You're my Hanahaki Flower - Jeon Jungkook

¤ 4 ¤

¤ I bear the burden of the secret between you and me ¤

"And that's how we became friends." Jungkook finished his explanation, pointing at his friends from the music club.

"How come you never introduced them before?" I asked him very confused but also slightly surprised. If the - sometimes, shy and awkward Jungkook became close with them so quickly it must mean they really were easy to get along with people. 

"I only met them a few months ago." Jungkook shrugged slightly, not realizing 'a few months ago' was plenty of time to introduce them. "Since it hasn't been so long since I joined the club."

I immediately knew what he meant, putting the link between everything that happened, wasn't so difficult for me as he basically told me everything related to Hyeri and his progress. 

Jungkook started liking Hyeri 2 months ago and decided to join the club immediately. There he met them and became friends with them as Hyeri seemed quite close with them too.  After a month he got the Hanahaki disease and realized that staying with the club was his only way of interacting more with her. Especially since they had barely any classes with each other. 

I still didn't understand why it took him so long to introduce them, but I didn't want to pry into it too much. It's not like I asked him much about the people in his club either - except for Hyeri, so I was maybe partly to be blamed too. 

"Are you two in any after-school clubs?" Hoseok - the one with a bright expression, asked us with genuine curiosity.

"Arts club." I answered and Yeonji nodded her head.

"Same as Mimi," Yeonji said, gesturing at me and some of them glanced up at me out of curiosity.

"I'm surprised that Jungkook isn't part of the art club with his skills." Namjoon - the one with the soft dimple, stated and Jin - the black haired one who took the meal set, nodded his head in unison.

"Yeonji!" I groaned, on the other hand, not having heard their conversation. Jungkook - on the other hand, immediately grinned at us, knowing exactly why I groaned.

When I was young, Mimi sounded very cute in my ears, but now that I was ten years older it only sounded childish and cringey.

"Why? Mimi sounds cute." Yeonji protested indignantly as she had always been an advocate for keeping the nickname. "It's better than calling you Sosa, which sounds a lot like a samosa. I mean I would rather be associated with Mini-Mouse, than a stuffed triangle." 

"Noo, it doesn't." I groaned hiding my face in my hands out of embarrassment.

"I think it sounds cute." Jimin and Hyeri said in unison, yet when I gave them a look as if they were crazy everyone erupted in laughter.

Everything went well as we continued to joke around as the others started sharing their nicknames and stories behind them until Jungkook started coughing, and it only got worse by the second.

"Shit!" I caught Jungkooks glance, who looked at me with a look full of panic. 

I could see yellow flower petals drop down from his hand palm - which he used to cover his mouth, and I decided to take action before anyone noticed.

"Jungkook, you should've listened to me!" I announced loudly, as I stood up from my seat, ignoring the weirded outlooks from the others. "Why didn't you get your banana milk?"

Jungkook went allong with my act, and stood up from his chair. Despite him muffeling his coughs with his hand, they were still clearly visible, trough the shaking of his body.

"Sorry guys, we're going to buy some banana milk." I said looking around our table, earning confused looks from them, "Jungkook here needs to drink it with his lunch, or he'll end up coughing the whole day."

Some of them gave them very weirded out looks and I shrugged at them casually although on the inside I was praying for them to just believe me, "Don't ask me why, but he's got a weird body condition and equally weird habits." 

"I can go with him if you want." Namjoon proposed caringly and Jungkook looked at me horrified, "You still have lunch left."

"No it's allright, I'm stuffed." I quickly rushed to Jungkooks side before anyone else could protest, and grabbed his arm.

"I'll look after your bag." Yeonji did a thumbs up at me, as we rushed out of the canteen.

I praised Yeonji into heaven, for going along with our weird antics without asking questions. Although most of the times we would be polar opposites, I knew I could always count on her to hide a dead body with me, if needed. 

Whilst I dragged Jungkook allong, I managed to swiftly press a napkin against his hand, to prevent any more petals falling down.

"Jungkook, you owe me big time," I grumbled, as we rushed to our secret hide-out behind the janitor's room, in the school garden.

When we arrived there, I let go of Jungkook, and he finally let out the deep cough he had been holding back all this time. All the petals that had been piling up inside his mouth fell out and swirled to the ground onto a pile. If it was not for them coming out of his mouth, it would've been an ethereal sight. 

I patted his back in a reassuring mannerism, as I kept looking around, just in case anyone walked in on us and I had to cover him up. 

"Shouldn't it be less since you were next to Hyeri?" I asked him, totally not understanding the situation and the conditions of his disease. "Especially since you were getting along well?"

"I thought so too." Jungkook seemed  just as oblivious to the situation as me but I couldn't fully grasp the look in his eyes as he let out another cough, "But it seems to be actually way worse than normal."

As soon as he talked, the coughing got worse, and I was afraid he would choke right there.

"It's alright, you'll be fine." I kept on mumbling, as I continued to pat his back, "We'll solve this later, just keep on breathing."

Jungkook gave me a small nod before he focused on steadying his breath, and I continued to stay by his side when suddenly a thought flashed through my head.

"What if staying next to that person without receiving their mutual love actually makes it worse?" I opened my mouth to voice out my thought but when I saw how much trouble Jungkook was having -  due to the coughs, I closed my mouth again as I decided that now was not the right timing. 

I was somehow mesmerized by the yellow petals, and flowers, twirling down the ground. It fascinated me, how they could grow inside a human, moreover, they come out totally dry and unspoiled.

Slowly the coughing started calming down, and his breath became more steady. He straightened his back, and let out a few more coughs to clear his throat.

"I think your patting really helped," Jungkook said, as I handed him a tissue to wipe his mouth.

"I patted so hard, that al the flowers flew out of your mouth." I chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood a bit.

"I'm so glad to have you." Jungkook suddenly mumbled, avoiding my gaze "That you're not disgusted by me."

"I think it's beautiful." Jungkooks head jerked up in surprise by my answer, "Coughing up flowers for your love. That must mean your love is very special right?"

Jungkook stared at me with an unreadable expression, before he whispered - just when the winds set up and his speech became less clear for me, "Mimosa..."

~ Authors note ~

A double update today as a celebration of my birthday yesterday and the fact that I actually forgot to update chapter 3 yesterday 😂😂! Hopefully, you've enjoyed the book till now, because it's going to get a lot less calm unlike now.

XXx T