Chapter 11
Today school time was surely a thrilling and exciting day for Fuutaro and the quintuplets. It was a mix of nervousness and happiness, before and after they saw the mock exam results. Fuutaro successfully finished in top 10 nationally, which he finished at the third place and was good enough for him to beat Takeda at eighth place and won the bet against Maruo. For Ichika, she managed to achieve at least 150 points on each subject, keeping her promise and fulfilling the bet to Fuutaro. It was very unexpected for her that she was able to finish in top 50 nationally, which was not an easy feat considering her history of low scores in the previous years and she had an illness on the mock exam day. As for the four sisters, their results were not very high like Fuutaro and Ichika, but they showed a big improvement compared to their previous years grades and they successfully scored over 50 points on each subject. Both of them felt very happy and satisfied after knowing their results because they managed to fulfill each of their promise and bet.
As suggested by Yotsuba, they all agreed to celebrate their success at the parfait café after the school was over. In the late afternoon, when the school time was finally over, Fuutaro and the quintuplets immediately headed for the parfait café, to celebrate their exam success. On the way to the parfait café, they were still talking about the mock exam results and the upcoming school trip.
After some times of walking, they arrived at the parfait café. Fuutaro and the quintuplets entered the café and immediately noticed the place was crowded with school students and young adults. The café seems to be crowded than usual day, which was probably because of after school time, where most of school students came to this place to hang out.
"Whoa…! The café is very crowded. Wasn't the last time when we came here it's less crowded than now?" Fuutaro reacted with a surprise, looking at the crowded café.
"Ahaha… Well looks like we're kinda unlucky today because this café is unpredictable when it comes to the customers," Ichika said to Fuutaro with a small chuckle. "Anyway, let's look around and hope we can find enough table for six of us."
Fuutaro and the quintuplets then looked around the café for some times and luckily for them, they managed to find an empty table and quickly occupy that table. The table that they found were enough for six people in which Fuutaro sat with Yotsuba and Itsuki, meanwhile across them, Ichika sat with Nino and Miku.
For Fuutaro, this was the second time he had been to this place. The first time he went here was when he treated the quintuplets after their mid-exam, last year, for saving his tutoring job from their father. He looked around the café and he can saw that the café inside was very comfortable with the minimalist and bright design which was very appealing for the school students and adolescent customer. Fuutaro didn't really pay attention to the café interior the last time he was here and he kind of liked the design of it, although he can't say the same for the crowd who were filling this place, much to his unpleasantness.
The six then looked at the menu and wondering which dessert they were going to choose.
"Hmm… Which flavor should I pick?" Ichika mumbled to herself as her finger scouring the menu. "I guess I'm going for my usual flavor… which is Mocha flavor."
"I'm going to order Yogurt parfait. It's one of the best flavors in this café…" Nino immediately chose the flavor without even looking at the menu. "I still don't get how you always drink coffee or eat any dessert with coffee related flavor. I can't stand that bitter taste of coffee," she said, turning her head to look at Ichika.
"Well… I guess you are not used to the bitter taste of coffee. Once you get used to it, you will appreciate the bitter and complexity taste of the coffee and who knows you might get addicted to it," Ichika responded to her with a cheerful smile as she closed the menu book.
"No… No way in hell I would get addicted to coffee like you," Nino replied with a shudder, imagining the bitter taste of the coffee. "Anyway Miku, are you decided on what flavor you want?"
"Yeah… I'll order my usual Matcha flavor," Miku said as she pointed at the matcha flavor on the menu.
"Huh…? Even in dessert, you still loved that green tea flavor? Your taste is surely like the old people," Nino responded with a smirk, seemingly teased Miku about her taste of choice.
"Shut up… Nino. You just can't appreciate the taste and the complexity of the green tea," Miku said with her usual expressionless face with a similar respond like Ichika.
"*sigh* I guess I won't ever understood about their complicated taste…" Nino sighed and shook her head about her sisters seemingly weird taste of choice.
"Hmm… I guess I'm going to order the Fruit Parfait…" Yotsuba mumbled to herself after looking at every item in the menu. "Uesugi-san, what flavor do you like?" she turned her head to look at Fuutaro, who sat next to her.
"…"
There were no answer coming out from his mouth as he still looking at the menu. Fuutaro been staring at the menu for some times because he was a stranger for this kind of dessert. The last time he was in this place, he only ordered a regular black tea because it was the cheapest item in the menu, while the quintuplets ordered a parfait and other dessert. For the past few minutes, Fuutaro eyes been scanning at every available parfait flavor and he was confused on what flavor he should choose.
"Umm… Uesugi-san? What's wrong?" Yotsuba asked to him with a confused expression on her face.
"There are too many flavors for this parfait... thing. I never eat this in my life and there's so many flavors to choose… How am I supposed to choose between these many flavors?" Fuutaro complained with an irritated tone, still confused with what flavor he should pick.
"Fuutaro-kun, if you still don't know which flavor to choose, I recommend to go with the chocolate flavor," Ichika said, pointing at the chocolate flavor in the menu. "Look at the menu, chocolate flavor is one of the best sellers in this café. So this should be a safe choice, right?"
"Yeah… I guess you're right. Then, I'm going to order the chocolate flavor."
"Ichika is right, Uesugi-kun. I have tried chocolate flavor and it's definitely one of the best flavors in here," Itsuki said as she still looking at the menu book, flipping each of the pages. "Then, I'm going to order an extra-large strawberry parfait, a vanilla pudding and a red velvet cake." she then pointed at each dessert in the menu with a happy smile on her face.
"Oi, oi… Itsuki! Are you going to rob me with your order? Your orders alone are enough to empty half of my monthly allowance," Fuutaro slightly shouted to Itsuki after hearing her monster orders.
"Well… It's a rare opportunity to be treated by Uesugi-kun. So I guess it's fine, right?" Itsuki cheekily said to him as she closed the menu book. "Also, I'm starting to feel hungry, so these desserts should be enough for me to last until dinner."
"*sigh* I don't have any more words to say to you… You curry-eating monster."
"Ughh… Stop calling me that! I'm not that kind of eater, okay!?"
Fuutaro and the quintuplets then finished on choosing their parfait and gave their orders to the waiter. It took 30 minutes until their orders were done, considering how crowded the place was and the waiter then delivered their desserts to their table. There was a joy on the quintuplets' face as they ate their parfait. For Fuutaro, when he ate the chocolate parfait, he can taste the softness and sweetness in the dessert and the chocolate flavor was definitely tasty and unique, not like the usual chocolate that he usually ate. He thought to himself that this was one of the best desserts he ever ate in his entire life.
"How is it, Fuutaro? Is it taste good?" Miku asked with a smile on her face.
"Yeah… This parfait thing definitely tastes very good. It's definitely one of the best desserts I ever ate," Fuutaro said as he continued to eat the parfait eagerly.
"Hehe… Then, you should come here more often with us." Miku smile turned into a chuckle from seeing Fuutaro enjoyed eating his parfait.
"I don't know about that. Considering the food and drink in here are over-priced, I need to think twice before going to here."
"Don't worry about that, Fuutaro-kun. This Ichika-nee-san will be the one who paying for you," Ichika playfully said to him with a smile and wink.
"Oi Ichika, how many times are you going to pay for me? Didn't we already talk about this before?" Fuutaro stopped eating his parfait momentarily and looked at her with a dissatisfied stare.
"Isn't that fine? As long as we all here together, it's not a big problem to me," Ichika replied to him, still with a smile and cheerful expression on her face.
As they keep eating and talking, Yotsuba then brought up the upcoming school trip topic to make the atmosphere livelier.
"Hey, hey! I've been wondering for some times, where will we be going for the upcoming school trip?" Yotsuba asked to them, looking at the other sisters and Fuutaro with enthusiasm.
"Hmm… I don't know. There hasn't been any official announcement where the school trip will take place," Itsuki said, moving to eat her pudding after she finished on eating the parfait.
"I don't know if it's true, but I heard some rumors from some students and teachers that the school trip will be in either Okinawa or Kyoto," Nino told them the rumor that she heard, with still eating and enjoying her parfait.
"Okinawa, huh? Summer is nearing and the warm temperature of Okinawa is perfect. The beach and the scenery are also beautiful, compared to the one in the mainland," Ichika said with a calming voice as she imagined the beauty of Okinawa.
"For me, I prefer going to Kyoto. There are a lot of historical sites in Kyoto. I've been wanting to visit those historical sites ever since I looked it up in the net. So school trip in Kyoto would be perfect," Miku said with an enthusiastic tone, hoping Kyoto will be the school trip destination.
"I agreed with Ichika. I've been wanting to get some warm sunlight on the beach and tanning at Okinawa is much better than in mainland," Nino said and nodded, agreeing with Ichika.
"For me… I wanted to go to Kyoto because it always reminded me of our school trip in six years ago!" Yotsuba said with a big grin.
"Ahh… That school trip, huh? Isn't that the time when you got lost for the whole day?" Itsuki said to Yotsuba with a smile because it reminded her of the childhood nostalgia.
"Ahaha… Yeah that's right," Yotsuba responded with a chuckle, remembering that time she got separated from the group. "Anyway, Uesugi-san, which place do you wanted to go?"
"Well… I don't care about Okinawa or Kyoto. As long as it's a school trip, I'll happily go wherever we're going."
"Hehe… Blunt as always, I see…" Ichika said with a chuckle from hearing Fuutaro's response.
As they continued to talk about the upcoming school trip, Ichika been staring at Fuutaro for some time as she thought about her feeling to him. She had been thinking to herself, that now the national mock exam was over and she managed to keep her promise and bet to Fuutaro, she needed to make a move and tell her hidden feeling to him.
She always wanted to tell this hidden feeling to him but she always felt too embarrassed and flustered whenever she wanted to confess, which prevented her to do so. Few months ago, some time before the spring break and after the final exam, when she finally gathered enough courage to confess, Ichika accidentally overheard Nino confessing her feeling first to Fuutaro and because of that event, she got discouraged to do it. But now that there were no more obstacles to prevent her from confessing and she already told herself that she won't deny this feeling anymore, she was planning on confessing to Fuutaro, at tomorrow night when they have some alone time.
"Whenever I see you or thinking about you…"
"This heart of mine always beating faster than usual…"
"Whenever I'm by your side, my chest always feels weird…"
"Now that I already fulfilled my promise and bet to you…"
"Tomorrow… I will tell this feeling to you…"
"So please wait for it, Fuutaro-kun…"
Fuutaro finished on eating his parfait and he noticed that Ichika been staring him. He looked back at her and Fuutaro can saw that the stare from her was… different, not like the one when she usually looked at him. He was not an expert at reading people emotion, but he can saw from her face expression, that she felt somehow anxious and wanted to tell him something.
Fuutaro suddenly remembered the moment when he was hospitalized after the last year school trip and when the quintuplets came to visit him. That time when Ichika and Miku were on his room, Ichika took a seat and stared at him for quite some times in which Fuutaro noticed it, but kind of ignored that stare. After remembering that moment, he then realized that the stare from last year was almost the same like the one she had right now. Fuutaro then blushed a little bit from Ichika's stare and his heart also beating faster as he kept looking at her.
"That stare of her…"
"It's almost the same stare like last year, when I was hospitalized…"
"Huh? I can feel my heart is beating faster…"
"Also, this feeling somehow resurfaced again…"
"What are you trying to tell me, Ichika…?"
"Why don't you say it right away…?"
As the time went on, Fuutaro felt a bit uncomfortable from her stare. Even though he always gets stared by other students in the school, he always felt indifferent and didn't care about it. But in this case, it was different, because of his "uncertain" feeling for Ichika resurfaced again in his heart and this made him a little nervous from being stared by her, which made him blush. For Ichika, the world around her seemed to stop moving as she kept staring the boy that she loved. She kept on thinking about her feelings for Fuutaro and wanted to stare at him as long as she can. The more Ichika kept looking at him, her heart was beating faster than before and she became more anxious. She also unconsciously blushed when she knew that Fuutaro was looking back at her.
"Whoa! Uesugi-san…!"
Their moment of looking at each other was interrupted by Yotsuba, who suddenly shouted for Fuutaro's name. The shouting from her brought the two back to reality as they broke the eye contact with each other and Ichika focused back on eating her parfait and Fuutaro were startled from the shout. Feeling annoyed by the sudden shout from her, Fuutaro then asked to Yotsuba about the interruption from her.
"Oi, you surprised me! What's with the sudden shout from you?"
"Hehehe… There's a parfait stain around your lips. Here let me clean it up for you!" Yotsuba said with a big grin, pointing at Fuutaro's lips.
"Ehh…?" both Ichika and Fuutaro gasped from Yotsuba's words.
Yotsuba took a tissue from the table and clean Fuutaro's lips from the parfait stain. Yotsuba's sudden action made Ichika and Fuutaro surprised. Ichika suddenly felt a jealousy forming in her heart when she saw Yotsuba cleaning Fuutaro's lips. It was the same feeling like last month, when she was about to ask Fuutaro to skip school with her and then he was talking about the four sisters, which made her felt uncomfortable and jealous. The smile and cheerful expression on her face was instantly gone as its replaced with an uncomfortable expression and she bitted her lips in jealousy
"Oi, Yotsuba! I can do it by myself, there's no need to wipe it for me," Fuutaro said with annoyance as he held his lips from embarrassment.
"Hehe… Isn't that okay? If I hadn't told you this, you will be stared by many people on the streets when you go home, right?"
"Stop it…"
"Hey, Fuu-kun, I just received a mail from the boss," Nino casually said to him as she opened the mail from their boss.
"Boss, huh? What did he say in the mail?"
"Hmm… The boss said that tomorrow some of his staffs are taking a day off from the work. So he wants us to work on tomorrow until closing time."
"No… It can't be…"
"Ahh… What a coincidence. I'm also working at evening shift on tomorrow and my shift will be over at the same time as you," Miku also said to Fuutaro about her working shift. "Then Fuutaro… how about we walk home together after our work is over?" she asked him with a smile as a faint blush forming on her cheeks.
"Oi Miku, don't forget about me! If you haven't finished your shift, then I will be the one who accompany Fuu-kun on going home," Nino responded with irritation as she didn't want to lose against Miku.
"No… Stop it…"
"*sigh* What a pain… Tomorrow is supposedly to be a mock exam review for all of you on our tutoring session," Fuutaro sighed and held his forehead from reacting to the whole sudden situation.
"Uesugi-kun, we've been working hard on the mock exam. Don't you think that we deserve some break from studying?" Itsuki said to him as she about to finish her red velvet cake.
"Oi, I know that all of you finally got an acceptable result on the mock exam, but it's still far from good. So extra studying session will be helpful to get your grades even higher!"
"No, thank you. For now, we feel our grades are satisfying enough." Itsuki finished all of her desserts and took a tissue to clean her lips. "Just enjoy your tomorrow work shift and don't forget to work hard, okay?" she then lowered her left eyelid with her finger and pull out her tongue to playfully mock Fuutaro.
"Tchh… You little…!"
"Please stop it…! I can't hear it anymore…"
The jealous feelings in Ichika's heart grew even bigger as Fuutaro turned away from her to interacts with the four sisters. She felt a big hit in her heart, knowing that tomorrow Fuutaro had a work shift until nighttime, in which she originally planned to confess to him on tomorrow night. Not only that she can't confess to him, it looks like Nino and Miku will get to spend their time with Fuutaro at their workplace and after their work shift, which further fueled her jealousy to them. Realizing that her whole plan got awry by the sudden situation, Ichika then thought that she needed to confess to Fuutaro as fast as she can.
"What should I do…?"
"My whole plan got ruined because of this sudden situation…"
"I can't wait until tomorrow…!"
"Or everyone will be ahead of me…"
"Then, it can't be helped…"
"I'm going to confess to him at this night…!"
A/N:
Another chapter is done! It's already three months since I started this fic... Time sure flies fast.
It's a short chapter compared to few previous chapter. Originally, this chapter was going to be part of chapter 10, but knowing that chapter 10 already pretty long and adding this part would made it very long, so I decided to split this part into a chapter of its own and hope you all enjoyed it.
So yeah, the jealousy and insecurity in Ichika's heart resurfaced once more because she got jealous of how her sisters interacting with Fuutaro and her plan to confess to Fuutaro went awry (again) after the whole unforeseen situation. So the next few chapter will be about her executing the plan and finally confess to Fuutaro. Hope you all looking forward to it because I will work hard to make those chapter to be the best possible.
As for the review response:
-Rosalina:
As always thank you for the review! Especially knowing that you were really busy with personal stuffs and still had a time to read the chapter, I really appreciate it! Anyway, take care of yourself and stay healthy.
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