Itsuki was no stranger to a good meal, so it wasn't uncommon to see her happily smiling in the cafeteria. However right now she had her head lowered with a pout on her face. Nino had been trying to get it out of her who she had been studying with since she had gotten home the previous evening, which led to the intervention of her other sisters who were also curious to know who she had been out so late at night with. Considering the fact that she was home later than expected didn't help her sister's wild imagination.
It felt like Nino and Ichika were constantly teasing her about it, while Yotsuba just joined in on the fun. Itsuki could see why Ichigo wouldn't want rumors to spread, it was bad enough with just her sisters but to have complete strangers be in on it too. It was already bad enough that Sugisaki-sensei had the very, very wrong idea about what had been going on. Just how much did Ichigo deal with because of the way he looks for their study to be seen as something so immoral. Itsuki was still trying to figure out with what exactly did Sugisaki-sensei mean with Ichigo helping the baseball team out? While she didn't want to pry she was interested in him slightly.
Sighing gently she looked to where the orders would be placed once they were ready, hers still wasn't done yet while her sisters had already gone on ahead to find them a seat for lunch. Having ordered more than her sisters, she had to wait longer for her meal, maybe she shouldn't have ordered so much, Nino kept saying she was bound to put on a few extra kilo's if she kept eating like she did, despite her morning routine exercise she couldn't exactly deny what Nino was saying. Deciding she needed the energy for her studying later, she shook the thought from her head.
She had kept an eye out for Ichigo during the day, he hadn't been in contact with her yet to give her the study aids that they had spoken about yesterday and she was eager to get started maybe they could exchange contact information when she saw him. Would that be to forward? But it would be better to be able to contact him when she had questions. Right, she would get his contact info today so it wouldn't become a problem later, nothing more too it then that.
"Nino's starting to get to me." Itsuki huffed to herself. "It's just studying, no matter what Nino and Ichika say, or Sugisaki-sensei for that matter." She nodded to herself, there was nothing immoral or romantic about it, Ichigo was just helping her study.
Itsuki had to admit Ichigo had already done something no other tutor had. Shown her where her problem laid instead of just forcing more complex equations and such down her throat. After all the mess of getting home had been dealt with and she was able to have some peace in her room, she brought out her old middle school tests, instantly she was more familiar with what she had already done. What Ichigo had said had made sense, she needed to go back where she still understood and progress from there. If she tried to understand the advanced formula's now, she would only have a misunderstanding and lack of knowledge on how to properly incorporate them.
Itsuki was still surprised at just how attentive Ichigo was to where she needed to improve on her studies after simply seeing her test results, none of her other tutors had even considering the possibility, not even Ebata who strictly did what their Father wanted and while cared for them hadn't picked up on where they were struggling. She had to wonder how she was going to be able to keep up her studies with Ichigo, school classes and also dealing with the private tutor that they were getting today. With any luck, her studies with Ichigo would help her with her new tutor as well.
"Katsudon, Egg Rice Bowl with extra toppings." The lunch lady called out, Itsuki quickly hurrying to get her meal, her stomach was already starting to rumble. Grabbing her tray she turned and faced the chaos that was the school cafeteria.
Looking through the crowds of students as she walked she soon found her seated sisters at a table with a seat to spare. Walking through the crowd to the table Yotsuba instantly brightened upon seeing her as Itsuki walked around the table to the open seat.
"So are you finally going to reveal who the mystery boy is or what?" Nino questioned with a teasing glint in her eye, it didn't look like she was going to be giving up any time soon, her mind aready filled with enough romantic notions.
"I think you're going to far Nino." Miku stated, having been the only one to come to Itsuki defense the prior evening when she had been bombarded by Nino, Ichika and Yotsuba.
"Please Miku, as if you're not a little curious to who she was out all night with." Nino prodded.
"It wasn't all night and it wasn't like that! We were just studying, I've told you this already." Itsuki huffed as she placed her tray on the table as she pulled her chair out. "I'm regretting telling you anything." She added.
"It's just a bit of teasing Itsuki, plus we're all just a little curious about who caught your fancy." Ichika began with a smile up at her as Itsuki pouted. "Can't you tell us anything about him, hmm?" All eyes were once again on the youngest of the quintuplets, her face was beginning to redden once more, she couldn't even look to Miku for help this time as she seemed to be curious as well. Why were they all ganging up on her!?
"Yo, Itsuki." Itsuki's head shot up in surprise at the sudden call of her name as she looked up to find the person in question walking towards her making her swallow nervously. "Ah, short notice but do you mind eating with me? I've got something I want to talk with you about?" Four heads all whipped around at once to take a look at who called out to their sister, but before any of them could say anything, Itsuki nodded.
"Sure, let's go!" Picking up her tray, she turned and marched off quickly causing the orange haired teen to blink before shrugging and following after her, all the while not bothering to look down at the girls Itsuki had left flabbergasted at the table. The four sisters watched Itsuki find another table before the orange haired teen sat opposite her.
"Oh my god! Who's the hottie!?" Nino all but squealed, Ichika wincing as Nino grabbed her shoulder and began to shake her. "He's totally my type!"
"It's a bad boy! Itsuki's going to be devoured!" Yotsuba was panicking as she looked around at her sisters. "We have to help her!"
"She seems fine." Miku stated still looking over to the two before shifting and focusing on her sisters. "She doesn't seem to be in trouble, just annoyed at us."
"Who knew Itsuki was one for the bad boys." Ichika laughed as Nino kept shaking her.
"Sorry again." Ichigo began as he sat down opposite Itsuki only having a juice box with him, noticing Itsuki's slightly soured mood compared to yesterday. "We can do this later if you're not up for it." Ichigo added as Itsuki had an annoyed pout on her face, her cheeks reddened. She could just imagine how her sisters were reacting and didn't dare look back over to them.
"It's fine, I didn't want to eat with them anyway." Itsuki huffed matter of factly before shoving a mouthful of meat into her gob. Ichigo raised an eyebrow slightly, she almost looked like a chipmunk with her mouth that full, once more her lunch was much more than what most would eat in a single sitting. Feeling his stare she looked up and blushed before covering her face with her hand. "Sorry." She apologised after finishing what was in her mouth. "You said you wanted to speak with me about something?"
"Right." Ichigo nodded before awkwardly continuing. "You're Nakano Maruo's daughter, right?" He questioned causing the girl to blink in surprise.
"Uh yeah, how do you know my Father?" She asked slightly confused. Ichigo sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, tussling it slightly.
"You're suppose to be getting a tutor, later on today, right?" Itsuki blinked slightly, how would he know that? Before her mouth fell slightly agape as Ichigo pointed to himself. "I'm kind of that tutor." He told her. "Before yesterday, I had no idea who I would even be tutoring and I didn't register it until your old man called last night and told me to meet you at your apartment." He sighed. "What's up with him, it's kinda weird way to hire a tutor." He muttered.
"You..." Itsuki was struggling to get the whole thing. She expected some retired college professor or even a college student looking for some extra cash. She was stunned for sure, but as she had the time to think, wasn't this perfect? Ichigo knew exactly where she needed to improve after just looking over her recent test sheets. She already knew he would be a better tutor than any before him, and now learning that he was going to be her fulltime tutor. "This is great!" She exclaimed with a wide smile as Ichigo nodded in agreement.
"Now that I'll be able to focus on helping you, I'm sure that we can get your grades up much quicker than we talked about yesterday." Ichigo told her. "We will even be able to get you onto the more advanced stuff quicker too, which will definitely help in the long run and since you're the one I'm actually suppose to be tutoring we'll have more time studying together." Itsuki nodded along happily with what Ichigo was saying, agreeing to it all.
There was no doubt that this was the best possible conclusion, Ichigo would be tutoring all of them... wait... did he know? The way he was talking... oh god he didn't know!
"Ichi-" She tried to explain the situation to him, however Itsuki was cut off as a large group of students, all dressed in the school's soccer team uniform had gathered around them. Itsuki looked up in surprise as Ichigo sighed as the scowl he used to try and frighten her away just yesterday took over his features. He glared over his shoulder which seemed to bring pause to some of the soccer team members however one stepped forward.
"Kurosaki Ichigo!" He began before bowing, the entire team following in suit as they bowed. "Please join the Asahi Soccer Club!" Silence echoed out around them as Ichigo stood up, his scowl making many around them back away in fear of what a delinquent might do to those that bothered him. "We've prepared a larger payment than that of the baseball club!" The bowing captain added.
"P-Payment?" Itsuki questioned, afraid that he might be into some shady racketeering for the clubs around the school. He really was a delinquent!
"Ah... making some extra pocket money." Ichigo told her. "Don't worry too much about it." He shrugged as he turned back to the gathered soccer team. "Look, I told you guys I won't have time to be apart of your club. So no, I won't join." He told them as the Captain raised his head only to met with the pissed expression of the orange haired teen. "So don't come bugging me anymore!" He growled, it was that that made the team disperse and many of the other students that were looking on got a swift glare and they went back to their business. "Man, that was a pain in the ass." He muttered as he grabbed his juice box from the table. "Anyway Itsuki, I'll meet you after school at your place, sound good?" He questioned.
"Ah... uh huh." Itsuki nodded dumbly, still unsure exactly of what had just happened. Ichigo nodded and headed off with his juice box, everybody getting out of his way. "Ah! He still doesn't know he's teaching the five of us! And I still didn't get his contact information!"
Ichigo yawned as he made his way down the street, he was still dressed in his school uniform. He had tossed up weather or not to go home and get changed before heading over to Itsuki's place, but he figured he might as well head straight over and he already had everything with him to get Itsuki started anyway. Unlike with Ikumi, it was probably better to be punctual. He guessed that he would probably be meeting her father today so it would be best to make a good first impression especially if it was going to be a long term employment until graduation.
The apartment complex wasn't exactly difficult to find. The thirty-story super high-rise luxury apartment complex clearly towered over all the nearby residential buildings and clearly outshined any of them. After grabbing a light snack after school he had made his way here, giving enough time for Itsuki to get home and settled before they started to study.
Soon enough he found himself before the entrance to the apartment, while there was no doorman there was automatic locked doors and a console with a list of residents. Walking up to the first door they hissed open as he walked over to the console. Searching through for the Nakano residence he found it and hit the call button.
Almost too quickly Itsuki's voice came though the speaker.
"Ichigo." The orange haired teen blinked as he looked around and soon spotted a camera up on the corner, no doubt Itsuki was able to see him.
"Yeah, mind buzzing me in? It's the thirtieth floor right."
"That's right, please hurry." She seemed in a hurry for him to get up there, was something wrong? The inner doors hissed open and Ichigo walked through and into the lobby. It was seriously fancy on the inside. Heading for the elevator he pressed the button and waited before the doors opened.
Stepping inside he hit the button for the thirtieth floor and waited. Just as the doors were closing he heard the inner doors to the building open and a few girls talking before the elevator doors closed blocking the sound. He leaned back against the wall as he watched the numbers slowly tick up. Soon enough the door opened and he stepped out. It didn't take him long to find the Nakano name plate and as he knocked the door quickly swung open surprising him. She must have been waiting at the door for him.
"Hurry!" Itsuki grabbed him by the arm and pulled him inside the apartment, almost pulling him off his feet in the process.
"What's the big deal?" Ichigo growled lightly as he turned to face her as Itsuki slammed the door shut quickly, leaning against it as she looked up at him. "What's going on?" He asked as he looked around, shouldn't her father be here?
"Uh well... just how much do you know about the tutoring job?" Itsuki questioned nervously.
"A typical tutoring job, until you graduate or until I'm told otherwise?" Ichigo suggested, honestly if it wasn't for Ikumi recommending the job he would have believed it to be some kind of scam with the amount he was getting paid and then there was the lack of contact by his actual employer. "The only odd thing about it is the pay, it's five times the normal amount."
"Yeah.." Itsuki sighed only for them to both hear a set of keys rattling on the other side of the door, it was now or never he was going to find out sooner or later. "Yeah, about that... gah!" The door behind Itsuki swung open suddenly sending Itsuki toppling forward before Ichigo moved and caught her before she hit the ground.
"You can't keep avoiding us Itsuki!" A voice shouted as Ichigo looked up to see four identical girls to the one he was currently holding to stop her falling to the ground. "Who's that hot guy you were with!?" Nino declared hands on her hips.
"Ah Nino." The oldest of the Quints smiled as she saw the teen in question helping Itsuki to her feet.
The four before them were slightly shocked too see Itsuki in the orange haired teens arms, Ichika already had a teasing glint in her eyes as Yotsuba looked ready to save Itsuki from the mean looking boy while Miku watched on too see what was going to happen.
Nino blinked seeing the guy she had seen with Itsuki earlier today, in her home, before realising what she had just shouted out. Face turning beet red as fight or flight mode kicked in, embarrassment winning over and she screamed as she ran passed the two and flying up the flight of stairs across the living room before the sound of a door slamming shut echoed out through the apartment.
"Uh..." Ichigo began awkwardly unsure to what had just happened as he was now under the gaze of three of the five identical sisters as he turned to Itsuki. "You alright?" He asked as Itsuki could stand on her own now.
"Yeah, thank you." She blushed lightly recalling how close they had been moments prior. "Um, Ichigo." Itsuki began. "These are my sisters."
"Uh, hey." Ichigo awkwardly greeted, "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."
"Everyone, this is Ichigo... our new tutor."
"Our?" Ichigo questioned before sighing as the three sisters looked at him in surprise. "No wonder it was five times the amount. A little heads up would have been great!"