Chapter 6
The day of national mock exam was finally here. Fuutaro woke up late than usual because he stayed up until very late on last night, studying for the mock exam for the last time. He didn't have a chance for proper breakfast, so he grabbed a piece of toast from the dining table and then said goodbye to Raiha and his dad. Fuutaro walked at much faster pace than usual because he didn't want to repeat the same incident like last year, when he got scolded by the school when he arrived late for the midterm exam. But this time was different because it was national mock exam, which was more important than the usual school exam. Add the pressure of him to finish in the top 10 nationally, made this exam very important for him to be able and to compete against Takeda and to secure his tutoring job.
While eating his toast, he yawned and rubbed his eyes because he didn't get much sleep last night from studying exam material. He had been intensely studying for every subject on the exam which were Mathematic, English, Social Studies, Japanese, and Science for this whole month. Other than studying by his own, he also tutored the quintuples for everyday in this whole month to prepare them for the mock exam too and it added extra pressure for him, which made him pretty tired in the end.
There was a visible eyebag and black spot under both of his eyes to showed that he didn't get much sleep recently because of the studying and tutoring pressure. His face was also tired and sleepy and he forgot to wash it when he woke up, which made him looked like a half-dead person when walking around the street. As he kept walking, a familiar voice called for his name not far from behind.
"Oii… Fuutaro-kun."
"Hmm… Ichika, huh?" Fuutaro mumbled, turning his head around and he saw Ichika catching up to him
"Good morning! Fuutaro-kun," Ichika greeted him with her usual cheerful expression.
"Ahh… Good morning," Fuutaro replied with his usual expressionless face.
"Hmm…? Where are the other four? Didn't you all usually walk together to the school?"
"Ahaha… I overslept… When I woke up, the others already left," Ichika said with a weak laugh, holding the back of her head with her right hand.
"*sigh* As expected from sleepy-head like you…" Fuutaro sighed and chuckled a little hearing her explanation.
"Sheesh… Look at yourself, you're still in here meaning that you woke up late too, right?" Ichika said, getting annoyed with a pout on her face. "Anyway Fuutaro-kun, are you ready for the mock exam?
"Yeah! I prepared myself this whole month just for the mock exam," Fuutaro said as he clutched his fist in confidence. "I will not lose the bet against your father and Takeda, so watch me as I wil- *yawn*"
"Hmm…? Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Ichika wondered, leaning forward to see Fuutaro's face. "I can see an eyebag under your eyes… and your face look like you just woke up a second ago."
"Don't worry about it. It will go away as the day goes by," Fuutaro said, still holding his mouth from yawning. "Also Ichika, are you ready for the mock exam too?"
"Unn… I'm ready. I've been studying all I can, both from you and by myself," Ichika said with a tone full of confidence. "I will get 150 points just as I promised to you!"
"Heh! That's very good to hear from you. I'm counting on you, Ichika!" Fuutaro smirked from hearing her resolve and also encouraging her on the exam.
"Thank you! Then let's do our best in the exam!" Ichika showed a smile from Fuutaro's encouragement.
Fuutaro noticed something was a bit off with Ichika. She wore her glasses again, which was still unusual for her, knowing that there was no more reason to wear it like when they skipped school. He looked at her face and there was a visible eyebag and black spot on under both of her eyes, which was kind of similar to him. When Fuutaro looked at her further, he can saw that both of her eyes were slightly red and it looked like a case of dry eyes from lack of sleep. Other than that, Ichika's face appeared to be paler than usual.
Did she wear a glasses to hide the eyebag and her pale face? If so, then it was a poor attempt from her because Fuutaro can saw both of it clearly. That kind of pale face was familiar to him because he saw his dad for a few times, having that kind of pale face from the lack of sleep from working overtime. Kind of worried about her condition, Fuutaro then asked to Ichika if she was feeling sick or something.
"Ichika, are you okay?" Fuutaro asked to Ichika with a concern after seeing her pale face. "You look not well, are you feeling sick or something?"
"No… I'm fine, Fuutaro-kun." Ichika shook her head with a weak smile. "I've been sleeping late recently because of my busy work schedule. Other than that, I'm pretty much fine, so don't worry about me."
"Are you really fine? Didn't I said to you before to not over-push yourself in working and studying?" Fuutaro asked with a slightly serious voice, still feeling worried about her.
"Fuutaro-kun… Didn't I say that I'm fine just a second ago?" Ichika replied with an annoyed expression. "Anyway, let's pick up our pace. We don't want to get late again just like last year, right?" she then started to jog so they will not get late for the exam.
"Ahh… Yeah, Right…" Fuutaro nodded in surprise as he started to jog too, following Ichika from behind.
Fuutaro and Ichika started to pick up their pace so they will not get late to school. After some amounts of minutes, they both arrived in school just in time before the exam started. The two entered their classroom and took a seat at their desk to prepare for the mock exam. Before the exam started, Fuutaro looked at each quintuplets and they also looked back at him. He then gave them a nod and thumbs up for a good luck, in which they also responded with a smile and thumbs up of their own.
Not long after, the mock exam started and the first subject was Mathematics. Fuutaro then looked at the exam paper and much to his surprise, the question appeared to be harder than the usual material that he learned as he intensely looked at some of the question.
"This question is slightly complicated than the usual one that I learned…"
"This can be bad…"
"No… I won't give up. I even studied harder lesson from the net and other references book."
"So this exam should be easier even if it's harder by the usual standard."
Even if it was harder, Fuutaro will not give up because his tutor job was at stake. He believed that he was the only capable tutor for the quintuplets and he won't let Takeda took over his job as their tutor. Fuutaro then started to get to work on answering the question. First question was kind of easy because he already studied this question before for so many times. It was the same for the second, third, and so on. When nearing the final question, there were some tricky and hard questions that he had to face.
It took him some time to answer and solved the question, but in the end of Mathematics exam, Fuutaro answered all of the question and he felt confident that he answered all of the question correctly. There were still some minutes left before the mathematics exam was over, so he took this opportunity to close his eyes for a minute to rest his tired and dry eyes and as well to relax his mind.
"Yosh… Mathematics are done."
"This subject is Ichika specialty…"
"So she should've no problem with this one…"
"The next is Japanese…"
The school bell rang, signing that the mathematics exam was over. The teacher then picked up the test paper from the students and there were 5 minutes preparation period before the Japanese exam begun. Fuutaro used this period to look at the quintuplets again and he saw all of them were serious from the look of their face. It gave him some relief, knowing that they must be prepared themselves for the mock exam.
"I hope they do well…"
"Especially you, Ichika… Knowing that you don't have much time studying because of your acting work."
"Don't disappoint me, all of you!"
After the 5 minutes period, the Japanese exam begun and luckily for him, this subject was not that hard like Mathematics, even easier. So he didn't have much problem answering every question and in the end, he finished answering all of the question and still had 20 minutes left before the Japanese exam was over. Fuutaro then took this moment to rest, to clear and to relax his mind.
"Good thing this one is easier than Mathematics…"
"Japanese subject is Yotsuba specialty…"
"Hope she can achieve at least satisfying results on this subject…"
"Because that girl always scored the worst among them…"
"The next is English…"
For the third subject, it was the English exam and for him, this subject was very easy, so Fuutaro was 100 percent confident that he will get a perfect score on this subject. There were still 30 minutes left before the English exam was over and he finished answering all the question without any difficulty. Fuutaro then thought to have a quick nap before the mid-day break because he can feel his eyes were starting to get heavier and he yawned a lot before while answering the question.
"This one was very easy and it's not a big problem to me…"
"English subject is Nino specialty…"
"Even if she's pretty cocky and always feeling full about herself, I trust that she will achieve a good result on this subject…"
"Next is mid-day break…"
"There's still 30 minutes left before mid-day break…"
"I'm so sleepy…"
"I guess a little nap won't hurt…"
Fuutaro moved his test paper aside and took some nap to refresh himself a little. 30 minutes had passed and the school bell rang again, marking that the English exam was over and mid-day break was starting. Every student in the class quickly heading to the cafetaria for lunch and some of them heading for the library to study for the rest of the exam.
For Fuutaro… He was still sleeping at his desk, peacefully. Because of his exhaustion, he didn't hear the school bell and continued to sleep, unaware that the mid-day break was already past five minutes. The quintuplets approached Fuutaro's desk and there was a distasteful expression on Nino and Itsuki's face when seeing him sleeping. For Ichika, Miku, and Yotsuba, they can only smile and giggled from seeing his state.
"Hey! Wake up, Fuu-kun!" Nino slammed Fuutaro desk to woke him up. "How long are you planning to sleep?"
"Ehh-huhh…? *yawn* Is it morning already…?" Fuutaro yawned and stretched both of his arms into the air.
"Hmm… This is the first time I saw Uesugi-kun sleeping in class. You sure you didn't miss answering some of the question before you went to sleep?" Itsuki wondered as she took off her glasses.
"Give him a break, Itsuki. Fuutaro has been studying very hard, so I guess it's fine for him to take a little nap," Miku said to Itsuki, then looked at Fuutaro with a smile.
"Hehh… By the look of his face, I think Uesugi-san is very tired." Yotsuba leaned forward to him to get a good look of his face. "I guess you didn't get enough sleep last night, huh? Hehe…You just like Ichika, she always looking for a chance to sleep in class, even in the exam too." she giggled, looking at Ichika.
"*yawn* Well… I didn't even have a chance to sleep because the question is pretty difficult." Ichika yawned too because of her lack of sleep. "Anyway, let's go to cafetaria for lunch."
The quintuplets and Fuutaro made their way to cafetaria to have their lunch and break from the exam. Arriving in the cafetaria, they chose their food from the counter and took a vacant table for them to seat. As they starting to eat, Fuutaro opened his lesson book and also told the five to do the same as him. There were only two subjects left before the mock exam was over, which were Social Studies and Science.
"Yosh… All of you, open up your Social Studies and Science book!" Fuutaro said eagerly as he opened his Social Studies and Science book. "We have one hour of mid-day break and thirty minutes of studying for each subject should be good enough."
"*stomach growl* Umm… Can it wait, Uesugi-kun? My stomach is very hungry from all the pressure of the mock exam…" Itsuki weakly said to him, holding her hungry growling stomach.
"Yeah… Me too… My mind is all messed up after that hellish question…" Yotsuba complained, her head fell onto the table from the mind exhaustion of the mock exam. "Give me ten minutes to eat and I will happily study again when my stomach is full."
"I agree with Itsuki and Yotsuba," Nino said, holding the bowl of rice and starting to eat. "I can't concentrate with an empty stomach, so we will start studying after we eat. We don't want to hear any objection from you while we eating."
"*sigh* All of you… Can you at least study while eating? This way we can be more efficient and have more time on studying," Fuutaro sighed, getting annoyed from the quintuplets' lack of motivation to study.
"No! Can't do… I said no objection from you, Fuu-kun," Nino responded with an unenthusiastic tone as she continued to eat without looking at her lesson book and Fuutaro.
"Tchh…" Fuutaro clicked his tongue in irritation from Nino's respond.
"Well… I guess there is no harm in studying and eating at the same time," Miku said with a smile, opening her Social Studies book while still eating. "So feel free to ask any question to test me, Fuutaro."
"That's great, Miku! I wish the other can follow your example to save some time." Fuutaro felt bit delighted after Miku followed his suggestion to eat and studying at the same time. "Ichika, what about you?" he turned his head and asked to Ichika, who was sitting in front of him.
"Ahh… I guess I'm going to eat first and then do some studying," Ichika answered with a weak laugh. "I didn't have a chance to eat a breakfast this morning because I overslept, remember?"
"Yeah, that's right. Make sure to not take too long to eat because our studying time is very limited."
"Yes, yes… Don't worry about it, Fuutaro-kun." Ichika said, holding the chopstick and then ate her lunch.
While they had their lunch, Fuutaro noticed that Ichika only ate a little and she looked like didn't have an appetite to eat. He looked at her pale face and there were some amounts of sweat on her face. Fuutaro thought to himself, did she have a fever? Was it because of her lack of sleep that she starting to feel not well? Whatever it was, there was definitely something wrong with her. Ichika then stood up from her seat and Fuutaro asked to her where she will be going.
"Where are you going, Ichika?"
"I'm going to the restroom. You all can continue the lunch and studying without me."
Fuutaro can definitely felt something was wrong with her, so he followed Ichika to the bathroom. He told the other four to continue the lunch and studying without him and said to them that it won't take long for him to go.
Outside of the girl's restroom, Fuutaro can heard a sink running and Ichika was panting and coughing… from inside. Fuutaro wondered, was Ichika starting to become ill? She had been in the toilet for a few minutes, continuing to cough and panting, and the sound of the sink can still be heard, which worried him about her condition. Some minutes later, Ichika finally came out from the restroom and Fuutaro grabbed her by the arm. This time he saw her face became slightly redder than before and there were a lot of sweats flowing down on her face. Seeing her face, Fuutaro thought Ichika must have a fever or something.
"Ehh… Fuutaro-kun. What's wrong?" Ichika got confused from Fuutaro's action.
"Ichika, I can see that you're not feeling well," Fuutaro seriously said to Ichika about her current condition. "You need to go to infirmary to get a check on your current condition."
"No… I'm fine. Don't worry about me, we still have two more exams to go and I can't miss that." Ichika closed her eyes and shook her head, rejecting Fuutaro's advice.
"Oi… You're definitely not fine! You can't do the exam with this kind of condition. So let's go to infirmary to get you checked."
"There's no need to, Fuutaro-kun. Remember about your bet and my bet, there are only two exams left and we're this close," Ichika said, gently pushing Fuutaro's hand away from her arm.
"But…!"
"Anyway, let's go back. The others are waiting for us." Ichika forced a smile on her pale face as she walked back to the cafetaria.
"…"
Fuutaro then followed her from behind. He was worried about Ichika's current condition and hoping that there were no unwanted things happened to her. Back at the cafetaria, they continued to study for the last two exam before the mid-day break was over. Not long after, the school bell rang again, signaling the mid-day break was over and the fourth exam will start soon. The quintuplets and Fuutaro went back to their class and took a seat to prepare for the Social Studies exam.
Fuutaro looked at the Social Studies question and this subject should not be a problem for him. As he starting to work on those questions, he can feel the side-effect of lack of sleep starting to appeared, where his mind was clouded and he can feel a lightheaded sensation in his head. Because of those side effects, Fuutaro had a trouble remembering the answer to the question and it took him an extra effort to answer those questions. But in the end, he managed to answer all of the question albeit with some trouble.
"Finally… It's finished…"
"Social Studies subject is Miku specialty…"
"That girl is very good at this subject, especially at Sengoku era history…"
"Well… I guess I shouldn't be worried about her bombing this subject…"
"Shit… I can't concentrate on remembering the answer…"
"Is the lack of sleep side effects starting to appear…?"
"Anyway… Next one is the last subject… Which is Science…"
Finally, it was the last subject which was Science. Knowing this was the last subject, Fuutaro was pumped, confident, and he will give all of his energy to finish this. He intensely and carefully read all of the question and wrote the answer on the paper. Fuutaro's hand was on fire from writing all the answer and there was a strong determination in his eyes as he looked at each of the question in the paper. He still had some trouble remembering the answer, but due to his resolve to get the best result, he was able to remember the correct answer.
"Science subject is Itsuki specialty…"
"She's usually the one who study harder among them… So she should have no big trouble on this subject…"
"But still… Even she's always the one who study harder… I still have some doubts on her on the other subjects…"
"This is it…"
"This is the last subject…!"
"I will give all I can to answer all of this question…!"
Unfortunately, nearing the last five question, Fuutaro finally reached his limits from the exhaustion as his eyelids felt very heavy and his head felt burning. His hand was shaking from the exhaustion and he can't focus on the last five question. Even with his strong determination, his body finally gave up as he let go of his pen and then his head fell onto the desk as he fell into a unvoluntary sleep.
"This is bad…"
"Only five questions left and this is my limit…"
"My eyes feels very heavy and my head feels burning…"
"I can't think anymore… I'm very tired…"
"…"
Fuutaro eventually fell asleep from the exhaustion because he didn't get enough sleep for the last few days, in which he studying up until late night to prepare for the mock exam.
After some moments of sleep, he opened his eyes and awaked, feeling a little refreshed after his nap. Much to his surprise, he realized his exam paper was gone and the Science exam was over. Seeing around the class after awaked, there were only a few students left in the classroom as they prepared to go home and he also realized that the quintuplets already went home too.
Fuutaro yawned and stretched both of his arm into the air and he packed his things to go home after this long exam day. He thought to himself and feel frustrated about how he fell asleep when he only had five questions left to answer. He felt a nervousness building up in his mind because those five unanswered questions can impact his score finishing in top 10 nationally.
"Damn it…"
"Only five questions left and in the end I fell asleep."
"I can only hope it didn't impact the score that much…"
After finished packing his things, Fuutaro then left the school and hoped he can get some good rest when he arrived at home. Outside of the school gate, he checked his phone and to his surprise there were some missed calls from Nino, Yotsuba, and Itsuki a several minutes ago. Fuutaro wondered why his phone didn't ring from their call and then he realized his phone was in silent mode. Just when he about to call them back, a call came from Miku and he immediately answered it to ask why those three calling them in such short period of time.
"Ahh… Miku. What is it? Why di—"
"This is bad, Fuutaro…!"
"Hmm… What's wrong, Miku? Why did you sound so worried?"
"It's Ichika… She collapsed and passed out on the middle of the sideways while we walked back home."
"Ehh…?"
Fuutaro immediately went into the state of shock as his eyes widened and he gasped from hearing this sudden of a news. His body started to stiffened and a cold sweat was formed on his face. Ichika collapsed? He really didn't expect this to happen to her. He suddenly remembered that Ichika was not feeling well today, from the time where they walked together to school in this morning and her condition worsened at the mid-day break when he heard her coughing and panting in the restroom and saw her face reddened from an apparent fever.
There was an uneasy feeling and a pang forming in his heart as he continued to process this sudden situation. As he still processing this sudden situation, Miku's voice took him back to reality and Fuutaro then panickily asked her where were their current location right now.
"Miku, where are you all right now?!"
"We're now in the ambulance, on the way to the hospital. The other called you for a few times but you didn't answer, so I'm worried about you and tried to call you too. But thank goodness you finally answered the call."
"Can you tell me which hospital they are taking Ichika to? I'm going there as fast as I can!"
"Unnn… They're taking Ichika to the same hospital when you were hospitalized last year."
"Ahh… I got it. Wait for me there!"
Fuutaro then hung up his phone and he started to run as fast as he can to the hospital. He thought to himself, how did this incident happen to her? Right now, he felt frustrated to Ichika because she ignored his advice to not over-push herself in working and studying. Why did Ichika push herself too hard? This kind of situation would happen because of that and she appeared to not thinking the consequences of it. As Fuutaro kept on running and running, he recalled Ichika's conversation with him today, where she told him not to worried about her condition.
"No… I'm fine, Fuutaro-kun." Ichika shook her head with a weak smile. "I've been sleeping late recently because of my busy work schedule. Other than that, I'm pretty much fine, so don't worry about me."
"I'm going to the restroom, you all can continue the lunch and studying without me."
"No… I'm fine. Don't worry about me, we still have two more exams to go and I can't miss that." Ichika closed her eyes and shook her head, rejecting Fuutaro's advice.
"There's no need to, Fuutaro-kun. Remember about your bet and my bet, there's only two exams left and we're this close," Ichika said, gently pushing Fuutaro's hand away from her arm.
"Anyway, let's go back. The others are waiting for us." Ichika forced a smile on her pale face as she walked back to the cafetaria.
Remembering this made Fuutaro became more frustrated than before. He also felt partly responsible for this because if only he was insistent enough to persuade Ichika to go to Infirmary at the mid-day break, this situation could be avoided. Right now, he only hopes there was nothing serious and worse further happened to her.
"Damn it…!"
"Why did you over-push yourself…"
"I told you for many times to not to… and why you didn't listen…!"
"I hope there's nothing bad happens to you, Ichika…"
"So please wait for me… I'm going there as fast as I can!"
A/N:
Chapter 6 is finally finished!
So yeah, Ichika collapsed and passed out because of the exhaustion and sickness she's having this whole day. I guess it's very surprising for some of you? or maybe some of you already knew it will gonna happen? Anyway it's a cliffhanger in the end of chapter, but don't worry the next chapter will be the continuation and explanation why Ichika is not feeling well in this chapter.
Just some update regarding the next chapter, I will be travelling by this weekend and for the next week, I'm gonna be pretty busy because of work-related things so next chapter will arrive at around 3rd-6th December or possibly even more late and I'm sorry about it. Also my apology for late update on this chapter since my works also started to get busier few days ago and by the night, I'm already tired and not in good mood to re-read and write the chapters.
As for the review response:
-Rosalina:
Glad that you enjoyed the chapter and I assure you that they will have another date in the future! Also it's always nice seeing you to be the first to review :)
-Kraft & Tsubaki Lover:
Good question.
From what's on my mind while writing this chapter, why the four sisters didn't question their clothing is Fuutaro lied to them that he took a day off from the school, he didn't even wanted to go to school from early morning. So when he goes out, he wears a casual clothing as there's no reason for him to wear school uniform when not going to school. As for Ichika's lie, she said that she did went to school in the morning wearing a school uniform. But if you looked at the main series (If I'm not wrong), Ichika sometimes went to work immediately after school and came home with casual clothing. So, I say that she always brought a spare clothing to school and when she finished her work, she changed into a casual clothing. So yeah, I guess that's the explanation on why they didn't bother to ask about their clothing.
As for Ichika's photos, I did write in chapter 2 that she put the photos in her bag and I didn't remember writing in chapter 6 that she holding the photo when they get caught.
Anyway, from your feedback, I guess I need to pay more attention to details, especially about the characterization of the four sisters and I'm sorry their reaction didn't meet your expectation.
If you like the story feel free to review, follow, and favorite it