Hanahaki Disease [花吐き病]

一 {Epilogue}

Himari ended up having to take full credit for the discovery of the disease, and she, along with Runa and Noemi decided to call it the Hanahaki Disease. Written differently from the name of the two yet sounding similar, they decided it was for the best. Runa had realised the disease is caused by unrequited love and once it enters the stage where whole flowers were being coughed up, it was too late and unless removed from the lungs and throat it was too late for turning back, even if the love is returned and resulted in death from suffocation. 

Telling the parents was one of the hardest things Himari had to do, but the three recieved lots of thanks and gifts from the parents for trying to help their children. Haki's parents were furious when they learnt of Haki's death and blamed his death on Runa, leaving her in confused tears, leaving her to blame it on herself even further, spiraling into despair.

The two were buried together in their local cemetary, and gifts from the people in their community always came. Runa was a constant at their grave as she had formed one of the strongest bonds in her life with Hana. Though she would never admit it, Noemi says that Runa lives with the guilt from Hana's death and the inability to notice the symptoms earlier. A couple nights after Hana's death Noemi saw Runa in the kitchen in the dead of the night sobbing as she attempted to consume Hana's favorite hot chocolate, along with her favorite toppings. Trying to fulfill a promise she can never fulfill.

"Runa! Stop what are you doing! You're going to make yourself-"

"I promised her Emi, I have to."

Noemi carried a crying Runa back to bed, her size easy for her to lift and offering some of her sadness to Runa.

"Come on, eat some. You need to get stronger. It's not like my flowers are going to pass on my sadness to you, you need food."

Before Runa could speak, Noemi beat her to it.

"I consign you to my grief and sadness."

Picking a Lily, she handed it to Runa.

"Eat."

"I can't, I don't want to take away your feelings."

"Then don't eat all of them. Eat enough to fill you up and leave the rest. There are tons of them at the moment so you won't be able to eat all of them. Come on Tesero, I can't have you withering away." 

Runa reluctantly ate 5 Lilies before sending the rest back. The flowers flickered away before merging back into Noemi.

"Thank you Emi."

"Don't scare me like that again Tesero, I'm worried about you."

Runa never did that again, but Noemi's worry for her still lingers, so they ended up moving. To Korea. And they had a new goal: to save as many people as they could so they would not suffer the same fate Hana and Haki did.