And we are here after one freaking month guys! Thirty days, thirty updates in a row! Hahaha, but I'm not done yet! I have a record to beat, and so I will continue to write as I always do! Last chapter, we continued with more backstory on Isanari, Maruo, and Rena but we're not done just yet! There's more to uncover in their story, so stick with it until the end! We learned that Isanari saved Maruo from some bullies which led to them being friends, and he pushed the guy to confess to Rena, which began their relationship. What's gonna happen next? Let's find out!

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Disclaimer: I don't own the Quintessential Quintuplets, or any of its characters...

While Itsuki and Fuutarou began a small conversation of their own that was about telling Maruo everything that Isanari was revealing to them, Yotsuba had a big smile as a look of excitement appeared on her face compared to her sister's conflicted look earlier on. This was the first time that she heard of these things about their parents and while some of it were both confusing and surprising to say the least, it was still about their mom and dad! At this point, Yotsuba just wanted to know more about their parents no matter how crazy things might sound like.

"Ooh, ooh, tell us about Mama next! How did you and Mama know each other? You said she was your senpai, but it sounded like you were friends instead!" she asked.

"Hm, there's nothing much to that, honestly," the blonde man shrugged before he drank some water. Hehe, good thing he got a good picture of his son and Itsuki having a moment just a while ago! "Maruo just introduced yours truly to her and we became friends! We even became drinking buddies too, just like your old man! Sure, she was one year ahead of me in school, but does that really stop people from making friends?"

This new topic quickly caught Itsuki's attention, most likely because of their mother as she recalled something that Isanari said to them a while ago. "But I thought you said earlier that Mother was… p-possessive when it came to Father that you couldn't be around him? Did something happen along the way?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, senpai was really clingy to your father, but that was only during the start of their relationship. After about six months of dating, they were just a normal couple and were on equal grounds from there. I didn't see your old man getting dragged around anymore and he'd even lead the way when I saw those two going on a date! One day, he introduced his girlfriend to me and we became friends," he said, remembering the time when he first met the quintuplets' mother.

This only intrigued Itsuki even more, and made her more interested in knowing more like her sister. "I wonder what could have caused her to change then," she mused, putting on a thinking pose.

Yotsuba turned towards Itsuki, looking just as curious as she was. "Maybe Papa told Mama to calm down?"

Fuutarou was just as interested about this whole thing as the two girls, but he kept himself silent and kept on listening to his father's words. Hey, can you blame him? Isanari had a connection to the father of his soulmates and somehow, he felt like Maruo was someone he could relate to, especially with the part about being someone who only focused on his studies and nothing else. He didn't know why, but there was just something about that man that felt familiar with…

"Well, here's where it gets a bit tricky. Maruo told me himself that Rena was only putting on an act when she was being possessive over him because like I said, that guy was just a scrawny kid back then who needed me to keep an eye on him so he doesn't get bullied around by other kids. When senpai came along, nobody bothered him anymore but while they were dating each other along the way, Maruo finally grew a spine of his own and he started to change into the father that you know today!"

Yotsuba and Itsuki slowly widened their eyes, too taken aback to say anything after that. However, it was at this moment that the young man sitting between them decided to speak once more out of his own curiosity. "Let me guess, you didn't have to keep an eye on him anymore now that he had their mother."

"Not entirely," the older man shook his head, before surprisingly putting on a more serious look. "Just when Maruo began to change and started acting less of the scrawny kid that everyone saw him as, he started to become popular in our school, especially with the girls. Back then, they saw him as a nerd who only studies and doesn't do anything else. About a year after dating Rena, other students started changing what they think of him. From the nerd that nobody wants to hang out with, to the 'handsome, smart and silent badass' that doesn't let anything phase him."

As soon as his explanation was over, the reactions from the three teenagers were varied, but they all had the same thing in mind. Yotsuba was back to her energetic demeanor with a big smile on her face, while Itsuki was contemplating about everything that she has heard so far about her parents.

"Now that's the Papa I know!"

"Yes, that does sound a lot like Father now…"

"Why does his situation feel so similar...?" Fuutarou thought to himself, realizing that his current dilemma in school was exactly the same as Maruo, only different when it came to the circumstances that led to it. While their father became popular due to his relationship with their mother, he was suffering from the same thing because of a stupid rumor about him and Itsuki that blew out of proportion.

Well, actually, it was still similar because it involved a boy and a girl… though him and Itsuki weren't in a relationship unlike her parents…

"When I first heard about the rumors about Maruo, I thought that it was just our classmates messing with him again, until I saw several girls trying to ask him out!" Yotsuba and Itsuki gasped at this, unable to imagine their father being with any other woman other than their mother. Isanari only smirked at their reactions, before continuing in his words. "You heard me right, he became really popular out of nowhere, especially with the girls. Some of them were even the ones who did their best to ignore him at first! I actually got worried that the attention may bother him but luckily, Rena was there to back him up."

"What did Mother do?"

Itsuki asked the same question that was on her mind as well as Yotsuba's, feeling worried that something bad might have happened at this point in their parents' lives.

"Well, remember what I said about her putting on an act to keep an eye on anybody bothering him? She didn't need to act anymore, and made it clear to everyone in the school that Maruo was hers. The crazy thing about it is that your old man didn't look embarrassed like he would normally be around her! He even confirmed what she said before they walked away!" The blonde man exclaimed as if it was the greatest thing he had seen in his life, before his laughter rang out. "Oh man, oh man, if I just had a camera that time, I'd be able to show these things to you…!"

"That's so sweet of Mama!" Yotsuba cooed with a light blush on her face, clasping her hands together as she had sparkles in her eyes at hearing how their mother defended their father from the attention of many girls.

Meanwhile, Itsuki only felt flustered upon knowing about this, and it caused her to lower her head to hide her red cheeks from everyone else. "I…I suppose I can see how she is p-possessive..."

"That sounds exactly like what Nino did today… did she inherit that from their mother or something?" Fuutarou deadpanned in his mind, thinking back to how the second quintuplet made that sudden declaration in front of his classmates. Jeez, that was such a bold statement to make, but there's no possible way to take it all back now…

"Naturally, many of the girls became jealous of senpai and they didn't give up trying to ask Maruo out. They'd put love letters in his locker and some of the crazier ones even tried making bentos for him, hoping he'd accept them. But, your old man was loyal to one girl alone, and that's your mother. She was his first love and he never thought about cheating on her or anything," Isanari said, feeling proud of his old friend as if he was watching his son grow up all over again. "Ah, high school love… I wish I could've met my wife that early in life…"

Almost immediately, Fuutarou cleared his throat loudly, quickly getting his father's attention. The young man gave him a frown while Raiha had a disappointed look on her face, causing Isanari to feel confused for a moment, until he realized what he just said.

"Ah sorry, anything else you two wanted to know?" the blonde man laughed nervously in an attempt to save the conversation, while Fuutarou only shook his head because the damage has already been done.

The two girls looked at each other, quickly taking note of how the atmosphere changed in an instant the moment Fuutarou and Raiha's mother was mentioned. They couldn't help but feel curious about it, however, they made no move to ask any questions regarding the topic. It may be a sensitive one for all they know and they didn't want to bring such a thing up, especially here.

Yotsuba chose to speak, since she still wanted to know more about their parents, after all. "What happened after college? You were still friends with Mama and Papa at that point, right?" she asked, although she looked less eager than she was earlier.

"Sure am!" Isanari went back to his playful smile in an effort to make them forget about what he just said a while ago. "Though, we didn't see each other much after we graduated and had a little celebration after it. The only times I get to see them would be whenever Rena or I invited the other out for drinks. Other than that, they were off doing their own thing while I'm doing my own. We still texted sometimes to see how the other was doing, but that was more of Rena's thing than your dad's."

"You didn't see Mother and Father again after graduation?" Itsuki asked, her curiosity over her parents winning over what she wanted to know about Fuutarou's mother.

"I didn't say that. Your parents actually invited me and my wife to their wedding, you know?"

Now that was something that the girls didn't expect yet again, to the point that they almost stood up out of shock. Isanari has been to their parents' wedding?! If they didn't know any better, they would have claimed he's just joking around! Actually, if Nino was here, she wouldn't hesitate to say that! That was even harder to believe, more than their father being friends with him! Even Fuutarou and Raiha were taken aback, both in disbelief that their father and mother have been to the wedding of the quintuplets' parents, which only solidified the fact that their families were connected!

"They did?!" Itsuki and Yotsuba cried out at the same time.

"Yeah, and those two didn't have a big wedding at all. The only people there aside from us were their parents, so I'd say we were lucky to even be invited!" The man felt his energy from earlier returning to him, and now he was thinking back to when he witnessed that particular wedding between his two friends. "Well, actually, we learned that Maruo didn't want to but senpai insisted that we should be there to see it, because… you know, because we were best buds, but you'll never hear that guy admit it."

"It sounds like Papa was just embarrassed that you'll see him getting married," Yotsuba giggled in amusement, since she could totally see their father refusing to let anyone see him in such a state.

"Yeah, that's what I thought when I found out about it from senpai…" Isanari sweat-dropped, before reverting back to his normal look. "Anyway, after that wedding, we had the reception at one of your usual fancy restaurants. Maruo confronted me and said the same thing as his wife about not wanting me to be there, but despite that, he thanked me for everything I did for him throughout the years that we knew each other."

If they didn't look shocked before, the two quints were completely blown away by now, to the point that their jaws had dropped to the floor and rendering them speechless. Who could blame them, honestly? It almost seemed too good to be true! For as long as they knew their own father, never could they have imagined that same person thanking another for such an 'irrelevant reason', just like how Maruo would say it.

"It was the nicest thing he ever did! Can you believe it? Maruo, the coldest and most serious guy you'll ever see in your life, actually thanked me for everything that I did for him because he saw me as his only friend! That's exactly what he said to me, and I even thought I was dreaming at one point! If that wasn't enough, I thought someone abducted the real Maruo and locked him up somewhere!"

"Ehehe…" Yotsuba could only sweat-drop while Itsuki looked embarrassed, because they would have had the same reaction as Isanari if they were in his place.

The blonde man slammed his fist on the table and began to laugh loudly. "Ahahahahaha, but seriously, who could have ever known that guy had the heart to thank someone? Certainly not me, so I just rolled with it and went back to joking around. Your old man then regretted what he did because, apparently, his wife heard everything he said and clung on to him just like old times, while saying how happy she was to marry someone like him. I've never seen Maruo so flustered before."

"Haaauuuu, if only we had a picture of them…" Yotsuba whined, hugging her knees close to her chest. Sadly, they can only rely on Isanari's words alone to know more about their parents, and it would be the same thing for their other sisters when Itsuki and her tell them about all this when they get home.

There's no telling how they'd react to what they were going to say too!

"That's very sweet of Mother," Itsuki smiled gently. In contrast to the ribbon-wearing girl, she was perfectly fine with relying on words because just the simple fact that they were learning all of these new things about their parents was already enough for her. It was also making her admire their mother even more!

Doing a complete 180, Yotsuba turned towards her sister with a smile on her cute face. "I can't wait to tell Ichika, Nino, and Miku about all this! There's so many things we didn't know about Papa and Mama!"

Itsuki only nodded her head, feeling as eager as her sister.

All of a sudden, Raiha spoke up with a happy look on her face, while seemingly excited for some particular reason. "I want to meet Rena-san! She sounds so cool and she must be really pretty like Itsuki-san and Yotsuba-san!"

Both Itsuki and Yotsuba's smiles dropped almost instantly after that, as they turned their attention towards the younger girl, who was completely innocent about what she just brought up.

Fuutarou noticed the shift in their expressions as well and he quickly looked at Raiha in worry as a result, thinking that his sister might have touched on a personal matter that involved their mother. What else could be the reason? Raiha was talking about how she'd like to meet his students' mother just now, which caused Itsuki and Yotsuba to look at her with unreadable expressions on their faces.

"Raiha…" Isanari, who had a somber look on his face as opposed to his playful expression earlier, spoke in a low tone as his daughter turned towards him.

"Eh…? What?" she asked, still clueless about what was going on.

Before the blonde man could say anything, he sent a serious glance at Maruo's two daughters, as if he was asking for their permission to say his next words. While they were both caught off guard with this new revelation regarding Isanari's knowledge about their mother, Itsuki and Yotsuba turned to each other for a brief moment before giving the man separate nods of their own. Isanari was a friend of their parents, there's nothing wrong with telling Raiha and to an extent, Fuutarou, about what became of their mother.

But that still left the question of how did this man find out about their mother? Maybe he knew about it from Maruo himself? Or did another member of their family tell it to him?

With the girls' permission, Isanari turned back towards his daughter as he let out a deep sigh. It hurt him deep inside to remember this, but began to speak nonetheless. "Their mother's gone. Rena passed away years ago. There's no way you can meet her, Raiha."

The innocent look on the girl's face dropped immediately, seemingly confused for a moment which then turned into a terrified expression upon realizing what she brought up just a while ago.

"O-Oh no… I…" Raiha looked at Yotsuba and Itsuki, her lips trembling with emotion and tears of regret were building up in her eyes for what she thought she did. She bowed her head, both in apology and to hide the look of shame on her face, and all Isanari could do was pat her back in comfort. "I'm sorry, Itsuki-san! Yotsuba-san! I didn't mean to talk about Rena-san like that! I had no idea that she… t-that she…!"

Itsuki gave the girl a reassuring smile, showing that she was completely fine. "It's okay, Raiha-chan. It's been many years, we've moved on from it. She may be gone, but we have not forgotten about her one bit."

"Yeah, don't blame yourself, Raiha-chan…" Yotsuba did the same, before she stood up and walked over towards the younger girl to comfort her. "You didn't know at all, so it's not your fault!"

While all of this was happening, Fuutarou had a wide-eyed look on his face as soon as his father dropped that sudden revelation, hitting him like a tidal wave. He swiftly turned his head towards both quintuplets, where he felt like something just made his chest burn from the inside for some reason, and it happened just when Isanari told them that their mother has passed on.

"Rena… that name… why does it sound so familiar… I wasn't feeling this way earlier, was I…?" he thought to himself.

Yeah, ever since dinner started, Fuutarou had directed his attention to learning more about the connection between his father and Maruo Nakano, which included learning about the quints' mother along the way. Nothing happened to him upon finding out that her name was Rena, right? So why did his mind feel like it was being invaded by that very name?

"Argh… this has nothing to do with me! I'm not the one who's friends with their mother!" he shouted in his own mind, which was surprisingly effective in calming himself down as he was now able to clear his mind of these invading thoughts about his students' mother.

However, little did he know that 'Rena' was a name that he unconsciously knew for many years.

And that concludes the backstories for now! The next time we'll get back to them will probably be when Maruo finds out that his daughters know about his past, which should be hilarious when we get to that. And so, we learned in this chapter how Maruo turned from a nerd into the cold and serious father that he is in canon. Somehow, Fuutarou relates with him because of what he is currently going through while the girls are shocked to hear what their mother was like as a girlfriend, but Maruo didn't mind it? Fuutarou and Raiha also find out that the quints' mother is dead, from Isanari who somehow knew about it for some reason. What happened to Fuutarou by the end? He knew Rena? That's impossible, he never met their mother right? Or did he...? See ya'll tomorrow!

Goodbye... and good night! BANG! *too sweet gesture*

-Lance