"When you asked me if I could teach you and your sisters, I thought of you and maybe one or two of your sisters! But now there are five of you!" Fuutarou is overwhelmed by the sheer number of sisters Itsuki had. He hadn't even taught one person before and now he has to teach five individuals at once. Five nearly identical individuals.
Itsuki wanted to apologize to Fuutarou since she didn't tell him how many sisters she had but before she can, Ichika walks towards the two of them and giggles. "Itsuki-chan, don't you want to introduce to us your new boyfriend?" Itsuki instantly blushes and slightly tilts her head away from Fuutarou, avoiding eye contact.
"Uesugi-kun is not my boyfriend! He goes to the same class as me and I met him in the cafeteria," Itsuki explains, "I asked him to be our tutor. From now on, he will help us study."
"This guy is going to be our tutor? Why does he have to be someone from our grade? Are there no decent tutors in town or something?" Miku asks with an annoyed look on her face.
"Miku don't say things like that. I think we should give him a chance, he seems pretty smart." Yotsuba answers while walking towards Fuutarou. "I will be looking forward to your tutoring, Uesugi-san!"
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to i-" That was as far as he got before his answer was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. He takes his old flip phone out of his pocket and looks at the screen. "It's Raiha! I need to get this, so please excuse me for a few minutes." Fuuatou explains while he sighs, resisting the urge to facepalm. The overwhelming feeling from when he was confronted by all of the sisters had vanished and had been replaced by wary anticipation of what questions his sister would be greeting him with.
"That's alright. You should talk to your sister and I will prepare everything so we can start studying as soon as you get back." Itsuki replies calmly with a smile on her face. "Thank you, Itsuki. I will be back in a few minutes!"
Fuutarou places his phone next to his ear in preparation, going onto the balcony where he could talk to his sister without the five sisters hearing or interrupting them. He takes a deep breath and then accepts the call.
"Raiha, what's the matter?" He asks after holding his phone against his right ear.
"Onii-chan, what do you want for dinner? I am buying groceries and I thought maybe you might want something special for dinner today." Raiha answers.
"Thank you but I don't want anything special."
"Where are you? I know that you said you would be late today, but what are you busy with?"
"Well about that...I have found a job that hopefully should earn me a good bit of money."
"That sounds great! What are you working as?"
"A girl who just transferred to my school asked me if I could tutor her and her sisters."
"So you are teaching them at your school's library?"
"Not really... I was invited to their place and I am currently standing on their balcony."
For a short moment, Raiha doesn't answer which leaves Fuutarou a little bit confused. Did something happen? Did Raiha bump into someone she knew?
"Onii-chan is at a girl's place!" Raiha shouts into her phone. Fuutarou holds his phone fully away from his ear because of Raiha's loud voice.
"Hey, calm down. You have the wrong idea of what is happening. I am at their place so I can teach them so don't take things out of proportion because I am only there for tutoring" Fuutarou tries to explain to her while getting a little bit annoyed and puts his phone near his ear again.
"When will you be coming home? You have to eat something for dinner today or else you won't have the energy to study like you always do. Unless you're planning on eating on your own?"
"I don't know when exactly I will be home. But I will be home for dinner, I promise."
"Ok. Have fun tutoring those girls! Come home safely!"
"Yeah, I definitely will. Don't wait up if I take too long, just leave me some leftovers and I'll be fine."
Fuutarou says goodbye to Raiha and hangs up a few seconds later, smiling to himself.
"Your sister sounded pretty cute!" A familiar voice from behind tells him. Fuutarou gets a little bit frightened, sharply turning to the side where the voice came from. He looks straight at Ichika's giggling face. "Did I scare you?"
"Obviously. What are you doing here?" Fuutarou walks a few steps back from Ichika and puts his phone carefully back into his pocket. "How long have you been here?"
"I didn't hear much of your conversation with your sister so don't worry." Ichika walks closer to him and looks him straight into his eyes. "Say, what do you think of Itsuki-chan?"
Fuutarou blushes and slowly turns his head away from Ichika, sensing a loaded question. "What are you talking about? I am just her tutor. There is nothing more to it."
"But you've got your eyes set on Itsuki, don't you?" Ichika giggles. She leans a little bit forward and looks at him with a cute smile. He takes a step back in response.
"I don't have my eyes set on her!"
"Maybe you don't have your eyes set on her but you definitely think that she is cute. Otherwise, why would your cheeks be so red?"
Fuutarou frantically holds up his hands to cover his mouth and hide his embarrassment as he looks down at the floor blushing. He doesn't know what to do as Ichika was probably not going to let him go until she got an answer. And any answer he gave was going to get him into an even worse situation than the one he was currently stuck in.
"Come on, you can trust your Onee-san. If there is something on your mind, you can always tell me." She gives him a smile. Immediately, he decides that this is probably the smile the devil makes while tricking people.
Fuutarou hesitates but then decides to answer her question. Even if he felt like she had an ulterior motive, Ichika didn't seem like a person who would use his answer against him. And while he didn't know it, he was right, Ichika was just curious about what he thought about Itsuki. She had no intention of telling her sisters about it…unless it was an interesting response. In which case, Itsuki would definitely hear about it.
"Yeah, she is kinda cute. But that won't change the fact that Itsuki and I are only tutor and student. There is nothing more to it!" Fuutarou exclaims which leaves Ichika laughing.
"I knew it." Ichika turns around from the balcony ledge and slowly walks back to the door which leads to the inside. "Sorry if I had to squeeze the answer out of you but I think you and Itsuki just seemed kinda cute together."
Ichika opens the door, leaving Fuutarou alone. The blush on his face slowly disappears but he was still baffled by what just happened.
After a few moments, he goes back inside and closes the door behind him. Three of the girls sit around the table in the living room, Yotsuba, Itsuki, and Ichika. On the table lay some books, pens, and some notebooks.
"Say, where are the other two?" Fuutarou asks while looking around. There was no sign of them being in the kitchen or near the entrance.
"Miku doesn't want to study with us and Nino…" Yotsuba explains but then hesitates to go on and finish her sentence. "Nino is going to meet with her friends and she didn't want to cancel her plans just to study. Don't worry, she will surely join us next time." Itsuki explains with a smile on her face.
Fuutarou sighs and walks towards them. "Well, that means, for now, it's only the four of us. Let's begin anyway." Fuutarou sits down in front of the girls and then takes one of the books lying around. "I don't know where your strengths and weaknesses are, so we will start with a short quiz on every subject."
Fuutarou flips open one of the Japanese textbooks that was laying around on the table and starts asking a few questions to each one of the girls, then he picks up a Mathematics textbook and instructs them to write and answer a few questions he randomly selected. Fuutarou continues this process for Science, Social Studies, and lastly English.
It takes them quite a while till they give him an answer to each of his questions. After a few minutes of waiting patiently, Fuutarou notices that each of them seems to be struggling with giving him the right answer, no matter how simple the question seemed to him.
Thirty minutes later and Fuutarou has lost all of his hope. His face looked devastated and his eyes showed nothing but dread. He smacks both hands right down at the table as he stands up and shouts, "You haven't got any of the questions correct!"
Yotsuba giggles with an embarrassed look on her face. "Eh heh heh..." she mumbles, "But those questions you asked us were pretty hard."
Ichika buries her head into her arms on the table and closes her eyes. "All these questions were so hard to answer." She yawns. "They make me feel so sleepy."
"Don't sleep at a time like this! I was just about to begin with our lesson!" Fuutarou shouts angrily and sits back down. He grinds his teeth and asks himself why he even accepted this job as their tutor until suddenly Itsuki puts her hand onto his shoulder. He turns her way and looks directly at her.
"We may have our problems right now and I know it doesn't look good for us but I am sure that with you as our tutor we can make a lot of progress. I know you will help us pass our upcoming exams." Itsuki tells him with a smile on her face while looking directly into his eyes.
Fuutarou blushes and turns away from her again. Those motivational words calmed him down and somehow made him feel at ease with his role as a tutor. He takes a deep breath and looks at the sisters. "Well, considering I already promised Itsuki, I can't possibly let you all fall behind. But I need to make one thing clear: You have no basic knowledge of any of the subjects so we have to start from scratch."
"I am confident that we can do it. Together as a team!" Yotsuba exclaims happily while jumping up. "It's good that at least you two want to improve your grades. When it comes to your sisters on the other hand..." Fuutarou looks at Ichika who still lies on the table with her eyes closed. "Can you not sleep at a time like this?!" He shouts with irritation. Ichika straightens up, rubbing her eyes while giggling. "Sorry, I didn't mean to."
He sighs and looks up the stairs where he assumed the bedrooms of the girls to be. "Should we try to get Miku to study too? I mean she said she didn't want to study but after all, I was asked to tutor all of you. It wouldn't feel right if I only help you three study."
"I think that won't be that easy..." Itsuki sighs, "Miku can be quite narrow-minded. If she doesn't want to study, then asking her again would not be of help. She would just decline a second time."
"Well even if that may be the case, at least I can try to persuade her and she might consider it even if I'm met with a rejection, don't you think?" Fuutarou stands up and walks upstairs. He looks at five different doors, not knowing whose rooms they lead to. "Ah, Miku's room is the third one. Just make sure you knock first!" Yotsuba tells him after seeing him standing on the same spot for quite a while, thinking over which door to try.
Fuutarou takes a deep breath and gently knocks on Miku's door. "Miku, may I come in?" After waiting for a few seconds he still gets no answer. Taking that as an answer, he grabs the handle and opens the door.
He looks inside the room, noticing a big and wide bed with a blue duvet, a small desk, and a closet. But there was no trace of Miku. He walks in and looks around to see where Miku could have gone, not detecting a trace of her. Where could she have gone?
"Do you like sneaking into the rooms of high school girls?" A voice asks him from behind. Fuutarou flinches and slowly turns around to see who it was. He sees Miku standing in front of the door. "It's not what you think. I was not trying to sneak in. I wanted to ask if you wanted to join us studying downstairs?"
"Why should I study with someone who just snuck into my room? I am sure you will be a criminal in the future."
"Hey, I was just looking for you. Don't exaggerate!" Miku slowly turns away from Fuutarou and walks past him. "Where did you even go?"
"I was just bringing back something I borrowed from Nino." Miku lays down on her bed and cuddles with her blanket, already having written him off. "But that isn't any of your business."
"Well, moving on from that, what about joining your sisters and studying? It's more effective if I can teach all of you at once!"
"As I have already said, I have no interest in getting tutored by you."
"You could at least give it a try!" Fuutarou says, causing Miku to stand up again and walk up to him. "And it would only do you good! You can improve your overall grammar, your knowledge of Japanese history..." Fuutarou continues as she puts her hands on his chest.
Fuutarou stops and looks down at her in confusion. Miku slowly begins to push him out of her room. Fuutarou notices the disgruntled look on her face, and while she did not seem to be very strong, Fuutarou wasn't very strong either so he could not resist. After a few seconds, Fuutarou was once again outside in front of Miku's room as she lets go of him and looks at him with an annoyed face.
"Stay out!" She says as she closes the door in front of him. Fuutarou realizes that Miku wanted to make a point here…which sort of failed due to how long it took her to throw him out of her room.
Fuutarou sighs and again slowly walks down the stairs. He once again sees Ichika sleeping on the table while the other two sisters were silently waiting for him.
"I don't think I need to ask about how Miku reacted, do I?" Itsuki asks while Fuutarou sits down in front of her. "She obviously said no."
Fuutarou's expression quickly changes to a disappointed one as he looks down at the different books lying around. "What's the matter, Uesugi-san?" Yotsuba asks.
"This whole tutoring session is a disaster. I told Itsuki I would teach every single one of you but right now, two of your sisters aren't participating, and one of them doesn't seem like she will anytime in the near future. I don't know if Nino will agree. Also, if Ichika sleeps every time I teach you, she won't learn anything." Fuutarou explains. He then looks up at Yotsuba's smiling face. "Considering we have to start from the basics, the tutoring itself will be a pain in the ass."
"If we want to achieve our goal, we just have to study as much as we can!" Yotsuba exclaims happily. He sighs, but can't disagree with her words. "It's not as easy as that but nonetheless we should probably start now if we even want to get anywhere."
Fuutarou's first lesson as their tutor begins and he quickly notices that it won't be easy with teaching these girls. As it was his first time teaching someone, he did not know what to do so he just worked through their homework together and answered all their questions as precisely and as easy to understand as he could.
After teaching them for quite a while, all of them had no motivation to go on. Fuutarou realizes this after seeing Yotsuba's hair ribbon droop and Itsuki beginning to falter despite her earlier confidence. Ichika was sound asleep. He rubs the bridge of his nose and sighs, "I think it's enough for today. The sun is already setting, I should get home soon."
"That was tough..." Ichika mumbles while stretching her arms out, apparently awake the whole time.
"But I think we made some major progress today. When we keep studying like this, for certain we will pass our exams in no time." Itsuki explains with a small smile on her face.
"My head feels like it's gonna explode..." Yotsuba exclaims, exhausted.
Fuutarou stands up and puts on his backpack after slipping his own notes back inside. "We made some progress but that was not enough. We probably have to study even more than you expect. But for now, I will head home. See you guys tomorrow!"
Fuutarou walks towards the entrance door but is then stopped by Ichika who grabs his sleeve. "Hey, how about having Itsuki-chan bringing you home?"
Fuutarou looks at her with confusion. "Why does Itsuki need to accompany me back home? I know the way already and she probably has better-"
"Oh, come on! She insists!" Ichika grabs Itsuki by her hand and slowly pushes the two of them towards the entrance door. "But Ichika!" Itsuki shouts while she slowly begins to blush.
Ichika turns toItsuki's ear and chuckles. "Come on, it's your chance. Walking home together while the sun sets in the background, isn't that romantic?" She whispers and then opens the door for the two of them.
"Just make sure you two have fun, alright?"
Before the youngest quintuplet could protest, the door closes behind Itsuki and Fuutarou.
How will the two react to the situation Ichika put them in? Will Itsuki bring Fuutarou home or will she just go inside again?
Authors Note:
Hey guys, I read each of your reviews and I saw that some of you thought the last chapter was a little fast-paced so I will try to slow it down a bit.
See ya next time!
Also maybe the quality of this chapter may not be as good as the first because I had some problems writing it. I hope you still enjoyed it