Over the course of the following week, Yotsuba and I met up after school each day to study. The thing that struck me the most was how bad she was at most of her subjects, apart from language arts. Math especially -- her abilities were just dismal.

"You'd never actually learned what a variable was before now, had you?" I sighed.

"Nope! One day, I was just happily doing multiplication and division, and then boooooom! Suddenly there were English letters everywhere!"

"Ok, then let's start from the beginning I guess..."

I wasn't really tutoring her, per se. I probably spent about fifteen percent of the time she was there answering questions. Another ten percent or so was just... talking. The remaining seventy-five percent was productive studying, more or less.

The right balance.

I twirled my pencil in my hand, staring down at the question in front of me -- a somewhat tricky geometry problem.

There's no way things would be this easy if I had taken the job with the volleyball demon. She probably would have spent the whole time fighting me, and biting my head off.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me as Yotsuba cheered happily at having been able to solve a linear equation.

That tutoring job... it was offering five times the going rate, right?

I glanced over at the gleeful redhead.

...and there are five of them. Quintuplets.

Dawning horror.

I would have had to tutor all five of them. Probably all at once.

Living hell on earth.

I had definitely dodged a bullet there, even more-so than I had already believed.

"Hey, Uesugi-san," Yotsuba said, confused. "Th-this question has two sets of equations for two variables. How do I solve it?!"

I sighed, and leaned over the table to teach Yotsuba about the magical world of variable substitution.

The next day, in the early hours of the morning, I woke up with a start. The apartment was still mostly dark save for the weak pre-dawn light filtering in through the window, and I could hear my dad snoring on the futon next to me. Raiha was splayed out on her own futon, her blanket no longer covering her. Clearly, she had rolled about in her sleep.

Despite the lack of light, I felt strangely wired. I sat up, and heaved Raiha's blanket over top of her, so that it covered her up properly. My brotherly duties complete I rose to my feet, and in the little light I had to work with I attempted to find clothes to get dressed. As I checked my phone, I saw that it was 5:03 am, a fact which explained the minute-by-minute strengthening of the sunlight coming under the window curtain.

I looked around the small apartment, and a sudden urge took me.

I want to go for a walk.

Finding a scrap of paper, I wrote a quick note explaining myself to Raiha, and stuck it to the fridge with a magnet. I then stepped outside, breathing in the crisp early-morning air.

At 5:07am, the streets were largely devoid of traffic, though some early commuters were beginning to take to the roads. I walked along the sidewalk near my house, and revelled in how calm and quiet it was. It was also a little chilly -- as expected of early September. Luckily, I'd checked the weather before leaving the apartment, and had brought a coat.

I walked for what felt like hours, but in reality was probably closer to twenty minutes. In my wanderings, I eventually stumbled across a small park which I had never been to before despite its relative proximity to my home. Naturally, it was empty, but I sat on the swing and pushed myself back and forth for a bit. The traffic on the street nearby had slowly but steadily increased since I had left -- perhaps a car every two or three minutes.

5:28 am. The world is still empty. Hmm, so this is what it's like.

I leaned back on the swing, supporting my upper body by holding onto the chains. The grey autumn sky, lit in a faint way like the light was afraid of the chill, was covered in clouds. A hrrum filled the air, as a motorcycle zoomed past in the distance. As it faded away, the whir of the motor descending with distance, the silence returned.

I swung like that for a while, enjoying the unusual experience. It was oddly relaxing, the rhythmic swaying. Forward. Back. Forward. Back. Eventually, I began to scrape my feet along the small stones below the swing, allaying my momentum. As I finally slowed to a halt, I pulled on the chains and forced myself to sit back up.

This was an enjoyable sort of loneliness. The kind that comes from knowing that you've found a space for yourself hidden in the wider world. This was different from the kind at school.

I got off the swing, and walked to the railing at the edge of the park. It had been built into the side of a hill, and looked out onto the houses below. A few of them showed signs of life -- a man was putting up laundry on a line outside one of them. One of the others had a woman leaving the front door with a pair of small dogs on leashes, perhaps for an early-morning walk.

Right. Time to head home.

The walk home was very different from the way out. The traffic on the road had picked up to a moderate pace as rush hour began. Commuters on their way to work -- or perhaps night workers on their way home. Each one was living their own lives, but each was awake and on the road. A hint of sadness prickled in my chest as it sunk in that the loneliness I'd found for myself was something that could only exist for a short while.

"What's the English word for it?" I mumbled to myself as I made my way back to our front door. "I learned it a few days ago..."

As I unlocked the door and stepped back inside, my dad was still loudly snoring, but Raiha was awake and already making breakfast.

"Oh, welcome back, Onii-chan. It's pretty unusual for you to get up so early! I'm making breakfast with some eggs and rice. Can you wake Dad up? I tried, but he keeps falling back asleep..."

"Yep, I'll wake him up. Just give me a second, I wanted to check something."

"Hmm? What's that?"

"Something in my notes..."

As I rummaged through my school things, looking for the keyring of English words that I used for review, Raiha made a face.

"It's too early in the morning for that, Onii-chan! No studying until after breakfast!"

"It's not for studying, I wanted to remember something."

"No study-bugging until after food!"

I sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll wake up Dad then."

"Good. Ahhhh, the onions are going to burn!"

As Raiha desperately took the onions out of the pan, I squatted next to my father, and shook him. At first, I got no response (save perhaps the snoring getting louder, which was suspicious in its own right), but as I persistently shook him, eventually he opened one eye with an annoyed look on his face.

"Listen here, kid, I'm trying to get some shut-eye! Let an old man sleep!"

"Get up, Dad. Raiha's making breakfast, and we need to move the futons to put the table out."

"Eh? Ugh, fine, fine. I'll deal with it if it's for food. What we having for breakfast?"

"Eggs!" called Raiha happily from the kitchen. "And also definitely-not-burned onions!"

"Those go together, yeah?" yawned my dad. "I don't want a steamin' hot pile of burned vegetables first thing in the morning. Our debt ain't bad enough to resort to eating that."

Raiha laughed. "I'm a better cook than that! Onii-chan just distracted me while I was cooking them and they got a lil' crispy!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll take the blame," I sighed. "Dad, help me move the futons."

The two of us rolled up the futons, stored them in the closet, and pulled out the table. A few minutes later, Raiha served scrambled eggs and rice with sautéed onions mixed in. There was miso soup on the side as well, which was delicious. As expected of my little sister. The scrambled eggs had some sort of sauce on them as well, which was sinking into the rice and giving it a great flavour.

"Ephemeral!" I yelled in English, suddenly slamming my hand down hard on the table.

Both my dad and my sister jumped about a mile high as I did this, and my dad had a sudden coughing fit as he swallowed rice down the wrong way. Raiha rushed over to help him with a glass of water, and eventually he recovered.

"E-fe-me-ra-ru?" Raiha said. "What are you talking about, Onii-chan? Why did you yell that?"

"Ah, sorry. I just finally remembered the word I wanted to look up when I was rooting through my stuff earlier -- you know, when you banished me to waking up Dad."

"Kid, you're gonna kill me," my dad said weakly.

"Sorry!"

After finishing breakfast, my dad took Raiha to her elementary school, and I left for my own journey to school. As I arrived, students pouring onto the school grounds, the cool autumn breeze reminded me of my early-morning jaunt.

Today's going to be a good day.

"Uesugi-san, good morning!"

I turned around to see Yotsuba waving, and the other four quintuplets getting out of a big black car. Itsuki looked pointedly away from me, while the sweater monster gave me a weirdly knowing smile. Yotsuba ran up to me, a little bit too close.

"Hey, did something good happen to you today, Uesugi-san? You've got a smile on your face."

"...A smile? What are you talking about, Yotsuba?"

"Normally, you've either got a kinda creepy smile on your face when you're thinking about studying, or you look kinda gloomy, but this is the first time I've seen such a nice smile on your face. I'm glad something good happened!"

"Nothing really happened." Wait, I have a creepy smile normally?

"Huh? Is that so. Well, anyways, I gotta go, but I'll see ya later!"

With that, Yotsuba ran back to her sisters, who started walking towards the school together. I made my way (separately) to the main doors, where I changed at my foot locker. There was a small mirror in my locker, since it was higher to the ground, and so I looked at my face.

Huh. I am smiling. That is unusual.

The first half of the day went by without much of note. Itsuki had mostly stopped drilling holes into the back of my skull with her eyes over the last week, though I occasionally turned around to find her staring at me. Apart from that, classes were the usual -- since I had already covered the material for myself, class time was just review time.

At lunch, I sat down at my usual table in the corner of the cafeteria, with my usual lunch, and my usual study notes. As I was about halfway through my ringed flashcards, I heard the chair across from me scrape back, and somebody sit down.

"Hey, Yotsuba, good timing--"

I looked up as I was speaking, and then stopped.

It wasn't Yotsuba.

The quintuplet across from me had two small bows in her waist-length hair, but it was the expression on her face that clearly set her apart from Yotsuba. The look of sheer disdain was simply one that I couldn't imagine ever crossing the face of my new study companion.

"...Can I help you?"

The girl leaned forward with her arms forming a steeple on the table from where her elbows rested, their intersection supporting her chin. She stared directly at me without saying a word. This uncomfortable situation lasted for about a minute, and then I coughed.

"Like, I said, can I help y--"

"Uesugi Fuutarou... was it?"

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I can't help but notice how close you've been getting with my sister."

I rolled my eyes. "You're going to need to be more specific than that."

I saw the corner of the redhead's eye twitch.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. You and Yotsuba have been having little dates in the library every school day for the past week. She's been skipping out on walking home with us."

"Ah, I see," I said, looking back down at my notes. "They're called study sessions. They're quite normal for students, you know."

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

I looked back up at the quintuplet across from me. "Look, I don't even know your name. Will you just tell me what you want?"

"I wanted to see what kind of guy had seduced our dear Yotsuba. Geez, you're as much of a jerk as Itsuki said you are -- I thought she was exaggerating. I don't know what she sees in you."

What the hell has the volleyball demon been saying about me?

"I see. Just a reminder, you're the one who came and confronted me. I don't really need to sit here and be judged by you."

"I'm never going to give Yotsuba to a gloomy loner jerk like you!"

The quint across the table raised her voice when she said this, and the tables around us suddenly turned to look at her. A deep crimson red crossed her face, and she sank down in the chair a little bit.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead with my hand. "What exactly do you mean by 'give' in this context?"

She leaned forward across the table. "Huh? Isn't it obvious? Love! You obviously like her, don't try and hide it."

I gave her an absolutely withering look, filled with as much disdain as I could muster -- hopefully, it at least managed to match what I was feeling.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Love is the furthest removed thing possible from academics. Lovesick high schoolers who ignore their studies will just peak in their teens -- I have absolutely no interest in the subject."

The interloper seemed taken aback.

"I... uh... good! Good!! Then you'll leave Yotsuba alone!"

I looked at her like she was an idiot.

"I just said I have no interest in Yotsuba in that way. I'm only interested in studying with her -- but that means I am interested in studying with her. I'm not going to stop just because her sister, who didn't even bother to introduce herself, tries to stop me."

There was a pause. Then...

"...Nakano Nino."

"What?"

"My name is Nakano Nino. There, I introduced myself. Ugh, you're such a jerk! Why does she even like studying with you? It sounds like such a drag."

I looked back down at my notes as she stood back up.

"Thanks for your valuable opinion, Nino. I'll keep it in mind the next time I feel like questioning my entire self-worth."

"I don't remember giving you permission to call me by my first name."

"I don't remember asking for it. There are five of you -- I'm not calling you all 'Nakano-san'."

With a huff, Nino stormed away. Once she was gone, I sighed, and put my head down on the desk.

Well, that went well. These sisters are a royal pain in the ass. I hope this doesn't end with all of them hating my guts.

The rest of the afternoon went by in a bit of a blur, but my euphoria from the morning was entirely gone. In addition to that sense of loss, Itsuki's once-subsided bone-drilling gaze had returned full force, and had evolved into a bone-drilling glare. Clearly, Nino had reported back to her sisters about our little conversation, and Itsuki was not pleased.

"Well, that's her problem," I muttered to myself.

At the end of the day, I made my way to the library, and sat down to begin studying. A small ball of anxiety had built up in my chest during the day as our study session had approached, a strange feeling that I wasn't sure I understood. What, exactly, was I nervous about?

Ah. I get it. I'm worried Yotsuba is going to be mad at me for what I said to her sister. Or maybe she won't even show up.

The ball of anxiety got a little bit bigger.

Maybe she decided that I'm too much of a jerk to her sisters for her to study with me? I mean I can't really blame her for that. I can be a bit... blunt. If someone was a jerk to Raiha, I'd probably be angry at them too. Ugh, this is stressful -- why do I even care?

I glared down at my notes.

I was fine studying by myself a week ago. I'll be fine studying by myself from now on as well. It's no big deal.

Suddenly, the door to the library slid open and shut, and then Yotsuba walked out from the bookshelves and over to the desk.

"Afternoon, Uesugi-saaaaan! Sorry I couldn't join you for lunch, Nino said she wanted to talk to you and insisted that I go have lunch with everyone else. Man, after eating lunch with you for a week, I kinda forgot how much Itsuki orders!"

She came.

"It's all good," I said, the ball of anxiety slowly unravelling in my chest as the redhead laughed. Yotsuba settled down into the chair across from me, and pulled out a science textbook.

She doesn't seem mad. If anything, she seems... happier than usual?

"Hey, Uesugi-san, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding Newton's third law. It seems to make sense at first glance, but then I got to thinking about it some more after we learned about Coulomb's law, and now it doesn't make sense anymore!"

What a weird girl.

"Uh... yeah. Yeah, sure. What seems to be the issue?"

We continued on in our usual fashion for about twenty-five minutes, which was about as long as I was able to last before the remnants of the ball of anxiety compelled me to act.

"By the way, Yotsuba?"

"Ahhhhh, one second Uesugi-san. I'm so close to solving this problem. Ugh, why does physics have to use maaaath? Stupid Coulomb's law..."

I waited for about a minute, and then she raised her fist in triumph, pencil tightly enclosed therein.

"HAHA! Victory! Alright, what's up, Uesugi-san?"

"I was just wondering... did Nino tell you what we talked about during lunch?"

"Yep!" Yotsuba grinned. "What was it she said? 'Love is the furthest removed thing possible from academics'?"

"Huh, so she did tell you."

"C'mon, Uesugi-san! Love is important too! You're in the springtime of your youth -- you need to enjoy it! Studying is important, but so is romance!"

With this, Yotsuba splayed herself forward on the table, stretching her arms out to their full extent. She sighed with pleasure as she extended her joints.

"Right. I think I'll pass, thanks," I said dryly. "My future depends on grades, not love."

Yotsuba sighed. "Oh well. Do what you want. I want to fall in love some day, though."

She looked up at me. "Oh, that reminds me. She also said that you were pretty mean to her, so you should probably apologize at some point, Uesugi-san. She was pretty upset about it -- though I think she and Itsuki bonded a bit over talking about how much of a jerk you are, which was a little weird, to be honest."

"Ah, great. A growing coalition of Nakano sisters out for my blood. Hooray."

Yotsuba laughed. "Have no fear, Uesugi-san! I'll stand by your side, I'll be your knight in shining armour! They won't get one litre while I'm around!"

"That's... a really low bar to clear. There are only about five litres of blood in the whole human body..."

"Hahaha! Whoops, unintentional quint joke!"

As Yotsuba chortled at her own humour, I felt most of the remnants of the ball of anxiety slip away. She's not mad. It's fine. It's fine. Stop worrying.

I found myself smiling slightly at the cheerful girl in front of me. I took my reference book, and gently bonked her on the head with it.

"Come on, 'knight in shining armour', you still have at least ten more electrostatics questions to do."

"Awww, Uesugi-san. Fine."

Yotsuba huffed, but she was still smiling. We got back to work, and the rest of the time sped by in a flash. By the time I got an email from Raiha about dinner, it was already getting close to six o'clock. My study partner let out a yawn, and stretched in her seat.

"Man, this took a lot out of me! I feel like I'm already getting better though. Thanks for letting me study with you, Uesugi-san."

Something about the way she said that seemed... unusual somehow. Like she was smiling a little bit too much compared to just improving at her studies.

"Hey, Yotsuba, did something good happen to you today or something? You've got a smile plastered all over your face."

"Nah, nothing really happened. Well, there was one thing that happened that made me happy."

"Is that so? What was it?"

Yotsuba just grinned at me.

"Hmm, I wonder...?"

I sighed. "Fine. Keep your secrets."

She playfully stuck her tongue out at me, and then we both packed up our things. As we made our way to the foot lockers, I wanted to ask her if she thought I was a jerk as well, like Itsuki and Nino, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to ask, those last shreds of anxiety weaving together to sew my mouth shut. Energy seemed to just well forth from her at a constant rate, and talking to her seemed to require no work at all. I couldn't bring myself to break the mood.

As we set out on our separate ways -- I leaving directly, and Yotsuba waiting for a taxi -- the sun was setting in the distance, giving the street around me a reddish tinge. The roads were quiet, the rush hour home from work having ended about an hour prior. Only the occasional car whizzed by as I walked down the sidewalk. In a sense, the silence of the morning had returned... but it had a different flavour to it, somehow. It lacked the same sense of other-worldliness.

I glanced back the way I came. Yotsuba's taxi had come and gone, and where the girl had been standing in the far distance was only the school entrance.

...Ephemeral, was it?