51 CHAPTERS AND RUNNING?! I WILL CARRY THIS ARCHIVE EVEN IF IT COSTS ME MY BACK! YOU HEAR ME?! I WILL CONTINUE TO CARRY THIS FANDOM UNTIL WE GET NOTICED! Not only that, but ohoho! WE HAVE OFFICIALLY PASSED THE 400 MARK IN FOLLOWERS, GUYS! We are getting one step closer to reaching the very top of this archive for sure! From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you who continue to support me and this fanfic and I hope you stay along, because we are just getting started!

Last chapter, we have finally witnessed the long-awaited meeting between Fuutarou and Miku, but the shock hasn't been activated yet! He's actively trying to prevent it from happening because he feels that he's had enough for the day, but is he gonna succeed? Remember, it's only for the remainder of the day, and he has to make sure Miku doesn't notice what he's doing! What's gonna happen? Let's not waste time and just dive into the chapter!

The poll for Fuutarou's first kiss is officially over with one quint winning by a landslide amount. Want to find out who? Here's the Discord link: [discord . gg / 4y5QVPj]

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

Things went silent between them afterwards, apparently ending their conversation just there. Fuutarou kept his gaze ahead, focusing on the four girls before him while also taking note of his surroundings to ensure that he would remember this route in the future. There will likely be an instance in the future where he'll need to go to his soulmates' home on his own, which means he has to be prepared for when that happens. Nino was kind enough to let him walk with them on their way home, but Fuutarou knew to himself that he can't rely on them for help all the time.

He needed to know his way around, so that he'll be able to establish a route he can take whenever he goes to their home. That goes the same for when it's time for him to return home, and he could only hope that he'll find a way to make it to the station at least.

Also, he still needed to buy a box of pizza for his family later on…

While he was lost in his thoughts, the young man never noticed that Miku glanced back at him with a curious look in her eyes. No, she wasn't going to talk, but rather, she would just observe him… for now, at least.

Yeah, she was done trying to figure out who exactly he is, because now she's trying to see who he was in the eyes of her sisters. It's already clear to her that he's not someone to be wary or afraid of, but now she knows what it is about him that caught the interest of her sisters.

Fuutarou is obviously the guy that Itsuki likes, He's also the one whom Ichika was interested to meet and he's Yotsuba's tutor too. If that's not enough, he was also the same person whom Nino wanted to kick out of their lives at first but surprisingly changed her entire demeanor towards him recently!

She didn't get it.

Somehow… Miku expected more.

Okay, she may not be in any place to speak about this since she wasn't a people person by any means, but she just couldn't get why and how her sisters all had their attention on one guy recently. It's not that she didn't like the guy, but this whole situation seemed kind of fishy for some reason.

As a tutor, he didn't look much since they were literally on the same year and he was Itsuki's classmate. Shouldn't a tutor be older and have more experience than the student? But then again, he's been tutoring Itsuki for a whole week now and even Yotsuba ended up being his student too. From the way Itsuki talked about him in a good light, he was a great guy despite that serious upfront he had… and there's no reason for Itsuki to lie about such a thing! It's obvious that she would only say good things about him.

Not to mention, he was the person Itsuki thanked when she almost got a passing score on the test that she showed them last week. Yotsuba has also been doing the same thing as of late, most notably her actions from the previous night.

In Ichika's case, it's understandable why she would think of Fuutarou as someone interesting, and it's because of Itsuki. All five of them knew her very well, but they never expected Itsuki to talk about a boy when she arrived home last week, introducing that same person as her tutor. Of course, Ichika would tease their youngest sister of having a crush but in truth, she wanted to know more about whom Itsuki was talking about. Never has Itsuki talked about a boy in the past, and it was something that boggled their minds they heard about it.

That desire only grew bigger as the days passed until it reached this point, where Ichika couldn't bear the curiosity anymore and took it upon herself to find Fuutarou Uesugi and talk to him.

Looks like that ended pretty well, all things considered.

However, the biggest and most confusing thing about all this was Nino's shift in her attitude.

Miku knew her very well, even with the constant arguments that they always end up having. She knew how much Nino hated guys who dared to come near her family, despite always dreaming of meeting her 'prince charming' in the future. It wasn't a surprise to know that Nino attempted to threaten Fuutarou to leave Itsuki alone, but what came as a complete shocker was her change in demeanor after just meeting him.

All of a sudden, she didn't hate him… and even went as far as to trust Fuutarou to keep Itsuki and Yotsuba safe since he was their tutor!

How could she not be entirely confused from that?

Well, whatever caused her sisters to be enamored with Fuutarou Uesugi, she'll figure it out soon. No, she wasn't going to bother him while he's tutoring Yotsuba and Itsuki, but she could try and see what exactly draws the attention of her other sisters towards him.

If girls in school were approaching him because of the rumors they've been hearing, then what could be the case for her sisters?

Miku sent a curious glance at both Fuutarou, before releasing a deep breath to herself. Yeah, she'll figure out the reason…

"Come on, Itsuki… did you really have to buy ice cream now, of all times? This isn't gonna help your case because you're just wasting time. Didn't you want to study already?"

Nino groaned at her youngest sister, who was currently purchasing something from the nearby ice cream truck. Up until now, they were walking in peace on the way home until Itsuki saw the truck and, as expected of her, she couldn't resist buying something. This caused the rest of them to stop walking and simply waited for Itsuki to be done.

Truly a glutton.

Itsuki merely waved her hand and sent Nino a neutral look that was very reminiscent of Fuutarou's usual expression. "Please give me a moment, Nino. This will be over quick. You can go on ahead with Ichika, Miku, and Yotsuba if you wish, I just want to do something."

Ichika giggled and placed her hand on the second quint's shoulder to try and calm her down before something bad happened. "Nino, relax. This is Itsuki-chan we're talking about, after all, so it's not surprising to see her making a quick stop to buy an ice cream cone. I'm sure Fuutarou-kun doesn't mind it either, fufu~"

"Whatever," the aforementioned boy muttered, rolling his eyes at Ichika's attempt in teasing him. She did make a point, though. While Itsuki was his student, he didn't restrict her in doing the things she wanted, so if she wanted to go and buy a value meal from the nearest fast-food service, she was free to do so.

Fuutarou stood there in his place, keeping his gaze on Itsuki the whole time since they were waiting for her to be finished. He then blinked in surprise when he saw her holding two ice cream sticks before running back, and now she was standing right before him.

This could be either good… or bad. Maybe even both.

"Here you go, Uesugi-kun. Please take it," she smiled brightly, handing over the vanilla ice cream stick in her free hand. "Sorry, I didn't really know which flavor you prefer, so I went with what everyone likes!"

...

...

...

"EEEHHHHH…?!" Her four other sisters cried at the same time, all of them in disbelief from Itsuki's action just now.

WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!

A small blush erupted on Fuutarou's face, which he quickly tried to hide as soon as he noticed it and thankfully, none of the other quintuplets seemed to notice it because they were too shocked with what Itsuki just did. Well, who wouldn't be? They all thought Itsuki was just being her normal self and was going to buy something to eat because she wanted to…

…BUT NOBODY COULD HAVE SEEN HER GIVING HIM ICE CREAM!

It would make more sense if she gave ice cream to any of her sisters.

"Uhm… thanks…" he mumbled as he slowly took the stick of vanilla ice cream from her, opting not to ask why she would buy him food because it might only make this a lot more complex than it already was. Luckily for him, his face didn't look too red and he was able to control his embarrassment enough for the other girls to not notice his blush… because they still had their attention on Itsuki.

Seriously though, wouldn't Itsuki be a lot more flustered about this since her sisters were around? He could already tell that Ichika will have a field day in teasing her younger sister about this and Itsuki must be aware of this, so why even do this in the first place? Since when did she muster up the courage to do something like this?

Oh, well. He would never complain about free food!

"Oho, I see what she was planning to do~" Ichika's jaw had dropped out of shock at first, before finally snapping out of her trance moments later, an amused smirk formed on her face. "Quite a bold move by Itsuki-chan, if I say so myself. She even did that with us around~"

Shaking her head to bring herself back to reality, Nino sent an incredulous look towards Ichika before immediately turning her attention to Itsuki. "You think? Let's just keep going, alright? You can continue your date with him when we get home, is that alright with you?"

The tone in Nino's voice made Itsuki frown as the whole group continued on their way back. "I was simply buying an ice cream cone for Uesugi-kun and myself, Nino. Is there something wrong with what I did?" she asked rhetorically, trying her best to focus on eating her black forest-flavored ice cream in peace.

"What's wrong with what you did? If you wanted to buy him something, you should have said so! How do we know it's not just an elaborate attempt to cover up the fact that you're already trying to pretend you're his girlfriend?!" Nino shot back, giving her younger sister a savage grin.

"Wait… Itsuki is doing what…?!" Ichika's shocked look returned full-force, as she turned to Nino and basically demanded for an answer.

"You guys…" Yotsuba could only sweat-drop at this ongoing altercation since she couldn't do anything to stop it. Meanwhile, Itsuki gave their older sister a big pout in response, her eye twitching madly out of annoyance.

"Nino, how many times do I have to tell you?! I do not have a crush on Uesugi-kun…!"

Nino's grin became wider, before pointing towards with her finger as if she was accusing her. "Heh, I never said you had a crush! Could it be that you're really hiding feelings for Uesugi-kun? If that's the case, you won't need to act like his girlfriend anymore because you already are! Just make it official!"

"Ma, ma, Itsuki-chan is really growing up! You have to tell Onee-san all about this when we get home later on~" Ichika placed her hand on her cheek and giggled, joining Nino in teasing Itsuki.

A tick mark appeared on Itsuki's head as her grip on her ice cream stick (which was already finished) tightened to the point that it looked like she was going to break it in two. It was a clear sign of both her anger and annoyance, as Itsuki puffed her cheeks in the biggest pout she could muster and began stomping her feet on the ground.

"Mmmmuuuuuuuu…!"

"I wish I could help her, but there's no telling what might happen if I do," Fuutarou said in his thoughts, before shrugging mentally. The young man chose not to say anything, lest he risk a bigger argument breaking out between the sisters and he didn't want that. So, he remained quiet and ate his ice cream in peace, at least until a foreign voice got his attention.

"Fuutarou."

"Hm?" he responded, closing his eyes immediately. He didn't recognize the voice that well yet, which means that it was Miku by process of elimination. Better make sure to keep his gaze away from her, then!

"Can I ask you something?" the girl wearing headphones asked, walking up to his side while looking up at him.

"...Sure, I guess?"

Okay, he was confused. Didn't Miku warn him not to bother her and she would do the same? His situation was perfect since he was trying his best to avoid her gaze and Miku didn't want him to bother her. If so, then why was she talking to him now? Maybe it's because they weren't at their apartment yet or something? That would be an exception, right?

Ah, it's better to just get this over with than ask himself questions…

"Itsuki told us all about you last week, right after she got home from studying with you, apparently. All of us were curious about who she was with, until we learned it was a boy while we were eating dinner. Then she told us a lot of things about you, including how you didn't like to be around other people."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion, a bit lost on what was this all about, but keeping his head turned away from her nonetheless. "What's your point exactly?"

"I'm just confused. Why did you choose to accept being Itsuki's tutor if you didn't want to be around other people?" she asked, a bit confused why his head was turned away from her but pushed that thought into the back of her mind.

Maybe this would give her the answer she wanted. Whatever reason he had for being Itsuki's tutor must be why her sister was interested even grateful towards. Even if there was only a slight chance, it could also explain why Yotsuba, Nino, and even Ichika were all enamored with him in some way…

Fuutarou remained silent for a few seconds, as if he was contemplating his answer and what he should say. Miku kept her gaze on him, expecting a response, whether he gives his honest perspective or refuses to answer.

Eventually, he pushed his free hand into his pocket and began to speak while continuing to eat. "I chose to be her tutor because I saw it as an opportunity. I have no idea if Itsuki or Yotsuba had told you about this, but my family isn't doing well financially and we are in a near-eternal state of crisis with our budget. Even if I may seem like a bad person, I do love my family from the bottom of my heart and I would do anything to get out of our financial crisis. When Itsuki asked me if I could be her tutor, I only asked to be compensated for my time and since your sister agreed to my condition, I accepted the proposal. Prior to that, I had no experience in tutoring somebody, but I agreed to help Itsuki nonetheless because a job is a job and I accepted it."

His answer surprised even himself, to the point that he began wondering where did his words come from. Did he just willingly admit those things in front of a girl he never interacted with before? He even declared his love for his family without hesitation! The old him would have never done such a thing but here he was, telling Miku what she wanted to know all because she asked. Sure, he could have told her to simply discuss this issue with Itsuki since her sister already knows, but no…

He opted to tell her what she wanted instead.

Miku's expression didn't change as she proceeded with her next question. "So you're doing this all for the money?"

"At first, yes. That was the only reason I had," he admitted without hesitation, which actually caused Miku to frown a bit, until she heard his next words. "But that changed a bit when your sister told me her dream."

That statement caused Miku's frown to disappear and was then replaced with a look of intrigue, as she was not expecting him to say something like that.

"Itsuki's… dream?" she breathed out.

"That's right. When we were heading to my home for our study session, Itsuki told me about her dream and my whole perspective on her situation changed. I don't know if she told you about that but out of respect for your sister, I won't say it. If you want to know what she told me, you'll have to talk with her about it."

Miku shook her head to show that she was completely fine with his decision, even though his gaze was directed somewhere else.

"That's fine. What happened after?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit embarrassed that he was telling this sort of thing to one of Itsuki's sisters, but uttered his response anyway. "Well, after I learned about her dream, my perception of her changed. At first, I saw her as a hardworking girl who simply started at the wrong path but then I began to see her as someone I can respect and get along with."

Miku blinked, her eyes widening slowly as she could only listen to every word that came out of his mouth.

"I already admired Itsuki's drive to continue studying hard despite her dilemma in her grades, which was also one of the reasons why I chose to help her. But after she told me her dream, which caught off me guard, I vowed to myself then and there that I will help your sister graduate. Whatever it takes, I will make sure to help Itsuki reach what she wants to achieve in her life. Of course, the same goes for Yotsuba, now that she is also my student."

The girl wearing headphones only stared at him while being lost in her own thoughts, ignoring his words after he spoke about vowing to help her youngest sister to graduate.

"Is this why you like him, Itsuki? Because he'll help you with what you want to do in your life?"

No, that can't be the only reason. From the way Itsuki would talk highly about him, there must be more. However, it was obviously a big factor in their relationship because this was a very serious matter that honestly boggled her mind. Talking about something so personal… it almost made Miku become suspicious of Fuutarou once again because she found it odd how Itsuki would tell him her life's dream despite only meeting him on the same day. Of course, she quickly got rid of that thought because she already knew that Fuutarou was a good person from her earlier discussion with him.

Oh, well. She'll find out the exact reason behind Itsuki's feelings for him along the way. In fact, the more confusing thing about all this was Yotsuba, Nino, and Ichika all developing some kind of shared interest towards the same guy.

Agh, she'll figure it all out as it happens! As far as she was concerned, Ichika was just so intrigued with Fuutarou, Nino stopped hating him and even helped him several times now, and Yotsuba suddenly decided that she wanted to be tutored by him after only meeting the guy! Yeah, those were all different situations but in the end, they all connected to one person.

And that was Fuutarou himself.

Okay, he's still succeeding so far... Miku doesn't seem to notice that Fuutarou hasn't looked at her ever since they met, but will that be enough to last the whole day? Let's hope Fuutarou doesn't screw this up, lol. Other than that, we get some Meatbun Monster Rampage with Itsuki buying our boy ice cream! Awww, that's our Itsuki! How sweet could you possibly get with all the fluff?! Oh yes, veeerryyyy sweet! What's gonna happen in the next one? Let's find out tomorrow!

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

-Lance