Curse of the flower; Hanahaki Disease.

If you met your soulmate but they didn’t love you back, your lungs would be filled with flowers, to the point you started to cough them out, and eventually be drowned in flowers.

The first time Taekwoon saw his soulmate, he knew and fell in love instantly. It was both a blessing and a curse, since he started coughing out petals not long after. It felt like an impending doom, but Taekwoon tried to hang on since he hoped that after some time, his soulmate would love him back.

It didn’t happen.

Or, it did happen, but not completely. The Bloom in his lungs hadn’t wilted yet, but it also didn’t grow as quickly as it’s supposed to be if he were to be completely unloved. It seemed that his soulmate did have some feelings towards him, leaning a little to romantic feelings, but not completely. It was frustrating, not knowing whether he would be loved back as much as he loved his soulmate, or suffocated to death by the flowers.

Around a decade after their meeting, Taekwoon decided that he had enough. He couldn’t go on having his lungs partially filled with flowers. He couldn’t go on not knowing whether he was really loved or not. Screw about forgetting the love he had towards his soulmate; he had done his part letting the other not coughing out flowers for a long time already. So while he was taking a yearlong preparation before his enlistment, he had the removal procedure done.

The first free air in his clean lungs felt like freedom.

And when he stopped by the company building to check on his juniors, he found precisely the one he was looking for. The said junior was having a coughing fit, and the manager seemed to be deeply concerned about that.

‘Ah, so that’s how it is…’

Knowing exactly what’s going on, Taekwoon approached them and forcefully slapped his junior’s back, forcing him to spit out whatever it was that choked him out.

A whole Hibiscus bud fell off to the floor, and Taekwoon could only chuckle.

‘So this is how it goes after all…’

“I know a surgeon. But if you wish to wait, I suggest you spray coconut and pineapple scent to complement the hibiscus so that other people won't suspect a thing. You fit such Hawaiian scent after all,” said Taekwoon calmly as he pulled out a business card from his wallet and slipped it into the other’s coat pocket.

“But how—”

“I just got mine taken out,” cut Taekwoon with a bitter smirk, “Did you know that Cedar has flowers too?”

The look of realization and horror in Wonshik’s face didn’t hurt Taekwoon’s chest at all.

Not anymore.