It was the last day of the school trip. Everyone was already pretty excited and couldn't wait for the dance around the bonfire this evening. As of right now, none of the five sisters had a partner to dance with.
Nino wouldn't get to dance with "Kintarou" since he declined her offer, Miku still wasn't sure whether to accept dancing with Takeda, Ichika had to take care of her issue (Maeda) and Itsuki was still struggling to find the courage to ask Fuutarou to dance with her.
In the early morning, all of the students got into the bus again as they were about to go skiing. Fuutarou sighs because he probably was going to sit next to a random student he didn't know or maybe Maeda would come and annoy him once again. But weirdly enough, out of all the people who could have taken the seat next to him, it was Nino that approached him.
"Can I sit next to you?" She asks politely. Fuutarou was definitely confused about this. Not only was she not acting rudely toward him, but she also wanted to sit next to him voluntarily. He surreptitiously checked if the sky was falling down before responding.
"Yes, go ahead," Fuutarou mumbles and turns to the side, hoping that this bus ride wouldn't take too long or else this would be a pain in the ass.
"So, is Kintarou going to come skiing with us, today?"
"W-What?" Fuutarou jumps up hysterically and bumps his head on the seat in front of him. He looks at Nino in confusion, not knowing what to say to her. "We-Well, Kintarou can't come today. He's got some work to do and therefore will not be able to join us today."
Nino sighs and turns to look out the window with a disappointed look on her face. "I really hoped to get to know him a bit better but it seems like that will have to wait." Nino then grabs her phone and looks at Fuutarou once again. "At least give me his phone number."
"Oh, his p-p-phone number, you say? I'm sorry, I don't have my phone with me, right now, so I can't give you it right now. Maybe later, okay?" Fuutarou shakes his head frantically, hoping that Nino wouldn't catch any of the blatant lies tumbling out his mouth. But saying that he doesn't have a phone would make it even more obvious to her.
"Gosh, you really are useless, nothing like your cousin at all!" Nino grinds her teeth and crosses her arms. Fuutarou sighs and leans back into his seat, attempting to regain his composure. "You really like Kintarou, don't you?"
"Are you kidding me, he's amazing! He's good-looking, he's smart, and yesterday, when Miku got lost, he didn't hesitate one second to go and search for her even though he didn't even know her! He seems like such a good boy..."
Fuutarou listened to her, internally amused and slightly disappointed that she was essentially singing his praises, even if she was gushing over his alter-ego. But then, he thought of something.
"You said that he was smart, didn't you?"
"Yes, I just said that."
"Since you like Kintarou this much and you said that he was smart, I could maybe ask him if he could give you tutoring sessions. I know that you wouldn't even want to join my tutoring sessions if your life depended on it so this way, you could work on your grades and get to know him better!"
Nino's cheeks begin to turn bright pink and her eyes start to widen. She turns to Fuutarou with a bright grin on her face. "Of course! If he was my tutor, I would never miss a single session again!"
Finally, Fuutarou found a solution to teach all of the five sisters in some way. The other four sisters were already attending his tutoring session regularly. Now, the only thing left for him to do is to meet with Nino separately while playing the role of Kintarou so he could teach her. This way, he could work on the grades of all the sisters at once.
"Well, then I'll make sure to ask him the next time I meet him. I'm sure he would be more than happy to teach you."
For quite a while, the two of them stay quiet. Fuutarou studied during most of the bus ride while Nino was busy texting her friends. Not that he was complaining about the silence.
But only a few minutes before the bus was going to stop, Nino speaks up once again.
"Uesugi, there's one other thing I need to ask you."
"Hm?" Fuutarou mumbles, not wanting to get interrupted during his studies, but also knowing that ignoring her would just lead to ruin.
"Did Ichika ask you to go dancing with her?" Hearing this makes Fuutarou's cheeks turn red. He rubs the back of his head, not knowing what to say to her.
"I thought you already knew, Maeda has asked Ichika out. I don't think she is even considering asking anyone out to dance with her before she solved this problem of hers."
"Maeda? Isn't that the boy Matsui has a crush on? I thought she was going to ask him out yesterday..."
Fuutarou, struggling to process what Nino had just said to him, looks at her in disbelief. "I'm sorry?" The girl rolls her eyes but repeats herself.
"I said that Matsui has a crush on Maeda. I just don't understand why a guy like him would ask Ichika out. But I don't think that would be a problem-"
This time, Nino gets interrupted by Fuutarou who jumps up with a broad grin on his face. "That solves all our problems! We just make sure that Matsui asks Maeda to dance with her. This way Maeda won't be sad that he didn't get to be together with Ichika because he now has Matsui. And that way, everyone is happy!"
The bus slows to a stop, and Fuutarou frantically jumps out of his seat and out of the bus, hoping to catch Ichika before she got to the ski slope. Nino, who was left behind by him, stares into the air with a look of confusion. "What was that idiot talking about?"
Fuutarou looks around the growing group of students coming out of the multiple buses until he finally sees Ichika leaving one of them with Itsuki and Yotsuba walking right behind her.
"Ichika, I have some good news!" Fuutarou exclaims as he approaches the girls.
"Look who's there, it's Fuutarou-kun~" Ichika giggles whilst looking at him with a smile. "What's the good news?"
Both Yotsuba and Itsuki, who were standing right beside their sister, quickly pass by the two without a greeting as if Fuutarou wasn't even there. Fuutarou looks at the two youngest sisters, puzzled about why they didn't even say hello to him. "What's up with those two?"
"Oh, I don't know. They've both been pretty quiet since yesterday. Did something happen between the three of you?"
Fuutarou quickly flipped through his memories of the day before, trying to figure out if anything went wrong or if he said something that could have hurt them but he couldn't think of anything. He shrugged. "Well, I don't think so. I've done nothing to warrant a reaction like that. Maybe they are just homesick."
"Homesick? Oh, come on, Fuutarou-kun. They may be the youngest two out of us five sisters, but they are still old enough to stay at a hotel for a few days without getting homesick. Anyway, you wanted to tell me something?"
"Oh, yeah, right. I think I found a solution to your problem with Maeda." A bright smile forms on Ichika's face and she quickly embraces him by encircling his arm with her own. "What is it? Tell me about it!"
"I just heard from Nino that Matsui, some other girl in our year, is in love with Maeda. She just couldn't build up the courage to ask him out yet! If we manage to bring those two together, you won't have to go out with him anymore and he won't be sad!"
Ichika's cheeks turn pink and she quickly puts her arms around Fuutarou, hugging him and kissing his cheek. "Thank you, Fuutarou-kun. You saved me~" Fuutarou feels his face heat up as well after being kissed by Ichika.
"I haven't saved you yet, you know. We still have to find Matsui and help her ask Maeda out." Fuutarou looks around, trying to find Matsui only to realize that the teachers and students were already lining up to get their skiing equipment.
The two of them quickly go to join the rest and get their equipment. Out of all the students, they came in last, so they had to wait extra long to get their stuff. While they were waiting for the next ski lift to arrive, Ichika sees Miku sitting on a small bench on her own. She was looking worried and even a bit sad.
Ichika grabs Fuutarou by his arm and walks with him towards her sister. "Miku, is something wrong?"
Miku shakes her head and sighs. "No...no it's nothing." It was pretty obvious that something was bothering her but it didn't seem like Miku wanted to tell them about it. Fuutarou then remembers the last evening and how the atmosphere between her and Takeda was quite awkward. Did it have something to do with that?
"Miku, you know you can always talk to me. I'm your sister, I'll help you whatever the problem is." Ichika sits down next to Miku and gently caresses her sister's hair but she still stayed quiet.
"It has something to do with Takeda, am I right?" Fuutarou asks which makes Miku's cheeks turn red. She covers her face with her hands and shakes her head frantically.
"Takeda? That boy you've been hanging out with? Don't tell me he asked you out!" Ichika giggles and inches closer to her sister, putting her arm around her shoulder. "Come on, you know that your big sis would love to hear more about it."
Miku stays silent for a moment but then sighs, taking her hands off her face and looking at the ground. "You...You are right. Takeda asked me to dance with him yesterday. I didn't know what to say and then Yotsuba and Fuutarou found us in the forest so I just told him that I would be giving him an answer today but I just can't! I don't know what to say to him."
"Well, I can't answer this question for you but I can help you find the answer to it. Say, do you like Takeda?"
"I do like him but only as a friend. I can talk to him about Japanese history and he's someone I can trust but... that's it." Miku looks up from the ground at Ichika's face with a worried look. "And then there's this legend saying that if I were to dance with him tonight, we would fall in love. But still, I don't want to hurt our relationship by declining."
Ichika and Fuutarou sigh simultaneously and shake their heads.
"Miku, you do realize that this legend is just hearsay? You won't actually fall in love with him just because you danced around a bonfire with him!" Fuutarou explains.
"And if you really don't wanna dance with him, you can just tell him that. I don't think it would be that big of a problem. I'm sure you can still be friends." Ichika clarifies.
Then, the ski lift arrives, and the glass doors open for them to get in. "I'll need a minute to think about it," Miku mumbles while standing up and getting into the lift. The other two quickly follow her and wait for her answer.
Once they have arrived at the top, Miku speaks up once again. "I think I'll accept it. I like him and I really want to have as much fun on this class trip as possible. And since nobody asked me to dance except for him, why not accept it and have some fun tonight? And after all, he's just a friend. And this stupid legend won't change that."
A smile forms on Ichika's face and she gently strokes through her sister's hair. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Miku pouts and walks out of the ski lift. "I'm not a child anymore, Ichika." Ichika laughs and exits the ski lift with Fuutarou following behind her.
"Well, now the only thing left to do is find Matsui and convince her to ask Maeda out."
As the two of them didn't know which one of the girls Matsui was, they approach Nino once again. Yotsuba and Itsuki on the other hand were still trying to avoid Fuutarou for some reason that he was in the dark about. Nino shows them a picture of Matsui and leaves. Now the two of them only needed to find Matsui in this big crowd of students, skiing down the hill.
The two of them decide to, for now, just go skiing themselves and search for Matsui while doing so. Fuutarou had a rough start as he hadn't gone skiing before but with the help of Ichika, he managed to perform well enough to not fall on his face.
After using the lift to go up the hill again, they see a group of girls in a nearby cafe. And luckily, one of the girls was just the one they were looking for.
"Excuse me, Matsui, may we talk to you for a minute?" Fuutarou asks after walking up to their table. Matsui, while confused at the sudden request, agrees and follows the two.
"What is that you want to talk about?"
"Matsui, we've heard that you are in love with Maeda and-" Ichika instantly gets interrupted by Matsui who was surprised to hear that. "How do you even know that? Only a few of my friends know that I'm in love with him!"
"I don't think that this is of relevance, right now. We have a favor to ask of you." Fuutarou interjects calmly. Thankfully, Matsui doesn't seem like she wants to cause a scene. "What is it?"
"You know, Matsui, Maeda recently approached me and asked me out. He not only wants to dance with me tonight but also go out on dates with me afterward. I didn't want to hurt him so I agreed even though I'm not into him. So I maybe thought that you could ask him out right after I break up with him?"
Matsui shakes her head and nearly tears up after hearing what Ichika had to say. "Did you even listen to yourself? Maeda clearly is in love with you, not with me! Why would he go out with someone like me?"
Not knowing what to say to her, Ichika and Fuutarou remained quiet. But then, Fuutarou remembered the talk he had with Maeda on the first day of the trip.
"I've talked to Maeda before and he said that the thing that made him fall in love with Ichika was her bright, lovely smile. If you ask him to dance with you while putting on the best smile you can give him, I'm sure he wouldn't decline. And if the legend of the dance is true, the two of you will fall in love after dancing with each other. So in the end, he will forget about Ichika and only have eyes for you."
The two girls look at Fuutarou baffled. Matsui shakes her head and laughs nervously. "It can't be that easy. Do you really think he'll say yes only because I cutely smile at him?"
Fuutarou sighs and shakes his head. "No, of course not. But after being rejected by the one he has a crush on, having a cute girl smile at him and spend time with him could make his day."
Ichika looks at Matsui with a soft smile and giggles. "You just have to believe in yourself, Matsui. I'm sure that it will work out."
Matsui stays silent for a few more seconds, her cheeks turning red but in the end, she nods. "Alright, I'll ask him to dance with me!"
Ichika turns to Fuutarou and smiles at him nervously. "I know that you want to help me with this but I think from now on, I'll have to handle it on my own." Fuutarou nods as the two girls leave him standing at the cafe.
Just moments after the girls had left, he hears a girl shouting loudly.
"Someone get help! There has been an accident!" The girl dashes into the cafe and Fuutarou quickly follows her inside to hear more about this accident.
"A girl crashed into a tree while going down the ski slope! I don't know what to do!" Another girl walks up to her and asks. "Did you see who it was?"
"I don't know but it looked like one of the Nakano sisters!"
Author's Note:
Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.
We slowly approach the finale of the arc and there still are some questions unanswered.
Which one of the Nakano sisters had the accident and what exactly happened to her?
How will the situation all around Maeda turn out?
Why are Yotsuba and Itsuki avoiding Fuutarou all of the sudden?
Speaking of which, will Itsuki ask Fuutarou to dance with her?
Is the legend of the bonfire real?
I don't know if the arc will end in the next chapter or in the chapter after that but I'll make sure to make them as fast as I can so you won't have to wait!
Also, thanks to my beta reader Teras who still supports me, after all, this time!
If you want, you can join the discord some other QQ Writers (and myself in the past) usually hang out on: discord . gg / V54pcwA
Also, you can message me directly on discord: LucXelf#0906
See you soon!
Note from the beta: LucX gives me too much credit. Keep supporting this wonderful author! He does amazing.