"I like you..." Itsuki said.

Y/N stared at her for a couple of moments, processing her words into his brain. It wasn't long until Itsuki realized what she said, now blushing.

"Hands! I mean your hands! You have very beautiful hands, L/N-kun..." She quickly changes her answer.

"Oh..." Y/N chuckled, "I also like your hands."

"...Really?" Itsuki was shy.

"Yeah. ...I like them."

He wasn't sure why that was his response. It had already been about a day since that happened, Y/N finding himself in his room, tapping his pencil onto his notebook. He was supposed to be studying for the upcoming mid-terms, as per what Fuutarou requested, but he couldn't seem to be focusing on studying. He was too busy thinking about the last interaction with the Nakano girl.

The graphite of his pencil then touches the paper of the notebook. A picture of Itsuki appears in his mind, writing down the words of, "I like you." He then stopped, lifting the pencil off the notebook.

"...Nakano-san said she likes me." Y/N begins to ponder on her response some more. 'She meant my hands...or me? But it was impossible for her to like me. ...Nakano-san must be kidding. She was just making fun of me.'

Meanwhile, Itsuki was staring at something in her desk's drawer. It was a piece of paper that held his full name. "Y/N L/N," it read. Weeks prior to currently, Itsuki had gotten on a whole fritz, wondering what Y/N's first name was. And once she did find out, she said it for the first time in front of him, finding it strange, which only caused him to laugh at her and end up being slapped by her. 

She continued to stare at it before she picked it up, but she didn't crumple it in her hand.

'I thought I threw it away,' Itsuki thought. 'But it is still here.'

--: Chapter 8| Just Another Day :--

It was currently PE class at school, Itsuki's, Y/N's, and Fuutarou's class were gathered in the gym. The girls were currently watching the boys playing basketball, two girls standing next to each other as they were talking amongst themselves.

"Hey, Nakano-san still hasn't arrived?"

"Yeah. She hasn't shown up since the first class."

"Never thought Nakano-san would also be absent from class," the first girl says.

The second girl then responded, "Yeah. And it's a rare opportunity to see boys playing basketball."

Y/N was a bit nearby, listening in on the conversation. However, because of this, he wasn't aware of Fuutarou calling out to him.

"Y/N! Watch out for the ball!" Fuutarou yells at the glasses wearing teen.

By the time he noticed the ball coming towards him, it already made contact with his face. In a daze, Y/N groaned in pain as he held his nose, Fuutarou and a boy with slicked-back brown hair came running to him to make sure he was okay.

"Why did you catch the ball with your face...? Are you insane!?" Fuutarou scolds.

"Are you alright, L/N?" The other boy asks.

Y/N turns towards them with a bloodied nose. "I'm okay..."

"Are you sure!? Your nose is bleeding!" Fuutarou sighed and deadpanned at his friend. "You couldn't just dodge the ball?"

The school bell then rings, the previous boy then speaking up. "Ah, the class is over."

Fuutarou then pushes Y/N towards the door. "Good! You can go to the infirmary now. Stop the bleeding!"

"Oww..." Y/N whines, holding his nose.

---

"Do you feel stressed?"

"Stressed...?" Itsuki asked confusedly.

Currently in the infirmary, Itsuki Nakano was there, having missed all of her classes to be here instead. At the moment, the nurse was asking her questions, regarding whether things were making her stressed or not, and wondering if she could offer council advice to the girl.

The nurse then stood up from her chair. "You still feel agonized even after talking to others, right? Well, how about you take a rest here?"

Itsuki sighed. "Don't worry. Just leave me alone here for a while."

The nurse nodded as she exited the room, leaving Itsuki to put her head face down on the table. She began to grumble to herself.

'Sensei said I was stressed... How did L/N-kun become my stress...?' Itsuki pondered. The words she had said the other day echoed in her head. 'Why did I say that...? I'm such a fool. I don't want to see him. But how come he appears exactly--'

Hurried footsteps could be heard running down the hall, it drawing closer towards the infirmary. The door then opened, there stood Y/N at the door as he held his nose. However, he was surprised that Itsuki was there, as was the red-haired girl herself.

"Eh... Nakano-san?"

"...You got a nosebleed?" 'When I don't want to see his face!?' She finished her previous thought.

---

"The teacher just left," Itsuki said with slight irritation. "That's not good."

"Ah, great! It just stopped bleeding!"

Seated at the table, both Y/N and Itsuki were there, the red-haired girl helping the boy stop the bleeding of his nose. But with Y/N's previous response, Itsuki stood up and bonked his head, causing Y/N to have a sheepish look as he rubbed the area Itsuki hit.

"What's wrong with you!? You're not a kid!" She berates. "How can you be hit by the ball right in the face? Don't you know how to take care of yourself?"

Y/N only laughed. "Uesugi-san only passed me the ball too fast."

The room soon fell silent. Especially an awkward silence between the two. Y/N then slammed his fists onto the table, making Itsuki jump in surprise.

"That's actually all your fault, Nakano-san!"

Itsuki was shocked, "H-Huh!? What do you mean?"

"You said something strange to me, Nakano-san."

"Eh...? Some-Something strange...?" 'Ah, he's referring to that.'

Itsuki then began to look around, a slight hue of red on her cheeks. Y/N continued to stare at her as she began to frantically look around the room. Itsuki then slammed her fists onto the table.

"Just let me hit you!"

"Eh!? What!?"

"I won't say that anymore! I won't say anything strange anymore! Die!" Itsuki yelled.

Y/N began to feel terrified. "Do I have to die!?"

"Shut up!" She hits him.

"Ouch!"

Timeskip-Minutes Later...

The infirmary's door soon opens, revealing the nurse. "Eh? Where is Nakano-san?" She asked.

Y/N held his bloody nose with a tissue paper. "She said she had a stomach ache. And then she left before attacking my nose."

"Oh," the nurse says with a sweat dropping expression. "That's okay. How do you feel now?"

With Itsuki, she did not have a stomach ache. In fact, she simply went to the girl's restroom. She stood in front of the sink, the faucet was turned on as she splashes some water onto her face.

'If only I didn't say such stupid things...! No... He just meant my hands. He didn't mean other things," she thought, turning off the faucet in the process. 'But... I've been thinking about this since that incident. I can't get rid of it. It's haunting me.'

The red-haired girl then leaned forward slightly, putting a hand on a mirror. Her face was deep in thought, the expression she showed her deep pondering.

"Does L/N-kun feel the same way with me...?"

---

Back in the classroom, it was lunchtime. Instead of going to the lunchroom, like usual, the two boys were eating in the classroom instead. Fuutarou drank from his water bottle as he leaned back in his seat.

Y/N was silently eating a sandwich to himself. He was thinking back to what Itsuki had said when they were alone in her apartment.

"It turns out Itsuki was absent from class... Did she get a cold?" Fuutarou asked the other boy. "Do you have any idea, Y/N?"

"No, not really..."

His answer wasn't convincing, prompting Fuutarou to lean forward. "Liar! You're hiding something, right? Just tell me. We're friends!"

A scenario went through Y/N's head. "Well, Nakano-san told me, 'She likes me!' And I told her so too." 'No! How can I just tell him that!?'

Y/N rustles around with the plastic bag of his lunch, "No. I'm hiding nothing."

It still wasn't convincing. Fuutarou stood up from his seat, slamming his hands on the desk.

"You're lying! I know there's something you're not telling me!"

"No! I said no!" 'He's really sensitive in this kind of situation for some reason...' Y/N looks away, shaking his hands in denial. "Believe me, there's nothing..."

He believed there's was nothing going on. After all, he thinks that they'll get through the awkwardness soon enough. And later, everything will just go back to normal. As usual.

Seeing as he wasn't going to get any answers anytime soon, Fuutarou relents. He sat back down in his chair and continued to eat the rest of his small minuscule lunch, whilst also studying some more. Nothing seems to stop this man from studying... Well, except for six people.

---

It was the a new morning, it being a Sunday, and as per usual, Fuutarou and Y/N had gone to the quintuplets apartment to continue their studying. However, Y/N arrived a bit later than the Uesugi teen, Fuutarou having barged into Nino's room to get his student ID back as he left it with her to write her phone number down. 

This didn't please Nino one bit, the pink-haired girl pissed off by this. It didn't help that Miku was the one that allowed him permission to do so. In any case, Nino drags Fuutarou to her room, a condition having been set that she will give his student ID book back if he did a request for her. By the time they were in the room, Y/N arrived and rung the doorbell. Itsuki opened it, seeing Y/N standing there with an apologetic look. 

"Sorry, I didn't bring any cakes."

Itsuki held up her hands. "Ah, thanks okay! You don't need to bring us cakes every time." 'I didn't expect him to come to our apartment as usual this week...'

A week prior to this, Y/N didn't come to their house at all, aside from going with Fuutarou to study. But this is also because the two would deliberately avoid each other at school most of the time. 

The two headed to the coffee table and got their studying materials out, the other three sisters in the kitchen to get some coffee in order to wake themselves up. Itsuki thought they could just talk naturally while their sisters and Fuutarou were just elsewhere right now. But no matter how many times she tried to act natural, she couldn't. Y/N would look at her confused as sometimes she was just staring at him aimlessly, Itsuki always looking to the side to evade his gaze. 

The red-haired girl soon points to his paper with her pencil.

"Kanji! You wrote a kanji wrong here!"

"Oh..."

"You know how to write the kanji for 'rose,' then how come you don't know the kanji for 'camellia'!?"

Y/N held a sheepish expression. "I know the kanji for 'rose' because I like it's shape."

"You like the characters shapes!? Geez!" Itsuki wanted to slap him.

Y/N only laughed a little, rubbing the back of his head. She soon gave him a deadpan expression. 

'I actually feel somewhat depressed...' She thought, 'Because L/N-kun seems not to care about what happened last time at all. He must have totally forgotten about it.' "...Hey, L/N-kun. You haven't been wearing your lip ring lately."

"Ah, yeah... And I think it got blocked. If you don't wear rings often enough, you might end up finding the piercings having been blocked," he infers. He then opened his mouth, sticking out his tongue. "Look, I even got my tongue pierced."

She set her things down to look at what Y/N was talking about. Indeed, he did have his tongue pierced. But, a idea soon popped into her head.

Y/N was then caught off guard, Itsuki having lunged her hand forward and grabbed his tongue.

"Eh!?" Y/N then yelps in pain as Itsuki begins to twist his tongue. "Ooouch! How can you do this to me!? You're such a super sadist!" He then slaps her hand away. "Stop it, Nakano-san! You know it's one of the vital parts of the human body!"

Itsuki giggled with a smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. I just can't help myself."

Nothing seemed to have changed though. It was just like there happy hour from before. So long as she forgot about it, she thought that they could still act naturally like they did before.

The door to Nino's room soon opened, it revealing Fuutarou as he motions for Y/N to go upstairs. Puzzled as to why his friend was calling him, he sets his pencil down and ascends up the stairs, entering the room.

"...So... What?" Y/N tilted his head.

"Nino wants to get her ears pierced."

"Eh? You want to get your ears pierced, Nino-san? ...Why?" 

Nino pouted slightly as she looked away. "It's because everyone else has one, so I want it too."

"Is that so? Then, why can't you do it yourself?"

"I don't want to. I'm scared," she meekly replied. "So, can you hurry up and do it already...?"

"A-Are you sure?" Y/N scratched his cheek. "It'll hurt when I puncture it."

"Just do it."

"Ok," Y/N nonchalantly replies, grabbing the piercer and readies to pierce Nino's ear.

The pink-haired girl then kicks Y/N away, making him cough as he fell on his back. Nino backed away from the two.

"H-Hey! At least you should hesitate a little when you're trying to make a hole on somebody!" She yelled at him, Y/N giving a weak thumbs up.

Fuutarou sighed in annoyance. "Oh, for the love of..." 

He then grabs the piercer that was by Y/N's side, quickly moving over to Nino. The girl was surprised and yelped as Fuutarou appeared right next to her, grabbing her shoulder and bringing the piercer up next to her ear. She could then see a grin appearing on his face. 

"This is the perfect chance to have my revenge," he says with a small laugh. "He may have to hesitate, but I won't."

Nino closed her eyes as she gritted her teeth. "...Okay."

However, this was all just a bluff. While he inched the piercer closer to her ear, Nino keeping her eyes closed, it made her unaware of what he was actually doing. His hand began to head over to her shirt's pocket, of which it contained his student ID booklet. He soon grabs it, slowly beginning to take it out of her pocket while he still kept his facade of actually piercing it.

"Oh! I'm going to do it now.~"

Nino kicks his shin. "Hurry up!"

'I went ahead of myself,' he grunted.

"But if only I get hurt, it's annoying! You get your ear pierced too!"

"What!?" Fuutarou responded, bewildered. By now, Y/N had gotten up from his daze of laying on the floor and was looking at the scene with a deadpan expression. He really wasn't sure of how to make of this scene.

"It's fine, I'll do it gently!" Nino was really trying to reach for the piercer.

Fuutarou leaned back, trying to get away from her. "What the hell are you doing!? Y/N, help me!"

"Um... How do you want me to help?" He asked.

"You're no help at all, god dammit!"

"Why!?"

Amidst Fuutarou's and Nino's struggle, a small clattering sound was heard. The pink-haired girl fell on top of Fuutarou, now stopping their little scuffle. The three of them look to where the sound had occurred, which came from Fuutarou's student ID book. It had fallen on the ground and was propped open, revealing it's contents.

"Huh?" The three collectively say.

Upon looking at the student ID book, there was a photo. It revealed to be a boy with bleached hair, looking uninterested and annoyed in the photo. His ears were pierced a well, his appearance giving him that of a delinquent. 

Nino squinted her eyes. "Wait, that bad looking boy."

Y/N hears an audible gulp from Fuutarou. "Huh? Uesugi-san, isn't that--" Fuutarou quickly shuts his mouth with his hand.

"He's totally my type," Nino blushed, picking up the student ID book. Her eyes sparkled as she faced the two. "Who is this!? Why do you carry this picture with you?"

'It's me...' "It's my cousin's picture... I don't want anyone to see it..." He lied, scratching the back of his head. Y/N was about to respond, but Fuutarou quickly slaps the back of his head.

"Hmph."

Fuutarou rubbed his temple. "Hey, do you still want to get your ear pierced?"

Nino began to sweat, turning the other way, "I have nothing to threaten you with anymore. Let's just stop for now. This boy is your cousin, right?"

She then faced the two, more towards Fuutarou, with smug grin.

"He's way more good looking than you. Can you introduce me to him someday?"

"Alright... Someday..." Fuutarou was sweating profusely.

"But, Uesugi-san, that's--" Fuutarou slaps the back of his head again. 

Nino begins to rumage around her things. "At that age, we were really cute. Look! Look! Don't you two have any interest?"

The two weren't facing her, the two boys arguing with each other over something stupid. Nino huffed as she turned around and exited her room. She wanted to show her sisters the photo album she was holding.

---

"Well, see you at school tomorrow!" Itsuki says with a wave, an awkward smile on her face.

Y/N waved as he stepped into the elevator. Once he made it outside, he let out a sigh of relief. As he began to walk down the street in the direction of his home, he thought back to the situation he was put in with Itsuki. How she just suddenly grabbed his tongue like that all of a sudden.

However, he felt there was some other motive behind the action, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

The boy sighed. 'How can Nakano-san still act so calmly...? Was I thinking too much...?'

Itsuki sat down in a chair in her living room, staring out the window as she tucked her knees inward. Her arms rested on her knees, her hands draped forward slightly.

'...Only I was like a fool,' Y/N thought to himself as he continued his walk home.

---

So, this chapter was not longer than last time, but I tried to make it longer. Wasn't sure how to make this one worked, but I tried my best on using the best scenes possible for this chapter, while still also trying to make it enjoyable for you all to read. Anyway, I do hope you've enjoyed the chapter.

Can't promise on making long chapters if I say them, but I will try to make chapters at least fifteen or twenty minutes, or higher. Because of this, uploads are inconsistent, as how they always were. Anyway, until then.