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Choromatsu cleared his throat in an attempt to get all of his brothers’ attention.
“I’ve got a, um… a thing I’m going to today,” he stated, as if it wasn’t obvious to everyone in the room that he was going to another idol concert. “So who’s going to look after Karamatsu?”
“…Karamatsu?”
“You know? Since he’s sick?” Choromatsu tried coaxing their memories, but the irritation in his voice was still noticeable.
“Ohhhhh, is that why the futon was so roomy last night?”
“Did we quarantine him in another room? Hehe, no wonder all our conversations have felt so much more bearable today.” Todomatsu and Osomatsu laughed to each other fiendishly.
“He’s been sick for 3 days now!” Choromatsu started, but then promptly cut his straight man routine short. “Anyway, he just needs to be checked on every few hours, can I count on one of you?” He asked, glancing hopefully around the room for a volunteer.
“Not me, I’ve got a pachinko machine with my name written on it,” Osomatsu said as he stood up and headed for the door.
“I’ve got plans today; I’m actually leaving in a few minutes,” Todomatsu said indifferently as he swiped his phone screen. “Wouldn’t want him giving me the plague, anyhow.”
Todomatsu brought up a decent point. If one of them got sick, it was manageable, but any more than that and it became practically a household epidemic.
“What about you, Jyushimatsu?” Choromatsu turned toward his younger brother, clearly grasping at straws by this point.
“Baseball!” Jyushimatsu answered, as if this one-word reply was all the explanation necessary.
“Uh, fine… I guess he’ll be alright for a while by himself. Maybe Mom will check on him…” Choromatsu tried to rationalize their collective negligence.
One by one the room gradually emptied, with each brother leaving to enjoy their respective plans for the day.
Everyone was gone. Everyone besides Ichimatsu, that is.
He sat in the corner with a sour expression for a few minutes before finally mumbling, “…They didn’t even try to ask me.”
He struggled internally with himself. On the one hand, Shittymatsu probably would be fine left by himself for a few hours, but Ichimatsu knew from experience how terrible it could feel being left alone while sick. People were generally better about taking care of him when he was ill than they were with Karamatsu, but there were still enough moments of isolation cemented in his memory to leave a strong impression on him.
After an hour or so, the guilt finally dragged him up off the floor. He didn’t know much about taking care of sick people, but he grabbed a few things he thought might come in handy and then quietly made his way upstairs.
He peeked into the darkened room with hesitation. It didn’t seem like Karamatsu was awake. Maybe he could just slip in, leave a glass of water somewhere within reach, put a cold compress on Karamatsu’s forehead, and then he’d be able to tell himself he’d done enough and could ignore the situation guilt-free for the rest of the afternoon. This could actually work.
He pulled his cold mask up over his mouth and quietly made his way into the room, tiptoeing around the futon and up to the base of it. He leaned down and set the glass of water on the floor. Already 50% done.
Ichimatsu’s eyes were beginning to adjust to the dark, so he was just starting to get a decent look at his brother lying limply in bed before him.
Karamatsu looked terrible. Not only was he nearly as white as a sheet, but the dark circles under his eyes gave Ichimatsu’s a run for their money. The expression on his unconscious face was anything but relaxed.
It was jarring to see a person who, under normal circumstances, practically radiated sparkles looking like this, but the most unnerving thing was that he wasn’t stirring at all. Ichimatsu couldn’t even tell if his chest was rising up to breathe. ‘Lifeless’ was the best way to describe how Karamatsu looked right then.
Ichimatsu stared intently at his brother for a few moments, knowing he was being ridiculous for worrying, but simultaneously wasn’t brave enough to get a closer look and confirm that Karamatsu was still alive.
Right as he built up the courage to lean in and check…
“Choromatsu…?” Karamatsu opened his eyes just barely and looked up at him. Ichimatsu felt his heart leap up into his throat.
“Yes?!” Ichimatsu said as he hastily tried to flatten his own hair.
“Oh, heh…you almost look like Ichimatsu in the dark…it must be that cold mask,” Karamatsu laughed feebly.
“D-do you need anything while I’m here?!” Ichimatsu said a little frantically, thankful either to the fever that was clouding Karamatsu’s judgment, or to the fact that Karamatsu was just super thickheaded in the first place. Ichimatsu would never be able to live this down, otherwise.
“No, no, I’m fine,” Karamatsu said, despite looking the exact opposite of fine, “You don’t have to stay…wouldn’t want my precious little brother getting sick.”
“I-it’s no big deal, being in here for a few minutes isn’t going to hurt me,” Ichimatsu stuttered. He wanted nothing more than to flee before he was discovered, so the fact that these words came tumbling out of his own mouth filled him with horror. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“You’re such a good little brother…” Karamatsu smiled weakly.
Ichimatsu felt his chest tighten. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a chance to talk with Karamatsu like this. He had gotten too used to being teased mercilessly the moment he showed any sort of positive reaction toward his older brother. This was actually a really rare opportunity.
“Ah, actually… I haven’t ate in a really long time…if it’s not too much trouble…” Karamatsu added.
“I’ll go get something then!” Ichimatsu said, practically jumping up off the floor. “What would you like?”
“Soup would be more than good enough,” Karamatsu smiled again.
Ichimatsu hastily left the room, successfully satisfying his desire to run away while simultaneously knowing he’d get to come back and enjoy more praise from Karamatsu. He felt a smile creep up his face despite himself. Even with the cold mask covering his mouth, and even knowing no one else was around, he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed with himself.
He made a detour into their bedroom and pulled one of Choromatsu’s green hoodies out of the closet to change into. Better safe than sorry.
He quietly snuck into the kitchen. Thankfully, their mom didn’t seem to be around.
He had just finished making the soup and was carrying it into the hallway when he heard it.
“Choromatsu nii-san?”
Ichimatsu froze at the sight of his little brother standing before him.
Jyushimatsu stared at him for a moment before it finally seemed to click. “Ah! It’s Ichimatsu nii-san!”
Ichimatsu felt the tray slip out of his hands; Jyushimatsu swooped down and caught it before even a single drop of soup had spilled.
“I-I’m Choromatsu,” Ichimatsu stuttered unconvincingly. He knew Jyushimatsu could probably smell the difference. Jyushimatsu could probably even smell lies, for all he knew.
Jyushimatsu stared at him even harder, but didn’t reject the claim.
He instead turned his attention down toward the tray in his sleeve-covered hands, “Is this for Karamatsu nii-san?”
Ichimatsu tried to reply, but in the end had to resort to nodding instead. He felt his face turning red.
“I came home because I got worried about him, were you worried about him too?” Jyushimatsu asked.
Ichimatsu couldn’t even bring himself to nod at this one; he merely stared down at the ground in shame. This lack of reply was a reply in and of itself, though. Jyushimatsu’s already ridiculously large smile grew even wider at Ichimatsu’s confirmation.
“That’s good! That’s good! Let’s go take it to him!” Jyushimatsu was practically beaming.
“…You can take it up there then,” Ichimatsu replied quietly. He felt a little bitterness seep back into his words. “No need for both of us to go.”
“No, no! Choromatsu nii-san made it! Choromatsu nii-san gets to take credit for it! Choromatsu nii-san wanted to do this, right?” Jyushimatsu continued on, as if saying “Choromatsu nii-san” with practically every breath somehow made it less obvious that he knew the truth.
“Let’s go!!” Jyushimatsu grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him up the stairs.
Jyushimatsu flicked the light switch on in the darkened room as he shoved the soup tray back into Ichimatsu’s hands. He then dove under the covers from the foot of the futon, crawling up to the base of it and popping his head up next to Karamatsu’s before their older brother even had time to react.
“Slumber party!!” Jyushimatsu exclaimed as he wriggled around under the covers. It was 2 in the afternoon.
“J-Jyushimatsu…” Ichimatsu said with a little exasperation as he put his index finger up to his mouth to make the “shh” sign.
“Oh! Right!” Jyushimatsu said, clasping his sleeves over his mouth. That didn’t stop him from wriggling, though.
Karamatsu just laughed quietly at the display as he leaned forward to sit up.
“Here’s the soup…” Ichimatsu mumbled as he set it off to Karamatsu’s side. “I’m gonna go now.”
“Oh…” Karamatsu looked disappointed. Jyushimatsu sat up next to him and mimicked the dissatisfied expression. “Well thank you, my dear little brother,” Karamatsu added as he picked the tray up and set it on his lap.
Ichimatsu took two steps towards the door before hesitating, turning back around, and plopping himself on the ground beside the two of them.
“Yeah! Slumber party!” Jyushimatsu said with the best indoor voice he could manage, waving his arms up and down.
Now that it had come to this, Ichimatsu honestly had no idea what to do. It had been one thing when the room was dark, but now that it was well-lit, the situation was way more dangerous. It was way easier to tell that he wasn’t Choromatsu, not to mention that having Jyushimatsu around made things even more complicated. Ichimatsu had been thinking all of this, and yet his body had still moved on its own and sat down beside them. He was silently screaming.
Karamatsu slurped noodles as Jyushimatsu wandered across the room and started pulling card and board games off the shelf. He really did want a slumber party.
“Karamatsu nii-san, what do you wanna play??” Jyushimatsu motioned to the stack of games piled in his arms.
“Huh? A-Anything’s fine,” Karamatsu said with an uncharacteristically bashful expression. This was the face of someone who clearly wasn’t used to being given this much positive attention at once.
“Hmmmmmm,” Jyushimatsu furrowed his brow, as if deep in thought. He stared back down at the pile of games for a few moments before shoving them all haphazardly back onto the shelf. “Let’s play charades!”
Ichimatsu felt his insides tightening up. Could Jyushimatsu have possibly picked a harder game to play in this situation?
“Karamatsu’s supposed to be resting, you know,” Ichimatsu awkwardly tried to reroute the impending disaster.
“He can be the guesser! Me and you can take turns acting out the words,” Jyushimatsu countered.
Ichimatsu watched as Karamatsu perked up at the word “acting.” So that’s why he picked it…
Ichimatsu reluctantly stood back as his little brother wrote down random words onto scraps of paper. Jyushimatsu ran out of the room for a moment before quickly returning with one of Todomatsu’s hats; he then proceeded to dump all of the paper scraps into it.
“Two guessers and one actor, first one to guess right wins!” Jyushimatsu proclaimed as he drew the first piece of paper out of the hat. Ichimatsu didn’t think this was how charades was supposed to be played, but they did only have three players, after all.
Jyushimatsu stood in front of them to signal he was ready to begin. He then began swinging his arms from his lower right side up to his upper left, as if he was holding onto something.
It looked like baseball, but that would be way too easy of an answer, so Ichimatsu stayed quiet.
Karamatsu, on the other hand, crossed his arms and closed his eyes, and after a long and dramatic pause, he answered. “…Baseball?”
“Yeah!! One point for Karamatsu nii-san!”
Ichimatsu looked at the both of them with exasperation. It was just now occurring to him that he should have added some words to the hat himself. At the very least, it seemed like these were going to be simple to act out.
He reluctantly pulled a scrap of paper out of the hat, the theme was…
‘Hijirisawa Shonosuke.’
“How am I even supposed to do this?!” He yelled out of reflex as he threw the scrap of paper onto the floor. At least he was doing a good Choromatsu impression.
Jyushimatsu scooped the paper up off the ground, read it, and then proceeded to make a large circular motion with his arms at around the height of his waist.
“New Osomatsu nii-san!”
“Yeah!!! Two points for Karamatsu nii-san!”
…At least it looked like they were having fun.
The game continued on for a few hours. As a testament to how bizarrely well-coordinated Karamatsu and Jyushimatsu were to each other’s thought processes in this situation, the two of them had collectively earned 95% of the points. Ichimatsu was so bad at doing impressions that after a while Jyushimatsu just completely took over for him. Eventually it dissolved into Jyushimatsu rolling around on the floor laughing, completely unable to continue. Even Ichimatsu had a hard time not cracking up.
“Jyushimatsu, hey, Jyushimatsu…” Ichimatsu patted him as he rolled around, trying to pull his little brother out of the fit of laughter long enough to get a word in. “Don’t you think Karamatsu needs to rest now?”
While Karamatsu’s face certainly looked livelier than it had when Ichimatsu had first checked on him, he was also starting to look like he was struggling to stay awake.
“Hmmm, yeah! He’s not the only one,” Jyushimatsu laughed again as he crawled back under the covers.
“Need me to sing you a lullaby?” Karamatsu said, probably in complete earnesty. But by the time he had asked, Jyushimatsu was already snoring loudly beside him. He smiled and laid back down too.
Ichimatsu stood up and made his way towards the door, quietly clicking off the lights. He walked back to pick the tray with the empty soup bowl up off the floor.
As he leaned down next to the futon, he heard a whisper, just barely audible.
“Thank you, Ichimatsu.”
Within one week, Karamatsu was back to feeling better than ever.
Within one week, every other member of the family was completely bedridden.
“This is all your fault, Karamatsu!” Osomatsu whined as he laid in bed beside four of his younger brothers, despite the fact that Karamatsu was scrambling around, making his best effort to wait on all of them hand and foot.
Osomatsu’s accusation wasn’t even all that fair, either. Jyushimatsu hadn’t bothered wearing a cold mask or anything when they’d played; he had been the real source of the outbreak. Ichimatsu was probably equally guilty for thoughtlessly putting Choromatsu’s hoodie and Todomatsu’s hat back in with their clean clothes instead of the dirty laundry. Rather than feel bad, he laughed a little under his breath as Totty joined in on the whining too.
Ichimatsu and Jyushimatsu were usually banned from sleeping next to each other since they were so prone to wrestling, but given the special circumstances it had been allowed for once. Jyushimatsu turned toward him and said, “We should play charades again soon!”
“Huhhhh? Have we ever played charades together?” Ichimatsu smiled slyly as he prodded his little brother’s side.
“Oh!! Choromatsu nii-san, we should play charades again soon!!” Jyushimatsu yelled across the room. Choromatsu just turned and stared at him with a perplexed expression.
Ichimatsu hadn’t managed to fool either of them that day, but thankfully Karamatsu hadn’t mentioned it even once since then. Maybe Jyushimatsu had told him to keep it a secret, or maybe Karamatsu had written it off as a fever dream or something. Ichimatsu’s sense of shame really made him hope that the latter was the case, but the ambiguity also allowed the first possibility to make him feel happy too. It had been a lot of fun.
“…I’d like it if we could do that again,” Ichimatsu whispered, just quiet enough so that only Jyushimatsu could hear.
“Yeah!” Jyushimatsu smiled brightly for a moment, before hopping on top of him to tickle him.
“Hey! No roughhousing! I said no roughhousing!!” Choromatsu shouted as he leapt up from under the covers, unintentionally knocking into Karamatsu, who had just returned to the room with a tray of food.
Rice went flying everywhere.