Those who claim Yotsuba didn’t have much development must have missed the fact that she kissed Fuutarou 3 times before he chose her! But before we get into the 4 kisses, let’s revisit Yotsuba’s confession, because I believe this is when all the trouble began! And by“trouble” I mean Fuutarou’s feelings for Yotsuba. In chapter 17, Fuutarou revealed the three things he likes most in a girl. but two of them can be dismissed as irrelevant. The third was“always thinking about her brother,” but obviously that can’t apply to anyone other than Raiha, so we can eliminate that one. The second was“good at cooking.” But Fuutarou liked Miku’s infamously horrible cooking, so that one can be eliminated as irrelevant. That leaves the first qualifier as the only relevant one: the thing he likes most in a girl is that she’s “always happy.” Remember, that’s a quality that we also see in the Lolikano from 5 years earlier: she was effervescing with joy. When Yotsuba said the reason she’s helping Fuutarou was “because I like you,” it was the first time anyone had ever confessed to him and she’s exactly his type. Yotsuba stirred something inside him and and made his heart skip a beat. We know this because that moment was a part of Fuutarou’s“Yotsuba montage” at the beginning of chapter 114. But then she torpedoed what might have been the beginning of something beautiful by saying“Just kidding! Ha! You fell for it! Even I can lie when I want to.” Yotsuba didn’t realize it, but she hurt his feelings when she did that. That’s why we read: “Fuutarou’s heart closed a little that day.” Fuutarou hints at how much her lie stung in his inner monologue in the next chapter when he says“If you tell bad lies you’re bound to get hurt...no, I guess last time I was burnt instead.” Having laid the groundwork, we now proceed to the first time Yotsuba kissed Fuutarou, in chapter 51 right after the quints were debating how to thank him for being their tutor. At first, we get this amusing little scene where Yotsuba imagines giving Fuutarou a medal while her sisters all imagine kissing him! But it turns out that was just a red herring. Yotsuba was trying to think of a way to thank Fuutarou that did not involve her acting on her feelings, hence the medal. The others weren’t operating under the constraints of internalized guilt and inadequacy. But Yotsuba’s been holding back her feelings for a long time, and every once in awhile they breach the surface. Just look at that massive blush on her face as she covers her mouth in the last panel. She says it’s just a thank you but her body language says otherwise. So how did Fuutarou not know Yotsuba’s feelings? The only way for Yotsuba to act on her feelings was under the cover of plausible deniability. Here, she passed the kiss off as just a thank you for being their tutor. We can see how wide eyed Fuutarou was with surprise and confusion after he wiped his cheek. I can almost see what he must have been thinking: “Yotsuba?!? But I thought she was lying when she said she’s on my side because she likes me, and now she kissed me? Wait, what?! That was just a thank you? I’m so confused!” Who wouldn’t be confused? He likes her, but he’s dismissing his own feelings due to his initially dismissive attitude towards anything besides academic achievement. More on that later. The second time was the bell kiss incident. Until the final chapter, we haven’t had canon confirmation that this was Yotsuba. But now that we know, I’ll leave the evidence for another post and let the scene speak for itself. Here, again, we see Yotsuba using her disguise as Itsuki as a cover of plausible deniability. It’s also worth pointing out that at the beginning of this scene, we are told that the bell kisser is Fuutarou’s bride, fulfilling the legend of the bell of vows. Hmmm...bell of vows, kiss of vows. Coincidence? So how did Fuutarou not know it was Yotsuba? He was able to tell her apart from her sisters even when disguised, but only when she spoke. I’ve elaborated on this point in another post, so I’ll simply say that in the entire bell kissing scene, it is crucial that Yotsuba doesn’t say a word to Fuutarou. In fact, in the interval between the scene in chapter 64 when Fuutarou identifies“Fourth Itsuki” as Yotsuba and the Bell Kissing scene, we see Yotsuba practicing her Itsuki impression. Why? She said she was worried about whether or not she could pull off her disguise, but her grandfather could tell all 5 quints apart because of love. So if it wasn’t her grandfather that Yotsuba was worried about, who else could it have been but Fuutarou? And if she knew Fuutarou could see through her act very easily, it stands to reason that he was the reason she first tried to improve her act, then abandoned that effort and chose instead to kiss Fuutarou without saying a word. The third time was on day 3 of the Sunrise Festival, just a few hours before Fuutarou made his choice known. Unlike the first two times, she does not have the benefit of plausible deniability. Or does she? This time, Fuutarou thought it was all just a dream, and that the dream was about Rena, not Yotsuba. Meanwhile, Yotsuba attempts to convince herself that having made one final memory, she’s ready to move on, but just the thought of letting Fuutarou go causes her to become so heartbroken that she breaks down and cries. Then she does what she’s always done up until now, she buries her true feelings, puts on her cheerful facade, and greets Fuutarou as though nothing was the matter. This is how, despite kissing him 3 times, Fuutarou still had no idea how she felt about him. The first time, she claimed it was just a thank you. The second time, he didn’t know which quintuplet it was. The third time, he thought it was all a dream. But it’s obvious to a discerning reader that she’s just barely containing intense feelings of love for him. Just for good measure, and in keeping with Yotsuba’s number 4 theme, she kissed him 4 times in the manga, the fourth time being this one, the kiss of vows. As a final thought, I don’t think the bell kiss incident was when Fuutarou fell in love with Yotsuba, I think that was when he stopped denying it. How did I come to that conclusion, and what is my evidence? Here’s the short version: I believe Yotsuba’s first confession stirred something in Fuutarou’s heart, something that only grew on their camping trip, becoming love at the end of their date in the playground with the swings.“And ever since that day I came here with you, this place has become special to me too.” He dismissed those feelings as foolish to pursue because of his singleminded pursuit of academic excellence at the expense of everything else, and because high school relationships usually end in breakups, so why waste his time on foolish, ephemeral feelings that will probably end badly anyway? But once the bell kiss incident happened, he could no longer dismiss those feelings. He didn’t know who the bell kisser was, but her sincere feelings for him made his sincere feelings for Yotsuba impossible to ignore any longer. Hence, why he said“It was from that moment on that I started thinking she was special.”
