A/N:
Chapter 3 is finished! So here it is!
I'm surprised because there were lot of peoples who showed interests on reading this story. I thought this story gonna be not popular compared to other, knowing of Ichika low popularity compared to the other quintuplets. But I'm glad that there was a lot of team Ichika and her supporters out there because she definitely deserve her love and respect.
As for the review response:
-Rosalina:
Yeah I agree with you! Their moments are truly the best and glad that you love the story!
-Powder sauce:
Thanks a lot mate! I always double check the grammar and vocabulary for the best results before posting it. But I still didn't know if it's already correct since I'm still confused on some grammar and vocabulary lol
-Tsubaki Lover:
Yup. So far, Fuutaro x Ichika fanfic is rare to find in this website and thank you for the compliment, I really appreciate it!
-Kraft:
I'm glad that you're excited! Now you will be excited again with this new chapter lol.
Anyway enough talks from me, Enjoy the story!
Chapter 3
"Hey Ichika, you have an idea where should we go next?"
"Hmm… I do have a place in mind…"
It had been long hours of playing in arcade for them. Right now, they about to left the arcade after a fun and frustrating time of playing games. They had a lot of fun playing in the arcade, from playing many fun rounds of air hockey, playing a racing game, and winning a hippo plush from a crane game. It was indeed a fun time for the two, but the fun also came with a frustration and annoyance from the crane game because they kept failing each of the attempt, until the last one, where they finally won the stuffed animal.
As they about to exit the arcade, Fuutaro spotted an unexpected person outside of the arcade. His eyes immediately widened and there was an instant panic on his face from seeing that person. He immediately stopped in place and pulled Ichika back inside the arcade. Ichika was surprised from Fuutaro's sudden action and she can saw he was holding her right wrist, making Ichika unconsciously blushed. She can saw Fuutaro looking at something in the outside of arcade and there was a semi-serious expression on his face along with some anxiousness.
"F-Fuutaro-kun… What's wrong?" Ichika asked to him with a visible confusion on her face.
"Ichika… Look at that person outside of the exit," Fuutaro replied, pointing at the person outside of the arcade.
Ichika looked at the person who Fuutaro pointed to. There was a police officer patrolling outside the arcade and it looked like the police will not move from that spot for some time. Ichika expression immediately turned into a nervous one after seeing the police and she finally understood what he meant. If they just walked through the exit normally, the police will notice them and immediately apprehended the two for skipping school, which will be a big trouble for both of them.
"This is bad Fuutaro-kun… If the police noticed us, it will be a big trouble for us." Ichika turned her head to Fuutaro, talking with a nervous tone in her voice. "We will get punished by the school and the other four will definitely scold us too."
"Yeah… I know that. Let me think of a way for us to not get caught," Fuutaro said, rubbing his forehead in anxiousness to thought a way to exit the arcade safely.
Fuutaro then thought for a way to exit the arcade without getting spotted by the police. He observed every inch of the arcade from where he stood and there were two doors that caught his attention. Fuutaro saw a back door near the exchange counter and an emergency exit at the very back of the arcade. Knowing those two doors were their only chance to exit without getting spotted by the police, Fuutaro hoped those doors were opened and told Ichika about his finding
"Ichika… There's another way getting out from arcade other than the main exit."
"Ahh… Tell me about it."
"There are a back door and emergency exit in this arcade. The back door is near the exchange counter and it's for employee only. The emergency exit is at the very back of the arcade, right there," Fuutaro explained his finding to Ichika, also pointing at the emergency exit. "First, I want you to check if we can exit through the back door, even though it's supposedly for employee only. If it's not possible, then go to the emergency exit to check if the door is opened or locked. I'm going to stay here to keep an eye on that police. Give me a call if any of those doors are opened."
"Unn… Got it!" Ichika responded with a serious nod and made her way to check each of the doors.
Ichika arrived near the back door. She can saw there were some amount of arcade employees hanging around in front of the back door and she definitely thought back door was out of the question for them to exit the arcade. Ichika, with a jog, made his way to the emergency exit at the very back at the arcade. There were not many people near the emergency exit and she thought this can be a good situation for her to check the door without raising a suspicion. She then pushed the door handle but the door won't budge. Ichika repeatedly pushed the handle and no matter how many times she tried to pushed the door, the emergency exit will not open. There was a disappointed expression on her face, knowing there were no other way to exit the arcade without going through the main entrance.
"This is really bad…"
"I guess the only way to exit the arcade… is through the main door…"
"I should tell Fuutaro-kun about my finding…"
Fuutaro, still standing near the main entrance, looked at the police officer outside of the arcade. Even after for some amounts of minutes, the police officer still patrolling outside of the arcade without showing any sign of leaving. He then shook his head and sighed, how did this situation happened to them after having a fun time. Right now, he can only hope Ichika called him and bring him a good news that one of the doors were opened for them to exit this place. His phone then rang and Fuutaro immediately answered it.
"Ichika, how about those two doors? Are any of them are opened?" Fuutaro asked to Ichika, with a hopeful tone in his voice.
"No… It's not good, Fuutaro-kun…" Ichika replied back, with a bit of disappointed tone in her voice. "There were a lot of arcade staffs hanging around near the back door and the emergency exit was locked. I don't want to ask the staffs about the emergency exit because it might raise a suspicion to me."
"Hmm… It's not looking good." Fuutaro rubbed his forehead in disappointment from hearing the bad news. "Then, come back to me. I have a plan on getting out. but I want you to hear it first."
"Yeah, got it," Ichika said and hung up the call.
Not long after, Ichika came back to Fuutaro's side. She looked at the outside of main entrance once more and she saw the police still hanging around in front of the arcade. Ichika thought that main entrance was the only way left for them to left the arcade and it was going to be a big risk walking through the main entrance. She then turned around and asked to Fuutaro about what plan he had in his mind.
"Fuutaro-kun, what plan do you have in mind?"
"I have a plan, but it's very risky. So I want you to hear me on this."
"Then, what's the plan?"
"I'm going to be a distraction for the police. When the police got distracted, I want you to run away from me and the police as far as possible," Fuutaro explained his plan to Ichika with a serious expression on his face.
"Ehh…?"
Ichika was very surprised from hearing Fuutaro's plan and a shocked expression was visible on her face. He wanted to be a distraction and letting himself get caught? Meanwhile she was going to run away, leaving him to be caught by the police? There was no way she was going to allow Fuutaro getting caught and taking the responsibility of it by himself. She then held both Fuutaro's arms with her hands and protested this risky plan to him.
"Fuutaro-kun, you can't do this!" Ichika said with a nervous tone, protesting about his plan. "I will not allow you to get caught by the police. There must be other way than this risky plan of yours."
"No… There's no other way. Don't worry about me, Ichika." Fuutaro shook his head, still looking at her with a serious face.
"But…"
"If you get caught with me, the problem will be bigger than you think," Fuutaro said to the worried Ichika. "Remember, you're a rising actress now and if there's a news about you getting apprehended by the police, your dream of becoming a famous actress will be over." he further explained to her.
"Well… You got a point… But I can't let you taking the blame alone." Ichika looked away from him, still feeling worried about Fuutaro.
"Just as I said before, don't worry about me." Fuutaro serious expression turned into calm expression as he tried to calm her down. "I'm just a nobody compared to you, so this is not going to be a big problem to me." he then gave Ichika a faint smile.
"…" Ichika fell silent as she let go of her hands from Fuutaro's arms.
"No…"
"You're not a nobody…"
"You're a very important person to me, Fuutaro-kun."
"Please don't do this…"
"Then, hold my school bag. It will only slow me down when I become the bait," Fuutaro said, handing his school bag to Ichika. "Run as far away when the police starting to ch-"
His words got cut as Fuutaro saw Ichika's right hand was holding his right hand. He can feel Ichika was holding his hand tightly and when he saw her face, Fuutaro can't really saw her face because she lowered her head and her face was hidden by her hair. Fuutaro can also felt a tremble on her hand as she kept holding his hand.
"I-Ichika…?"
"Promise me, Fuutaro-kun… That you won't be caught by the police," Ichika quietly said to him and there was a nervous tone in her voice. "I won't forgive you if I heard a news that you get apprehended by the police."
"Ahh… I promised," Fuutaro nodded with a confident smile. "Get ready, Ichika."
"Unnn…" Ichika nodded too as she let go of her hand.
Fuutaro took a deep breath and then exited the arcade, leaving Ichika who stayed behind, waiting for a distraction to happen so she can escape. He then slowly walked, passing by the police officer and as expected, the police officer immediately noticed Fuutaro and called him. Fuutaro can sense that the police officer approached him and immediately stopped in place as anxiousness started to build up in both of his mind and heart. Even with the anxiousness filling his mind, he needed to stay calm so he won't get apprehended.
"Hey you boy, what are you doing outside of the school time?" the police officer circled around Fuutaro and then stopped in front of him.
"Ahh… Officer, I'm just spending my free time in the arcade. Is there something wrong with it?" Fuutaro said with a big grin to the police officer as some sweats started to fell down from his head.
"Right… You must be that kind of school punk who skipped school to play in arcade, huh?" the police officer crossed his arm and looking at him with an unimpressed face.
"You must be mistaken, officer. I'm a university student and today is my day off from the campus." Fuutaro kept making another excuse as his eyes looked around at every direction, cannot maintaining a direct eye contact with the police.
"You can't fool me boy, you're wearing a school uniform and I recognized that uniform. If I'm not wrong, you're from Asahiyama High School, right?" the police officer narrowed his eyes at Fuutaro's school uniform.
Fuutaro became quiet after the police recognized his uniform and he started to sweat a lot because of his lie had been seen through. There was no way he can reason with the police officer anymore and he can't think of any other lie to reason with. The only last way for him to not get caught… was to run and hope for the best. Fuutaro closed his eyes for a few seconds and then took a deep breath. He then pushed the police officer sideways and ran away from him.
"Hey you! Stop running!" the police officer shouted and blew his whistle.
"Damn it! Now the police is on me."
"Hope I don't get caught."
"Let's just run and hope I can lose him."
Fuutaro kept on running and running while the police officer chased him from behind. Lots of people looked at him from the sideways and while he was running, he almost bumped into some people in front of him and almost tripped over from the running. He didn't care about those people and his brain only thinks to run and lose the police.
Right now, the adrenaline was filling his whole body and giving him extra stamina for him to run faster and longer. Thanks to the sudden adrenaline boost, Fuutaro did not felt tired from all this running which he usually get easily tired even from a short running. He ran as fast as he can while also taking lot of turns to shake the police off.
Even with the adrenaline boost, after few minutes of running, Fuutaro started to get very tired due to his untrained physical condition. He started to slow down and panting heavily. He turned his head back and no longer saw the police, but Fuutaro can heard a footstep getting closer to him as he about to fell down from the exhaustion.
"*pant* *pant* I'm so… tired."
"*pant* I'm done… *pant* I can't run anymore… I guess this is it for me…*pant*"
Just when he about to stop, a hand appeared from an alleyway next to him and pulled him into the alleyway. That hand took Fuutaro deeper inside the alleyway and he didn't even saw the person who pulled him to the alleyway because he was too tired and still panting heavily from exhaustion. Fuutaro and that person finally stopped at the end of the alleyway, hiding behind an edge of a wall and he was crouching, holding his knee to catch a breath from the exhaustion. After a moment of catching a breath, he finally raised his head to look at the savior who saved him from the police and when he saw that person, Fuutaro got surprised from seeing that person.
"*pant* I-Ichika…? What are you doing here!? "*pant* " Fuutaro said with a loud voice, can't control his voice because he was still panting and tired from all the running.
"Be quiet, Fuutaro-kun," Ichika quietly said to Fuutaro. "Or the police will hear us…" she continued saying as she kept her eye on the sideways.
Both Ichika and Fuutaro took a peek at the sideways to saw if the police was still chasing him or not. Fuutaro then looked back at Ichika, there was a serious expression on her face and her right hand appeared to be holding his left hand tightly. After a few seconds, they spotted the police in front of the alleyway, looking at every direction with a confused gesture from losing Fuutaro's trail. Knowing that he lost the trail, the police finally gave up on searching him and went away from the alleyway where they were hiding.
Fuutaro felt a big relief in his heart, being able to evade the police. There was a grin on his tired face as he felt a big joy was now filling his heart for successfully evading the police. He thought that he needed to thank Ichika for saving him because he can't imagine the trouble that he must went through if he got caught. The punishment from school, the scolding from the four sisters, and maybe a lecture from his dad if he was in bad mood.
Fuutaro then looked back at Ichika and he noticed that her head was now lowered and he can't saw her face clearly. Fuutaro felt something was definitely wrong with her because there was not a single voice coming out from her. Also, her right hand was still holding his left hand tightly and there was no sign from her to letting go.
"I-Ichika… Are you okay?"
"Idiot…"
"What…?"
"You are truly are an idiot, aren't you?"
"Ehh…?"
Ichika then raised her head back and Fuutaro's eyes got wide after seeing her face. There was a weak smile on her lips and little bit of tears in her eyes. Fuutaro was stunned from seeing that expression and he can feel a slight shaking in his hand, which came from Ichika's hand, who still holding his tightly. Fuutaro then showed a smile of his own to calm Ichika down
"Yeah… Looks like I'm truly an idiot huh?" Fuutaro calmly said to Ichika as he closed his eyes from seeing her worried face.
"Hehe… You're definitely an idiot," Ichika giggled hearing him and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Thank you, Ichika," Fuutaro said with a gentle tone, opening his eyes and thanked Ichika for saving him. "Hadn't you pulled me into this alleyway, I would've been caught by that police officer."
"Fuutaro-kun… Please don't do this reckless action again, okay?" Ichika said with a worried tone.
"Yeah… I won't do it again," Fuutaro replied back to her with a nod. "So don't worry, okay?"
"Unnn…" Ichika gave a small nod as she went silent from her worries to Fuutaro.
Fuutaro then looked back at his left hand, which was still being held by Ichika. He unconsciously blushed and became flustered by it. His hand was also sweating because of the embarrassment and the running from before. Fuutaro then said to Ichika about their current awkward state.
"Uhh… I-Ichika, talking about your hand?" Fuutaro said, pointing to his left hand which still being held by her right hand.
"Ehh-uhh… Sorry!" Ichika shouted in surprise as she quickly let go of her hand from Fuutaro's hand.
"*sigh* Just how long you're going to hold my hand? They're starting to get wet from all the sweating from running and you holding it too tight made it even worse." Fuutaro sighed as he pulled out his handkerchief from his pocket to wiped his hand.
"But… Hehehe…" Ichika started to giggle.
"Hmm… What's wrong?"
"This situation kinda remind me of the last year firework festival where I dragged you into an alleyway," Ichika said with a grin, remembering the last year moment. "Did you remember that we hugged each other to hide from my manager?"
"Yeah, I definitely can't forget about that because it's such a sudden hug from you and I even barely know you at that time," Fuutaro replied with an unenthusiastic tone, still wiping his hand from the sweats.
"Hehe… But now, you know me very well, right?" Ichika said as her grin turned into a smile. "How about we do another hug?"
"O-Oi…! What are you saying!?"
"Just kidding!" Ichika teased the surprised Fuutaro with a cheeky smile and a wink.
"*sigh* I'm so tired…" Fuutaro sighed as he fell to the ground into a sitting position.
Fuutaro then rested for some minutes to catch his breath and to relieved his tired legs from the earlier running. Ichika just quietly watched him resting with a smile and offered him her water bottle to drink. Fuutaro thanked her and accepted the water bottle. When he drank the water, he can feel a refreshing sensation in his throat and he let out a loud groan, feeling a great relief and he can feel his stamina starting to come back. Now that he felt refreshed and his legs were not tired anymore, Fuutaro stood up from the ground and then tell Ichika about what he had in his mind.
"Ichika, we should change our school uniform into more casual clothing to avoid the police and other unwanted attention," Fuutaro said what he had in his mind as he gave Ichika's water bottle back to her. "If I'm not wrong there is a department store near in this area."
"Yeah… You're right." Ichika nodded and agreed with him. "There's a department store not far from here. Let's go, Fuutaro-kun." she then started to walk.
"Yeah…" Fuutaro also nodded and followed Ichika from behind as they left the alleyway who saved him from the police.
Fuutaro and Ichika arrived at the department store and it took them around 10 minutes from the alleyway to this place by foot. They entered the department store and the place was not that crowded like evening or nighttime. The department store was pretty big and there were a lot of stuffs being sold in here, ranging from furniture, home appliances, electronic stuffs, clothing, and many other things.
For Fuutaro, he rarely went to the department store other than buying a clothing, which was also a rare occasion for him because he didn't care that much about fashion. The last time he went to the department store was before the last year school trip, where the quintuplets, excluding Ichika who was working at that time, did some clothes shopping and they also buy him a clothing that he wore at the school trip. The memories of that time emerged again in his head as he and Ichika made their way to the clothing section.
"Department store again, huh…?"
"Well, this brings back memories of that time…"
"It's definitely a good time, even though those four made me tried all kind of those weird clothing…"
Arriving at the clothing section, the two went on their separate way, Ichika to the women clothing section and Fuutaro to the men clothing section. Fuutaro then browsed every clothing available on the male section for some amount of times and he cannot decide which clothing he should pick because the price on most of the clothing here were expensive for him. He then browsed the section again and his eyes spotted a discounted price tag on some clothes and pants. Those discounted clothing were a plain white T-shirt and a black short pants on a display table with a discounted tag on it and Fuutaro thought this was a pretty good deal considering most of the clothing in this department store were expensive.
"This should be good for me."
"The price isn't that expensive compared to other clothing."
"I've been planning on buying some clothes too, so this is good timing."
"Even your taste of fashion is very bland and boring, Fuutaro-kun."
Fuutaro turned around and he saw Ichika was already behind him. It looked like she was already finished on buying her clothing and already wore the clothing that she bought. Fuutaro looked at her and he can saw that Ichika was wearing a cream-colored rib knitted short sleeved sweater and a blue denim shorts. She also paired her new clothing with her glasses that she wore on earlier morning. In his mind, Ichika looked pretty good with that clothing and Fuutaro can saw that she had a very good taste in fashion, even on par with Nino compared to other three siblings. As Fuutaro kept staring at her, Ichika started to blushed and became flustered.
"Uhh… Fuutaro-kun… w-what's wrong?" Ichika nervously asked to him, who still staring at her.
"Ahh… No, it's nothing," Fuutaro responded with a bland expression and then looked back at the clothing that he saw earlier. "Did you just say that my fashion taste is bland and boring?"
"Yup! That's true. Even your daily clothing that you wear while tutoring us is very unfashionable and bland, you know? So you should choose more trendy clothing while we're in here," Ichika said with a cheerful expression as she turned around to find more fashionable clothing for him.
"Well… I really don't care much about those current trending fashion," Fuutaro replied, still with his bland and unimpressed face. "As long as it's cheap and fit in my body, I will take those clothing."
"Don't say it like that, Fuutaro-kun. You need to look good so the other people can look at you with some respect," Ichika said to him, picking some clothing and then she showed the clothing to Fuutaro. "Here! Try this clothing. This should look good on you."
Fuutaro looked at the clothing that Ichika just picked for him. The clothing that she picked consisted of white branded T-shirt, a navy-blue jacket and a grey jeans. Fuutaro felt skeptical on those clothing because he never wore that kind of clothing before and he was not sure that he was going to look good in that clothing. Ichika then gave those clothing to Fuutaro and with a cheerful expression on her face, she told him to try those clothing before buying it.
"Fuutaro-kun, go try these clothing!" Ichika said eagerly and there was an eager look from her eyes "I want to see you in it. You might look good on these clothing." she showed a big smile, pushing Fuutaro to tried the clothing.
"*sigh* Yeah, yeah… I don't know if this looks good on me. I'm not a fan of these kind of clothing style," Fuutaro said unenthusiastically as he walked to the fitting room.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure it will look good on you."
Fuutaro then entered the fitting room and he changed into the clothing that Ichika picked. After a few minutes, Fuutaro came out from the fitting room and showed his new clothing to Ichika. Her eyes widened and she gasped from seeing Fuutaro in the new clothing, in which he looked more charismatic and much more attractive than his school uniform and the usual clothing that he wore while tutoring her. A blush formed on her cheeks as she kept looking at the new-look Fuutaro.
"How is it Ichika? Am I look good in it?" Fuutaro said, asking her opinion for the clothes.
"Ehh-uhh… Unn! you look very good in that new clothes." Ichika got startled from his voice and nodded back to him. "In fact, you looked much better and cooler than before. Girls might starts falling for you, you know?" she complimented Fuutaro and gave a teasing look and smile to him.
"Oi, oi… What's with that thing you just said." Fuutaro sighed from hearing Ichika's teasing. "I'm surprised that you know a thing or two about male fashion. Did you follow the male fashion too?"
"Well… I know a few male fashions because I often looked at my fellow actors clothing and I did read some men's fashion magazine in my acting work," Ichika explained to him about her knowledge of male fashion.
"Hmm… Is that so? I say your men's fashion taste isn't bad," Fuutaro said, looking at his new clothes. "Since you said this clothing looks good on me, I'm taking this." he showed a smile to her.
"Hehe… I'm glad you liked the clothes." Ichika giggled, feeling happy because Fuutaro liked the clothing that she picked. "Then, let's go pay for your clothing and I will pay for it!" she then walked to the cashier to pay for his clothing.
"Oi Ichika, you already paid for my food this morning. You don't need to pay for this clothing… and this clothing are pretty expensive," Fuutaro protested Ichika's decision to pay for him, again, as he followed her to the cashier.
"It's fine, Fuutaro-kun," Ichika said happily with a grin as she pulled out her wallet.
"But, aren't you really tight on money considering that you paid the living expense of your other sister and the apartment monthly rent?"
"It's fine… Fuutaro-kun," Ichika said with a genuine smile, repeating her words again. "My next paycheck is about to arrive, so don't worry about it. Consider this as my appreciation for tutoring me and the other four."
"Ichika…"
"As long as it's for you… I'm fine with it."
"I just wanted to see you happy and smiling, Fuutaro-kun."
"I'll do anything… for you to look only at me."
Fuutaro then reluctantly accepted Ichika's offer to pay for his clothing. He promised to himself that he will pay Ichika back someday because he was not comfortable with it considering she was the one who was responsible of paying the living expenses of the other four and the apartment rent. He can relate to this because he was on the same situation like her, working hard to pay his family living expenses and also helping to pay his family debt, but to the lesser extent because the duty was shared with his father. When compared to Ichika's responsibility, who single-handedly working by herself, taking responsibility of the rent, and taking care of her sisters need, his responsibility was nothing but a tiny task.
This thought made Fuutaro respected Ichika even more after his further thinking about her situation and he smiled unconsciously as he looked at Ichika, who was paying for his new clothing at the cashier.
"I never deeply thought about it before…"
"You worked by yourself and carried those responsibility without complaining…"
"Even in this kind of situation, you're still able to smile and there's no sign of you giving up."
"You're truly an amazing person, Ichika."
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