Warm and sunny, that's how the day was. With it feeling weirdly…relaxing? Well, that's what the eldest thought, as she felt the suns' rays beam on her back as she walked further down the road.
Looking down at her phone with the time being 7:45 in the morning. Only a little more till she reached her destination, the coffee shop. "I've been walking for nearly seven minutes, just to get some coffee."
"I really don't have my priorities straight.." She said, looking into the passing stores windows
"I think normal house coffee would have sufficed" Ichika let out a sigh, focusing on the walk ahead.
But her stomach growled leaving her a tad bit embarrassed. "Maybe I should grab something to eat at the shop." wondering what to eat, a small thought popped up in her head.
Did she bring her credit card with her?
Opening her bag, she moved things around looking for her credit card but it wasn't there. Luckily for her, she had some leftover money from a job she had done.
"Thankfully I still have money to buy something, now the thing is…where did I leave my card?"
Slowly walking ahead, she tried remembering what could've happened to her card. In the end, she placed her bets on Itsuki having it as she recalled lending it to her.
"Itsuki should have it–hopefully at least. If not, Dad might have to get me a new one." She scratched her cheek as she thought of how she'll approach her father and ask him, if she truly lost it.
Now that she really thought about it, at the current moment they don't have the best relationship with their father at all; Compared to a couple years ago at least.
Sure they didn't see their Father too often even as they were younger, but it was more often then now. Although, thanks to his hard work, they are able to live their current lives.
Even so, she would prefer how it was when they were younger. As she felt more closer to him during that time.
"I wonder what the rest think about this." She said out loud. In a normal situation she would have been embarrassed for talking out loud, but at the current moment she didn't care much.
So she kept on walking. Well, up until the moment where a door almost slammed into her face. "H-Hey!" She said, backing up from the door. A blonde-haired boy with a meatbun appeared from the door.
"Fuutarou…Kun?" Ichika said, going a bit closer to the boy. The blonde boy raised his brow "Huh? Fuutarou-kun?"
With the view Ichika got to look at the person in front, she noticed something. He was a bit taller than Fuutarou, and his hair wasn't all spiky like his; just the front of it. And he had a more "Normal" look compared to Fuutarou's
"Ah! Sorry, I got you mixed up with someone" Ichika replied. The boy closed the door behind him. "Ah, no, it's fine." He said eating from the meatbun.
The boy stared at her for a few seconds "You're one of the daughters of Nakano-sensei, yeah?"
Ichika nodded her head "Yes, I'm the eldest out of the five. Ichika Nakano" she stuck her hand out to him "Ryo Arase"
"I don't think I've seen you in my grade, are you a third year student?". She asked. Arase nodded his head. "I'm a third year student."
"Yoshitaka-sensei has told me about Nakano-Sensei and her daughters. I knew they were Quintuplets but I didn't really believe it."
"Yoshitaka-sensei? She teaches third-year classes too? I thought it was just second year ones and the supplementary lessons?"
"I, uh, talk to her occasionally." Arase responded, as she looked away from her. "I don't feel like telling her I usually take supplementary lessons with her" He told himself
Two other people walked out of the door. A boy near the same height as Arase and a blonde haired girl the same height as Ichika, with her holding a cup of coffee. Both of them were holding hands.
"Arase, why didn't you wait for us inside?" The black haired boy asked. "I didn't want to wait inside for too long. We have to make it to school before we need to write an apology letter for Yoshitaka-sensei"
As the two boys were talking, Ichika pulled her phone out to check the time. "It's 8:03? Has it been that long?" She told herself.
Maybe she could slip by and head inside for some coffee before it gets any later than it is. "Are you Arase-kun's girlfriend?" The blonde hair girl asked, as she was right besides Ichika.
"W-What!?" The sudden question left Ichika red and embarrassed. Arase turned towards the girls "Sakota get your girlfriend. She's asking dumb questions to people she's just met."
"Is she your girlfriend Arase? We could go on double dates and stuff y'know?" Arase made a cross with his arms telling him No.
"We should get going. See you around school Nakano-san." Arase said as he walked away from the group. "Bye Nakano-san!" The blonde hair girl said as she walked towards her boyfriend.
Ichika waved at them as they walked away. "What a weird encounter" she thought as she awkwardly laughed to herself.
Walking into the shop; It had a comfortable vibe to it. With some plants being near the entrance of the door. There were a couple people sitting down at the booths as they drank/ate what they ordered.
It seemed like it wasn't a busy day, which was good for her since the wait in line wasn't that long with only two other people waiting. By the time it was her turn it was 8:09, she had 21 minutes till she was late to school. Enough time to make it.
She ordered a Frappuccino and asked if she could also get a meatbun with the order. With her total coming around a 1100 yen
She took a small sip of her coffee and accidentally took a bite from her meatbun, as she thought it was bread. To her surprise, the weird combo actually tasted good? "Tish is actuly goob" she said as she walked to the door.
"I should tell Itsuki about this. But she might already know about it" she thought to herself, as she took another sip and bite. The coffee was really, really refreshing. She felt like she could make it the entire school day with it.
She opened the door, but as the weird order went, she had almost slammed the door in someone's face. The person jumped back before the door had fully hit them.
"You almost hit me with the door!" The person yelled out. Ichika got out of the shop to see who she almost hit, and it was a surprise to see who it was.
Spiky blonde hair, an earring in their left ear, followed with the bad-boy look their golden eyes had. She had almost hit Fuutarou with the door.
"F-Fuutarou-kun! Did I hit you with the door!?" She asked him, getting a bit closer to him.
"No–" He got a view of the person in front of him; it was one of his tutors. " I'm…fine.." He spoke in an uneasy voice.
She was a bit too close to him so he backed away from her. Although he'd forgiven Ichika Nino from what happened the day prior, he still felt horribly uncomfortable around them; the other three included.
Even so, he didn't have a clue which of his five tutor's was in front of him. But boiled it down to it being the eldest or second youngest. He hoped she would cut the conversation short and they would be off in different directions.
"That's great to hear. I thought I completely whacked you with the door" she awkwardly laughed. Small beads of sweat rolled from Fuutarou's face, "Y-Yeah..Luckily I was able to move in time"
There was a small silence between the two, one wanted to continue the conversation, while the other really, really wanted to leave. The blonde haired boy spoke up
"Well uh, I should be going now" Fuutarou turned the other way and started to slowly walk away from her. But was stopped from her shout.
"Wait! Don't go yet!" She called out. Fuutarou turned around back towards Ichika. "But I need to head to sch-"
Ichika swiftly put her meatbun in her bag and placed her cup of coffee on the ground. She had put herself in a dogeza position. "Fuutarou-kun, I want to say I'm very sorry for what Nino, and I did the other day."
Fuutarou was embarrassed at the scene he witnessed. "This is Ichika then..!" He thought to himself. As he looked around, he noticed that some people were giving them weird looks. "Ichika! Please get up! I don't think this is necessary at all!!"
Never in a thousand years would Ichika have thought she would be in this situation. But here she was "What we did that day was childish and not professional at all. I really do hope you can fully forgive me and my sisters and let us try to tutor you once more.
Fuutarou was tensing up as Ichika kept herself in that position longer. "Ichika! For the love of everything, get up from that position!"
Hearing his shout, she slowly arose from the position, with her face red from the people who had been staring at them. But as she got up they started heading their separate ways.
"Ichika-san, it's fine. I already forgave you two; and your sisters will keep the tutoring job. I thought my father had already called to tell you guys' that?"
She remembered the call her mother had gotten before she left.."ah..so that's what the call might've been for.." she told herself. "But, do you actually forgive me and Nino, Fuutarou-kun..?"
"I just said I already do Ichika. The entire thing wasn't your fault, It was partly mine if anything. So don't drag yourself down because of it."
"I won't…" She said, looking away from him. But something he said registered in her head with his voice. Did he actually say what had happened was partly his fault?
It confused her as to why he would say that. For some reason, it reminded her of the "Dream" she had in the morning. And how the version of Fuutarou yelled at her screaming that he hated her.
The sudden remembering of the dream started screwing with her mind, leaving her with doubt in the words the boy in front of her said.
The blonde boy turned away from Ichika, heading towards the direction of the school one more time. She wanted to ask him something, but didn't know whether or not to say it.
Maybe she was dumb thinking he'd hate her off of one day of interaction they had. Or maybe he actually did but kept it to himself after what she had done a few minutes ago.
With a random surge of courage, she clenched her fists and called to him. "Fuutarou-kun, wait! I still have one more thing to ask.."
He turned around once more, confused at what she wanted to tell him. It felt like a weird cycle where he thought he was able to head to school finally, but in the end will get called out once more.
"Uh, okay?" He pulled out his phone to quickly check the time, to his surprise it was 8:18. It was barely his second day of school and he was already going to be late. "Ichika-san, can this wait till later? Or uh, maybe you can tell Takeda or Maeda so they can tell me instead?"
But her head had only registered him asking if she could tell him later.
Sure, she could tell him later, but would she have the courage to ask him? At most she might tell him to forget about it and move on; if she decides to do it later.
She let out a deep breath and shook her head."I wish it would, but no. What I'm going to ask may sound very, very dumb, but I can't seem to get rid of this thought in my head.."
"Do you, by any chance…Hate me?" She asked, as she looked directly at him. The face he made spelt how confused he was. "..huh?"
"Look, I know it seems like I'm repeating myself. But this is something I've had on my mind since I woke up, and what you said earlier about it being "partly" your fault just made me doubt your words."
"It wasn't partly your fault, it was still ours if anyth-" Fuutarou let out a sigh, causing Ichika to cut herself off.
"Maybe it wasn't partly my fault; it was all of it." He spoke. Ichika was confused again, now was it all his fault? The hell was he on about? "Wait, Fuutarou-kun, what do–"
"My dumb action is causing you stress it seems, and I'm sorry for that." He said as he bowed.
Fuutarou faced away from her as he spoke, "Ichika-san, I don't think I could hate a person who hasn't done a single thing to me."
He turned back to her and looked directly at her "I should be the one asking if you don't hate me." he replied…with a smile?
Her eyes widened "He smiled? Why did he smile??" The sudden smile; the sudden words threw Ichika off course. She hadn't done a thing to him? Lies. Why would he make such a narrative for himself?
Why would he put all the blame on himself?
He turned around and started to walk away from Ichika, as if nothing had ever happened. "I wonder if I'll make it to school?" He thought to himself.
Ichika was snapped out of her thoughts, seeing how the blonde hair boy was leaving, she swiftly grabbed his arm before he went any further.
The blonde haired boy turned around as his eyes widened at her sudden pull. "Fuutarou-kun what do-!"
The moment she pulled his arm, she knew it was a mistake. As she had forgotten one thing…
SMACK*
Fuutarou had smacked her hand off of him as he yelled "DON'T TOUCH ME!", While his breath fastened.
He had just noticed what he'd done; how many people just stared at the two. He slowly backed away till he fully bolted in the direction of the school. The pixie cut girl stood in shock, what just happened?
The hit left a mark on her hand; how it stung painfully. Did she really fuck up again? Did she really forget about his Gynophobia again?
She snapped out of her thoughts before they fully consumed her. Only leading her to remember one thing.
She was in a public place; not a secluded one.
Realizing the many eyes that were just watching her, waiting to see what will happen next. With their whispers filling her head, just like that damn dream she had..
"Poor Girl…"
"She had to have done something bad to cause that reaction.."
"The boy seemed uncomfortable the entire time..she deserved it.."
But Unlike the dream, this was something real, not fake. She wanted to leave as if nothing had happened but she couldn't move. The anxiety of the situation was badly getting to her, and at a fast rate.
"They're all looking at me.." She thought to herself. She let her head drop to the ground, as she couldn't stand to look head.
Her breathing slowly started to fasten. "Please stop staring at me.." she muttered to herself.
A voice called out to her, but she was too lost in her anxiety to figure who it was. Said voice took her hand and dragged her with them.
One thing was certain, the voice was from a guy. As she kept her head down, causing her to not look at the person. But who was it?
She slowly tilted her head up and noticed they had blonde hair. Her mind was able to think of three people: Fuutarou-kun, Takeda-kun and…Arase-kun?
She doubted it was Fuutarou-kun, as he surely wouldn't have come back to her..right? It wouldn't make sense if he did.
Maybe Arase-kun? But would he really come back? They didn't even know each other, and he left before anything with Fuutarou-kun went down..
Takeda-kun on the other hand might be the most likely..? I don't think he hates me; maybe he disdains…me? If he saw what happened he surely would have went for Fuutarou instead..
Even though it seemed unlikely, her odds pointed to it being Takeda, she raised her head up and spoke "Takeda-ku-"
"Alright this should be the place; we might be late to school if it's fine with you." The boy replied, letting go of her hand.
He walked to a chair and sat down, and to her surprise it was.. "A-Arase-kun..? You helped me…?"
"Well– You looked badly troubled when I saw you. As if you were frozen in time" He replied. "So I brought you here; it's my changing room for work. Sit down, for a bit, even if we might be late for school."
"Late?! I have to go, my mother is going to get mad!" She said, turning around heading to the door. "Nakano-san, Just stay a bit longer!"
She turned and faced him. "You and I both know you aren't fit to head out currently! ..I saw a bit of what happened out there with the boy."
"If you are late it won't matter too much, I know who's on gate duty today. She'll let us pass without a doubt" He added on, continuing to keep eye contact with her.
"I hope at least.." He muttered to himself
"You…saw what happened? All of it?" She asked with a sad tone. "I wouldn't say all of it; more the part where the dude yelled and ran away. Was he the person you confused me with?"
Ichika looked away as she rubbed her arm. "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to." Arase pulled out his phone, checking the time it was 8:27.
"Can you…Can you keep what happened between us? I don't want people to know what happened." Ichika asked the boy In Front of her.
"Sure. I won't tell anyone" he replied as he gestured, zipping his mouth closed. She let out a sigh of relief as she pulled a chair and sat across from him.
The both of them were just silent. Ichika didn't really know him that well to talk to him. With Arase's reason being the same as hers, but the difference being he really, really didn't know how to converse with people.
Ichika opened her phone, it was 8:29. She noticed that she received two messages a while back, one from her mother and another from Nino.
[Mom Cell: Ichika, where are you at? Your sisters told me they haven't seen you around the school.]
[Nino Cell: Where are you at?? Yotsuba ran around the school at least twice looking for you!] – [By the way, we have our tutoring "job" back.]
She replied to her mothers message first, "I got sidetracked when I was getting coffee, I'll be late to school, sorry."
She closed out the messages with her mother then opened Nino's. "I got busy with something. I will see you guy's during lunch." She didn't know what to say for the other message so she sent a plain thumbs up.
While she was doing that, Arase had done what most do to seem busy. Checking the weather or messing with the calculator app. "So 77 plus 33 really equals 110 then."
A knock was heard from the door. "Yo Arase, you should be heading to school." The voice said. "I don't want that lady coming back asking why we kept you here in the morning."
"Alright. I'll be heading there in a minute." The boy replied. Ichika looked up as she saw the boy get up from his seat, she knew that they had to leave. So she followed after him through the door.
Arase waved at his co-workers as they walked out of the workplace. The both of them walked side by sideshe knew that they had to leave. So she followed after him through the door.
Arase waved at his co-workers as they walked out of the workplace. Heading to school, they both walked side by side in silence.
"So…are you feeling any better?" Arase asked. Ichika looked up at the boy for a quick second, then looked forward "Somewhat.."
"Ah, uh, I see." He replied. "Have you told any of your sisters or parents about you being late?"
"Yeah. My mother and second sister asked where I was at, I told them I'll be late to school."
"They haven't responded, well, since class has already started." She said, "What about you? Have you told any of your relatives?"
"Nah. I don't think they will mind if I'm late to school." He replied
"Although I do know someone who will mind that I'm late.." He said scratching his cheek. The pixie cut girl titled her head "Who is it?"
"You will see her once we get to school." Ichika thought about who it was, maybe a secret girlfriend? "Hey, If you don't mind me asking, what will happen between you and that boy?"
Arase knew he messed up the flow of the conversation with the question he asked. He was going to tell her she didn't have to reply, but to his surprise she did. "I don't know."
She kept on looking forward as they walked, "Honestly, I do not know. This is the second time I fucked up our interaction." She replied.
The blonde boy glanced at her, trying to figure what to say. "If you messed up the first one, why still try? Is being on good terms with him that import-"
"It is." Said the Pixie cut girl, cutting him off. "My sister's and I are tutoring him. Since we look nearly identical it really messes up things for the rest."
"All five of you guys are tutoring him, Why? Wouldn't one be good enough?" Arase asked, "That I don't know; but I came to the conclusion it's to help him be better around us."
The boy raised his brow, what did she mean by that. "Huh? Better around us?"
Ichika took notice of his confusion "Fuutarou-kun has Gynophobia. It's a fear of women. I figure his father is hoping to improve his interaction with women, while also bettering his grades at the same time?"
Arase was really, really confused. For better or for the worse, his brain isn't really suited for these types of things. "I-I see.."
"...You don't understand, don't you?" She asked "I do–just not all of it.."
Ichika let out a sigh, "Can I ask you for a favor?" she asked. The blonde nodded his head "Uh, sure. What is it?"
Ichika turned to face the boy. "Even though I doubt you will see him around school often, can you promise me this? That you'll help him if a girl gets too close to him? Or if he looks anxious?"
Arase was surprised that Ichika was confident in asking such a thing, even if they barely met. Even so, he nodded his head. "Sure. I'll make sure to help him if needed."
Ichika smiled, "Thank you Arase-kun." As they continued walking for a bit, she remembered something. She should get his contact info just in case "Hey, Arase-kun, can you give me your contact info?"
"Hm?" He was confused as to what she wanted, but it clicked in his head. Arase didn't really use those types of things, yet he still had a LINE account and such. "Oh, sure. Which one is it? LINE or my Email?"
"Both should be fine. Here, I'll send mine fi-"
"You're Late!" A voice called out to them. They looked in the direction of the voice, and saw a pretty tall lady with glasses as she had her hair in a ponytail. "How late are we-"
Arase checked his phone and it was already 8:40. "We really took our sweet time.." he replied, sweating a bit. The lady had begun walking to them both.
"Ryo Arase." She spoke as she stood in front of them both, "do you know what time it is?" The blonde boy was quiet as he tried his best to come up with a response to her question.
"Um–it's 7:40…?" He replied, turning away from her. Ichika slowly started to walk away from the two, thinking the Teacher was fully focused on Arase.
As she walked away from them, she felt as if someone was right behind her.. "Where do you think you're going, young lady?"
"To my classroom..?" She responded, facing towards her. She caught a glimpse of who the girl was. "Nakano-san?"
Seeing it was one of the daughters of her coworkers surprised her, better yet one of the top students in the school. "Does your mother know about you being Tardy? Ichi…ka-san?" She said, uncertain of who it was.
"Yes. I've told my mother about being Tardy today. She replied. "I see."
The lady cleared her throat, "Well the both of you will need to stay after school because of it." She said, "After school? But I have something Important to do once school ends!"
"No excuses Nakano-san." She turned to the blonde haired boy. "That goes for you too, Arase-kun."
"I know, I know. But Yoshitaka-sensei, can you let Nakano-san go with a warning today?" He asked. She shook her head. "No can do. It is my duty as a Teacher to reprimand–"
Arase leaned towards Yoshitaka-sensei and whispered something into her ear. "Nakano-san you will be free to go. Let me write you a Tardy dismissal slip first." She said, pulling out a pen and paper.
She was confused as to what just happened. "H-Huh?" Arase just signaled her to be quiet. Yoshitaka-sensei wrote her the note and handed it to her. "You have 3 minutes to head to class before the slip won't be of any use. Hurry now"
The confused Ichika headed into the school, wondering what in the world Arase told the teacher.
Arase just watched as she entered the hall. He turned and faced Yoshitaka-sensei. "Well I should be taking my leave too–"
The ponytailed teacher put her hand on his shoulder. "Afterschool, five written apologies with 3 supplementary classes throughout the next week."
Sweat rolled down Arase's face. "I might've covered too much for Ichika-san" He thought to himself.
-End-
Holy fuck I uploaded another chapter in a months time???
Anyway, the four new characters, Arase, the two people he was with and Yoshitaka-sensei are from a manga called: The Teacher Can Not Tell Me Love (Sensei wa Koi wo Oshierarenai)
They won't play a huge role in the story but will appear here and there.
By the way, Feedback is appreciated!!