Together Itsuki and Ichika walk up the stairs and enter Itsuki's bedroom. A big and wide bed, just like in Miku's room, takes up a good portion of the space within the bedroom. A cuddly red duvet, properly folded, and three big pillows each with a star pattern on them lie on top of the mattress. A night table beside the bed holds a lamp, with an open book wedged underneath a corner of said lamp to function as a makeshift bookmark.

On the left side of the room, a wooden cupboard with some decorations and purses in it is positioned next to a desk. The desktop contains several pens and a couple open textbooks, and if one took a closer look, they would notice that the pages bore marks, most of the lines circled or underlined.

Additionally, one big wooden closet is the first thing you see after entering the room and looking to your left.

Itsuki brushes aside the contents of her table, making space to add her own stuff, and then sits down on the edge of her bed, legs crossed. "Now, what is it you want to talk about?"

Ichika follows her with a curious smile, one that Itsuki carefully watches as she sits down right next to her. "Tell me, how did it go?"

"What do you mean?" Itsuki asks with a baffled look on her face while turning to properly face Ichika.

"Did something special happen between you and Fuutarou-kun? It took you quite a while until you finally came back home."

"Well first we met Nino and we nearly got into a fight…but then I just walked away with Uesugi-kun. When we finally arrived at his house, his sister invited me to eat dinner with them and I accepted. And after that, I called Ebata-san to pick me up and drive me home." Itsuki explains, but deliberately leaves out scenes that she knows her cheeky older sister would pounce on. She could not report what happened from start to finish, in fear of letting slip embarrassing details. Especially not the part where she grabbed his hand. Ichika would flip out if she hears that, and considering how hard it was to keep secrets from the rest, Nino would go berserk once she catches wind of it.

Nonetheless, Ichika's smile widens as she edges closer to Itsuki. "That sounds interesting. Have you two kissed yet?" Startled by the sudden probing question, Itsuki moves back and turns away from her older sister, feeling her cheeks begin to burn. "Ichika!" She mumbles, surprised at her audacity.

"I'm just kidding." Ichika chuckles. "Now tell me, what do you think about Fuutarou-kun? Do you like him?"

Itsuki hesitates for a few moments but then slowly turns back to face her again as she starts to speak up. "Yes, I like Uesugi-kun. But not in the way you are probably thinking about. I like him as a friend and that's what he is to me. He is a good friend of mine. While it may be to your disappointment, nothing romantic happened between the two of us today."

"That aside, it has only been a day since you first met him. Maybe if you two spend more time together, you will eventually fall in love with him, hmm?" Ichika giggles and puts her hand on her sister's shoulder. "I have an idea. Remember the fireworks festival happening this Sunday? How about you ask him if he wants to go to that festival with you?"

Itsuki jumps up, confusion apparent from her expression. The red that had previously dominated her cheeks had vanished in an instant. "But Ichika, we wanted to go to that festival together with Nino, Yotsuba, and Miku! We do this every year, watching the fireworks together just like we used to do with mother! I can't just ditch my sisters for a boy I just met!"

"Calm down, I am sure the others will understand it. I think they will be even more excited because you would be going on your first date! Our Itsuki, the hardworking bookworm, finally showing interest in something other than food or studying!"

"Yotsuba would be the only one happy about it! Don't you see that Nino basically hates Uesugi-kun and Miku obviously doesn't like him either?!"

"That may be true but even if you didn't go to the festival with Fuutarou, it would not be possible for the five of us to watch the fireworks together this year..." Ichika mumbles in a calm, but sad voice. Itsuki tilts her head, not understanding what her sister was saying. "What do you mean?"

"This Sunday, I can't watch the fireworks with all of you…"

"What? What are you going to do? What could possibly be more important?!"

"The Yakiniku set without the Yakiniku, please," Fuutarou speaks calmly to the cafeteria lady. He follows his regular routine, same as every day, but this time something just doesn't feel right. The whole atmosphere in school has changed in comparison to yesterday.

Fuutarou takes his lunch and after paying with a brief word of thanks, looks for an empty table to sit at. As he does so, he realizes what gave him this weird feeling. Most of the students in the cafeteria had been staring at him since he entered and were still staring at him even as he shifts uncomfortably under their gazes. Normally they would see him, make fun of him and then forget that he even was there but this time, it was way different. Their eyes follow him as he moves, and he resists the urge to run.

Without noticing, too caught up in the unwanted attention, he walks past the table Itsuki and her sisters are sitting at. Yotsuba and Nino on the other hand, clearly see him walking by. Yotsuba stands up and stops Fuutarou by jumping straight into his path. "Uesugi-san!"

Fuutarou nearly stumbles and looks down at the orange-haired Nakano sister with an angry look on his face. "Yotsuba, you can't just jump at people with food in their hands. What if I tripped over? Not only would my lunch be ruined, but so would your uniform!"

Yotsuba rubs the back of her head and smiles at him nervously. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to…hehe." She trails off with a sheepish chuckle, but then raises her voice once more, brimming with motivation. "I just wanted to ask you if you want to eat lunch with us. The five of us already have enough space."

Suddenly Nino walks up to the two of them. Just like her sister, she is wearing her new school uniform that consists of a white blouse, a black jacket, and a short green skirt. "I don't think that he wants to sit with us. This loser always eats all by himself, so why would he bother with other people just because they asked?"

"That sounds awful. Eating with others is way more fun! You should really join us, Uesugi-san!" Yotsuba exclaims as she points at the other three sisters sitting at their table, currently eating their lunches. Noticeably, Itsuki has the biggest portion out of all of them, her meal being several times the size of his own pathetic lunch.

Fuutarou can only sigh, conceding the point to Nino. He knew that it would not be good for the Nakano sisters' reputation to be seen with him, the loser who always eats alone. Also, he is painfully aware of both Nino and Miku not wanting him near them so he decided to make the mature decision of stopping any trouble before it can even begin. "Apologies, Yotsuba. As Nino just said, I would prefer eating alone. Don't take it personally. Have a nice lunch."

"If that's the case, I don't want to hold you back from eating lunch." With a big smile, she walks back to her sisters while waving at Fuutarou. "I look forward to your lesson today!"

Fuutarou sighs once more, turning around to look for an empty table in the crowded cafeteria. He pauses, a shiver running down his spine as Nino's voice rings out behind him. "Now that Yotsuba is gone, would you be so kind as to tell me why you hugged Itsuki in the middle of the hallway yesterday?" Nino suddenly asks.

Fuutarou swallows nervously. As he thought, the other students watching the two of them hug in the hallway had already begun to spread rumors about him and Itsuki. That was the one thing he didn't want to happen. He didn't mind the students targeting him, whether it be to his face or behind his back, but he didn't want Itsuki to go through the same struggles.

"Will you answer my question already? Why did you hug her, you moron!" Nino asks loudly with an angry expression on her face. He groans softly as the few students not paying attention to him turn towards the sudden outburst, feeling like a bug underneath a microscope. "I already heard the rumors about the two of you so denying it happening won't help!"

"Nino, it is really not what you think it is. I am sure these rumors gave you the wrong impression of what happened between me and your sister…I can explain…" Fuutarou begins slowly until he realizes that he really, really couldn't explain what had happened. If he was, to tell the truth about how he accidentally made Itsuki cry, he was half-expecting Nino to resort to physical violence despite their crowd of onlookers.

"He comforted me when I was about to cry in the middle of the hallway." Like a guardian angel sent from the heavens, Itsuki shows up behind Nino to defend him. Just by looking at the steely glint in her eyes and by listening to what she just said, Fuutarou realizes how determined Itsuki was at that moment to ensure his prolonged safety. "When he told me about his family, I thought of mother and how our life was when she was still alive. I just couldn't help getting sentimental about it. But without hesitation, he started comforting me, and eventually, that led to him hugging me."

Nino crosses her arms and looks straight at Itsuki's face. For a few seconds, there is silence as the older quintuplet scans her sister's expression. Her face clearly shows how furious she was at that moment. But then, out of nowhere, she turns away from the two of them. "Fine." She exclaims in a sharp tone. "But don't think I will accept you being around my sisters."

Nino walks past Itsuki and leaves the cafeteria quickly. Itsuki sighs unhappily and walks up to Fuutarou. His focus quickly shifts from Nino's retreating back to Itsuki, who was now right in front of him. "I am sorry that my sister is constantly acting nasty towards you. I don't know what has gotten into her lately." Itsuki apologizes regretfully and bows her head. "You don't have to apologize for something you didn't cause. After all, it's not your fault that Nino acts like that when I am around." Fuutarou shakes his head, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder, catching a glimpse of their surroundings as he does so. Because of the rumors and thanks to Nino trying to squeeze answers out of him, pretty much everyone within a certain distance of them was acting like they were watching a particularly interesting movie.

Itsuki raises her head again and then jerks a finger in the direction of their table. "You sure you don't wanna join us?" She asks with a big smile on her face. It was an abrupt change in her mood and demeanor, but a welcome one nonetheless. Fuutarou felt better when she was happy.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't join them, even if he wanted to. He didn't want the rumors to spread any further and Miku still sits at their table. She would never allow Fuutarou to sit with them. "I am sorry, Itsuki but I still have to decline this offer." He begins, picking his words carefully so as to not hurt her feelings. "It has nothing to do with you but rather with the people staring at us."

"I see…in that case, enjoy your meal. See you later." The two of them turn around simultaneously and walk away from each other. As Itsuki sits down, she sighs with some disappointment. She didn't mind the rumors and she also didn't mind the people looking at them as they talked. She just didn't want Fuutarou to sit alone. In her eyes, eating lunch without her sisters would feel lonely, and considering Fuutarou constantly had to sit alone due to him being ostracized, she wanted to make sure he didn't feel lonely. They were friends for a reason.

Fuutarou on the other hand didn't feel lonely eating by himself. It was normal for him to do and also he didn't want the rumors to spread even further because that would mean that the students that are nasty towards him would also turn their attention onto Itsuki. Even if he didn't care about what they said or did, he didn't want them to punish his friend simply for being nice to him.

"What's the matter, Itsuki?" Yotsuba suddenly asks after seeing that Itsuki still hasn't started eating. "Is it because Nino ran off?"

"No, she will probably be fine," Itsuki mumbles as she turns her head to face Yotsuba. "I am worried about Uesugi-kun..."

"Oh, Itsuki-chan is worried about her tutor sitting alone? How cute!" Ichika with a smug expression on her face.

"I can't see why you like that guy. He seems like a person who would become a creepy stalker in the future." Miku exclaims as she empties her plate.

"Don't say something rude like that, Miku. Uesugi-san is a nice guy." Yotsuba chides gently. Even with Ichika attempting to draw a reaction out of her and her other two sisters starting to discuss Fuutarou's nature, Itsuki did participate in their conversations, lost in thought. She only had eyes for her tutor, wondering how she could talk to him without getting the attention of the other students. After all, she enjoyed talking to him.

When school eventually ended, Fuutarou makes his way to the entrance in order to change his shoes, unaware of what would happen next. When he opens his locker, he not only finds his shoes but also a letter tucked neatly beside them. He looks around to see who could have thrown that into his locker but he couldn't find anyone who would do something like that.

He picks it up cautiously, opens it, and starts to read the contents.

Meet me at the rooftop after school.

I have something to tell you.

-Itsuki

Fuutarou needed a few moments for his brain to process those words. When he finally regains his composure, he frowns at the implications of the message. Is this going to be a confession? But why would Itsuki confess to me? It has to be a prank by one of the guys in my class! Still, I have to see who gave me this letter and tried to impersonate her." Fuutarou thought to himself as he closes his locker and walks towards the stairs leading to the rooftop.

When he finally arrives at the designated meeting point, Itsuki is standing at the railing at the edge of the roof, looking over it and down at the yard. Was Itsuki really going to confess to him? That couldn't be happening, they only met one day ago!

Fuutarou mans up and walks towards her. "Hey, you wanted to talk to me?"

Itsuki turns around and smiles at Fuutarou. "So you received my message." She mumbles as she slowly closes the distance between them. Fuutarou backs up, not knowing what to do or what to say.

The two are now standing face to face without saying a word. That only makes things harder for Fuutarou who still couldn't comprehend what was currently happening to him. How should he react if she really wanted to confess to him?

"Now that you are here, I wanted to ask you if..."

"Here it comes..."

"We could exchange email addresses! That way I can always contact you if I have some questions regarding a subject or arrange another study session."

"Huh?" Fuutarou is even more confused now. She just wanted to exchange contact information with him? "I mean, sure but why would you want to meet up here? You could have just asked me during lunchtime." Fuutarou answers while taking out his old flip phone.

"Well, I didn't want you to worry about rumors spreading even more so I thought you would like to meet without the presence of the other students."

Fuutarou starts to grin, suddenly filled with relief now that he understood why she had slipped that message in his locker. Itsuki pulls out her phone too so the two of them could exchange email addresses and telephone numbers. After they had done it, Itsuki turns away from Fuutarou, tightly holding her phone in her hands. "Thank you very much. I look forward to our tutoring session, today." She suddenly walks off, exiting through the door leading to the staircase and leaving Fuutarou behind.

"Yeah, see you later..." Fuutarou mumbles as he watches Itsuki disappear from sight. "Maybe I am imagining things but somehow, she didn't seem like herself..."

Walking down the stairs, Itsuki meets Ichika, who was leaning against a wall and waiting for her to show up. "So…did you do it?"

"Why did you make me do this? It was so embarrassing!" Itsuki answers even as her cheeks begin to glow red. She pulls out her phone and shows her sister that she indeed had his number and his email address saved on it.

"Well done, Itsuki-chan. Now the two of you can talk to each other whenever you feel like it." Ichika starts to giggle and slowly walks down the stairs.

"Ichika, you're getting the wrong idea again! He's just my friend, there is nothing more to it!" Itsuki asserts desperately as she follows her sister down the stairs.

"Just joking~"

Later that day, Fuutarou walks to the building the Nakano's live in only to see that the entrance door wasn't opening. There was no sensor or handle that he could use to open it. The only thing he could find was an electronic keypad with a card reader. But without knowing what to type in or a card to swipe, he was going to be stuck out here.

Suddenly, the glass door opens and Miku walks out of the building. She has a brown, old book in her hand. Noticing him, she looks at Fuutarou with a disgusted look. "Why are you standing here all by yourself, stalker?"

"Miku, it's good to see you. I am here because of our today's tutoring session but unfortunately, the door just won't open." Fuutarou ignores the dig at his character once again, which leaves Miku sighing. "Have you never seen a self-locking door? You can't enter without a keycard or without someone buzzing you in. Next time you come here, enter our suite number and you will be connected to us via intercom. That way, we can let you in."

"I see...thank you for the advice." Fuutarou mumbles as his focus slowly shifts to the book Miku is holding in her hand. He remembers seeing this particular book in the past and he even knew where he saw it. It was a book on Japanese history he had once skimmed in the school's library. Why would Miku be reading this book? Was she interested in this kind of topic? But before he could ask her, she had already left him in the dust.

Fuutarou sighs as he watches her walk away. If she really is interested in Japanese history, he could use that to make her study with them. After all, he was quite well-versed on that topic too. He would only need to attract her interest and then- Fuutarou is snapped out of his musings as the entrance door slowly begins to close right before his eyes. He immediately jumps into the building before he is left outside once more.

What was he thinking about just a second ago? He can't remember but he knew that if he didn't pick up the pace, he would be late. He takes the elevator and walks to the door leading to their apartment.

Knocking on the door softly, he waits for a couple seconds, and soon enough, the door opens. Yotsuba stands in front of him with a smile on her face. "Ah, Uesugi-san. Come in, we were just waiting for you."

Fuutarou walks in and closes the door behind him. In the living room, he sees Ichika and Itsuki sitting around the table they were studying at last time.

"Ya-ho." Ichika while turning to her red-haired sister. "Don't you wanna ask him something?" Ichika whispers to her sister, leaving her no time to greet her tutor. Suddenly, Ichika stands up and walks towards Yotsuba and Fuutarou. Itsuki quickly turns to Ichika. "What? I can't do it! It's too embarrassing!"

"Hey, Yotsuba could you help me with something real quick?" Ichika asks as she grabs the hand of her sister and drags her up the stairs. "Eh? But we were about to start with the lesson!" Yotsuba answers, scratching her head even as she is tugged upstairs. Ichika looks down at Itsuki with a smile and winks at her before the two of them disappear into Ichika's bedroom.

Itsuki blushes beet-red instantly and slowly turns to face Fuutarou, who was just as confused as Yotsuba was when Ichika suddenly grabbed her. "Whatever they are doing, couldn't they have done it before I arrived?" Fuutarou complains halfheartedly whilst taking out his notebook.

"Uesugi-kun!" Itsuki suddenly shouts nervously. Fuutarou looks up at Itsuki whose whole body is shaking like never before. "What's the matter, Itsuki?"

"W-Would you l-like to go to the fi-fireworks festival with m...with me..." Itsuki asks while her voice slowly fades to a whisper. "I am sorry, could you repeat that?"

After a short moment of silence, in which she looks like she's doing an impression of a tree in a storm, Itsuki raises her head and looks at Fuutarou boldly. "Would you like to go to the fireworks festival with us, this Sunday?"

"Eh?"

Author's Note:

Hey everyone,

hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

I hope that I can post more frequently as I have lots of motivation to write more and more.

Also, if you want, you can join this discord where I and some other QQ-Writers often talk with each other: discord. gg / 2wNakxvfbw

What is Ichika going to do this Sunday? Why does Miku have a book on Japanese history? And what is Fuutarou going to answer to Itsuki's invitation? Find out in the next chapter!