A Quintessential Trip

by LanceSennin

Now that they are engaged through a series of unexpected events, Fuutarou and the Nakano quintuplets head to the beach in order to spend more time together! However, a certain tutor feels troubled with everything that is happening, which may or may not lead to bad things happening in this trip. What's going to happen? Rated T. (My submission for the Discord event :D)

Special oneshot for our Discord server event! I will prove to you all once again that I am the Ace of the Gotoubun archive :)

Discord link: [discord . gg / 4y5QVPj]

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

---

"How did it all come to this again? Oh, right… I'm engaged now. Who could have ever seen this coming…"

Fuutarou Uesugi, now a third-year student of Asahiyama High and currently betrothed to five beautiful quintuplets, thought to himself as he carried his backpack while following closely behind his fiancées who were all beyond excited for today, mostly because of what this day meant to them.

They were acting as if this was their engagement party but in truth, it was the farthest to being one.

At least, that's what he thought and he was the only one thinking that way.

This little trip to the beach was orchestrated by, surprisingly, Maruo Nakano himself, saying that 'spending time together while being engaged' is a good way to ensure a healthy relationship between both parties. Isanari, Fuutarou's father, was fully on board with it and even suggested that they should be left alone the entire time to ensure that 'nothing can distract them'.

He resisted the urge to strangle his old man just for saying those words, thinking that he just signed his son's death sentence without a care in the world.

Fuutarou was fully convinced that Maruo would have sedated him and gotten taken away upon hearing that, but guess what? The young man nearly fainted when Maruo accepted the terms in the end, although he didn't seem fully convinced that it was a wise decision.

Fuutarou never thought he would see that man doing something like this, especially considering how he thought that Maruo hated him for some reason, but he did.

That's how he ended up here, currently on their way to their designated hotel which hosted the beach that they were going to.

"Fuutarou-kun, is something wrong? You're falling behind!" Yotsuba asked upon noticing that their groom-to-be was falling behind them, causing her other sisters to turn their heads as well.

Hearing Yotsuba's voice was enough for him to be snapped out of his thoughts, as he saw all of the girls sending him looks of concern. Fuutarou quickly deduced that they must have noticed him looking troubled, which is something that he didn't want to happen.

And so, as fake as it was, he flashed them a reassuring smile.

"No, don't worry about me. I'm just thinking about some things."

"What are you thinking of, then?" Ichika asked, tilting her head slightly out of curiosity.

Crap.

Ichika may be on to him already, which was definitely not good!

Being an aspiring actress, she must have noticed that he was only showing a fake smile and thought that he's hiding something from them!

Gotta think of something to tell them, quick!

"Uh, just thinking about how much fun we're going to have here, that's all!" he quickly said in an attempt to alleviate them of their worries before Ichika thinks that he's hiding something. "You know, because the weekend is ours and this beach is huge… we can do lots of things together."

He became slightly nervous when all his words did was cause everyone to stare at him blankly, until Itsuki spoke up with a comforting look on her face.

"Oh, that's right. You haven't experienced something like this before, have you, Uesugi-kun?" she asked, walking closer towards the young man before holding his wrist gently with a small blush dusting her cheeks.

"Yes, that's it exactly. I've been so used to living a simple life for so long that going on a trip like this, staying at an expensive hotel with a beach on top of it, I'm kind of feeling like I'm just dreaming or something right now."

He had no idea if he sounded convincing, but the only thing he could do was go with what Itsuki suggested, while drawing some truth from his honest feelings at the moment. Truth be told, he really was feeling somehow overwhelmed and taken aback that he was on a three-day vacation with his five former students-now-turned-fiancées, and they were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted since they were alone.

"Is that it?"

Came the voice of Nino, who started chuckling softly while shaking her head, as if she had just heard the silliest thing in her life. Fuutarou started to wonder if she had caught on to his lie as well, especially when she started to walk towards him as well.

"Well, you're lucky that you're getting married to us. We're free to do whatever we want here for a few days and you don't have to worry about paying for anything, Fuu-kun. Papa's got it all covered," she spoke before grabbing his other arm gently, offering him a cute smile that elicited a blush from the young man..

Oh, false alarm.

She was just trying to make him feel assured that nothing's wrong with this.

"I know. I'm actually asking myself on the way here if this is just some dream that I'll wake up from. It's not everyday that I end up getting engaged to five girls and go on a trip with them," he said, nodding.

"Well, I assure you, Fuutarou-kun… this is no dream at all," Ichika teased with a wink. "You're going to be stuck with us for the next few days, and we're gonna be having so much fun together~"

While Ichika said those words, Miku and Yotsuba nodded in agreement which gave him the idea that they had the same thing on their minds. Heh, from how Nino and Itsuki basically held him captive by the arms, he can already tell that there's no way out of this.

"I guess…" he chuckled nervously while trying hard not to blush, steering his gaze away from Ichika and the girls.

Ichika only giggled at his reaction, before turning her attention towards everyone else. "Now, come on. We don't wanna spend too much time out here without any sunscreen, do we? Plus, we have a lot to unpack once we get to our hotel room."

Everyone else nodded and with that, the whole group continued on their way to the hotel, while Fuutarou hid a troubled look to himself.

Yep.

Right now, he was alone with five beautiful quintuplets who were all his fiancées and they were going to be spending three nights at a beach resort and nobody else was with them.

Fuutarou had a mixture of emotions bottled up inside him at the moment; confusion at why this was happening, embarrassment that he was actually betrothed to the very girls whom he tutored for months, and fear because of the responsibility he now bore as the girls' groom-to-be.

"I suppose I'm the only one who's feeling this way," he said to himself after observing the smiles that were present on everyone's faces.

Sometimes, he would just lament about the day this all came to be but alas, there was nothing he could do about it. Because one, his old man and the girls' father had an apparent agreement about this whole thing that dated to when they were still in college; two, these girls were being too clingy that he couldn't possibly turn them away; and third, if he did turn them away, their father will never let him see the light of another day.

But despite all of those, he couldn't really see what's wrong with the situation that he was currently in. If anything, he'd consider his own self as the setback in this relationship because of one thing.

The girls were all in favor of this, while he was conflicted with his own feelings.

---

All of the teenagers were terribly confused with the sudden meeting that they were called to, mostly because it involved both Maruo Nakano and Isanari Uesugi, their respective fathers wishing to talk with them in private. Apparently, it was something of the utmost importance according to Maruo, which was enough for everyone to gather in one of the rooms of the inn that they were staying at,

Currently, Fuutarou and the Nakano quintuplets sat on one side of the table, with their parents on the opposite side. They both looked serious about something as they stared at their children, leaving the six teens to think about what they had in their minds.

Unsurprisingly, Ichika and the rest of her sisters had the same thought; if both Fuutarou and his father were a part of this meeting, then this must be something regarding him being their tutor. From the impassive look on their dad's face, this could either end up in a good or bad way not only for Fuutarou, but for them as well.

Oh dear, was he going to get fired from his job as their tutor?

Meanwhile, Fuutarou was more curious about why Isanari was here (if he's here, then that means Raiha must be in another room, all alone). He didn't really think he was going to get fired from his job, because the girls' father can do that with a simple talk or a phone call.

With that in mind, he deduced that this meeting must be about something else entirely, and it somehow involved him and his old man.

"I assume you are wondering why we wanted all of you gathered here today, when we are supposed to be spending time as a family, girls."

Maruo was the first to speak, getting nods from all of his daughters as they all looked eager to know what's going on. Fuutarou, who sat behind them, wisely chose not to answer in any way to remain safe because there's no telling how that man would take it.

"Then I will not keep you waiting any longer. To those of you who don't know, the man sitting beside me is Uesugi-kun's father, Isanari. We were friends in high school, and our connection is what led to me choosing his son as your tutor several months ago," he said, gesturing to the blonde man with him right now.

"Yo," Isanari gave a casual wave of his hand and sent a smirk to the girls.

Fuutarou could only roll his eyes in secret but on the inside, he was having some thoughts of his own. He already had the assumption that his old man and the girls' father knew each other in some way, because it couldn't be a coincidence that he was chosen as a tutor specifically. It's like he was chosen because there was no other option, and it's not like Isanari recommended him because no one will take him seriously from how he acts.

He could have never guessed that they were friends in the past.

Eh, who could blame him? Maruo Nakano always looked like he was out for his blood that it's almost impossible to predict such a thing.

"The both of us are here today to inform you all about a very important arrangement, one that directly affects your entire future, girls. This goes for you as well, Uesugi-kun, so I ask you to listen to my next words very carefully."

His daughters nodded slowly while feeling somewhat nervous about what this was about, before glancing at their tutor in surprise. Fuutarou was taken aback as well, now intrigued with what this was about, before he responded with a nod of his own.

What could possibly be so important that involved him and these girls altogether?

Satisfied with their children's answer, Maruo turned towards Isanari, before giving him a nod of affirmation.

Seeing that it was now his turn to take over, Isanari cleared his throat and began to talk in a more serious tone, although he retained a smile that made him look less threatening than the deadly-serious man beside him. He turned his attention to the girls before anything else, internally amused at their inner curiosity and he was definitely going to enjoy their reactions after what he was going to say.

"As hard as it is to believe, girls, your father and I have been friends for many years and we've stayed in touch ever since. The reason we called all of you here is to tell you about an agreement we had during our days back in high school. Well, it's not really an agreement, but more of a pact between the two of us."

Fuutarou figured that it's a safe time for him to speak up for his and the quints' growing curiosity since it wasn't Maruo who spoke, but rather it was his old man.

"Alright, so what is that 'pact' about and how does it involve us?"

Before he could say anything, Isanari glanced at Maruo as if he was asking for permission, to which the doctor rolled his eyes before nudging his head towards the six teenagers, giving his old friend the answer he wanted.

A big grin formed on Isanari's face as he faced the kids, who became slightly unnerved at his expression, before he finally answered the question that was in their minds at the moment.

"Our agreement back then was about arranging a marriage between our kids in the future, and now that a lot of years have passed with the two of us having children of our own, we decided to honor that pact!"

After revealing that certain bit of information, Isanari waited for the teenagers to give their reactions to it and he was eager to see how they would take it. He was barely able to stop his laughter from ringing out when his son and the girls could only stare at him blankly, as though his words phased through them completely.

However, he quickly noticed that Maruo was sending him a serious look, which meant that he had to elaborate a little further.

Yeah, what he said made almost no sense to the kids at all.

Isanari quickly waved his hands before him while stifling his own giggles, already amused at how the kids were just plain confused with what he just revealed to them. "We know, we know, it's ridiculous to think about! Honestly, we first talked about it as a joke during our final year in highschool, but after thinking about it a lot more, we talked about it again and actually considered doing it for real."

A wave of silence then washed through the group of teenagers, which both Maruo and Isanari foresaw coming because of the implications of their said 'agreement'. Honestly, who wouldn't be taken aback with what they just revealed? It was basically about their entire future because it involved the concept of marriage!

One would think that Fuutarou would be the first to snap out of his temporary trance and ask his father about what he's trying to say, but the young man himself was currently unresponsive. The first to actually come back to her senses and form a coherent response was Ichika and from the look on her face, it seemed that she still didn't fully understand what Isanari Uesugi told them.

"W-What exactly does this mean…?"

"I shall repeat it for all of you because Isanari doesn't know how to elaborate properly," Maruo's voice took over, as his daughters' and Fuutarou's gazes shifted towards him. Crossing his arms, he pushed back the desire to back out of this and continued on. "To honor an agreement that I had with Isanari, you girls are to be engaged to Uesugi-kun and will eventually marry him once you reach the appropriate age."

Upon hearing their father explain everything in a more understandable way, it caused all of the girls to snap their eyes wide open in shock more than anything else, which was completely understandable since it came out of nowhere. On the other hand, it didn't take long for Fuutarou to finally snap out of his unresponsive state, as a blush now began to form across his features.

"T-This isn't some kind of joke, is it?"

Hearing those words, Maruo let out a sardonic chuckle, one that sent a chill down Fuutarou's spine. He had to be careful not to say anything that ticks the older man off from here on out, because the quints' father was a dangerous man...

"Do you think that I would joke about something like this, Uesugi-kun? Admittedly, I thought that you would jump at the opportunity to be with my daughters from the deepening relationship you were forming with all of them. Did you think I wouldn't notice how you and the girls have been spending time together behind my back, despite this trip originally being a way for us to spend time as a family?"

Upon hearing those words, Maruo's daughters could only hang their heads in shame from being exposed by their own father, who apparently knew about their actions all along. On the other hand, Fuutarou first explained his own actions in response to Maruo's allegations, before bowing deeply that his head was touching the floor.

"I-I wouldn't do such a thing, and I apologize for our actions without your knowledge. I take full responsibility for it because of an underlying issue regarding our relationship as tutor and students."

Maruo only folded his arms and scoffed, while Isanari chuckled to himself at how awkward his son must be feeling right now.

After a few seconds of bowing his head, Fuutarou sat up again and glanced at the girls who were sitting around him, wanting to see how they were taking all of this in. However, as soon as they met his gaze, they immediately looked away with blushes on their faces, no doubt still embarrassed from what they heard from their parents.

"It's true that I see these girls as my friends, the first real friends I have made in years, honestly, but… I never thought of marrying them or anything," Fuutarou admitted as he turned his attention back towards the girls' father, who remained looking unamused even with those words.

"Regardless of what you feel about this, you are going to be engaged to my daughters and as a matter of fact, your father was the one who made this suggestion. I saw no problem with it and agreed to the terms, provided that you make sure to take care of all of them as their shared husband."

At that moment, the young man was reminded that he was going to get married not to one, but to all of the Nakano quintuplets, according to both his old man and Maruo Nakano. The thing that surprised him the most was that the girls' father just said it like he didn't even know what it meant!

This sent a wave of dilemma through his entire body, as he began to think about the possibility of him mishearing the two adults regarding what they said…

There's no way, right?

"I'm going to marry all of them…? There must be some kind of mistake… isn't that… illegal?" he asked with a nervous chuckle, unsure if this would either get him some answers or a ticket to the grave.

"Normally, it would be and it would land you a spot in jail if you even so much as attempt to pull it off on your own. However, as this is a formal agreement between two parties about two years ahead of time since you are all still underaged, the law cannot do anything. It also involves the patriarchs of both families in this agreement, being Isanari and I, and we are giving full consent on this."

Maruo explained the inner workings and technicalities of their actions to the young man and to an extent, his daughters as well. However, as expected of his daughters, none of them really understood his words.

Even Fuutarou, as smart as he was, wasn't able to follow Maruo's words completely. Perhaps he was still taken aback at the fact that he was going to marry five girls when the time came.

No, not "date", "marry" as in marriage, which involves husband and wife!

Isanari noticed that the teenagers were stumped trying to figure out what Maruo explained, so he decided to put in his two cents in a more understandable explanation.

"What Maruo's trying to say is, the law can do what it wants, but it can't screw this over."

A vein could be seen throbbing on Maruo's forehead as soon as he heard those words from his friend's mouth. It was clear that he didn't appreciate him speaking in that way, in front of his daughters, no less.

"Isanari, mind your language…"

"What? I just felt like it."

Fuutarou still felt terribly confused with what was happening, so he went on to continue satisfying his curiosity regarding this matter. Seriously, there must be something he's missing in all of this, because this might be the cause of his own brain short-circuiting at any moment from the information that it was trying to process.

"Still… why all of your daughters? I don't understand why you're just going to arrange a marriage between them and another guy without even asking them about what they think regarding the whole thing..."

Maruo narrowed his eyes further, while Fuutarou did his best to maintain his composure even while being under pressure.

"I do not know whether I should be angry with you or not from seeing you like this, but in case you are truly unaware of it, my daughters have developed an attachment towards you for several months now. In fact, I'm quite sure that Nino has done something regarding said attachment when you arrived to pick her up on a motorcycle."

"Eep!"

Nino squeaked in embarrassment from her father saying those words like they were nothing, which immediately got the attention of her sisters as they widened their eyes in this revelation. From their father revealing it and Nino's reaction that was quite out of character for her, it was quite clear that Maruo was telling the truth.

"Nino, what exactly did you do?" Miku asked, wanting nothing more than to know what exactly Nino did while she was all alone with Fuutarou, and that's not even counting the fact that she rode with him on a motorcycle!

It wasn't only her, as a matter of fact.

Her other four sisters were in the same boat, since they were all unaware of what exactly happened to Nino the night when she met with their father. As far as they all knew, Nino only told them that she spoke with their father and that was it.

They never knew anything about Fuutarou picking her up on a motorcycle or anything like that!

Meanwhile, Isanari was the only one who didn't look bothered in any way and if anything, it looked like he was supporting this whole thing.

"My, my, Fuutarou… when the hell did you get so smooth, whisking girls away on a ride?" he smirked, enjoying the blush that suddenly formed on his son's face because of that comment.

After a few seconds, Fuutarou chose to ignore Isanari and focus on Maruo instead, still managing to flash a serious look of his own that showed his own resolve. "I mean no offense, but how would you know that your daughters like me in that way? You haven't exactly been around to check up on them until recently."

"As their father, it would be shameful of me not to notice how they have grown fond of you ever since your first midterms, unlike you. It would also be a waste of time figuring out who you should be engaged to, therefore the most logical choice would be to have all my daughters as your fiancées."

Crap.

This is bad.

The person whom he thought of as a father who doesn't even bother to check how his daughters are doing and would rather have someone else give him updates about them, was actually a capable parent who pays attention to his children and he even had a good idea of what happened between him and Nino that night!

He didn't say anything explicit regarding that issue, but Fuutarou was pretty sure that Maruo knew that something happened, whatever it may be.

Somehow, he was like Isanari and that alone was mind-boggling to think about...

Oh, well.

Fuutarou didn't really know what else to say as an excuse, so he pretty much lost this battle of arguments. He might as well continue to deny the man's statements as much as he can, right? He was literally fighting a losing battle here, and Fuutarou can already tell that Nino had no plans of helping him out because she was preoccupied with her sisters who were expecting answers.

"I-I am just their tutor, Father… I admit that Nino did, uh… do something after our finals, but the same can't be said for the rest of them."

Maruo chose to ignore the way that Fuutarou referred to him and instead shifted his attention towards his daughters, who all froze the moment he stared at them with his cold and emotionless gaze. They felt as if they were in deep trouble because their father had completely caught on to their feelings for their own tutor, which honestly shocked them to the core.

"If you don't believe me, you are free to ask them yourself. They are right there with you. They are, after all, your brides-to-be with this agreement between your father and I."

Fuutarou blanched, before he decided to satisfy his growing curiosity and shifted his gaze towards the Nakano quintuplets, who all immediately looked away with red faces that were all deeper than their own hair color. This caused the young man himself to blush and suddenly lose the desire to get answers from them out of embarrassment.

Seeing the teens' flustered reactions to each other, Isanari slapped his knee and began to laugh loudly, amused from how awkward the atmosphere between them suddenly became. It was like he was watching a love comedy between a group of kids who are all too shy from confessing their feelings.

On the other hand, the man beside him was growing impatient from his daughters and their intended groom-to-be acting awkward around one another when they have already spent a considerable amount of time together for several months now.

"Go on, girls. Prove my words to Uesugi-kun," he said in an attempt to get his daughters to say something since they have been unresponsive up until now. "Please do not worry about revealing your feelings right in front of me. Isanari and I haven't signed a formal contract yet, but you can consider yourselves engaged to Uesugi-kun as of now, which means that there is no need for you to hide whatever feelings you have for Uesugi-kun."

Wow.

Ladies and gentlemen, let it be known that Maruo Nakano isn't such a cold-hearted bastard after all.

Fuutarou opted to wait for at least ten more seconds to see if the girls were going to react in any way, but they just remained where they were in that span of time. This prompted him to try and reason with their father, to tell him that this was a big misunderstanding, only to get cut off before he could even speak by a certain short-haired quint.

"Well, that's convenient. This means that I don't have to hold back anymore."

The young man was caught off guard when someone latched on to his arm, which quickly forced him to turn his head and see who it was. He was left with a deep red face when Ichika started nuzzling into his shoulder lovingly, while hugging his arm in between her breasts.

"I-Ichika, what are you doing…?" he asked in a low voice, feeling terribly embarrassed about Ichika's straightforwardness right in front of their parents.

However, his question only caused the girl to hug his arm tighter, before looking up at him with a flirty expression on her face.

"Looks like we're going to get married someday, Fuutarou-kun. Please take care of me, alright~?"

He blushed deeper than before.

"She's not serious about this, is she?" he asked himself, completely taken aback with how Ichika was accepting this whole arrangement like there was nothing wrong.

Fuutarou tried to push her off before this could go on any further, only for his other arm to get claimed by another girl, and this time, it was Nino.

"N-Nino!" he exclaimed, thought it was more out of surprise at what she did instead of her reason behind it. After all, she did confess to him while he was working that one night and it bothered him to the point that he couldn't sleep for several hours because his mind kept coming back to it.

"I say this makes things easier. Now we don't have to fight each other for Fuu-kun's feelings~"

Nino spoke with the same flirty expression on her face and nuzzled into Fuutarou's arm just like Ichika, although a hint of lust could also be seen in her eyes which caused the young man to panic inwardly.

From that alone, it was already obvious that she had no qualms about this whole arrangement and getting married to Fuutarou along with her sisters.

"You girls can't be serious…" he tried to reason with them, but that was short-lived as well when a pair of arms circled around his neck. This time, he felt a girl's chest pressing against his back while snuggling the side of her face against his nape. This action caused his already-red face to worsen, becoming almost the same as their own hair color.

"I want to get married now."

Because of her arms being wrapped around his neck, Fuutarou couldn't turn around and see who it was but from how Ichika and Nino had each of his arms with them, Yotsuba and Itsuki seemingly having a hard time believing what was happening while remaining where they were, the girl behind him must be Miku.

"Fuutarou…"

Yep, definitely Miku.

Oh, and speaking of which…

"I can... be with Fuutarou-kun...?"

Yotsuba asked herself, as if she was currently in a dream and has yet to wake up. Her quiet voice made it seem like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. She didn't even notice that she didn't refer to him as 'Uesugi-san' like she usually does.

"T-T-This is so sudden...! We are still in school...!"

Compared to the rest, Itsuki was reduced to a blushing and stuttering mess after hearing that she and her sisters are going to get married with their own tutor in the future. This was a bomb that dropped on them out of nowhere and Itsuki was about to lose her mind from both embarrassment and shock.

This was happening all at once and Itsuki felt like she could faint at any moment!

Isanari couldn't help but simply laugh at the girls' reactions to this, almost to the point that he looked like he was going to have an asthma attack, before he threw his flustered son a smug grin.

"You sure are the lucky guy, son... having five different girls all to yourself and all of them are sisters! Man, if your mother was here, she'd be teaching you how to take care of each of them!"

"Dad…"

Fuutarou could only groan at his father's antics, while simultaneously looking somewhat nervous at seeing Maruo's cold expression being directed towards him. Three of these girls were all but glomping on him right in front of their father, and he couldn't do anything to pry them off him.

Before he could say anything, however, Maruo beat him to it.

"Hmph. If I wasn't a man of my word, I would have never agreed to this, nor will I let you get close to even one of my daughters."

"I never asked for this to happen, you know…" Fuutarou thought to himself, but wisely chose to stay quiet just to be safe. Instead, he only settled to give a nod of agreement because it might be bad for him to even go against the man's word.

In other words, he couldn't do anything to get out of this.

"Make no mistake, Uesugi-kun. I will allow this as part of the agreement but when I find out that you are mistreating one of my daughters in any way, I will make sure you regret it," Maruo continued, sending a colder look towards the young man though he didn't say anything more about his daughters basically clinging on to him.

"U-Understood…"

Needless to say, his life will be a lot more complicated from here on out.

---

Damn it, he shouldn't be feeling conflicted about this!

Fuutarou wanted to punch a wall so badly right now out of frustration, even though it would likely hurt him more than to relieve himself of his stress.

As a matter of fact, this was a vacation that he should be enjoying and not something to spend sulking over what happened a month ago. He didn't even know why he was thinking this way now, when he managed to get through several weeks of not thinking about his apparent engagement to the Nakano quintuplets.

He turned his attention towards the girls once again and released a sigh to himself. The longer he thinks about this, the more it'll bother him and ruin his mood for the whole weekend. He'll just think about this once this vacation is over, because a big part of him really wanted to just enjoy this trip because this might be the only time that he'll get to experience this.

Turning his attention back to reality, Fuutarou noticed that they were already inside the hotel and were heading to the counter. If he wasn't being troubled by those thoughts about the engagement, he would have marvelled at the realization that he was going to experience what it's like being in the shoes of a rich person for once.

If he could recall Maruo's (his soon-to-be father-in-law) words before leaving with the girls, it's that they can do whatever they wanted since the trip was all about spending time together like they were a family.

"Good morning to you lovely ladies and your handsome companion," the lady behind the counter spoke with a bright smile, which caused Miku and Itsuki to blush from the compliment, while everyone else didn't really react in any way. "What can we do for you today?"

"We're here for a reservation under the name 'Nakano'," Ichika replied, stepping forward so that she can have a proper conversation with the older woman.

"Oh, you must be the teenagers that Mr. Nakano was referring to! Oh, you are all so lovely and young… please wait a moment, I shall arrange the transactions that Mr. Nakano made ahead of time."

All of the girls were surprised at the woman's enthusiastic response; it's as if her already-bright smile had doubled in intensity upon finding out who they were. However, what caught them off guard more was the way she referred to their father like he was a friend of hers.

"You know our father?"

"Well, most of the management do, but a lot of us who work here have heard enough about him, including me. I heard that he made an arrangement for a three-night stay not for him, but for his daughters and a young man instead."

"That would be us," Ichika nodded with a smile.

"So you're his daughters?" The smile on the woman's face then turned into a smirk, before she winked at the six teenagers. "Hmm, I know it hasn't happened yet, but congratulations on being engaged to that young man with you. He seems like a good person."

Everyone, including Fuutarou himself, had widened their eyes upon hearing those words from her out of shock.

How the hell did she find out about that?!

They never said anything about them being engaged!

"How did you know?!" Nino demanded with a flabbergasted expression.

"Actually, only the management knows and we've just heard about it. But, seeing how you reacted to what I said, it only means that you really are engaged to that young man who's with you," the woman giggled, enjoying the reactions she got from the group of teenagers.

Unfortunately, those words only served to make the blush on the girls' faces deeper, almost matching their hair color as a result. Poor Itsuki looked like she was about to faint at any second out of embarrassment while Ichika seemed to have frozen in place, which prompted Fuutarou to step forward to defuse the situation before something worse happens.

"Uh, could you please not talk about it anymore? I think I can speak for all of us that we are not really comfortable with that information being known by other people, or at least being discussed out loud."

"Oh, there is no need to be embarrassed about your relationship. It's actually quite normal to be married to multiple women when it comes to businesses and all that. One of my brothers is actually married to three women who are all his coworkers."

Fuutarou sweat-dropped.

"We didn't need to know that…"

"But anyway, I've wasted enough time, so here you go," the counter lady finally stopped in her giggles, before she held out a silver key with a tag that indicated the room number. "Your key to your suite."

The young man took the key from her and waited patiently for the next one, only to realize that there was no second key to be given. His eyes widened from this, because of the implications brought by having only one key to a room shared among the six of them.

"Wait, we're only assigned one room?" he asked incredulously.

The woman nodded as if nothing was wrong with that.

"Yes, that's what Mr. Nakano arranged for the six of you."

Fuutarou's eye twitched, feeling like that cold bastard of a father was doing this on purpose just to see him suffer like this. On the other hand, he can already tell that Isanari was laughing at his situation behind his back because that's exactly what his old man would do if he saw his son like this.

"But-"

"Oh come on, Fuu-kun, we're already engaged. Are you really going to be worried about sleeping in the same room as us?"

Nino cut him off before he could say anything else, as she stepped forward and took the key from him before twirling it around her finger playfully. She had a smirk on her face before sending a wink towards her fiancé which made him blush for a brief moment before shaking it off.

"Nino makes a good point, Fuutarou-kun. We already trust you enough to let you sleep with us. Besides, we're actually the ones who told Dad that we wanted to sleep in the same room as you," Ichika revealed, which caused Fuutarou's jaw to nearly hit the floor out of shock.

"I… just thought it would be right to give you your privacy…" he argued weakly.

"Oh, we understand, Fuutarou-kun. But as one of your fiancées, I want to spend the night in the same bed as you, and I think that everyone else is going to agree with me on that."

Ichika explained while covering her mouth to stifle her giggles, as Fuutarou turned towards the rest of the girls to see their reactions to this. Needless to say, he was already sure that he wasn't going to get the responses that he wanted…

"You're not going anywhere."

"I'd love it if Fuutarou-kun would sleep with us! We'll be like one big happy family!"

"Uhm… I… wouldn't mind it…"

Upon hearing those responses from Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki, Fuutarou was left with no choice but to slump his shoulders and sigh in defeat, giving in to his fate of having to sleep tonight with five… beautiful girls who are also his… fiancées.

"Fine, lead the way…" he said with a deep red face.

With that, the group made its way to the elevator, though the young man's response just now seemed to have caused Miku to feel concerned for him. It's like there was something bothering him from the way he's been acting ever since they got to the beach resort. To add to that, he kept himself at the very back of the group as if he wanted to hide from everyone else.

"What's gotten into you today, Fuutarou? You seem troubled by something."

Miku's statement got the attention of everyone else, causing the girls to turn towards Fuutarou with concern almost immediately. Consequently, the young man looked up to face his brides-to-be, before he began to sweat nervously from how they were staring at him like they were expecting him to say something.

"Uhm, it's nothing, just… thinking about something important back home," he quickly answered and sincerely hoped that none of them would catch on to him and his current state of distress.

"Well, you better put your mind in vacation mode, because I'm going to need your help later on with putting sunscreen on my back, Fuutarou-kun~"

"Oh, no you don't, Ichika! Fuu-kun's going to be with me later! He's gonna help me with putting on my swimsuit, right?"

Nino was quick to shoot down Ichika's suggestion with her own plans regarding Fuutarou, while the young man blushed deeply at the thought of helping the second sister with her swimsuit.

"Uh…"

It's only thanks to his resistance in social topics involving him that he managed not to have mental images popping up in his mind at the moment.

"No, Fuutarou is going with me for a swim. I can tell he's stressed about something, so it would be for his own good if he spends the afternoon away from everything else."

Miku decided to make her intentions clear as well, feeling that a normal swim through the water would be able to get his mind at ease. She had no idea what was troubling Fuutarou at the moment, but making him feel better was more important to her than finding out what the problem was.

Unfortunately, a certain quint wearing butterfly ribbons on her hair wasn't plannng on agreeing with her demands.

"Away from everything else? You're taking him away for yourself!"

"Oh, and you're not doing the same?"

While Nino and Miku were left in their own world with their ongoing argument, Yotsuba spoke up with a big smile on her face, since she apparently wanted to do something with Fuutarou as well.

"I was going to invite Fuutarou-kun for some beach volleyball, but if he's going through something, then we can hold it off until tomorrow!"

Fuutarou turned his attention towards Yotsuba, where he silently thanked her for understanding enough about his situation even though she had no exact idea about what was bothering him.

"And what about you, Itsuki-chan? Planning to do something with Fuutarou-kun too?"

Ichika turned her attention towards Itsuki, who immediately blushed when she felt eyes on her. She looked hesitant to say anything at first out of embarrassment, but eventually managed to regain her composure and state what she had in mind as well.

"Uhm… well… I… w-would like it if Fuutarou-kun accompanies me to the food stalls along the beach…" she stuttered while shifting her attention somewhere else. "I heard about different kinds of snacks and refreshments being served there, so… it would be nice to try them out with my b-betrothed…"

"Oh, you're so cute while trying to be honest with what you want to do, Itsuki-chan~"

"Please do not make a big deal out of it…"

Ichika continued to tease her younger sister, much to Itsuki's growing discomfort from having to treat it like it was a very serious matter. Along with this, Miku and Nino continued to argue about which one between them would get to be with Fuutarou first while Yotsuba was doing her best to calm them down.

Fuutarou was behind all of them, sending each girl a nervous glance not for them, but rather for himself. He had no idea what was going to happen from this point forward, especially when they were completely alone with no adults around with them.

If anything, they were the adults here and they were responsible for their own well-being. Heh, considering how these girls were like, it's more like he's the one in charge of keeping an eye on them, which makes sense because they were his soon-to-be brides.

"This is gonna be a long weekend…" he thought as the whole group entered the elevator.

---

Fuutarou tried not to blush at Ichika undoing the clip that held her bra together, but it was becoming increasingly hard to do so because of the fact that this girl was undressing before him but luckily, she wasn't about to take it off and simply lied down on the sheet that they had prepared beforehand..

The whole Uesugi-Nakano group had an hour earlier that went through smoothly for the majority of it save for Itsuki almost planning to empty the whole breakfast buffet, which was quickly stopped when Yotsuba took her away for a walk in order to "stretch their limbs".

While they were eating, Fuutarou remained quiet almost the entire time, only choosing to speak when he was asked something because he didn't want the girls to know what was troubling him.

They wouldn't understand.

And now, Fuutarou found himself in his swimming trunks, standing at the sandy beach with Ichika before him. Since he had nothing to do after having breakfast, he simply went along with what Ichika wanted to do and headed to the beach with her, but not without leaving a few pouting quints because of their eldest sister getting to spend time with Fuutarou first.

"Come on, Fuutarou-kun~ my back needs some sunscreen before I go swimming," the girl spoke, looking back at the young man with her usual smirk before winking. "Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to do my front, I can do that on my own."

"Okay…" he muttered, kneeling down on the sand before applying some sunscreen on his hand. With a blushing face, he spread it across his fiancée's back and the color on his face only grew deeper when he heard her moaning softly in response to his actions.

Yep, she was definitely having fun at his expense.

"Not bad, Fuutarou-kun. Keep this up and I'll let you do my front tomorrow~" Ichika commented with a blush of her own, genuinely enjoying the feeling of Fuutarou's fingers reaching every corner of her back, almost as if she was getting a massage from him.

"Please don't distract me too much or I might end up doing this wrong," he sighed in exasperation.

Great, now his mind was betraying him and he was thinking about what would it be like if Ichika did let him apply sunscreen on her chest and everything else below. This shouldn't even be happening, because he doesn't think about these things on a normal basis!

Urgh, the reason for this has to be the fact that they're engaged now and there's no one around to scold these girls for their antics, not even him!

"Alright. I'll let you work your magic touch then~"

"Ichika… she's the eldest sister, but she's also the girl I played cards with when I went to Kyoto," Fuutarou attempted to remove any suggestive thoughts in his mind by thinking about the girl herself and not her… body. "After our parents told us about the… engagement, she was the first to outright accept it because apparently, I was the guy she fell in love with years ago, which only became deeper as we spent time together these past months… at least, according to her. That's enough to show that she… l-loves me and, she did say that out loud a few times by now."

Fuutarou couldn't help but feel flustered at that particular thought, before quickly snapping out of it by shaking his head. Thankfully, Ichika didn't notice it and was too distracted by how good she was feeling, making the young man sigh in relief.

"Okay, I need to be careful so I don't get noticed but anyway, I'm not sure if I feel exactly the same way for her, but… I think I can. She may be hard to deal with sometimes because of her teasing and all that, but she's also calm, collected, and approachable. I think that I can even call her a dear friend, from how we're pretty close to each other, in my opinion."

Instead of looking at Ichika's body, Fuutarou turned his attention to her face instead, which calmed him down a lot from his embarrassed state.

"This is so hard… and it's not just Ichika too. There are four other girls I'm engaged to and they're all the same… which reminds me, I still have to help Nino with… whatever she needs my help with, I kinda forgot what it was about."

He can already tell that this day and his troubles weren't going to end yet, not by a long shot.

---

"Fuu-kun, what do you think would look better on me? This bodysuit or this two-piece G-string bikini?" Nino asked her fiancé with a teasing smirk, holding up two different kinds of swimsuits in front of the young man.

Fuutarou was blushing hard as he shifted his attention alternately between Nino and the two garments, looking unresponsive for a few moments due to embarrassment at the fact that Nino was asking for his help in choosing a swimsuit, as well as him being the only one who was standing outside of the girls' showers.

Oh, he didn't go here because he wanted to, by the way.

It's more like Nino brought him here despite his protests that this place was only for girls, only saying that it's not as if he's going to perv on any girls there because if he did, he would get more than a slap from his fiancée.

And so, as much as he didn't like it, he's stuck here until he helps Nino with her little problem.

The two were currently at the showers by the beach, the ones that visitors use to change into their swimsuits. Nino had dragged Fuutarou all the way here as soon as he was done with helping Ichika with her… sunscreen problem but now, he only encountered a new one.

Knowing that he needed to give the girl some kind of response, Fuutarou raised his arm and pointed in a random direction while keeping his attention on her the whole time. It seemed like he didn't really care which garment he ended up picking, mainly due to embarrassment.

Obviously, if he puts in more thought on what Nino would look in either of those outfits, his imagination would go on the deep end like what almost happened with Ichika earlier,

Fuutarou didn't want that to happen to him in the girls' showers, of all places.

"This one."

Nino blinked for a few moments upon noticing the stoic look on Fuutarou's face despite choosing a swimsuit for her, before she realized which kind of garment he chose for her.

"Ohhh, you want me to show some more skin, Fuu-kun~? I suppose I can do that for you," she said slyly, sending a smug grin towards the blushing Fuutarou while holding up the G-string bikini that he apparently chose.

"That wasn't my intention… though I have to wonder if you packed two swimsuits with you on purpose," he thought, doing his best to keep his gaze elsewhere so his inner subconscious doesn't play tricks on him.

"Okay, just stay there with this one, alright? No peeking now~"

Giving him a wink, Nino handed over the other swimsuit she had before retreating into the empty stall. As soon as she closed the door, the young man let out a deep sigh of relief that he survived that little encounter without having a nosebleed or something worse.

Seriously, that was a lot more than what Ichika did…

While he was now alone, Fuutarou looked at the stall that Nino was in before turning to the peaceful horizon, deep in his thoughts about his second fiancée.

"Nino… she's a little rough around the edges at first… okay, that's an understatement. She definitely didn't like my presence during the first months we spent together, but after that falling out she had with Itsuki that led to the both of them running away, she mellowed down a lot and even became nicer to me. Honestly, I never held anything she did against her because I understand where she's coming from but despite that, she confessed to me while I was at work that one night…"

Fuutarou couldn't but both blush and smile upon being reminded of that memory, now that he was practically left with no other choice but to focus on these girls and his relationship with them.

With his current condition of not being in the right state of mind, however, this may not end well in some way…

"She actually confessed to me twice, now that I think about it, and… it caught me off guard that it felt like my mind was about to shut down at any moment when it happened. But now, I feel warm inside when I think of what happened, the same with Ichika… I'm not one to hold a grudge, so I can see myself having feelings for Nino as well… she's strong, she loves her family, and I think she's the type of girl to keep on chasing something that she has her eyes on…"

His blush grew deeper with that thought, before he shook his head to get his mind back on track. He then folded his arms and looked down, releasing a deep breath while thinking about the two girls he helped so far.

"Heh… if my situation was normal, I would be more concerned about the fact that more than two girls have their eyes on me but it's not like that for me. because I'm more focused on what I feel for them. Thinking about that, I'm still confused… what do I do from here…?"

While he was deep in his thoughts, Fuutarou failed to notice the presence of another quintuplet approaching him and from the determined look on her face, it was clear that she was planning to do something with her groom-to-be.

---

"Are you sure you don't want to swim anymore, Fuutarou?" Miku asked her fiancé, who was just sitting on the sandy shore after swimming around the shallow waters for only fifteen minutes, which confused the girl because it didn't seem like he was that enthusiastic nor happy about enjoying this trip.

Of course, it wasn't really like Fuutarou to be excited about these kinds of things, but since this was something that he had never done before, according to his own words, Miku thought that he would be more excited about enjoying this trip to the fullest.

However, from the way he was acting lately, it didn't even seem like he was looking forward to doing any of this, which caused Miku to grow more and more confused.

Was there something bothering her future groom or something?

"Yeah, I think I've had enough swimming for today. I don't want to take too much time, or I might get carried away and miss lunch."

Fuutarou answered with a smile that literally gave away his real emotion, which wasn't happiness nor amusement. He was simply faking it and Miku was able to notice, but she made no move to speak about it for now, otherwise he would only deny it and they would both end up looking stupid.

"Do you want me to sit with you?" she asked, swimming over towards where he was with a concerned look on her face.

He shook his head, while also keeping his gaze elsewhere as though he didn't even want to look at her. Obviously, that wasn't what he really felt, but he didn't want to tell Miku nor any of her sisters what he was going through right now.

They didn't need to know, because it was his problem.

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Just thinking about something important."

Miku puffed out her cheeks in a pout, not liking the fact that he literally said the same thing he did earlier at the hotel lobby.

"You said that earlier, but it doesn't seem like you really forgot anything, Fuutarou. Are you hiding something from us? You know that you can tell us what's bothering you, right?"

Miku countered his words, which caused a bead of sweat to start rolling down the side of her groom-to-be's face. Fortunately for him, she was more focused on what was going to be his answer than his current expression at the moment, so he was quickly able to recover from his nervous look with a more composed one.

"Look, Miku… don't let me be in the way of you having fun. We're here to spend time together and have fun, aren't we?"

He didn't really have any excuse in his mind at the moment, so it would be a more tactical move to just excuse himself from the conversation instead of making it more obvious and lead to a more problematic matter.

"It doesn't look like you're having fun yourself…" Miku thought, seeing the obvious slip in his words but instead of calling him out on it, she decided to stay quiet for now. She'll bring up the matter again at another time, most likely when her sisters catch him in this state then they can squeeze the truth out of him altogether.

"Whatever you say, Fuutarou."

With that, Miku began to swim away and as soon as he couldn't feel her presence anymore, Fuutarou felt relieved that he managed to talk his way out of that problem. However, he did know that he can't remain calm for the rest of the day, because Miku almost caught him looking out of it and it was due to his own carelessness.

He had to be careful not to slip up again!

"That was a close one, but I can't let something like that happen again. I have to keep myself in check before I get everyone's attention and ruin this whole trip for all of us!"

Fuutarou said to himself mentally, splashing some water in front of him out of frustration. He did this a few times and somehow found himself being less frustrated every time, before finally stopping about a minute later.

"Still… I know Miku was just looking out for me, and… I wish I could tell her about what I feel…

He then let out a deep sigh, before glancing towards Miku who was just nearby. She was simply floating on the water while lying on her back and her eyes closed, enjoying the quiet atmosphere around her.

She looked so peaceful, and Fuutarou wished he had some of that peace for himself right now.

"Miku… she's the third one among them, and the next one to accept me as a tutor after Yotsuba. After thinking it over for quite some time after what happened between us during Spring break, I've grown quite fond of her, if I had to be honest. She's shy about her interests and has a lot of trouble talking about them at first, but when you get through to her shell, she's very passionate about the things she likes and wouldn't hesitate to learn more about them."

The young man spoke in his thoughts while keeping his attention on Miku, since her eyes were closed and she wouldn't notice him anyway.

"But… she's also very insecure about herself, and she can easily lose faith if she's not encouraged or she can give up right away if she thinks something is out of her league. I noticed this problem of hers when I was trying to get her to study with us but in the end, Miku put her faith in me to be her tutor."

Fuutarou's mind went back to the day when Miku asked him to meet her at the rooftop and from there, he learned of her interest in the Sengoku period and the fact that her sisters didn't know about it because she didn't want to tell them.

He also learned about her low self-esteem, and that she didn't believe any of them could excel and be great in studying. Of course, that was quickly remedied as time went by, but it was one of Miku's major problems that Fuutarou noticed while he spent time with her and the others.

"And then… Kyoto happened. I didn't understand why she would dress up as Itsuki at first, but after the arrangement with our parents, I understood."

Yeah, that was during the time when 'Itsuki' approached him about severing their relationship, which led to the two of them being seen by the girls' grandfather in a rather… compromising position that left Fuutarou in a world of pain afterwards.

He eventually found out from the real Itsuki afterwards that it was one of her sisters who tried doing such a thing, but just as he was about to try and figure out who it was, their parents had called all of them for that meeting regarding the engagement…

Fuutarou sighed before his gaze broke away from Miku and he was left staring at his own reflection in the water, feeling bad about what he did to her just moments earlier. All she wanted to do was help him with whatever problem he had because that's who she is, but he felt that he had to turn the offer down because he didn't want to get them involved.

"I can honestly say that I like Miku… and because of that, I feel like an asshole for turning her down. She only wanted to help me, damn it…"

Oh, and this isn't where things end for him just yet…

---

"Yotsuba, don't let me get in the way of you having fun. If you want to play with other people, go ahead and knock yourself out. Don't worry about me, alright? I'm fine."

Fuutarou tried to plead with the fourth quintuplet, who was originally planning to play some beach volleyball with him. However, because she thought that something was bothering him, she cancelled that plan and simply settled on sitting with Fuutarou under their umbrella.

He was worried at first, since Yotsuba mentioned that he was going through something at the moment but fortunately, she didn't press on the matter and only focused on whether her fiancé was feeling alright or not. This led to another problem, however, one that Fuutarou wanted to fix right away for the girl's own sake.

He may be going through an inner conflict at the moment, but Fuutarou didn't want these girls to be worried about him! He understood that this trip was a way for them to spend time together, and they shouldn't be wasting time on him when it was his problem to begin with!

"If you're feeling fine, then do you want to play with me, Fuutarou-kun?" Yotsuba replied calmly, sending a smile towards Fuutarou that caused him to start sweating in nervousness.

"I… I'm not in the mood to play anything, I'm sorry."

He quickly blurted out before he could let anything slip past his mouth, while also trying his best not to look nervous in front of Yotsuba. Funny enough, the only expression he can show right now was a smile that was very distinguishable as fake, but it didn't seem like the girl noticed it.

"Well, if you're not going to play, then I won't, either!" she chuckled, before giving him a head pat as a way to make him feel better, since she thought he was going through something. "I wanted to play with you, Fuutarou-kun, but if you don't want to, it's okay. We can just play tomorrow!"

"You didn't have to… you should be doing what you want to do, without me to hold you back…" he said to himself instead of telling it to her out loud.

In this case, his desire to keep his inner dilemma as a secret was beginning to lose against his need to confide in someone about his problem.

Unlike the other quintuplets whom he helped out with what they needed of him, Yotsuba wanted to play beach volleyball with him but since he didn't feel like doing such a thing due to several obvious reasons, she simply chose to sit with him under their family's umbrella.

Fuutarou was almost tempted to come clean with himself and tell Yotsuba the truth, but could only bring himself to sigh deeply. Yotsuba noticed him and fortunately for his case, she thought the reason was what Miku said earlier about something that was bothering their fiancé.

"Fuutarou-kun, you don't have to tell me what's wrong, okay? Just tell me if you need help, because I'm always here for you!" she said, leaning her head against his shoulder sweetly.

Unable to say anything else at the moment, the young man could only give a nod in response.

That was enough for the ribbon-wearing quint as a smile broke out on her face once more, lying down on their sheet while stretching out her arms. This caught Fuutarou's attention, who turned his head slightly towards her with a conflicted expression.

"Yotsuba… she's the first one out of all the sisters to support me, and she's always been there for me. She kept me encouraged and she made me feel like I was a great tutor despite failing every exam I've given her in the past. She's a bit of an airhead, I suppose… but she still does her best in everything and if she sees a person in need, Yotsuba won't hesitate to lend a helping hand."

He thought, an image of the young girl he met in the past appearing in his mind in Yotsuba's place, which actually caused the defeated expression on his face to shift into a small smile, the first time in the last hour that his demeanor changed into something brighter.

"She's also the girl I met in Kyoto five years ago… the one I made that promise with… where we'd work hard to help the people we love. She's the main reason why I ended up studying hard and became the person I am now, but it didn't go well in her case."

Yeah, he now knew the full story regarding these quintuplets and how they ended up transferring to Asahiyama where he met them. Surprisingly, he found out about this through their father back in , whom he actually had a private conversation with several hours after the engagement was arranged.

"From what I found out, Yotsuba failed her exams in their former school and because of that, she needed to transfer. Her sisters didn't want her to take the fall by herself, so they all decided to transfer schools to Asahiyama. Yotsuba actually blamed herself for the incident, because she intentionally pushed her sisters away to fulfill that promise we made."

He sent a sad glance towards Yotsuba, who was still lying down on her back in peace. After everything that Maruo told him about the fourth sister, it made him wish that he was there for her when she needed it. All she wanted to do was fulfill that promise they made to each other, but it all went crashing down on her when she became obsessed with it.

"She shouldn't have blamed herself for it… it's because of her wanting to be someone better that her sisters also learned how to be different from each other. If it wasn't for her, they'd be stuck as they were, the same in pretty much everything. It took a while to get her to realize this, but now she's a lot happier compared to how she was weeks ago."

The somber look on his face once again turned into a smile, setting his gaze on the happy look on Yotsuba's face that one would normally see from her.

"Yeah… she wasn't herself after we got engaged, at least at first. She avoided me and her sisters and locked herself in her room most of the time, but we all managed to talk her out of her dilemma."

As quick as it appeared, his smile turned into a troubled look upon remembering that span of time; it hurt the young man to see Yotsuba avoid him like the plague, because it wasn't like her to look so defeated and sad.

"Anyway… like her sisters, Yotsuba is important to me. She's always been by my side and she continues to support me in everything. After everything that's happened, I can't imagine what I would be years from now if I didn't meet this girl that day."

He broke his gaze towards the girl and turned his attention elsewhere, unable to keep his eyes on her while he was still going through this problem he had regarding the girls. After thinking about the fourth sister and how this all came to be through her, his guilt regarding the fact that she couldn't play beach volleyball because he didn't want to was only eating him out more.

Yotsuba didn't even want to entertain the idea of playing by herself, which wasn't wrong, of course. They went on this trip for the reason that they should be spending time together, and he wasn't doing anything!

All he was doing was mope around because of his stupid problem, while these girls only wanted to spend time with him. He couldn't even act properly as their fiancé, and he was very fortunate that there was no one else with them on this trip.

Still, this didn't mean that he wanted to keep this as a secret forever.

One way or another, he knew that he had to tell them about this because it involved them and they had a right to know. He was already ruining this trip by being a jerk to them (at least in his case), and Fuutarou knew that he had to make it up to them somehow.

"I honestly don't think I can keep this a secret from them any longer, though…"

He only feared that that time may happen sooner than he thought…

---

"Fuutarou, we better hurry up! I'm sure everyone is feeling hungry for lunch by now!"

Itsuki told her slow-moving fiancé, who was simply walking compared to her jogging over towards the beach's food stalls. It was about 11 in the morning and everyone had gathered back at their shared umbrella to have lunch before they go out and have fun again.

The girl volunteered to grab some food for all of them, since she was planning to do exactly that ever since they arrived here, and right now was the perfect opportunity. She asked Fuutarou to accompany her since she couldn't possibly carry everything by herself (well, she also wanted to spend some alone time with the man she loved but Itsuki didn't want to say that out loud in front of her sisters), and he agreed without much hesitation.

However, it seemed like he wasn't even delighted nor engaged in this, just from the way his movements were very slow…

"By that, you mean yourself, right?" Fuutarou responded with a cheeky smile that looked way out of character for someone as overly serious as him.

Never mind.

He was just teasing her, like he always does.

"W-Well, after everything we did this morning, it is obvious that I will end up feeling hungry! Is that wrong?!"

The fifth sister fired back, a big pout quickly forming on her red face at being teased by the young man. Even after spending much time together for several weeks now, Itsuki was still easily affected by harmless teasing from Fuutarou, although her reactions to it have toned down as time passed.

"I didn't say it was…" he shrugged before letting out a small chuckle, enjoying a moment of peace that he wasn't able to have ever since leaving their hotel room.

Itsuki continued to pout at him for a few more moments, before deciding to simply focus on the more important matter. She turned her attention towards the different snack bars and food stalls that were all lined up together along the rocky pathway, which immediately caused her eyes to widen in shock.

"Oh dear, oh dear! There are so many stalls to choose from! I don't know which one to pick! What will everyone else be comfortable with?! Please help me choose, Fuutarou-kun!"

Her pupils began to twinkle like stars as a big smile replaced her pout, before she turned towards her groom-to-be with a pleading look.

"I'm sure they'd be happy with anything that you choose, Itsuki. Go on and take your time, the others will understand."

Fuutarou waved her worries off, while also finding the girl's sudden change in demeanor to be quite amusing.

Upon hearing his answer, Itsuki began twiddling her fingers nervously with a blush on her face, looking embarrassed about something.

"Y-You think so…? Everyone seemed very tired earlier, which means they also must be very hungry. They might want to eat something as soon as possible!"

"Trust me, your sisters will be fine. Go on and pick your choice from these."

Doing his best to muster a smile, Fuutarou reached out and patted the girl's head slowly, making her blush deeper in embarrassment before Itsuki slowly nodded in agreement.

With that, she rushed off with a big smile on her face, eager to see what kind of food that they offer here. While she was unaware of it, her fiancé kept his gaze on her as he was buried deep in his thoughts once more and this time, they were all about the youngest of the Nakano quintuplets.

"Itsuki… we didn't get along at first, but that would be because of me. I was stupid to act like an asshole to her when we met, because it only ended up making my job harder than what it was supposed to be. Eventually, we did make up and got along as friends which, I think, was a very big deal when she and Nino had that fight."

Fuutarou took a step back and leaned against the wooden fence that was behind him, reminding himself of that particular day and how it left a lasting impact on the girls.

"Thinking about it, things would have gotten a lot worse if Itsuki didn't go to our house. She could've ended up anywhere after forgetting, but she chose to head to where we lived. I didn't realize it back then, but I think that was a big sign that Itsuki had a lot of trust in me at that point. We even talked for a bit that night…"

Fuutarou had a conflicted expression on his face at first, before sending a look of concern towards Itsuki. She must have felt very emotional on that day, considering her eventual reaction to reconciling with Nino. He quickly calmed himself by taking a deep breath, setting his thoughts on another matter instead.

"Hmm… if I had to be honest, Itsuki may be the girl that I'm closest to among all of them, at least before we got engaged. She was always honest with me about everything, maybe except that time when she dressed up as the girl that I met in Kyoto, though she did tell me about it eventually after I found out it was actually Yotsuba whom I met as a kid."

That was during the time after their parents arranged the engagement during their family trip, when Yotsuba avoided him in a span of a week. After finding out that it was the fourth sister whom he met years ago, Itsuki told him that it was her who appeared to him as the girl in the photo, for the reason that she wanted to see how he would react to her and, well… it was already obvious where that led to.

"Our relationship changed after the arrangement for us to get… married in the future by a large margin, of course. I kind of expected it, so I wasn't really surprised when she started avoiding me for about a week after what our parents told us. Unlike Yotsuba, though, she did it because she was just embarrassed."

He crossed his arms and shook his head, thinking that it was a silly and amusing reaction from Itsuki, although he can understand why she was embarrassed above all else. Becoming engaged to your former tutor out of nowhere with the parents of both sides supporting the union would do that to anyone.

Oh, and it's just like Itsuki to be embarrassed and flustered like a steaming tomato when it came to things like romance and love.

"I just left her alone while that happened, since I understood what she felt. It probably came to her as a big shock, so she needed some time to process everything. Eventually, she did approach me after a week and apologized for avoiding me, but I didn't really want it. From there, we started spending time together like we used to, studying for tests and reviewing answers like we were student and tutor again…"

"Fuutarou-kun, is there anything that you would like to eat?"

He was cut off from his thoughts when he noticed Itsuki standing in front of him with a curious look on her face, which surprised him for a moment before he thought about what she asked him. As expected, it didn't take him even a second to respond with something that only he would say.

"Nah, I'm fine with whatever you guys are having. Anything I eat here is already better than anything I eat in school."

Itsuki blinked, not that surprised with his answer although she did hope that Fuutarou would have something more specific in mind after the breakfast that they had altogether. According to him, it was the best breakfast he ever had and he would love to have it again, which gave her the idea that he would want to eat something of his own choosing, even if it was expensive.

"Are you sure? It's quite alright if you want to eat something more expensive, Fuutarou-kun."

"Maybe later, but not now. I just want something simple to eat for lunch," he responded with a calm smile that was enough to tell her his answer.

"I will take your word for it, then."

He watched Itsuki leave again with a smile of her own, and that was where he was once again reminded of the problem he had. Like with the rest of them, Itsuki was someone whom he cared a lot for, someone whom he saw as a dear friend, and someone whom he can easily develop feelings for.

However, this wasn't fair to the others, especially Miku and Yotsuba.

Why can he have a perfectly normal conversation with Itsuki and even smile in her presence, and yet struggle to even interact with the others? He had to turn down Miku and Yotsuba didn't get to play beach volleyball like she wanted to, all because of how stupid he acted around them.

"I don't understand… why can't I do the same for the rest of them?" he thought, massaging his temples with his fingers out of confusion, both in himself and what he was supposed to do.

---

After about ten minutes of ordering food from the snack bars and stalls, Itsuki returned to her fiancé with two plastic bags in her hands, ready to go back to her sisters and eat lunch with them. However, it didn't appear like Fuutarou was going to help her with carrying those things, because he had something else in mind at the moment.

"Itsuki, do you mind going on ahead? I need to go to the restroom for a second," he asked her, looking embarrassed all of a sudden about having to excuse himself for a bit of private time.

The only response he got from the girl was a blank stare, as though she didn't get his words.

"Look, I'm really sorry about having you carry those all by yourself and I said that I'd help, but I really need to go and–"

"N-No, that's okay. Please don't take too long, if that's the case. We don't want you to miss lunch and we want to eat with you," she cut him off with a smile, understanding the reason why Fuutarou needed to go for now.

He nodded. "I know, I know… I won't take too much time."

"I can't do this anymore… if Itsuki was having this problem, she wouldn't hesitate to tell me, or at the very least, her sisters. Me, on the other hand, I can't even count on someone else regarding this problem…"

Fuutarou clenched his fist and was about to punch the lamp post to his right out of frustration with himself, but stayed his hand and let out a deep sigh instead. Being angry won't help solve his problem but rather, it's by being honest with himself and the people he cared about.

Letting out a sigh of defeat, he made his way to the nearest bench and sat down for a brief moment, thinking about what he should do.

There's no way he can let this go on, not after he acted like a jerk towards Miku and Yotsuba while being completely fine with Itsuki, Nino, and Ichika. They didn't deserve it and to make things worse, those two only wanted to help him because they noticed that he was going through something.

And what did he do?

He didn't even bat an eye at them because he wanted to keep a stupid problem to himself!

Heh… he didn't even help out Itsuki because he needed a moment in private, and he couldn't even tell her that!

Fuutarou felt pathetic, both as a friend and as their fiancé!

"Yeah… I'm done keeping this a secret. If I keep this up, this whole trip would be for nothing in the end. It doesn't even matter that their father isn't here, I already feel like shit for doing this, anyway. I need to end this now and just tell them…"

The young man had decided right then and there that enough was enough, and that he needed to put an end to this dilemma once and for all. Whatever happens from here, especially the girls' reactions when he tells them, he would deal with it accordingly and accept whatever the consequences were.

Right now? He just wanted to lay his worries to rest, for both himself and the girls.

---

Fuutarou saw his fiancées all grouped together under one umbrella, sharing the snacks that he and Itsuki bought together. Seeing them like this almost made him reconsider telling them about his problem, but that might only make things worse in the coming days, so it would be for the best if he just told them now.

Taking a deep breath to himself, Fuutarou put up a stern expression before finally walking towards them.

"Everyone, I need to tell you something."

His voice immediately got the girls' attention, making them look up and meet his gaze with curiosity in their eyes.

"What is it, Fuutarou-kun?" Ichika asked, raising her eyebrow at him.

"I knew something was bothering you earlier," Miku pouted at the young man, disappointed at him for not even trusting her enough to tell her his problem.

Fuutarou sent an apologetic glance at Miku, feeling bad for turning down her kind gesture earlier and that he would make it up to her, before facing all of them once again. From the confused looks on their faces, they were wondering what kind of problem he was referring to, and so he took a deep breath before finally coming clean with his own feelings.

"The truth is, I don't know if this is a good idea, being engaged to five girls all at the same time."

As soon as he said those words, he waited for them to give their response, only for him to realize that none of them really understood his words which made him panic on the inside.

If they can't understand what he's trying to say, then there's no point in him doing this in the first place!

Fuutarou quickly raised his hands, before continuing in his words. "No, I'm not thinking of that as a bad thing, so don't misinterpret my words. What I mean is that, I have no idea what this relationship between the six of us would lead to. There are five of you, and… there's only one me."

Much to his clear disappointment, nobody still understood what he was trying to tell them which nearly made him give up, at least until Nino crossed her arms before sending him a little frown.

"I see where this is going," she huffed, causing her sisters to turn towards her. "Let me guess, you don't think you're good enough for all of us?"

"Was it that obvious to you?" he asked, pursing his lips together to prepare for the worst.

"You're making it that way," she snapped at him before releasing a sigh. "Come on, is this really something you should be worried about? You're pretty lucky, you know. You're in a situation that most guys would kill to be in."

Miku sent a frown of her own towards the second sister among them.

"Nino, don't talk down on Fuutarou like that. He's really troubled right now. I saw it ever since earlier, he wasn't acting like himself for some reason and I wanted to help, but I didn't know what was bothering him."

"Well, how would you deal with this? Am I even wrong with what I said?"

Fuutarou shook his head slowly, before looking down in a rare moment of sadness. He didn't want any of the Nakano quintuplets to feel bad for him, because it's not them who were being troubled by their feelings but rather himself.

"No, you're not wrong, because it's true. Most guys would love to be in my place, yes, but they won't understand my situation and what I feel. You might think of me as the person you're all engaged to, but… I don't think I can be that for you. I'm capable of screwing up at times because I'm not perfect and to add to that, I'm just a normal highschool student who wants to graduate and study in a prestigious university. I never expected to be engaged to the five of you almost out of nowhere."

Upon hearing those words, everyone else was finally beginning to understand what he was trying to say, reaching the point where Nino lost her frown and was left staring at him in regret. She didn't mean to make him feel this way and she wanted to say something, but her voice came out dry at the moment.

"Fuutarou-kun…" Itsuki muttered sadly, suddenly having the urge to stand up and give the young man a comforting hug.

"Don't talk about yourself like that, Fuutarou-kun! We all think you're amazing!" Yotsuba waved her arms out of panic, doing her best to make their fiancé feel better. She even stood up and was about to give him a hug of her own, but Fuutarou raised a hand that caused her to stay in her place.

He shook his head slowly, before looking down in sadness.

"I feel the opposite way, Yotsuba. You're all amazing people and if this trip happened under different circumstances, maybe I wouldn't be much of a jerk like what I'm doing right now and I would even be happy about going on this vacation. I'm sorry you didn't get to play volleyball like you wanted to, it's all because I was too damn selfish."

"Fuutarou, it's not your fault."

Miku said in an attempt to make him feel better, but even her words did nothing against what Fuutarou felt inside. At this point, he just wanted to let out these bottled-up feelings inside him, which led to his expression turning more downtrodden with every passing second while clenching his fists tightly, not because of them but because of himself.

"I'm sorry for turning you down, Miku. I shouldn't have done something stupid like that. I know this is all about having fun like what you're all doing and just, spending time together… but I'm just not feeling like it, and you had to see me like that."

"So that's it? You're just going to back out like that? You know that Papa won't accept this, right?" Nino asked, pursing her lips together while holding back the tears that threatened to form in her eyes from the possibility of Fuutarou cancelling their engagement.

"I'm not backing out of anything, Nino. If anything, I feel more ashamed of being like this because you girls don't deserve it. All of you deserve someone who'll give you attention and love, and I'm not feeling that way right now."

What followed afterwards was silence, with the quints staring at their groom-to-be out of pure sympathy, wanting nothing more than to help him right now in whatever way possible. They didn't want him to be feeling this way, not when he didn't do anything wrong. Neither Miku nor Yotsuba don't even look like they blamed

On the other hand, Fuutarou felt that tears were about to form in his eyes at any moment, leading to him shaking his head before that could happen and simply looked down, unable to face any of them at the moment.

"I'm just going back to the hotel to try and clear my head. If you need something, just call me and I'll come over. Forget about what I even said, I'm just being an insensitive jerk. I'll make it up to all of you later."

With that, Fuutarou turned around and began to walk away, leaving the five girls frozen in their places and unable to do anything. He secretly took a glance at them and saw the sad looks on their faces, which only served to make his mood worse than before because they really didn't need to learn about what he was feeling.

Yeah, there was literally no reason for him to do this, but he did and now he was regretting it.

For this, Fuutarou felt even more pathetic and quickened his pace, wanting to just spend the rest of the day in their hotel room.

As soon as the young man was out of their sight, the quintuplets looked at each other, confused and troubled with everything that their groom-to-be told them that made them unable to say anything for a few moments.

"Everyone, I think we need to have a serious little discussion about our fiancé," Ichika said, being the first to say anything among them, before earning nods from all of her sisters in return.

They needed to do something about him, quick.

---

The young man checked the time on his phone, which read 9:42 in the evening as he stood on the balcony of his and the quints' shared room.

He had an early dinner alone, choosing to order room service and eat inside their suite instead of going down to the many restaurants at the lobby, where he was sure the others were currently at right now. If not, they may be killing time at the mini-casino next to it since they haven't shown up in the room yet, which was honestly a good thing in his case.

He had spent the whole afternoon all alone, trying to distract himself by either watching television, surfing the internet using the laptop that was part of the room itself, talking with Raiha and his father who were back home, or sleeping, but none of those activities made him truly forget about his distress that has bothered him ever since.

"Maybe a good night's sleep can get this out of my head," he thought to himself while sighing in defeat. "It's not like I haven't tried anything else, so… I think I'll just call it a night. I'll make it up to the girls tomorrow…"

With his mind made up, Fuutarou turned back and went inside the room, only for his eyes to widen completely when he came across a sight that almost made his jaw drop towards the floor out of shock.

His fiancées were standing near the end, all clad in sleeping robes that varied in color. Not only that, but he had absolutely no clue how they got inside without him noticing. He would've heard the door opening or the sound of their footsteps! Heck, how the hell did they even change clothes that quickly?!

"W-What are you five doing here?!" he asked incredulously, which led to him almost falling over on his butt but managing to retain his balance before it was too late.

The girls all blushed furiously at first, before they looked amongst each other as if they didn't know what to do and wondered what to give an answer. That was until Ichika took a deep breath and stepped forward, before finally speaking.

"We talked about what you told us earlier, Fuutarou-kun, and it got us thinking about some things."

Upon hearing that their reason for doing this was because of what he did earlier, Fuutarou felt a lot calmer, although it did bring back his problem now that he got reminded of it.

At this point, all he could do was release a deep sigh and walk slowly towards the large bed. Not just that, but the shocked expression on his face turned into a sad look upon remembering their reactions when he told them about what was bothering him earlier.

"Like I said to all of you, just forget about it. I wasn't in the right state of mind when I said those things to you, and I shouldn't have. I should've never told any of you."

His dismissive response only made the girls worry even more, and it also caused Miku to speak out her own thoughts.

"Fuutarou, we can't just ignore what you told us. We could all tell that you were trying to get through a big problem when you talked to us earlier."

"That's right, Fuutarou-kun. We thought about what you told us, and we understand that this… situation that we have is something that isn't normal and would take time to get used to."

Itsuki further explained with a blush on her cheeks, while holding her own robe tightly as if she was afraid of it falling off her shoulders.

Fuutarou didn't notice this, because he was currently preoccupied with arranging the bed since his fiancées were all dressed like they wanted to get some sleep. The reasonable thing that he should do at the moment is prepare the bed for them, and he still had to make up for his attitude earlier.

"Yeah, it's not like I didn't know that already…"

"Because of that, we decided that we're going to do something that'll help take your mind off of your little problem," Nino added with a firm tone that left no room for any argument, placing her hands on her hips. "We came here to spend time together, not to watch you mope around because you think you're not good enough."

"And what exactly is that?"

Fuutarou asked them while sitting on the bed with an impassive look on his face, unconvinced that the girls can actually help him with forgetting his problem when his feelings for them were the very reason why he was troubled.

Upon hearing those words, the girls looked at each other once again, looking like they had no idea what to do next which made Fuutarou let out a sigh. Of course, he knew that they didn't really have any idea what to do and they were just trying their best to make him feel better, but he's not going to blame them for that.

Still, he couldn't but feel disappointed with himself for facing them like this, while he was still feeling conflicted with his feelings for all of them, as well as his own self-doubt about being their groom-to-be…

"We're going to sleep with you tonight!"

Never mind, that was the sound of Yotsuba's voice ringing in his ears. Knowing the girl and her drive to help anyone who is in need, this was normal of her, but her words weren't really surprising, at least not anymore compared to his earlier reaction when they first got here.

"Yeah, I thought that wasn't obvious when we were given a single key to— w-what are you all doing…?!"

He spoke with a sarcastic tone at first, before stopping midway in his words out of shock. His eyes immediately widened upon witnessing his own fiancées undoing the knots to their sleeping robes before letting them slip off their shoulders and then fall to the floor without a care in the world.

This left them solely in their bra and panties, which almost caused Fuutarou's brain to go haywire for obvious reasons and he would've blacked out at that moment, if it wasn't for him managing to will himself to stay conscious.

Ichika, Nino, and Miku seemed to have no problem with being left in their underwear right in front of Fuutarou, with the first two sisters even smirking at his reactions to them. Meanwhile, Yotsuba and Itsuki were greatly embarrassed about being half-naked before a young man of their age, much less their own fiancé. Despite this, they didn't run away nor hide themselves from sight, remaining where they were and letting Fuutarou get a good view of them.

"W-What is this about…?!" he sputtered, covering his face quickly before turning away in an attempt to prevent the mental image of them in their underwear from being burned into his mind, which he was struggling to do because of his own urges.

Okay, he already saw them in their swimsuits earlier, but that was when they were swimming at the beach!

This was a totally different scenario, and there was literally no reason for them to undress at this moment!

"We're removing our sleeping robes, Fuutarou-kun. Is there something wrong with that?" Ichika giggled, before she sent a nod in Nino's direction.

The second sister got the message almost instantly as they walked up towards either side of the young man, gently removing his hands from his face which only caused the color on his face to grow as deep as their hair.

"Yes, there's something wrong with that! In case you haven't realized it, I'm literally here right in front of you!" he exclaimed, closing his eyes when he failed to take back his arms from Ichika and Nino's grip.

"Why, Fuutarou-kun… this is completely normal, don't you know?"

Ichika asked with her usual smirk, while also feeling quite curious if he actually knew this fact or not.

It didn't surprise her at all when Fuutarou turned towards her with a confused look, all while keeping his gaze directed to her face and not anything below. His reaction only caused her to giggle, before reaching out with her free hand to pat him on the head lovingly.

"It's quite normal for people to sleep in their underwear. I mean, have you quickly forgotten that I sleep with nothing on~?"

The blush on his face died down slowly as he got hit with realization, remembering the time when he first went inside Ichika's bedroom at their apartment. Yep, that was a pretty awkward situation which could have gone terribly wrong in a lot of ways but fortunately, nothing bad happened.

"Oh."

While he was distracted with a memory in the past, Nino took advantage and crawled further up the bed, positioning herself directly beside him before she began to whisper into his ear, which almost caused Fuutarou to jump in surprise.

"Plus, we're your fiancées, aren't we? There's nothing wrong if we choose to sleep with our future husband while only in our underwear and you've already seen us in our swimsuits. What, do you want us to sleep with you naked instead? We can totally do that~"

His blush returned full-force upon hearing Nino's words, and the seductive tone in her voice didn't help one bit. However, despite his embarrassment, Fuutarou was able to understand what she was trying to say and it led to him letting out a massive sigh in defeat.

"Ugh, I suppose… but I would like to stay conscious, thank you very much."

"Hmm… you're a very lucky guy, you know? You're the only one who's going to see us like this and we don't want anyone else~"

The blush on his face didn't fully disappear, but he did seem calmer now while being in the presence of five girls wearing nothing but their underwear. He was still doing his best to keep his gaze above the neck, because he was still a teenager and these girls were unintentionally making it hard for him to be his normal self.

"Trust me, I'm aware of that by now, but why exactly are you all going to sleep in your underwear? Even Itsuki, and she doesn't even look like she wants to do this. Is this some sort of game you set up?"

Fuutarou asked while raising an eyebrow in confusion at all of them, which also caused him to notice Itsuki's current state.

The youngest of the quintuplets looked extremely nervous at the moment, made evident by the deep blush on her face, as well as the way she was covering her chest with one arm and her privates using the other, despite still having her underwear on.

It felt like the girl was being forced to do this against her will.

"Fuutarou, this is not a game. We want to sleep with you, that's it."

Miku stated her resolve, before getting on the bed as well and slowly crawled towards her fiancé almost in a seductive-like manner, making the young man blush deeply and just when he thought it was over for him, the girl stopped just above his stomach. However, that did little to lessen the blush on his face because of Miku's blank expression, as if she didn't care about the position that they were currently in at the moment.

While Fuutarou was flustered at the closeness between him and the third sister, Nino's voice rang in his ears again and caused him to turn his attention towards her instead, which saved him from further embarrassment for now.

"You said that you don't feel like you're good enough for us,right? We want to show you that you're wrong, because you're the only one we love and you're the only one we want to marry. Like I said, we wouldn't do this for anyone else but you."

Those words pretty much confirmed that this whole thing wasn't some kind of game where they have fun at his expense, which made him shift his vision downwards. Even if they wanted to help him get over his problem, he didn't know if this was going to work because this was just leading to him drowning in embarrassment, which wasn't really helping him forget about his dilemma.

"I don't know…"

Upon seeing Fuutarou continuing to doubt himself, Itsuki took a deep breath and stepped forward while letting her arms drop to her sides, stopping when she reached his left thigh..

"While this is certainly embarrassing to do, I want to tell you that there is no reason for you to feel this way, Fuutarou-kun. I may not have been truly supportive of this arrangement at first, but the past few weeks that we have spent together made me very happy, and I wouldn't want it any other way. You are the only one to make me feel this way, Fuutarou-kun."

Itsuki finished her words with a smile and there were no further traces of red on her face anymore after she spoke..

"Itsuki…" Fuutarou muttered, left almost speechless from her heartfelt confession.

"Itsuki's right, Fuu! And honestly, I understand what you feel."

The young man turned towards Yotsuba next as soon as he heard her voice that radiated with her usual energy. Like Itsuki, she walked towards him and stopped when she reached his right thigh. Much to his confusion, her radiant smile slowly turned into a somber look until he heard what she had to say.

"You already know this, Fuutarou-kun… but I wasn't really a fan of this whole thing at first, because… well, because I didn't feel like I deserve you. I didn't get to fulfill the promise we made to each other, but you didn't care."

The only thing he could do was nod, knowing what Yotsuba meant to say with those words.

"And then… we spent more time together… I was really happy. I didn't care about the promise we made anymore, because I can just keep on doing my best with you by my side, Fuutarou-kun. You helped me so much, and that's why I don't want this to end. Because of everything you taught me, I can finally put the past behind me, because I love you."

Yotsuba had tears in her eyes while smiling once more, before she grabbed his hand and laid down on her stomach directly beside his leg. By now, it looked like he was getting buried under the bodies of five identical girls and if someone else saw them right now, they would think that something naughty was about to happen.

However, the young man only focused on Yotsuba right now, especially her words about the past because he knew that it was the reason why she looked very detached during the first few weeks of their new relationship as an engaged couple.

"Yeah… I know…"

He nodded slowly in response, keeping his head low until he felt Nino tugging on his right arm, forcing him to turn towards her next.

"To tell the truth, this whole engagement is a miracle in disguise, Fuu-kun. If this didn't happen, me and my sisters would've been rivals for your feelings, because all of us wanted you for ourselves. But, because we're all engaged to you now, we don't need to do that."

"That's why you have to stop thinking this way, Fuutarou-kun. It doesn't matter if you think you deserve to be with us or not, because what matters is that we all love you and all of us want to marry you."

Nino's statements were quickly followed by Ichika, who began patting his head in a continued effort to help their groom-to-be with his problem. From the looks of it, they were slowly making progress with how his expression became more and more defeated as the seconds passed, all while looking at all of his fiancées alternately.

Finally, after about a minute of being deep in thoughts, Fuutarou simply leaned back and stared at the ceiling, all while feeling his chest become heavier for some reason. All he could think about right now was how he almost caused his relationship with these girls to be ruined all because he didn't feel like he was worthy for this role.

"I guess…"

The five girls turned towards each other with smiles on their faces, silently cheering for their success in making Fuutarou feel better somehow, and now it was safe for them to say that things were going to be fine from now on.

It wasn't too big of a reaction, but it was a start in their eyes.

With this issue out of the way, all of them let out individual yawns before lying down, their heads on top of Fuutarou's body, in relation to where they were at the moment. Ichika and Nino were hugging his shoulders and arms, Miku was comfortable on his chest (it's a miracle that his breathing cycle hasn't been disrupted by her body weight pressing down on him), while Yotsuba and Itsuki were occupying his thighs and legs.

"We know you're feeling tired, so let's just get some sleep, okay? We'll continue this talk tomorrow, Fuutarou-kun," Ichika smiled at the young man, nuzzling closer into his arm lovingly.

"I'm sorry for being an asshole today, everyone," Fuutarou continued, keeping his gaze to the ceiling as if he couldn't bear to look at the girls right now. "I shouldn't have said those things earlier… I was worrying over nothing all this time."

All of them raised their heads to look at him and they could have sworn they saw a lone tear in his eye before he quickly blinked to get rid of it. This drew looks of concern from the quints and they were stumped about what they should say, but Miku was already ahead of them.

"We forgive you Fuutarou, but we also know it's not your fault."

Her words were short and quick, but it conveyed their feelings well. Nino decided to add to it by bopping his nose with her finger, making him turn towards her before she gave him a wink.

"You can make it up to us tomorrow, if you want. Let's just sleep for now, because I'm feeling really tired from everything we did today…"

"Okay," he nodded slowly, before throwing all of them an embarrassed smile. "Can all of you get off me for a second? Just going to move up the bed a little."

Hearing his request caused all of his fiancées to chuckle before doing as he told them to. The moment all of them left his body, Fuutarou moved up slightly so that his head was directly against a pillow before throwing out his limbs in many directions, as though he welcomed them to join him.

What a surprising turn of events.

The quintuplets were surprised by his action, when they realized that this was his way of making it up to them. All of them had smiles on their faces once more, as they shared the same thought at that very moment, the same desire they wanted to act upon and they wasted no time in doing it..

Fuutarou's eyes widened to the point that they almost bulged out of their sockets when one by one, the girls leaned closer to his face and planted individual kisses on his cheeks that by the end of it, he had turned into a steaming tomato because of the color on his face.

"Good night, Fuutarou~"

They all spoke with the same flirty tone in their voice, even Yotsuba and Itsuki, which caused his flaring cheeks to further deepen in color, almost being the same as the quintuplets' hair. Everything went silent afterwards, since he couldn't say anything out of shock and the girls were completely unresponsive afterwards, meaning that they had already closed their eyes and proceeded to go to sleep.

Despite this, he couldn't help but say those words in return, because it was the right thing to do and he wanted to make it up to them, after all.

"Uh… yeah… good night…"

With that, Fuutarou closed his eyes and retreated into his subconscious, where he found himself enjoying this moment of peace that he had with his fiancées before dawn arrived.

It was only the first day of this trip, which means that he had plenty of time to make it up to his wives-to-be and make them happy as their soon-to-be husband.

---

19k words for a oneshot... why did I do this, you ask? It's because I am the Ace of this archive and I will prove to our Discord server that the QQ fandom is superior above all else! Join our server and help us show it to everyone else there!

MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*

-Lance