[BEING REWRITTEN] Love Petals

Chapter 1 - Reunited

It's was the first day of grade 10, lunchtime, and Kiku was walking down the school hallways. His eyes were on the floor in front of him while in search of his best friends, Ludwig and Feliciano. It was quite a difficult task to do so while trying not to face anyone he didn't need to, so in reality, he was really wishing that they'd find him.

His wish was granted when he heard Feliciano yell his name from across the hallway. Kiku sighed in relief when Feliciano ran up to him with Ludwig not far behind. "Ciao Kiku! God, it's been a whole summer since we've seen each other! C'mon! I saved us a table at the cafeteria with Antonio and Lovino." And before Kiku could reply, he was taken by the hand and stumbling behind the excited Italian who was quickly running to the cafeteria.

"Hello everyone." Kiku greeted as they approached the table.

"Oh hey Kiku! How was your summer?" Kiku smiled at Antonio and walked around the table to go sit beside Feliciano.

"Mine was good, how about you?" he asked, continuing the conversation. Antonio smirked.

"Oh, ours was great. Right, Lovi~?" Antonio smugly said while placing his hand on top of Lovino's, causing Lovino to turn a bright red colour on his cheeks. "Awh, you look like a little tomato." Antonio continued.

"Sh-Shut it, bastard!" Lovino retorted.

After Kiku sat down, he noticed he forgot to take out his bento box from his locker. He internally groaned and was about to stand up to go get it when Ludwig sat down and passed him the box. Kiku smiled at Ludwig "Arigato Ludwig, but how did you-?"

Ludwig sighed before vaguely returning the smile. "I've been with Feliciano all summer. He'll give you next to no time to grab your belongings when he wants to go somewhere. He can be a bit of an airhead sometimes." Feliciano blushed slightly, puffed out his cheeks and humphed a little "Hey!" Ludwig simply chuckled at Feliciano's reaction.

Kiku felt a pang of jealousy towards the two different couples sitting at the table with him. Kiku knows that they'll never know how lucky they are to be able to love someone without any extreme consequences. However, for Kiku, things were different. He had developed a fear of falling in love due to a curse that has been in his family for generations.

He was cursed to develop the hanahaki disease if he were to ever develop a one-sided crush on someone.

At first, he didn't believe his father's stories of family members falling in love and developing this disease. That is, until his cousin, Leon, started coughing up flower petals when he fell in love with some exchanged student. But thankfully for Leon, his feelings were returned not long after and he didn't have to go through the painful stages of the disease. But the thought still scared him. For if you have the disease for too long, you'll eventually die. There is another option in which you can choose to go under an operation to have the flowers removed from your lungs, but in return, it leaves you unable to love ever again, and in Kiku's opinion, that would be a fate worse than death.

He was soon snapped out of his worrisome thoughts when a loud voice approached the table. "Heya Ludwig! I was wondering if you've seen Mattie around or something. He was with your brother last time I saw him." Kiku looked up and instantly recognized the boy. He was Alfred F. Jones. Kiku had known him in grade 1. They used to go to the same elementary school as each other but eventually separated when Kiku moved back to Asia with his family again. But now, as fate would seem to have it Kiku returned and they both went to the same high school. 'How did I not bump into him the year before in grade 9?' He thought, a bit confused.

"I think I saw them outside on the bleachers." Ludwig answered.

The American smiled his signature smile before nodding "Alright thank you. Also, it's nice to see you again Ludwig and Feli, Antonio and Lovino and-..."