Fuutarou threw himself into his studies, though that small nugget of worry still lingered in the back of his mind. But now was not the time for doubt; now was the time for focus. Perhaps he was too focused on his studies. On his way out of the house, he ran into various things a total of five times since his eyes were glued to the pages of a book that covered the questions of the exam. It was a miracle he hadn't been run over on his walk to school, but someone was to thank for the second half of his journey. "Hey, Fuutarou-kun. Watch where you're going~" Ichika's voice dragged his attention to her face, but her teasing tone implied something more than just the face value of her words. Fuutarou noticed a bit too late, his leg impacting the side of a table as he passed by a coffee shop.
"Thanks for the warning..." Fuutarou groaned, rubbing his leg as the eldest sister took to her feet. In her hand was one of those portable cup holders made of paper, three drinks placed inside for ease of transportation; one cold and two hot. "Good morning. How strange, running into you on my way to school. Especially since you're alone..." He narrowed his eyes on her before scanning the area for any traces of the Nakano siblings' red hair.
"Mutsumi-chan asked me to g-get her some coffee. R-running into you was just a coincidence." Ichika defended herself hastily, pointing over to the drinks before taking the cold one for herself. "Oh, by the way, this is for you, Fuutarou-kun." She picked up one of the hot drinks, handing it over to the tutor as he continued looking at her with a scrutinizing gaze.
"You got a drink for me, even though our meeting was just a coincidence." He narrowed his eyes further before his body started to tilt to the side. He quickly jerked back upright, yawning before he thumbed through his book one more time. "Also, I don't drink coffee. It's too bitter."
"I see...then I guess I'll just hand this to Mutsumi-chan too..." Ichika returned the drink to the cup holder, following after Fuutarou as he continued his walk to school while reading the book. Speaking of the book, it was filled with post-it notes and bookmarks, many important equations were highlighted or encircled, and the sides and corners were damaged by his crazed flipping.
"Dad really doesn't like you, huh?" Ichika asked, walking slightly behind Fuutarou while adjusting her glasses.
"Yeah. He doesn't enjoy the fact that I'm your girls' tutor. I've lost count on how many times he's made that clear." Fuutarou answered, his eyes still focussed on his studies. "But this time, he's roped someone else into this mess to get rid of me directly."
"Takeda-kun. He may look a bit silly, but he's really studious as well."
"How would you know that?" Curious, the tutor asked the question offhandedly, still flipping through the pages of the book.
"We were in the same class last year, so I saw him almost every day. He always acted like a model student, and Mutsumi-chan said that the two of them tied for first place." Ichika sighed, now thinking a bit deeper about Fuutarou's opponent. "It must be tough, acting like how everyone wants you to. Keeping up appearances, it's not easy to do if you have a positive one."
"I have zero intention of losing to him. I'm going to be number one, no matter what. I'm studying non-stop from now until the day of the exams. Speaking of which." Fuutarou stopped, turning around to face Ichika. "How are you guys doing? How're Mutsumi's tutoring sessions?"
"They're just like yours, it's weird. It's like she's a copy of you." Ichika said, sighing. "It's a lot harder now that it's just her. It feels like how it felt before she came back, we only have one genius teaching us instead of two."
"That's concerning. But you've been studying on your own for a while, right? Even before we had this dual teacher system." Fuutarou started walking again. "I don't have to worry about anything, at least with you." Though he didn't look at her, Ichika could tell that he was smiling from his side profile.
"Fufufu~ You've gotten better at dealing with girls, I see." Ichika teased, pushing up her glasses as her tutor's eyes darted towards the sudden movement.
"When did you start wearing glasses?" Fuutarou was thrown for a loop for a moment. Just from looking through the glass from the other side, he could tell that they weren't prescription lenses.
"Took you long enough." The eldest sister pouted, crossing her arms as she grinned. "I take it back, you're still dense. So, what do you think?" She asked, playing with the glasses. "Do these make me look smarter?"
"Look, maybe. Do they make you smarter for real? Probably not. Why do you even have those?" Fuutarou said sarcastically, walking slightly slower as he mulled over thoughts of Ichika's glasses.
"I appeared on the preview of the movie I was in. And I was in the frame quite a bit." Ichika said. suddenly turning red. "Do you remember? It was the movie from back the-" Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of Fuutarou's snickering, the tutor struggling to contain his laughter.
"So, it's a disguise to avoid getting pestered. Good going, you're a real movie star." He joked, causing the first sextuplet to go red. "Well, I guess you should be used to disguises. It's you and your sisters' area expertise." He muttered while Ichika rummaged in her bag. She was about to pull out an identical set of headphones to Miku when a voice called out to her.
"Ichike-nee! What took you so long!" Mutsumi stomped up towards them, snatching the drinks out of her sister's grasp before chugging one down. "Ahhh, liquid gold..." She said, crying slightly as she rubbed her eyes. Disheveled hair, wrinkled clothes, and bags under her eyes; the youngest sister looked as if she had been left on a deserted island.
"Mutsumi? What happened to yo-" Fuutarou asked, but Mutsumi jerked her head towards him so quickly that he flinched and took a step back. The sixth sister hissed at him, opening the second cup to begin ingesting that as well. "O-Okay?"
"Ever since we started reviewing, she's been slowly getting more and more...like that." Ichika sighed. "She gets quite cranky when she doesn't get any sleep."
"I don't!" Mutsumi objected loudly, crushing both empty cups in her hands before chucking them in a nearby bin, her voice was hoarse and she struggled to fight back a cough. "Hurry up, we're going to be late." She bolted off, using the energy provided by the caffeine to vanish from the two's sight, though she did wobble with every step.
"That was...odd. Is she going to be okay Ichi...ka?" Fuuutarou turned around, seeing the eldest sister with Yotsuba's ribbon on her head.
"She'll be fine, Uesugi-san!" Faking the fourth's tone, Ichika began to walk and talk like Yotsuba. "Trust in her! Mutsumi's like really strong!"
"Why? Just...why?" Fuutarou sighed. "Those disguises won't work on me anymore. I saw through Yotsuba's disguise the last time." He said somewhat pompously.
"But that was Yotsuba. You know how she is with these kinds of tri-" Ichika began arguing when Fuutarou raised his arm up.
"Aren't those your sisters?" Fuutarou pointed over to the mass of red that was heading towards their school. Mutsumi, with her striking white hair, was clearly visible in the front, walking backward while seemingly lecturing the others as they walked.
"I'll show you what I mean. Look, Itsuki's eating again." Fuutarou began descending the stairs, slowly approaching the group. "And I can hear Yotsuba's voice from here." He was halfway down the stairs. "Nino really surprised me when she started working at the same store as me, but Miku shocked me, even more, when she got a job at the bakery across the street. My manager did seem to enjoy their decrease in popularity for a while though."
"Hey, let's skip school, with just the two of us." Ichika grabbed onto his arm, pulling him away from the group as the rest of the redhead troupe continued walking.
"What? No. You already know what I'm doing, and taking me away from school would only reverse my progress." Fuutarou pulled his hand free from her grasp, though Ichika wouldn't relent. She reached out to grab his wrist a second time.
"Onee-san, thanks for the coffee." Interjecting, the sixth sister walked up and placed her hands on Ichika's shoulders. "Fuutarou-san, you should go on ahead. The classroom can get pretty distracting once it starts getting populated, so you better hurry if you want to study there." She smiled, giving way to the tutor as he was suddenly reminded of the exams. He opened his book again, using a bookmark to get to the English questions.
"Mutsumi-chan?" Ichika turned towards her sister, slightly confused and extremely annoyed. "What are you doing?"
"Alright, listen here you little shit..." Mutsumi tightened her grip, digging her nails into the fabric of Ichika's blazer. "We all agreed that we'll be studying by ourselves so he can get that number one spot. I'm not letting you sabotage our plan just because you want to talk to him." Glaring angrily at her elder, Mutsumi took a deep breath and loosened her hold. "Sorry about that...I just haven't been able to get a good night's sleep in a while, but that's because I have to do Fuutarou-san's job. So please, don't distract him."
"But didn't you tell me to not hold back anymore? Are you sure you're not just doing this to get rid of your compe-" Ichika was about to ask when Mutsumi leaned forward, resting her body against her sister.
"Please. Stop. You'll get your chance, I promise...but..." Mutsumi began coughing, and it sounded scratchy and rough. "We're all working hard for this, don't get in our way..."
"...fine." Ichika swallowed her feelings, running her hand down Mutsumi's back to ease her pain a little. "But are you sure?"
"I'll make sure of it, I promise." Mutsumi rubbed her throat. "Hey...can you help me get to school? I feel kinda dizzy."
"Why would you help me, aren't we against each other? How can I trust you?" Ichika asked, her tone filled with worry.
"Because we're family first, rivals after. I want a fair fight." Mutsumi continued leaning on Ichika but moved slightly so that they could walk to school. "Family won't betray you Ichika, I'm looking out for you almost as much as I work to get Fuutarou-san's affection." She laughed before going into another coughing fit. Ichika, with Mutsumi who was slung over her shoulder, arrived a bit later than everyone else; the classroom was already full, with the only seats empty being hers and Mutsumi's.
The door slid open, and the chatter in the room was silenced for a moment as everyone turned their heads towards the disturbance. Then the students crowded the eldest sextuplet. Some pulling out their phones to take pictures and videos. "Ichika-san! I saw you on TV this morning!" One said. "Yeah! I can't believe you're an actress!" Another spoke, as a girl with a side-ponytail trotted up with her phone in hand. "Hey, can I take a selfie with you?"
"Ahh...Uhm..."
"Hehehe...you've gotten really popular onee-san. I'm proud of you~" Mutsumi teased before coughing. She forced herself to stand on her own, her posture slightly wobbly as her legs felt like they were chained to iron balls. "You're a professional liar, congratulatiooo..." She sat down and instantly collapsed, resting her head on her desk.
"Aren't you glad you took that audition?" Fuutarou said with a cheeky grin. "Miss movie star, good work." He smirked, returning his attention towards the review he was conducting on himself. Ichika smiled, placing a hand on her chest as all the noise from the class seemed to vanish with Fuutarou's words.
"They've been on her all day, huh?" Nino said, pointing towards the crowd of her classmates that surrounded the oldest sextuplet. "And what should we do about Mutsumi?"
"She deserves some rest. Come, let's try our best to review without her." Itsuki took charge, standing up with her bag in her hands.
"Alright! Ichika, we're going to the library." Yotsuba declared as the four sisters left the room.
"What. Wait for me, I'll come with yo-" Ichika tried to stand, but found that she didn't have enough space due to her fans' crowding of her desk.
"What? Come on, let's talk for a bit." A girl with a short ponytail insisted, she and her friends took a few more steps towards the actress. "Have you met anyone famous?"
"Sorry!" Ichika yelled, running out of the room with her bag. The eldest hastily put on a wig with long hair and her pair of blue headphones, donning them just as the footsteps of her fans began following her.
"Ugh, what's with all the racket?" Mutsumi rubbed her head, glancing around the mostly empty room as Ichika's fans ran off after her. "What time is it?" She asked herself as she slowly packed up her things.
"Ah, where did she go? Miku-san, do you know where Ichika-san went?" Their voice drew Mutsumi's gaze out the window, seeing the eldest disguised as the third sister.
"She went that way." Ichika pointed, misleading her classmates as they began their doomed search. "haa..."
"Oh, you're still here? The others were heading towards the library, you should hurry up..." Fuutarou walked by, his face buried into the book again. "Miku..."
"That idiot..." Mutsumi sneered, slowly making her way towards the door. She scratched at her throat, feeling the tingling that brought her aa lot of discomfort.
"It sure came out fast. Ichika's movie, I mean. Thanks for telling me about it yesterday." The tutor added as he was about to head home.
"Fuutarou-ku...Fuutarou." Ichika walked up behind him. "Fuutarou, I'll let you in on something. Ichika is in love with you."
"Ichika!? What the hell are you-" Mutsumi wanted to intervene, but another coughing fit stopped her in her tracks. All she could do was listen.
"I think you two would make a great couple. I'll be cheering for you." Ichika looked up at him. Fuutarou was caught off guard, turned and put away his book.
"That's a lie, right? Didn't you also confess your own fee-" Fuutarou tilted his head, now somewhat skeptical about everything this person had told him.
"I've given up. I'll be cheering you two on from the sidelines." The eldest's eyes looked crazed, desperate. "That's the truth."