It didn't take long to find the duffle bag. It took about 5 minutes as Osomatsu went through 2 other rooms, the kitchen and guest room, before finding the parent's room. Or, that's what he assumed it was.

It was near the corner of the room and he immediately zoomed to it. The first thing he did was open it and check to see all the contents were inside. Once he was sure everything was left untouched, he hugged the bag close to his chest. It was the only thing he ever owned along with the contents inside, the only thing he was able to control and keep - part of his freedom.

After some moments of silence with his bag, he decided it wouldn't hurt to look around. It was a habit to look in all drawers of a room he entered, mostly to look for money, jewelry, or something useful or specific. Now, it was more to see if there was anything interesting and by pure curiosity.

What surprised him was how little clothes there were in the drawers. What also was off was the fact none of them were there despite being told this is their parent's house and this was their room. The only obvious proof of them other than the few clothes in a drawers was what seemed to be a wedding picture on top of the drawers. There was a tall woman with big round glasses and her hair put into a neat bun with a long white dress. It was a pretty simple dress, nothing too fancy with little design on the chest. Next to her was a short man with obvious buck teeth, a big nose, and in a black suit and a red rose on the suit's pocket. They both looked so happy together, as if they were meant to be together.

"Ew," he teasingly whispered to himself. Happy endings and couples were too sappy and sweet that it could give him cavities. They weren't really something he was interested in, he was never that romantic to begin with. Besides, he'd seen multiple 'lovers' betray each other to save themselves. It wasn't a loss he wanted to deal with and had more cons than pros to be in love. He preferred one night stands, where there is very little to no space for love.

After finishing looking through the drawers he moved onto a bookshelf, which was barely filled with books. As he moved from the bottom to the top all that was found was some more clothes, useless objects, and more junk. Nothing too interesting worth taking if he were to. The top shelf was hard to reach and there were items on top of the shelf too.

The perfect place to hide anything interesting and something that wasnt supposed to be found.

He took a small stool that was near a desk and got on it, looking at the top shelf and on top. It seemed it was another bust, until a big shoe box shaped box was on the very back on top of the shelf hitting the wall. It was made of cardbord and looked a little warn out. It was closed with a cardboard lid and two strings tied to it, one horizontally and the other vertically meeting in the middle in a tight neat knot.

The best reason he could think of for why it was hidden here was it could be some secret stash of money they hid from their sons. He thought about it for a second. Am I really going to steal money from my 'parents' who don't even know if I'm alive? Money they could've saved up for something they've wanted or was important to them? They seem to be living fine. Maybe not rich but definitely not poor! They also have actual jobs and people to care for them money and house wise, but what did Osomatsu have? Nothing. All the money he'd ever earn was stolen, and even then he always got pocket change. He obviously need it more. He also didnt exactly have a home, he never did because of so much moving. The closest thing to home was just cheap motels. But stealing hidden important money from his family would be so terrible and heartless!

Osomatsu decided he was always terrible and always will be, so he'll take the box.

It was hard to reach from where he was and even had to tiptoe on the chair, not the brightest idea since he was standing on a stool.

He finally reached the box and tried his best to bring it toward himself to get a better grip. Once he was able to put his hands on the sides of the box, he held it in an iron grip and pushed it towards himself. It was a little heavy, so it must've been a lot of cash!

What he didn't expect, was once the box was right in front of him and he was going to carefully take it down, a book on top of the box he didn't notice before slid down and hit him right in the face, mostly hurting his nose. The unexpected book and pain made him lean back. Terrible idea. The stool went with his weight, going back as well. The unbalance made Osomatsu fall back with the chair with a loud thud!

If his 5 brothers didn't wake up from that, damn were they heavy sleepers! Osomatsu's head and back throbbed by the fall, letting out groans of pain. It seemed he managed to take the box down and was still in his iron grip. He decided to let it go and fall on his stomach and roll to the side to hold his head from the paining headache of the fall.

He prompted himself up in a sitting position with his elbow as other hand held his head. Several seconds passed before the pain eased for it to become bearable. Headaches weren't anything really new to him, he's had terrible ones from being hit with a glass bottles, those were the worst. Or the ones you get from hangovers. No matter, headaches in general just sucked, some more than others.

He looked around himself to see the book that hit him. It wasn't so big but the covers made it seem so. It looked like one of those photo albums. Curiosity at its peak once again, he opened the cover and went to the second page to find it was a photo album, an old one at that. The pages had see-through pockets, making it easy to put the pictures it. This particular page contained more pictures of the woman and man he saw in the wedding photo, his parents? Well this was interesting. Not exactly something he was looking for, but now he was able to see how his baby brothers grew up!

A shift in his position to put the album in his lap moved his main object, which made him quickly realized how he side-tracked from his main goal. He placed the album on his lap as he reached for the box. The box seemed in good condition, despite looking old and the fall. There was dust gathered on top of the box showing it hasn't been opened in a while.

Without hesitation or even slight carefulness, Osomatsu tore the strings that kept the box closed and removed the top with excitement and a proud grin. The contents inside turned his proud grin in an exaggerated frown as all he saw were letters. Pride turned to disappointment. There was no way he went through all that trouble just for letters, but maybe there was something interesting about them. The top letter looked new and as he picked it up he turned it around to see it was closed. When he picked up more letters, they were also closed, no indication of any of them being open.

'Why keep letters if you were never going to open them? Let alone so many!'

Osomatsu decided to read the front of a letter before setting it back and determining whether it was worth the trouble and a headache. Probably not. Maybe they could be checks? No, that's just stupid. Once the letter was turned around he tried to read who it was from. The writing was neat and average sized done in pencil. It read:

Todomatsu

'That's it? Nothing else? Not a "From" or "To", just his name? Well that's kinda pointless. Why write a letter with a name not saying if this is who it was from or for who it was for? Ah that was so confusing!'

Now thinking might not be Osomatsu's strong suit, but he was sure if he was to open these letters or even one it would be obvious. None of them were open, so why would just one be open? Deciding that this was too weird and complicated, and definitely not worth anything he just went through, he went to grab the lid of the box. Once he grabbed the lid, something else caught his attention. There was a folded piece of paper taped on there reading:

To Osomatsu

Now that was interesting.

Not thinking of any further consequences, he took the tape off and unfolded the paper. Reading was another thing he wasn't special at- Ah you know what? From now on, he wasn't good at anything unless he said so considering nothing was his specialty. Reading Japanese despite being Japanese counts in the not good at anything considering the only Japanese he's ever had to read were airport signs and if he ever wrote a note to Osomatsu, whether it was he was going out or errands. Mostly the latter.

The writing was shaky but neat, the paper on the other hand seemed so delicate and old. There was some stains as well, mostly near the end making it slightly harder to read, thankful it wasn't too hard to read to make his life harder.

Dear Osomatsu,

I'm not sure when you'll get to read this note, or if you ever will, but I decided to write it anyway because I will always believe there is a chance you'll come home no matter how much time passes. I will continue to believe you're alive until proven otherwise, you must be if you're reading this.

Oh my Osomatsu, I'm so sorry we let something so horrible happen to you, no one can even imagen what you've been through and had to suffer, no amount of apologizes or amount of anything will ever make it up to you. Its been hard on all of us, your brothers, your friends, your father and on me.

Now, I'm sure you don't want to read all this rambling, I haven't even told you what this letter means or why I decided to write it. Your brothers are going to start high school soon, scary isn't it? My baby boys are growing up so fast! I hoped you'd be here too. But it seems we have failed you, I'm sorry Osomatsu.

I then realized you'll be missing how nervous they are, you might have found it funny or help ease their worries like a good big brother you are. So we decided that anytime a change like this, a change so big! Your brothers will write something to you. Some of them have already written letters to you in hopes to send it somewhere to find you, it always warmed my heart that they would want to write to you and even decided to write on their own.

Your brothers don't know where these letters go once they write them and I pretend to put it in the mailbox as if I sent them somewhere for you to find, or maybe they think they'll simply get thrown away and this was just to 'trick' them into writing about themselves. Well that isn't a total lie now is it Osomatsu?

I kept and will keep all their letters and put them safely in this box in hopes that I'll give them to you, so you can, in a way, see how your brothers have grown.

I'll make sure they write you one every single time the time seems appropriate or if . . . another year passes.     I want you to know so much about your brothers because I don't want you to feel like such a stranger in your own home or like you don't know anything about them, it would break my heart.

I know it won't be so easy for them, its been so hard without you, Osomatsu. So please, bare with any type of letters you will get, okay? For them. For me.

It will reassure me greatly and ease  my heart to know you're reading this note, because it means you're safe and we managed to get you back Osomatsu, to bring you home! I just hope you promise me to try and read these letters okay? Can you promise me that, Osomatsu? I can see they put so much thought in many of these. You can read them on your own pace of course, and I'll understand if you don't want to, I won't hold it against you in a way. I will never hold anything against you.

I love you so much Osomatsu, we all miss you. I'm so glad you're home.

From your loving mother,

Matsuyo