Holding a hot cup of instant noodles that Hiroko had heated up for her, Komaru leaned back against the sofa. "So what's up with me chocking up petals?"
"Do you have any breathing problems?"
"Well, I did feel like I have some issues recently."
"In your lung?"
"Well, where else would I breathe from?" Komaru chuckled, but regretted it afterwards as her lung throbbed.
"Oh no- KoKo I know what's wrong with you." Hiroko rubbed her forearm, looking deadly serious. This was her more motherly side, a side that often only came out when Yasuhiro was in danger or trouble.
"What is it?"
Hiroko stood up, and opened a cabinet. She took a key from the cabinet and opened another cabinet. There was a big bouquet of wilted flowers that Komaru didn't recognise. Upon closer inspection, she assumed they were once a light pinkish color, maybe salmon?
"Flowers?"
Hiroko nodded, "This is what killed my marriage." She frowned.
"Hiro's dad. You said that he divorced you because of something you did that went on too long, right?"
"I'm not proud to admit it, but at some point in our marriage, I stopped loving him.
"I should have done something. I was so desperate to keep the family together but- I didn't love him. I shouldn't have done what I did. I shouldn't have cheated on him."
Komaru slurped a noodle, listening intently.
"He didn't realise what was happening until he went to the doctor. The doctor said it was 'Hanahaki' a disease where when you love someone and they don't love you back, a flower starts growing in your chest. Doc said they could remove it with a surgery.
"He came home that night and we had a huge fight. He told me about the flower, and demanded to know who it was. There wasn't anyone else, but he didn't listen. We officially broke it off the next week.
"A few days after, this showed up at my door, with a note." Hiroko finished passing the note to Komaru.
The note read 'Although my love for you was beautiful, it suffocated me'.
"He was a bit of a poet." Hiroko smiled sadly.
Komaru looked at the bouquet, and then at Hiroko, who was dragging a cigar through the air.
"Am I going to die?"
"No no no no." Hiroko assured her, "You can get it removed. You get rid of your feelings for her with the flowers!"
"Otherwise?"
"Unless your Fufu loves you back, you die."
Komaru nodded, "Thanks for the help, Hiroko. I'll sleep on it."
Hiroko looked after the girl as she ran off, and sighed. She didn't want to lose Komaru to love.
She didn't want to lose anyone to love, ever again.
