“Masaru, don’t run while pushing the cart!”

“He shouldn’t be running in the first place,” added Daiki, seeing his black-haired brother as if he were an idiot. Daitaro watched in silence, on the one hand he knew it was wrong for him to run like crazy, but… It was true that he looked adorable running so excitedly.

“Anyway…” said the redhead as he concluded that he would soon stop him, for now he would give him the freedom to run… hoping he wouldn’t knock anything over. He looked at his blond brother, who was also looking at Masaru, only he was wondering how fun it could be to run like that.

“Mitsuru, you can’t come with us,” at that statement, Mitsuru looked at Daitaro, thinking he hadn’t heard correctly.

“Eh…?”

“It’s better for you to wait, we won’t take long.”

“Why…?”

“It’s just that pets aren’t allowed and you’re carrying Hachi.”

“Oh, that…” Mitsuru muttered as he felt calmer. He felt a little foolish for having misunderstood…

“Ah! Would you rather take a look inside? I can stay with Hachi if you want!,” Daitaro suggested, considering that perhaps Mitsuru wanted to enter the store. Mitsuru looked confused by this and proceeded to shake his head.

“No, it’s not that…”

Not liking what was happening, Daiki let go of his twin’s hand and instead approached Mitsuru to hold Hachi, both Daitaro and Mitsuru looked at him curiously.

“We'll be near the cash registers, don't take too long.”

“Daiki…?” Daitaro couldn't understand the reason why his twin suddenly said that, however, he just stared at the way Daiki walked away with Mitsuru.

Without being able to think about it any further, Daitaro suddenly felt his cell phone vibrate, a miraculous moment in the unfortunate history of missed calls. He held the phone and checked curiously and was soon surprised to see who it was from.

The boy felt the cell phone vibrate as he walked towards an empty hallway. Trying to calm his racing heart, he soon accepted the call in fear that the vibration would stop.

“Hello?”

“Daitaro?” a male voice questioned with a familiar tone.

“Oh, D-uncle Julius… Hi…,” the red-haired boy answered nervously. He didn't hear any noise, so he wondered in which part of the hospital his uncle was at that moment.

“I don’t have much time but I want to know what you’re doing” it was a strange way of phrasing it, but… Daitaro couldn’t help but smile knowing that he was taking the opportunity to call them despite being very busy.

“Oh well, we came to the store, Masaru wanted to make-” as he said this, the boy recalled what his twin had said and thus stopped; however, the other’s tone of voice didn’t change much, it just had a contemplative air.

“The store? What for?”

“It's just that Masaru wants to try to cook something and we didn’t have the ingredients…”

“Oh, he is into cooking? How surprising…”

“I hope you’re okay, uncle”

“Somehow, yes” he answered simply. “What about you four?”

“...We are fine, nothing… to worry about”

“It’s been cold lately, are you wearing warm clothes?”

“Uh… I forgot to put on my jacket, but I’m not cold.”

“The weather has been really weird, I don’t want to have to take you to the hospital.”

“Yeah, I even saw a tree that looked like an autumn one when we were on our way to the store, it’s summer but it doesn’t feel like it,” the boy answered, not wanting to overthink what the adult had said about the hospital.

“Daitaro, don’t forget your jacket again.”

“But it’s not…”

“….”

“Okay…” Daitaro answered, not being able to help but feel happy that his uncle insisted.

“How is Masaru?”

“He’s just as hyperactive as ever, right now he’s exploring the aisles of the supermarket, he looks really happy.”

“I see. What about Mitsuru?”

“He’s still glued to his video game, but today he accompanied us to the supermarket.”

“…Hm. How is Daiki?”

“…He’s fine, he’s waiting near the cash registers with Mitsuru.”

“Are they wearing jackets?”

“Yeah…, well, Daiki is wearing long sleeves.”

“…”

“Should I make him wear a jacket too?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure of that.”

“And you?”

“That’s… I’m fine, but I was wondering when…”

“When…?”

“…When are you coming?” Daitaro asked in a small voice as he felt his face turn red. “But I know you’re busy, so…”

“I can see you today around 7:00 pm.”

“Huh…?” Hearing that, Daitaro felt small tears forming in his eyes. “Really…? Aren’t you really busy?”

“I don’t have a night shift today.”

“Oh…, but you’re two hours away… you don’t mind coming?”

“Would you prefer me not going?”

“No, no, I want to see you!” Daitaro said as he raised his voice before lowering it feeling really embarrassed.

I’ll take you to dinner, invite your brothers”

“I can ask them, but Daiki may not…”

«I see…»

“But I'll go see you by myself even if they don't come, da-uncle!”

«…» after a moment of silence, Julius let out a sigh, while Daitaro couldn't handle the embarrassment at that moment.

“I'm sorry, I didn't…”

“It's okay”

“Really…?”

“I'll text you when I get there” the redhead heard before the other hung up.

Daitaro held his face feeling very embarrassed and irritated towards himself.

“That was so embarrassing… How many times have I misspoke so far?”

“You say that but you have his contact by that name” hearing his brother's sudden voice, Daitaro jumped and looked at him with an expression similar to the ones Daiki made when he was angry and embarrassed.

“M-Masaru?! What you hear-”

“I passed by the hallway on the other side and heard you raise your voice in a weird way so yeah, I heard enough”

Hearing this, Daitaro hid his face with his hands. Masaru gave him a toothy smile, finding that side of his brother very amusing.

“Ahaha, Rage, you are really funny, although I don't think the boss will be happy about you telling him everything”

“Thank goodness you were the one who heard me, but hey, our uncle didn't sound upset or anything”

“Well, I'm not surprised. I knew it was more of the boss's paranoia to think he would kick us out of the apartment for cooking” he suggested while Daitaro nodded in agreement with him.

“Oh and don't worry, I don't plan on being a third wheel on your date with your dad” hearing this, Daitaro gave him a complex but evidently conflicted expression.

“No, no, he's not my dad… You shouldn't say things that can be used as gossip”

“Well, I mean, would it be bad? You two look identical to him”

“Masaru, he's the little brother of…”

“Mom's little brother? Uh… He's not older than twenty? He's old, right?” the black-haired boy suggested.

“She was way older than him”

“Really? Well, I don't remember, so I'll take your word for it”

“Look, none of that matters, the important thing here is that they’re siblings and it's not right for you to talk like that”

“Oh- right… Ok, ok, I won't be a third wheel in your quality time with your not dad”

Daitaro blushed and frowned while proceeding to lightly hit Masaru on the shoulders repeatedly in protest.

“Don't be like that, stop teasing me!”

“Ok, ok, but I'm serious, I know how important it is to you so it's okay”

“But…”

“Don't worry, I'm sure Mitsuru thinks the same. Do you want me to ask him?”

“Yes, but…”

Masaru thought about what could be bothering him for a moment.

“Oh, you mean the boss…” he concluded. “Yeah, he probably won't take it very well, but it's not like you need his permission to go”

“I guess…” Hearing his brother's unsure tone, Masaru grabbed his arm.

“Rage, if you're going to tell him, I just want you to promise me that you won't let what the boss says interfere with what you really want to do”

“Masaru…”

“You're not Daiki and you don't have to pay attention to what he wants or doesn't want, there are times when you have to look out for your own interests and not listen to others”

“Really…?”

“But just as it's okay for you to do what you want, if the boss tells you he doesn't want to go, it's better not to insist. You know that if I thought he was a terrible person I wouldn't agree to you going, we all think differently about the guy, but if you want to see him... don't let anyone stop you.”

The redhead gave him a smile full of joy and proceeded to hug his brother with overflowing gratitude for his support, however, Masaru stared into the horizon as if he had simply resigned himself to his fate.

“Was the hug necessary...?”

“Yes! I'm thanking my adorable brother after all,” Daitaro commented. “I promise I won't feel discouraged even if Daiki hates me for it.”

Masaru sighed, believing he was hopeless, he then continued looking around the aisles, this time with Daitaro, who was looking at the products lost in his own world. The black-haired boy didn't have such a strong opinion about his uncle, but his twin brothers had extremely opposite stances from each other, stances that Masaru believed had their reason to be.

It was a bit regrettable but he didn't remember much about the adult before living in the current apartment, so he tried to be neutral and appease Daiki when his negative thoughts overwhelmed him regarding him.

He didn't know why Daitaro was looking so much for someone who had left them in an apartment far from him, but he supposed it was normal to want to be close to the relative who has a chillingly similar appearance to yours, and somehow he believed that this same resemblance was something that affected Daiki in a negative way.

He respected Daitaro's feelings since he wanted to support the freedom of doing what makes you happy, but he had to be honest in that he understood Daiki way more in this aspect, since... Living away from the person who was in charge of them did feel... strange.

"Oh! Masaru, look what I found!" Daitaro exclaimed in a very good mood. Masaru approached with curiosity and peeked at what he was looking at…, turning out to be a small cafeteria. Daitaro approached to look at the cakes, while Masaru stayed checking the menu, the boy who was currently behind the counter looked at the redhead with a smile.

“Looking for something in particular? We have new ice cream flavors if you want to try. Also, we have pie, cookies and other sweets”

Daitaro looked at the boy curiously. Was he about 16 or 17 years old? What was he doing working at the supermarket? Yes, he really had no idea how old he would need to be so it didn’t seem strange to him, but… Weren’t there usually older men or older women working instead? Maybe he was overthinking, but…

“Yes?”

Masaru, who had been looking at the cookies, turned to look at the brown-haired boy. He wore violet glasses and had his hair tied in a small low ponytail; however, he seemed equally interested in his age.

“Is it normal for someone so young to work at the supermarket’s cafeteria?” Masaru asked without any shame.

“Huh?” the boy with violet glasses uttered, not having expected that question. Daitaro looked at Masaru with some disbelief.

“Masaru…” the redhead sighed before looking at the boy again. “I’m sorry, he often just says what he thinks, I hope it didn’t offend you.”

“Oh, no, not at all, it just took me by surprise,” the boy commented. “So would you like-”

“Do you usually work here?” Daitaro looked at Masaru, not understanding why he was asking him that.

“Uhm… only two days a week. It’s a part-time job,” he explained. Masaru remained pensive as he looked at him. “Is something wrong…?”

“Hm, I don’t know, I feel like I’ve seen you before but I can’t pin point where,” Masaru commented as he put his hand on his chin while frowning at him suspiciously.

“Oh…” the boy muttered as he let out a nervous laugh.

“Masaru, why don’t you look at the menu and pick something?” Daitaro suggested, not wanting to have to deal with the awkward air that had formed from one moment to the next.

“Tsuki, I’m back!” exclaimed someone who had arrived carrying a paper bag in his arms. The boy with violet glasses looked at him with slight displeasure.

“That’s the longest trip to the bathroom you’ve ever had.”

“Maybe, but look, I brought you your favorite scones,” the boy said as he offered him the bag of bread.

“I didn’t know they sold scones in the bathroom and…” Tsuki pointed to his cheek discreetly, wanting to indicate that he had a kiss mark on it. The boy understood immediately and proceeded to clean himself with a wet wipe that he happened to have in one of his pockets.