~❀ Hanahaki disease ❀~

{ Part 11 }

Kirito was acting weird all day, and seemed distracted, like something was bothering him. I honestly had no idea what was going on, all I had was a strong feeling that it was all my fault. the Hanahaki had died down a bit, or so I thought, until lunch time when I spotted him for the first time, sitting in an old place that I used to sit at back when school started, he was just sitting there, disconnected from the world, all by himself for the first time in ages, not surrounded by friends like how I normally saw him, he looked confused.

I went to walk over to him, completely forgetting about how the flowers would probably choke me up again, until I saw him look up at me, smiling weakly like he did earlier.

"hey... Aiko..." he continued smiling weakly and waved at me, still seeming distracted by something, but then suddenly the flowers were back and I couldn't breathe.

I tried to respond but I couldn't make a sound, let alone muster a response. i couldn't hold it back anymore, so I ended up doubling over and coughing violently, petals drifting out of my mouth along with droplets of blood.

"..!?!?" I heard him get up and rush to my side, his hand resting on my back. "what's going on?? ...The Hana... H-Hanahaki thing again??" he seemed genuinely concerned, and other than not being able to breathe, I was confused.

Since when does he care about me??

.........last night apparently...

I continued to cough, more violently now, trying as hard as I could to get the flowers out, and gasping for breath. "are you okay!? Can you breathe!?" he lifted my head to look at him, a mix of fear and determination in his eyes.

I felt my eyes getting teary, still trying to cough out the flowers, I started crying. I didn't know what to do. It was worse than before and I couldn't get it, whatever it was this time, out. i answered his question by shaking my head 'no' and saw him shudder, fear filling his eyes even more. "...w-what do I do?? Can I help!?!" I shook my head again, paused, and then nodded. I reluctantly hand signaled "bathroom" to him, knowing that that was the only real place I could get rid of these stupid flowers without it looking like a murder took place. He nodded, looking determined again, and helping me to stand up again, lifting me from under my arms, then helping me run to the bathrooms with him, supporting me so I wouldn't trip or fall. The whole time, I was holding back the blood and petals with my hand as he ran with me through the school and to the bathrooms. As soon as we got in, I staggered through the doors running over to the toilet and hunching myself over the it, coughing and spewing blood and flowers in to the bowl as Kaito stood behind me, panting and watching over me

"please...please don't die on me..."

I heard him mutter that under his breath as I coughed out the last few flowers filling my throat, a dangerous amount of blood coming with them. I stayed hunched over the bowl, gasping for breath and panting heavily. I heard Kaito's footsteps coming closer, then felt a hand on my back. "you good...? ...can you breathe now...?" I only nodded in response; my throat hurt too much to say anything. "it's fine, you don't have to talk..." he sighed and looked away again "as long as you're fine..."

only one thing was going through my mind: why was he being so nice to me??

I got up, only to stagger and fall down again. Kaito turned to face me, concerned "...don't push yourself... if you can't get up yet, i can wait..." I looked down again, nodding. "i-i-it's f-fine... i-I can s-stand...." Almost every word I could muster was said with a stutter, my throat hurt like hell, but I didn't want to worry him so I tried my best to act normal, standing up and then facing him "s-see...? I-I'm fine..."

He stared at me, shocked. I had no idea what it was about, until he brought his hand to touch one of the flowers on my face, muttering "...t-there's m-more..."

"...what?" I looked at him in confusion as he grabbed my shoulder and walked me to the mirrors, and then I got what he meant, there were more.

More flowers.

Apart from looking terrible after coughing up that much blood, all down the left side of my face, there were flowers growing, some too low for me to hide with my fringe. I stared at them, surprised. "that's what you meant...." I couldn't look away, "mhm..." was all he responded with. He was looking at my reflection, fear filling his expression once again. "t-this is bad, Aiko... I tried to get as much information as I could online last night... and this many flowers..." he grabbed my shoulders again and turned me to face him. "Aiko, soon they're gonna spread to your lungs... if we don't fix this soon, then you really are gonna die on me..." he was looking at me, once again, with those fear-filled eyes. I didn't know how to respond to that, I was completely speechless. Because he was scared. "..." he sighed and let go of me, looking away again "...d-don't...don't die yet......there're still things I n-need to tell you......please, please don't die on me..."

I just stood there staring at him, surprised he needed to tell me something? "...what's going on with you....?" I only just managed to croak out those words, my throat still sore and he looked back at me, confused "...a-all of a sudden, you care about me... and you're being nice to me......you actually seem scared that I'm going to die, but before... before, you would've just laughed it off like a sick joke or something......what's going on...?" he just stared at me blankly, confused and seeming a bit shocked

"....you really don't know.....huh..." he sighed and smiled slightly at me, making me feel even more confused.