarcasm into the words, 'this fine evening', it really pissed her off to no end. She wanted to blame someone.

"Where's Fuutarou Uesugi, the idiot?"

"He's taken a day off." Again there was the same trace of sarcasm. "From what he told me, teaching you sisters have proven to be a, let's just say, for the sake of politeness, difficult task." He then made a face which she supposed was to show surprise. "Of course, that's not to cast aspersions on your intelligence. I'm sure you are not as dumb as bricks."

Nino Nakano slammed both her hands on the table, where he kept the reference books and other study materials and leaned forward, getting right into his personal space. To her satisfaction he leaned away from her.

"Who do you think you are?!"

"I think I already introduced myself. I am-"

"No. I'm not asking who you are-"

"But isn't that what you are asking right now?"

Nino Nakano couldn't remember the last time she was this angry. Even Fuutarou Uesugi hadn't managed to piss her off this much. This guy, Hachiman Hikigaya, he was either too brave or to use his own words, dumb as bricks. She didn't want to find out which.

Okay, perhaps she did.

"I was asking in a rhetorical sense!" She tried to speak calmly. It seemed the tactics she used on Fuutarou Uesugi wouldn't work on him. This guy really knew how to get under her skin by being bothersome and sarcastic. Wait, how is that anything different from Fuutarou, she thought.

"Ah, I see. Well it's good to see you have a firm grasp on rhetoric. That's one thing we can cross off the study list for today." He let out a sigh. "Not that it helps much. I understand you are good with English too."

"Yeah."

"Okay, we can cross that off too. That leaves us with something close to manageable."

Nino Nakano understood now. Unlike Fuutarou, Hachiman Hikigaya didn't give a damn. He didn't care whether she studied or not. From the looks of it, he looked as unenthusiastic as her with the current arrangement. However that begged the question, why was he here in the first place.

"Are you a friend of Fuutarou Uesugi?" Nino asked.

"Not really. Never met the guy until this morning when he came to the service club with a request." He looked at her like she was particularly dumb. It pissed her off. It looked like he had only that expression when talking to her. "You know about the service club, don't you?"

"Of course. Yui is a friend of mine." Nino said proudly. Unlike the rest of her sisters, she was bit more of a social butterfly. It helped that she was the most fashionable girl of the bunch. Not that she was particularly vain about it. Okay, maybe a little. "She told me a lot about the service club. How it's a place where people in need can visit to find help and solutions to their problems. It's a great idea. In fact, when the club was in need of members, she asked me to join."

"Now that's a scary thought." Hachiman said. "So, it was between you and Tomoko Kuroki." He mumbled to himself. "Dodge a bullet right there…by landing on a landmine."

"What?" Nino was confused. "Are you right in the head? You are talking gibberish. Who's this Tomoko Kuroki?"

"Someone you wouldn't wanna know. She's a nice girl." He winced, visibly as he said that. No, it was more like he swallowed something disgusting. "Okay, she's not your typical definition of nice, but she is…" he trailed off at a loss of words.

Nino Nakano didn't know what was up with him and she couldn't believe she was about to ask this question. Really, it was his fault for making her do this.

"You haven't started teaching me anything. What's up with that?" She asked, clearly annoyed.

"I have not, haven't I?" He chuckled to himself. "Do you want to study?"

Fuutarou hadn't asked that particular question. He had never asked that question ever. After all he was the tutor. It was his job to make her study, by any means possible. It didn't matter whether she wanted to study or not. Her opinion didn't matter.

"Aren't you here as my tutor?" Nino Nakano asked. "Isn't that what Fuutarou asked you to do when he visited the service club?" She didn't know why but she felt rather hurt. "He just pushed us off to you and ran away without taking any responsibility. You know Papa pays him to tutor us, don't you? He isn't doing this out of the kindness of his heart. Really," she scoffed. "He doesn't care about us. Not really. We are just his way of earning a bit extra."

Hachiman Hikigaya was silent for a moment. He didn't say anything. Just let her talk and talk about what she felt for Fuutarou Uesugi. She didn't mind the quiet, though the look in his eyes did unnerve her after a while. He had eyes which no one could love, she thought.

"Fuutarou Uesugi has gone back home because her little sister is ill." Hachiman Hikigaya said with a note of finality. "I have a sister myself, Komachi, the cutest little sister in the world. I understood his problem. What I didn't understand however was his request." He looked at her with darken eyes. "Why care about a bunch of ungrateful women, when you can be back home taking care of your little sister."

Nino Nakano felt her cheeks grow red in anger. "What did you just say to me!?"

"I went to Hiratsuka-sensei after taking the request." Hachiman Hikigaya carried on. "You sisters were barely able to advance into your second year. Marginal marks, the very are minimum, just scrapping through. Then you guys had the stupidity of taking useless electives."

"They are not useless!" Nino shouted. "We sisters decided in advance that we would have the same subject as our major. The electives-"

"That's another thing." Hachiman Hikigaya said. "I mean of all the stupidest things you could have done, you five picked the same majors. What could have possibly been the reasoning behind that?"

Nino Nakano was not ashamed in the slightest. "We sisters wanted to be together. It was us against the world. Nothing could separate us."

Hikigaya scoffed. "What about separate rooms for each and every one of you in the girl's dorm. I have never been there, but I gather it's the same arrangement. Two suites sharing a single bath, two roommates in each room, total four, what with the connecting bath and no privacy."

Nino Nakano smiled arrogantly. "During our first year, me and my sisters stayed in the special apartments meant for heirs and heiresses from rich and noble families. I was a next door neighbor to Kaguya Shinomiya."

Hachiman Hikigaya's smiled his own smile. Nino Nakano had to admit he did look handsome in that small, fleeting moment. It was fleeting because he had to open his mouth and ruin the effect. "But I take it that your living arrangements this year have been changed." He crossed his arms. "Daddy wasn't too pleased with your exam results."

Nino Nakano turned beet red in embarrassment. "Did Fuutarou tell you that?"

"No, Ai Hayasaka did." This time he was smirking. "You would know her of course. After all you were neighbours with Kaguya Shinomiya back in your first year. I hear she still lives at your old place. Pity you couldn't live there. Maybe then the responsibility of teaching you would have fallen to her shoulders."

Nino Nakano wanted to leave the private study room. The door was open. She might as well get up and leave and if he dared follow her, she would kick him in the balls and scream at the top of her voice and call him a pervert for accosting her…okay maybe that was a bit too much. But she definitely felt like kicking him in the balls.

"I hate you." Nino said, pointing a manicured finger at his despicable self.

"Well, I don't love you either." He replied.

Huh?

HUH!?

"W-what's love got anything to do with this? Don't tell me you have fallen for me on first sight? No, no, no. That's completely disgusting." She was blushing when she said those words, why she didn't have a clue. "First of all, I like blondes. Yeah, that's right. Someone like Onizuka-sensei!"

"Yuck." Hachiman Hikigaya visibly shuddered. "What's wrong with you? It seems like your poor choice in picking majors and electives goes all the way down to your horrible taste in men."

Nino Nakano felt affronted. "I will tell you, I have fantastic taste in men. For example, Hayato Hayama-"

He held up a hand. "Please, no more. I feel sorry for you. I can see you married, then twice divorced, having a kid out of marriage with some deadbeat who always falls behind on his child-support checks and then crashes on your sofa, while emotionally blackmailing you by saying he wants to spend time with his kid, only that's sort of half a lie, because he has nowhere to go, but come crawling back to your place for food and shelter."

Nino Nakano listened to him with rapt attention. "That seemed oddly specific." But she waved it off. "But I don't think there is any chance of that happening, unless I marry someone like you."

"Huh? You want to marry me?"

Damn, what in the world made her say that. Plus, wasn't he getting ahead of himself. "I-I d-didn't say I want to marry you. Where did you get that ridiculous idea? You wish I would marry you!"

"You wish, I would marry you?" Hachiman Hikigaya looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. "I didn't know you felt that way. We barely know each other."

Nino Nakano was blushing. "Stop twisting my words dammit! You know what I said, and even if you don't, let me make it clear. The things you said about my future so called life that would only happen if I marry someone like you. And by saying someone like you, I meant someone of your type. Like Fuutarou."

"Nah, that guy is too studious and bookish. He also seems to genuinely think that he can help you."

Nino Nakano lost her good humour and became serious. "What do you think?"

"I think the only one who can help you guys is yourselves." Hachiman Hikigaya said. "Like you said, it has always been you sisters against the world. I don't disagree. But you guys made a couple of mistakes on the way and I think it would be best if you rectify it while you still have the chance." He looked at her eyes and she felt herself blushing. "Drop some of your electives or change your major. You still have time. Pick something that you find interesting, something that you really want to do with your life."

"But-"

"Your sisters will be there for you and you will be there for them. It doesn't change anything. Just in the future you will be doing something you like, instead of doing something for money that you will hate."

Nino Nakano didn't know what to do. Well that was a lie. She knew what she wanted to do, but it was a big risk. "If I change majors, I will have to study an extra year."

"If you continue with your current major, you might have to repeat a year." Hachiman said.

"But-"

"You need to make a decision, Nakano-san." It was the first time he called her by her name. He used her last name as one would expect from someone who didn't know her all that well, but still it felt rather nice on his lips. "You either change your majors or drop those useless electives. What's your dream?" He quickly changed the subject.

"What?"

"What's your dream, the perfect job, the ideal career that you want to pursue when you are out of this place?" He further elaborated.

"I want to open a restaurant." Nino Nakano didn't know why but she found herself disclosing that bit of information to him.

"Are you good at cooking?" He asked and there was some doubt in his eyes.

Nino Nakano felt insulted. If only they were back in her room, instead of this private study room in one of the buildings of the campus, she would just show him how good she was when it came to cooking. She was the best.

"I'm the best." She said confidently.

"Well then, why don't you take up that subject as an elective instead of…fashion?" Hachiman said. "I'm sure you would make a killing in the Shokugeki course."

Nino Nakano did see the point. In fact she had been thinking about it from the start. But one thing or another led to her not pursuing that typical course.

"I guess I could pick that up as an elective."

"And?" he stressed out.

Nino Nakano sighed. "I will drop the other unnecessary electives. I don't even like history all that much. I just joined because Miku loves it."

"What about Sociolgy?" Hachiman asked.

"Can't," Nino Nakano said unashamedly with a wistful expression. "Onizuka-sensei is such a hunk."

Hachiman Hikigaya said something underneath his breath about women and blonde idiots. While he busied himself with finally starting to do some actual tutoring, after some time, Nino Nakano couldn't help but imagine this guy as a blonde.

"Have you ever dyed your hair?" Nino asked.

"No."

"You might actually look handsome as a blonde." She added.

Hachiman Hikigaya froze. The pen he was holding dropped to the page of the open notebook and he looked at her with those dark, depressing eyes. His mouth was a thin line until he opened it to say a few choice words.

"You have horrible tastes." Hachiman Hikigaya said.

Nino Nakano didn't feel all that insulted.

"I do not."

A/N: I'm sorry that I picked only Nino, but she was the most popular choice. I also felt it would be kinda unfair on all of the girls if I crammed them all in one chapter. Hope you guys liked it.

Here are the options for the next chapter:

Option 1: Chizuru Ichinose – Rent-A-Girlfriend.

Option 2: Sumi Sakurasawa – Rent-A-Girlfriend.

Option 3: Moka Akashiya – Rosario+Vampire.

Option 4: Yue – Arifureta

Option 5: Rikka Takanashi – Love, Chunibyo & Other delusions.

Please pick any of the above options or suggest a character in the review (It would really help!)

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Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

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Won't betray your dreams.