yellow roses [book 1 - mysmes hanahaki trilogy]

2

MC woke up choking.

He couldn't breath, something was in his throat. Heaving, he flung his sweaty sheets off him and rushed to the bathroom, face turning red. Clutching his throat, MC gagged, leaning over the toilet, coughing until whatever it was flew from his lips and landed in the water.

Recovering his breath, MC looked down, and was suddenly bewildered. Floating on the surface of the water was what looked like a petal, wet from his mouth, but still crisp and in a slight bowl-shape. The petal was yellow, and had a light orange rim around the tip.

Wiping his mouth on his arm, MC stared at the petal, confused. Shaking his head, he flushed the toilet, "I've gotta be dreaming," he whispered, and walked back to his bed, still feeling the taste of the slightly soapy flower on his tongue.

Falling back against his pillow, MC sighed and slipped back to coldsweats.

...

MC woke up two more times that night, coughing up the yellow flower petals. Confused and feeling sick, he refused to go to class the next morning. Though concerned, his mother left him to go to work, murmuring that she'd pick up some medicine for him.

MC laid in bed, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars that had remained on his ceiling since he was a kid. The five-pointed shapes poked fun at him until he finally got up, knowing that this was not, in fact, a dream, as he had never had a dream so long or real, and with quite as many flower petals.

Throwing himself onto the couch with a bag of chips and his laptop, MC aimlessly looked up 'yellow rose' on Google. The sunny color filled his screen as the images booted up, and MC's thoughts were confirmed.

Scrolling down, he found an explanation of the flower. "Friendship." What the actual fuck?

"What's wrong with me?" he mumbled angrily. It was then that he felt the sensation again, the tickle in his chest, in his throat, smelling pollen and a swollen, sweet-and-spicy smell filled his nose.

Coughing, MC felt the petals in his throat, then promptly coughed them up into the garbage disposal. "Where are these coming from?" he whispered.

MC contemplated calling the hospital, but then imagined the response he would get. "Hello, whats your emergency?" "Uh, yeah, I've been coughing up flower petals?" Dead line.

Shaking his head, MC grabbed a bowl for the petals, and sat back down on the couch, settling into Youtube. By noon, the bowl was full of soft, buttery, feathery yellow feathers.

6:34 pm

Saeran: hey, wanna come hang?

MC: Sick

Saeran: doubt it

MC could almost hear the sing-song lilt in Saerans text as he read it. Before he could reply,  another text came though.

Saeran: meet me at my house in 10. ive brought friends, so it wont be just us

MC: Friends, huh? You have those?

Saeran: shut up

Sighing, MC got up and changed into a green sweater and grey sweats, tying on his pair of converse, texting his mum (because he was a good son, for her) and hopping on his bike, coughing some flower petals onto the driveway.

...

"Yooo~" Saeran dragged out the syllable as he opened the door to ruffle-headed MC, who gave Saeran an irritable gaze of complacency.

"So where are these friends?" He smirked, but then broke into a grin when Saeran rolled his eyes.

"Oh, c'mon, you know you wanted to come."

"I already had my weekly dose of Saeran; I'm not sure how much more I can take," MC half-joked to the red-head, stepping inside and slipping off his shoes.

"Harharhar," Saeran mumbled dully as they followed the sound of videogame synthetic trumpets and upbeat music into Saeran's living room, where a group of boys sat, laughing and shoving each other with remotes in their hands.

MC recognized Saeran's twin brother, Saeyoung, playing too, red hair and gold eyes like Saeran, but with a permanent mischievous grin on his face and a lighter sense of humor. Next to him, a blonde, who MC recognized from his computers class. The kid was completely energized right now, strangling the controller as he wove through the other Mariokart players.

"Yoosung you little shit!" An older guy with white hair was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a beer next to him, trying desperately to pass the blonde, who MC now new as Yoosung.

Squished on the end of the couch was a man with sharp features, wearing a blue and white varsity jacket, expression amused.

Saeran settled on the couch next to Yoosung and MC sat on the floor, beside the white-haired man.

"Who's this," he asked Saeran, without looking at MC, eyes glued to the screen.

"MC," Saeran replied, and he almost sounded proud.

Later, a teal-haired boy with sunglasses came in, carrying a six-pack of beer. It was a weird kind, organic, and tasted earthy, but MC decided he liked it more than those big brands, with labels and adds all over the place.

...

"Yoosung..." Saeran slurred, leaning against the blonde. Yoosung hiccuped and giggled in a high-pitched voice.

MC lay on Zen's stomach, the white-haired boy, Zen's hands in MC's hair, mumbling something about his beauty.

MC's drunken heart twisted as he watched Saeran bury his face into Yoosung's neck. He couldn't take it anymore. They'd been flirting for ages.

Untangling his legs from V's, he got up, gazing sourly at Saeran before announcing, "I'm gonna go."

"Hmm..." Saeran rumbled, moving closer to Yoosung. Hurt, drunk, and angry, MC walked out of the room, a couple of the boys calling out goodbyes to him. Jumin, the black-haired boy, sipped a glass of wine at the kitchen island, eyeing MC with a cautious glance.

"Be careful with that," he murmured, and MC scoffed.

Frustrated, MC felt flowers at his throat , and coughed once, watching them flutter to the asphalt. Jumin watched discreetly from the kitchen window, knowing that familiar feeling in his throat. 

MC mounted his bike and sped off down the street, the wind lashing at his face, tearing tears from his eyes. He wiped them away furiously. 

"I'm just a friend," his mind screamed, yelling at his idiocy, making fun of his naivety, laughing at his stupidity of falling in love with Saeran... MC couldn't stop his tears until he arrived home, hastily wiping them with his sweatshirt sleeve before his ever-worrying mother saw them. He skipped dinner, and threw up yellow roses in the bathroom for an hour.

...

Hope you liked :)