Illusive Tears

•Chapter 4: Rejection•

Years passed, and things changed. Of course, no one knew if it was for the better. The Matsuno quintuplets were affected as well. Each one of them, thanks to 'Dewberry', seemed to have gained a distinguishable personality.

They all could have said they 'changed for the better', except Ichimatsu. It was all kept the same for him, his brothers ignoring him. Being forgotten to get picked up by his parents, so he'd stay in an alley for a while, examining the cats that roamed around their territory. What were his parents trying to do? Get Quadruplets instead?

During high school, all of his brothers had different classes, so they were never together, due to how they were troublemakers if they even make eye contact with each other. they were even on a special list of dangerous kids in the teacher's room.

Osomatsu dated many women, who dumped him in less than an hour. As well as poor grades. In his first year of middle school, he had to do it twice.

Karamatsu was even worse, not even getting farther than a single hug. Always trying to imitate the youngest brother, who was popular. He'd even hang out with his friends, causing them to mistake him for Todomatsu. Which if they fell for it, lowered the fifth brother's reputation.

Choromatsu became obsessed with light novels and manga, finding them more enjoyable to read than normal literature. Of course, that brought to him watching anime more often. And it aided him to escape from reality and loose stress once in a while.

And Todomatsu made plenty of friends, male and females. He was popular, creating gossip, as well as spreading it. He was also great at blackmail. The youngest also was invited to plenty of parties, possibly up to five every week.

But Ichimatsu didn't get any of that. Instead, he stayed after school in art class or went to the already mentioned alley. He'd assist the teachers that were in the classes he stayed at, cleaning chalk dust, stacking chairs, organizing drawers, etc.. The teachers were very quiet as well, not even exchanging a single word to the little boy.

That's all in the past now though, they were finally young adults. Freedom. They finally had it, twenty years of suffering, yearning for this moment. And they decided to take the freedom for granted, not even bothering to get a job. The Matsuno NEETs. They wouldn't even help their mother most of the time, well except the now mother-like and responsible Choromatsu.

"Oh, brothers!" Karamatsu opened the front door, a hand laid in front of his head with his eyes closed, posing dramatically. "It was no use! My Karamatsu Girls ignored me today as well!" "No shit Sherlock." Osomatsu laughed, noticing how the second brother was once again wearing his tank top that had his own face on it. "You're such an embarrassment! Take a break or quit already!" Todomatsu stated, giving out his opinion. Ichimatsu hummed in agreement.

All the second brother did was to frown at their responses, as he went to the closet to change his tank top to his blue hoodie, just like his brothers but in different colors. "I didn't want to hear that today," Ichimatsu muttered. "shittymatsu is just a pain." Choromatsu worriedly glancing over at his younger brother. "Ichimatsu, he is family-" "Family my ass, I hope he's a mistake." Osomatsu didn't even seem happy anymore with his third younger brother's prayer.

Karamatsu stepped back into the room empty-handed, walking over to the wooden circular table and sat down beside it. He rested his elbow on the table, his hand holding up his head.

"It's so... Quiet." Choromatsu sighed, flipping a page of a new newspaper left outside of their house early in the morning. "Yeah, should we go out?" Osomatsu asked, Todomatsu worriedly glanced over at the brother that was clad in blue, then back at the eldest brother. "Chibita's?" Karamatsu suggested. "Meh, we just went there two days ago." Osomatsu just shrugged. "How much is on our tab anyway?" Choromatsu cautiously asked. "¥11,038,900 probably." The brother in red attire chuckled. "Damn it Osomatsu..." He mumbled, flipping another page.

"Hah! Not my fault, his oden is some good shit!" "True." Ichimatsu agreed but was ignored. "Well, we don't need to buy anything," Karamatsu added. "Hmm, but what about the people that do want to buy something?" "Haven't you noticed?" Todomatsu raised a brow. "What?" The third brother switched his attention over to the youngest brother. "We seem to be the only ones that ever go to his stand." The second eldest sighed. "True, true. Such a tragedy. We might be the only customers he has, but we don't even pay."

Ichimatsu clicked his tongue, bringing a side conversation, "Can you ever stop being painful for even just a minute?". "Yeah, like... We should burn your clothes into ashes and let the ashes blow into the wind." Todomatsu said with a blank expression drawn on his face.

"Well, we can go and just visit Chibita as Karamatsu was saying..." Osomatsu attempted to bring back the previous chat, hiding the fact that he just wanted to get drunk with beer when they get there. "Well, as long as you all don't eat anything, I'm fine with that." The green brother placed his newspaper beside him, trying to get back up as he placed both hands on his knee as support.

A young man sighed, walking through empty dark hallways with no light source. "Why did he make it so dark in here?" He asked. Every day he would keep asking questions. "Why does he never see me anymore?" Sitting down on a chair, he turned on a retro tv, one of those televisions that were still in black and white.

He flickered through the channels with a remote that somehow worked for such an old version of the televisions, making the buttons useless. Each channel was a year. A year filled with memories, good, bad, embarrassing, and any other emotion the memories were from ever felt. The adult's eyes stopped when he found the number '1989' on the top left of the screen.

1989

A cursed year.

The year where he was rejected by someone he loved deep down onto his heart. He could feel it, the tears; The tears that were swelling in his eyes about to make them red and puffy.

Why can't I stop crying?

I'm being too over emotional.

Stop it.

He doesn't even know you exist anymore.

It's hopeless.