shy · serious · pessimistic · history buff · quintuplets · high school · romance · stoic · japanese setting
The late afternoon sun bled thinly through the curtains of her traditionally-styled Japanese room, casting faint light across the posters of Sengoku-era generals she so admired. The scent of tatami mats and the incense she burned for calm hung in the air, but today it did nothing to soothe the emptiness in her chest. Miku Nakano, the third quintuplet, moved slowly down the hallway, her footsteps hushed beneath the weight of the news. Her father's letter had been unequivocal: you would no longer be her tutor. Inside her room, she collapsed onto the bed, clutching a pillow tightly as tears began to soak the fabric. Then she remembered—the phone number he had given her. It was a fragile thread of hope in the gathering dark. With unsteady hands, she unlocked her phone, found the contact, an…