Nino's Past

No more than thirteen years old, young Nino Nakano was already the mother figure of the quintessential quintuplets. She had a knack for cooking, she was popular AND cared a lot for her sisters. She was the best sibling anyone could ever ask for.

But as was the case with the quintuplets, each of them were tormented by their own personal hell. Their biological father left them when he knew that their mother was having quints, and their mother died when they were barely eight years old. Nino didn’t just develop the skill of cooking magically; the reason was actually much more deeper.

…………………………..

The 79th Sunrise Festival of Asahi High was a day to be remembered. The quints were sixteen now. Nino and Miku, heading the boys’ and girls’ faction of Class 3-1; had set up stalls facing off against each other. The boys had set up the takoyaki stand, while the girls had opted for baking pancakes.

The quints had not realised that this competition would turn out to be such a fierce bloodbath. So when it happened, they snuck out quietly. Strolling through the festival, they were bickering on about whose stall was selling better products. In the course of the conversation, Miku asked something which made Nino stop dead in her tracks.

“Why didn’t you join us in baking pancakes, Nino?”

Nino faltered. “W-Well, I supported the guys’ decision. It’s my duty, isn’t it?”, she said, but she already knew what her sister would say. Miku wasn’t the type to fall for such a weak rally.

“Come on, Nino. We are quintuplets. How can you even start trying to lie to me?”, Miku was trying her best to stifle a laugh. Nino pouted, and then smiled indulgently.

“Well, you know something, Miku? Baking pancakes was the first thing I ever tried doing.”.

“Really?”, Miku was genuinely surprised.

………………………….

As quintuplets, the one thing we had in common, other than appearances, was Mom’s pancakes. We loved it when Mom baked us pancakes.

Mom was ill. But she would never let it show. That’s why I wanted to be the one to cheer her up, even if it was for a little bit. But the stone-faced guy who I would later come to call ‘Dad’, was always by her side. I couldn’t talk to her. At least, in private.

One day, I had collected some flowers from our school excursion and was in a hurry to give them to Mom. As I stepped out of Mom’s room to catch my breath, I heard voices.

“-Maruo. At the very least, I wanted to bake some pancakes for my daughters one last time.”

I heard another voice.

“Last? Don’t say that, Rena. You’ll be there for your daughters. I promise.”, Dad’s voice quivered, as if he was unsure of his own words. Mom laughed silently.

“Probably.”, she said.

But she never returned. She never even got better after that day.

We were sitting in front of the dais. I wasn’t crying; I had my sisters to console. But Itsuki had already gone silent. She had already cried her heart out until her eyes had become red and puffy. I felt like I had to cheer them up, and the only thing that would do the trick was pancakes.

But Dad refused. “Anything but that.”, he would say. I started to hate him all the more for disregarding the feelings of my sisters. It was around that time when I tried making pancakes on my own. But that particular day was when realisation hit me.

Dad caught me messing with the ingredients in the kitchen. As he walked towards me, I was sure that I was going to get an earful. The microwave beeped. I still remember the taste of that particular batch. It was undercooked and the sugar was a lot less than required. But he took a bite of it. When I turned to look at him, my breath got knocked out of me.

He was smiling. But a solitary tear trickled down his well-defined features.

“It tastes good, Nino-kun.”