Several hours later, on the same beach, Yotsuba finally returns with Raiha for the last time to their sisters at their solitary beach mat, plopping down amidst the others in two heaps from satisfied exhaustion. The cheery Hawaiian blue sky has since turned to its charming, quaint autumnal colors of red, orange, and yellow as the sun once more begins its downwards sojourn below the horizon.

"Waaaaahhhahahaa...we played so much today, didn't we, Raiha-chan?" Yotsuba heaves on the mat, catching her breath.

"Uh huh, today was super fun!"

"So that's better than fun, right?"

"Yeah."

"Was it super duper fun?"

"Yeah!"

"Was it...super duper AMAZING fun?"

"Yeah!"

"Was it - "

"Okay, Yotsuba, we get the point, and Raiha-chan's tired too," Miku interrupts her younger sister by lightly tapping the side of her hand against her forehead in a karate-chop motion.

Nakano Miku pulls off her characteristic blue headphones with which she's been listening to music, relaxing on their beach mat next to Ichika, who's taken quite the beauty nap with a straw beach hat that she's brought along covering her face as she sleeps, though she begins to stir and wakes from all the noise that Yotsuba and Raiha have brought with them upon their return. Itsuki, perhaps to no one's surprise, is munching on one of the granola bars that the quintuplets have packed in their beach bags as snacks, sitting beside Miku on the mat.

"Whoa...look at the time..." Ichika remarks groggily, checking the time on her phone after removing the hat from her face. "Did you all have fun out there?"

"Yeaaaaaah!" both Yotsuba and Raiha chant.

"Were you sleeping this whole time, Ichika?" Itsuki asks, somewhat in disdain. "You ought to have joined us out there, we had quite a bit of fun today."

"Don't worry about it - you know me, I love my beauty sleep, haha."

"But you always get your beauty sleep every day in the afternoon, do you not?"

"Well..." Sitting up slowly and rubbing her eyes, Ichika smiles weakly. "Not...not these days, no. Fuutarou-kun comes to tutor us during the time that I'd usually be napping, so..."

Itsuki tenses up slightly at the mention of Fuutarou's name.

"But you're almost always nodding off to sleep in the middle of his lessons anyway," Miku points out while Yotsuba starts to tell Raiha another one of their previous vacation stories, this time about their vacation to Okinawa's Emerald Beach.

"I know, I know. But still, do you expect me not to nap on such a fabulous beach like this? Especially when there's almost no one around today for whatever reason."

Itsuki lowers her half-eaten granola bar to wipe the rest of her navel with her beach towel to dry off the ocean water.

"By the way, where is Nino?" she asks, looking up at Miku and down at Ichika. "I saw her briefly after she went to buy us drinks, but I have not seen her since..." She notes the now-empty case of plastic cups that once held their ginger peach tea beverages sitting next to Ichika's beach bag on the mat.

"She left about an hour ago. Said she wanted to spend some time in our room...she said she liked the view better up there," Miku responds, since she's the only one who can, as Ichika was fast asleep at the time. Itsuki's face contorts a little with concern.

"...that certainly is not like her. Normally she would be all about a beach vacation..." she mutters quietly.

"And she was so hyped up about it this morning too..." Ichika nods sadly. "I hope she's feeling okay. I'll go talk to her later on tonight at dinner or so."

"I'll go with you, Ichika. In case she's still mad about our argument from before, I'll just apologize," Miku nods.

"She's not back at the hotel room because of you."

A voice the girls have not heard for the past two days responds to Miku's sentiment towards Nino, and in surprise, everyone on the beach mat, including Yotsuba and Raiha, immediately turn towards the voice. Uesugi Fuutarou sets down a green reusable shopping bag with a plain white recycling sign on one side on the edge of the mat and bends his knees down to begin fishing through the bag's contents.

"Onii-chan, welcome back ~ !" Raiha cries out joyfully, getting up swiftly and dashing over to her older brother to give him a welcoming hug.

"Hey, Raiha, I'm back. You having fun so far?" Fuutarou braces for the inevitable collision and tanks it, maintaining his balance haphazardly as Raiha almost knocks him over onto the sand. "You just came back from the water, huh?"

"Oh, oops, sorry - yeah, Yotsuba-san and I were playing in the ocean for the past two hours. It was a ton of fun!"

"Two hours, huh? That's a long time..."

Once Raiha's let go of her brother, he pulls out six bowls with plastic lids carrying rice, a choice of meat from barbecue chicken, barbecue beef, or pork katsu and offers them to each of the girls, letting them know their meat choices.

"Wow, Uesugi-san, did you buy all this just for us?" Yotsuba beams, opening her barbecue chicken bowl and inspecting its contents with pleasure.

"Yeah, but it wasn't my money. Your dad called me in to talk to me, and he gave me some cash to buy everyone some food."

"Dad gave you money to buy us some food?" Ichika glances back and forth from itsuki and Miku, both of whom are also giving her back stumped looks of their own. "That's...that's, uh, unexpected, to say the least..."

"I suppose it is just like Father to send someone else to deliver us some food," Itsuki remarks simply, already snapping apart her pair of disposable wooden chopsticks that Fuutarou has tossed over to her from his bag.

"Took the words right outta my mouth, to be honest," Fuutarou nods, and Miku notices him having a bit of a stink-eye as he utters this. "But I didn't meet up with your dad just for some lunch money - he told me to tell you girls that your dinner reservation with him tonight's going to be delayed by about two hours."

"Two hours? Our original reservation was...seven o'clock? Right now's about five..." Ichika checks her phone while her sisters dig into their food bowls at various speeds, as the long day of playing hard on the beach has left most of them feeling rather voracious; naturally, the ones who haven't been as active take their time with their food.

"Then we'll be having dinner at nine," Miku notes quietly, with a hint of melancholy.

"Nine o'clock...that is so late for dinnertime..." Itsuki adds as well, with a similar tone.

"You girls normally have dinner around five, right? Seven o'clock is already pushing it pretty late, I'd imagine," Fuutarou notes, and the girls nod back.

"Well, that's mainly because we have to get up early for school the next day. It's not like we haven't had dinner late before," Ichika shrugs, chewing thoughtfully on a piece of beef. "And not to mention, we're on vacation right now, so it's not like we have school to worry about tomorrow morning."

"Uesugi-kun, did Father tell you why dinner needed to be delayed today?" Itsuki asks softly. Yotsuba and Raiha are eating their food together, though they have relocated themselves closer to the others now that Fuutarou has delivered them some grub. Fuutarou also gives Itsuki a bit of that same stink-eye.

"If you're asking that because you want to eat dinner sooner rather than later..." he mutters disapprovingly, causing the other three quintuplets to burst out giggling; Yotsuba simply laughs out loud, while Ichika tries to hide her unmistakable smirk with her right hand and Miku lets her face drop downwards so that her hair obscures her face instead.

"It's not because of the food this time, I swear!" Itsuki shrieks, her cheeks turning the same color of red as her hair the fastest that Fuutarou has ever seen. "Give me a break already, all of you! Especially you, Uesugi-kun!"

"I mean, if you want, I can tell everyone the story of how I met you in the school cafeteria," Fuutarou flatly replies, and this refreshes and escalates the laughter from the other quintuplets as the small smirks and muffled giggling gets ramped up to hearty laughs, hysterical ones from Yotsuba. Even Raiha is smiling with amusement, as Itsuki has eaten curry with the Uesugi family before.

"W-Wait, what's - what's so funny about that!? I just - I just met him at the cafeteria during our first day at school! What's so funny?! Hey, you three! Girls, girls!"

Try as she might, the youngest and most embarrassed quint is unable to quell the laughter from her sisters and begins pouting again, as if it's a self-defense mechanism that she defaults to in situations like this.

"Well, Itsuki, it's - it's just - " Finally managing to catch her breath at least for a moment, Yotsuba can't seem to wipe her silly grin off her face so that she can talk properly. "Just - with how much you like eating, it's - it's just - it's just - you would meet Uesugi-san for the first time in - in the cafeteria - " But that's all she can manage before Yotsuba doubles over in laughter again, clutching her stomach because now she's getting cramps.

"I didn't even get to the best part yet and you all are laughing this much?" Fuutarou raises an eyebrow at the quintuplets except for Itsuki. "I guess I shouldn't tell you the next part then, just out of concern for the food you're eating right now."

"Not because you want to save me the embarrassment?!" Itsuki hollers angrily, shaking her fists up and down.

"If you'd've attended my lessons, maybe I'd reconsider." Fuutarou deliberately looks away from Itsuki and starts to whistle nonchalantly.

"Over my dead body!"

"Then maybe I should give your sisters the extra details about our first meeting in the cafeteria?"

"Please don't!"

It takes the quintuplets a good few minutes to finally calm down from their laughter that ensues from the banter between the girls' tutor and Itsuki, the latter of whom has threatened to vacate the premises to join Nino back in their hotel room until Fuutarou reminded her that he'd rather her leave the trash with him so that he can dispose of the girls' trash altogether for them. So reluctantly, along with a quick apology from Uesugi, Itsuki has stayed, silently but indignantly munching on her food with her back turned to the lone boy among them.

"So what was the deal with Dad, Fuutarou-kun?" Ichika repeats for Itsuki, since it's not likely Itsuki will want to speak to their tutor for the rest of the day today. "Why did he end up delaying dinner for tonight?"

"You should already have a solid idea of that yourself, no?" Fuutarou scowls a little.

"I mean, yeah, we do, but...this is you we're talking about here. While we know pretty well what Dad does, we don't really know a whole lot about you, and I guess in this case more specifically, your relationship with him. So for all we know, it could be something that isn't exactly related to his work."

Fuutarou shakes his head. "If you're talking about if I'm potentially getting him involved in my side of work, then you don't need to worry about that since I do my best to keep people out of my own business for their own sakes. No, it's the usual - work's been tailing him again. You wonder why he's spent the last two days holed up in his room?"

Now that their father is the topic at hand, the quintuplets phase out their laughter and merrymaking, or in Itsuki's case embarrassed anger, to let an uneasy silence replace them.

"H-He did come with us for some stuff yesterday on Monday during the afternoon," Yotsuba reminds them, trying to keep the mood at least somewhat upbeat. "He came with us for the trail hiking and watched us go rock climbing, remember?"

But none of the quintuplets are in much of a mood to respond to this, and their silence pressures Yotsuba back into silence of her own. Fuutarou surveys the quintuplets' quiet, soft brooding as they slowly go through the food that he's brought them.

"...maybe this isn't my place to ask, but..." Fuutarou speaks up slowly, "...since I've been over at your place quite a few times now, I've noticed that your dad almost never comes home. I figured it's mainly because of his work, and I certainly hope that's the case, but..."

"If you're trying to ask if there's anything bad between us, no, that's not it. He's always taken good care of us...especially after Mom died," Ichika murmurs somberly, gazing down at the steaming warm rice in her bowl.

"I-Ichika...!" Miku whispers quickly to her older sister, with Itsuki and Yotsuba also sporting similarly alarmed looks.

"Oh c'mon, I'm just saying it how it is. Besides, Fuutarou-kun's not an idiot; if he's noticed something like Dad almost never coming back home, he should've definitely noticed that no one who looks like our Mom's been around the house either any time he's over at our place," Ichika explains herself before glancing over at Fuutarou. "That, and you work with Dad too, right? Then there's always the chance that he might've told you about our Mom already too."

"He's only mentioned her a few times in all the time that I've known him; she doesn't really get brought up that often, and he's certainly never told me that she died, either," Fuutarou shakes his head before glancing over at Raiha, who nods calmly back. "But yeah, I could kind of guess as to what maybe happened to your mom. I just never bothered asking about her since...I didn't want to step on that landmine."

"W-What about Raiha-chan, too? Should we really be talking about something like this in front of her?" Yotsuba asks worriedly, having put an arm around Raiha's shoulders comfortingly.

"It's okay, Yotsuba-san. I can handle it," Raiha smiles widely up at her friend, so Fuutarou nods back at Ichika to let her continue.

So she sets down her bowl beside her so that she can concentrate on talking. "So yeah...Dad's always looked after us after Mom went. He's provided for us everything we could ever want...he's the one who's letting us live like rich spoiled girls like we are now. It's just..."

The eldest quint leans back a little with her arms against the mat behind her slightly, gazing up at the edge of their large beach parasol.

"...I wish he were a bit more...interactive...with us...if that's the right word..." she mutters,

Fuutarou raises a hand up to his bowed face to rub his temples tiredly. "It's a whole lot worse than I thought, huh..."

"I've always kind of wondered, but...now that we know you work with him, sort of..." Miku glances up at her tutor. "Is Papa really as busy as he says? He's not...doing other stuff, is he?"

"No, he's not fooling around or anything while he's gone, I can assure you of that. He takes his work seriously," Fuutarou testifies swiftly. "When he tells you he's at work, or if he tells you that work's come up, that means he's got to be there. Given that he's the head physician at the hospital, it shouldn't come as any surprise."

Miku also gives off a weak smile of her own, her gaze also falling slowly down to the mat on which she sits. "...so there wasn't really any helping that, then."

"Maybe not, but..."

A breeze-filled silence passes among them in the late afternoon beach, with the waves rolling up lazily as they have been all day long. The natural ambience of Waikiki Beach is very therapeutic, serving to break up the awkward silence among the quintuplets and their guests effectively despite the sensitive topics that have been brought up.

"Uesugi-san, I've just been wondering, but...aren't you, like, really hot in those clothes?" Yotsuba wonders aloud to her tutor, pointing at his black dress pants to give them special notice. "Like, gosh, it was really hot earlier today. Don't tell me you were running around the city in those clothes still?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. I've been avoiding the sun as much as I could and keeping myself hydrated."

"Hmm...Fuutarou-kun avoids the sun, dresses neatly almost all the time, and is most active during nighttime?" Ichika emits a quick glint from her eyes as she quickly sets her hand on her chin like a detective. "Perhaps...perhaps our tutor is...a vampire?"

"I can assure you, I am no vampire," Fuutarou says flatly again, raising out his arm to his left to expose it in broad sunlight to prove his identity to the quintuplets.

"Whoaaaaa! Then if that's true, Uesugi-san, does that mean - does that mean that you're tutoring us so that you can come suck our blood?!" Yotsuba cries in sudden self-inspired epiphany.

Itsuki twitches a little at the mention of the word "blood" while Fuutarou sticks his tongue out a little in disgust.

"I hate the taste of blood, so no thanks," he shakes his head.

"Wait, how do you even know what blood tastes like to the point where you know you don't like it...?" Miku asks in suspicion.

"Well, when you get into a fight and happen to get punched in the face or the mouth, you don't really have a choice in the matter..."

"You are not making fun of me again, are you?" Itsuki growls dangerously, though her sudden shift in tone is at least understandable here.

"No, I'm not, calm down please," Fuutarou returns sternly. "If it'll make you feel any better, I've had my fair share of getting punched in the face."

"Thank you, yes it does."

"Itsuki..." Miku hisses quietly over at her youngest sister.

"In any case, what have you been doing the past two days? Though I bet it's like classified stuff, right?" Ichika gestures back at Fuutarou.

"Basically going around town and making sure there's nothing here that'll disrupt your vacation, that's all. As per Nino's request, I've also been doing my best to stay out of sight in general, but today's an exception since my employer told me to come here and get you girls some food before dinner later."

"Y-You took Nino seriously about that...?" Miku blinks back at Fuutarou, feeling a familiar anger swell up in her chest again.

"It's fine, I was going to do that for the most part. This is your vacation, after all."

"Oh, don't say that, Fuutarou-kun. Even if it's 'our' vacation, you're still in Hawaii with us - at least give yourself some time to relax and enjoy this place a little?" Ichika suggests, going back to eating her barbecue beef bowl.

"But what would I even do here..."

"Tons of stuff! We went hiking and rock climbing yesterday, today we're at the beach, and there's still tons of stuff like boating, going shopping in the city, and patio karaoke!" Yotsuba exclaims, always one to enjoy a good time. "We don't mind if you come join us too, Uesugi-san!"

"Yeah, but two of you will," Fuutarou points over at Itsuki, and if Nino were also present, he'd point at her, too. "Not to mention what your dad would think about your tutor joining you in these kinds of things."

"W-Well...Itsuki and Nino we can convince...but..." Yotsuba's hair ribbon deflates yet again as she realizes that she probably can't sway her father's opinion.

"Yeah...that is a good point you bring up...if Dad says no, then that's the end of that..." Ichika somberly sighs as she finishes the rest of her bowl and hands it empty along with her used wooden chopsticks back to Fuutarou, who carefully places them back into his reusable bag.

"Again, I'll be fine, no point in worrying about me," Fuutarou repeats. "All I really care for is for you all to make sure Raiha has as much fun as you can give her."

"Already on it! Right, Raiha-chan?" Yotsuba clasps Raiha's hands once the latter hands her brother her trash, too, and the younger Uesugi sibling nods back fervently with the biggest smile Yotsuba's ever seen on somebody other than herself.

Uesugi collects everyone's trash once all the girls are done eating, and as he gets up from the mat to take the trash away, Miku spots a bit of weight on one side of the reusable bag and then suddenly realizes that the sixth food bowl that was likely intended for Nino has not been eaten yet.

"Fuutarou, is that - is that bowl for Nino?" she asks to confirm.

"Yeah, it was," he nods back, glancing down inside the bag. "I'll just hand it to her on the way back or something. I don't think she's eaten yet..."

"Honestly, she's probably not in any mood to eat right now. You might as well eat it yourself, Fuutarou-kun. Have you eaten yet at all today?" Ichika also asks.

"Yes, I have. Why are you talking like I at least don't take care of myself?"

"I mean, it's hard to believe that when you always decline having dinner with us on the days you tutor us later into the evening..."

"In part because I can't imagine Nino wanting me there. She's already putting up with me having some snacks here and there, which, honestly, is more than enough."

"You make it sound as if you're the one at fault for why Nino hates you."

"Well, at the end of the day, it's your house I'm walking into every day, so..."

"But you're tutoring us, though!" Miku exclaims.

"Explain that one to Nino, then." Fuutarou pauses briefly, having turned to walk towards the street. "...but I guess you already have, huh?"

Also picking up the empty case of ginger peach sodas that Nino brought them earlier in the day, Fuutarou carries the trash away, heading up to street level to make his exit. Miku watches him leave silently.

"...maybe you shouldn't have sent him that text," she mumbles, finally glancing down at Ichika.

"It'll be fine. He didn't say no, at least - " she reminds her, but Yotsuba's naturally loud voice is starting to grab their attention in the background.

"Hey, Raiha-chan, are you okay with your brother always just, uh, working like that, I guess?" Yotsuba hesitantly describes, unsure of how to word her question. "Don't you want him to come have fun with us too? I know he's only our tutor and all, but I think we've known him and been around him for long enough that being at the beach together won't be too weird, right? What do you think?"

But to Yotsuba's surprise, Raiha simply smiles and shakes her head.

"I do want him to come play with us. But...he's a very busy person most of the time. He always does his best to spend time with me and Dad though whenever he can get his chances, but I don't want to be in the way of his work," she answers simply.

Recognizing the eerie similarity at hand, Itsuki crawls forward and re-seats herself near Yotsuba and Raiha.

"Raiha-chan, is your brother like our father?" she asks quietly, with the sound of waves rolling up against the beach scraping against the air behind them. "You heard what Ichika was saying just earlier, right? Is your situation pretty similar to ours, or not really?"

Raiha nods a little this time. "Dad usually works from home, so I'm with him a lot of the time outside of school. But Onii-chan...his schedule is, um, it's a little weird sometimes. Lately he's been at home, so that's good, but he's been gone from home for days, weeks, even months at a time. In fact, just before the school year started, he came back from a six month trip overseas to somewhere. And for what it's worth, I don't think I've ever woken up at home with Onii-chan still around..."

Yotsuba listens to Raiha with uncharacteristic silence while Itsuki then asks, "You don't ask him what he does at all? What keeps him so busy all the time?"

"It's stuff that I don't think I should be asking about," Raiha shakes her head a second time. "Our Dad told me once that I could ask him what he does if I really wanted to, and Onii-chan would answer me honestly, but he said that it's better off if I don't."

Whatever's left of her small smile from before is gone now.

"And...I've seen him come back home after being gone for a while. He usually isn't really in much of a mood to talk, so I never really bothered to think about asking him too much about what he does."

"Hmph...so a lot like our Dad, huh..." Ichika sighs lightly, gazing off into the rolling ocean waves.

"B-But like I said, he does his best to hang out with me and Dad!" Raiha blurts out quickly upon hearing Ichika's comment. "Um, I don't...I don't know how things are exactly between you and your Dad, I'm sure he's a very nice person - after all, he paid for my plane ticket and all the hotel stuff and everything else. But I don't mind the way things are now since I know he and Dad are working very hard to support us all. So please don't worry about him - it might seem strange for me to say this, but...but the best thing you can do for him is to have fun in this vacation. He wants us all to have fun, not just me."

The four quintuplets are all silent, lulled by these surprisingly firm words of faith coming from the younger sister.

"That's no good, Raiha-chan."

Shaking her head slowly down at her, Itsuki brushes aside her peachy-red hair. "Even if you say that, at the end of the day, he's your precious older brother, right? As diligently as he works, and for as hardworking as he is, on an occasion like this where we're all on vacation, especially for you since this is your first vacation ever outside of Japan, there is no reason for him not to spend time with his little sister. You have every right to ask him to join you."

"That's right, that's right! How's Uesugi-san gonna let poor Raiha-chan have fun all by her lonesome with us?" Yotsuba clasps Raiha's right hand again. "The next time we run into him, let's tell him to come along with us, okay? We'll make sure the two of you can make at least a few good memories here in Hawaii before we go back!"

Raiha just smiles back at Yotsuba.

As Itsuki and Yotsuba take turns trying to convince their tutor's younger sister, Miku glances back at her oldest sister, who's got her own pensive, thoughtful look on her face.

"You alright, Ichika? You don't normally have that kind of a face on," Miku tells her.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine, I was just...thinking about some things." Ichika checks the time on her phone, which now reads half-past five. "Didn't expect to get vibe-checked like this in the middle of our vacation, if nothing else..."

"Even still, I'm glad Raiha-chan came along with us. She's such a sweet girl."

"Yeah, no kidding. Fuutarou-kun should be thankful that he's got such a wonderful and understanding sister like her. Now imagine if you or Nino was his younger sister instead."

"Y-Younger sister..." Miku momentarily loses her breath as the thought crosses her mind, and she clasps both of her cheeks to hide the heat gathering in them again.

"Aha, that one got you excited, huh?"

"No no no, no it didn't...!"

Ichika feels tempted to continue teasing Miku more, but all this talk that's got her vibe-checked has put her out of the mood to do so, so she gives the ocean waves one last good look before they begin to pack their belongings up for the day.

"We sure got ourselves one handful of a guy as our tutor," she remarks quietly. "I thought he'd just be some kind of Spartan tutor who did nothing but yell at us for being dumb and giving us tons of homework to do every day. Not only is he not that, but there's a lot more to him than we know..."

Miku nods in agreement, and the two of them watch Yotsuba make a pinky promise with Raiha and tugging on Itsuki's hand to get her to pinky promise too against the latter's will. Then, Miku remembers something.

"Ichika, do you remember what Fuutarou said earlier when he first gave us our food?" she inquires with her older sister.

"Hm? Which part?"

"When he told me, 'she's not back at the hotel room because of you' or something."

Ichika stares back at Miku, who gives her the exact same look back.

"...did something happen between them?" Ichika slowly thinks aloud.

Nino is staring glumly straight up at the face of Uesugi Fuutarou, whose right hand holds the same reusable bag from before. He's since properly disposed of the trash, and now the bag is empty, save for one bowl of pork katsu rice that's left over and has chilled significantly on account of being neglected for the past hour.

"And what the hell do you want?" she demands in a low voice that couldn't be more saturated with animosity if she tried. Nino herself has since changed out of her purple bikini and has opened her hotel room door to Fuutarou in a white blouse, purple cardigan, and clean Levi's.

"Your dad told me to get you and your sisters some food, so I stopped by your room here to give you yours," Fuutarou explains simply and concisely. "You got my text like fifteen minutes ago, I assume?"

"Yeah, about our dinner reservation with Papa being delayed. Actually, how the crap did you know my number?"

"Ichika gave me her number earlier this week, so I asked her for yours because you were the only one who wasn't down at the beach when I got there with the food."

Digging through the bag and pulling out the katsu bowl, the young tutor offers it to Nino.

"You're gonna be pretty hungry waiting for dinner later tonight, given that you usually already have dinner by this point," he advises her.

"I'm not h - "

As if asking for a situation like this to happen, Nino's stomach growls immediately on cue, silencing the mouth above. Fuutarou narrows his eyes incredulously down at Nino, who's already bowed her head so that he can't see what her face must look like right now.

"I didn't think a situation like this actually happened outside of like manga and anime," Fuutarou remarks bluntly, "but I guess I'm forced to believe it now. Have some food, Nino."

Snatching the pork katsu bowl from his hands, Nino swiftly slams the room door shut right in Fuutarou's face. Uesugi continues to stand at the door of the Nakanos' hotel room, not because he's in shock or anything, but because Nino may have taken the katsu bowl but has neglected to let him give her the chopsticks as well. And sure enough, he hears the angry footsteps that were stomping away return to him, much more meekly this time, and the door opens swiftly to reveal a Nino whose cheeks are almost as red as Itsuki's from earlier.

"...chopsticks," she grumbles unwillingly, unable to look Fuutarou back in the eye straight. Already armed with the chopsticks she'll need to eat the katsu bowl, Fuutarou hands them to her, and she turns around, prompting Uesugi to expect a second door slam...that does not come. Instead, Nino is already halfway into the room, and when she realizes that Fuutarou hasn't taken her cue, she stops and calls over her shoulder, "You can come in, you know."

Rolling his eyes somewhat, Fuutarou gives off a quick sigh before entering the Nakano girls' hotel room, closing the door behind him and walking to stop next to the closest bed in the room to find Nino sitting at one of the tables, already digging into her katsu bowl.

"If you need water, here's some..." the Nakanos' tutor adds, taking a complimentary bottle of water he asked from the main lobby receptionist from the bag and setting it down next to Nino on the table before taking a good look at the amazing beachfront view spread before him. "One hell of a hotel room, huh. But I guess you're used to this by now..."

"Hmph. Someone like you probably wouldn't imagine how hard it must be to get a room like this," Nino scoffs in between bites. "I don't care if you're a mage or whatever, even people like you have things you can't do, especially if it's someone like you we're talking about who's dirt poor."

"Mm, you're not wrong. Given that all the other hotel rooms I've seen here look nothing quite like this, what chance does a mere plebeian like myself have of dreaming of getting a hotel room like this." Fuutarou slowly walks about the one-way window walls to survey the view in its entirety. "Still a great view, though. You even get to go to sleep with it right in front of you."

"We've had to close the blinds every night though."

"Really? Why - oh, because of the lights from the rest of the resort, probably..."

Nino nods. "They didn't think about that when they designed this room."

"I'll be sure to file a complaint to management, then."

"Who the hell are you, our damn travel agent?"

"Something like that? I mean, I'm already a delivery boy, what's a travel agent by this point..."

"I think you're missing a few steps there!"

Choosing to ignore Nino's retort in favor of moving on from that pointless conversation, Fuutarou keeps his eyes facing out the glass wall as he speaks up again soon after.

"How's your vacation so far? Other than today, of course."

"Oh, thanks for asking." It's Nino's turn to roll her eyes. "It was great, emphasis on was."

"Let me guess: it was, all the way up until I showed up."

"So you aren't as socially inept like you come off as."

"Sorry, I'm still having trouble figuring out this whole talking to girls thing."

"I can fucking tell."

Fuutarou snorts softly so that Nino can't clearly hear his reaction over her own chewing.

"Again, if this'll make you feel any better, I was close to not even coming along with you and your sisters here to Hawaii," he confides to the second quintuplet, his voice being slightly amplified to Nino's ears because his voice is rebounding off the wall before him.

"If only you actually didn't come."

"Reality is oftentimes disappointing, isn't it."

"And you're the one telling me that?!"

A natural break in their volatile conversation settles in as Nino works on her food and Fuutarou enjoys the view from the girls' hotel room with what precious few minutes he has here. Soon, Nino, being one of the faster eaters among her sisters, second only behind Miku, closes her empty bowl with its plastic lid and sets her used wooden chopsticks on top. She begins to put her hands together to utter the usual "Gouchisousama!" but then stops herself, realizing who she'd be saying that to this time.

"...so? What made you almost miss the trip?" Nino grumbles, staring out the one-way glass wall to the beachfront with Fuutarou as she rests her chin grumpily against her hand whose elbow is propped down against the table.

"Work, as usual. Nothing much else to say than that."

Nino's eyes flash to their side, glaring at Fuutarou.

"Why's it always work with you?" Nino snaps at him softly. "Work, work, work...that's all you fucking do. I can see why you work with Papa, for real."

The young tutor chuckles dryly. "Your dad...is another story. But yes, I'm a bit of a workaholic, what can I say."

"Is there ever a time you don't have work on your mind? Sheesh."

"Admittedly, not really. But when you have debts to pay, live in an office suite for a house, and eat curry udon as your most expensive dinner once every two months, I think it's a bit tough being anything but a workaholic, mainly because you don't really have a choice in the matter. I thought you kind of already got an idea of that, Nino, when you bought Raiha her crepe that time."

Nino's mind automatically recalls that day at the Tsutaya bookstore...and naturally, the incident the following day. She bites the inside of her lower lip to contain the surge of anger that she feels pouring into her veins.

"Or maybe not. After all, what can a one-percenter like you understand about the bottom 95? You said it yourself just now too, right? That there are things even mages like me can't do simply because we don't have the money. That, and you don't even come to my lessons like your dad wants you to, you don't study on your own like at least Itsuki does, and you just sit at the table back at your place texting on your phone all day. And you wonder why you don't understand why work's always on my mind, huh? Must be nice...must be real nice."

A sudden and loud crash of a chair being pushed back so quickly it tilts over and crashes against the carpet almost cuts Fuutarou off, who glances carefully to his right, seeing Nino up on her feet, both fists clenched, and giving him the the most furious look he's seen from her yet. It's almost as if her burning blue eyes are glowing from how much anger is visibly stockpiled behind those incensed blue sapphires.

She opens her mouth to speak - but then hesitates, and then closes her lips. Nino was going to unleash a certain tirade upon him, but on second thought, it's perhaps for the better if she didn't go down that path for the conversation, as much as she'd like to. So switching gears and reassessing her thoughts, Nino again glares back at Fuutarou with all her might so that the next time she opens her mouth, she won't hesitate.

"Maybe to you I might look like a worthless dumb bitch, but I'll have you know that I'm the first one to get up every morning out of all my sisters, I'm the one who cooks for everyone because nobody in my damn house knows how to fucking cook, I'm the one who has to clean up after my sisters for the most part, I'm the one who does most of the chores around the house because nobody else knows how to fucking do them, and I'm the one who takes care of my sisters whenever one of them gets sick!"

As Nino is ranting at him, Fuutarou turns away from the see-through wall to face Nino instead to give her his undivided attention.

"So maybe to you, since all you see is me cook and sit at the table on my phone, I look like I'm not really doing much. But I fucking dare you to try taking care of four other sisters all at once! Or maybe you don't understand that housework is also work because you're probably never at home most of the time yourself?! Is your work the only work you find acceptable? That or studying? Is that it?!"

For a few very long and tense moments, the two of them gaze into each other's eyes, one with icy, stoic carelessness, and the other with incendiary and deep-rooted resentment.

To Nino's secret surprise, however, Fuutarou is the first to drop his gaze and lose their unspoken staring contest.

"So that's why, huh? I was wondering why only you were ever the one doing any cooking at all whenever I was over," the tutor reflects calmly. "I apologize; I wasn't aware that that's how your situation is with your sisters. Seeing that I only need to take care of one on my end, it seems like I've still got a ways to go in understanding you all. I'd like to rescind what I said about you earlier, that was uncalled for - I let my frustrations with you not cooperating with me with the whole tutoring thing get the better of me there."

Blinking, still taken off-guard by Fuutarou's suddenly apologetic behavior, Nino simply stands there watching her would-be tutor take her trash and put it into the reusable bag that he's brought with him, but she regains her senses quickly and folds her arms, turning away from him.

"I-I don't need your pity. I've been taking care of everyone for the past six years on my own, largely in part because Papa never really comes home," she blurts out, wanting to have at least something to say back. "But I won't tolerate you treating me as if I'm a complete good-for-nothing. You can roast me all you want about my grades and my studying, but if I catch you talking shit about my cooking or whatever else I'm actually good at like you did just now, I won't let you hear the end of it!"

"Right, right, point taken." Fuutarou scratches the side of his head momentarily. "I guess while we're sort of on the topic, I'd like to ask you how it is that you go about taking care of all four of your sisters. I know this might be coming out of nowhere, but since none of the others are around right now, I figured now would be the best time to ask."

"Yeah, no kidding, what let this on all of a sudden?"

"I met up with the others down at the beach and hung out with them for a bit before coming here to give you your food. I've told you that this's Raiha's first vacation, right? So obviously it means a lot to her." Fuutarou sighs heavily, more heavily than Nino expects. "There've been times where, just like your dad, I'm not able to be at home for long periods of time because of the kind of work I do and get myself into. Obviously my own dad can handle that, but I don't know about Raiha. She seems to understand the situation, but I can't help but feel that I'm not doing enough for her, that part of the reason why she has to live in such a shitty house and why she can't go on fun vacations like this all the time is because my dad and I aren't working hard enough. While our situations are obviously much different, I still wanna know how it is you go about taking good care of your own sisters, because at the end of the day, like I said, I only have one, while you have four times that."

Faced with a situation that is wholly unfamiliar to her when it comes to dealing with Uesugi in which he's asking for advice of all things, Nino has to take her time with her answer.

"Well...I never really, uh, consciously thought about something like that...you know? I guess if I had to say, I think at one point I got all my sisters together to try to evenly divide chores amongst ourselves, but that ended up in total failure 'cause nobody except myself knew how to do anything. Like, when we tried splitting up cooking duty so that we'd be on a five-day rotation, everyone failed out, can you believe that? Like, Ichika freaking overslept so she just called take-out for us; Miku cooked, uh, something...God, I don't even wanna try to remember just what the hell she cooked; Yotsuba almost blew up our rice cooker somehow just trying to make rice; and Itsuki thought that a normal person eats five bowls of rice in one sitting!"

Fuutarou listens patiently to Nino's raging over how incompetent her sisters are at cooking.

"But anyways," Nino clears her throat, realizing herself that she's sidetracking herself. "I don't do anything special. They're my sisters; they're my family. Even if it all falls to me to take care of them with cooking and stuff like that, I'll do it. That's what Mama did for us, back when she was still with us. She took care of all five of us, all by herself. I guess now I have an idea of what she must've gone through...so what right do I have to complain about taking care of my sisters?"

Nodding in response, Uesugi folds his own arms while still holding the reusable bag containing Nino's trash.

"Touching story, I'm sure, but that didn't tell me anything about how I should go about taking care of my own little sister," he points out.

"F-Fucking figure that out yourself, you idiot!" Nino shouts out in embarrassment in a terribly knee-jerk reaction. "Aren't you supposed to be like, super smart or some shit? Figure that out yourself, damn it! Why're you asking me?"

"Well, because, like I said, you have four sisters to take care of while I only have one. So in this case, objectively speaking, you simply have more experience in taking good care of - "

"But it's like you said, our situations are way too different compare! Yeah, sure, I might have four other sisters to look after, but I have a Papa who gives us more money than we know what to do with, while you only have one but you clearly don't have anywhere near as much money. Even if you ask me for something like that, what I say to you might not necessarily apply. Not to mention, Raiha-chan's not like any of my sisters either."

Nino sighs and puts her hands on her hips.

"Not everything can be cookie-cutter perfect and dictated by formulas and whatever else nonsense is out there, Uesugi," she says. "If there's anything I can teach you, it's that. Finding out how to take good care of your sister - that's for you to find out, and you alone."

Hanging his head slightly in disappointment, Fuutarou nods in thanks anyway for Nino's time.

"Figured that'd be the case. Also, now that you've taught me something, let me teach you, so come to our lessons starting next week after we co - "

"HELL NO! This was all just a trap, wasn't it? Just designed to get me to study with you? Fuck off!" Nino yelps back at her would-be tutor angrily.

"Damn. It was worth a shot, though."

"You planned this?! You're such a scumbag!"

"A scumbag for trying to do my job? Well, telemarketers do exist, so..."

"You're worse than that! You hear me? WORSE!"

"Thanks, I guess, the pleasure's all mine."

"Just get out if you've got nothing more to say! Get out, get out!"

Obliging the yelling quint, Fuutarou grins lightly as he turns and walks to the front door, with Nino nipping at his heels. As she pushes him out the door, Nino growls one last thing at him before she slams the door again in his face, but she does so under her breath:

"...and thanks for earlier."