"As the pastel, pink cherry blossoms began to fall from the trees in front of the hospital's entrance, I came to the realization that this was going to be a difficult spring."

Karamatsu wrote in his journal, curled up in a chair with his leather-bound book. Next to him, there was a small coffee table, which currently had a delicate cup of tea on it, as well as a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"This year is going to be my very first spring without you. So much happened last year, I barely had time to even accept the fact that you had passed on."

Karamatsu reached for his cup of tea, taking a small sip. The piping hot fluid burned his tongue just a little, yet the tea felt so comforting as it trickled down his throat.

"It seems like just last year was the year you and I finally began to communicate smoothly with one another." Karamatsu recalled, turning his head to glance out the window beside his chair.

A stray cat was rubbing its head on an iron fence post outside of Karamatsu's lonely home. Rays of sunlight warmed the two of them, despite being in different locations.

"I'd say I miss you dearly, but truth be told, I've been at peace with myself up until today. It was my first day out of the house again, actually. I've just recently recovered from a dreadful illness. You'd probably laugh if you saw how pitiful I was acting! Osomatsu had to come over EVERY SIGLE DAY last week because of me."

Karamatsu smiled a little, the wrinkles on his old, lightly tanned skin deepening. He took yet another sip of his tea.

"So, my dearest brother, how has your new life been treating you? I would ask you so many questions if you could just come back to earth for a day, no- just an hour. That's all I really want."

The cat who had been rubbing itself on the fence post was now frolicking about in the grass, attempting to snag a light colored, yellow butterfly it had caught a glimpse of.

"I remember feeling nothing but relief the day you passed on....even though my lonely heart had just gotten even lonelier. I never had a reason to speak, and with you gone, now I REALLY couldn't speak. But, you know...that's just the way things had to be."

Looking up from his journal as he reached for his cup of tea, Karamatsu noticed his four brothers walking up the walkway to his house.

Todomatsu was in a wheelchair, being pushed by Jyushimatsu, who seemed to be the only brother still "well".

Osomatsu walked along, hunched over, his hands trembling as he gripped his cane with all his might.

Choromatsu followed closely behind Osomatsu, hacking and coughing in the process.

"Forgive me, Ichimatsu," Karamatsu spoke softly to his journal as he closed it and put his pen down next to it. "Our brothers have come to visit me today. This is an unexpected treat."

Karamatsu's bones ached as he struggled to pull himself up out of his comfy reading chair.

Grabbing ahold of his own wooden cane, the elderly man slipped on his plush, blue slippers.

Hunched over (due to chronic back pain), Karamatsu struggled to make his way to the door of his small garden home. But once he got there, he was delighted to have made the effort of walking twice in one day. (For, you see, earlier that day, he had gone out for a 'morning walk' to the hospital to catch some fresh air for his old, withered lungs.) His brothers always made him glad to still be alive.

With great urgency, he unlocked the front door as fast as his old, gnarly hands would allow him.

"My brothers!" Karamatsu exclaimed in a joyful wheeze. "I'm so happy to see you all! And on such a lovely day at that! Please, make yourselves at home!"

"I don't mind if I do," Osomatsu replied, grinning as he crept slowly into the house, his brothers following.

Todomatsu, whom had somehow fallen asleep on their walk to Karamatsu's house, jerked his head up, gasping for air a little in shock.

"Where am I?!" he rasped, slyly looking around the room, eyeing all his brothers.

"We're visiting Karamatsu!" Jyushimatsu replied, jerking Todomatsu's wheelchair back and forth. "Today is a special day!"

"What?!" Choromatsu yelled, adjusting his hearing aid. "REPEAT THAT PLEASE!"

"Goodness..." Osomatsu sighed, his eyes shining as if he were a young man again as he looked at his younger brother, Karamatsu. "Are you ready to go?"

"Where are we going?" Karamatsu asked, realizing that he wasn't remembering things as well as he used to.

"To pay our respects to Ichimatsu," Osomatsu bowed his head a little. "Today is the day he passed on last year."

"Ah," Karamatsu sighed a little. "No wonder he was on my mind today."

"How have you been doing without Ichimatsu, anyways?" Todomatsu asked, yawning a little. "We all paired up once we got older to help each other. I have Jyushimatsu, Osomatsu has Choromatsu, but you're just...alone."

Karamatsu chuckled a little, then turned his head, glancing back into his cozy living room where his tea and journal rested on the small coffee table.

"I've been managing," Karamatsu sighed. "I was always the one caring for Ichimatsu. And- I'm not complaining or anything. It's just...that poor thing could never really do anything back."

"WHEN DID HE EVEN START GOING DOWNHILL? WASN'T IT A GOOD SIXTY YEARS AGO?" Choromatsu yelled, attempting to hear himself.

"Ah...yes..." Karamatsu smiled, remembering the day he and Ichimatsu were forced to live together. "Those days were...quite bittersweet..."