COSMOS

Anemone: pain of love

The pain of love. Hollow love. Love that cannot be.

Thank you for being next to me. I will love you forever.

And even if you don't love me, I am still loving you.

These are all flower meanings of Anemone. That might make you wonder, what did Anemone possibly go through to earn these heartwrenching titles?

Anemone was a beautiful nymph caught up in another love tragedy. When wind god Zephyr and Anemone fell in love, Zephyr's wife, Chloris, turned Anemone into a flower. I would say it was a pretty standard way to make revenge back in ancient Greece. Of course, Zephyr then lost interest in Anemone (well, to be frankly honest, it's pretty hard to keep making love with a flower). Then, another wind god, Boreas, fell in love with Anemone in her flower form. However, Anemone wasn't interested in Boreas. With rage, Boreas began to blow open her petals every spring, fading them prematurely.

***

The silence was what made it unbearable.

Brett honestly didn't know what to expect. An awkward smile? Anger? Denial? But the silence wasn't one of them. Brett glanced nervously at Eddy during the whole rehearsal but Eddy was eerily quiet. When they needed to speak, Eddy's response was short and emotionless. Whenever Brett tried to make eye contact, Eddy only avoided him, making Brett feel worse.

Nobody noticed the looming dark cloud above them though. Their performance was spot on. This concert, luckily, wasn't one of their comedic repertoire but more of a serious one so there wasn't much talking involved.

"Great job, we will now take a 30-minute break before the concert," the conductor beamed when they finished their duet rehearsal with the orchestra.

"Excuse me," Brett gasped, rushing to the restroom.

As soon as he locked the stall, Brett bent over, trying to choke out the petals he has been holding back. His face turned white as he grabbed the toilet with both hands, cold beads of sweat forming in his forehead. Brett coughed and heaved, wishing everything that is destroying him from the inside will flutter out before the real concert. However, this time, nothing came out as if something was obstructing his airway completely. He could feel the sickening taste of blood lingering in his tongue but only a thin line of saliva ran down from his mouth and to the toilet. The pain in his chest was now agonizing, breaking him into pieces.

This is weird.

Brett thought to himself as he leaned to the wall shakily. For the whole night, he has been coughing up blood and petals to the amount that it scared him that he will just burst into cosmoses right then and there. Maybe that was the reason why nothing is coming out today? So it is a good thing?

When Brett realized nothing will come out, at least for now, he took a dose of the inhaler and staggered out to the waiting room. Eddy was sitting on the chair, tuning his violin. When Brett entered the room, Eddy looked up at Brett with tired eyes.

"Hey," Eddy muttered.

"Hey," Brett replied nervously.

"We need to talk," Eddy sighed deeply as he stood up.

"...I guess," Brett looked down, trying his best to sound nonchalant and cool. It wasn't working though.

"Brett, I...I'm sorry," Eddy put down his violin, fidgeting with his hands. "It was my mistake to ask you to practice kissing and doing one-night thing...it must have made you confused, right?"

"What?" Brett whispered, feeling the tears blurring his vision.

"I wasn't thinking much about it. We are friends and I thought we would be cool with it...I had no idea it would make you confused to the point that you think you have a romantic feeling for me."