After pulling the car up to the apartment building, Nino Nakano stepped out of the passenger seat with a bag of vegetables in hand. She waved at Ren as she shut the door.
"Ren, see you tomorrow."
"Mm. See you tomorrow, Nino."
Nino watched until Ren's car disappeared down the street. Only then did she take out her key card and open the building's main entrance.
[So Ren isn't a delinquent after all.]
After telling her a sprain wouldn't heal instantly, Ren went to a convenience store, bought two ice packs, and taped them to both sides of her ankle. To keep it from getting worse—and after hearing why she'd been in such a rush to leave school—he drove her to the mall to buy groceries, then brought her home.
Because the sprain had delayed her for so long, Nino hadn't managed to snag the discounted vegetables she'd been so focused on, but she didn't regret it. If today hadn't happened, she didn't know how long it would've taken before she actually became friends with Ren.
"Love at first sight is just about the face, and feelings need a process to develop?"
Nino touched her face with her free hand and smiled. If anything… she liked him more now.
At first, she really had been drawn in by what Ren said—his looks and that slightly dangerous vibe. But today felt different. The things he'd shown—how he handled her injury, how direct he was, how he took control without being careless—made him even more appealing.
And "gentle"… well. Thinking about how he'd tricked her with a fake confession just to distract her from the pain, Nino gave him a new label in her head:
A seriously wicked sense of humor.
Ring, ring, ring—
Nino pulled her phone from her pocket. The caller ID showed Ichika Nakano.
"Moshi moshi, Ichika. What's up?"
"Nino, the private tutor Dad hired for us is here," Ichika said, getting straight to the point.
"I'm downstairs. I'll be back in a second."
Nino hung up, stepped into the elevator, and pressed the button for her floor.
[A tutor, huh?]
"Uesugi-sensei, please wait a moment. Nino is already downstairs."
After putting down her phone, Ichika—slouched lazily on the sofa—didn't say anything else to Futaro Uesugi. She simply waited for Nino to come home.
When Futaro showed up at their door claiming to be the tutor their father hired, the four sisters who were home were genuinely surprised. School was the kind of place where results mattered, and good grades made your name carry weight.
They knew who Futaro Uesugi was. As someone who'd hovered in the top three of the grade since their first year, his reputation was only slightly behind Yukino and Mahiru. What they didn't understand was why someone like that would spend time tutoring instead of studying.
"It's fine," Futaro said. "I can wait."
He sat straight and stiff, and even he looked a little nervous.
The sisters weren't wrong: Futaro's priority was his own academics. He wanted the number one spot. Having the "top-ranked graduate" label would make life after school much easier.
Unfortunately… his family was broke.
Money was survival. To help pay off his family's debt, Futaro had no choice but to accept the tutoring job his father found.
At first, when he saw the pay, he was stunned. Five times the normal rate—what kind of family paid that much just to improve grades? But the moment he knocked on the Nakano family's door, he stopped thinking it was generosity. Nothing came free. That salary meant he had to teach five students at once.
And they were all sisters.
"I'm home."
The door—left not quite closed—opened wider as Nino walked in. The five sisters were now gathered together.
"This Uesugi guy is the tutor Dad found for us?"
Nino was in a noticeably good mood. She sat down next to Miku Nakano, propped her chin on her hand, and looked Futaro over with interest.
Originally, Nino had planned to see if she could get Ren to tutor them, using it as a way to pull him closer. But now that she'd already become friends with him, she didn't need that plan anymore. She wasn't especially hostile toward Futaro.
"Hmph… even though he refused to teach me in the cafeteria today!"
Itsuki Nakano—who had asked Futaro for help at lunch and been rejected without mercy—turned her head away and ignored him, still sulking.
The me you ignored at noon is not welcoming you now.
"What about you, Miku?" Ichika asked. "Any thoughts?"
Ichika looked toward Miku, who was staring down at her phone like she wanted to disappear into it.
"Me? Ichika, I'm going back to my room."
Miku clearly wasn't interested in studying, and she used that as a polite rejection.
"Miku, I'll call you when dinner's ready," Nino said lightly.
"Okay, Nino."
"Itsuki, are you hungry? I'm going to make some cookies," Nino added.
"Mm! Thanks, Nino!"
Nino didn't want to get dragged into the tutor argument, so she left the battlefield and headed straight for the kitchen.
Ichika watched her sisters scatter—one leaving, one sulking, one following the smell of food—and she could only shrug at Futaro, as if to say, Sorry. This is what you're dealing with.
"Sorry about that, Uesugi-kun," Ichika said. "I stayed up too late last night, and I'm sleepy, so I'm going to take a nap."
With Nino, Miku, and Itsuki all resisting, even if Ichika and Yotsuba agreed, it would still be 3–2. Ichika decided to sit on the fence and see what Futaro would do next.
Seeing that the people who hired him didn't seem to want him there, Futaro lowered his head, discouraged. He was already calculating what other part-time job he could take to pay the debt.
"Uesugi-kun, everyone is just… kind of hopeless about their grades. Don't lose heart."
Yotsuba Nakano—the most upbeat and helpful of the five—didn't pile on. Instead, she tried to encourage him. She knew their grades were terrible, and unlike the others, she didn't resent their father hiring a tutor.
"Hopeless?" Futaro repeated, looking up as he caught the hint.
"Take Itsuki, for example. She really wants to improve. That's why she asked you to teach her at lunch."
"The way she's acting now is just… pride, I guess."
"After all, you rejected her bluntly at noon, then you showed up in the afternoon to teach us for money."
Yotsuba laid it out clearly, trying to give Futaro something to work with. In the past, every tutor their father hired had eventually run away because the sisters couldn't focus. She didn't want Futaro to be the next one.
While Yotsuba fought for their grades, Nino fought for their stomachs.
In the kitchen, Nino tightened the ice pack on her ankle again, then started baking cookies while humming a tune under her breath.
Would Ren like cookies?
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