Been a while, huh? Sorry about that, everyone, I'm continuing to recover from the pneumonia and TB, so I haven't had much time to write although that doesn't mean I'm not active. I'm still as talkative as ever in the Discord we're in, so that's that. My recovery will continue for several months, so my writing's gonna be hindered a bit, but that doesn't mean your Ace is out of commission! I'm still the Ace of this archive, and I will not let these illnesses get in the way of that! Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, so I hope you enjoy this chapter!

P.S. I also want to thank you guys for helping this fic to be the top fic of the Gotoubun archive. Months ago, it was nothing more than a far dream, but now it is a reality. Really, I have no one else to thank but you guys. Thank you for all your support!

Discord link: [discord . gg / 4y5QVPj]

P-a-t-r-e-o-n link (for early access to the next chapter and those willing to donate): [h-t-t-p-s-:-/-/-w-w-w-.-p-a-t-r-e-o-n-.-c-o-m-/-lancesennin]

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

Nino only folded her arms and gave her younger sister a deadpan look, as if she was wondering if the answer wasn't already obvious. "Did you really think we're going to let you off the hook just because of what happened with Papa? You still haven't answered our question earlier."

"Muuuuuuu, why are you all so mean to me?!" Itsuki cried, almost tempted to just burst into tears at that moment from the pressure she was receiving from her own sisters.

Ichika chuckled nervously while scratching her cheek, thinking that Itsuki was overreacting when she practically brought this to herself after hugging Fuutarou out of nowhere. If she was going to keep this as a secret, then she could have held her intentions in, but she couldn't deny that seeing her younger sister acting like a normal girl expressing her feelings was heartwarming.

"Itsuki, we're not being mean at all. We asked you a question earlier, but you still haven't answered it. Do you have feelings for Fuutarou-kun or not?" she asked with a more gentle smile.

"W-W-Why do you want to know so badly…?!" Itsuki stammered, her eyes becoming swirls by now.

"Because, little sis… the last time we asked you about this, you kept on insisting that you don't have a crush on Uesugi-kun. We never asked you about it again, even though you kept on doing all kinds of sweet stuff for him. And then, you hug the guy right in front of us earlier while bragging about the things he apparently said about you. There's no way we can't get curious after that," Nino explained while retaining her deadpan expression.

Itsuki's cheeks were as red as her hair, if not deeper in color, while she shifted in her place uncomfortably. She was half-tempted to run to her room and completely avoid her sisters for the rest of the night, but that would only make things worse. Her sisters will not stop asking her about it and even if she manages to avoid them for the night, they'll simply do it tomorrow.

Yep, there was no way out for her now, and she knew it was over for her.

Releasing a sigh, Itsuki's shoulders slumped as she lowered her head out of defeat. She remained that way for a few moments, before she spoke once again. However, her tone became very quiet as a reflection of how she felt like she was at her lowest at this point. Itsuki didn't even bother looking at them too, feeling embarrassed and ashamed enough as it is.

"I really wish I could help you, Itsuki…" Yotsuba released a sigh to herself as well, feeling a bit torn on whether she should speak up on Itsuki's behalf to end her embarrassment, or remain quiet to avoid arousing suspicion from their other sisters.

If they see her talking with Itsuki as if she knew what their youngest sister was going through, their attention would shift towards her instead and begin to ask the same questions. That would be a worse scenario, considering how much they knew about each other, especially their individual feelings for their tutor.

She didn't want her other sisters to know that she also had feelings for Fuutarou, at least not yet.

"What is it that you want to know?" Itsuki's current tone made her sound like she had completely given up with no chance of her possibly bouncing back from this level of embarrassment.

Ichika smiled. "It's simple. Do you really have a crush on Fuutarou-kun? At this point, the signs are pretty clear, Itsuki-chan, but we want to hear it from you directly."

"F-Fine, I admit it…!" she cried out, shutting her eyes tightly before turning away. Even though she wasn't looking at any of them anymore, it didn't stop her from being embarrassed for what she was going to say next. "I…I do have feelings for Uesugi-kun… does that satisfy you?"

Nino narrowed her eyes for a moment as if she still had doubts, before giving a nod of satisfaction. She got what she wanted and that was enough for her. There's no need to continue pressing on the matter since she could see Itsuki already struggling to get this out of her system. However, the same couldn't be said for Ichika, who bore a devious smirk on her face after hearing the truth straight from her younger sister's mouth.

"Yes it does, Itsuki-chan, yes it does~" Ichika mused, giggling at the sight of Itsuki being in this state.

Itsuki's shoulders slumped once again, before she fell to her knees since she couldn't maintain her balance anymore. Thankfully, Yotsuba was quick to act by holding her shoulder before that in order to make sure she doesn't hurt herself.

"I shouldn't have been too reckless… I didn't want to reveal it until the time was right…" she mumbled as an imaginary rain cloud appeared over her head.

Yotsuba could only offer her sister a sympathetic look, while patting her shoulder softly. She may not be able to comfort Itsuki directly about her earlier actions, but that didn't mean she couldn't show her concern as a family.

"It's alright, Itsuki…"

Following Yotsuba's example, Ichika stepped forward and began patting Itsuki's other shoulder. "There, there, Itsuki-chan… I know how difficult it must be to feel this way…"

Unfortunately, Itsuki didn't think that Ichika's intention was to comfort her at all, judging from the small smirk that was still visible on her sister's face. Oh dear, she can already see it. Ichika will tease her nonstop for the remainder of the day… which may or may not continue until tomorrow too.

Poor girl.

All this just because she made a stupid mistake.

"Please don't tease me right now…" Itsuki wailed, covering her face with her hands since she couldn't bear to look at any of her sisters right now.

"Teasing? I'm not teasing you at all, Itsuki-chan. I'm just trying to make you feel better," Ichika simply chuckled for a few moments, before finally letting her signature smirk take over her features. "Ne, why don't you tell us more about it? What do you like about Fuutarou-kun?"

"Haaauuuugghh…" the youngest of the Nakano quints cried, as anime-like tears began flowing out of her eyes, much to Ichika's complete amusement. "This is the worst!"

Meanwhile, Nino remained in her place, keeping an eye on Itsuki the entire time while her younger sister was quite unaware of it. Her suspicions were correct and while she did think of it as a possibility, it was only now that she, along with everyone else, confirmed that Itsuki had feelings for Fuutarou. It was really obvious but her suspicions only became true just now.

"Itsuki really has feelings for him," she recounted in her mind with a neutral demeanor. "Not that I didn't see this coming, but it somehow feels different that Itsuki admitted it herself."

Perhaps it meant that her sister was hiding this from them for some time now but unfortunately, Itsuki was incapable of keeping such a thing as a secret for long. It made her wonder if Fuutarou himself knew whether her sister has feelings for him or not, but that didn't really matter. What matters is if they were in a relationship as of now, but it doesn't seem like it.

Fuutarou was too focused on tutoring her and Yotsuba, and Itsuki always puts her studying first before everything else.

"This doesn't change anything," she shook her head and let an amused smile take over her features. "When the festival happens, I'm telling Fuu-kun what I really feel and I'll ask him out. Once we're together, he'll be my tutor too, which gives me more time to spend with him everyday!"

On the outside, it may appear that she was simply smiling but in her mind, Nino was squealing in happiness at the thought of being with the person she has fallen for everyday, and helping her with her own studies. Either way, it benefited her and made her even more excited for when Sunday arrives!

On the other hand, Miku wasn't paying attention to her sisters right after she heard Itsuki confessing that she truly had feelings for Fuutarou, and that's all she needed to know from her. As of now, she didn't care anymore about what her sisters liked about that guy, because there's simply no point in continuing.

Whatever the reason why they liked Fuutarou, it's not her business anymore. Itsuki really did have feelings for him, and that's the end of it. There's no real need to go deeper into it. Regardless of whether her other sisters had some kind of interest in him as well, it's not more important than what she had in mind as her goal.

No, she was entirely focused on something else, all because of something disrespectful that he did to her earlier.

All she wanted to do was make Fuutarou Uesugi look at her, and it will be out of her own actions! Heh, just because he won't be going back to their home until next week doesn't mean she can't get his attention somewhere else!

They shared the same school, which meant that she can approach him tomorrow and put her plan into motion! As of now, Miku was already formulating a plan in her mind, one where she would lay out her challenge to Fuutarou Uesugi in a battle of minds! She'll do it where there's no other students around, and it'll only be the two of them facing off like two warlords ready for war.

"I'm talking to him tomorrow, and he better nor back out of this like a coward. I expect you to fight back with honor, Fuutarou. You share a last name with Uesugi Kenshin, after all."

Miku hummed to herself as she began walking towards her room, since she had nothing left to do here and Nino got the answer that they all wanted to hear from Itsuki.

Oh boy, he'll be in for a big surprise tomorrow…

~~XoXo~~

"And here comes yet another day full of crazy shit in my case…"

Fuutarou sighed to himself as he stood outside of the school, knowing that he'll be faced with all kinds of ridiculous situations yet again from here on out. In all honesty, he was beginning to get used to it, but somehow he felt that things were going too fast for his liking.

Well, yes, it was only yesterday where he met Ichika in the most unusual and ridiculous way ever, his female classmates chasing after him like a pack of wolves, preventing himself from looking at Miku straight in the eyes, and then meeting the quintuplets' father above all. Due to what happened yesterday, he can't be blamed for losing hope that he won't go through something even worse today.

Oh yeah, he was also sure that Miku must be mad at him for his actions yesterday. It's not like he wanted to be disrespectful towards her or anything, but he simply didn't want to deal with two consecutive shocks on the same day. Regardless, from the way she left him alone yesterday, there's no doubt that Miku will ignore him in return now.

Because… that's how girls work, right? If you ignore them, then… they ignore you too… or… something…

…

…

…

Ugh, girls are hard to understand.

"At least I can spend the rest of the day taking a rest back home," he shrugged mentally, while being internally grateful that he wouldn't have to tutor them for about a week. "If I can't manage to patch things up with Miku, I'll let her cool off for a day or two and try again. Hopefully, I can get this under control before the weekend, since… I'm going somewhere with Nino…"

After taking a deep breath to himself, Fuutarou continued on towards Asahiyama High, where he immediately heard a familiar voice to his right as soon as he was in the school grounds.

"Fuu-kun!"

Before he could even turn around to face the second quintuplet since she was the only one who called him in that way, Nino Nakano was already running towards him like a rocket before latching onto his arm and then hugging it close like a possessive girlfriend.

"Nino, what are you doing? You do know that it's gonna be bad for us and your sister to be seen like this, right?" he asked quietly.

At this point, he was used to the girls being clingy like this so that only a very small blush was visible on his face. In fact, he was more concerned about the reason why she suddenly decided to hug his arm like this while knowing the current situation fully well and how they weren't supposed to be adding fuel to the flame.

"Oh, come on, I'm your student now! Itsuki and Yotsuba get to do this with you, so why can't I?" Nino asked rhetorically, giving him a little smirk before continuing to hug his arm anyway as if she didn't care even if they get caught in this position.

He shook his head slowly. "I'm not saying you can't, I'm just telling you to be mindful of the place where you're doing it. We're literally at school, the one place where you can't act this way because of those rumors, remember?"

She giggled and leaned more into his arm, still not seeing the problem with her actions. "Oh, would you relax? Other people will just think of me as Itsuki! They won't notice I'm Nino."

"That's not what I'm saying, but fine. Do what you want, I doubt I can stop you, anyway," he gave a lazy shrug and simply continued on his way, with Nino still holding on to his arm.

Yep, just let the girls do what they want, especially Nino. He wanted to tell her that it would be bad in Itsuki's case and add more to the rumors about her around this place, but then he remembered what Nino did yesterday when his classmates tried to ask him out when the day ended.

She declared that Fuutarou was her tutor, which was only a cover-up at that time since she was pretending to be Itsuki, only for it to be true on both ends at this point. Itsuki was already his student, and now Nino was the same along with the rest of their sisters.

He'd save himself a lot more time because starting a little argument in the middle of the school grounds would only draw more attention to them and technically, what Nino said makes sense. As long as something doesn't go wrong, she'll be seen as 'Itsuki' and he can reach his classroom without any problems.

Plus, if his female classmates try anything on him this early in the morning, Nino was here to make sure that doesn't happen. It would save him from the stress of dealing with them and the energy he had from possibly running…

But who's to say the rest of his day won't give him any problems?

Hehe…

Welp, poor Itsuki again. She got ganged up on and had no choice but to admit that she does have feelings for Fuutarou. That's gotta shake up the playing field, right? Nino finds herself against some competition and while Ichika seems to like teasing Itsuki over it, don't forget that she experienced the shock already. She has to be planning something. Yotsuba is fortunate that nobody knows of her feelings towards Fuutarou yet other than Itsuki, but we'll see how that goes in the next chapters. Lastly, Miku has prepared herself for war and knows that there is no turning back. This is not gonna go well for Fuutarou, especially if he meets Miku in school today. I suppose that's all for this one, so see you next time!

MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*

-Lance