✔︎ unrequited flowers | nishimura riki

XXX : epilogue

When Sunoo realised, he was gone.

Sunoo wakes up in an unfamiliar sterile room with a tube up his nose. He can hear beeping and the quiet murmur of someone speaking in the hall. A hospital then. He flexes his fingers and toes, goes through a mental rundown of his body parts to make sure they're all in one piece before he tries to sit up and see what he's working with.

His airway is...clear. No harsh scratches whatsoever, he sucks in a greedy lungful of oxygen expecting pain. When none comes, Sunoo clutches at his throat expecting to feel stitches.

Nothing.

The curtain around his bed rattles and he looks up in time to see Ni-Ki, disheveled and bleary-eyed, eyes crying out as he clenches his fists, doctors finally come rushing in. Sunoo opens his mouth to say something. "What happened ? A-Ayano ? Ni-Ki ?" He said, sitting up. "No.. D-Did I fail ? Ayano doesn't have m-much time left !!"

His vision turned white as now he stood in the middle of a huge garden. "Where am I ?" The boy turned around to see an angel, sitting against a half bloomed cherry blossom tree and petals were falling out fast. Then it hit him.

"Sunghoon ? You're awake !"

.

Sunoo painfully watches as Ni-Ki screams with Ayano's cold and dead body on the floor in a pool of her own blood.

"AYANO CHINEN !!! KIM SUNOO !! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME ?!!"

Sunoo sobbed as he saw the tree behind him, all the flowers and petals were on the ground, covering the green grass. "Hi, Sunoo." Sunghoon said as he landed, standing next to the boy who was in tears. "A-Ayano- w-where is she ?" Sunghoon sat down next to him and pulled Sunoo in for a hug.

"She's in a better place now, Sunoo. I-I couldn't stop her either, e-even if I wanted to."

Sunoo could hear Ni-Ki's loud sobbings as they all cried together.

.

Ni-KI walked down the path, the cherry blossoms no longer in bloom. The petals withering away on the cold ground. The boy stopped in front of the tree before the weeping cherry blossom trees. He stood in front of the tree that took everything from him. He sat against the hard bark of the tree as Sunoo had once done. The bark wailed against the pressure, as if it knew what it had taken.

Ni-Ki closed his eyes, as the memories and voices of Sunoo echoed in his head. All loud and full of energy, the perfect embodiment of his lover.

Sunoo smiled at him.
He smiled back.

He thinks it's beautiful.
You're beautiful.

Ni-Ki, it hurts.
I'm here. It's okay.

He opened his eyes to see Ayano kneeling down in front of him. "I knew I'd find you here." Ni-Ki rubbed at his chest, sucking in a deep breath as he moved over slightly, allowing the girl to sit next to him.

Ni-Ki thought it was just a hallucination since he got it every time after his best friend and his lover had passed away.

Ayano coughed, she tried to catch her breath but was cut off by harsh coughs ripping through her throat. Ni-Ki patted the girl's upper back, attempting to help dislodge whatever was caught in her throat. She took in a breath, finally dislodging the object from her throat. Ayano removed her hands from her mouth as a delicate cherry blossom petal floated down onto her lap.

Ayano picked up the flower petal, and she looked at Ni-Ki with knowing eyes.

"You really loved him didn't you?"

It was true. Ni-Ki was hallucinating. He still can't get a grip of himself after what had happened. The boy blamed himself for so many things after the deaths occured.

Ni-Ki's lip quivered in unshed tears, as he stared at the petal in Ayano's hand. Without Sunoo and Ayano, the ache in his chest had consumed him. Both of them were able to see the beauty in everything, even in something so cruel. He looked up at the branches of Ayano's tree, next to her grave, even with no flowers it was beautiful. Ayano wished he would be able to see the hidden beauty in her own flowers.

Sunghoon had been locked up in his room, up above where he belonged as he still thinks about what would have happened if he saved all three. He needed to move on now, despite the thought of failing his mission of being someone's guardian angel. 

Sunghoon hadn't been able to see Sunoo and Ayano anymore.

And neither would Ni-Ki.

goodbye <3

see you next time, 

chen.