10 Things Shirabu Kenjirou Learned and One Thing He Didn't (Hanahaki AU)

The Eighth Thing

...Shirabu's eyes shot open. Where was he?

And then he remembered. The blood. The sakura blossoms.

Had he fallen asleep?

No, Shirabu thought. He must have passed out.

He checked the clock. Shit. He was going to miss afternoon practice. But first he had to clean up the blood in the bathroom and the flower petals scattered throughout the dorm room before Taichi could see.

He had decided he wasn't going to tell anyone. He didn't want to worry anybody. Especially if word got out to Semi. What would happen? Would Semi still want to be friends with him, even if Shirabu had caught some sort of disease?

What was this, anyways?

Was it contagious? Could it hurt Semi?

What happened? Was something wrong with him?

Shirabu was never really one to catch a cold. He never caught the flu in flu season either. Not once. He shakily stood up, and headed towards the bathroom. When he opened the door he felt sick. Looks like he was going to have to miss afternoon practice to clean all this up.

There were smears of blood on the floor, and flower petals everywhere. Stuck to the blood. In the sink.

And the sink! Rough patches of blood sprayed out in rows, as if someone had painted them there.

And instead of being dainty and pink like what they were famous for, some of the petals were a deep, crimson red, dyed by the blood Shirabu had coughed up.

Two hours later, Shirabu had scrubbed off the last of the blood from the floor. The bathroom was clean, possibly cleaner than before.

He headed over to his phone, which he had been charging while cleaning. The screen was cracked slightly from when he threw it across the room. He found he had multiple text messages waiting for him.

Eita~ :)

Kenjirou?

Where were you during lunch?

Where were you after school?

Shirabu?

Did something happen?

Are you ok?

Kenjirou youre gonna miss practice dumbass

Practice starts in one minute

Are you mad at me?

Hey, can you answer me?

Coach is gonna be mad!

...kenjirou?

Each message Semi sent seemed to pierce into Shirabu's heart. Shirabu coughed. There was no blood this time, but sakuras bloomed into his hand. Really, what was this?

And then from Taichi:

Nishi Nishi Taichi:

Kenjirou? U there?

I heard screaming from the dorm so i didnt come in

I thought you wouldnt like that

are you ok though? practice is gonna start soon

youve never missed practice before

you know you can talk to me right?

If anything's going on...

...just, i'm your friend.

i'm here for you. we all are.

Shirabu sighed. He was thankful for his team.... he really was. But it was time to get down to business.

He opened google and started typing into the search bar.

I coughed up blood and flowers

Shirabu was surprised by how many results he got. They all had one word in common.

Hanahaki.

"Hanahaki disease is a sickness that only occurs when someone is suffering from unrequited love. The victim will cough up flower petals that symbolize their love."

Shit. Was this because of Semi? It had to be. He was fine before Miyu told Shirabu that she liked Semi anyways. Fine before he realized he had no chance with his first crush.

He kept on reading through the results.

"One of the only ways for the disease to 'disappear' is if, the said person returns the feeling (it can't be resolved with friendship, it has to be genuine feelings of love). The infection can also be removed through surgery, though the feelings of love and the memories of that person disappear along with the petals."

Shirabu thought. Surgery? Just because of some flowers? That seemed risky. He shuddered at the thought of people probing at his lungs.

But what really made him shudder was the fact that if he took surgery, he would forget Semi. And Shirabu really didn't want that. 

"If they choose neither options, or the feeling is not returned in time, then the patient's lungs will fill up with flowers, and will eventually suffocate."

Shirabu stared slack jawed at the last sentence.

Suffocate?

Did that mean he could die from some unrequited love? Shirabu... he didn't want to die. Were his options really between forgetting Semi and dying?

Dying... that would mean leaving Semi behind, right?

But then again, he would still have Miyu with him...

Maybe Semi didn't need Shirabu in his life. He had Miyu, after all.

So Shirabu learned the eighth thing that day.

8. He had gotten the Hanahaki disease because he fell in love with a boy he wasn't supposed to fall in love with.

And now there was only one thing left to do.

Try to get over Semi.