Chapter 10:

Wait, Midterms Are A Thing?!

On Monday, I found myself awake at the crack of dawn. Cursing my premature consciousness, I rose and began preparing for the day. My movement inadvertently woke up Raiha, who decided that if she was awake, our dad had to be awake, and if our dad was awake, that meant it was time for breakfast.

After eating, I decided to just leave early instead of spending the extra half-hour or so studying at home. I got to school well before the usual time, the grounds quiet as I walked through the front gate. The footlocker area was devoid of any other students, and so I pulled my shoes off and changed my footwear in the eerie silence of a place normally full of the noises of daily life. I took a moment to fix my hair in the mirror, and idly noticed that it was starting to get a little longer than I would typically like.

Time to go to the Raiha salon, I suppose...

Closing the footlocker again, I glanced around the empty room, pondering what exactly I should do in the time I had until classes started. I decided to just go study at my desk. I made my way through the sparsely populated (but not deserted) hallways until I reached my classroom. Sliding the door open, I was surprised to see that the room wasn't empty - a star-spangled redhead was idly staring out the window.

"Huh, you're here early. Good morning, Itsuki."

She started, and whipped around. "E-Eh?! Oh, Uesugi-kun, it's you. Good morning. You gave me a bit of a shock there."

"Is that so?" I said, walking to my desk. "Sorry about that. I didn't think there was going to be anyone else here yet this early."

"Surprise!" Itsuki said drily.

"Why are you here this early, out of curiosity?"

"I... don't want to say. It's a bit embarrassing."

"That's fine, you don't have to tell me. Suit yourself."

I sat down at my desk, and pulled out my schedule for the day. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Itsuki lower her head to her desk, and stare down at something - presumably, her head was so low in order to prevent me from seeing what she had hidden there. Her face seemed scrunched up, like she was trying to read something.

"You wouldn't happen to be studying, now would you?" I idly said, twirling a pencil between my fingers.

"W-What? Why would you think that? I definitely didn't come here early to find some time to study alone so that my sisters wouldn't find out!"

"That's... way more specific than anything I said. Come on, Itsuki, you're not fooling me."

"Urgh... How did you know?"

It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure that out... and I am a genius, thank you very much.

"Call it intuition. What's with the sudden urge to study? Worried about midterms? I approve."

"Well, I'm very glad you approve," Itsuki said sarcastically, dropping all attempts to hide the textbook hidden beneath her arms. "It's not about that though. Well, maybe a little bit - I don't want to fail, after all."

"Something else bothering you?"

"Why do you care, Uesugi-kun? You don't seem like the type to normally stick your nose in other people's business."

Actually, that's a great point. Why do I care?

I furrowed my brow in thought, and glanced away from Itsuki to look out the window. Contemplating, I watched the birds flitting around the trees, and the grey October sky filled with clouds. The answer seemed to be right on the tip of my tongue...

Oh. So that's why.

That's unexpected.

I glanced back to her.

"Isn't wanting to help a friend in trouble a normal thing?"

Itsuki raised an eyebrow. "Are we friends?"

"I don't know. Are we?"

The silence suddenly got awkward. I just looked at her, and eventually, she sighed.

"Fine, if you insist."

"Huh? Why are you making it sound like you're doing me a favour?!"

"I am doing you a favour! I'm a great person to have as a friend!"

"Ah, is that so?! I'm looking forward to the benefits package then!"

We glared at each other for a moment, and then Itsuki burst out laughing. After a moment, I started chuckling along with her.

"This is stupid, huh?"

"Yep," I replied with a slight smile. "Pretty dumb, all things considered. Who fights over whether or not they're friends?"

"Right? Anyways, I guess I'll tell you what's bothering me, since you want to know that badly."

I ignored her jab and leaned on the desk behind me, using my right hand to support my chin in a slightly exaggerated "I'm listening, and also I'm very wise" pose.

"So," Itsuki began, "Last night, our dad surprised us by swinging by the apartment after dinner. He had something important he had to tell us."

Last night? So right after Yotsuba got home from the mall, I guess.

"He told us that, after looking for about a month, he'd finally found a tutor for us. Which is... good. None of us are particularly... academically inclined."

"By which you mean you're dumb?" I said. Itsuki scowled at me.

"You don't have to say it like that!"

"Sorry, sorry. Please continue."

"Anyways, at first we were all fine with it, more or less. Yotsuba was a little ticked off. However, then our father revealed that the tutor in question is in our grade! Can you believe that?!"

"Wow, shocking," I said.

"...Why do you sound not shocked at all?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Ugh, fine. Anyways, apparently the tutor is the second overall student in our grade, which Nino took offence at: 'aren't we worth at least the number-one student in the grade?', that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure she's going to give the tutor absolute hell about that when we have our first session this afternoon."

"You know," I said, frowning, "she definitely would not have been fine with number one in the grade."

Itsuki gave me an odd look. "Anyways, apparently he tried to get the number-one student in the grade, but he declined, so we're stuck with number two. I don't know why our father didn't just get a professional tutor, but Nino does have a point - if we're going to have someone from our grade, why should we settle for second best?"

"Well," I said, stretching in my chair, "sometimes the person in second place brings an extra passion and fire to learning that first place doesn't have."

"I... guess that makes sense?"

"Not that I'd know anything about that. You said the first session was this afternoon?"

"Yeah."

"So... how does this relate to you getting to school early to study?"

Itsuki frowned. "I want to improve my grades with my own abilities and hard work. Not with the help of some guy who's paid to help me. If I studied like this at home, though, I'm a bit scared Ichika and Nino would make fun of me for being too keen."

"I can respect that. There's nothing wrong with getting some help though. At least, that's what I think. I didn't get to where I am entirely on my own brains and hard work. Just mostly my brains and hard work."

"Riiight."

"Anyways," I said, leaning back in the chair. "Forget about Ichika and Nino. This number two person probably put a lot of work to get into their position. There's almost certainly a lot you can learn from them, if you give it a chance."

"But I want to do it with my own pow-"

"Trust me, Itsuki," I said darkly. "A tutor alone isn't going to do anything to save you unless you put in the work yourself. A tutor can only teach those who are willing to learn."

"Eh? What's with the tone shift? Also, why do you sound like you're speaking from experience?"

"In general, if you're an idiot, you just have to work twice as hard so that you're not an idiot anymore."

"Stop calling me an idiot!" Itsuki pouted.

"I'm not, I'm talking about my past self - but also, you are an idiot. If you study a lot though, maybe you won't be anymore."

"Regardless, it still would have been better to get the number-one student..."

"I'm sure they had their reason to decline."

Suddenly, the classroom door slammed open, and a swarm of people entered our classroom.

Tch. Noisy.

"Good mooooorning! Huh? Nakano-san and Uesugi were in here together?! Oh my god, I bet they were making out! Wait until Hayachin hears about this!"

I rolled my eyes as Itsuki's face turned a bright red.

"We're sitting like three desks away from each other, you blithering morons," I said to the five girls who had entered ("five", upon further inspection, was an insufficient number to constitute a swarm.)

The girl who made the initial comment turned to her friend.

"Hey, Yumachi, what does 'blithering' mean?"

"It means he's insulting us, you dummy. How did you even get into this high school?"

"Ohhhh... hey, rude!"

"I...It's more rude to make up rumours about people!" Itsuki said, attempting to come to my defence.

"Eh? Oh, sorry Nakano-san. Of course you'd be upset we were shipping you with a gloomy loner like Uesugi! My bad!"

Itsuki's eyes widened. "That's not what I mea-"

"Oh, hey, girls!" one of the others said, interrupting her. "Let's get some drinks before class! We're, like, never here early enough to get some!"

"Good idea, Mucchin! Wow, the power of sleepovers is amazing - I don't think I've ever been to school this early!"

Chattering, the throng of girls exited the room again, leaving Itsuki and I alone together. She slowly turned back to me, eyes widened.

"Is... is that normal for you?"

I shrugged, turning away and leaning back in my chair. "Nah, that was pretty tame. They even apologized, which is rare."

"Yeah, to me. Not to you!"

I shrugged again. "Such is life. I've elected to be completely apathetic to their collective existence, and they mostly leave me alone. It's not like I get bullied."

"Yeah, but-"

"Itsuki," I said, glancing back at her. "It's fine. I'm used to it."

"It's not fine! How are you ok with that?!"

"I've been putting up with it for five years. Admittedly, the last year and change has been a bit rough, but I just ignore it."

Itsuki just shook her head. "Those girls are awful."

"I honestly don't even think it's malicious. My feelings just aren't really something that's part of the calculation. Usually I just get ignored."

"That's worse, though! You see how that's worse, right?!"

"Not... really?"

Itsuki buried her head in her hands. "Nevermind."

"Uh... ok."

Baffled, I turned back to the front of the class. There were a few minutes of silence while Itsuki grumbled into her arms, and then the girls returned. They noisily set up camp in a corner of the room, and then more students began to filter in. Eventually, the teacher arrived, and class began. Throughout the lesson, a familiar gaze was trained on the back of my neck. I just sighed.

Staring at the back of my neck isn't going to magically make me get along with our classmates, Itsuki! If it were that easy, I would have done it already!

Then I paused.

Ha. Actually, no I wouldn't. Screw those guys.

I twirled my pencil between my fingers as the teacher expounded upon the connection between trigonometric identities and physical modelling.

I have absolutely zero desire to get along with those Neanderthals. Actually... that's probably rude to Neanderthals. We don't actually have any idea of their level of intelligence. Maybe they were quite intelligent? There are signs of interbreeding between humans and them, after all, so-

"Uesugi-kun, could you come solve this problem on the board?"

I snapped out of my reverie, and stood up.

"Yes, Sensei."

I took a moment to scan the board to understand the problem, since I had (uncharacteristically) been somewhat distracted. It was a simple problem - to use the trigonometric identities we'd learned in class in the analysis of the motion of a simple harmonic oscillator. Picking up a piece of chalk, I quickly solved the problem, and then began walking back to my seat.

"Ah, well done, Uesugi-kun! As expected of the number one student!"

I paused.

Ah. Shit.

I looked at Itsuki, who's eyes widened. I took a seat at my desk, pretending she hadn't just understood the implications of what the teacher had said.

I'm going to get an earful later.

The glares I could feel from my classmates were palpable, but I ignored them in favour of simply returning to my textbook. I could feel one more glare on the back of my neck, but this one was obviously different from the others. I could almost just feel the words radiating off of Itsuki:

WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL MEEEEEEEE?

I scowled as I swiftly caught up on the notes I'd missed while zoning out. After that, the rest of the class went by quickly. When lunchtime came, I got up and hurriedly left the classroom before I could be interrogated.

I believe this is what people refer to as "running away".

As I walked out of the classroom, Itsuki glared at me, and then began furiously typing on her phone. I blanched, and stepped out of the door. Putting the sense of impending doom out of my mind, I made my way to the cafeteria to get my lunch. Or perhaps, with Itsuki out for my blood, it was my last supper. Last lunch. Whatever.

I stepped into the cafeteria, and suddenly a siren went off, wailing through the room and grabbing everyone's attention. I slowly, fearfully, turned to my right to face the source of the racket. Standing there was a mysterious figure wearing a giant pair of pitch-black aviator sunglasses. To her chest was pinned a plastic constable's badge. Over top her head was held a phone, from which the siren was blaring. On the screen was a video of red police lights, flashing like a strobe light.

"Uesugi-saaaan! I'm here to detain you, on suspicion of perjury!"

"I... I'll come quietly," I said meekly. But my lunch!

"Good!" Yotsuba said, grinning and twirling a pair of plastic handcuffs on her finger. "I wouldn't want to have had to use these!"

Where the hell did she even get those?!

Yotsuba led me out of the cafeteria, and down the hall to an empty classroom. Inside, I was seated at a desk, and then Yotsuba popped back out again after telling me to stay put. I was alone for a few minutes so, naturally, I pulled out my flashcards and began drilling English vocabulary. After I had just got past prejudicial, the door was flung open, and Constable Yotsuba walked in, followed by...

What the hell is this?

Itsuki was dressed up in the exact same garb - including the aviators and the plastic constable's badge.

"Alright, Uesugi-san, fess up to your crimes!" Yotsuba cried, slamming a metrestick that she must have grabbed from somewhere onto my desk.

"My crimes? I... I see. I ate a pudding that Raiha had been saving. I'm so sorry!"

"You monster! How could you do that to Raiha?!"

"I know!" I cried. "It was the penultimate sin!"

"I don't know what that means, but indeed it is!"

"Uh, Yotsuba," Itsuki interjected. "That... isn't what we're interrogating him about."

"You didn't tell me what we're interrogating him about, so I'm gonna press him for everything until he squeals!" Yotsuba said, letting out a devilish laugh.

"Wow, she's really getting into character," I said to Itsuki.

"Maybe a little bit too much," she sighed, taking off the aviators. "Take it down a notch, Yotsuba."

"S-Sorry... Wait, no! We gotta press him for the goods!"

I raised my hands. "I'm innocent, chief! I swear!"

"Yeah, yeah, save it for the judge, buster!"

I turned to look at Itsuki. "Who's the judge?"

"I... have no idea."

As Yotsuba threateningly smacked the metrestick against her hand, Itsuki grabbed another chair and sat across the desk from me. She leaned forward, her elbows on the table and her hands forming a steeple in front of her face - the quintessential "I'm not mad, I'm just asking questions" pose.

"Uesugi-kun, please give me a straight answer. Why didn't you tell me when I brought it up earlier?"

"I have no idea what you're talking abo-"

"Don't play dumb, please."

I sighed. "Look, I just didn't think it was relevant information. My decision wasn't even personal - I didn't know who you were at the time. I was just focused on other priorities, and also the offer came at a bad time. I wasn't thinking straight, and I was also pissed off."

"Ok, but why didn't you tell me when I brought it up?"

"I figured you would get upset, so I just kept it to myself."

Yotsuba looked back and forth between us, her face unreadable because of the aviators - but her bow, with its independent animation, gave her confusion away. "What are you guys talking about?"

Itsuki turned to look at her. "We're talking about the fact that Uesugi-kun is the number one student in the grade."

"Eh? I could have told you that. Why are we interrogating him over that?"

"Wait, you knew?" Itsuki said, bafflement written across her face. "How?"

"You saw his test score too, didn't you? He got 100%. There was no way he wasn't at the top of the class."

"Urgh... I guess that makes sense."

"Also, the scores from the final last semester were still up for a few weeks after we arrived, and Uesugi-san was at the top. I saw it after one of our study sessions."

"I... never noticed that."

"So, again, why are we interrogating him over this?" Yotsuba asked, raising her aviators to her forehead to reveal the confusion in her eyes.

"Because of what him being number one means!"

"I... don't get it," Yotsuba said, tilting her head to the side.

"It means the one our father first offered the tutoring job to was him! He turned it down!"

"Oooh!" Yotsuba said, nodding. "I see. Well, that sucks. I bet you would have been a great tutor, Uesugi-san!"

"Thanks, but I don't have time to tutor five idiots at once. My own grades would suffer. That's why I turned it down."

Yotsuba turned to Itsuki. "Actually, come to think of it, maybe that's a good thing after all. Imagine how Nino would react if he became our tutor."

Itsuki's face went pale at the thought.

"I did say she wouldn't have liked it," I said, snickering. "I just didn't say why."

"You...!"

Itsuki growled at me, and then she sighed and put her head in her hands. "You know what? Nevermind. This was pointless."

"I agree," I said. "I'm starving. Can we get lunch now?"

At that exact moment, Itsuki's stomach grumbled, and her face went red.

"Uh... maybe that's a good idea," she said, sheepishly. "You should have still told me, though!"

"Sorry, sorry." I said, raising my hands in an apologetic manner.

I stood up, and Itsuki followed suit, a slightly dejected look on her face.

"By the way," I said to Yotsuba, "Where'd you get all the cop gear?"

"Borrowed it from the drama club!" Yotsuba grinned. "It was super short notice too, I ran over there as soon as I got Itsuki's text!"

Wait... Itsuki sent that text as I was leaving the classroom. That was a matter of minutes... how freaking fast is this girl?!

Briefly dazzled, I followed the two out of the room, and back to the cafeteria. We got our food, and then walked over to the quintuplets' usual table. Ichika, Nino, and Miku were all there already.

"Hey," Ichika said, waving us down. "What happened? We got here, but you two were nowhere to be found. Also... what's with the police outfits?"

"It was..." Yotsuba paused dramatically, "an INTERROGATION!"

"I... see," Ichika responded carefully.

"Help," I said. "I'm deeply traumatized."

"What did you two do to poor Fuutarou-kun, hmm?"

"Interrogated him!" Yotsuba said happily.

"You're being dramatic, Uesugi-kun." Itsuki sighed. "All we did was drag you to an empty classroom and..."

She trailed off as she realized how that sounded. Nino glared at me, while Miku started giggling.

"Phrasing, Itsuki," she said, one hand on her headphones. "You wouldn't want us to get the wrong idea about you two."

"Please, as if." Itsuki said, rolling her eyes. "These two were the ones flirting the whole time."

I just rolled my eyes in turn, while Yotsuba protested, her cheeks slightly red. "Hey! We were not! That was a serious interrogation, you jerk!"

"Yeah... I'm gonna go now," I said drily. "You know my feelings on that subject. Enjoy your lunch, girls."

With that, I began to stride away, but Yotsuba caught my wrist.

"Hey, I gotta tell you something before you go!"

"Yes...?"

Yotsuba sighed, an annoyed look suddenly crossing her face. "I'm not going to be able to join you in the library after school on Mondays and Thursdays anymore. My dad's insisting that I go to tutoring sessions with some guy he hired. I told him I'd probably learn more by just studying with you, but he said I had to."

"That's fine. Make sure not to give Second Place-san too hard of a time, ok?"

"That's... a really mean nickname, coming from you, but got it!"

Yotsuba let go of my wrist, and I made my way to my usual table in the corner of the cafeteria. A few of the groups near me began laughing quietly as I sat down, and I thought I heard at least one siren sound effect play, but I just ignored them. I pulled out my flashcards, and continued where I'd left off.

With the first half of the lunch period having been consumed in a perjury investigation, I had precious little time to have my lunch. I was forced to scarf my meal down, instead of enjoying it at my usual leisurely rate. I sighed to myself, staring down at the empty bowls in front of me.

Looks like it's gonna be a bad afternoon.

I put my tray away, and trudged back to the classroom. The second half of the day was a bit of a blur - by the back end, my stomach's growling was distracting me from the lecture. At one point, it gurgled particularly loudly, to the point where a few people around me noticed and stared at me.

I sighed and lowered my head to my desk.

The lecture on the usage of ATP in cells just flowed over me like a summer's tide, water being pulled up onto the beach by the gentle tug of the moon. With my head down, the darkness made it a little bit easier to block out my stomach, and just listen to the teacher speak. I tried to process as much as I could, relegating the task of creating notes to my study session after the class.

"Uesugi-kun, are you awake?"

I raised my head, wincing slightly at the sudden influx of light, to see the teacher staring at me.

"Yes, Sensei. You were just saying that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell via its production of ATP."

"Ah. I see. Good. Are you alright though?"

"I'm fine. I appreciate the concern Sensei. I'm just a bit tired."

"I see. Carry on then."

The teacher returned to his lecture, and I returned to my temporary sanctum. As I lowered my head, the back of my neck prickled as Itsuki engaged in her favourite hobby - staring at me. I couldn't tell what she was thinking though, since the back of my head was woefully devoid of eyes, and also I lacked mind-reading abilities.

Those would be really useful sometimes.

As the bell rang to let out class for the day, I blearily raised my head, and then packed my bag. I nodded at Itsuki, and then left the room to head to the library for my study session. As I made my way through the halls, the hunger gnawed at me, making my stomach growl loudly. Cursing that I hadn't grabbed food before being interrogated, I slid the door to the library open, and settled down at my usual seat.

The grey natural light coming through the small windows near the top of the wall was almost completely drowned out by the fluorescent lights that, with their long bars, made up every other tile in the ceiling. The mixture of the two, in their ninety-ten concentration, gave the library a strangely empty feel, more-so than just the absence of people.

I don't like it.

I pulled open my mathematics reference book, and flipped far past the trigonometric identities upon which we seemed to have stalled - a mere introductory section of this university textbook. Instead, I jumped to ordinary differential equations, a subject far more advanced than what we had been doing in class. Twirling my pencil in my fingers, I set myself to work on the problems listed at the back of the section.

Time passed slowly as I worked my way through the (relatively) simple problems. Suddenly, I came across a fairly amusing problem - one in which the solution spelled out 'pizza' in English, with the Greek letter 'pi' instead of the 'pi' in pizza. A joke by the author, no doubt. A silly one, but nevertheless worthy of at least a chuckle.

"Hey Yotsuba, look at this-"

I looked up at the empty chair across from me. Then, I frowned.

Oh. Right. Idiot.

I sighed, and returned to my work.

Midterms are in just under two and a half weeks. I need to work harder.

I frowned down at the page in front of me, and then continued on to the next question. It was strangely difficult to concentrate, like something was stealing my attention away, pulling it away from the problems by force. It wasn't just my growling stomach, either. I took a moment to lean back from the page and stretch.

I looked around the library, the only sound the ticking of an analog clock somewhere behind the shelves. Unconsciously, my mind wandered back to the walk I'd taken a month before to the park on the hill - to the grey silence that had defined the early morning with no one there, where I'd found a different, comforting kind of loneliness.

This... This is the wrong kind of loneliness. This is the kind of loneliness that sticks to your bones and sinks deep in, like a damp wind off the sea. I don't like this kind. There's no comfort in it.

Feeling mildly disturbed, I shook my head, throwing such thoughts away. Useless. I don't have time for this sort of thing.

I returned to the problem set, and began making slow by steady progress. Within about ten minutes, my pencil lowered, having finished the last of the set.

One set down. Now just four more to go...

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the library door opening and then shutting. Someone was invading my sanctum. I tensed up, not sure what to expect.

What I certainly didn't expect was for Itsuki to walk into the room.

I frowned at her. "Itsuki? What are you doing here? I thought you had your tutoring session this afternoon."

"I do," she said, walking over to the table. "It starts in about half an hour. I have just enough time to get home beforehand. I'm going to go, but I wanted to bring you this."

She extended her hand, and placed something down in a free space amongst my textbooks. I looked down at it to see that it was a chocolate bar. I looked back up at her, confused.

"Why...?"

She shrugged. "It was my fault you had to eat your lunch so quickly. I know that you normally try to eat it slowly, so that it fills you up more. I figured I should try and make up for it. I'm sorry."

I looked back down at the chocolate bar, astonished. She definitely heard my stomach.

"That's... really nice of you. Thank you."

Itsuki seemed a bit taken aback by my sincerity, but then she shook her head.

"Well, I did promise you that I was a good person to have as a friend. I can't exactly let a friend study while hungry, right?"

"I... huh. I guess that is a pretty decent benefits package. Well played, Itsuki. Well played."

She smirked, then turned around. "Anyways, good luck with your studying, Uesugi-kun. I need to go to my tutoring session now. If he's terrible at his job, I'm blaming you!"

"That... doesn't seem fair, but I will gratefully waive my right to complain in exchange for this chocolate bar."

Itsuki laughed, and then she left. The library was empty again, but the silence from before had been shattered. I looked down at the chocolate bar, and then slowly opened it. I lifted a piece up to inspect it in the light - it looked like it had pieces of nuts in it. Looking back down at the torn package, I pulled the foil back to read the front.

"A chocolate bar with hazelnut and almond, huh? I've never had something like this before," I murmured to myself. I broke off a square, and put it in my mouth, letting it dissolve on my tongue.

It's pretty good. As expected of a foodie, I guess.

I slowly ate the rest of the bar, making sure to savour every last bite. Once the final bit was gone, I laid back in the chair, and looked around me The library was exactly the same as before... but somehow, with my blood sugar no longer cratering, the emptiness felt less bleak. I smiled down at the wrapper.

"It's good to have a friend."

Then I got up, and tossed the empty wrapper in the garbage before returning to my seat. I leaned back in my chair one more time, and closed my eyes. The sound of the ticking clock, the faint noise of the trees rustling outside the window, my own breath. It still wasn't comforting, but somehow it seemed less... permeating. I glanced back down at the problem set I had just finished, and then circled the pizza problem in my notes.

"I'll just tell her about it tomorrow."

I glanced back up at the bookcase behind which Itsuki had vanished.

I hope the tutoring goes well.

"If it doesn't, Itsuki's gonna kill me," I muttered out loud.