"What happened to you?" The third sister sat with her legs crossed, staring down the second sister before the others arrived home for the day. "Pancakes, what's so wrong about pancakes?"
"It's nothing," Nino answered, looking at the kitchen. "It's nothing important." Nino stood up, walking over to the veranda to feel the cold air.
"Nino, did something happen?"
"Why'd you have to go and pick pancakes?" The second sister stomped her foot. "Good luck, that's all I'm going to say." She added, sighing before she entered her room. A few seconds passed before the sound of footsteps filled the room again.
"Yo, Miku." Mutsumi waved; her phone in her hand. "Where is Nino?"
"In her room. How do you feel about pancakes?" Miku asked, getting the sixth's eyes to sparkle excitedly. After testing her recipe with a small batch, Miku and Mutsumi were joined by Yotsuba and Itsuki as they arrived home; the former exhausted while the latter wore a false smile. Miku glanced over all of their faces, finding Mutsumi doing the same; the two of them mutually agreed. "Tomorrow..."
The next day came and it was just as disorganized as the one before. "What, you boys just don't get it!" The girls yelled, staring at the boys of the class who stared back. "Let's just go with pancakes! We won't be able to decide on all the flavors at this rate!"
"No way! Didn't you see the results from last year? Everyone loves takoyaki!" The boys retorted, spiraling the class into chaos with Miku and Nino caught in the center of it.
"Didn't you say you like pancakes, Nino-san? Why are you on their side?" One of the girls asked, silencing the scuffle for a few seconds as they all turned their attention toward the second sister.
"Eating them and making them is completely different! Even I can mess up fluffy pancakes!" Nino snapped, pointing her finger at one of the louder girls in the class. An audible sigh got their attention before they could continue arguing.
"Alright, that's enough," Fuutarou said, watching over the class with his arms crossed. "We're not getting anywhere like this. We'll just do both of them!" He said, walking over to get some papers from his desk.
"Nice solution, Fuutarou-san." Mutsumi said, walking up to him and Yotsuba as the two representatives looked over their plans for the festival. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Lacing her fingers together behind her back, she leaned forward with a simple smile on her face. Fuutarou looked over at her, thinking for a moment before he opened his mouth, but the voice that reached their ears wasn't his.
"Uesugi-kun, Mutsumi, may I have a moment?" Itsuki asked, getting both of their attention. Fuutarou left the rest of the festival prep to Yotsuba as he and Mutsumi came to the fifth sister's side. The two of them looked at her curiously, noticing the nervousness in her posture. "Let's give the school festival our all!" She said before she hurriedly returned to her seat.
"Hold it," Mutsumi said, sitting down on her sister's desk. "What is it? You're hiding something from us."
"It's..." Itsuki looked up at Mutsumi, who was staring her down with a soft and gentle expression. "It's about this. You see..." She buckled, showing her sister a scrap of paper that had gotten creased and crumpled in her hand. Mutsumi instantly recognized it, her eyes darting over to the most important part of the document.
"Ouch, that's not good. Do you want me to help?" The sixth sister hopped off of the desk, pulling a chair with her foot so that she could sit level with Itsuki. "I'm a bit busy since I'll be helping the broadcasting club, but I'll help you at home."
"Thank you, Mutsumi. Sorry for bringing this up during the festival." Itsuki apologized, looking over at Fuutarou. "I would have been nice if it could have been done after the festival, but I'm not confident that it would be possible."
"I see, then please rely on me. We wouldn't want to trouble anybody else with this, right? Fuutarou-san is already really busy, so let's give him a break." Mutsumi smiled, gazing over everyone in class before an idea popped into her head.
"This is getting to be a real pain in the neck now, isn't it?" Nino said, taking a walk with Miku after some time had passed.
"But to think that they'd be divided like that. I never would've expected that." Miku looked up at the sky to calm her thoughts. Although she didn't wish to take back her words, she did feel guilty for causing this much trouble for everyone. "You never answered my question from yesterday. Why are you so against pancakes? You loved the ones that mom used to make."
"It's the first thing I tried to make." Nino sighed. "And my first failed recipe. It's not something you can learn easily." She said, turning her head to look at Miku's face, finding her sister smiling in anticipation. "I once asked papa to take me to a restaurant that made them, but he refused."
"So that's why you decided to make them."
"More or less." Nino shrugged, rising to her feet and dusting off her skirt. "But takoyaki would make our lives of running a stall so much easier."
"Putting it so bluntly."
"I hate those that scurry behind the scenes, talking behind people's back." The second sister looked up at the sky. "But, I guess there are some good points to that strategy too." She muttered, Mutsumi and Maruo's faces coming to mind as some of their female classmates came into view. "But that doesn't mean I agree with it. And I'll be taking them all head-on." She said, staring the girls down.
"Nino. Miku." Fuutarou's voice cut through the air before they could get into a spat. He looked down on them from the top of the stands around the field, smiling slightly as the other girls walked away. "Oh, you two are together. If that's the case, then nevermind. Let's just try to enjoy the festival as much as we can." He said, walking away as Miku got up and followed him, leaving Nino to walk home by herself.
"I still... I still don't understand." Itsuki muttered, staring at the paper laying on the table in front of her as Mutsumi walked over to the kitchen to get them something to drink.
"Just take your time, sis. You can't expect to learn everything instantly." Mutsumi said, pouring some water for both of them.
"I just can't do it. Nino was right, I am just a worthless copy of..."
"Itsuki!" The sixth sister cut her off before she could finish the thought. "Here, let me see the part you can't comprehend." She walked over, leaning over her sister as they went over the same question over and over again for the next five minutes without any signs of improvement.
"Maybe we should call Uesugi-kun over after all," Itsuki said, her stomach growling in rage as her frustration reached its limit. "Maybe I'll consult Shimoda-san. I heard that there's a well-known lecturer visiting the area soon. Perhaps they'll be able to help me..."
"Fuutarou-san..." Mutsumi muttered, her mind going a bit hazy at the mention of his name. "... why am I so..."
"Mutsumi?" Itsuki asked, looking up at the youngest sister with a look of concern.
"It's nothing. What were you talking about?" She responded, not paying full attention to the conversation. "Anyway, let's keep going until everyone comes home." Brightening up her mood with a smile, the two of them studied until Nino arrived home; Mutsumi was making many more careless mistakes compared to their usual sessions.
"Mutsumi, where did you go off to the other time?" Nino asked while she was in the middle of preparing a snack for the three of them. Yotsuba was still busy with the festival in school, Ichika wouldn't be coming home that night, and Miku had business with Fuutarou.
"I went to talk to dad. Well, talk is..." Mutsumi chuckled, slightly embarrassed.
"Well, I can't say that I expected it to go well. I mean, he'd barely give us the time of day before..."
"It wasn't that. It's just that there wasn't much to talk about. He's already worried about us, so keeping him preoccupied usually leads to trouble." Mutsumi sighed.
"Him? Worry about us? Since when?" Nino asked, setting down her knife as Mutsumi gestured to the lavish apartment they found themselves in. Then she gestured to their uniforms, then to her own chest.
"He's such a tsundere sometimes, but he looks out for us." Mutsumi smiled, looking down at her own chest as she took a deep breath with a smile. "If he didn't, then I wouldn't be here, right?" Nino looked at Mutsumi for a moment, thinking over everything she just said and remembering a certain day she had when she was younger.
"Nakano-san! We have a problem! Class 3-2 dropped some of their supplies in the hallway, we can't get through until it gets moved, and it's really heavy."
"Class rep! Where are the forms that we needed to give to the teachers? I made a mistake in mine!"
"Ahhh... uhh..." Yotsuba stammered, getting surrounded as she was backed into a corner. Currently carrying cans of pain in her hands, Yotsuba couldn't do anything for her classmates at the moment. "H-hold on! I'll look for Uesugi-san! I think he knows where the forms are." She quickly shuffled to the side, setting the cans down before bolting down the hall in search of Fuutarou. It wasn't hard to find him since his voice echoed up a staircase from below.
"I get what you mean..." Fuutarou said, standing with his arms crossed in front of a group of their classmates, the girls who were glaring at Nino. "But now isn't really the time for all this."
"But it's suspicious. She's a girl, but she sided with the boys. She must be trying to get with someone!" One of them argued. "If he were to go for Yuusuke... I can't go up against Nino-chan." The de facto leader proclaimed, getting the tutor to let out a stifled giggle.
"That's a misunderstanding. You can relax." Fuutarou said after calming himself down. "The person Nino's interested in isn't Takeda. He isn't even in with the group." He added, putting his hands in his pockets. "The person she likes is me, after all." He said, his voice slightly nervous and embarrassed about saying it out of the blue. The group looked at him, then at each other, then back at him.
"Uesugi-kun, let's not get delusional..."
"Uesugi-san! There's something that needs help!" Yotsuba broke her silence, getting his attention from the top of the stairs. "Oh, that's where you were! Hurry!" Fuutarou's eyes widened, rushing up the stairs at the behest of the fourth sister.
"What's the emergency? Is it urgent?" He asked before the two of them made a mad dash back to the classroom.
"It's the forms, there might've been a few mistakes in them," Yotsuba said as they reached the door. She leaned in close, whispering into Fuutarou's ear. "You looked really cool there, Fuutarou-kun. I'm sure Nino would thank you for stepping in like that." She said, rewarding his kindness from earlier.
With the two of them there to help the class, they made it through the day without any other slip-ups. It was the weekend tomorrow, so they had a day off to do whatever they wanted. Fuutarou, however, had a shift at revival and had to make the rounds of deliveries now since the manager still had to wait a while before he could get back on the bike. Luckily for him, he was only on for half of the day, and the manager let him borrow the bike so long as he got it back to the shop before it got too dark.
"Nino and Mutsumi were right, it really looks weird on you." Miku said, walking out of the apartment building and toward Fuutarou as he took off the helmet. "Shall we?"