Flowers Within Me (Annyeongz/Jinjoo)

Chapter 1

Wonyoung's POV

     "Hanahaki Disease is a disease in which the victim coughs out flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. It ends when the beloved returns their feelings, or when the victim DIES. It can be cured through surgical removal, but when the infection is removed, the victim's romantic feelings for their love also disappear." ONE-SIDED LOVE? DIES? I stared at the petal I coughed out just a while ago. A petal literally just came out of my mouth. I know it's dumb of me to believe this but this article was the only explanation to what just happened. If this is true then...

     Who do I love? I kept thinking until I felt a pair of arms snaked around my waist and a chin leaning on my shoulder. I immediately knew who it was since I'm at the abandoned playground next to our school, only two of us knew of this place, it was I and her.

     I felt her warm breath on my neck and immediately hid my phone and the petal in my uniform's pocket. I felt her tighten her hold on me and move her face closer.

     "Why, are you hiding something from me now?"  I looked at her and saw that she was too close, way too close, my face felt  warm. I felt my throat go soar again. It was ticklish and painful at the same time, it felt like my chest was tightening, so I held her face and shoved it away before I covered my face.I couldn't stop myself from coughing. I felt another petal fall on my hand. I quickly hid it in my pocket again.

     "You didn't have to shove me away. What's your problem?", she said, not noticing the flower petal that came out of my mouth since I covered it with my mouth. She was now seated on the swing next to the one I was sitting on, with her arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed.

     "You smell bad. You didn't take a bath again, did you?", I said, trying to cover up why I coughed. I saw her face go red as she tried to smell herself. She looked back to me, clearly flustered and mad.

     "Wha-What do you mean? No, I don't. And of course I took a bath!", she said and pretended that she was about to hit me.

     "Really? We've been best friends for so many years already. You don't think I've noticed that you're too lazy to take a bath sometimes?", I said with my eyebrows raised. Now it's my time to cross my arms.

     I couldn't help but laugh as she was so flustered and embarrassed  that she couldn't speak. After a while, she started laughing too.

     I stared at her while she laughed, realizing only now that her dimples are so deep, her eyes became crescents and her laugh makes me laugh and feel warm. She's pretty. Really pretty.

     "YAH! Why are you staring at me like that? I know my face is pretty but you don't have to make it obvious by gawking at me like that." She said and then laughed again while wiggling her eyebrows repeatedly. Now it was my turn to be flustered. I felt another petal coming up, my throat getting try and painful again. I tried to surpress my cough.

     "Don't you have classes this period, Unnie?" I said making her stop and look at her watch.

     "Oh, shi-, Right. See you later." She said quickly before before running inside the school, to her classroom. I finally coughed out what I was holding, the pain was burning my chest. It gets tighter and more painful everytime I held it in. Everytime I breathe in and out, I could feel the petals in my throat and chest. This time, I coughed out more than just one.

     A sudden realization hit me. Is it her?

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      During class, I couldn't stop thinking about everything, the flowers, the possibility of death and her. I remembered every detail of that face of hers. Her eyes which were playful yet luring, her pointed nose, her dimples deeper than whatever deep thing you can think of and her lips, they looked perfect, pink and so soft, I wonder what they felt li- NO. SHE'S YOUR BEST FRIEND. NO.