Dealer's Choice - Quintuplets WG - 01 (Patreon)

Time was running out.

The bills were emblazoned with thick, red warnings, the kind any poor household hated to see. “Final Notice” and “Absolutely Last Warning” were not words to be taken lightly but were ones which Futaro had seen at every stage of his youth.

The Uesugi household was not a wealthy one by a long shot, but they were hard working and earnest. With his father away all the time, it was largely down to Futaro to provide for his little sister Raiha amidst their run down, single room apartment. They were barely getting by with every money saving trick in the book just to afford school, rent and food as it was so when he scored that tutoring job from a wealthy family, it was an offer he simply could not refuse.

Until he realized why others had refused it before.

“Why are these girls so dumb…”

Teaching one problem student was bad enough, but he was saddled with five of them. They were quintuplets to boot, making it even harder to discern them from one another outside of their terrible grades. Each one was lacking in something which another excelled in, but rather than take the time to try and teach each other, they squabble and bickered about so many other things without realizing their futures were on the line.

“If only I could just get them to sit down for a moment and actually study!”

He had spent the last few days writing out mock exam questions by hand and it seemed as though for all his efforts, they weren’t improving by any significant margins. If he did not succeed this time, their wealthy father was sure to cut off his funding and plunge their family back into the pits of poverty.

He could take it, but he couldn’t subject Raiha to that hardship, not again.

“Studying is easy, onii-chan! It’s all about making it fun!”

Futaro looked up from the piles of misery he had on his desk and into a cream puff. Raiha’s cheery smile beamed over its edges like a tiny sun.

“See, I learned to cook these all by myself by making it into a kind of game! I make a few and then try and sell them and if I make all the sales, I spend some money on more ingredients and some of it on our dinner!”

“Idiot, you can’t spend your time doing that,” Futaro grimaced. “You need to work hard on your own studies so you can get a good job and make some real money in the future.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine,” Raiha smiled back, unperturbed by her brother’s gloomy nature. “Besides, we need money today to get to the future, right?”

Futaro could sense his little sister’s awareness of their situation as much as she tried to cover it up. She wouldn’t be young forever and with those moments of youth slipping away, he had to work fast. He had to think. He had to-

“Aren’t you going to take it? My arms are getting tired.”

The creampuff sat outstretched before him, oozing its fluffy white centre from one side. Now that he had a chance to focus, he could see that it was more like a hodge podge attempt at a pastry, befitting his little sister’s expected abilities. As much as she took pride in her simple curries, crafted sweets were an aspect she still had a long way to go towards perfecting.

“I know it’s not the prettiest, but I tried really hard with it. I think Itsuki-san and her sisters would really like them too.”

“Those idiots can afford the finest cakes at any time,” Futaro wilted. “Itsuki adores you but I’m not sure if-”

Raiha would hear no more of his self pity as she crammed her creation into his face. His cheeks bulged momentarily before he started chewing thoughtfully.

“They’ll like it because I made it, and that’s all there is to it,” Raiha said firmly. “I’m the one who manages the finances in this family and it is thanks to them that we have enough. Now, let me sort the bills while you go out there and do your tutoring job. They’re counting on you, you know.”

“Raiha…”

There was no talking her out of it. Even being that much younger compared to him or their father, she was often the more mature one of the family. She dropped a nicely wrapped box of the mangled creations on top of the worksheets he had prepared and urged him out the door. Pushing him to act was always the best way to get her brother out of such a foul mood.

She was right, as always. In all his time moping, he had forgotten their next tutoring session was also about to start. Her words still rung in his ears as the door to their rickety apartment swung loosely on its hinges as he pushed his way out and onto the street with her box of sweets in tow.

“The end of year exams are coming soon, so you’d better get your act together. Tell them if they succeed, we can have a big party together to celebrate!”

******************

“And that’s why you have to pass your exams this time.”

Ichika Nakano lays sprawled out on the couch like a lazy cat as she tucked into yet another creampuff. Uesugi could glower at her all he liked but it was far too hot to study after all.

“Listen, I appreciate your efforts in trying to motivate me, but as you might recall, we all failed that last exam anyway. You’re supposed to give the motivational speeches BEFORE we sit the exam, not after.”

“That’s why I’m doing it now,” Futaro said firmly. “We’re doing this summer break study so you pass your end of year exams. You all need to score more than your 20% average that the five of you get!”

“Ah, but don’t you see,” Ichika smiled. “With the five of us combined, we each score a total 100% across five subjects!”

“That’s not how it works, and you know it.”

The eldest of the quintuplets stretched herself further in reply, allowing her school uniform to ride up and out of her skirt. Futaro hadn’t noticed before, but there was a discernible thickness to her body which had accumulated over her summer time snacking.

“Hey, Ichika, have you gotten kind of fat lately?”

Such a straight forward question was one which the sisters had been dodging asking each other for weeks blatantly erupted from her tutor’s mouth. She immediately attempted to curl back up into a ball in an attempt to hide her exposed tummy rolls from his scrutinizing gaze.

“H-hey it’s just a little summer weight! I haven’t had any major modeling gigs to do lately outside of some plus-sized swimwear jobs. It’s not just me but girls all over Japan have been getting a bit bigger lately so a market has emerged for that kind of thing!”

“Are you saying that girls around Japan have been skimping out on their tutoring to just pall around with their sisters and eat the sweets brought to them day after day without actually taking their studies seriously?!”

Ichika sat up at the accusation, shielding her pride and her enlarged chest and midsection with a hand at the sheer audacity at his claims.

“W-who asked you to bring so many of these anyway! I know you said you wanted to turn our weekly sessions into three-times per-week sessions but did you have to always bring snacks with you whenever you did!”

“Raiha has been making these non stop trying to sell them to supplement our income! The entire house reeks of that artificial butter smell and if I eat another one of these to make her happy, I think I’m going to contract diabetes! I had no choice but to bring them here!”

He eyed the thick white pillars of flesh which her thighs had become, sandwiched between the ever shortening length of her skirt and her socks.

“Besides, I think that you girls have found a great way to give these a good home. There’s five bellies here but only two at mine so it was the logical choice.”

“Y-you’re just lucky that my modeling contract wanted me to gain a little weight for their summer swimwear line. Maybe if this school thing doesn’t work out, I’ll just go into it full time.”

Try as she might to keep herself covered up, it was becoming increasingly clear to Futaro just how much of her bulged out of her uniform. He prodded her exposed belly roll playfully, causing her to yelp.

“Right-right, you can become a big fat ass for money later after you graduate. I’m not going to accept your resignation after we’ve come so far with your studies.”

She slapped his hand away from her bulge as she reluctantly slid off the couch and back towards the table where her math problems remained only half completed.

“Geez, someone out there has got to teach you how to choose your words more delicately around women…That’s why Nino always gets into fights with you...,” Ichika grumbled as she took up her pen.

“Unlike her, you’re lucky that I like you enough to let you do that to me…”

“What was that?” Futaro scoffed as he looked over one of her completed answer sheets, still littered with mistakes.

“Nothing...just me mumbling to myself!” Ichika scrambled. “Say, if I get this next one right, can I have another cream puffy?”