Classroom of the Elite: Quintuplets

24 - Nino's first love

Flashback

2nd February 2007

The sound of the car driving was the only sound that was able to be heard, inside of the car, not a single soul dared to utter a word.

This silence eventually continued until Itsuki's sobbing grew louder, the longer we were in the car.

"It's okay, Itsuki." Ichika, who was sitting beside the sobbing Itsuki, slowly slid closer to her and enveloped her in her arms so that her face was buried in her chest.

Itsuki, the youngest of the five of us, was hit the hardest by the death of our recently passed away mother.

Although today wasn't her death day, we still were on the way to visit her.

"It's okay, since we'll always be together, right?" after saying that in a rather loud tone, I gained the attention of all four of my sisters who were slightly caught off guard by my sudden comment.

"You're right, Nino. Mother would have wanted that anyways." In her habitual cheerful voice, the faintly smiling Miku agreed with me.

We all shifted gazes between each other and gradually, we also gained a weak smile just like Miku, even Yotsuba, who has grown more distant towards the rest of us, smiled and nodded with her head.

In fact, she extended her right hand to us, with only her pinky finger outstretched.

"Pinky promise!" With her loud voice, she most likely wanted to cover up the fact that she herself was on the verge of crying, but the rest of us gradually extended our hands as well, with only our pinky finger stretched out.

"Pinky Promise."

Thereafter, the five of us gazed out the window with smiles on our faces, albeit the weather was grey due to the numerous clouds in the sky today.

Timeskip

Location: graveyard

Once I descended from the car, the sentiments within me resurfaced, like every other time I stepped into the graveyard.

With the weather being already grey, it gradually dulled into even more colorlessness and my desire to tear up progressively increased, but I'm sure my sisters feel the same way.

"Let's go, girls." In a singleton voice, papa called out for the five of us, and while holding hands, we slowly marched towards our mother's grave.

Throughout the entire walk to her grave, there was an even more profound stillness than there had been in the car.

Actually, the only noise that was audible was that of other cars arriving at the cemetery, with one particularly peculiar car that possessed no windows, however, my attention subsequently shifted to my sisters.

By the time we reached our mother's grave, we were unable to hold back our tears and started crying as our emotions were rampaging.

After our mother died, we visited the cemetery very frequently; in fact, there was a period of time when we visited the cemetery on a daily basis.

In other words, we simply couldn't accept and cope with our mother's passing because we were relatively young and before her death, we spent every single day with her; she was everything to us.

Upon having bawled out our eyes, our father converse to us, this time in a more vulnerable voice.

"I forgot the flowers in the car, I'll go get them. In the meantime, you should wait with Ebata here." The rest of my sisters couldn't look at him due to their teary eyes.