Unrequited | ɴᴀɴᴀᴛꜱᴜ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀɪᴢᴀɪ

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Elaine and Diane came back to the tree after a while. They saw Ban sitting on one of the branches reading a book about ale. "Hey Ban, where's Harlequin?" Diane asked the man, who slowly looked away from his book as if he didn't see what happened to the said fairy a while ago.

Diane had a pink gerbera flower in hand, which made Ban remember all over again. "Asleep~" He tried to block his thoughts with ale. Elaine noticed the odd reaction from Ban. However, before she could do anything, she was called by Gerheade.

"I'll be back," Elaine told the two, who sat in silence after she left. Diane wanted to give the flower to Harlequin because she knew it was his favorite flower. She slowly looked at Ban, who he noticed was utterly absorbed in his book about ale.

She quietly stood up and sneaked to Harlequin's bed. She was just supposed to leave the flower near him, but she stopped as soon as she saw that there were pink gerbera petals all over his bed.

Diane studied Harlequin. He looked so uncomfortable as he slept, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. She frowned as she took a few steps toward him and made sure to keep quiet.

But every step made his expression worse. She stopped, unconsciously holding tightly on the stem of the flower. She didn't understand why she was suddenly frozen in place, but she just stared until Harlequin woke up screaming in pain.

Coughing up flowers.

"Harlequin!"

Ban heard the scream and immediately looked for Diane, who wasn't around. He panicked, knowing full well that if Diane were near Harlequin, it would make everything worse.

He threw the book on the ground and sped to Harlequin's room, where he found Diane frantically holding onto Harlequin while he was practically vomiting flowers.

Ban noticed the flowers immediately. Panic and adrenaline coursed through his body as he pushed off Diane as she fell on the ground. "Move. Diane, go get a gigantic cup of water now!" Ban yelled.

Diane flinched as she scrambled on the ground before standing up to get the cup of water. Harlequin didn't stop coughing up the flowers until Diane came with the water. Ban had her stand at a distance while he gave him the cup.

Diane watched, knowing full well what Harlequin has.

Elaine came back but found that Diane and Ban weren't where they were, so she looked for them. But she didn't have to look too hard because she saw the frozen brunette standing near Harlequin's supposed quarters.

She sped her way there, and the scene was just terrifyingly beautiful to look at. Her brother taking deep breathes while beautiful pink gerbera daisies surrounded him.

Harlequin looked up, and his tears strained face faced the two girls looking at him in horror. "It got worse."

"Harlequin.." That was all that Diane could say, the image of Harlequin painfully coughing and vomiting flowers replayed in her mind. She was a bit shaken. "I'm sorry, I need to.. go." Diane's voice was almost inaudible, but Elaine heard.

She let the brunette leave but saw her brother's eyes filled with pain and regret. Elaine went to stand next to Ban, who was right next to Harlequin's bed. "You need to tell the fairies about your condition."

"No, they shouldn't know about this—" "King Harlequin, we have gre—" Harlequin and Gerheade stared at each other in shock and disbelief.

"King Harlequin!" Gerheade immediately reacted as soon as she read the room. She flew to his side. "Hanahaki. This can't be." She was a panicky mess.

"I'll be fine." Harlequin lied, but no one there believed him. "What was it that you were going to tell me? You seemed so excited to tell me, too." Harlequin gave her a weak smile.

Gerheade frowned. "Vince had confessed earlier than expected."

"Oh? How did it go?" Harlequin asked as if nothing wrong was happening. "Did she accept his feelings?"

Harlequin saw her blush and chuckled. "She did, didn't she?" Gerheade only nodded, knowing that Harlequin had caught on. "He's being taken care of right at this moment."

"That good news, I wish I could go down there and congratulate him myself." Harlequin sighed, weakly raising his arm. "I'm not in the state to move."

"How did this happen? Why do you have it?" Gerheade started to ask the same questions that everyone's been asking. Harlequin had no choice but to tell her, and he also had no choice but to let his kingdom know that he was sick.

Gerheade was silent after being told the story from beginning to end. The third time that Harlequin had told his feelings about Diane.

"I knew you had feelings for her, but this is... something else," Gerheade commented. "You need to confess, just like Vince did."

Harlequin shook his head. "And get rejected and make things awkward? I wouldn't want that on Diane or me." He remembered his dream, which made him weakly clench his fist.

"But saying how you feel is much more liberating rather than keeping it bottled up inside or running away from it. At least give it a try." Gerheade told him with pleading eyes.

You could hear a faint 'Thank you~' from Ban and Elaine hitting his side. Harlequin chuckled, "I'll see what I can do."

"I won't be able to do my rounds. I can't even fly anymore." Harlequin changed the topic. "I'm sorry about making your job double, Gerheade."

She shook her head. "It's totally fine. You're in no shape to do such duties. Please make a decision soon, King Harlequin."

Harlequin sighed, feeling another round of a coughing fit. "I will."