Loves Me, Loves Me Not (ONESHOT)

Her Petals

(Oneshot)

The wind blew softly—the smell of summer creeping in. Inside a noisy classroom—consisting of a dynamic set of students. They were divided yet united as a class. Each of them was with their friends—some preferred to be alone. The class was allowed free time since they had finished their tasks early.

Right beside the window—was a group of friends. There were around 7 of them seated near each other. 3 of them were talking amongst themselves—and the other 3 were having their conversation. One of them—was spaced out. She was unusually quiet—her personality was normally loud and bubbly—but she simply watched everyone converse— yet her eyes were drawn to one person.

"Rie? What's wrong?" Her friend—Blake asked in a concerned tone. The rest of the group turned to her—they were just as curious. "Nothing. it's that time of the month. I'll just go to the restroom." She got up—and showed her regular smile—it was a lie which they believed.

As she walked through the empty hallways—the sun beaming through the windows the students were still in class. Her chest felt heavy—yet her head felt light. She didn't have her period that day—nor was she in any way sick. She went into the dimmed restroom. The lights were closed—and the stalls were open. It was empty. She approached the sink slowly—holding onto the surface while taking deep breaths. Her chest felt tight—and her throat felt sour. She swallowed hard—but something felt like it was coming out of her throat.

Rie leaned down the sink—holding tightly on the surface. She coughs down the sink—something came out. It was a few pink petals—covered in blood. She froze in fear—petals? How could there be petals?

She looked around the room—the windows were closed. It was summer—cherry blossoms shouldn't be growing at this time around. Her stomach fell as she stared at the sink in confusion. Her first instinct was to check her phone—which was luckily in her pocket. "Coughing up pink petals" she searched online.

Her hands trembled as she scrolled through the results—it was the same thing—the Hanahaki disease. The more she looked through this disease—the more it all made sense. The disease was caused by one-sided love. It gets progressively worse the longer one has these unrequited feelings. The only cure is for the feelings to become mutual—or for the person to move on.

She chuckled in pity for herself. "Of course," she mumbled. Rie has feelings for someone—a friend. It wasn't always like this—the feeling was admiration at first. He was extremely talented; whether it be in sports or academics—he was someone humble about it—he had the looks too; he was tall and had a sweet smile. Not to mention—funny with a great sense of style. The ideal friend. Rie sighed heavily, cleaning up the sink. She realized she was sick, and it could be fatal.

As she walked back to the classroom, her eyes shifted straight to him. Her heart fluttered the second she saw his smile as he bantered with their friends. She took a deep breath before walking to them, she had to move on, she set her mind to it.

"Rie, can you help me with this?" He said everything else didn't matter at that moment. "Okay." She chuckled, sitting next to him. His scent was strong—"So what do you think of this?" He pointed at his tablet showing his work. Rie couldn't see from her position—so she moved closer. Her heart was beating out of her chest but she remained composed; "Yeah, it's good." she said—sitting back. It had always been like this—acting nonchalant when deep inside she felt like her chest was going to explode.

A few days later—she continued to cough up petals. Yet she kept it to herself, the pain became tolerable—but the petals increased and so did the blood. She tried to avoid him—but that was difficult since he knew she had feelings for him. He made it clear that they could only be friends and that he appreciated her feelings. Months ago when he found out from a mutual friend—he handled it maturely which made things much more difficult for Rie.