Well, here we are again. Do not get your hopes up, guys. I am not gonna get started on a streak of daily updates again. My approach is gonna be different from now on, because I have a new fic in the works that I published earlier, which is entitled "His Savior". Check it out if you haven't already, although it's vastly different compared to this one. The next update I release will be for that story and then after that, it'll be back to 5 sisters and so on. I hope you guys understand, okay? As the Ace of Gotoubun, I have a job to do and that is to carry the archive on my back, while being as consistent as ever. I'm done doing daily updates, because now I'll be doing two stories at the same time.

Anyway, last chapter was somehow wild and emotional, with Fuutarou having a nice talk with Itsuki in front of her father about how important she ended up being in his life. It ended on a massive cliffhanger with Fuutarou about to face off with Maruo, so here we are. What's gonna happen? What will Fuutarou tell Maruo? Will Maruo tell him to get lost? Let's get into the chapter already!

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Disclaimer: I don't own the Quintessential Quintuplets, or any of its characters...

Maruo watched the interaction between his daughter and Fuutarou, narrowing his eyes even further when his own mind felt like it was playing tricks on him. In Fuutarou's place, he could see a young version of himself with his late wife, who was standing in Itsuki's place! Because of this, the man couldn't find it in himself to interrupt their little conversation and he could only listen as a result, at least until the boy turned his attention towards him again.

The young man looked confident that he can change his mind regarding his stance on the matter, but Maruo remained unamused. That confidence reminded him of Isanari years ago during their days in high school and seeing it again irked him, especially now when his daughter was involved.

"Earlier, I have said that you are not like your father but I suppose I may be wrong in that statement, considering Isanari was an idiot who spent most of his attention on girls rather than his studies. Quite frankly, I'm surprised at even myself sometimes that he was someone I considered a friend even with that attitude. You may not be so different from your father, after all."

Fuutarou kept a straight look despite those words, because he knew to himself that he wasn't like his old man. Hey, he was fully capable of tutoring two girls all while handling the constant bullshit he has to go through in school nowadays, and there's also having to deal with his soulmates.

Isanari could only dream of being able to perfectly balance everything that he's been doing, because he was sure that his old man won't hesitate to let go of one of those due to how lazy he can be… heh.

"Father, I am well aware of that, which is why I am making it clear right now. I have no interest in forming a relationship with your daughter when I am focused on helping her elevate her own grades. If you would still have me teach all your daughters as their tutor, it would be illogical of me to even think about starting a relationship with Itsuki."

Maruo narrowed his eyes at the boy, looking terribly affected about what Fuutarou just said. "While you are her tutor? Are you saying that you will still go after Itsuki despite what you claim about not forming a relationship? Do you take me as a fool, Uesugi-kun?" he asked in an almost-threatening manner.

Fuutarou resisted the weight of the older man's death stare, keeping his expression stern in order to assert his intentions.

"I have feelings for your daughter. It would be foolish of me if I didn't act on what I feel. If I ignore these feelings that I have, then it doesn't make me any different from my own father."

The older man narrowed his eyes even more from seeing Fuutarou continue to insist about his feelings for Itsuki, but it's not just that. After hearing those words from the young man, Maruo couldn't help but be reminded of an important conversation he had in the past, one which ended up being the catalyst for his fated encounter with his late wife.

~~XoXo~~

"Y-You can't be serious!" A sixteen-year old Maruo exclaimed, almost falling off his chair upon hearing what his friend/acquaintance/whatever-you-call-an-annoying-guy said about their senior and what he should do regarding his newly-developed feelings towards her. Phew. It's a good thing he didn't fall over, or he would've taken the stack of books on his desk with him…

"Oh, I'm always serious, buddy. What's wrong with confessing what you feel? We both know you have a crush on senpai, don'cha~?" teased Isanari Uesugi with a shit-eating grin on his face, leaning back against the window with his hands in his pockets.

Just a few hours ago, the pair of first-year students were walking through the hallway to get to their next class, which was also the place where they encountered perhaps the most popular of the second-year students in their school, Rena Imamura, walking all by herself and ignoring the horde of fanboys who were 'secretly' following her.

Isanari only smirked to himself when he noticed his pal's usual look of unamusement fall and slowly turned into a shocked expression, right when he made eye contact with the beautiful second-year student, and almost burst out laughing when a blush had erupted on Maruo's face.

Yeah, he was also ready to tease the living hell out of Maruo about their senior, who happened to be the most popular of the second-year females, being able to get through his Sir Scowls-a-Lot nature and actually making him blush!

That was already a miracle in Isanari's eyes.

However, there was no way he could do such a thing when he saw that Rena herself looked quite shocked upon meeting Maruo as well, making the blonde teen drop his smirk and then blinking in surprise.

Was he just seeing things, or was the most popular girl in school left speechless upon seeing Maruo Nakano, the resident loner and nerd of his class?

If that wasn't enough, it was Rena herself who broke eye contact first, turning her head away in order to hide her face. The other people in the hallway with them weren't able to see what happened to her afterwards except for Isanari, whose jaw dropped out of complete shock upon seeing their senior gain a blush on her cheeks because she felt embarrassed for some reason.

...

She blushed.

...

Rena… blushed.

...

...

...

And from there, Operation: Be a Bro was officially underway!

Despite the obvious blush on his cheeks from Isanari implying that he had a crush on their own senior, Maruo managed to form a serious look in order to counter it. However, it was clearly ineffective and he still couldn't be taken seriously due to the red hue on his face, which only caused Isanari to laugh at his friend whom he treated more as a ward around here. Of course, there's no way he could let this kid out of his sight when he was a constant target for bullies all around the place.

"T-This is different, Isanari-san! I am supposed to stay focused on my academics until I graduate from college! I absolutely cannot do something like that!" Maruo exclaimed in denial.

It was a good thing that they were the only ones in the classroom right now. Their teacher was absent for the day, and their classmates have all decided to have an early lunch break even though the school bell hasn't rung yet. Like the diligent student that he was, Maruo chose to remain in the classroom while Isanari stuck around for obvious reasons…

"Come on, buddy! What is it with you and this stick up your ass? Is it because you two just met each other earlier? I know that's pretty rare to happen these days, but I can't blame ya if that's what ya feel! Love comes in all shapes and sizes after all, and it can come at ya anytime!" Isanari explained as if he was some kind of love guru, which caused a tick mark to appear on Maruo's head.

"It's not that, Isanari-san! I cannot let myself be distracted by trivial things such as high school romance, because it will only serve as a distraction from what I seek to achieve. In fact, I'm not even supposed to be talking with you, if we take my principles into account. I'm simply tolerating your presence out of gratitude for what you did for me in the past."

"That so? That's pretty sweet of you, y'know? But I have to tell" he grinned in a mischievous manner, causing his friend to give him a death stare with flames surrounding him, making him seem like he was some kind of devil waiting to be unleashed.

However, Isanari was unaffected by it and continued to grin like a madman. Hm, it's probably because he got used to it already or something.

"Mind explaining why you suddenly blushed out of nowhere when you saw her then?"

That question was enough to silence Maruo, snapping him out of the death stare that he currently had because Isanari got him good with that statement. There's no way for him to deny it either, because he himself knew that he blushed at that moment but he didn't exactly know why! He's never blushed because of a girl before unless they get too close to him for comfort, but Rena was at least one meter away from him!

She's beautiful? He's never really had time to acknowledge certain aspects of a girl and tell if she's beautiful or not, nor did he want to do such a thing. Why would he? His attention was directed to his studies, not girls! He wasn't like Isanari here!

While Maruo was trying to figure out the reason behind his own involuntary actions, Isanari continued with his words. "You normally have that bored look on your face as if you're tired of the whole world or something, but it suddenly disappeared when you saw her and you even blushed, of all things. What the hell happened back there? Was she too beautiful for ya or something?"

"I don't know. It's just… when I saw Imamura-senpai, I felt a strong electric current travel through my whole body. It felt like a powerful magnet of sorts, so much that it caused me to look at her and made me unable to look away," Maruo explained while doing his best to calm down.

Isanari raised an eyebrow in confusion, wondering what that meant. Honestly, he only understood the first part and was confused with the words that followed.

"You got electrocuted just by looking at her…?"

Maruo sent him a displeased look, before nodding anyway. Why was he friends with this idiot, again?

"A rather dangerous way of saying it, but yes. That is what happened. After that, I was unaware of my own surroundings and I didn't know what was happening until I felt you pulling me along through my arm."

The blonde delinquent frowned for a moment and rubbed his chin in deep thought, thinking about what Maruo tried to explain to him. It didn't take Isanari long to get to a viable conclusion, as he flashed a confident smirk and snapped his fingers afterwards.

"Hmm, I know what's going on here…"

Maruo turned to him while raising an eyebrow, feeling doubtful that this buffoon can give a reasonable answer when all he does is joke around as if nothing serious was happening. Then again, Isanari did know more about these things than he did, so it shouldn't hurt to hear his answer out.

Isanari's smirk immediately shifted into his shit-eating grin from earlier, before speaking in a boisterous tone. "You just went through the 'Shock of Love', or as many people like to call it… love at first sight! Admit it, ya nerd! You're in love with Rena-senpai, aren't ya?! That's why you were blushing! You don't have to worry, though, because she was blushing too! You know what that means, right?!"

The curious expression on Maruo's face fell and was replaced by a look of disappointment. Yep, he should have seen this coming. Why did he even think that this idiot would take something like this seriously?

"Ugh…" Maruo groaned to himself.

"That means she likes ya too!" Isanari continued his friend, offering the broody teenager a thumbs-up out of acknowledgement. "Aw, Maruo, I'm so proud of ya! To think you would be the one to get the attention of one of the most popular girls in school… I'm almost jealous! But don't worry, I'm not gonna steal senpai from ya. I'll even help you out in winning her heart!"

Maruo simply shook his head and released a sigh, realizing that he was just wasting time with every second that he spends talking with Isanari. Better get back to what he was doing earlier, he would accomplish a lot more that way.

"Isanari-san, I have other things to take care of and they all have something to do with my academics, since you are obviously wasting my time with your pointless wisecracks like always. I would rather get them done than distract myself with this discussion."

"What, you're not even gonna try and deal with this? Look, I was just kidding… you know me already, right? Don't worry, I really do have something that'll—"

"As annoying as you are, I do. But regardless of what I feel, I must get back to studying. Hopefully, I'll be able to forget about this discussion while I am focused on my work," Maruo cut him off, with all traces of his earlier embarrassment already gone as his expression went back to his usual stoic look. "If you wouldn't mind, Isanari-san, please remain quiet and let me attend to my studying in peace until the lunch bell rings. If you can't do so, I humbly ask you to leave the room instead."

As soon as Maruo had spoken those words, Isanari blinked a few times as if he was trying to take in everything his friend just said. Did he just hear that nerd right? His hearing was perfectly fine as it is, which meant that he heard it, alright. It didn't take long before a frown appeared on his face, which was suprising considering his normal demeanor!

No, he wasn't feeling angry that Maruo shut him down for like, the hundredth time, but it's because of how his broody friend didn't think much of his own feelings and thought that he can easily throw it aside like trash.

Oh, this nerd thinks he can just do that without knowing what it meant for him? Maruo still had a lot to learn about life, despite being incredibly book-smart and consistent in his grades.

"Would you shut up about studying for a moment and listen to me, you stupid nerd?" he said in a serious tone that was vastly different from his normal voice.

Maruo froze in his place, suddenly feeling a chill down his spine upon hearing those words from Isanari's mouth. Never has he heard the guy use such a tone on him, mostly because the idiot was always joking around and didn't seem to take anything seriously.

Until now, that is.

Fuutarou sure made his intentions clear, and he's not going to give up on his feelings, dammit! He's come a long way (one week) from that insensitive jerk that he used to be and he doesn't want to be away from Itsuki nor her sisters! He looks confident that he can change Maruo's mind, but will his luck be enough for that? His daughters got their stubbornness from him, just so you know. Oh, and what's this? A Maruo flashback? HOLY SHIT! It's during the time when he met Rena! It's Isanari and Maruo as teens, AND THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT RENA! Don't you think it's cute how a guy like Maruo actually blushes around his crush? I wonder if all emos are like that, lol. I also wonder what Isanari meant when he said Maruo got electrocuted when he met Rena, hehe... :) I'll see you guys in the next one!

Goodbye... and good night! BANG! *too sweet gesture*

-Lance