03

“You have nothing to worry about,” The very old yet very kind doctor Jackson found in Seoul that knew how to treat his disease says, warm and relaxed smile, his eyes two crescents that remind Jackson oddly of Jinyoung, with the creases at the corners like cat whiskers. “It has a solution and once you go through this, it’ll be solved and you’ll never have to deal with it again.”

“I don’t even fully know what I have, I don’t understand it. Do I really have a plant growing inside of me?”

The doctor laughs, shaking his head.

“Objectively speaking, no you don’t. Not a plant per se, but you do grow a tumour. To explain it, it’s a mental disease born out of your one-side love. Your mind gives shape to the pain in your heart with a tumour in your lungs, or other organs like stomach. It is a very aggressive tumour but it doesn’t spread, it just grows and it destroys your organ, which is what makes you throw up blood.”

“But I saw a petal! I had a petal in my fingers!” Jackson cries out, not understanding what the man is saying.

“That’s why it’s a mental illness. The mind is a very powerful thing, son. The tumour becomes somewhat a plant, a manifestation of your pain. The more advanced, the more similar to a plant it becomes. In dangerous cases, actual thorns pierce through the flesh and can quickly kill the patient. You said you coughed a petal and blood, didn’t you?” Jackson nods his head. “Then it means the tumour has grown into a plant with thorns that are piercing in your organ. Normally, the coughing begins with just petals from the first flower that withers inside.”

“Do I really have a bloody flower inside of me?”

“Not as you know it, but similar. A mutation that grows flowers. It’s almost magical, the studies are still ongoing to