HANAHAKI

two

yoongi stared at the crimson petals floating in the water of the toilet bowl. great, he thought, rubbing the back of his hand on his lips and spitting the remainder of the petals from his mouth. fantastic, he thought. this is just great. wonderful. he stood shakily and rubbed at his chest, feeling more than a little helpless. he knew his feelings for jimin were growing at a faster rate than usual, but he hadn't thought the disease would be so severe.

he rubbed his chest again. roses were growing along his chest cavity, soon clogging up his body with blood-red petals. he knew that they would just keep growing and growing until they suffocated him to death. yoongi plucked a petal from the back of his hand and glanced at his reflection in the mirror. his chest was practically sticking out because of the flowers growing inside, and they hurt like hell. the thorns were piercing his lungs, but he ignored the pain. "you'll be okay, yoongi," he told himself. "you'll be just fine."

yoongi headed out of the bathroom, and plopped himself onto the couch, beside jimin. oh shit.

"yoongs, did you hear? i heard that btob's sungjae got surgery for the Hanahaki Disease. apparently, he started vomiting lily petals, and cube sent him to the hospital right away." jimin whispered. yoongi couldn't be bothered. he had himself to worry about, about whether he was going for the surgery or not.

yoongi felt the throbbing in his chest get faster "i-is he okay now?"

jimin shrugged. "i guess so. it's not a difficult surgery, right? he just lost his feelings for the person he liked, but it wasn't that bad. it was just a few petals. it's better to just lose your feelings than to die from them, right?"

the throbbing in his chest got even faster, and he felt it tighten. he needed to go to the bathroom. but the thorns from the branches scratched his throat. he ended up coughing, his body convulsing hard enough for jimin to look up. yoongi couldn't hold it back and blood-red petals spilled from his lips, falling onto his lap.

"y-yoongi hyung!" jimin cried, getting up to dust the petals off yoongi's lap. before jimin could touch yoongi, yoongi shook his head and did it himself. jimin stared, wide-eyed, rooted to the spot as yoongi coughed out more petals, silky red ones spilling out from his lips and fluttering around him.

"hyung, how- wh-when did this start? oh my god, look how many petals there are- i can't even count- h-hyung, why didn't you tell me? w-we need to go to the hospital," jimin stammered.

"no." yoongi stated bluntly, getting up, which made the petals on his lap drift to the ground. looking around in desperation, he tried finding a place to discard all those petals. "jiminie, look-" yoongi paused to gag, trying to suppress his feelings while talking to jimin. "i have it all under control! trust me. i was already planning to go for the surgery,"

he wasn't.

and frankly, he didn't have it under control. the petals he coughed and puked out were alarmingly increasing.

jimin scanned the ground, staring at the rose petals. "hyung, how can all this- how can you have all this under control?" jimin's voice quivered. "how long have you had this for? why didn't you tell me?"

"it's okay. it's only been about a week, maybe even less," yoongi calmly stated.

it's been months. five, to be exact.

it was truly miraculous how yoongi was able to survive 5 months of puking and coughing out thorns and petals.

"a week?! hyung, we really need to bring you to the hospital. i can't stand seeing you like this- hyung, please. please," jimin begged.

yoongi grabbed jimin's arm and choked back the petals. "no, jiminie, please. i'd rather not go. please. just pretend you didn't see anything. pretend this never happened. pretend you don't know, that's all,"