Chapter 16

The sound of a bell ringing from the intercoms at 12 PM, signing that the mid-day break was starting. Lots of student were heading to the school cafetaria for lunch break and it didn't take long for the cafetaria to be crowded with many students from first year to third year. This also includes Fuutaro and the quintuplets, who were also heading to the school cafetaria for their lunch break.

It had been two days since Ichika confessed her feelings to him and Fuutaro was still thinking about it, although he tried to act normal even though his mind was always nervous from thinking about it. As he ate his food, he took a glance at Ichika for a few times, who were sitting in front of him, with her usual cool and cheerful expression on her face. Even with that cool and cheerful expression, he had been thinking that she was acting kind of strange and cold to him ever since yesterday, where she seemed to ignore him and only talked to him when it was needed. At first, Fuutaro didn't really care much about it and thought she must have a bad day.

Flashback to Yesterday

Time was showing at 12:50 PM, most of the students in Asahiyama High School already finished their lunch and either went back to class or still hanging around in the cafetaria or school hallway with their friends. For Fuutaro, he just finished eating his lunch and now, he was on his way back to the classroom. There were only 10 minutes left before the mid-day break was over and he was late on eating lunch because his homeroom teacher called him to the faculty office right when the mid-day break started.

The reason why his homeroom teacher called him was to congratulate his performance on the national mock exam and then the other teachers in the faculty room, including the principal, also congratulate him too. This unexpected situation really took most of the lunch time for Fuutaro and he was really uncomfortable being congratulated by every teacher in this school, knowing that some of them didn't like him that much because of his intelligence and he also didn't like being the center of attention.

As he walked upstairs, Fuutaro coincidentally passed his homeroom teacher again. His homeroom teacher then called him, seemingly wanted to talk to him about something. Fuutaro sighed, thinking what did his homeroom teacher wanted with him this time after so much praise coming from him and the other teachers for almost 30 minutes. He just wanted to go back to the classroom and minding his own business, not wanting to get another shower of praise again. There was an unenthusiastic and bored expression on his face as he responded to his homeroom teacher.

"What is it, sensei? Did you need anything from me again?"

"Yes, that's right. If you happened to see Nakano Ichika, tell her to come to the principal office," the homeroom teacher said. "Tell her that me and the principal wanted to talk about her academic and her apparent job outside of the school."

"Hmm… Ichika, huh? Yeah, got it," Fuutaro mumbled and then nodded to his homeroom teacher.

Fuutaro then continued walking back to the classroom as he thought about Ichika being called to the principal office. Fuutaro was pretty sure that she will receive a compliment and praise from the principal because of her sudden jump in her grades from the national mock exam. Add that Ichika was a popular student in the school and her appearance in the TV a month ago made her popularity skyrocketed, the principal and their homeroom teacher must have wanted to talk about it. There was a chuckle coming out from his mouth as he thought about it because he was proud and happy for her effort, both in academically and acting work.

Arriving near his classroom, Fuutaro saw Ichika, with some of her friends, talking outside of the classroom. He then approached Ichika and told her that she had been called to the principal office.

"Ichika, our homeroom teacher and the principal wanted to see you in the principal office."

"…" Ichika only looked at Fuutaro in silent and then turned to her friends, saying to continue their talks later. "Then, let's continue the talk later, okay?"

Ichika then made her way to the principal office, passing Fuutaro, without saying a single word and without looking at him. Fuutaro turned his head around, looking at her from far and he felt it was very strange of her to not say hello or something to him. He then shrugged and entered the class, thinking that she must be in a bad mood or something and probably not in mood to talk with him.

Many hours later, the school bell rang again for the last time for today, signing that the school was over. Fuutaro then packed his schoolbook and stationery to his school bag. Right after this, he will be heading to the Revival café, where he worked a part-time job at that place. Yesterday, his boss told him and Nino that some of the café staffs were taking a day off today. Because of it, the café will be short in staffs and their help will be needed to operate the café to its full capacity.

"Are you ready, Fuu-kun? It's going to be a busy day for us and the boss," Nino said to him, already standing in front of his desk since a few seconds ago.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Fuutaro replied as he stood up from his chair and carried his schoolbag. "Let's get going before boss got overwhelmed."

"Uesugi-san, do your best! Even though it's going to be a busy day for you, don't give up!" Yotsuba grinned, cheering Fuutaro for his part-time work. "Then, good luck!"

"Then, Fuutaro… I guess I'll see you later when your shift is over," Miku said with a smile as she followed Yotsuba exiting the classroom.

"Yeah…" Fuutaro nodded with a smile as he saw the two exited the classroom.

On the left side of the classroom, Fuutaro spotted Ichika, who was talking with Itsuki at her desk. He saw a worried expression on Itsuki's face when she talked to Ichika. Fuutaro can heard a fraction of their conversation and stayed for a moment to hear what they were talking.

"Ichika, are you sure about this? I mean, you just got discharged from the hospital two days ago," Itsuki said, still with a worried expression.

"Yeah… After yesterday meeting with my manager and the director, I decided to go back to work starting on tomorrow," Ichika said. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to go straight home after my work is done!" she showed a smile, assuring her sister to not worried about her.

"But… could you take a little break for at least a few weeks before starting again? I'm pretty sure you're still not one-hundred percent fit yet."

"No, I can't… I've been missing a lot of acting works since my absent," Ichika responded with a head shook. "I've been taking a lot of vitamins and other health supplement, so don't worry, okay?"

Ichika then walked towards the classroom door, exiting the classroom with Itsuki. Fuutaro can't heard what they were saying clearly, but he was sure that he heard Ichika will go back to work again tomorrow, even though she just got discharged from the hospital two days ago.

Fuutaro shook his head, feeling dumbfounded about her decision. Knowing that, Fuutaro needed to confront Ichika about her decision to get back to work in such short time, knowing she just recovered from an illness. Besides, he also made a promise to himself that he will always remind her to not get reckless and going overboard. Fuutaro then rushed to the hallway outside of the classroom and confronted Ichika before she left the school.

"Oi Ichika!"

"Hmm…?" Ichika turned her head and saw Fuutaro was already behind her with a serious face.

"I heard your talk with Itsuki that you will go back to work tomorrow," Fuutaro said sternly, looking at her seriously. "You know you just got discharged from the hospital two days ago. I'm pretty sure you're still not fully healthy yet."

"…" Ichika only looked at Fuutaro in silent with an expressionless face.

"Look Ichika, even Uesugi-kun is thinking the same like me," Itsuki said, agreeing with what Fuutaro just said. "We're worried about you, you know?"

"It's fine, Itsuki-chan," Ichika said, showing a faint smile to her and then turned her head to looked at Fuutaro. "Fuutaro-kun, there's no need to worry about me. Some staffs in your workplace are taking a day off, right? So it will be a very busy shift for you and Nino. In other words, you should worry more about yourself than me," she stated with a cold tone to him.

"Oi! Don't change the subject. I thought you already learnt your lesson when you went overboard on studying and working?!" Fuutaro slightly raised his voice to Ichika, feeling frustrated because of her stubbornness. "How many times do I need to say it to you?"

"My decision is final and there's nothing you can say to change my mind," Ichika stated as she turned away from Fuutaro and continued walking through to hallway. "Let's go, Itsuki-chan. I'm feeling sleepy and wanted a nice sleep back home."

"Umm… Then Uesugi-kun, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Itsuki felt awkward from their exchange and then said goodbye to Fuutaro.

Ichika and Itsuki left Fuutaro, standing in the middle of the school hallway with a visible irritated expression on his face. Fuutaro clicked his tongue in frustration because of Ichika's stubbornness and he still can't comprehend the reason behind her decision. He also noticed that her face expression when she was talking to him was… kind of cold. Not only her face expression, but Fuutaro can also felt a harshness and coldness in her words that was directed towards him earlier. This reminded him of today's mid-day break where he told Ichika that the principal was looking for her and he can feel the same coldness coming out from her.

Fuutaro then thought that it was really strange attitude coming from her because he never saw her acting like this before. Was she really in a bad mood? Or was there other problem he didn't know that made her acting like this? He then let out a big sigh, feeling exhausted from thinking about her unpleasant behavior.

"Just leave her like that, Fuu-kun."

"Hmm…? What do you mean?" Fuutaro turned around and he saw Nino was already behind him.

"Ichika… She can be very stubborn when it comes to things that she passionate and love," Nino said. "Seeing her like that, I'm pretty sure she is in a bad mood today."

"Is that so? Still, I'm kinda worried about her, knowing that she just recovered from illness and already thinking about work," Fuutaro said with a frustrated tone, also feeling uneasy from thinking about Ichika's behavior.

"Yeah, I'm also worried about her too. Let me talk to her later about this," Nino nodded, agreeing with Fuutaro as she started to walk to the school exit. "Anyway, let's go Fuu-kun. Let's not keep the boss waiting before he cut our wages."

"Yeah, you right. Let's go."

Flashback end

Since her behavior still continuing to this day, Fuutaro thought to himself, did he say something offensive to her yesterday? Or did she just have a streak of bad mood two days in a row? But the thing that he noticed on yesterday and today, Ichika was acting like usual to the other quintuplets and her friends, but not to him. Fuutaro concluded that there must be something wrong with her because she never acted like this to him before.

"I don't know if it's just me…"

"But you definitely acting strange to me…"

"What is it… Ichika…?"

"Can't you just say it to me?"

"Oh yeah, Fuu-kun. About the matter that we said to you this morning…"

"Ehh-uhh… Yeah… What about it?" Fuutaro got startled from Nino calling him and immediately turned his attention to her.

This morning, when the morning class was about to start, the quintuplets approached Fuutaro at his desk, saying that they wanted to talk about something at the mid-day break. When Fuutaro asked them to tell that matter now, the five refused and insisted that he needed to wait until mid-day break. Now that mid-day break was here, just like they said, they about to told him that something.

"You know, since you won the bet against dad, we decided to go back to the penthouse," Nino said to Fuutaro, with her still eating her food. "Now, you can finally tutor us in the penthouse without getting worried to be confronted by dad."

"Well… I don't know about that. From what I experienced, your dad is really scary and he really hates me," Fuutaro said as he continued to eat again. "I'm not surprised if he still bans me from your penthouse and didn't keep his words on our bet."

"Don't worry about that, Fuu-kun," Nino assured him with a smirk as she kept talking to him. "If somehow dad still insist on banning you, we can always go back to the rented apartment. The landlord even told us that he will prepare an apartment unit for us if we wanted to come back."

"Really… You all really stubborn, you know that?" Fuutaro shook his head from hearing Nino's stubbornness. "So, when do you all planning to go back to your penthouse?"

"We're planning to go back on tomorrow or the day after. We still haven't done packing up yet," Itsuki said, chewing her food and talking at the same time. "So that's why, Uesugi-kun…"

"Hmm… What is it?"

"Can you come to the rented apartment with us after the school is over?" Miku said to Fuutaro, still focusing on her phone. "We might need another helping hand to do the packing up and cleaning. So can you lend us a hand today?" she then put down her phone and looked at him.

"Huh…? *cough* *cough* Why do I have to help you all packing up and doing the chores?" Fuutaro complained about their request as he almost choked on his food. "Can't you all ask Ebata-san for help since he was the one who helped you all moving out from the penthouse."

"Well… We already asked Ebata-san, but sadly he can't help us," Itsuki said as she swallowed her food. "Today and on tomorrow he will be busy because of work." she then grabbed a water bottle and drank it.

"*sigh* What a pain… Besides, I already planned to have some mock exam reviewing for all of you on today study session."

"Hey! Give us a break on studying, okay?" Nino said as she looked into Fuutaro with annoyance and then crossed her arm. "We already did our best on mock exam, so we deserved a break from studying. Besides, packing up the whole thing from the rented apartment to our penthouse is not an easy and short task to do, you know?"

"Hmm… I guess you're kinda right. Fine, I'm going to help you all on packing your things. Consider this as a gift from me because you all improved your grades," Fuutaro agreed with Nino's reasoning and decided to help them. "The next tutoring session will be on Monday, so don't forget about it, okay?"

"Got it! We definitely need some help on packing things up. Good things that Ichika suggested to us to ask for your help." Yotsuba grinned as she looked to Ichika, who sat next to her.

"Ehh…? Ichika said that…?" Fuutaro said with a little surprise, turning his head to Ichika, who was sitting in front of him.

There were a small chuckle and a smile coming from her face as she continued eating. There were no words coming out from her mouth and Fuutaro can still sense an unfriendly and coldness aura radiating from her. Fuutaro suddenly had a hunch on why she was acting strange to him. He deduced her strange behavior to him was because he "rejected" her confession two days ago. Although they seemed to be able to solved that matter with a good and peaceful condition, he thought that she must have some disappointment left in her heart to this day. If this was the case, then there was still unfinished business between him and her.

"Could it be…"

"The reason you're acting strange to me…"

"Because you're still disappointed in me…?"

As they continued their talks, a person suddenly appeared right beside their table. The talks between them immediately stopped because of the sudden appearance from an uninvited guest. All eyes at the table now set at that person and it was Takeda, who was standing with his usual smile and charming expression. The mood on their table immediately turned unpleasant as Nino's and Miku's expression turned into cold and distasteful, while the rest of the quintuplets and Fuutaro just wondering what made Takeda came to their table.

Knowing that he was not welcomed at the quintuplets table, Takeda then looked at Fuutaro and immediately talked to him.

"Uesugi-kun, can you come with me for a moment?" Takeda asked to him with his usual charming smile on his face. "There's something important that I need to talk with you."

"Hmm… Why? Can't you just say it in here? I'm still not finished with my food," Fuutaro said.

"Nope, I'm afraid I can't. I need to talk to you, privately."

"Hey! It's rude to interrupt someone's lunch, you know?" Nino yelled at Takeda with an annoyed tone. "Just go away, we don't have any business to talk with you."

"Well… Young lady, I'm just here to borrow your boyfriend for a while. I promise it won't take long and then you can enjoy all the time you want with him," Takeda responded back with a cheeky expression and sarcastic smile.

"Ehh…?! You…! I might need to do some beating to you," Nino yelled again, but this time her frustration immediately reached boiling point as she stood up from her seat, ready to confront Takeda.

"Wait Nino, calm down!" Fuutaro turned his attention to her with some panic in his voice. "*sigh* Fine, I'll go with you." he then stood up from his seat.

"Then, follow me, Uesugi-kun."

Fuutaro then followed Takeda from behind as they walked out from the cafetaria. Nino, who was still standing, still irritated by Takeda's teasing and then slammed her hand on the cafetaria table out of frustration, which made the other quintuplets startled.

"That guy, he's really getting on my nerves! I'll be sure to drug his drink two times the dose compared to when I drugged Fuu-kun!"

"There, there… Calm down, Nino," Yotsuba said with a weak laugh as she also stood up to calm Nino.

Takeda led Fuutaro to a quiet hallway in the other part of the school. There were not many students passing this hallway since it was still mid-day break, so Takeda thought this was the perfect place to talk to him. Takeda then stopped walking and then leaned on the wall, with him crossing his arms. Fuutaro looked at him with a narrow eye and starting to asked him about this important thing that he wanted to talk.

"So, what are you going to talk with me?" Fuutaro asked with an expressionless face. "It must be something important because you dragged me all the way from cafetaria to this hallway."

"Oi, oi… You're surely brash, you know that? Can't you just give me a moment to catch my breath?" Takeda responded with a cheeky smile and pulled out his phone from his pocket.

"Quit dawdling around, just tell me the reason why you wanted to talk to me."

"I just got a message from Nakano-san. He said that he wanted to meet with us after the school, to discuss something important," Takeda said as he opened the message and showed it to Fuutaro.

"Ehh… From the quintuplets' dad?" Fuutaro showed a slightly surprised expression as he took Takeda's phone and read the message.

"Yeah, you heard that right."

Fuutaro read the content of the message and it was true that Maruo wanted to meet them after the school was over.

So the quintuplets' dad wanted to meet with him and Takeda after the school. Fuutaro immediately thought that he must have wanted to talk about the outcome of their bet. So will Maruo going to re-hire him to become the five's official tutor again? Or did he wanted to talk about something else other than their bet? But knowing Maruo no-nonsense and straight to the point attitude, Fuutaro concluded that he must have wanted to talk about the outcome of the bet.

"Hmm… Is that so? Then, I understood," Fuutaro nodded as he gave the phone back to Takeda. "Can you tell Nakano-san to meet with us at the park near the city pond?"

"Yeah, I can do that. By the way, why the park? There's a lot of other places that more suitable to meet with Nakano-san, you know? Like a coffee shop or café," Takeda asked, feeling puzzled with Fuutaro's place of choice.

"The five asked me to come with them to their rented apartment after the school to help packing their things up. Since Nakano-san wanted to meet me after school, that park is the closest location to their apartment. So after our meeting with him, I'm going straight to their apartment as fast as possible," Fuutaro explained.

"Hmm… I guess it's makes sense," Takeda nodded, seemingly agreed with Fuutaro. "Also Uesugi-kun, Nakano-san told me that you must not tell the girls that you're going to meet him after school."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Who knows… He didn't tell me the exact reason and only told me to pass this to you."

"Fine. Anyway, meet me at the school gate after the school is over. I need to talk with them first that I'm not going to walk with them and will be late to their place."

"Got it. school gate it is, don't take too long, okay?" Takeda said with a satisfied smile as he stopped leaning on the wall. "Oh and also, Uesugi-kun…"

"Hmm…?"

"You're really lucky to have those five supporting you with all their heart, you know?"

"Huh? Yeah…"

"From my experience with lots of girl, sooner or later, all of them will definitely fall for you and it will be the greatest thing you ever feel in your life."

"O-Oi…!"

"It's just some heads up coming from me, knowing that you're not very good at some social situation," Takeda smirked as he started to made his way to the stairs. "Anyway, my apology for interrupting your lunch. You can come back to the cafetaria."

Fuutaro saw Takeda walked away from him and took the stairs to second floor. He then started to walked back to the cafetaria to continue his lunch.

As he kept walking, he thought of what Takeda said to him about the quintuplets. What he said was true because two of the quintuplets already fell for him, which was Ichika and Nino. Although he can feel that Miku secretly admired or even liked him based on his observation of her behavior around him, especially back in the spring vacation, where she hugged him after he guessed her identity correctly on the second time after guessing wrong on first time in Itsuki disguise. Other than that, Miku seemed to give him a lot of chocolate back at Valentine Day, which made Fuutaro felt that Miku must have liked him too.

Fuutaro then sighed and shook his head, thinking that this love and romance stuffs were really complicating. Even he thought that studying was far easier than understanding this romance stuff.

It took him a few minutes to return to the cafetaria and he can saw that there were not many students left in this place because mid-day break was about to over in five minutes. Fuutaro can saw the quintuplets already finished their food and they were still waiting for him. He then took a seat and continued to eat in a quick pace as Nino asked about the conversation between him and Takeda.

"So, Fuu-kun, what did you and that guy talked about? It took so long that we already finished our food."

"Uhh… Yeah, it's nothing important. He just told me that he admitted defeat on our little competition on mock exam," Fuutaro said, lying to the quintuplets about his talk with Takeda as he quickly chewed his food.

"Hah! So he finally knew his place, huh?" Nino said with a smirk. "Now that he's out of the picture, you can finally tutor us in peace without any intrusion from him."

"Yeah… I guess you're right." Fuutaro finished eating and then took a drink from his water bottle. He then looked at Ichika, trying to start a conversation with her. "Oh also, Ichika, I-"

"Whoa! Look at the time. We should really go back to the class before the teacher scolded us," Ichika said, looking at the digital clock on the cafetaria's wall. "Then, let's go!" she then stood up from her seat.

"Ehh…?" Fuutaro showed a surprise expression because of Ichika cutting his words.

"Yeah, Ichika is right. There's only a minute left before mid-day is over," Itsuki said as she also stood up from the seat. "Let's go, Uesugi-kun."

"Y-Yeah…"

Both Fuutaro and the quintuplets stood up from their seat and headed back to their class. Walking behind the quintuplets, Fuutaro looked at Ichika as he still wondered about her strange behavior to him. Why did Ichika interrupted his word when he was about to talk to her? Was there a reason behind that interruption? Right now, as they walked back to the class, Ichika still didn't turn back to look at him or even starting a conversation to him, acting like he didn't exist. Her behavior kind of irritated Fuutaro, but he knew that he should not get frustrated at her because he was still thinking that Ichika might be disappointed from what happened two days ago.

"I can feel some frustration rising inside me…"

"But I shouldn't let this frustration took over me…"

"If my deduction is correct, you still have some disappointment left after your confession to me…"

"I might need to ask to you about it…"

"This evening… After I met your father…"

The sky color slowly starting to change from a light shade of blue into a light shade of orange as the school bell rang for the last time, signing that the school day was finally over. Lots of students left their classroom, heading home or attending after-school club activity. Fuutaro quickly packed his stuffs and headed to the classroom door, where the quintuplets were waiting for him. He needed to tell the quintuplets that he will not join them walking back together to the rented apartment and instead will caught up to them later. He also came up with an excuse, that he had important things to do in his house and will caught up to them after he finished.

"C'mon, Uesugi-san! We don't have all day to pack our things up, you know?" Yotsuba eagerly said to him.

"Ahh… About that, I can't join you all right now…"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Nino asked with an unamused expression. "Don't tell me that you're trying to run away from us?" she then leaned forward to him, putting her finger on his chest.

"No, It's not like that! I received a message from Raiha an hour ago. She said that she needed some help to do house chores because my dad will not come home until late night," Fuutaro explained his "reason", trying to act as cool as possible so his lie won't get found out. "But, after the chores are done, I will go to your apartment as fast as I can. So don't finish the work without me, okay?"

"Yeah, understood. Then we'll wait for you, Fuutaro," Miku said.

"Don't forget, okay?" Itsuki said, reminding Fuutaro of his promise. "Or I will call Raiha-chan and say that his big brother is an irresponsible person by running away from us."

"Oi Itsuki, there's no need to go that far!" Fuutaro slightly yelled, feeling a little panic about her threat. "*sigh* Anyway, don't worry about me running away. I will definitely come to your place. So wait for me, okay?"

"Got it! See you at the apartment, Uesugi-san!" Yotsuba said with a grin and waved goodbye to him.

"Don't take too long, Fuu-kun. Or I will come to your house and drag you all the way from there," Nino warned him as she kept looking at him with a narrow eye.

The quintuplets then walked away from Fuutaro, who still standing at the classroom door. Fuutaro was pretty sure that he saw a sad expression on Ichika's face before she and the other four walked away from him. He then wondered about that sad expression because today she seemed to be cheerful to her friends and the other four.

Even when he still talked to the four, he took a quick glance at her for a few times and he can saw that she still had that usual cheerful and cool expression… Until Fuutaro told them that he can't join them together and that cheerful and cool expression instantly turned into a sad and gloomy one. This made Fuutaro even more confused about her strange behavior and he sighed loudly as he thought understanding girls and romance were very hard and complicated.

"*sigh* What a pain…" Fuutaro mumbled to himself as he shook his head to clear the confusing mind about her.

Fuutaro then waited for some amounts of minutes in the school hallway, to make sure that the quintuplets left the school area so he can meet Takeda without getting found out by them.

Few minutes have passed and he made his way to the school gate to meet with Takeda. As Fuutaro arrived at the school gate, he can saw that Takeda was already there, playing with his phone. Takeda then noticed Fuutaro finally arrived and he put his phone away.

"You sure know how to take your time, Uesugi-kun," Takeda said to him with a cheeky smile. "I saw the girls already left the school few minutes ago. Don't tell me your stomach got upset and you spent most of your time in the restroom answering a call from nature."

"Oi, it's not like that! I waited for a few minutes so they won't know or following us that we're going to meet their dad," Fuutaro said, feeling annoyed by Takeda's teasing. "Anyway, let's go to the park and get this over with." he then passed Takeda and made his way to the park.

"Heh! Straight to the point without anymore chit-chat… You definitely need to chill more and enjoy life, you know?" Takeda smirked and followed Fuutaro from behind.

On the way to the park, Takeda had been glancing at Fuutaro for a few times. Ever since Fuutaro defeated him on the mock exam, Takeda starting to grew more respect to him and admired his determination. He wanted to cease the unfriendly competition with Fuutaro and also wanted to befriend him. Takeda also hoped to turn this unfriendly competition into a friendly rivalry term, where there won't be any hostility between them and no dirty tactics involved in their academic competition.

Now that they both alone together, Takeda took this chance to congratulate Fuutaro on his national mock exam achievement and hoping this can be a good time to befriend him.

"Uesugi-kun… You're really impressive, you know that?"

"Hmm… What do you mean?" Fuutaro asked, feeling confused about the sudden compliment from Takeda.

"You know… When the mock exam started, all I had in mind was to defeat and outrank you, regardless of what rank you will get," Takeda said with a weak smile as he recalled his motive at that time. "When the result came out and I saw that I finished at eighth place, I'm really satisfied with my achievement and thought that you will fail with all that pressure from Nakano-san."

"Hmm… Is that so?" Fuutaro only nodded without any expression.

"Yeah… But when I searched for your name and found out that you finished higher than me at third place… That moment I knew no matter how hard I studied, there will always be someone better than me. That someone is you… Uesugi-kun," Takeda said as he looked at him with the same defeated expression that he showed on two days ago.

"Then, I guess you're not trying hard enough," Fuutaro said. "Still, I'm glad that you didn't use that cheat sheet and ripped it apart instead. You have my respect for that."

"Heh! As much as I want to beat you, I'm not that lowly to cheat my way into success," Takeda smirked as his defeated expression slowly fading away. "What you said is probably true, maybe I'm not trying hard enough and I'm too confident on my ability."

"Well, I'm glad you realized that."

"Yeah… Next time I will try even harder and we'll see which one of us who will come up at the top!" Takeda clutched his fist in passion with his newfound resolve. "Anyway, Uesugi-kun…" he then extended his right hand to him for a handshake.

"Uhh… What's with the hand?" Fuutaro showed a confused expression from Takeda suddenly extending his hand to him.

"I haven't officially congratulated you yet on the mock exam, right?" Takeda said, still with his hand hanging in front of Fuutaro. "So congratulations, on finishing at third place."

"Yeah… Thanks." Fuutaro also extending his right hand and accepting the handshake from him.

The two boys did a handshake with each other, signifying that their unfriendly competition was ended and a friendly rivalry was born from their newfound friendship. There was a confident expression and a friendly smile on Takeda's face and Fuutaro didn't show much expression because he didn't care that much about competing with Takeda now that the bet between the quintuplets' dad and him was now over.

After the handshake, Takeda then pulled out his phone and showed his contact info to Fuutaro, hoping they can exchange each other contact info.

"Oh also, now that we're friends, how about we exchange each other contact info?"

"Do I have to? I don't have any benefit of having your contact in my phone," Fuutaro said with a hesitation as he looked at Takeda's phone.

"Same old Uesugi-kun. It's a mandatory for a friend to exchange each other contact info, you know?" Takeda responded with his charming smile. "Besides, who knows when you feel lonely, you might want to chat with me or even call me. I will listen to any of your story, whether it's about asking for life advice or romance related stuffs…"

"Heh… I doubted that." Fuutaro showed a weak smirk from hearing Takeda's teasing words. "Well… I guess it's fine. Here's my contact info if you really wanted it," he then pulled out his phone and also showed his contact info.

"Hmm… Yes, got it!" Takeda mumbled as he saved Fuutaro's contact info and put his phone back to his pocket. "Now that I have your contact info, don't be surprised if I called you out of nowhere, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah… Whatever…" Fuutaro answered and let out a small sigh as he put his phone back after saving Takeda's contact info.

The two then continued their way to the park, with Takeda kept talking non-stop to Fuutaro. There was a pleased and joyful expression on Takeda's face after he managed to exchange contact info with Fuutaro. Takeda hoped with this newfound friendship with Fuutaro, he can bury the hatchet on what happened between them in the past and started a real friendship with him.

For Fuutaro, he didn't really care much about being friend with Takeda. Although, he did have small feelings in his heart that getting a new friend was not that bad and will have a purpose at a certain time. Fuutaro, showing a faint smile, thought that this new friend of him can be either helpful and/or annoying.

A/N:

Chapter 16 is finished! Here it is.

So Ichika acting strange to Fuutaro and he is bewildered about it. We will find out about it in the future chapter and see if Fuutaro's deduction is really true.

So yeah, after some thought I really underused Takeda's role in this story because when I started this story, all I had in mind was all about Fuutaro and Ichika. While writing this chapter, I realized that Takeda can play a big role in Fuutaro's character development and he will make more appearance in the future of this story.

As for the review response:

-Frez:

Thank you for the kind words!

-Rosalina:

Glad that you liked this chapter! Just like you, I found this chapter heartwarming everytime I read it.

That's a nice quote you have there and it took me a while to realize that quote is from Spiderman 2. It's very fitting for this story.

Oh yeah you will see it in the future and he will show it in his own way.

-Powder Sauce:

Big thanks! Although, they didn't end up together yet, I will address about it in the final chapter A/N.

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