"Raiha-chan, be careful out there! Yotsuba, Itsuki, make sure you all don't go too far!"
"Okaaaay!"
The eldest three quintuplets stand on the warm beach sand of their early afternoon Tuesday, watching their two youngest siblings set off into the waves with their last-minute VIP, who's already beside herself squealing and laughing with all the joy in the world at her first sensation of playing in the ocean waves.
"I know I made those three wear sunscreen, but did you two put on yours too?" Ichika asks Nino and Miku.
"I did mine already, don't worry about me," Miku nods.
"Still have to put mine on, I was helping Yotsuba put hers on. You know how she is every time we go to the beach wherever, she never puts hers on fully..." Nino sighs as she takes a look around. "Not too many people, surprisingly. I thought the beach would be more packed than this..."
"It's Tuesday afternoon, after all. There aren't really a lot of events going on right now...and I think the Americans' spring break is already done for the most part," Miku reasons. She adjusts the top of her two-piece white bikini with horizontal solid blue stripes, one for each piece.
"Better for us, though, isn't it? Less people, more beach for ourselves," Ichika nods.
"Yeah...plus less people ogling at us, too," Nino frowns in annoyance, glancing down at her chest that is impossible to miss for the average heterosexual human male. Without her normal everyday clothes to help cover her up, her 88-cm bust is in painfully full view for any passerby to get an eyeful of. It's secretly the reason why Nino is specifically wearing a purple two-piece bikini with vertical black stripes with a top that covers up the entirety of her cleavage, so that it will dissuade onlookers from having their eyes automatically drawn like matching magnets directly to her chest.
"Oh come on, Nino, stop being so shy about your figure. Look, none of the rest of us have ever had any problems, have we? Just embrace it, embrace it!" Ichika laughs, reaching over and pinching the side of Nino's top to tug a little on it.
"S-Stop, geez. And aren't you being too careless? Ever since we all started growing up, every beach vacation we've ever taken, we always had guys stare at us constantly! Some of them even thought we were legal, remember that?"
"But that was a long time ago...can't you just take it easy for today? Like you said, there aren't even that many people around. You can afford to take it easy this time, can't you?"
"Tell Papa to reserve the entire beach for a day, and then we'll talk!"
"Sure, okay. You think Dad won't?" Ichika turns to stoop down to their beach mat on which the quintuplets' bags, extra clothes, towels, and beach supplies and accessories sit to fetch her phone.
"W-Wait, wait, you don't need to, you don't need to!" Panicking at her older sister's seriousness, Nino grabs Ichika's arm to stop her.
"Haha, I wasn't actually going to. Dad did say he needed to make some some work-related calls today, so I don't want to get him mad."
"By the way, Nino, the age of consent is 13," Miku informs her sister, holding up her phone to show Nino the evidence. "So technically..."
"Th-Th-They're all still creepers! And besides, I bet you anything that's Japan's age of consent, not for other countries! We're in Hawaii, so we're on American soil, right? What's America's age to consent?"
"Let's see..." Miku taps in her phone quickly. "It's...16."
"There you go! We're only 15, so if I see any guy coming over to try to hit on us, I'm kicking his ass!"
"Hey, hey, relax, Nino, no need to make a scene about it. Besides, you're the one who always go on about hot guys back home, right? You love watching those talk shows of yours with those super duper hot actors or whoever."
"That's another matter!" Nino retorts, unable to stop her cheeks from heating up. "That's harmless, okay? But nothing good's gonna come out of some random dude trying to hit on any one of us. I refuse to believe it!"
Miku notes that while Nino has always been very protective of her sisters like this in the past, she's being more aggressive about it than before. She wonders whether or not the incident at the warehouse is to blame for this...but obviously that isn't something she can just ask aloud, so she keeps it to herself.
"Well, again, there aren't that many people around, so I really do think you don't have to worry as much today," Ichika insists, taking another look around the beach, and sure enough, the beach, including the large resort patio nearby overlooking the ocean, is only moderately occupied to the point where the quintuplets have their little section of the beach all to themselves. "Alright, Nino, let's get that sunscreen on ya. Miku, you wanna help out?"
Miku shakes her head. "Nino's gonna complain about how I'm doing it wrong..." she mutters.
"You do, though! You don't spread out the sunscreen well enough."
Simply pouting back, Miku takes a seat down next to Nino anyway on the mat underneath their large beach umbrella that gives them ample shade from the bright Hawaiian sun, browsing the net on her phone over international data while Ichika applies sunscreen diligently, making sure to cover her sister's skin fully to prevent any suntans.
"Time sure flies, huh? It seems like it's only been a few hours since we first landed here in Honolulu," Ichika remarks with a somewhat bittersweet sigh. "Getting beachside manicures, spas, and massages, all while drinking strawberry limeades and mermaid lemonades, going hiking in the trails nearby, playing mini-golf..."
"Eh...it's all stuff we could've done back at home, if you put it that way," Nino replies lazily, enjoying the relaxing sensation of her older sister's hands working diligently. "Not like we had to come down here to Hawaii to do any of that."
"Aw c'mon, Nino, it's Hawaii! What schoolgirl our age wouldn't wanna go vacationing in Hawaii? Actually, now that you mention it, weren't you the one who was most excited about it when we landed here?"
"I-Ignore that particular detail, okay?"
"Haha, okay, sure, sure. By the way, Nino, you wanna come with me later to try the indoor rock climbing tower?"
"Rock climbing...? I'll pass...that sounds like something Yotsuba would like, why don't you try taking her?"
"Well, because I know she'll say yes. It's better if I try asking one of you girls who usually doesn't do that kind of stuff, you know?"
"Why, though? You probably already knew what I was gonna say."
"Because we're on vacation - we should step outside our comfort zones a little, shouldn't we? Let ourselves go a little. I don't know about you, but Miku, Yotsuba, and I were all studying really hard with Fuutarou-kun for the past few weeks, so I'm in the mood to make the most out of this vacation this time around."
At the mention of Fuutarou, Miku's eyes glance to the right over at Ichika, who notices the subtle movement and raises her own gaze to meet Miku's for a brief moment. Realizing that she's been spotted, Miku quickly averts her eyes back down to her phone.
"As if we don't ever do that for any others..." Nino turns her head to Ichika as the latter works on the former's legs, pouring out a fresh dab of sunscreen. "But then again, now that you've brought that up, didn't you, like, totally skip last week's lessons with Uesugi?"
"Aha, you got me there. Yeah, I only attended one of them the week before we came here," Ichika chuckles in defeat. "I ran into him the other day, and he gave me a little lecture about it."
"At least Ichika comes to his lessons..." Miku snorts a little. Nino, a bit miffed at this remark since it's quite clear to whom Miku intended that for, clicks her tongue in annoyance.
"I ain't comin' to his lessons, if that's what you're asking," she retorts back. "And your little goody-two-shoes act won't work on me, Miku. I know how you've been acting lately, being real nice to Uesugi and all - you think you're doing him a favor by trying to get me to come join you all?"
Miku's eyes flash very briefly with a surge of emotion vested in her blue pupils, but Ichika, having kept a good eye on her as soon as Nino started talking, raises her hand at her to stop her from doing anything.
"Now, now, you two, play nice," she says calmly and soothingly, effectively diffusing the situation before it can even begin. "You can worry about that after we come back home from vacation - we didn't come here to start arguing now, did we?"
"Speaking of Fuutarou, now that you two mentioned him, where has he been for the past two days...?" Miku wonders aloud, lowering her phone in the process.
"Huh..." Ichika pauses her sunscreen application to think briefly. "That's...that's a good question...I don't know either. Last time I saw him was two days ago, I'm pretty sure..." She looks over at Miku. "Miku, have you seen him at all lately?"
Miku shakes her head in response.
"It's better off that way, isn't it? He even told us that he'd stay out of our way so that we can feel like this vacation's just between us and his sister," Nino shrugs, having laid her head back down against her arms on their beach mat. "So who cares what he's doing...probably doing more top-secret stuff like he always seems like he's doing. Don't bother worrying about him..."
Gripping her phone a bit more tightly, Miku lightly squeezes a bit of flesh inside her lower lip with her teeth before speaking out, "Even if - even if that's the case, it's still...it's still going to be a waste for him to come with us all this way and...and just spend all week...you know, um...not having fun. We might not know what he's doing, but what're the chances that he's off vacationing on his own?"
"Right...given what little we do know about him, he's not here to party like we are," Ichika agrees rather somberly. "I just hope he takes things a bit more easily than he usually does, I guess."
"Like, we even asked him if he brought a swimsuit or anything for the trip, since he showed up at our place literally in his school uniform..." Miku murmurs, pulling her knees up against her chest and resting her lower face against her knees. "...and he said no."
"He didn't even bring a suitcase..." Ichika sighs, shaking her head. "Just a backpack with some spare old clothes in it, apparently. How do you even travel abroad without a suitcase...?"
"Oh what's the big deal...clearly he knows what he was getting himself into. You're wasting your time worrying about him, both of you," Nino drawls. "And besides, he was probably more concerned with what Raiha-chan would pack. You've seen how he acts around his sister, right?"
"Yeah, he seems a lot like Itsuki in that sense, honestly," Ichika giggles. "Always making sure that Raiha-chan has everything ready, that she isn't forgetting anything, that she's eaten breakfast and brushed her teeth and all..."
"Even if he doesn't say anything about it, I really do feel like it's a waste for him to not come and have fun with us..." Miku repeats herself, and her sad tone permeates her voice more deeply.
"Oh, that's rich, coming from the one who does the least amount of stuff whenever we're on vacation because she'd prefer to be on her phone or have her headphones on all day," Nino snickers.
"Says the one who spends most of her vacation time looking for the nearest hair salon and beauty shop whenever we go anywhere," Miku fires right back. "And weren't you just talking about how you don't want guys to hit on us? How's getting beauty treatments working out for you then?"
"Excuse me, I only do that once we've done all the other important stuff. On top of which, after what almost happened that weekend, can you blame me for trying to keep an eye out for everyone?"
"Oh dear, we're getting a little heated up now, aren't we? We should go join the others in the water, c'mon, let's g - " As soon as that sensitive topic gets brought up, Ichika attempts to divert her sisters' attention, raising her own voice to accomplish this, but Nino is having none of it.
"Actually, here's a better question: how the hell did we end up talking about Uesugi? Did he not specifically tell us that we should just act like he isn't here when we arrived here on the first day? We were doing perfect for the last two days, so why's there a need to bring him up now?"
Nino now sits up, since Ichika's gotten most of her body down with sunscreen, to address her sisters sitting up.
"Seriously, forget about his dumb ass and pretend he doesn't even exist. I don't wanna even have to think about him with how often he's been over at our place for his stupid tutoring thing..."
"But it's not like you were one of the ones taking his lessons, so why are you tired of him?" Miku snaps back.
"What do you mean?! I'm not like you or Ichika or Yotsuba, I don't like him! So of course I'll be tired of him if he's at our damn house five days out of seven! And some days he even stays longer too, and on those days he's teaching while I'm cooking dinner for everyone!"
"But what reason do you have to be tired of him, exactly?" Unable to stop herself, Miku turns where she sits on the beach mat to confront Nino directly. "You don't take his lessons, you always treat him badly whenever he's over, you won't even give him dinner on the days he has to stay over late - heck, you don't even offer him any dinner on those days to begin with. And that's without taking the context of that weekend into account."
"Hey, hey, Miku, calm down, please - " Ichika tries to mediate, but again, Nino indirectly doesn't let her by jabbing back at her younger sister.
"Oh, so you don't have a problem with some random guy walking into our house five days out of seven just because he's our - your tutor? You don't have a problem with a guy who's casually acting like he's a big part of our lives all of a sudden?"
Miku simply raises her eyebrows at Nino.
"...well, seeing that he saved our lives that night, I think he kind of is a big part of our lives now, whether we like it or not."
"Oh, so just because some guy happened to save our lives, all of a sudden, now we're obligated to just let him into our house most of the week and - and fawn all over him in appreciation?" Nino growls in retaliation, gesturing widely with her arms for emphasis.
"I'm not saying that, Nino, but I think that the least we can do is let him tutor us like he was originally meant to. Is that so hard?"
Beginning to grind her teeth together and gnash them somewhat at Miku, Nino manages to swallow her anger towards her sister and swiftly gets up to her feet.
"Fine. If none of you think it's a problem, then I'll handle it myself!"
Ichika and Miku look on as Nino stomps off the beach mat, heading over to the large resort patio in the distance.
"Wait, Nino, where are you going?" Ichika calls after her, also having gotten up to her feet just in case.
"To get some drinks for us. I need to walk this one off..." Nino shouts back without even turning around at her sisters. Miku and Ichika continue to watch Nino shuffle bare-footed across the sand towards the patio, where there is a bar that serves free complimentary drinks to the guests of the resort.
"Ugh...there she goes again..." Giving off her biggest sigh of the day, Ichika sinks back down onto the beach mat. "You girls can be a bit of a handful sometimes..."
"...sorry. I'll admit...I went a bit overboard there...and it wasn't called for..." Miku mutters apologetically. "It's just...you know how things can be between me and Nino..."
"Yeah...I definitely do..." Ichika lies down on the beach mat where Nino was laying a few moments ago, closing her eyes and resting the back of her right hand against her face. "I guess you two would've turned out like this no matter what, since your personalities are so different, but...lately, you two've been fighting a lot more than usual, it feels like..."
Miku resumes her sitting fetal position with her legs pressed against her bikini'd chest. "...Nino is right, though. About Fuutarou being a big part of our lives now."
"Wait, but you were the one who pointed that out, though."
"Well, I mean, as in...it's understandable that that's how she reacts."
"I see...because of what she wants, right..."
"Yeah."
Ichika exhales deeply, shifting her hand off her face so that she can gaze up into the underside of their beach parasol.
"...I still remember that promise she made to us back then. Remember it, Miku?"
Miku nods. "It came up between me and Nino when we talked a few weeks ago, right after...that weekend."
"What did you two talk about then?"
"What I tried talking to Itsuki about. Just...trying to get her to join us in taking Fuutarou's lessons..."
"Oh, so you did talk to her about that. Figured you'd've done that, after I saw you talking to Itsuki earlier..."
"All I really want is for everyone to let Fuutarou tutor them..." Miku mumbles, still holding her phone. "...that's all."
Pausing for a few moments, Ichika then slowly sits back up.
"Hey, Miku, mind if I ask you something?"
"Hm?"
"Why do you go out of your way like this, trying to convince Nino and Itsuki to join us in the tutoring? It's not normally like you to do that."
"...I just said it, didn't I? I just want Fuutarou to be able to do his job properly."
"No, I get that, but...are you sure it's not for another reason? Like..." Ichika leans in a little towards Miku. "...like, maybe, you have...feelings for him?"
Miku's cheeks flush immediately.
"F-Feelings - " she stammers quickly, her eyes dashing elsewhere away from Ichika, whose eyes flash at this clear piece of evidence.
"Oh ho ho ~ things are getting nice 'n juicy now, aren't they ~ " she chuckles deviously, leering a little at Miku.
"Hey, what do you mean by that..."
"Nothing, nothing ~ "
"No, I'm serious, it's not...it's not because of anything like that..."
"Uh huh, it's not? Then what else could possibly make our shy and reserved Miku step out of her comfort zone on her own and try convincing her rowdy sisters to come study with us and Fuutarou-kun?" Ichika coos teasingly, reaching over a little and lightly booping Miku square on the nose. "And you look like you have so much fuuuun whenever Fuutarou-kun's over at our house to teach us ~ "
"Th-Th-That's only b-because - because it's better to get involved, right? And - and - and I don't want his teaching to go to waste - " Miku keeps stammering, her brain working overtime to come up with excuses, but when she realizes that Ichika still has on her devious look, Miku starts pouting. "Geeeeeez, Ichika, you're teasing me right now, aren't you? Aren't you!"
"Hahaha, yes, yes I am, I admit it," Ichika gives off a much appreciated laugh to break down the icy atmosphere that Nino has left in her wake. "But really, Miku, be honest with me. Ever since Fuutarou-kun started tutoring us, and especially after that weekend, as much as I would rather not bring it up, you've been opening up a lot more. You've been cooperating with him more, you're talking with him more - heck, even when he's not with us, you've been more lively in general than you were before."
"R-Really...? I don't...think I've changed that much..."
"Believe me, you have. It's almost like there's a different Miku living with us now," Ichika testifies. "I don't need to prove it to you, you already know it yourself. All I want to know is your reason, and given the changes in your behavior over the past couple of weeks, you're acting just like a girl who's in love, or at the bare minimum, you're behaving like a girl who's just gotten herself a really good boyfriend. And might I remind you that the last few times I was there for his lessons, you were the one who's been greeting him at the door to let him in, and not Yotsuba?"
By this point, Miku cannot guard against the torrent of facts rushing at her from Ichika and presses her entire face against her knees in an effort to hide her embarrassment.
"...I don't know what's going on, Ichika," she finally relents, pulling her face a tiny bit out of her knees but still unable to return Ichika's gaze. "Ever since that weekend...it's like...it's like I'm feeling more comfortable whenever Fuutarou's around...and I don't really know why. Is it because I really do like him? Or is it only because he saved our lives that night? You're right just now, I know...I know that I've been changing the past few weeks. I've been trying to hide it, but it makes sense that you're the one who isn't fooled..."
"Call it an older sister instinct," Ichika beams. "Anyway, go on?"
"All I know is that now that we know more about him, I want to help Fuutarou out wherever I can. Like...like maybe I feel like it's the least we can do for what he's done for us so far," Miku continues. "But I don't know if I feel that way just out of pity, or just out of obligation...or because it's...something more than that..."
Ichika then scoots a little closer to her pensive sister.
"I think you really might have a thing for him, Miku," she whispers with a coy smile, causing Miku to shake her head quickly in denial. "I'm serious, you know. All these changes in your behavior, from your attempts to convince Nino and Itsuki to study with us to you just looking happier and having more of a confident air about you instead of walking around feeling like a wallflower all day - and now that we're talking about this, you're easily getting all bothered about the topic...I mean, since you don't really talk about this kind of stuff, I don't really know what your type is, but Fuutarou-kun's got that serious and mysterious air about him, right? You might be into that, maybe."
Miku doesn't say anything at first - her silence indicates to Ichika that she may be considering this possibility, or perhaps putting more thought into this possibility.
"E-Even still, I don't...I don't know for sure. It's not like I get embarrassed just from being around him or anything...I know it's not to that level; just comfortable, like I said," she responds, trying to hold her ground. "For now, I just want to help him, just like how he's helped us. I haven't even talked to him much so far either..."
Hearing this, Ichika feels a light bulb go off in her head - she hasn't yet had the chance to make good on her promise to Fuutarou that she'd set up some sort of meeting between them. Now that Miku's unwittingly given her this chance, she springs into action.
"Then why not spend some time alone with him, hmm...?" Ichika continues whispering to Miku. "How about it? I got Fuutarou-kun's number the other day when we ran into each other; I figured it'd be handy to have in case of any emergencies while we're here. You said earlier that you want him to have fun while he's here too, right? You can help him out with that."
"But why does it have to be me...?"
"Oh c'mon, don't give me that right after you sat here talking about how you don't know what you feel towards him. That's the whole point, isn't it? To find out what you really feel towards him. You never know ~ "
"But he's...he's probably busy right now..."
"So you don't want him to hang out and have fun, then?"
Miku pouts again at Ichika, who turns to grab her own phone. "Geez, you're being mean, Ichika..."
Sliding her finger down her phone screen, the eldest quint tugs a little on her own black bikini top as she pulls up a new text to send to their tutor.
"Besides...what're the others going to think? Even if I sit here and talk about how I want Fuutarou to come join us or whatever, I haven't considered what Yotsuba and Itsuki think...not that it'd be difficult at all to know what they'd say about it..."
"Now now, you can't go and start second-guessing yourself like that. That's a bad habit to have, you know? Gotta be decisive about these things. If you want something, you gotta reach out and take it yourself. Like this - shark bite!" Ichika suddenly grabs Miku's right wrist tightly. "Gotcha ~ "
"That's not exactly the best joke you could make while we're at the beach..." Miku grimaces a little, apparently unfazed.
"Shucks, that trick works on Itsuki better..."
"Well yeah...it's Itsuki we're talking about. She'll run away from watching a movie the moment you say it's got a zombie in it." Miku notices Ichika punching in a text on her phone with her right hand, and it's only then that she notices to whom she intends to send this text to, and what her text is saying. "I-I-Ichika - ?! Wait, wait, wait, what are you - !"
"What, I told you what I was doing, didn't I? I'm gonna text him and tell him to meet up with you at the patio over there," Ichika points over to the same outdoor patio area where Nino has headed for drinks.
"But - But - !"
Sighing once more, Ichika lowers her phone mid-text and loosens her grip on Miku's right wrist for a more tender and sisterly hold.
"I know it's a bit sudden, Miku, especially for someone like you who normally isn't into dating and stuff like that. But we're in high school now - we're already at that age where time feels like it's flying by. You've only got three years of high school in your life, and that's it. That's why you should at least try to see if Fuutarou-kun really is the boy for you. And even if it doesn't work out, at least you'll know what to look for in a guy going forward."
"...I'd really rather just...take things like that at my own pace..." Miku lowers her gaze back down at their beach mat.
"But you don't know what your own pace is for things like this. And how could you? This is the first time I've ever seen you acting this way around a boy. If I don't give you a little push like this, how long will it be before you finally make the first step on your own? What if another girl comes along and takes him away, you know? Do you want that, then?"
Once more, Miku relapses into silence, and Ichika takes this opportunity to finish her text.
"It doesn't have to be anything big, Miku. Since I suggested this to him already, he won't be taken by surprise or anything - "
"Wait, you already told him that you'd be doing this...?!" Miku whips around with a kind of quickness the likes of which Ichika has never seen come from the third quintuplet who's more infamously known for being the least athletic among the five of them.
"Er - uh, oops..." Ichika can do nothing but stick out her tongue a little at her own little slip-up. "Yeah, I...I told him about how you'd been behaving lately with Nino and Itsuki when I ran into him the other day at the start of vacation in the resort, and that was when I suggested to him that I'd maybe set him up to come hang out with you, hence why he shouldn't be surprised or anything when I text him about it now."
As Ichika is revealing her actions from two days ago, Miku buries her face into her hands, groaning faintly.
"...I didn't...want him to know about that..." she confesses weakly, causing Ichika to chuckle a little with sympathy. "...that I was...trying to get Nino and Itsuki to come study with us..."
"Sorry about that. If you'd told me that you didn't want Fuutarou-kun to know about it, I would've kept it a secret. My bad, Miku."
But Miku shakes her head, lowering her hands as well once this wave of embarrassment manages to subside.
"I suppose Fuutarou would have found out about what I was doing at some point or another," she reasons to herself. "If I did manage to convince Nino and Itsuki to study with us, then Fuutarou would've been suspicious about their behavior and start asking them about what got them to join us..."
"That's a good point...Fuutarou-kun's smart enough to figure that one out too...and send." Ichika shows Miku her phone that displays the text she's sent to their tutor. "And there you go, Miku. I've got him to meet you at that patio over there at exactly six-thirty tomorrow evening, right after we're done with dinner."
Her lips twisting slightly with nervous uncertainty, Miku once again lets her eyes drop to the beach mat on which the two sisters sit once they've scanned Ichika's text to Fuutarou.
"Just relax, Miku. It's just Fuutarou-kun - we've known him for three weeks now, so it's not like he's some sort of stranger to us still, right?"
"But there's still so much about him that we don't know...just because we've known him for three weeks and we have him tutor us almost every weekday, doesn't mean we know each other enough to call each other 'friends' yet, do we...?"
"Well, that's why opportunities like this exist, so that we can get to know each other better. That way, you can become comfortable with calling each other friends, and then, and then ~ " Ichika clasps her hands together with the potentially romantic notion. "And then, maybe, just maybe, something beautiful can blossom from it ~ !"
Miku narrows her eyes suspiciously at Ichika. "You're sure getting pretty into this, Ichika. You sure you're not just doing this because it's amusing to you?"
"Aha, you got me there ~ "
"You should really stop watching all those dramas with Nino and Yotsuba..."
"No way, those are great. Tell you what, if you're feeling really nervous about it still, I'll come with you, but I'll just watch from a distance so that it's still just you and Fuutarou-kun. How's that?"
"I-I'll be fine on my own. I think..."
Having reached the outdoor patio, Nino waits in line with a disgruntled face and her arms crossed. While her English is still very weak, it's the best out of her sisters', and she knows enough to at least be able to read basic English words that commonly show up in stores and restaurants and correspondingly order them or buy them. As it's a relatively empty Tuesday afternoon, the patio itself is not very occupied either, save for the bartenders who also manage the drink counter and a few small groups of men and women either sitting at the bar counter watching some sports on large flatscreen televisions hanging off the ceiling of the patio roof or standing around enjoying the ocean and beach view. The line itself to the drink counter isn't long - as a matter of fact, Nino's the only one technically in line; there is a young woman also in swimsuit chatting casually with the clerk in English who clearly either doesn't know that Nino is behind her waiting for her to finish or doesn't care. Either way, this gives Nino some time to reflect.
Thinking back, Nino realizes quietly that she's actually been technically present at a rather alarming number of Fuutarou's lessons. While not actively studying with them at the glass table in the living room, she's either frequently sitting at the dinner table on her phone or in the kitchen cooking dinner or baking cookies and other such snacks for her sisters, while also begrudgingly letting the tutor have some of them too. Naturally, all the while, she's been listening to them study, listening to Fuutarou teach her sisters as a sort of pseudo-audience. It's almost as if she's studying with her sisters by proxy...but of course it's not quite the same as actually getting involved.
Nino is well aware of what her behavior's been like over the past few weeks in relation to Fuutarou's tutoring for her sisters. She didn't expect herself to end up spectating their lessons like she has been - for example, during Fuutarou's first week of lessons, she'd been absent from home to hang out with her friends in the city. However, such outings with friends could only last so long because of her recent arrival at their new high school, and there are only so many new friends she could make - and she didn't exactly like the crowd back at their old academy, so she has no real desire to go meet up with people from there. So once the new friends she did make at their new school had been exhausted of their social gatherings and returned to commandeer their own lives, Nino was left with no real excuse to leave the house during the times that Fuutarou would come over to tutor.
This was especially true following the wake of the incident at the warehouse - once promises to go hang out with friends dried up going into Fuutarou's second week of tutoring, Nino didn't want to head out of the house alone. Getting kidnapped, getting rough-handled, getting restrained, bound, and taken to a place where there would be a very real possibility that she could simply disappear, just like the stories of kidnapping victims that she's heard about growing up and on the news...not to mention how one of those thugs even tore her clothes open -
Nino quickly presses her teeth together behind pursed lips to banish the memory.
But try as she might, Nino cannot deny the fact that the incident has rattled her more than she cares to admit, but what she's frustrated about is how, because she doesn't know how exactly she's disturbed by that incident, only that she is. It's not as if she has nightmares about what happened that weekend, and it's not like she's been stricken with some sort of trauma because of it, like she's going to turn into a blubbering mess if the topic happens to be brought up. But lately, even the mere thought of heading out alone at night has been daunting in a way that it hasn't been before the incident. Say all you want about how she brought this whole incident upon herself, but Nino feels more annoyed at herself more than anything that she's letting something like this bother her to this extent.
Perhaps the worst thing about it all is that she obviously cannot talk about this with her sisters. Somebody like Ichika or Itsuki - hell, even Miku would be willing to listen to her, despite the fact that she's fresh off another argument with her. Yotsuba's a bit of a hit or miss, though...
But for a social butterfly like Nino, she can't stand not being able to talk about something that bothers her. She'd always done so whenever a problem arose, like gossip at school or annoying guys trying to hit on them in the city. Now all of a sudden, when faced with an issue whose audience cannot possibly be her own sisters, Nino finds herself unplugged, with no outlet for venting. And as stated prior, she can't turn to the people she once called "friends" back at her old school, and neither can she rely on her new "friends" whom she barely knows all that well even at her new school.
And then there's the issue of Fuutarou himself. Nino has made sure to keep her thoughts about him on that night a secret from her sisters, so no need to worry about that dirty little secret emerging without her knowing. But thinking back again, her own internal sentiments towards Fuutarou have been slowly changing as well. She's not talking about him from her previous ideally romantic perspective, but from a simple everyday point of view: slowly but surely she's found his constant, almost daily tutoring sessions to be less and less intrusive. Rather, it's like they're slowly incorporating themselves into a daily part of her and her sisters' lives, which is exactly what she doesn't want. And the worst part about that is that Nino hasn't done anything to oppose it as of late, as if she's ultimately okay with Fuutarou coming over to their house every day because him being there provides a certain intangible level of security that will prevent anything like that one incident from happening while he's around.
Such is the paradox and the dilemma she finds herself in, then. For now, Nino is firmly rooted against Fuutarou's tutoring still - she knows that she is confident in declaring this, because at the end of the day, obviously, her sisters mean more to her than Fuutarou does, as they should. But to aggravate her sense of isolation from before even more, clearly her sisters don't mind Fuutarou becoming a big part of their lives, like Miku herself said just earlier. And knowing Itsuki, Nino suspects that Itsuki won't be able to hold out against him for much longer. Like, how could she? Itsuki, being the one who's usually known among the quints as the most studious one, even if Miku is actually the one who produces the best test results, will probably eventually succumb to the pressure and accept Fuutarou's tutoring. All the testimonies about how supposedly effective Fuutarou's lessons have been from Ichika, Miku, and Yotsuba alike have already been taking their toll on Itsuki at the dinner table; at first, Itsuki was like Nino in that she was staunchly opposed, but as the days turned into weeks, Itsuki's defense has been crumbling, staying quiet and listening to Yotsuba go on about all the stuff Fuutarou's taught them that day.
Itsuki is a reasonable person. Even if she is academically challenged like the rest of her sisters are, even if she is the biggest crybaby among them, even if she's always got to have something to eat every other hour and have her various quirks that Nino herself and the others will always give her shit for, the one thing that Itsuki is that Nino is not is that. If Fuutarou is the excellent tutor that the others claim him to be, then Itsuki will have no choice but to eventually join their ranks as another one of Fuutarou's students. And as much as she gets into hot water with Miku, Nino reluctantly knows that Miku is perhaps right about their studying, that if Miku cannot study and get passing marks among them, then none of her sisters can hope for a better fate. So perhaps for now, Itsuki is a comrade in arms in their movement against having Fuutarou tutor them - but Nino is sure that such an alliance cannot last forever.
And when that happens...then, Nino will truly become alone.
Unplugged, disconnected, removed. Just like that night at the warehouse.
"Alright, sorry about that, I'll take your order, miss."
Being called up, Nino uses this to purge her mind of those dark thoughts that she found herself sinking into for a moment there, focusing all of her efforts to communicating adequately with the bartender in what little English she commands grasp over. After successfully placing her order for six ginger peach sodas, Nino waits for her order by one of the tables near the short stairs that lead down to the sand, watching the waves roll up lazily against the beach.
But before she can let her thoughts be washed away by the retreating foam and wet sand, Nino hears a few pairs of dull footsteps approach her from behind. Normally she wouldn't give it a second thought, but thanks to that incident, she's been acting much more cautious around strangers, so she turns around. Four tall young men in any assortment of beach clothes like swimming trunks, Hawaiian t-shirts, and sunglasses surround her in a half-circle against the table that she's standing near, with one of the men, a shirtless guy wearing a few chains around his neck as accessories, standing at the top of the short stairs to cut off her only method of easy escape.
"Hey girl, wanna have a good time? We got a boat out back, we can take you anywhere you want on this side of the island," the tallest man among them, probably the leader, talks down to Nino in English. It's at times like these when Nino is forced to realize just how short she and her sisters are - at a mere 159 centimeters (5 feet, 3 inches), she is laughably dwarfed by these men who easily clock in at over 180 centimeters (around six feet).
"Um...s-sorry, I...don't speak English well..." Nino blurts out, struggling to scrape together the words necessary under her newfound pressure.
"Oh that's no problem, babe. What do you speak? Tell us, one of our buddies here probably speaks it." The leader gestures to his right at the man of Asian descent, wearing a bright blue Hawaiian shirt and with sunglasses on his head, and the latter offers a polite smile down at Nino that suggests anything but politeness.
"J-Japanese..."
"Oh, Japanese? That's perfect, that's my native language growing up," the Asian young adult nods with a laugh of relief. "You must be vacationing here from Japan, right? There's a lot of Japanese living here in Hawaii, so you chose a good place to stop by."
"Er, thanks, but...can you tell them that I'm not interested? I'm just trying to get some drinks and go back to my hotel room..."
"You're just here to get some drinks and go back to your room?" he repeats with another chuckle, but this time it's much more devious, and Nino doesn't need to exert herself to sense it. "But you can just do the same inside the resort, right? Since there's another indoor bar in there just like this one."
Nino opens her mouth to respond, but she can't find anything else to say. She's been caught off guard on this one, and having already put herself on the back foot because of the thoughts she's been running through her head a few moments ago, Nino is ill-equipped for excuses to ward against these men.
"C'mon, if you're that bored, we can show you around the city. Like our friend here said, we've got ourselves a speedboat and a license, so we can give you a quick little tour of the beach from the water. How about it?"
"No thank you, I'm not here to hang out with anyone in particular," Nino firmly stands her ground anyway, expecting the worst. She's left her phone with her sisters back on the beach, so she really is on her own at this moment in time.
"Ah don't worry about it, babe, we always have a good time!" the leader of the men chuckles heartily, and it's only then that Nino realizes where his eyes are pointed. "Hey, tell her that we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way, we don't have a lot of time here..."
The leader points his thumb discretely over his shoulder back at the bartenders.
"You should come with us. We'll take good care of you, we'll guarantee you that," the translator nods, still smiling politely. "But if you don't, we can't give you that same guarantee. So what do you say?"
Nion subconsciously presses herself against the edge of the table, trying to stand as far away from the men as she can. This table is the only thing in the way of her and the patio railing on the other side of the table, so she mentally prepares herself to -
"Hey, excuse me? I don't appreciate you all crowding around my girl here."
Nino blinks as soon as her ears register the familiar voice speaking a language that she's not used to hearing from it. The four men all turn around themselves to find an even younger man than they approaching them calmly, dressed in the relatively stuffy clothes of a white dress shirt and black dress pants.
The tall leader of the small gang smirks widely down at Fuutarou as the latter stops before him with a few feet spacing the two of them apart.
"Your girl? Your girl? Motherfucker, we got here first," he cackles slightly. "This bitch's ours, you hear? Get'cher nerdy-lookin' bitch-ass outta my sight 'fore you regret it."
But even while the Hawaiian shirted leader of the gang trying to pressure Nino into giving in to their demands is talking down to Fuutarou, the latter pulls out his phone, taps through it briefly, and looks back up at his opponent to wait until he's done talking shit.
"Mr. Alastor Scott, correct?" Fuutarou asks, causing the man in question to do a double-take.
"Whoa, what the fuck, how do you - "
"Never mind how I know your name, Mr. Scott. What I'm more concerned about is that boat you said you have - you said something about having a license? That's funny, because when I checked the state's boat license registry, I didn't find anyone by the name of 'Alastor Scott'. Care to explain that one to me? Or maybe you're implying that you're running some sort of...illegal boat operation that the city doesn't know about?"
"You fucking little - "
But the translator wisely puts his hand on his friend's shoulder, shaking his head at him. Getting the message, Alastor forces himself to keep his peace and beckons at his crew, withdrawing swiftly with his goons and removing themselves from the patio. Fuutarou eyes them the whole time that they leave with his dull, piercing gaze, ensuring that they are in fact departing the area for good.
"Um...is everything okay back there?" one of the bartenders, namely the one who served Nino when she placed her order for drinks, calls over to the two of them cautiously, having his own phone in hand to call security in case the situation started looking worse.
"Yeah, we're fine, thank you," Fuutarou waves the bartender down before turning to Nino. "How's your vacation so far? Other than that, of course."
Nino bares her clenched teeth angrily back at her would-be tutor. "How many more times are you gonna just show up like some sort of superhero like that?"
"As many times as you get yourself in trouble. If it'll make you feel any better, I'll start keeping count. But cut out the superhero part, that stuff's lame."
"That's my line..." Nino sighs heavily and plops down on the table seat directly behind her, though Fuutarou doesn't join her. "Why is it that we're starting to run into all sorts of trouble now that you're here? Just get fucking lost already - weren't you the one who said to pretend like you weren't even here with us?"
"Ideally, yeah, that's how it should be. But I think you can forgive me for stepping in on this one."
"I could've handled it myself. That's not the first time this's happened, you know."
"Oh, I can assure you, I definitely know."
"Shut the fuck up..."
Resting her head against her arms on the table, Nino falls silent, her peachy-red hair draping down on both sides of her shoulders on and off the table, with her butterfly-patterned hair ribbons deflating with her hair. Without a word of his own, Fuutarou also joins her, taking a silent seat across from her.
"You must've put in a big order if you're waiting this long for drinks, huh?" he remarks idly, giving the bar and drink counter another quick scan. The second bartender, whom Fuutarou assumes is the one who knows how to mix drinks between the two who are currently on duty, is busy serving the adults at the bar, so that's probably why Nino's order is taking so long.
"Six ginger peach sodas. I just asked for the biggest sizes they had, since I don't wanna have to walk back all the way here for another round."
"That'll explain it, then. But why not just take turns with your sisters to come here for refills or more drinks?"
"I'm not letting what happened to me happen to any of them, you dipshit."
Nino irritably raises her gaze up from the table.
"And just where the hell have you been the past two days?"
"Is that something you should be asking the guy you just told to get lost?"
"You're the one who's apparently supposed to be our bodyguard or whatever, so shut up and answer my fucking question, damn it."
Snorting with brief amusement of his own, Fuutarou thumbs through his phone that he's kept in his hand even after chasing away the men who were attempting to wrestle Nino away.
"Entitled much, but whatever. I've been securing this city so that it'll be safe for you girls and your dad no matter where you go, as long as you stay within city boundaries."
"Safe my ass, you didn't see what was about to happen just now?"
"You won't believe me, but I did account for this patio too. Those dudes have hung out here every day ever since we arrived - they did the same shit to a few other girls yesterday. Luckily the girls were in a group, and there was a lot more foot traffic here yesterday, so they could've easily made a scene to defend themselves. Needless to say, those dudes were definitely shady as hell, so I've kept tabs on them. Seeing that the tallest guy said something about having a boat and doesn't even have a boat license as far as the state's concerned, he's someone to watch out for, for sure. Make sure your sisters know about those guys too."
Nino says nothing, so Fuutarou leaves her be, knowing that Nino is clearly in no mood for conversation. He simply sits with her at their table instead, calmly checking his email for a response from the team in London to whom he's shipped his Heisei samples.
As Fuutarou focuses on his own work, Nino, having planted her face firmly down against her arms on the table for a second time, slowly squeezes her fists, her long hair serving to hide them so that she can do so in secret. She keeps them this way until the bartender calls out Nino's name to give her the order of ginger peach teas.
When Nino begins to head for the short stairs to return to her sisters playing on the beach, Fuutarou, who's stood up after her once her order was called, rendezvouses with her at the top of the stairs. Nino merely gives him a single scathing glance, not even bothering to slow down to bid him farewell, and quickly stomps away back to her sisters, carrying her case of freshly crafted sodas.
Fuutarou silently looks on, watching her walk off across the beach. Raising his phone one last time, he glances down at it quickly, rereading the text he's received from Ichika about fifteen minutes ago.