- before you ask, yes i will probably make a special every time this book gets another 100k reads😌🤚🏼

- based off of the hanahaki disease; when a person suffers from one sided love, flowers grow in their lungs (sometimes stomach or heart) and they end up coughing/throwing up flower petals as a result, even full flowers. only when the one sided love is returned in a romantic way will the hanahaki disease subside.

•••

Laughing with your friends on your way home from school made you completely forget about the flowers growing in your lungs. You couldn't even feel the way the flowers were depriving you of proper oxygen. As you and your friends stopped at the cross walk, Chenglei turned to you and grabbed onto your arm.

"Why don't we go to the arcade tonight?" She suggested. "It's the weekend, we don't have any homework."

You thought about it. Your friends didn't know about the disease - it was supposed to be fictional, yet here you were, suffering from it. They probably wouldn't even believe you.

"Yeah, we can go."

Chenglei and Kinu jumped excitedly. You all lived on the same street, and quickly separated to change into different clothes. You put on a black long sleeve shirt, pairing it with a cute sweater vest and jeans.

You hugged your mom goodbye and met with your best friends outside. You all three took Kinu's car and made it to the arcade in no time. When you walked in, the lights, the noises and the laughter made you feel at ease. Then you saw all of the couples and the pain in your lungs hit full force. You coughed at the sudden disappearance of breath, a petal of a sacred lotus remaining in your palm.

You quickly hid it and continued walking through the arcade. All three of you got your point cards and went to the games you wanted to play. You walked along the wall of games and didn't see one you wanted to play, but as you turned around, your eyes met with a pair that made your body ache.

At the sight of Mingi, you went into a coughing fit, one that you had to turn away from him for. Petals fell out of your hands, and you thought he would ask where they were coming from. When you turned back around, his eyes were still on you.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," you laughed as you lied. "Why?"

"That cough sounds bad. Have you been to the doctor?"

You searched his eyes, shaking your head. "No, I haven't."

He noticed how your focus went to the floor and you were playing with your fingers. He took a breath and stood next to you, having you walk with him.

"Did you come here with anyone?"

"Yeah. Kinu and Chenglei."

Mingi's eyes sparkled. "Chenglei?"

Your jaw slacked at the excitement in his tone. Did he like Chenglei?

You nodded slowly and pointed at her from across the arcade. Mingi left your side and went to hers. You found Kinu and gave her your point card.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

You bit your lip anxiously. Kinu knew about how much you liked Mingi, so she followed your gaze and pouted in response.

She rubbed your arm. "I'll understand if you want to go home. Do you want a ride?"

"No, I'll walk. Thank you, though."

She waved you off and you left the arcade. The sun on your skin made your blood boil more than it already was. In the articles, they said the disease only lasted for a few months, but you had been suffering for over a year. It was a miracle that you hadn't died yet. Was Chenglei the reason you were suffering? Did Mingi completely ignore you for her this past year?

Of course, you would have been as supportive as possible for them, but you wouldn't be able to stand the pain much longer. You suddenly felt sick and ran to the bushes, heaving up sacred lotus flowers. Tears pricked your eyes. Why couldn't he just love you back?

The next day, you were having trouble breathing. More flowers had taken up the space in your lungs that should've been a space for air. The worst pain of the disease was knowing exactly how your one love felt about you, and that left you physically and emotionally miserable.

"Y/N?"

You looked up from your textbook and saw Mingi. You coughed at the sudden pressure in your chest and failed to hide the flower petal that followed behind the cough. Mingi still didn't say anything.

"Yeah?" You replied, your voice quiet.

"Where'd you go last night? I was looking for you."

You felt a pang of guilt deep in your chest. "I wasn't feeling very good, so I decided to go home."

He nodded slowly. "Have you taken medicine for that cough?"

"No. I will."

You told him, knowing very well that medicine would never cure your pain.

Later that night, Mingi was in his room, researching what caused flowers to be coughed up. You weren't aware, but he had seen you cough up the flower petals before, and knew exactly what type they were. Sacred lotuses were his favorite.

After searching, he found the hanahaki disease, and as he read through it, he couldn't help but wonder who you were suffering for.

He jumped slightly as his phone chirped, seeing that he had a text from Chenglei.

Chenglei:
- hey mingi! kinu and y/n are over, and i was wondering if you'd like to join?

Mingi:
- i'll be right over:)

Meanwhile, you had just walked back into the room and saw the odd look on Kinu's face as Chenglei jumped excitedly. "Mingi's on his way."

Your eyebrows jumped in surprise. "Oh, fun."

You suddenly felt sick, but forced yourself to keep the flowers down. You tried to push the pain aside, but it was excruciating. You slowly sat down next to Kinu as you struggled to breathe. She rubbed your back and bent over to look at your face.

"Y/N," she whispered. "You're really pale."

You shook your head. "I'm okay."

Suddenly, Mingi popped in. How much time had passed? Chenglei smiled happily at him, and watching him smile at her made you groan as an excruciating pain coursed through your whole body. You doubled over as you stood up, rushing passed Mingi. You made your way down the hall, where everyone followed behind you. Falling to your knees next to the toilet made everyone curious. Nothing came up, despite the nauseating pit in your stomach. You coughed violently, resulting in a fully bloomed sacred lotus to come up.

You got up and tried to throw it away, but Mingi grabbed your wrist. You closed your hand around the flower, only the tips of the petals being visible. Mingi carefully pulled your fingers back, revealing his favorite flower. Your eyes met his, and you saw in his eyes that he knew what was happening.

Your eyes fell to where his fingers were brushing over yours. You looked up at him and pulled the flower back, crushing it and throwing it into the trash. Mingi could tell how miserable you were by the tears in your eyes.

"Y/N?" Chenglei sounded. "What was that?"

"A flower." You said, not taking your eyes off of Mingi's. "Mingi's favorite."

You walked away, brushing passed her and Kinu. They all followed after you, confused and guilty. Tears were dripping off of your cheeks at this point. You couldn't understand why you had to feel like this.

"Y/N," Kinu called. "Please tell us what's wrong."

You whirled around, facing the three. "I have a disease, one that nobody should have, because it's supposed to be fictional. I have Mingi's favorite flowers growing in my lungs because he doesn't love me back! I cough them up when I see him, I throw them up when I see him with another girl. I have trouble breathing because I barely have room for air in my lungs, but he likes Chenglei. Mingi is literally my oxygen source, and I can't breathe because he likes someone else!"

"Mingi doesn't like me."

"I don't like Chenglei."

The room got quiet as Mingi walked up to you and grabbed your face, wiping your tears with his thumbs. "I like you, Y/N."

You grabbed his forearms. "That doesn't mean you love me, Mingi." You whispered. "I feel miserable because the person I love doesn't love me back, and as happy I am to hear that you like me, that doesn't mean you'll love me. I don't know how much longer I can take, and it may take too long to find out."

"But we'll be happy." Mingi told you. "Even if it's not love, we'll be happy."

You shook your head. "But you don't know how this feels. Not only is it physically painful, but I know that you don't love me, and I'll continue to know as these flowers keep growing."

"You won't even give me a chance?" He whispered.

"My only other choice is to get surgery to remove them, but it will also remove my feelings for you."

Chenglei and Kinu were standing in the back, shocked and confused. They weren't sure how to process what you were saying.

He searched your eyes. "Give me a month, Y/N."

The disease may not have brought pain at all times, it only stopped when you were happy. You would be happy with Mingi, so you nodded.

"Okay, but I think one month is all I have to test."

On the twenty seventh day of the thirty day month, Mingi picked you up from your house to take you on a date. Throughout that month, he revealed to you that the reason he wanted to see Chenglei at the arcade was because he wanted to ask about you. He had liked you for a couple of months at that point, he just didn't want to go in blindly and get his feelings hurt.

As you sat in his car, with your hand in his as he kissed the back of it, you couldn't feel any pain. You could still feel the lack of space in your lungs, and every morning you woke up and felt the petals taking place of your air, you lost hope.

He pulled up to a large garden, and it looked like an ocean of different flowers. He held your hand as he opened the gate and walked you through the rows of large flowers.

"Do you wanna know why my favorite flower is a sacred lotus?" Mingi asked.

You smiled. "Yeah."

"When I was younger, my mom picked them for me when I was sad. Her and dad both had a bond to their favorite flowers, so my mom always told me that the woman I fall in love with will somehow have a bond to my favorite flower," he paused, and you started to feel an odd lightness in your lungs. "And I feel like my favorite flowers growing in your lungs, because of me, is definitely a bond."

You nodded as pressure built up in your chest. You groaned and your hand made its way to where the pain was. Mingi held you up by the waist as you started coughing violently. This pain was worse than any other time you felt the pain of the hanahaki disease, it was more intense, like fire was coming out of your lungs rather than flowers.

Flower petals covered the ground, even a few fully bloomed flowers. Once your coughing fit was over, you were gasping for air, the feeling of your lungs being completely filled with air almost overwhelming.

As you fully caught your breath for the first time in a long time, Mingi tucked your hair behind your ear and looked at you lovingly. You smiled, such a genuine smile that it made Mingi feel like he was on top of the world.

He brought you closer by your waist. "Are they gone?"

"Yeah," you nodded, your smile faltering slightly. "What's gonna happen when you stop loving me?"

"Don't think about that." He whispered. "We never know what the future holds, so let's hold onto this moment."

You smiled and wrapped your arms around his neck, kissing his cheek. "Thank you, Mingi."

"Don't thank me." He smiled cutely. "It would've been hard for me to not love you."

You laughed and rested your head on his shoulder. The sun was setting, and the flowers were gently blowing in the breeze, and the only two people in the garden were you and Mingi. You felt so light, so free- you couldn't stop smiling.

Mingi cured you, and you couldn't be happier.

-

a/n: thank you for 800k🥺🥺 i always get so excited when this book is close to hitting another milestone, i always talk to my parents and my best friend about it. but for real, thank you from the bottom of my heart<3

anyways, i hope everyone has a great day/night🤍