The six sisters returned home with a staggered schedule, not wanting to talk with each other for a while, or at least most of them did. "Hey, Yotsuba." Mutsumi waved, waiting by the entrance of the school for her sister. "Yo, Fuutarou-san. Congratulations you two." She said, walking slightly ahead of the new couple as they walked away from the school.

"Mutsumi, why were you waiting for us?" Yotsuba asked, whispering into her sister's ear as they reached the point where their path diverged from Fuutarou's. "Are you trying something? It's already..."

"I want to give you a warning." The sixth sister said, her eyes serious and her tone cold. "I may not be mad, but I can't say the same for the others. Good luck, I can't help you much this time." Then she took Yotsuba's hands in her own, giving her sister a warm smile. "You have to do this yourself, but I'm rooting for you. I know you can do it."

"Thanks..." Yotsuba muttered, taking her hands back pensively as they continued on their way home. "Are you really not mad?"

"Maybe?" Her tone when answering wasn't very reassuring, but it was a conversation they would like to have over some food and drinks at home. However, it wouldn't happen that night, evident by the fact that Maruo was waiting for them at home.

"Oh, now that everyone's gathered here. I would just like to say that I'm incredibly proud of you all." Maruo said, inviting the two girls over to join him at the dinner table. Nino was currently in the kitchen, Ichika was seated on one of the sofas, Itsuki was halfway up the stairs, and Miku was setting the table. "But now, I expect that all of you will be studying hard in preparation for your next exams. Not only will you be graduating, but most of you will be taking entrance exams. I only have one question: what do you want to be?" His words were their usual serious tone, but it didn't feel like how he spoke before, it felt warmer. Ichika, Miku, and Itsuki didn't need to reply, but the doctor was waiting patiently for the others' answers.

The sisters all stared silently at the doctor, none of them knowing what to say. "I still don't know," Mutsumi said, breaking the tension as she moved over to the stairs. "I think I'll skip dinner tonight, I'll see you all tomorrow." She smiled, heading to her room for the night.

"I think I should ask Mutsumi about it..." Yotsuba stammered out, following the sixth sister into her room. "Mutsumi..."

"What's up?"

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds as Yotsuba made her way into the room, placing herself on the edge of Mutsumi's bed while the owner of the room sat at her desk with a strip of lights in her hands. "If you're still wondering if I'm mad or not, then I'll tell you again. I'm not... well, maybe a little."

"Didn't you love him too?" The fourth sister turned her head, staring at Mutsumi's back as her sister continued to work. "I know that you hit him a lot and tease him, but you do love him too."

"I...do. But not in that way anymore." Mutsumi said, setting her things down on her desk as she swiveled her chair around to meet Yotsuba's gaze. "Recently, things have just felt different." She added, placing her hand on her chest as she walked over to the bed to sit beside her sister. "But it is strange, it happened before I knew it."

"What did?"

"Falling out of love," Mutsumi added. "So, I'll give you my approval."

"Your approval... Will the others give me theirs?" Yotsuba asked, lying down on the bed while leaving her legs dangling over the edge.

"Why don't you go and ask them?" Mutsumi suggested, crawling on her bed and getting ready to turn in for the night. Yotsuba silently got up, switching off the lights to the room as she made her way to her own.

"Yotsuba." A voice called out to her before she could touch her door. The fourth sister looked over the edge of the railing on the second floor, finding that their father had already left. The only one there was Ichika; the others nowhere to be seen. "Hey, come over, can we talk for a bit?" The eldest beckoned her down, patting the seat beside her on the sofa. Yotsuba reluctantly descended the stairs, her footsteps echoing in the eerie silence that filled their home. It was surreal, tense, and slightly scary how the last few hours have been.

"Ichika." Yotsuba looked at her sister with conflicted emotions. On one hand, she was happy that she was chosen, proud of the fact that he picked her; on the other hand, seeing her sisters suddenly shift their attitude with this one event shook her to the core. If this happened a few years ago, then things may have been different. If this happened while she was like how she was back at Kurobara, would she even consider how her sisters felt? Yotsuba slapped her cheeks, purging those thoughts from her mind as she returned her focus onto Ichika. "About earlier..."

"Yotsuba, would you mind if I went out with Fuutarou-kun tomorrow?" Ichika asked, changing the topic before Yotsuba could ask any questions about it. "I know you two just started dating, but..."

"I don't mind," Yotsuba said, breathing a sigh of relief when the subject of conversation shifted. "Where are you going to take him?"

"A sports center..." Ichika muttered, receiving a strange look from Yotsuba. "Eh? Is something wrong?"

"No..." Yotsuba said, scratching the back of her head. "But, just go easy on him." Yotsuba said, standing up to go into her room.

"Go easy on him? What did she mean by that?" The eldest sister found herself thinking about Yotsuba's plea all the way to the rendezvous point she set up with Fuutarou. After exchanging a few pleasantries, the two of them made their way inside the building, getting a pair of appropriate shoes for themselves since the redhead arrived in heels. It had only been a few minutes into their first game of badminton when she realized what Yotsuba meant. Fuutarou was already exhausted, his face dripping with sweat as he ran to hit the shuttlecock back, but Ichika didn't mind. "I'd like it if you'd stay the same as you are. That's what drew me to you, after all." Ichika said in the middle of their game, disrupting the chatter they were having as Fuutarou took a few seconds to think over those words; he missed the shuttlecock. "Just kidding. Would Yotsuba get mad if she found out I said that?"

"Have you heard anything from Yotsuba?" Fuutarou asked, catching his breath as Ichika joined him by going under the net.

"Huh? Heard about what?" Ichika asked, wiping some sweat off of her own face. "Did something happen?"

"Well..." The tutor took a few steps away, placing himself on a bench to allow his energy reserves to recoup as he told the tale of what happened the night before.

"Fuutarou-kun?" Yotsuba asked, looking at him with a face full of shock and happiness. "I... I'm the one?"

"Yeah..." Fuutarou barely managed to stammer out before he was crushed in Yotsuba's arms, her bearhug nearly suffocating the poor boy. "Yotsuba, I... can't breathe..." His words fell on deaf ears. Her athleticism and excitement were usually a good thing, but in this situation, they were the ones causing him grief. Tears of joy ran down Yotsuba's face as she hugged him tighter in the infirmary.

"Fuutarou-kun, I'm so happy... it's as if everything I've done... has been worth it..." She said between jovial sobs, finally opening her eyes as she loosened her grip on his body. "But..." Standing right in front of Yotsuba's face was a mirror, yet it felt like something more. Staring at her own tearful face brought one thing to the fourth sister's mind; rather, they were five things, five people. "I can't..." Remembering how she felt when she thought she lost everything, remembering how they came to pull her out of her rut, she knew what she had to do. She was going to be pulling everyone up, like how they did to her.

"What?" Fuutarou asked, looking over at the girl as she lowered her gaze to avert her eyes from her reflection.

"There's something I have to do first... so, for now, I can't accept your feelings..." Yotsuba said solemnly. "I love you, Fuutarou-kun, I always have. But please wait a bit longer for my answer." She pleaded, bowing her head at her tutor.

"I see..." Scratching the back of his head due to his rejection, the tutor took a seat on the bed in the infirmary, placing down a bag of food and drinks that he intended to eat with her. He wondered for a moment what she meant by that, but he had an inkling to the implications of her words. "I'll be waiting." Was all he said before he stuck a toothpick into the karaage; they weren't hot or crispy anymore since he bought them earlier in the day, but the flavor was nice.

"Huh, so you guys aren't dating?" Ichika asked, looking up at the tutor.

"No, not exactly." Fuutarou's hand trembled slightly. "I'm not exactly good at this stuff, but something's telling me to give her the time she asked." He said calmly, brushing his hair away with his hand as he stood up to stretch his legs a little.

"Now that you mention it, Yotsuba was gone when I woke up this morning..." Ichika joked, chuckling to herself as she found her eyes gravitating toward Fuutarou's face, her heart pounding louder with every second. "Fuutarou-kun..." She muttered to herself, her hand reaching out for him. "When did you start acting cool?" She laughed, slapping his back as the two of them got ready for another match. "She didn't exactly say that she didn't have feelings for you. And I know for a fact that she does. It's just a little wait, after all. It's pointless to get upset over it."

They played a bit more as Ichika remembered the words that Nino told Mutsumi that day in Kyoto. "If you were chosen that day, then I... I would've congratulated you!" The eldest wondered about what was running through Nino's mind at the moment, but she can understand what she meant that day. The two of them finished their game, and their date, walking together for a while, talking about whatever came to mind.

"Wait... based on what you told me, you never really told her that you love her." Ichika said, getting the tutor to play with his bangs again.

"What are you talking about? Of course I..." He said out of instinct, but he stopped as he recalled what transpired in the infirmary. "Or...maybe not."

"Maybe, when she said that there was still something to be done, she was referring to that..." Ichika suggested, but Fuutarou didn't give it a second thought.

"No, the way she said that it has to be something different." Fuutarou retorted, shutting his eyes for a few seconds to think over Yotsuba's words once more. "Something more important."

"It can't hurt to say it anyway, right?" Ichika suggested. "If you want to practice, Onee-chan is always available for speech practice." She winked, playfully teasing him but he wasn't as fazed by it as she'd expected him to be. Elsewhere, Yotsuba was already making moves in order to reach her goal, but she'd come across a large obstacle.

"Don't screw with me." Nino said, her tone nearly as cold as Maruo's. "Why don't you try saying that to me again." She stared her sister down, having just pushed the fourth sister onto the floor. Nino was livid, putting it lightly; she wasn't in any state for calm conversation. But Yotsuba was determined to see it through, getting back up onto her feet.

"About yesterday, about everything that happened up until now." She said while looking down at the ground so that her eyes were hidden by her hair. "I feel like I need to apologize to you, Nino."

"Do you even understand any of the words that are coming from your mouth?" Nino's scathing response was meant to deter the conversation, or at least it was meant to silence Yotsuba for a few seconds as Nino prepared to talk. "You knew that I loved Fuu-kun all this time, yet you went into your room despite knowing all that! I don't want to hear you talk about being concerned about me now after you went and did that last night."

"Of course I'll be concerned! We're family!" Yotsuba was about to go into the verbal offensive when Nino put her foot down and silenced her.

"If that was the case, then this is as far as we go with that relationship. If this is how our relationship will continue, then I'd rather sever our ties as sisters."

Ichika arrived home shortly after her teasing of Fuutarou, meeting with Itsuki and Mutsumi as the two of them sat around the table near the sofas; the elder of the two studying while the younger was attaching something to a small hair bow. "Welcome back, Ichika-nee." Mutsumi smiled, looking up from her work for a second before she returned her attention toward the accessory. "How was Fuutarou-san's game?"

"Bad," Ichika said bluntly. "Hey, did you two hear? Apparently, those two still aren't going out." Ichika filled the two in on her discovery, garnering both of their undivided attention.

"Is that right...?" Itsuki spoke up first, pushing her glasses up. "I wonder why... This should be the outcome that those two wanted." She set aside her papers, going from sitting on the floor to one of the sofas. "I'm happy for them, and I want to cheer them on, but when I take everyone else into consideration, I simply can't congratulate them."

"I'm sure that it would've been the case no matter who he chose." The sixth sister chimed in, holding the bow up and tying it into her hair. She then looked at herself using the camera on her phone before she removed the bow and kept it away. "And I have a feeling that Yotsuba knows it too. After all, we're sextuplets." Elsewhere, Fuutarou was practicing saying three words, making sure to find the right way to express his feelings as the wind started to pick up.

"Having to choose between Fuutarou-kun and my sisters... I want to be selfish and choose both..." Yotsuba muttered to herself, looking out at the water under the starlit sky. "Wait... why did I go to the docks?" She asked herself as a voice called out to her from behind.

"Yotsuba, you'll freeze if you stay out here too long."

"Mi...ku."

"I'm Yotsuba." The third sister approached Yotsuba wearing a shabby disguise inspired by Yotsuba's usual getup. "I'm Yotsuba."

"What the heck..."

"I thought of a plan," Miku said, her voice and posture showing absolute seriousness. "Since I wasn't chosen, I'll transform into you and go out with Fuutarou instead. What do you think?"

"I don't it'd be right, ethically speaking," Yotsuba said, stating the obvious as the winds of change continued to blow.