Chapter 17
"So Uesugi-kun, are you aware that school trip is nearing?"
"Yeah, it supposed to be in next month…"
Both Fuutaro and Takeda already arrived at the park and it took them some amounts of minutes to reach the park from the school.
Right now, the park was a bit crowded than usual because of after-school time, where some middle-school and high-school students were hanging around at the park. There were also lots of younger children who were playing on the park playground and some adults were also visible at the park, enjoying their time, either with their family, friends, partner, or by themselves.
The two looked around the park and there was no sign of quintuplets' dad in here, so they took a seat on a nearby empty bench to wait for him. Knowing Fuutaro's awkward social skill, Takeda brought up the school trip topic to lighten up the atmosphere and as well to kill some time to wait for Maruo to arrive.
"I see… Knowing you, I expected that you did not pay attention to school events," Takeda said. "Anyway, do you know where we will be going for the school trip?"
"I don't know… But I heard from Nino, she said that there were some rumors flying around that the school trip will be in either Okinawa or Kyoto."
"Yeah… I heard about those rumors too. Since my father is part of the school board, I've been told by him about the exact place that we're going," he continued to said as he leaned backward against the bench. "The school trip will take place in Kyoto…"
"Kyoto… You say?" Fuutaro mumbled after hearing Takeda confirmed the place for the school trip.
So the rumors that Nino heard were not fully wrong at all. The memories of him six years ago in Kyoto were flashing in Fuutaro's head after knowing that Kyoto will be the destination for the school trip in next month. Every memory from six years ago school trip were flowing, especially the memory where he met that girl and walking around the city with her on that day. He never thought that he will return to Kyoto again and it was not like he was complaining about it. Instead, he was glad that he will return to Kyoto again because that city held a memorable place in his heart because of that memory.
There was a satisfied smile forming on his lips as he recalled about that memory. Takeda then noticed the smile and took this opportunity to tease his newfound friend and rival.
"Hmm... Did I just see you smiling, Uesugi-kun?" Takeda teasingly asked to Fuutaro, looking at him with a cheeky smirk. "Heh! This is a rare sight to see from you because all you do in school are just sulking and sighing."
"Huh…? Oi, Stop messing with me!" Fuutaro got snapped back to reality because of Takeda teasing him and he immediately showed an annoyed face.
"Well, I guess even someone like you have an ability to smile, huh?" Takeda let out a chuckle after teasing him. "Was it because you really look forward for the school trip?"
"Yeah… I really look forward for it," Fuutaro nodded. "I've been to Kyoto once and it's a really memorable city for me."
"Hehh… Is that so? Then, how about you and I form a group together for the upcoming school trip? Consider it as a sign for the start of our beautiful friendship," Takeda said and there was a friendly smile on his lips as he offered to group up with Fuutaro for the upcoming school trip.
"No… Thank you. I prefer to go solo and enjoy the school trip by myself without any interruption from other students," Fuutaro replied, showing an uninterested face to Takeda about his offer.
"Don't say it like that, Uesugi-kun. Remember, you're the class representative, so you need some dignity and charisma to maintain your good image," Takeda said, still smiling as he told him the reason why Fuutaro should accept grouping up with him. "With me in your group, the other students will look at you in awe and will start to respect you. Who knows after the school trip, you can have more school friends to befriend with and they will start admiring you even more in the future."
"Hmm… I guess you have a good point. But I'm going to ask that one person to join us to avoid the awkwardness of being with you. If that person refused, then I will go solo to avoid being the center of attention," Fuutaro stated as he remembered a certain person for a potential groupmate.
"Suit yourself… But don't come begging to me later if you feel lonely, okay?"
After some amounts of minutes, there was a black luxury car stopping on the side of the road near the park. That car was a familiar sight for Fuutaro because he saw it for a few times in the past and he had been in that car once. The two saw a familiar person coming out from that car and that person was Maruo, who was walking towards them with his usual expressionless and cold face. He then took a seat on another bench next to them and without anymore waiting, Maruo then talked to them.
"My apologies for making you two waiting..." Maruo said. "Now to begin with, I would like to congratulate you for finishing at eighth place on the national ranking, Takeda-kun. I'm sure your father will be proud of your effort on the mock exam."
"Thank you for the praise, Nakano-san." Takeda stood up from the bench and then bowed to him. "But I'm still not satisfied with my results and I'll be sure to study even harder next time to achieve higher grades."
"Very good… You will surely be a great person in the future with that mindset," Maruo praised Takeda's mindset as he showed a faint smile to him. "I heard from your father that you wanted to become a physician, so how about I reserved a place for you in my hospital once you finished your higher education?"
"Nakano-san, your offer is very great to hear and I'm very grateful that you wanted to help me. But… I would like to spend more time on thinking about my future, so I'm going to hold your offer for now," Takeda politely refused Maruo's offer, still bowing to him.
"Is that so? Then, I'm hoping to hear a favorable reply from you in the future." Maruo did a light nod after hearing Takeda's response.
"Thank you very much for your understanding," Takeda sternly said, thanking Maruo for the offer and went back to sat on the bench.
After finished with Takeda, Maruo turned his head to Fuutaro, who still sitting on the bench near him. The reason why he called Fuutaro here was to rehire him to become the quintuplets' official tutor once more because Fuutaro won the bet against him by finishing at third place on national mock exam. But there was also another reason that Maruo needed to talk to him and it related to two days ago occurrence in the penthouse, where he saw from the CCTV application, that Fuutaro and Ichika were alone, doing things beyond the student-tutor relationship.
Fuutaro took a glance at Maruo and he was pretty sure that Maruo was staring at him, with an unpleasant stare, ever since he finished talking with Takeda. He can feel an intimidating aura coming from him and that trademark icy stare he showed right now, really made Fuutaro uncomfortable.
He silently sighed and thought, why can't Maruo be a bit friendlier to him? Was it because he talked rude and insulted him in last year that made Maruo hated him? Fuutaro then agreed with himself and it was his fault in the first place that made Maruo disliked him. He also wondered on what happened if he didn't talk rude to him, will Maruo going to treat him with respect just like he did to Takeda? Anyway, what's done is done and Fuutaro just hope he didn't offend Maruo even further from his choice of words because he already experienced on how scary and intimidating he can get.
"Takeda-kun, can I ask you to leave me and Uesugi-kun alone?" Maruo turned his attention to Takeda, asking him to leave. "There's something important and private that I need to discuss with him." he then closed his eyes.
"I understood…" Takeda stood up from his bench. But before he left, Takeda whispered to Fuutaro and reminded him about the school trip group offer, "Make sure to think about my offer, okay?"
After whispering to Fuutaro, Takeda bid his goodbye to Maruo and left the park, leaving both Maruo and Fuutaro alone. There was an eerie silent between them and it made Fuutaro feeling more nervous and he can also feel the atmosphere somehow getting more tense as the silent went on. He thought to himself, what will Maruo going to talk to him that he made Takeda left? He said that he needed to discuss something important to him and was that something related to the mock exam bet between them?
Fuutaro then shook his head, clearing his clouded mind from the overthinking and he was pretty sure that Maruo will talk about the bet and will rehire him to become quintuplets' official tutor again, knowing his straightforward and no-nonsense personality. As he still thinking about it, Maruo then broke the silent by talking first and it made Fuutaro startled.
"Uesugi-kun... There's something that I need to talk to you and it's relating about Ichika," Maruo said, still with his eyes closed.
"Ehh...? W-What do you mean, Nakano-san?" Fuutaro replied with a stuttering voice as he didn't expect to hear Ichika's name was mentioned.
"Two days ago, around 11 PM, I've been told by the head of security from the condo, that Ichika came back to the penthouse... with a boy around her age," Maruo continued to talk, now doing a pose where he intertwined his fingers with each other and resting his chin on it. "That boy... was you, correct?" he moved his eyeballs to look at Fuutaro.
Fuutaro immediately got shocked and his eyes went wide after hearing Maruo knew that he came with Ichika to the penthouse on two days ago. He thought to himself, how did the head of security know his identity? Fuutaro didn't even gave his name to him and somehow Maruo knew it was him who came with Ichika, which made him confused. All of this time when he went to the penthouse to tutor the quintuplets, he never met the head of security and two days ago was the first time he met him. Knowing every talk with Maruo always ended with him getting in trouble, Fuutaro decided to lie and pretended to be clueless, hoping he can get away from the potential trouble with him.
"Ehh-uhh... I have no idea what you're talking about, Nakano-san..." Fuutaro answered with a silly grin.
"You're such a bad liar, Uesugi-kun..." Maruo then opened his eyes and then turned his head to directly looked at Fuutaro. "No need lie to me. I saw everything through the CCTV in the penthouse and I definitely saw you and Ichika in the penthouse at that time."
"..." Fuutaro's silly grin turned into an immediate frightened gasp and it left him speechless.
"Based from what I saw on the CCTV… I can definitely tell that there's more than a student-tutor relationship between you and Ichika," Maruo said, still looking directly at him with his trademark icy stare. "Care to explain about what happened two days ago?"
There were no words coming out from Fuutaro's mouth as a real sweat flowed down from his head and he can feel the nervousness reached a very high level as he looked at the ground. So Maruo did know everything on what happened two days ago and it was all thanks to the security camera in the penthouse. All this time, for almost a year, he didn't know there were security cameras in the quintuplets' penthouse. So all of the tutoring session, some embarrassing incident, and many other things happening in the penthouse were recorded by the security cameras? Fuutaro felt like a lightning just struck him, knowing that Maruo can even saw those footages from many months ago and it made him shudder as he imagined what was going to happen to him if Maruo saw all that footage.
"So, after all this time…"
"There were security cameras in the penthouse…?"
"So what I did and those embarrassing incidents involving me were recorded by the cameras…?"
"How can I not notice those security cameras…? I've been to that place for everyday for almost a year…!"
"I can't imagine if he saw those footages…"
"I'll be a goner in an instant…"
Knowing that the situation got even more complicated, Fuutaro decided to keep lying, especially about what happened between him and Ichika. Also knowing that Maruo already hated him, he will definitely get furious if he knew the truth and Fuutaro can't imagine the wrath Maruo going to unleash to him for liking his daughter.
"N-No, Y-You're getting it wrong…! Ichika and I are just a friend...! There's really nothing more than us being a friend!" Fuutaro panickily said with a stutter in his sentence, feeling intimidated by Maruo keep pressuring him.
"Then, how can you explain this?" Maruo stood up from the bench, heading to Fuutaro, who was sitting not far from him. He then showed the recording of the CCTV footage where Fuutaro patted Ichika's head. "I'm not sure this action of yours showed that you're just a friend to Ichika. Even this footage showed that she also somehow… acting "very different" to you..." he kept showing the recording until the part where Ichika moved Fuutaro's hand to her chest and another part where she held his hand tightly.
"Uhh... About that..."
"Tell me all of it, Uesugi-kun. Did you like Ichika? And based from your perspective, can you feel that Ichika also took a liking to you?" Maruo put his phone back to his pocket and went back to sit on his bench.
Now that Maruo already showed concrete proofs on what happened in the penthouse two days ago, Fuutaro thought there was no point in lying anymore. If he kept on lying and not telling the truth, he was very sure that he will get into deeper trouble with Maruo, knowing that they already had a bad history with each other. Fuutaro decided that he might as well told him the truth about how he felt to Ichika and how she already fell in love with him. He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath and exhaled, ready to tell Maruo about it.
"Yeah... The truth is, I do have a feeling for her," Fuutaro said, telling the truth to Maruo. "As for Ichika, she already told me that she has a feeling for me…"
"Hmm... Is that so? Is there anymore of this that I needed to know?
"Since you already knew about what happened in the penthouse... I might as well tell you the whole things from the start," Fuutaro said with a semi-serious expression as he started to recollect all of his experience with Ichika from last month. "Ever since Ichika asked me to skip school with her last month, I'm starting to developed an attraction to her during our school skipping experience, although I'm still not sure of it at that time. After she passed out from her illness, my feelings for her starting to get stronger because of my worries for her and I'm starting to question myself whether I really have a feeling for her or not. In the end, where she finally told her feelings to me, that she really liked me, I finally understood my feelings to her, and that I really liked her too."
Maruo closed his eyes once more and turned his head away from Fuutaro after he told him that he and Ichika had a feeling for each other. This kind of situation was the last thing he expected because he hired Fuutaro to only tutor the quintuplets and he was pretty sure that everything will be going well until last year incident, where the five decided to left the penthouse after he banned Fuutaro from the penthouse and they rented a much smaller apartment to kept him as their tutor.
Maruo then thought, even if he was going to forbid Ichika from entering a relationship with Fuutaro, Maruo was pretty sure that she will rebel against his words and will continue the relationship behind his back, even without his approval. At the same time, he didn't want to held his daughters back and wanted them to grow, but for this kind of romance situation, he needed to intervene because of what happened to Rena many years ago, about her unfortunate situation with a certain man and he didn't want that to happen to the quintuplets.
Maruo then decided to judge Fuutaro's character by himself right now, to saw what kind of person he was, knowing that he never knew Fuutaro that much because of his busy job that prevented him from interacting with the boy.
"Hmm… I've heard enough from you. No need to continue it anymore." Maruo opened his eyes and immediately said to Fuutaro to end his talk. "From what you told me, I can finally puzzle all the pieces together on the whole situation between you and Ichika."
"..." Fuutaro fell silent once more as Maruo continued to talk to him.
"Uesugi-kun... I have to admit, that you're really a smart and intelligent person," Maruo said, acknowledging his academic ability, with his usual expressionless face. "From what your father had told me about you, he was not wrong at all. By finishing at third place nationally on national mock exam and that alone, proved that you're really exceeding my expectation."
"..."
"But... As smart as you are, I can see your personality and attitude still have a lot flaw."
"Ehh...? I-Is that so?"
"Let me tell you this, Uesugi-kun," Maruo continued to talk. "If you wanted to be in further relationship with Ichika, you need to prove to me that you are the right person for her. Prove to me that you can be a good person for her and capable to support her at any given moment."
What Maruo said to him was true and Fuutaro already knew that Ichika needed someone who will always support her, especially in her acting career which was very important to her. Knowing that Ichika can act reckless and always went overboard on everything that she passionate and love about, Fuutaro always thought that there need to be someone who needed to remind her from going overboard and keep her in line. Even if he didn't end up in a romantic relationship with Ichika, Fuutaro felt like he was the right person for the task because he really cared for her and didn't want to see bad things happened to her after the incident last month. With a serious and determined look on his face, Fuutaro stood up from the bench and ready to talk to Maruo about it.
"Nakano-san... Even if you didn't tell me all of that, I will always ready to support Ichika with all my might."
"Hmm... What do you mean?"
"After all we two have been through together, I understood what Ichika went through this far. She's… really reckless and sometimes, she went overboard from doing things that she passionate and love about. Those kinds of behavior can hurt her without her realizing it and it already happened to her last month," Fuutaro said, looking at Maruo without any hesitation and nervousness. "That's why, there must be someone who needs to remind her and hold her back from doing reckless things and going overboard. As long as I'm still here, I'm up with that task… because I already promised to myself that I will always remind her to not get reckless and going overboard, both in her study and acting career, and I will hold her back from doing all those reckless things because I don't want to see bad things happening to her again in the future."
From what Fuutaro just said to him, Maruo thought that he really overstepped his role as the tutor for the quintuplets. But he had to admit what Fuutaro just said was true because Ichika had a tendency to went overboard and acting reckless on doing something that she passionate and love about and it was already proven last month, where she went overboard on studying for the mock exam and finally fell ill because of it.
Maruo can also heard a serious determination in Fuutaro's voice and he can tell that face expression that Fuutaro showed to him, was a genuine expression, not fake. That determination that he showed also reminded Maruo of his conversation with Ichika in the hospital last week, where she also showed a similar face and determination, talking about how she really trusted Fuutaro.
The words that he heard from Fuutaro, made Maruo respected him even more, but still not to the level where he fully trusted him. He still needed to see more action, not just words, to trust him completely especially in the future if the two ended up in a romantic relationship.
"I think I can see why my daughters really trusted you. Still, unlike those five, I need to see further by myself that you are the right person to be in relationship with Ichika and how far will you support her, just like those words you just said."
"Nakano-san... I don't know if I will ever be in relationship with her because I'm still haven't given much thought about it. But one thing for sure, I will always support her no matter what kind of relationship we are in.
"Is that so? Then, I think I heard enough from you," Maruo said and he showed a faint smile from hearing Fuutaro's words. "Then Uesugi-kun, I would like to offer to you, the position of home tutor once more."
"Ehh…?"
"The pay is five times higher than the market standard and the workplace is comfortable and fun," Maruo said, repeating the same words where he hired Fuutaro last year. "The truth is I'm still reluctant to rehire you again. But just like the condition on our bet, I'm a person of my word and I will keep my word. So, will you accept that position back?"
"Yeah… Of course, I will accept it!" Fuutaro eagerly said and there was a wide grin forming on his face after he got rehired again. "I'm already this far ahead and it will be my pleasure to become their "official" tutor again."
"I'm pleased to hear that," Maruo slightly nodded after hearing Fuutaro's response. "Let me remind you once more, that you're going to guide them to graduation without any of them failing like we agreed. If you can do that, your position as a tutor will be guaranteed until graduation."
"I understood…" Fuutaro responded as he bowed to Maruo to show him respect and gratitude.
"Then, that's all I have to say to you." Maruo then stood up from the bench and headed back to his car. "And also, Uesugi-kun…" he then stopped in the middle of his walk and talked to Fuutaro again.
"Hmm… Yes?"
"Make sure to plant in your mind about what I said to you earlier regarding about you and Ichika situation," Maruo said as he slightly turned his head to Fuutaro. "If I heard from anybody, that you hurt Ichika or something bad happened to her because of you… Be prepared to face the consequences from me." he threw another icy stare to the tutor and then started to walk again.
"…" Fuutaro nervously gulped and shuddered from Maruo's icy stare. He also felt that the stare feels like a frozen knife piercing his body.
Maruo then reached his car and entered it. As the car starting to drive away from the park, Maruo was staring at the window and thought that the way Ichika acted last month reminded him of Rena, where they both really worked very hard on their duty and even went overboard without paying attention to their health. Whenever Maruo remembered about Rena, he felt a regret in his heart, where he was not doing a good effort to held her back from going overboard because he was not determined enough to do it at that time. If Fuutaro can support Ichika and do just as he said, Maruo didn't mind to let him to be in relationship with her because he didn't want to repeat and witness the same things again, where he lost a person that he loved and really cared about.
Fuutaro just froze in place as he watched Maruo's car drove away from the park. He let out a big sigh because the talk with Maruo was surely intense, but at the same time he also felt a happiness and joy that he finally got rehired again as the quintuplets' official tutor, where he will receive salary again to help to pay his family debts. Fuutaro also noticed that Maruo did smile for a second, which was a very rare sight because Fuutaro always saw him with that usual emotionless expression, even when he talked with the quintuplets.
"I swear I saw him smiled... Even though it's just for a second…"
"That sight was truly a rare one…"
"Knowing that he's one of the scariest and emotionless persons that I ever met…"
Fuutaro then opened his phone and when he saw the clock, the time was already evening. He looked at the sky, where the shade of orange color was dominating the surface which signed that the talk with Maruo took a really long time. Fuutaro then put his phone back to his pocket and quickly made his way to the quintuplets rented apartment.
On his way to the rented apartment, Fuutaro suddenly remembered about Ichika's strange behavior to him. He still didn't know the true reason on why she seemed to be avoiding him and didn't talk much to him on yesterday and today. Fuutaro had a hunch on why she was avoiding him, but still wanted to confirm it later after he arrived at the rented apartment, where he was going to talk to Ichika privately.
"I don't know why, but it keeps bothering me…"
"I really wanted to find out about it…"
"Were you really disappointed by my answer at that time…?"
"If so… Then I understood what you feel…"
A/N:
Chapter 17 is finished! There are only two more chapters left before this story is complete.
There's not much to say from me for this A/N because this chapter already told what I wanted to say.
Also I've been planning to add a chapter title for each chapter since my other stories had a chapter title. I know it's very late to add the title chapter, but better late than never, right? I'll probably add the title maybe in this week or next week when I posted a new chapter, so keep an eye on it if you're interested on the chapter title.
As for the review response:
-Rosalina:
Glad you liked the drama aspect. Knowing that Fuutaro always got bewildered everytime the quintuplets acting strange to him, he will definitely wanted to find out the reason and solved it.
No worries about it, that quote is actually good to read.
If you like the story feel free to review, follow, and favorite it!