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Apple Disease

Osamu’s face has been weirdly red for the past few days. At first, we just thought he was flushed from running around, but then we all started giving him that look, the concerned parent look. He caught on pretty quickly, especially after seeing his reflection, and kept insisting, “I’m just hot from playing with Kenzo!”

Turns out, nope. Not just running. Apple Disease.

Eri took him to the doctor after kindergarten today, and that’s what they diagnosed him with. I had never even heard of Apple Disease before, and when I looked it up in English, it still made no sense to me. Apparently it's called Fifth Disease, which sounds way more ominous than Apple Disease. What happened to the first four diseases?

It's been spreading around Sendai lately, but it's one of those illnesses that is more of an inconvenience than anything serious. Kids turn bright red, feel pretty blah, and sometimes run a slightly higher temperature, luckily not so much in Osamu’s case. Oh but the best part is the bright red face only shows up after they are no longer contagious. When kids are actually spreading it, they look totally normal. No warning, no way to stop it. Just a secret virus. That scares me. Like what if a virus that is lethal spread that way? Yay for random thoughts that make no sense.

And also there's no medicine for Apple Disease. You just wait it out, and in a week the redness fades. Osamu is totally fine, just looking like he spent too much time in the sun or blushing intensely.

If kids are gonna catch something, you could do a lot worse than Apple Disease. It even sounds kind of fun. Apples are great. People love apples.

Outside the pharmacy enjoying a snack.

The doctor prescribed some itch cream and a backup fever reducer. By evening he was already looking better.

He graduates from kindergarten in 9 days and starts first grade in 29 days.

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