Chapter 12

The time had flowed fast for Fuutaro and the quintuplets when they were having fun in the café. It had been an hour since they started eating the dessert and the group decided that it was time to go home as the time already showed around 5:45 PM. Exiting the café, Fuutaro and the quintuplets said goodbye to each other and went their separate way to home.

As he walked back to home, Fuutaro been thinking that today was such a rollercoaster type of day, where he felt nervous in the morning, wondering about the mock exam result and that feeling turned into a joy when he saw his excellent result. The celebration with the quintuplets at the parfait café was fun, but he can't say the same for his wallet because the total bill was very expensive, adding that Itsuki ordered extra desserts which further hurt his allowance.

After some amounts of minutes, he finally arrived at his house. When he about to opened the front door, his phone was ringing and it looks like he received a mail from someone. Fuutaro checked his phone and the mail came from Ichika. He wondered about the mail from her, immediately opened the message and read it.

Hey, Fuutaro-kun.

I forgot to say this to you back at the café. Are you free tonight? If so, how about we two go for a dinner together at the same restaurant that we went last month?

It's to celebrate for your success on winning the bet against dad and also for me on achieving 150 points on the mock exam. If you're worried about the bill, don't worry about it because it's going to be my treat!

P.S.: Please answer back asap!

After reading Ichika's message, Fuutaro wondered about her mail, where she suddenly asked him for a dinner. Wasn't the reason they went to the parfait café was to celebrate their success on the mock exam? Then, why did Ichika wanted to invite him for a dinner with the same reason again? The message from her raised some question mark to Fuutaro and he thought that there must be another reason why she invited him for a dinner.

Fuutaro then remembered about Ichika back at the parfait café, when she was staring at him for some amounts of times and he can saw that Ichika definitely wanted to say something to him. But before he can say a thing to her, Yotsuba suddenly interrupted him and he forgot about what he was going to say to Ichika. He also realized, when he said goodbye to the quintuplets earlier, Ichika's face expression was weird… and there was a restlessness reflected on her face.

After some minutes of thinking, Fuutaro decided to accept the invite from her. He had a hunch that the reason Ichika asking him for a dinner was because she wanted to tell something that she can't tell back at the café. Fuutaro also wanted to know what will she going to say to him because it was bothering him after he thought about it further. He then replied back to Ichika, typing to her that he will accepts her invite and looking at the time now, it was currently at 6 PM.

Yeah, I'm free tonight. Will it be okay if we meet in 2 hours? I still need to do some house chores and rest a little bit after what happened today.

Fuutaro sent the mail to Ichika. As he about to opened the front door, his phone was ringing again and it only took around ten seconds for Ichika to replied back the mail. He then opened his phone again and checked the mail coming from her.

Then, I will meet you in 2 hours!

Remember to wear a good clothing, Fuutaro-kun. It's a classy restaurant after all and you don't want to get stared by the other customers, right?

Fuutaro chuckled after reading the reply from Ichika. He then opened the front door and entered his house. Entering the house, he took of his shoes and was greeted by Raiha and his dad who were sitting on the living room, where Raiha was watching TV and Isanari was reading a newspaper while smoking a cigarette. Fuutaro made his way to the living room, putting down his school bag on the floor and joined them.

"Ahh… Welcome home, onii-chan!" Raiha greeted his older brother with a cheerful expression.

"Yeah… I'm home," Fuutaro replied back to her with a faint smile and sat next to them. "Hmm… It's rare seeing you already in home old man,"

"Oh right, I forgot to tell you that my shift will be over earlier because there is a new guy in my workplace that covers the rest of my work," Isanari said to him as he still read the newspaper.

"Hmm… Is that so?" Fuutaro said with a bland expression but suddenly changed into a panic one after realizing what his dad meant as it took some seconds for him to finally comprehend his dad words. "But wait… Does that mean your pay will be reduced because you work for less hours?"

"Yeah, sadly that's true. But I can't complain about it because it's my boss decision and he recently hired much younger people to work for much lower wage." Isanari put down the newspaper and also put off the cigarette into the ashtray.

"*sigh* What a pain… At this rate, it will take forever to pay off our debt."

"Don't worry about it, Fuutaro. I've been looking for more part-time work and I already found few that will pay some good amount of money," Isanari said with a smirk and took a glass of sake from the table. "Don't think too much about the family debt, just focus on your school and keep tutoring Itsuki-chan and her sisters. I'm sure Maruo will keep paying you as long as you keep tutoring them, right?" he then drank the sake and slightly groaned from how good the sake was.

"Well… That's true."

Fuutaro then stood up and heading for the fridge to grab a cold drink. He opened the fridge and saw there were a left-over curry from this morning and a ramen that he never saw before. Seeing the food in the fridge reminded him that he needed to tell Raiha and his dad that he will not be eating dinner with them tonight because he already had a plan for a dinner together with Ichika. He took a cola can from the fridge and went back to living room and sat back again with them.

"Raiha, what's with the ramen in the fridge? Did you or dad bought it?" Fuutaro asked to his little sister as he opened the cola can.

"Ahh… Dad was the one who bought it," Raiha replied to Fuutaro about the ramen. "Also onii-chan, do you want that ramen for tonight's dinner? There's also some left-over curry from this morning."

"Ahh right, I will not be eating dinner with you and dad. I have a plan with Ichika tonight and I'm going to have a dinner with her in two hours," Fuutaro said to her as he drank the cola. "Just save me some food for tomorrow breakfast. You can eat the ramen if you want to."

"Ehh…? You're going out with Ichika-san?"

"Hmm…? Are you going out with a girl, Fuutaro?" Isanari wondered as he turned his attention away from the TV to his son. "Who is this girl that you're going out with?" he asked to him with a teasing expression, feeling curious about the girl.

"It's one of the quintuplets, her name is Ichika," Fuutaro said to his dad, still watching the TV in front of him. "Didn't you already meet her back on the spring vacation?"

"But they all had the same appearance like Itsuki-chan on most of the time. So can you describe me her appearance? I'm pretty sure I saw every quintuplet's original appearance before they all posing as Itsuki-chan."

"I'm very sure you saw her for a few times on the start and end of the vacation. If you still confused, she was the one with the shortest hair and didn't wear any accessories on her hair."

"Hmm…? Ahh yes…! I did saw her for a few times back then," Isanari slightly shouted as he clapped his hand from the realization. "Hoho… Fuutaro, I didn't expect that you ended up dating one of the quintuplets! Then how is it? Is she good for you?" he nudged Fuutaro's back with a teasing smile, feeling hyped knowing that his son finally had a success with a girl.

"Oi, old man! I'm not dating her, okay?! She just wanted to celebrate the success of our mock exam results. So, it's not a date…" Fuutaro looked at his dad with a slight annoyed expression.

"Hehh…? Is that so?" Isanari's expression turned into a slight disappointment. He then asked Fuutaro about his mock exam result. "Talking about your mock exam, how's your result?"

"It's okay, I guess? I finished at third place in national rank," Fuutaro responded with a flat tone as he grabbed the cola can and drank it again.

"Wow! That's great, onii-chan!" Raiha gasped in amazement from hearing his big brother result.

"Hah…! As expected from you. Keep up the good work!" Isanari proudly smirked at him for getting a very excellent result. "Talking about that girl, Ichika is her name, right? I knew I only saw her for a few times, but I can tell there's something special about her."

"Huh? What do you mean, old man?" Fuutaro immediately turned his attention to his dad, feeling curious on what he meant. "How can you say that when you only saw her for a few times?"

"Well… I saw and met many kinds of people in my life, you know?" Isanari explained to him about his knowledge to judge people. "When I saw her talking to her sisters, I can saw her behavior and attitude was very good and she appeared to be a gentle person to her sister as well."

"Hmm… Is that so?"

"Yeah… That's true," Isanari nodded as he closed his eyes after explaining what he saw in Ichika. "Then, what can you tell me about her? Was my guess far from what you experienced?"

"No, your guess was not far from what I experienced," Fuutaro said with a faint smile, remembering about every Ichika's personality and attitude that he experienced. "Ichika… is a very good person. Just like you said, she's acting as an eldest sister role to the other quintuplets and she always cares for them too. She's also a hard-worker and responsible person. She works an acting job and she is the one who paid for their apartment rent and the other four needs. Although, she has a bad tendency of overworking especially on her acting work and she's clumsy too. Also, Ichika likes to tease me a lot, which sometimes I found it annoying."

"Hmm…? Apartment rent? Didn't you tell me from long time ago, that they lived in the luxury penthouse in that upper-class condominium?"

"Yeah… About that… A lot of stuffs happened and it's very complicated…" Fuutaro said with a weak smirk, hesitating to explain the feud between the quintuplets and their father, knowing that it was going to be a long story to tell. "Currently, the quintuplets are living in the rented apartment and Ichika is the one who pay for the monthly rent."

"Hmm… From what you told me; I can tell that she's definitely a keeper. In fact, your description of her kinda reminded of your mom when I met her back in high school."

"Ehh…? Is that true?"

"Yeah… Those qualities you just mentioned from her, your mom had it all. Your mom is beautiful, but what makes me fell for her were the hardworking trait and her fun personality."

Isanari's face suddenly turned into a sad expression, with a hint of seriousness on it. He closed his eyes for a moment and there were a few seconds of silence before he opened his eyes again. He then took a deep breath and continued his talk about his late wife.

"Do you remember why we're currently in debt? It's about the unfinished café, right? I don't know if you're too young to remember, your mother worked very hard to build the café from the scratch because it's a dream of her to have her own café. Your mother was a hard-worker, but she worked too hard on building the café and finally fell ill from it. The doctor said she developed an incurable disease because her bad habit of overworking and rarely takes care of her health. Despite knowing that, she still worked very hard and did her duty as a parent to take care of you and Raiha." Isanari stopped talking for a moment as he took another cigarette from the box and lighted it up. After some moments of smoking, he then continued the story. "I always reminded your mother to not over-push herself, but she always brushed it off with a smile, saying that she's fine and tell me to not worried about her. Me, as her husband, can only support and help her to achieve her dream… But in the end, she left this world before her dream can become a reality…"

"Old man…" Fuutaro mumbled after his dad finished the story. He took a glance at Raiha, who sat next to him, was shedding tears with a visible sad expression on her face.

Fuutaro felt a gloominess and sadness in his heart after hearing his dad telling the story about her mom. When he was a little kid, Fuutaro really loved her mom and always knew that his mom was a caring person, but he never knew that his mother was such a hard-worker and even went overboard on building the café of her dream. From the memories of his younger self, Fuutaro always saw his mom smiling and often went cheerful whenever he interacted with her. He never knew behind that smile and cheerful attitude was a very hard-working woman, despite knowing that she had an incurable disease.

"So that was mom, huh…?"

"I always saw her smiling and being cheerful at home…"

"But behind that smile and cheerfulness, she's hiding the sweat and hard work, especially the incurable disease…"

"She is truly an amazing person…"

"My only regret is I'm not insistent enough to hold her back from overworking. I'm not mad about the debt that your mother left us. In fact, I'm determined to pay it all off, to respect her for the last time…" Isanari smoked the cigarette again and then put it off in the ashtray. "Well… I guess it's enough to tell you this. It's ruining the good mood around and it's not good to dwell on the past." he then poured a sake from the bottle to his glass.

"Thank you for telling me about mom, old man. Now I can see the other side of her which is very amazing," Fuutaro smiled, thanking his dad for telling the story of his mom that he never heard before.

"Unn… Mom was truly amazing…" Raiha said, wiping some of her tears after hearing the sad story of her mom. "Even though I never knew mom, I can tell that she was truly a great mom."

"Yeah… Your mom was definitely an amazing person. Sooner or later, you two should know the story about your mom," Isanari said to his two children as he drank the sake from the glass. "Also Fuutaro, about that girl Ichika, I say she's definitely a keeper if you ever go into a relationship with her."

"Oi, old man! Didn't I tell you that I'm not in a relationship with her?!"

Haha… I know! But still, it's your choice if you want to date her or not. Just follow your instinct and choose whoever the best girl for you," Isanari groaned again as his face started to become red after drinking all that sake.

"*sigh* Yeah, yeah… You should stop drinking before you pass out in the middle of living room." Fuutaro took the sake bottle away from the table. "Anyway, I'm going to take a bath. I feel tired after what happened today and really need some warm bath." he headed to the kitchen to put the sake bottle in the fridge.

"I already filled the bathtub with warm water, onii-chan! You can just go in and enjoy the warm bath!"

"Ahh… Thank you, Raiha."

Fuutaro then entered the bathroom, he took off his school uniform and went into the bathtub of warm water. As soon as he lowered his body into the warm water, there was a relaxing sensation appearing in all of his body parts and he can feel his muscle easing as he groaned from relaxation. Not only his body, his mind also starting to become calmer as he kept soaking in the bathtub.

Fuutaro then thinking about what his dad told him earlier, the story about his mother. True to what he said, his dad can saw what kind of person Ichika was. From his story, Fuutaro can also saw the similarity between his late mother and Ichika.

Ichika was also a very hard worker person and she was caring to her sisters. She worked hard on her acting job and also supported the four sisters when they needed help, especially to Miku and Yotsuba. Fuutaro then remembered back on the mock exam day, when he saw Ichika got ill and told her to go to infirmary to get a check on her condition. But instead of hearing what he said, she just smiled, saying that she was fine and brushed off Fuutaro's warning. In the end, she fell ill because she went overboard in studying and working, just to fulfill her promise and bet to him. It felt almost similar on how Ichika acts compared to his mother.

Knowing that Ichika always worked very hard to reach her goal, Fuutaro then thought that there must be a reason behind her to made a bet with him in the first place and went overboard on studying just to get those 150 points, which seems to be impossible for her. Ichika said that she wanted to skip school with him because she didn't have a lot of time to relax and can't really have fun because of her busy work schedule. She also told him that she wanted to have a fun time with him, just the two of them alone. Fuutaro thought, why didn't Ichika just go out with the other four or her friends to have fun? Why did Ichika only wanted to have fun with just him, even going as far to skip school when they can just go out together after school or on the weekend?

This "uncertain" feeling for Ichika resurfaced again as he kept thinking about her. After some amounts of times, thinking about the reason behind her action, Fuutaro finally deduced the reason on why Ichika made that promise and bet in the first place and her asked him to skip school was… she wanted his attention and wanted to be "seen" by him. He then thought that Ichika might fell in love with him before that day and all the behavior and talking that she showed to him when they skipped school together were really obvious after he further thought about it.

"Is it really true…?"

"Did Ichika really fall in love with me…?"

"All of her behavior on that day were obvious…"

"It's just that I never noticed it…"

As Fuutaro recalled about Ichika's behavior on that day, he felt very stupid about himself because he didn't pick up all the sign from her and didn't realize her feeling to him after all this time. Now that he knew Ichika might had a feeling to him, he was still not sure about this "uncertain" feeling to her. Fuutaro already experienced this feeling for a few times, back when Ichika called him "Fuutaro-sensei", when he saw her smiling and getting happy in the arcade, when he got charmed by her aura when she sang at karaoke place, when she made a pinky promise to him in the hospital, and when they were staring at each other today in the parfait café.

Did he really fall in love with Ichika? Even with all of this sign, Fuutaro was still not sure because he never experienced this feeling of "love". This conflict in his heart made him really uncomfortable as he kept thinking about it. He then tried to calm his mind so he can think clearly again without any clout from his overthinking.

"Calm yourself…."

"This whole situation is surely complicated…"

"Let's think about this again…"

"If all the sign was true… Then Ichika really has a feeling for me…"

"If it's true, then I'm such a fool for not noticing it earlier…"

"As for this feeling of mine… Is it true that I fall for her too?"

"I've been experiencing this for some times… But I'm not really sure of it…"

"No…! It's not good… It's too confusing for me…!"

Fuutaro shook his head and he momentarily gave up on thinking about this situation as his mind was still clouded from the overthinking. He continued to taking a bath and after ten minutes, he finished bathing. He grabbed a towel, dried his entire body, then putting on some fresh clothes, and stepped out from the bathroom. Fuutaro immediately went straight to the bedroom and he laid down on the floor and decided to take a short nap after this long rollercoaster day. His eyes slowly closed from the tiredness and after effect of the warm bath. After a few seconds, he finally fell into a sleep.

Thirty minutes have passed, Fuutaro woke up feeling slightly refreshed and he grabbed his phone to look at the time. The time currently showed at 7:30 PM and he thought there were still some times for him to prepare himself before meeting Ichika. He then stood up and headed to the wardrobe to get a change of clothes. Fuutaro then remembered about Ichika's message to him earlier, which to wear a nice clothing because the restaurant that he will be going was a very prestigious and classy place. Opening the wardrobe, Fuutaro's hands scoured through every of his clothing and his dad clothing to find a certain clothing that he had in mind.

After scouring through many stacks of clothing, he finally found the clothing that he was looking for, which were a white branded T-Shirt, a navy-blue jacket, and a grey jeans. This was the clothing that Ichika picked and bought for him at the department store last month, where they swapped their school uniform for more casual clothing to avoid any unwanted attention from the authority.

"This clothing should be good…"

Fuutaro took off his casual clothing and put on the clothing he just picked. He looked at himself at the mirror and he thought to himself that he looked pretty good with this clothing. Fuutaro didn't really put much thought about it back then because he was only interested in cheaper clothing and Ichika forced to bought it for him, much to his uncomfortableness. As he kept looking at the mirror, he started to grow a liking to this clothing.

"Hmm… This clothing actually looks pretty good…"

"Well… Even though she's a girl, Ichika really knew a thing or two about male's fashion…"

"I have to admit that her fashion sense is truly good…"

"I should properly thank her for picking this clothing for me…"

Fuutaro then combed his hair for the final touch and grabbed his phone and wallet before he left the bedroom. He can saw that Raiha and his dad were having a dinner in the living room. Fuutaro then approached them and told them that he will be going now.

"Raiha and old man, I'll be going now."

"Unn… Have fun with Ichika-san, onii-chan!" Raiha said to him with a big smile.

"Whoa! You're looking great with those clothes, Fuutaro!" Isanari gave Fuutaro a big smirk after seeing him with a stylish clothing. "I never knew you have some fashion sense because you always wear that white collared shirt and black pants everytime you go out."

"Well… Ichika told me to wear a nice clothing because the place we're going is apparently a very classy place. Also, she was the one who bought this clothes and pants for me," Fuutaro told his dad the reason he wore this clothing as he looked at the clothing that he wore.

"Hah! Looks like there's already a spark between you two. You sure you're not dating her?" Isanari said to him with a chuckle, teasing Fuutaro at the same time.

"Oi, old man, how many times I told you that I'm not dating her?!" Fuutaro got annoyed by his dad teasing.

"Ahh… Okay, okay!" Isanari grinned as he continued to eat the curry. "Make sure to ask her out someday, okay? Anyway, send my regards to her."

"Yeah, whatever… I'm going now." Fuutaro rolled his eyes in annoyance as he walked to the front door. But he stopped before grabbing the door knob as he forgot about something. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Old man, can I borrow some money from you? Apparently, the place that we're going is going to be costly and my allowance already gone because I treated the quintuplets to some deserts after school." he then turned around and walked again to the living room.

"Ahh… No problem!" Isanari stood up and heading to the cabinet to take some money. "Here, this should be enough, right? If it's still not enough, just call me and I will come to that place to pay for the rest. Who knows it will also be my chance to see further what kind of girl Ichika is." he handed Fuutaro some amount of money.

"Oi, Old man… Stop messing with me!"

"Ahaha… Then, have a nice date with her, okay?"

Fuutaro then wore his shoes, opened the front door and exited his house. He walked down the stairs and made his way to the restaurant to meet with Ichika. He looked at his phone and opened the map application to see how long it took for him to go the restaurant and the app showed that it will take him around 15-20 minutes by walking. Fuutaro looked at the time and it should be enough for him to not get late when he arrived there. As he kept walking, he thought to himself that he probably will get the answer about this situation when he met Ichika at the restaurant. The sooner he gets the answer, the better it will be.

"What will you going to tell me, Ichika…?"

"Will you be going to tell your feelings to me…?"

"If it's true, then… I will be grateful by your honesty…"

"Or will you going to tell me about other things…?"

"If so, then I'm just overthinking about it…"

A/N:

Chapter 12 is finished! Here it is!

So yeah, Fuutaro finally starting to realized that Ichika really had a feelings for him and he wanted to find the answer from her when they're having a dinner together. This chapter was about Fuutaro POV before the dinner, so the next chapter will be Ichika POV before the dinner. Next chapter is almost finished and still need some proofreading and editing, but I can assure that it will be posted on next week, so I hope you all looking forward for the next chapter.

Oh yeah, I also did some fixing for Chapter 1 and 2. After re-reading those two chapters again, I noticed there were a lot of grammar mistakes and awfully written narration and dialogue. So last week, I fixed those grammar mistakes, awfully written narration and dialogue (Hopefully it's really fixed), and added better narrations and dialogues for better explaining on some scenes. I'm planning to do those little fixing on every mistakes that I found in every chapters before the last chapter posted, knowing that I'm kinda inexperienced on writing and English is not my native language, so those embarrassing mistakes tends to happened. I assure you all that I will not change the storyline and only do a fixing on the grammar mistake, and badly written narration and dialogue.

As for the review response:

-Rosalina:

Yeah, I agreed with you. Ichika is very cute when she got all flustered and jealous. When I wrote this chapter, I can Imagine Ichika's face is all anxious and flustered when seeing her sisters "flirting" with Fuutaro. As always, thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it.

-Kraft:

Here it is, the new chapter! Hope you enjoyed it. I can see why Ichika's jealousy is your favorite part because I had fun on writing that part and I also loved seeing her got all jealous, because it's reminding me of that scene in the main series, where Ichika got all anxious and jealous when Fuutaro talking about the four sisters, which is one of my favorite scenes in the series. Also, big thanks for the kind words! I really appreciate it.

If you like the story feel free to review, follow, and favorite it!