The soft clinks of silverware fill the air alone of the Moana Beachhouse Restaurant, the in-resort luxury restaurant with Victorian architecture that is only open for four hours a day, every day from 5:30 to 9:30PM. Naturally, the Nakano family who is currently dining there are the only ones sitting at the restaurant's outdoor patio. As the patio overlooks a good portion of the beach, including the other patio with the drink bar from which Nino brought her sisters their ginger peach sodas earlier in the day, the Nakano family can enjoy the sight of the nighttime beach along with their dinners, which consists of one of each of the Beachhouse's signature entrees: Hoisin Braised Short Rib, Truffle Roasted Jidori Chicken, Adobo Glazed Duroc Pork Chop, Seafood Paella, Keahole Lobster Pasta.
Maruo Nakano, sitting solemnly as ever at his end of the circular table that restaurant management has specifically brought out for the large six-member family, takes a slow sip of his glass of Mountain Zinfandel red wine as his five daughters chew their food in otherwise total silence. As this is meant to be a family dinner, Raiha is not present, so Fuutarou is looking after her for tonight while the Nakano quintuplets attend this dinner with their father.
Silence has been the dominating factor of the dinner so far, along with stiffness. Even though the dress code for the restaurant is smart casual, the stiffness of the air among the Nakanos would perhaps fool passersby into believing that it should be business formal instead. Because for all the complaints that the quintuplets had earlier that day regarding their father not coming home often enough or otherwise spending time with them enough, now that he is doing just that, the quintuplets, ill-equipped and too inexperienced in actually knowing how to handle this kind of once-in-a-blue-moon situation, can simply do nothing but eat their late dinners without words beyond the usual that must be spoken for the sake of table manners, such as asking for the seasoning bottle or the breadbasket filled with sweet breadsticks.
Gazing down at her half-eaten short rib entree, Itsuki grips her utensils a bit more tightly than she would otherwise. She's been eating more slowly than usual - but it's not because she'd already eaten the food brought to them by their tutor five hours earlier, but because she is intentionally eating more slowly so that she can drag out the time. Indeed, it's not just her doing this; all of the quintuplets are playing the dinnertable meta-game of keeping an eye on each other's progress, especially their father's, and matching their progress with everyone else's, all while doing so covertly, with no verbal communication, and outside of detection by their father, who, perhaps luckily for them or not, mostly pays attention to his own dinner before him anyway. This is to avoid having any one of them finish earlier than the rest of the family and then suffer the awkward fate of sitting at the dinner table being able to do absolutely nothing while waiting for everyone else to finish their own food.
The conversation Itsuki had with Raiha earlier that day on the beach before they had to leave is still quite fresh on her mind as she guides a neatly cut piece of steak up to her lips. How Raiha should ask for her brother to join her in this vacation...that going on vacation like this is the first of its kind...how, despite how busy her brother is all the time, that it is not unreasonable for to want her brother to spend time with her during a time like this. She had a feeling this would come back to haunt her, but now that she and her sisters are at the dinner table, spending premium time with their father whose number of dinners he's eaten with his family could probably be counted with just two hands, the pressure is daunting and enormous, suffocating any will of hers that she once had going into this dinner of perhaps asking the same of her own father.
She steals another round of glances over at her sisters discretely, to see if she can detect any sign of a similar sentiment from them, but to her silent dismay, none of them appear willing to speak up. It's not as if the quints collaborated to bring the point up to their father or anything like that, but even just the knowledge that another one of her sisters would back her up in case she did manage to build up the nerve to ask her father about the issue at this dinner table would be a massive relief. But as stated, unfortunately she can find no such support readily available - even the most likely of her sisters to give her such support, or hell, simply act first on her own volition, Nino, looks to be in no mood to try such a thing; though of course, if prompted, she still has a chance of coming to Itsuki's support.
Chewing slowly on her rib, Itsuki lets go of a big sigh through her nose. Saying all those things to Raiha about how she ought to want her brother to join her on vacation...and then being unable to replicate the same for herself and her sisters weighs heavily on her mind, making her question her decision to lecture Raiha in the way that she did earlier that day. Perhaps she could give herself the excuse that talking to an older brother is much different than talking to a father, and that because of this Raiha naturally has a much easier time talking to her own brother about it, while approaching a father like their own is another ballpark entirely, but even if she did use such an excuse, it wouldn't necessarily make Itsuki feel better about it, because at the end of the day, Raiha will at least be able to tell her brother what she wants while she and her sisters will not, at the rate things are going now.
"Is something the matter, Itsuki?"
Jolting up in her seat like an electric current's just coursed up her spine, Itsuki and her ahoge bolt upright, blinking in surprise at her father, who politely wipes his mouth with the thick restaurant handkerchiefs that are supposed to be spread across the lap as per formal table manners.
"N-No, nothing, nothing at all, I'm just, uh, I am just a bit tired from everything we did today..." Itsuki quickly tosses out the first excuse that comes to mind, quickly burying her eyes back down into her own food while her cheeks bloom again. She can already feel the piercing gazes of the rest of her sisters, as though they're glaring at her for ruining it for the rest of them, though exactly what she's ruining, Itsuki herself can't say.
"Then make sure to get plenty of sleep tonight. I have adjusted your schedules tomorrow to start later into the day so compensate for our delayed dinner tonight," Maruo informs his daughters at large.
"Yes, Papa/Father/Dad," the quintuplets reply in unison with their choice of pronoun.
Maruo clears his throat shortly before cutting through his own Jidori chicken. "Tell me about your experience with Uesugi-kun so far. I'm aware that it is too early in the school year for any major tests so far, but I would like to inquire about his tutoring ability."
The quintuplets all exchange blank glances with each other, as if daring each other to talk first. Naturally, Nino and Itsuki, the two who cannot speak on the matter, or at least not as much, drop their gazes so that they won't have to be the ones doing the talking.
"It's going well, Dad," Yotsuba bravely offers first. "He's...his lessons are really good, and even I'm able to understand them. I'm glad you took the time to get him as our tutor."
"Is that so." There is no change in Maruo's facial expression whose default is draconically stoic.
"Yeah. We won't need worry about not graduating as long as he's with us."
"Hm, if Yotsuba is the one saying this..." Maruo takes another sip of his red wine. "...then perhaps. What say the rest of you? How has his tutoring been going?"
"Yotsuba's right, Papa. After the first week, he's been coming in every weekday and tutoring us for at least two hours. There've been times when he's stayed later to make sure we understood the material," Miku also vouches positively for Uesugi. "He's taken the time to draft out lessons covering each subject we have at school and planning for our midterms and finals so that we know what our progress should look like at key points throughout the year."
At this, Maruo's eyes widen slightly, the biggest reaction the girls have seen him give in a long while, followed by a short, curt nod of cold understanding.
"And what about you three? How goes the tutoring for the rest of you?" Maruo puts the spotlight on the three quints who haven't spoken up yet, and Ichika rises to the occasion, knowing full well that Nino and Itsuki are in no position to answer their father adequately.
"Basically the same that the other two said. He's an excellent tutor; he really knows his stuff and he makes sure that even dummies like us can get it," she answers. "And, um.."
Hesitating on whether or not she ought to tell her father about her absences during the last week of lessons, Ichika falls silent, her gaze falling down to her half-eaten Seafood Paella dish.
"Is there something you'd like to tell me, Ichika-kun?"
Maruo's chilling words almost freeze the eldest quint's eardrums, so cold are they to hear, because Ichika is able to immediately sense that her father may already know about these absences of hers, probably because Uesugi himself has already informed him of them. Although she feels a bit of anger accumulating at the bottom of her stomach upon this realization, she quickly relinquishes it - what tutor wouldn't report something like a student not coming to a lesson? Especially one as diligent as Fuutarou.
"I was absent for four days last week due to my part-time job," Ichika admits, deciding to come clean as she does not want to risk hiding something like this from her father when he's probably already in the know by this point. "I talked to him earlier this week about it, and I told him that I'll do my best to make sure I don't miss so many days like that again."
"I see. And yes, for your own sake, please try not to miss lessons," Maruo replies dryly before eyeing his last two daughters, who are sweating bullets and dreading their turns to speak. "Nino-kun, Itsuki-kun? Is there anything else you would like to add?"
"I haven't been attending his lessons."
The instant response from Nino makes Itsuki forget how to breathe for a split second. All of the quintuplets stare at Nino in horror, but Nino herself, having wiped the sweat off her brow after muscling up her courage, returns Maruo's icy gaze with a burning defiance of her own.
"And why not?" he asks simply. "Is there something you disagree with your sisters about in regards to his tutoring ability?"
"I haven't taken a single lesson from him, other than the first evaluation test he gave us back during his first week," Nino shakes her head. "So it's not about his tutoring ability since I can't speak on that."
"Then what is it?"
Nino clenches her fists lightly.
"I don't like the fact that someone like Uesugi can just walk into our house and stay for as long as he likes and leave whenever he wants. Even if he is a tutor, even if he is doing a good job, we went from having a house for just the five of us to letting a complete stranger like him have full access to our house in like a blink of an eye."
Yotsuba winces a little at this statement.
"It's at the point now where he's coming in acting like he owns the place, too," Nino continues. "And that's not even mentioning the fact that he got a keycard to our house from the very first week...!"
"So you have a problem with me giving him that keycard, I presume?" Maruo asks before taking another sip of his red wine.
"Obviously! What made you think that was a good idea, Papa?"
"Uesugi-kun and I have worked together at the hospital for some time. One may say that we are perhaps coworkers, even, but I doubt he would go so far," Maruo replies. "Given his line of work, his intelligence, and his work ethic, I concluded that he would be able to adequately fill the position of your tutor. I pitched the possibility to him before the school year started, and he accepted."
"For Dad to call him a coworker...Uesugi-san really must be a child genius, huh?" Yotsuba remarks awkwardly, doing what she can to try to lighten the mood.
"Indeed. I made the mistake of calling him that once, as well."
The weight of their father's comment on their tutor hits the quints harder than they thought it would.
"...mistake?" Itsuki can't stop herself from asking.
"He is not a natural-born genius. I have seen him make many mistakes, and I continue to see him doing so - his most recent mistake being unable to get two of my daughters to properly attend his lessons on his own."
And Itsuki promptly feels her heart plummet. Her gaze drops with it too, to the point where her peachy-red hair hides her eyes from view in shame. But Nino has the opposite reaction:
"That's not his fault, Papa! How can you say that that's his mistake?" she snaps back at her father.
"What's this? You were complaining about his tutoring just a moment ago," Maruo tilts his head slightly, focusing back onto Nino.
"I was, I know, but - even I don't think that's fair. He hasn't been tutoring us not because he doesn't want to, but because Itsuki and I have been giving him a hard time and simply refusing to show up!" Nino argues. "I don't know so much about Itsuki, but I know for a fact that he's been always asking me to come to his lessons every chance he can get. In fact, earlier today, he asked that too while I was in our room. I just have a big problem with him tutoring us and so that's why I don't let him tutor me, but that's not the same as him making a mistake about it, I don't think!"
"I see, then at least his intentions are in the right place," Maruo remarks, almost snidely. "But at the end of the day, whether or not it's because of his actions or yours, what I see is a tutor I hired to make sure that my daughters will study well enough so that graduation will not be in jeopardy for them not doing what I am paying him to do."
"Papa!"
"Because let us face it, girls."
Maruo raising his voice like this is all it takes to silence Nino instantly and demand the attention of the rest.
"There is a reason why I had you five transfer out of your old school into this new one and went through the trouble of hiring a tutor for you, and that reason is because your test records show that if I did not do this, graduation is a mere pipe dream for all of you. And if such is the case, why have I bothered to let you girls live the lives you've been able to pursue on your own? These vacations are not cheap, I do hope you know this."
Now that the subject of money is laid on the table, the quintuplets are robbed of any argument that they can make to respond to their father. All five of them have ceased eating, as their father's words hold precedent at the dinner table. But Maruo does not follow up on this, and instead he finishes the rest of his own chicken dinner in his own silence, which he was close to finishing anyway before their brief conversation, and sets down his utensils.
"Unfortunately, this is the last night I will be sharing with you girls here," he announces calmly. "The reason why I delayed tonight's dinner was because of a particularly urgent patient, but it seems there is only so much I can do over long-distance video calls, so I must fly in myself to treat him. Enjoy the rest of your vacation, girls; I will leave matters in Uesugi-kun's hands for the rest of the week."
It's almost as if this announcement of sudden departure comes as no real shock to the girls. Ichika merely responds with a question of, "When do you need to leave, Dad?"
"Right away. My flight is in two hours sharp, so I cannot delay any longer."
Putting his business jacket back on, Dr. Nakano politely pushes his chair in after himself and turns to depart.
And there stands Uesugi Fuutarou. Blocking the way to the door leading back into the restaurant, he narrows his eyes directly back at the quintuplets' father with his hands in his pockets.
"You sure you don't want to at least finish your wine, Nakano-san?" he asks.
Maruo glances over his shoulder casually at his glass containing the red wine, which is still half-full.
"I have had my fill, thank you for your concern," he returns, even more dryly than before somehow. "It would be a questionable decision of me to make to indulge in alcohol to such a degree just before a flight, no?"
"It would be, yes..." As if it's some sort of habit of his, Fuutarou promptly withdraws his phone from his right pocket where it usually sits when not in use, unlocks the screen, and holds it up to the doctor in one fluid motion, showing him an airplane itinerary. "...if your flight didn't get delayed by an hour."
The doctor raises a single eyebrow. "...I wasn't aware you were my travel agent, Uesugi-kun."
"I believe one of your daughters made that joke to me earlier. Like father, like daughter, as people say?" Fuutarou snorts under his breath. Back at the dinner table, Nino pouts irritably. "Do travel agents even give you live updates on your flights like this, I wonder..."
"What business do you have with me? If you wished to speak with me, you should have done so before, and not in front of my daughters." Maruo's cold, oppressive tone is back in full force, dictating no room for jokes and chilling the spines of his daughters even if they're not the ones to whom Maruo is projecting, but Fuutarou weathers it perfectly as usual.
"Why not take this night off, Nakano-san? Spend some time with your daughters," the young tutor suggests, returning fire with his own icy demeanor. "You've sent these girls out all this way for a Golden Week vacation, and you've even come with them, to boot, and tonight's been the only time you've been with them for longer than five minutes."
"Are you suggesting that you know how I ought to conduct my family matters better than I do, Uesugi-kun?"
With only this short discourse, the tension between the two men is immediately palpable, like Itsuki can use her knife to reach out and cut it physically.
"Not at all, I'm only suggesting you to let me go in your place. Or are you suggesting you don't have confidence in my treatment procedures?"
"This patient does not warrant your treatment, and thus I see no reason in having you replace me. Not to mention, as this patient has been requiring me to make quite a few video calls, it would be inappropriate for me to send in a replacement, and there are no other available doctors on call this week. I could ask of you, Uesugi-kun, should you not stay here with my daughters in case of any emergencies?"
"I have contacts on standby to intervene in those cases; you'll excuse me for using third parties as part of my responsibilities, but I daresay you'll do that, given the terms of our contract. To boot, for the most part, I've confirmed this city as safe; so long as the girls don't do anything explicitly out of the ordinary, nothing should happen to them."
"And should something happen to them?"
"Then it will be dealt with accordingly. It's not as if it hasn't happened before."
"And that is a risk you are willing to take? Even in the light of the first?"
"If it means you can spend more time with them, yes. I know I've risked more for less myself. Wouldn't you?"
"Your own experiences hold no weight here in a family that is not yours. And I will kindly remind you that that is a kind of decision for me to make," Maruo speaks coldly still. "And what of your own stay here? You paid me for covering your own expenses for this vacation, and you are telling me that you are perfectly willing to let it go to waste?"
"It's not ideal, no," Fuutarou admits, "but when I see a father letting time that he could've spent with his family go to waste, suddenly I don't feel so bad about the money I'm wasting."
Maruo smiles wryly.
"I was not aware that I was paying you not only to tutor my daughters, but also to advise me on how to raise them, too," he chuckles in a low voice, beginning to walk around Fuutarou, who does not move to impede him any further.
Because Maruo was blocking Fuutarou from most of the quintuplets' view, this is the first instance for tonight that they've been able to get a good look at him, and he is still dressed in the usual plain white dress shirt and black dress pants, his gaze locked past the girls and out to the sea behind them. In the same fashion that he had done to the doctor, Mr. Nakano stops next to the young tutor as he passes him.
"You will do well to remember what you owe me, beyond this tutoring responsibility. I need not remind you of this again, Uesugi-kun."
Fuutarou shows no reaction, his cold expression remaining frozen even as Dr. Nakano walks out of sight, disappearing into the restaurant, out of view.
The quintuplets are like their tutor's facial expression, frozen where they sit. For a few long moments after their father departs, they gaze uncertainly back at him as he continues to gaze over them into the night waves rolling up against the beach - but perhaps much like their father, after these few moments, Fuutarou, too, promptly turns heel and begins to walk out, taking the same direction as Dr. Nakano did.
"Hey, wait!"
Fuutarou hears a sudden rattling of chair legs against tile behind him, so he stops and turns around to find Nino, once again, standing up at the table after having pushed her chair back forcefully to do so.
"You're just gonna leave like that without at least explaining to us what the hell just happened?" the second quintuplet demands angrily, returning to glaring daggers back at Uesugi. "What was that all about?"
For the first time that the quintuplets have seen, Fuutarou does not respond immediately, instead averting his gaze from the girls as though he doesn't have something prepared in response like he normally does.
"Nothing that should be a big deal," he finally answers, keeping his gaze averted still. "Against his better judgment, an outsider decided to get involved in the affairs of a family that isn't even his, and so he ended up embarrassing himself in front of that family. That's all you saw."
Once more, Fuutarou begins to exit stage right, but once more, he's stopped by another quintuplet.
"Uesugi-san, Uesugi-san!"
This time, Fuutarou doesn't even bother turning around to look at who's called his name twice, but given the honorific, he knows who it is anyway. Yotsuba, having blurted out his name expecting him to ignore her, tenses up when she realizes that he's giving her an opportunity to talk, so she mentally scrambles to find something to ask him something and goes with the first thing that comes to mind, as per the conversation between him and their father that the quintuplets have all eavesdropped on in plain sight.
"A-About that, uh, that thing you were talking to Dad about," she stammers quickly.
"Which one?"
Even with his back to her and her sisters, Yotsuba can easily tell that he is not willing to suffer their attention for the rest of the night.
"...was Dad telling the truth? About how you paid him for being here?" the fourth quintuplet asks meekly. "I thought...we thought you told us before we left home that Dad would be covering for all of us, since, y'know, money's...money's kind of tight for you."
"That would've been the case, yes," Fuutarou confirms, "if Raiha didn't come with us."
Stunned, Yotsuba, who stood up to address her tutor, sinks back down into her chair. Her sisters also have varying degrees of shock written on their own faces, exchanging their looks with each other uncertainly.
"Wait, so...basically, you paid for Raiha-chan to come with us?" Ichika speaks up this time.
"Technically, I gave Raiha the reservation that your dad initially gave me for this trip. Airplane ticket, hotel room," he replies simply. "Did it not occur to you girls why Raiha was the one sitting next to you up in first-class? Why Raiha's the one who's currently sharing a room with you all?"
Having never considered Raiha's role so far, the five girls have nothing to say to this.
"Well, maybe it worked out in that sense. Who knows how some of you would've reacted knowing I'd be sitting in the same first-class compartment and sharing a damn hotel room with you...but since I did that, your dad was kind enough to pay for a last-minute airfare for me, which I compensated him for."
"But why would he make you pay for your own ticket when he was going to do that already? Just because you brought your sister along?" Ichika presses on.
"Our dad suggested I take Raiha along after I told him where I'd be going for Golden Week. Like I said before, given that this's Raiha's first overseas vacation, I decided it was a good idea and gave her my spot. As for why your dad didn't also pay for Raiha, again, it was a last-minute request of mine, so naturally it wasn't exactly easy making these arrangements. I'm thankful he even went through the trouble of getting me my own airplane ticket instead of simply rejecting my request to bring Raiha along like I expected him to."
Uesugi then gives the quintuplets a look from over his shoulder.
"That, and you all saw what it's like between me and your dad. Needless to say, we're not exactly on...cordial terms. Again, Raiha shouldn't even be here, but he was generous enough to let her. And I should be happy with that..."
Fuutarou's visible eye breaks focus on the quintuplets as his thought trails off. For the third time, he starts for the door, and finally this time, no voice from the quints is there to block his own path. Soon, before the reality of it is able to settle in, the quintuplets find themselves alone at the restaurant patio, with nothing but the stereo of the washing waves behind them keeping them company.
As Nino also slowly sinks back down into her chair, unable to make heads or tails of this horribly weird situation that they've been left to wallow in, Miku sets down her utensils, no longer in any mood to eat, let alone finish the rest of her glazed pork chop.
"...now that he mentioned that," she wonders aloud softly, "if Fuutarou gave his hotel room spot to Raiha-chan, then...where is he even staying? Does he even...have a hotel room at all?"
Only the waves surge up the sand at the beach to answer her.
The hotel digital alarm clock reads 12:49 AM on the table to Itsuki's blue eyes that gaze at them from where she sits upright in bed.
Exhausted from a full day's play and the complicated events of the night, the quintuplets have gone directly to sleep and remain fast asleep. Raiha, as usual, is sharing beds with Yotsuba to Itsuki's left, as the quintuplets are arranged in numerical order going from right to left in their beds. But only Itsuki remains the lone exception.
Well, that's not entirely true - Itsuki did manage to fall asleep with the rest of her sisters, but she did so uneasily - and this uneasy sleep has forced her awake again a mere two hours later. She's spent the past half an hour trying in vain to go back to sleep, but the thoughts running through her mind torture it, preventing her from returning to her slumber.
She glances to her left in the dark, where Raiha ought to be lying with Yotsuba. Having been awake for the last half an hour, Itsuki's eyes have adjusted successfully to the dark, so she's at least able to perceive shapes and objects. She uses this nighttime perception to slowly get out of bed, change out of her pajamas and into some modest casual clothes, the first ones that she can find in her suitcase, and slowly tiptoe past the rest of her soundly sleeping sisters to the door.
Ichika listens to the door close quietly after Itsuki.
Out in the hotel corridor, Itsuki takes a better look at herself, squinting in the sudden light that breaks down her night vision and forces her blue eyes to adjust again to the light. She's pulled on a gray sweater with some sort of black check mark logo in front, a sweater she normally does not wear but decided to bring anyway in case of chilly nights, and a green knee-length pleated skirt.
Tussling her hair to straighten her locks out, Itsuki checks her pockets for her key - and then realizes that she's accidentally left it inside the room, effectively locking herself out. Her cheeks reddening at her carelessness, Itsuki quietly contemplates what to do in this kind of event - she doesn't want to knock on the door to wake her sisters up, and she doesn't want to go to the front desk to ask for another key because her English is almost nonexistent. Before Fuutarou, Nino was usually the one who handled anything that needed English, since she was by default the best at it, and Itsuki doesn't feel keen on embarrassing herself trying to ask for another keycard.
Deciding to think about this later, the youngest quintuplet takes a deep breath and sets off, taking the elevator down to the lobby and walking out of the resort to the street. The night crowds have come out, for it is only still one in the morning, but Itsuki ignores them and safely reaches the street that runs parallel to the beach.
Now that she is alone, standing on the sidewalk that overlooks the dark Waikiki Beach, Itsuki is finally able to enjoy the cool night air and the pleasant chorus of gentle waves against the sand. She would have loved to enjoy this during dinner, but...at least she has the chance to do so now.
Looking up, Itsuki scans the night sky, but there is nothing to be seen - only the usual stars closest to Earth and some moving blinking lights, indicating a plane or two flying to and from the Hawaiian Islands. Perhaps her father may be one of those planes.
Letting her head droop back down, the youngest quint turns to begin her lonely late-night sojourn along the beach on the sidewalk.
"Couldn't sleep?"
Glancing over her shoulder in the direction of the voice, Itsuki finds Uesugi Fuutarou sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, his legs dangling off the side down the jagged slope that leads to the sand a few feet below. He, too, has been viewing the nighttime waves of the beach, though Itsuki was sure nothing was there just a moment ago.
"...is that one of your tricks, Uesugi-kun?" Itsuki grumbles, pouting a little at his sudden and unannounced entrance. "You did the same thing to Father earlier tonight at dinner."
"Hm, so you're catching on. I can stop doing that if you'd like."
"Yes, please stop. It is bad enough knowing that you are probably watching us at all times."
Fuutarou gets back up to his feet, swinging his legs around so that he can do so on the sidewalk.
"If there were a way to do my job without having to keep tabs on everyone around the clock, you'd think I would've already found it by now," he remarks to Itsuki, beckoning down the sidewalk. "Am I right in guessing that you have something to talk to me about? If so, we can take a walk while we're at it."
Itsuki simply looks straight ahead and takes his offer wordlessly, and the two of them begin their night journey.
"Let me start with the obvious question that I would like to ask," Itsuki finally speaks up after a few minutes of silence between them, which have been spent breathing in the cool sea breeze. Itsuki is quite grateful that she happened to pull on a sweater back in her hotel room. "Why did you try to stop Father?"
"You weren't listening when I was talking to him? To get him to spend this vacation with you," Fuutarou answers simply.
"That is what I am trying to ask about: why do you wish for him to spend time with us?"
"...it's complicated."
"Complicated, you say? Well, we have plenty of time, so I would like to hear it."
Once more, Fuutarou offers no response at first, so Itsuki eggs him on about it.
"You told Nino earlier that you were an outsider who made the mistake of trying to get involved in another family's matters and suffered the consequences for it, did you not? Surely there must have been a reason for your involvement."
"I don't necessarily feel obligated to answer that to someone who refuses to show up to my tutoring lessons," Fuutarou says suddenly, catching Itsuki off guard with the sudden topic change.
"I-If that is how you like it, then I would appreciate it if you did not make food jokes about me anymore!" Itsuki pouts, whipping her face to the side and crossing her arms in indignation.
"Then we're at an impasse."
"Yes, so it seems!"
The two of them continue to walk like this, refusing to speak to each other for about ten minutes. But the ten minutes in the relaxing sea breeze, with the ambient waves to their left, slowly but surely erodes the wall of sudden hostility that has flared up between them.
"Perhaps you may be one to not concern yourself with something like this, but is it alright if I gave you a piece of my mind?" the youngest quintuplet asks softly, looking down at the sidewalk.
"If you think I won't care for what you say, why bother asking it?" he returns.
"Because - " Itsuki purses her lips, but she's not trying to pout. " - I feel the need to get this off my chest. Especially after seeing you confront Father like you did earlier tonight."
Fuutarou remains silent, which Itsuki takes as her cue to continue.
"I do not know if you will believe me when I say this, but...I would have joined your lessons at some point out of my own volition," Itsuki reveals. "I am fully aware of my own inability to get adequate enough marks on my tests, but...a combination of my pride and your antics that first week barred me from accepting your tutelage, but eventually...probably after our first round of tests at school, which I would most likely fail because that is how my tests have always gone despite all my studying, I would have been convinced to bite the bullet and begin letting you tutor me."
Itsuki raises her blue eyes.
"But that incident...what happened at the warehouse...naturally, it came as a huge shock," she continues to explain quietly. "Never mind what happened to me...when I saw you fight off those bad guys, I was horrified when I realized that you did not hesitate to...kill them."
"You should've realized that instantly. Didn't you see what happened to the first guy who was on top of Nino, what I did to him?" Fuutarou asks.
"I-It did not register in my head yet. It was...there was a lot going on..."
"Understandable, though. That's the unfortunate nature of my side of work sometimes...there'll be times and situations when death is involved, and that incident was one of them. If what I made you see that night made you lose a couple nights' sleep afterwards, I'm sorry about that."
"Well, thankfully I did not lose too much sleep, but...there were a few nights when I could not...get it out of my thoughts..."
Itsuki squeezes her eyes shut for a moment and rubs her face to get rid of the memories starting to creep back into her mind.
"So like I was saying, because of that incident...I believed you to be a cold-blooded killer, a murderer to whom death was merely a tool to use at his disposal. Because of that perception I had of you, I was scared of you, Uesugi-kun. I could not bring myself to believe that you could be at all trustworthy, but I also could not explain myself to my sisters about what I felt about you because I would come off as unreasonable or delirious, so I could not stop my sisters from letting you begin to tutor them. Now that the shock of that incident to me has slowly subsided over the past few weeks, I slowly become more comfortable with you visiting every weekday, but...I could not shake off my perception of you as a cold-blooded murderer."
"And so you still see me as such, then?"
Itsuki opens her mouth to speak, but is forced to close her lips as she finds that she does not know how to answer.
"Because you wouldn't be wrong. You were never wrong."
Stealing a glance at him, Itsuki looks down at her feet again as they walk.
"So...you don't deny it, then?"
"How could I, after having shown you what I'm capable of. Normal human beings should not be capable of ending another human being's life like it's mundane, as though it's the same as taking out the trash or washing the dishes."
"...so you yourself are aware of that too, then."
"I am at least self-cognizant of what I do, yes. It's one step removed from full-blown psychopathic." It's Uesugi's turn to glance down at his fellow first-year walking beside him. "So where are you trying to go with this?"
After quickly swallowing back the saliva in her mouth, Itsuki carefully arranges her thoughts. "When you confronted Father earlier tonight...it had me thinking for a few hours afterwards. Because...I should tell you this first...earlier today on the beach, after you left, I asked Raiha-chan about you, about how she feels about you not joining her in this vacation. She said that she didn't want to get in your way, that she knows that you must have a difficult job that requires you to be working at almost all times. So at first, I believed you to be the same as our father - a family member who works so hard for the sake of his family that he ends up neglecting his family in the process - that, on top of what I thought of you before. So I told Raiha-chan that she ought to tell you to join her, that she should ask you to at least spend some time with her during her first vacation overseas like this."
"So that's why Raiha asked me that earlier tonight, huh."
The quintuplet nods as her eyes wander slowly up to the dark, mostly empty sky above.
"I didn't want her to end up having the same fate as us, Uesugi-kun. I didn't want to see another girl like me grow up not knowing what it's like to have a family member they love not spend time with them as they grow up. That's why I, and Yotsuba too, talked to her about this. I hope she didn't inconvenience you in any way because of what we told her."
"Not at all. I was going to have to spend time with her tonight anyway while you five were having dinner with your dad," Fuutarou shakes his head quickly. "Thanks for telling her that, actually. Because of our family's situation, she's had to grow up in obviously less than ideal conditions; it weighs on me and my dad more than you think. She's had to put up with me being gone a lot of the time, our dad always working too, while being dirt poor and in debt. There are a ton of things that I know she'd love to do, things that I'm sure she hears about from friends at school or sees in her daily life that she'd love to try, but she's never once asked for them in case it's something she can't get or do on her own because she's always known that we're busy people, and she doesn't want to bother us because she knows we're doing our best in what we can to support the family, including her."
Uesugi joins Itsuki in gazing up at the mostly starless night sky.
"And...that's why you were willing to essentially pay for Raiha-chan's airfare and hotel?" Itsuki asks, and while she gets no response from her would-be tutor, she doesn't need one. "...just out of curiosity, how much did this trip end up costing you?"
Once the topic of money comes up like this, a dark shadow is cast over Uesugi's face as he lowers his gaze broodingly. Itsuki is rather taken back by this gloomy expression that she's yet to see him make.
"I-It's alright, you don't need to tell me if...if it's that uncomfortable to talk about..." Itsuki hurriedly says.
"...let's just say that it cost me roughly a month's income on a bad month," Uesugi groans slightly. "And even if it is a bad month, money is money..."
"I'm...I'm sorry."
"Don't be, you have nothing to apologize for." The shadow is banished as Fuutarou's expression clears up to return to its default iciness. "At the end of the day, it was money worth spending, so long as it doesn't cut too deep. I can always make back that money - but I can't do the same for time."
The two of them spend another five or so minutes walking without a word down the sidewalk parallel to the dark early morning beach.
"When we were eating dinner with our father earlier tonight, what I said to Raiha-chan was on my mind almost the whole time. I wanted to ask Father to consider spending more time with us...that as much as we understand that his line of work is one that demands much of his attention, he should at least strive to find time to spend with his family," Itsuki continues without warning. "But...I was not able to. I didn't have the courage to confront him like that...and when he began talking to us about your tutoring, I...I felt that I couldn't say anything, because whatever I could say would be invalidated by the fact that I haven't been attending your lessons..."
Again, Itsuki takes Fuutarou's silence as her cue to go on, but she decides to take a conversational detour.
"You usually work during the night, right? Is it just because it's easier for you to work during the nighttime, or because you like it better than daytime?" she asks him.
"Most people are usually asleep at night, so less foot traffic and less people to deal with in case of a potential situation," Fuutarou replies crisply. "I got more used to working overnight over time, and it's to the point where I sort of do prefer nighttime over daytime. If there's one thing that Yotsuba's comparison to me with a vampire is right about, it's that."
Itsuki chuckles awkwardly, remembering Yotsuba's comment earlier yesterday.
"I...also enjoy nighttime. It's something I don't think my sisters know about because I'm usually the one who goes to sleep first, at least after Ichika..."
"Yeah, I'd imagine it's a bit hard to out-sleep Ichika."
"Indeed. But...yeah, I love going out on walks like this in the middle of the night. It helps me clear my head in case anything is bothering me, and it helps me focus in case I want to study hard the next day."
"Even though you said it doesn't really help?"
"Th-The spirit is there, I can assure you!"
"You're gonna need a bit more than spirit..."
"I'm well aware, thank you very much!" Itsuki sighs heavily. "But...it's not just that. I love going stargazing - seeing a night sky filled with stars is...one of the best feelings I can think of."
Uesugi glances again down at Itsuki next to him at her peachy red sidelocks - but it seems tonight, the star-shaped hairpins that usually straddle those sidelocks are missing.
"Mother first instilled it in me, when she used to take me and my sisters stargazing at night years ago, back when you could still do that...before the city started expanding," she murmurs, her speech becoming filled with bittersweet words. "But...now, you can only really see a few of the closer ones...and oftentimes, it's hard to find any stars at all...and not to mention, none of my sisters seem to be interested in stargazing in the first place..."
"You can always just buy one of those amateur telescopes and look at planets and such; I've heard of people doing that even in the city, since light pollution doesn't really get in the way of that," Fuutarou suggests, but Itsuki shakes her head.
"I have used telescopes before. They are fun to use, to be fair, but...I much prefer the experience of simply being able to look up in the sky and seeing a sky filled with stars. There is something...magical about it, something about it that you cannot find in anything else."
Itsuki gazes up at the empty night sky yearningly and nostalgically, slowing to a stop on the sidewalk, and Fuutarou, matching her gait, slows with her and stops too.
"Seeing you confront Father for our sake changed my opinion of you, Uesugi-kun, along with everything else that has happened thus far. As such...I would like to join the study group with the others once Golden Week is concluded," Itsuki announces with a small smile.
"No."
Itsuki's small smile remains where it is as her eyes blink in stunned confusion.
"...excuse me?"
Turning to face Itsuki completely, Uesugi gazes down at her with his signature icy demeanor.
"I appreciate the fact that you now see me in a better light than before. However, what I don't appreciate is the fact that you're using my confrontation with your dad as the basis for why you want to finally accept me as your tutor, because my run-in with your dad is an entirely different matter to the discrepancy between us leading up to this point regarding the tutoring."
"Wh-What do you mean by that? I don't understand..."
"Basically, I want you to accept my tutoring because you recognize that you need help in raising your grades and you see value in the tutoring I can offer, since that's why I got hired as your and your sisters' tutor in the first place. You deciding to take tutoring from me because of an extraneous incident that has nothing to do with my tutoring contract renders that contract irrelevant because it derives its merit not off my ability to teach or your recognition that you need assistance, but from something else entirely, and so it feels like a cheap cop-out to me."
"But - but I told you just now that I do recognize that I need help!" Itsuki protests, her thoughts getting jammed and jumbled by this unexpected rejection from her would-be tutor.
"Even still, that doesn't account for the other half of my argument, that it feels cheap to use my argument with your dad as an excuse to rein you in; that's not how I want to end up tutoring you," Fuutarou insists. "Like I said at the end after your dad left, that was a mistake that I made and ended up embarrassing myself over. You wanting to join us now because of that makes me feel like I'm being rewarded for a mistake I made. That should not happen."
"...so...so you're saying that...confronting Father was a mistake...?" Itsuki's fists begin to tighten again.
"On my part, yes. I should have known better than to get involved in what should be a private matter between you quints and your dad, but I did anyway thinking I could be a hero and try to change things, but it ended up doing nothing."
"Perhaps - perhaps that is certainly the case, that it should have been a matter that should have stayed in our family alone, but - but you don't seem to understand that - that you were able to confront Father in a way that I wanted to but couldn't! And - and now you're calling that a mistake?" Itsuki feels her words being fueled by anger and confusion. "Then, are you saying that what Yotsuba and I told Raiha-chan earlier today was a mistake too? That we shouldn't have told her that she ought to ask you to spend time with her? What we did was the same thing as what you did, Uesugi-kun! Yotsuba and I, outsiders to your family, meddled in an affair that should have stayed between the two of you, yet we went ahead and did what we thought was right, as did you for us to our father! And while I tried showing you appreciation for your efforts, you stand here and reject mine? Reject the efforts that Yotsuba and I made for your sister's sake, and perhaps your own as well, by calling it a mere 'cop-out'?"
The ambience of the waves and the cool ocean breeze are still present, but no longer do they paint a relaxing backdrop between the girl and the boy on the Honolulu sidewalk.
"If...if that is what you truly believe, Uesugi-kun, then...all these things that you've said, the things you're saying that devalue your own actions, you haven't been saying them to act humble or modest or anything; you're saying them because you're stubborn. You want to do things your way, and you can't accept any alternative. I was the same way as well, you know! I was stubborn and did not want you to be our tutor, but eventually I was able to put aside my stubbornness and muster up the conviction tonight to tell you that I would like you to tutor me, alongside Ichika, Miku, and Yotsuba...only to realize now that you, too, are being driven by your own stubbornness. So for all the things you said to our father, it would appear that you yourself are not much different!"
"Takes one to know one, as they say," Fuutarou shrugs simply as the final nail in the coffin.
"As it would appear, yes. But because of this, I rescind my offer to you to become your student. If you are right about one thing, it is that I should refuse your tutoring. You are still being paid per student, correct? Does the absence of me and Nino not bother you at all, whatsoever? Not even in the sense of being able to take care of Raiha-chan better?"
"From a monetary perspective, no. I told you already, right? I can always make more money elsewhere to make up for the loss that you and Nino are causing me; it's other things that worry me more."
"Then let it remain so. You certainly don't need pity from me for that," Itsuki scoffs, pivoting swiftly on her foot to face the direction from whence the two have come. "I truly hope, if only for Raiha's sake, that those 'other things' you worry about include your stubbornness and your own inability to accept the graces that others show you whenever they do. I empathized with you and your situation, and such was part of my consideration going into this conversation with you and finally accepting your tutelage...but no longer."
Fuutarou watches Itsuki trudge away, backtracking her way to the resort alone. Taking one more glance up at the night sky, he finds nary a star in the dark heavens peeking back at him.