BOTTLED UP

3:22 PM

"Can you ... Help me, please ...? I ... Can't do this on my own, so ... Can you help me, please ...?"

... ... ...

"Eh...?"

A heavy silence followed for the next few seconds, falling like an iron curtain over the library. In addition to the two, there were only one or two students imbued with the task of taking care of the place.

Her lips pressed together, almost as if in pleading, trembling ... That had to be fate, didn't it? After all, they saw each other three times in the same day. This could not be normal.

Was the world providing her with a way out, helping the girl in some way, and that's because it put him on her way?

She needed that ... help. She wouldn't be able to keep moving on for long - not with her grades, that is - she desperately needed help.

... But it was help she couldn't take.

The young girl couldn't understand what kind of supernatural force made her say those words that she was so afraid to let out someday ... But now it had already been done.

Mike wanted to know if he was really getting it right. Was she asking for help? More specifically, his help? If so, why?

For a few seconds, he just stood there, looking at her, almost as if he expected to hear that it was all a joke, and that she was just making fun of him. Japanese students can be quite the teasers, and he knew that.

"I..." He was about to say something.

"I'm busy." "I have other things to do." "I can't." He could say any of such things...

But would he?

That continuous stared, eyes full of pleading brilliance, asking for his support in that situation.

In a slightly shaky and suspicious gesture, the boy raised his index finger to chest level, pointing at himself.

"Me? Are you, perhaps, talking to me? " He asked, somewhat hesitantly.

She could only weakly nod, in positivity.

"I see ... What do you need help with?"

Her eyes widened once that message reached her ears. He did agree with helping. Why did he agree... And most importantly... How could she even ask that?

"Math homework activity? I'm going to tell you the truth - it was a little complicated. Yoshida-sensei ended up exaggerating in the dose a little. " He said, approaching her.

He quickly took the seat opposite to hers, resting his backpack made of jeans on the chair next to him. The two were now positioned so that he could face her directly.

"So, what exactly do you need my help with? ... Nakano-san? You are here?" He called out to her, but his voice always fell into an infinite limbo in the young girl's mind.

With the afternoon sun gradually turning everything a little more orange, she remembered those days, times when everyone's life had been so much happier than today.

The things she could never say remained, stuck in turmoil, being ghosts of that past...

"-ano-san ... -kano-san. Nakano-san ...! "

"Ah ...! Shishishishi ! Sorry! I was just thinking too much! " She laughed and smiled as best she could, placing a hand on the back of her head.

Little did he know, she was using all of her remaining energies to smile like that.

"Uh ... Okay ... But what do you need my help with?" Still thinking of it as something very suspicious, Mike only provided a forced smile of his own making. "Was that supposed to be her laugh?"

"Uhm ... I'm having a hard time with a lot of things, actually ... You know, I'm quite stupid ... Shishishi ... "

"Say no more, Nakano-san." His reaction was able to surprise her immensely.

In a very practical and fast way, the boy started to empty his bag, taking out a notebook and a pen.

"Ah, by the way ... First things first! This thing puts my name as 'Silva Michael' ... And i still think this is weird, but you can call me as you feel like. Pleased to meet you, Nakano-san. " He was looking at his student card, waving it around.

In a very warm gesture, he extended his hand towards her, which took a while to understand what was happening, but accepted anyway.

"... A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Shiruba-san ...!" She spoke in an absurdly fast way.

"Still not quite there, but i think that's fine ... So, how should we start? I kinda don't have anything else to do, in fact ... So studying with you would be fine, i guess. "

She was still immersed in immense surprise ... He had accepted that too quickly! Not knowing what to do, Yotsuba just took the first page of the homework she could find.

But... That still seemed wrong for a reason... Asking for the help of someone completely uninvolved, as most importantly, a person that wasn't him.

"That. I ... I'm not able to solve these exercises ... None of these numbers and letters make sense in my head, and I ... I don't know what to do anymore ... "

She wanted to bite her tongue so badly after saying all of that...

"Hmm ..."

He let his eyes run over the leaf for a few seconds, adopting a serious and somewhat intriguing posture. Mike took a hand to his chin, and then opened a blank page, writing a few things on it.

"If that's the case, please try to solve this, Nakano-san. You don't need to get it right, but you must try to. Deal? "

He presented the page where he had written. In relatively large numbers, the expression "4X = 16" was seen in black ink.

"Try to solve it the way you think is correct. I will not say anything." He then handed him the page. "There is something I want to find out."

"But ... But this is your notebook! I shouldn't be doing that in your stuff! " She tried to protest.

"Just do it. I don't care about that kind of thing. " He waved away with his hand, keeping his focus on the paper. "And then, Nakano-san. How would you solve this equation? "

Yotsuba thought, thought and thought ... She thought more and thought some more after that, and after much thought, she started to scribble her answer on the paper, presenting it after a few seconds.

"Here it is. I did it the way I thought it would be right ... "She turned the sheet over again.

"Very well. Let me see ... "Mike took the sheet, analyzing the result, and ...

"But how so?!"

Somehow, 4X = 16 had become 20X. Observing this, he could only conclude that his suspicions were much worse than he initially imagined.

"... So she doesn't even have basic foundations for solving equations ...? It seems that it is much worse than I imagined ... "

Mike took the reasoning that, when a person says "not understanding anything" about something, it is necessary to find out how much they know about said certain subject, so he proposed that she solve a simple equation.

But, generally, the person who claims to "understand nothing" knows something, even at a very basic level ... Or at least that was what he was counting on when he proposed the simple exercise.

However, there was a catch ...

"She is completely inept with Math ...!" He brooded over his internal discovery.

He was appalled ... How could this girl be in her second year of high school and be unable to solve a simple equation like that ...?

She lacked the simplest mathematical knowledge. Looking at that equation, Mike detected a number of problems that he would have to correct.

"Equation logic ... Incognito values ... Minus and Pluses ... She even totally disregarded the multiplication ...! ... And I presume, based on all of this, that the problems don't stop there ... I fell into one quite deep hole here, didn't I? ... " He thought, looking at her.

"But she needs help ... And i'm the only one that can do it for her ..."

In that second, a certain scene in Mike's past flashed through his mind like lighting in a stormy night.

"Damn it, old man... Why did you have something so cool and make me promise it?"

Thinking about it, he took in a huge amount of air, filling himself with internal focus.

... ... ...

As much as he tried to appear neutral, Mike always let out a sign of his surprise, and through such small gestures - a trembling lip, a slightly deeper breath than usual, subtly wider eyes - Yostuba managed to read the your face said. He was disappointed ... She just knew it.

" Shishishi ... Eheee ... I'm really an idiot, aren't I? You don't have to help me if you don't want to... "

She looked down, laughing in a broken way. Quintuplet number four knew of her immense incompetence and how incapable she was.

After all, she couldn't confess.

"Nakano-san." He said, in a stern way.

"He must be ready to say how stupid I am ..." Yotsuba thought, forcing that smile and expecting the worst, waiting for bitter words that would certainly hurt a lot.

She let her nails sink into her palms ... This is Nakano Yotsuba, isn't it? The most useless quintuplet of all, and for that reason, would always be the dumbest and unable to learn anything ...

After all, she was the one that let this hell happen.

"It looks like we're going to have to do a little work here ... I know. Wait a minute, Nakano-san ..." He started to think, in a very enigmatic way, when he understood Yotsuba's response.

That was wrong. So wrong of her. He would never approve this.

He kept scribbling more stuff on sheets of paper, tearing it off the spring wire. The sound of the paper being ripped traveled across space, and removed Yotsuba from deep thoughts.

She watched him tear the same sheet of paper into four separate pieces, and did the same with another page - she was making him waste his own materials ... That's what Yotsuba thought when she saw this.

He took a few more pieces of paper, all of similar size, made with other sheets from his notebook. Watching, she realized that they all had symbols.

"Look, Nakano-san ... What do you see when you look at this type of equation? Tell me your honest thoughts. " He pointed to the problem that had been worked out - the one that she had answered incorrectly.

The young woman with the green bow on her head looked at him, to find a serious and genuinely questioning look.

But still, it wasn't his, so it didn't matter.

"Well, I... I see a lot of letters, numbers and signs that don't make any sense ... Everything becomes a big heap that I can't understand in the end ... Ehehehe ..." She released a embarrassed, guilty laugh at the end of it all.

"I see ... So, the first thing we are going to do is ..." He started to quickly organize the pieces of paper with symbols on the table, in a way that the same equation was obtained. Four different papers with the letter "X".

He took one in his hand, pointing it at Yotsuba.

"... Correct some of those notions you have!"

Then, he started explaining the problem, step by step, trying to make it as simple as possible. Yotsuba's mind was anywhere between the explanation and the thought of him. At all moments, that explosive discomfort took over her heart - it wasn't him, and could never be.

It didn't feel right... Something was missing... That main part of it all was just not there.

"... Now, Nakano-san ... This 4 is going to change sides. He doesn't like X because he is a two-faced liar who deceives everyone, so he will join 16, who is also an honest number like him. But when he does that, he will change his occupation! Before it was multiplying, but now it will go to the enemy side as a divider - the opposite work! And now we can finally find out the value of X, which is 16/4 ... How much does that give us? "

Realizing that she was questioned, Yostuba snapped back to reality and started counting on her fingers, and after a few seconds, provided a hesitant answer.

"Four...?" She was barely focusing. That was but a luck shot.

"That's right. If X is 4, it means that 4 units of it will be worth 16! You see?"

Yostuba took one last look at the paper with the original equation... She knew how to do it. She just didn't have the energy to.

"Do you need me to explain again, or is there something you want me to repeat?"

With only a quick shake of her head, the short-haired girl looked extremely excited.

... But that was a lie. She just... Didn't want him nearby anymore.

"I managed to understand everything!"

"Since this is the case, what do you think about starting to solve?"

"Actually, I can already do this by myself... Thank for your help, but I can keep going."

She wanted to push him away, punish herself for doing that - asking the help of others. For forgetting about him even for that milissecond. It was all a lie. All that explanation didn't do any good.

He wasn't Uesugi Fuutarou, and that's why it seemed so wrong. That had to stop right now.

"I see..." He prepared to leave school. "See you, then."

She didn't answer, and he left without a single other word being lost in the air. Now it was just her and those countless problems she couldn't even begin to understand.

Looking at all those papers, Yotsuba could just lower her head, as tears started to silently slip out, marking the pages.

"Uesugi-san... What do I do...?"

She was failing in every single subject. Even with Itsuki's help, there was no way she could do it. The only way she could ever succeed in anything was with him.

Those painful claws were digging deeper and deeper into her chest, ripping everything apart. She didn't know what to do, what to think, or what to say. Yotsuba could only feel.

Guilt, pain... Swallowing again and again her incapacity of communicating what was in her heart. She couldn't do it, and now, was forever plagued with that pain.

He would never hear it, and thus, her motivation to keep trying was slowing dying. The days became gray, and every person just seemed as uninteresting as a table surface.

The smiles demanded more energy every time. She still had to be Yotsuba - the one who plays around and is energetic. But that facade was also slowly falling apart.

And just like the death of a star, the shiniest quintuplet was losing her light.

Careful not to let any of her sobbing escape, she kept shut lips, as the two rivers made their way down the face. Bottling all of this deep inside is just better, right?

She better not let those words slip ever again.

AUTHOR NOTES

Agressive criticism? That's cute. I'm going to grab this wonderful universe made by Negi Haruba and do my thing with it as i wish to.

I actually made "reading your reviews" one of my motivations to keep writing - some comments are pretty clever, and i kinda like them! See you guys in the next chapters! This first "Arc 0" is about to be over! (Yes, i have future chapters and Arcs planned and all.)

Oh, and NinoQuintBEST (Guest), i agree with you. Nino is best.