Chapter 14
My sudden outburst had gotten the attention of several of my classmates, who weirdly enough seemed to be interested in the love life of one of the least popular students in our grade level.
"W-what gave you that impression, Matsui? How could I possibly go around dating someone when we have exams to worry about? Those clearly take priority!"
She shrugged her shoulders. "Just curious is all. A few of us saw you hanging out with the Nakano quintuplets back during the recent fireworks festival, and we just put two and two together and thought you were dating one of them."
"I even saw him going out of a building near my house on the night of the festival, and it seemed like one of the sisters was with him too! It seems that Uesugi-san isn't as boring as we all thought!" said one of my other classmates, let's name him Classmate A since I never bothered remembering his name.
I was about to explain what really happened before someone spoke up. "What's all this fuss about, everyone?" As if right on cue, one of the sisters in question arrives and without even taking a step into the classroom she was already hit with a barrage of questions from our classmates.
"Are you dating Uesugi?"
"What do you see in him?"
"If it isn't you, then surely one of your sisters is dating him, right?"
Itsuki's face immediately became as red as her hair, and she wasn't able to say anything cohesively for the duration of the Q&A.
"I… date? Uesugi-kun… and me? Relationship? Uh…." was all she could blurt out before storming out of the room I could faintly hear her calling out for Ichika, probably looking for someone who could explain the events of the festival clearly to our classmates.
As everyone was watching Itsuki's figure move further and further away, I sighed and coughed, gathering the attention of everyone in the room. "I guess since Itsuki wasn't able to explain. First of all, I'm not dating any of them, I was simply hired by their father to be their tutor. You all know that much, right?"
My classmates nodded in agreement and eagerly waited for me to continue explaining. And I continued on with my narrative. "We had just finished a tutoring session, and my younger sister wanted to attend the festival, so we all decided to go together since they were all so eager to attend it. So I just tagged along and ended up solving their problems during the festival."
"Well, that explains why some of us saw you at the festival." Said Classmate A, "But that doesn't explain you popping out of that building with one of them, though. Care to explain that then, Uesugi?"
"Oh, that? I won't even bother explaining it. You'll find out what really happened eventually. Just keep your eyes posted on social media and you'll understand what I meant."
Without even a second's hesitation, everyone got their phones and started scrolling. Matsui's eye lit up as she found the article showing the casting for "The Quintessential Bride" and gasped. "Ichika Nakano is cast as Rin Kurosawa, the female lead for the much-awaited romance drama, The Quintessential Bride! Wait so you're saying that we study at the same school as a big-time actress?"
I nodded, "Well, she isn't a big-time actress yet, but I can guarantee she'll hit it big one day. And to answer your question about why I was with her… I found her practicing for the part after one of our tutoring sessions, and she asked me to join her during the audition" Although what I said wasn't technically the truth, I couldn't exactly tell them about my reincarnation into the past, now can I?
The room was silent as everyone read the article that Matsui was talking about. Suddenly, all their eyes turned on me once again, and I had a good feeling I knew why.
Matsui started reading the next paragraph out loud for everyone to hear. "Rin Kurosawa's childhood best friend, Renji Emiya, will be portrayed by rookie Fuutarou Uesugi, not much is known about this young man, but his acting was noted to be "surreal and creative," which are some values that the industry is severely lacking right now. His potential seems to be very high, but is this just beginner's luck? Or is this the rise of a new generation of talent that we so desperately needed? Find out when "The Quintessential Bride" airs in May 2019!"
Several heads turned toward me, and I couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh. "And there you have it, now you know why I was with Ichika that time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to study for exams now." Before I even reached into my bag to get my textbook, I was already surrounded by everyone, yet another messy Q&A was about to happen, and unfortunately, I was at the center of it all.
"Holy crap, man! I never knew you could act! Why did you only start doing this now?"
"What did you do for your audition?"
"Did you have to do a kissing scene?"
Knowing full well that I wouldn't be able to escape, I shook my head and gestured for everyone to quiet down first. Once everyone became silent, I sighed, "First of all, I have no acting experience whatsoever. How I got the role will forever remain a mystery to me, and I'm sure some other deserving actor should have been cast as Renji Emiya or whatever that guy's name was."
"Secondly, I was dragged into the audition by Ichika, if I had known the reason, she brought me to the audition in the first place was to act with her, then I would have opted to just stay at the festival with my sister. And if you're curious about the role I auditioned for, it was for some guy named Shiro, who apparently is the heroine's love interest."
"So you did a kiss scene then, right? With Ichika of all people! Damn dude, you're one lucky guy!" exclaimed Classmate A, who was met with approving nods and murmurs by my other male classmates.
I blushed at his comment and shook my head. "There was no kissing scene for the audition, fortunately. But there was one intimate moment, I guess. I had to embrace Ichika at some point during the scene, and our faces were pretty close to each other."
"And if I remembered correctly, the scene didn't ask for you to lean in that closely after hugging me, Fuutarou-kun." Said a voice on the far end of the room. All of us looked back and saw Ichika by the doorway, a frantic Itsuki beside her.
At the mention of Ichika's comments, a mixture of curious and jealous looks kept focusing on me and Ichika, and seeing it as a chance to escape, I snuck through and pulled Ichika by the hand. "You and I need to talk. Now."
Once we were in a hallway without anyone to see or hear us, I let go of Ichika's hand. I slammed my hand onto the wall behind her, causing her to blush and act all flustered. "What the hell was that about? You already knew I was being bombarded with questions and you decide to rile them up even more?"
"Fuutarou-kun, you're being a little too bold today! Starting off with a kabedon this early into the morning isn't exactly something I'd expect from you…" said Ichika teasingly. "It was just a joke, Fuutarou. With our exams coming up soon you've been nothing but stressed, and I thought it would have helped ease your mind a bit if you weren't so focused on studying."
I sighed and let my arm down. "All it did was make things worse, I get that you had good intentions but next time I'd prefer it if you try to diffuse the situation instead. Anyways, is there any way you can ask the production staff to make my role as minimal as possible? I honestly don't like all the attention I'm getting. I'd much rather quit this entire thing, but we need the money too.
"I don't know, Fuutarou-kun. Even if I'm the lead in the series I can't exactly pull any strings, but I'll see what I can do. And who knows? Maybe you'll like being an actor and this could be the start of a successful career!"
I gave out a small laugh, "We both know acting really isn't my strong suit, so I doubt it. Besides, I have another job teaching five unique idiots, and I have a feeling I'm better at doing that compared to acting." I said as I lightly chopped her head with my hand before heading off to my classroom. "You should get back to class, first period is about to start!"
Ichika lightly massaged her head as she watched me go back to my classroom, a small pout forming on her face. "You didn't have to call me an idiot…" then suddenly a smile formed on her face as well, "But I'm glad you seem to be enjoying your time with us" And with that, she happily made her way back to her classroom, only for her to undergo a grueling Q&A with her classmates since Itsuki got to her before they could.
I had just arrived at my classroom and got in at the same time as our homeroom teacher. She told me she had seen the article and wanted to congratulate me, I nodded and thanked her, then got back to my seat. Class pretty much went the same as usual, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that people would be staring holes right into me during class either, boy this was going to be a tough couple of days…
The week couldn't have gone any slower, every day I would be bombarded with questions about the series, and with me being an absolute nobody in show business I had no idea how to answer them. It was starting to become a hassle if I was being honest, and I swear I've gotten exhausted trying to avoid all those questions.
It was already the night before our midterms, we were holding a study session and the quints' place and I was drilling every single bit of information I can into the heads of the quints. "Miku! What is the fourth element in the periodic table?"
Miku got startled and she fumbled with her textbook, trying to find a hint in it. "Uh… uhm… air?"
I smiled and sighed, "If this were in the context of the intro to Avatar: The Last Airbender, then yes, that's correct. Unfortunately, we're in the real world now. Does anyone have an idea on what this could be?"
Itsuki quickly raised her hand, "Oh! It's Beryllium, Uesugi-kun!"
"Correct. Now, what would be the number of electrons present inside Beryllium?"
And as I asked the question, Itsuki's smile of triumph quickly faded, "Ummmm three?"
"Four, actually. Nice try though."
I sat down and looked at how tired everyone was. I looked at the time and it was already 7:30 in the evening. "At the rate this is going, I think passing all subjects would be way too difficult. Let's take a breather first and rest for an hour, I can tell all of you are even more tired than I am."
Sighs of relief echoed throughout the room. Nino stood up and stretched, "I guess I can start making dinner for us then, you planning on freeloading here Uesugi? I might as well make some food for you too if you are."
"Oh sure, Nino. I guess I'll be staying here a little bit longer since there's still a ton of stuff we need to work on. Thanks by the way."
Miku stood up and followed Nino into the kitchen. "I'll help out too, the sooner we cook the food, the more time we can study."
Nino had a horrified look on her face as Miku said that. "But Miku… you can't cook! Yotsuba nearly died when you made her croquettes last year!"
Yotsuba cringed at the reminder of her near-death experience. "Nah, it wasn't Miku's fault! I really just wasn't feeling well that time! So please let Miku help you, plus Itsuki's stomach has been growling for a while now, so the sooner you cook, the better!"
"Yotsuba! You didn't have to say that!" said Itsuki as she playfully hits Yotsuba.
Yeah, let Miku cook too. I'm curious about how well her cooking is." I added. "Plus with you in the lead, I doubt Miku would have any trouble when it comes to cooking."
The two sisters were taken aback by what I said, Miku looked relieved when I said I wanted to try her cooking, while Nino seemed shocked that I had actually said something nice to her. The two of them quickly entered the kitchen and started working on our dinner.
The remaining quints were looking at their reviewers, disheartened from what I said earlier. "I know I said that you won't be able to pass all your subjects, but I'm confident that you can all pass at least one of them. Each of you have one subject that you're good at, or well, at least decent at. Ichika's good at math, Nino's good at English, Miku's good at social studies, Yotsuba's good at Japanese, while Itsuki is good at science. The rest of tonight will be dedicated to your respective subjects."
"But Fuutarou-kun, isn't your task for us to pass our exams? If we only pass one subject and fail the rest, that still means we fail." Asked a concerned Ichika, with the other girls looking equally as worried.
I smirked, knowing that this was the same predicament we had at first, but we overcame this somehow. "Don't worry about it, I'll be the one who'll worry about that. You five, on the other hand, will worry about your exams because your father won't be the only one who'll be mad about your bad grades, that's for sure."
Yotsuba gulped, "C-c-come on, Uesugi-san! Y-y-you don't want to pressure us like that! I'm already dumb enough as it is, all this pressure is going to make it harder to answer properly!"
"Same thoughts as Yotsuba, the added pressure will make it difficult to answer our exams properly, Uesugi-kun! As our tutor do you not think that encouraging us would be more beneficial?" Said Itsuki.
I shrugged my shoulders, "I guess I could, but then diamonds develop through pressure, don't they? I'm confident you'll all pass your best subjects at the very least. Let's just say I've already played out how your exams will happen, and I can definitely see each of you passing one subject, at least for this exam."
Ichika smiled and nodded. "Thanks for the confidence boost, Fuutarou-kun, but I swear the way you say things makes you sound like you already know what's going to happen, as if you were a time traveler or something…"
"Oh, you have no idea…" I murmured under my breath.
After a few minutes of chatting, Nino and Miku brought out the food. On the table was a casserole of some sort and a few plates of omurice, although the presentation could have been better though for the latter.
"Eat up while it's hot! I've also got meds prepared if ever Miku's omurice causes a near-death experience." Nino said playfully as she handed me a plate of omurice.
Miku looked nervous as I took the plate, I grabbed my spoon and got a big chunk of omurice, much to the horror of the other quints. I looked at Nino confidently and put the contents into my mouth. Overall the rice was burnt, and the eggs lacked any flavor, but coming from a place where we didn't have much food to begin with, the omurice wasn't too bad. "Not gonna lie, this isn't too bad. Could use a little bit more seasoning though."
"I told you it needed more salt, Miku. But hey, you didn't send anyone to the hospital today, so good job!" Said Nino as she patted Miku on the back, much to Miku's satisfaction.
"I promise I'll do better next time, Fuutarou! Although I may have just been lucky this time." Said Miku with a nervous laugh.
I continued eating the rest of my omurice, "I'll look forward to it then, but you gotta worry about your exam tomorrow first though!"
Everyone laughed as we continued having dinner, everyone was hesitant to try out Miku's food, but as they saw me eating without any signs of dying, they ended up eating it along with me. Nino's food was delicious, which was expected, and Itsuki couldn't help but get multiple servings of the casserole.
After everyone had finished their food, a relentless barrage of tutoring ensued. Ichika had to do various math drills that were big enough to fill up a textbook. Nino was doing one on one English conversations with me and trust me it did not go as well as I hoped. Miku honestly finished her social studies mock test quickly, although most of her correct answers were about the Japanese warlords.
Yotsuba had to do multiple Japanese worksheets regarding Kanji, and I could have sworn she was crying the last time I saw her. Itsuki was incredibly focused on her science worksheet, when I swung by to see if her answers were correct, I noticed that she answered "4" on a question regarding how many electrons were present in Beryllium, which brought a smile to my face.
By the time we had finished, I had realized that I had overstayed my welcome. It was already 1:00 A.M. and it was already too late to ride the train back home. "Crap, the trains aren't operating anymore, guess I'll be walking home tonight."
"No you aren't, dumbass." Said Nino as she stopped me. "You're more tired than the rest of us, and you can barely stand up straight, do you honestly think we'll let you leave now?"
"Yes."
Nino looked annoyed, "No. You. Aren't. If something happens to you, we'll be responsible for it. So you can sleep here, but only for tonight! You got that?"
I sighed and nodded my head. "Fine, just give me a blanket and I'll sleep on the couch."
"Fuutarou can use my bed, I can stay in Yotsuba's room tonight since her bed is the most comfortable one out of all our beds. You don't mind right, Yotsuba?" said Miku
"I don't mind! It's been a while since I got to sleep in the same bed as you, Miku!" said Yotsuba as she hugged Miku.
"Well if Miku is alright with it, then I'll stay in her room then." I said as we went up the stairs to the bedrooms. Miku got a pillow from her room before heading into Yotsuba's, and I walked into her room. It was pretty well kept compared to Ichika's room and I could smell a hint of Miku's perfume around the entire room too. I immediately went to the comfort of Miku's bed, the softness of the mattress practically sucking me in, and within seconds I was fast asleep.
I had this weird dream when I had this human-shaped pillow, seeing as how soft it was, I couldn't help but wrap my arm around it and moved closer to it, then suddenly everything just blurred away into white, and I swear I saw the angel of death, or at least the last form I saw him in, smirking right at me.
I woke up the next day to the sound of my alarm. I felt that my arm was wrapped around something, which was weird since I didn't wrap my arms around anything when I went to sleep last night. I opened my eyes and tried not to scream. Miku was right in front of me, literally inches apart, and my arm was wrapped around her. As if on cue, Miku woke up the sound of my still ongoing phone alarm, she saw that I wrapped my arm around her and she seemed really flustered, and she looked like she was about to scream too.
"Miku… there's a perfectly good explanation for this… Now if you'll just let me explain…."
Author's Note:
Hey there! Life has been keeping me really busy lately so I apologize for the really late update! For the next month or two please expect new chapters to come out every 2 to 3 weeks since I've got tons of stuff to do before graduating, anyways I hope y'all stay safe and enjoy the latest chapter!
