Soonyoung always thought that Jihoon would look pretty surrounded in flowers.

But not like this.

Eyes travelling between the splatter of red petals and the small frame crouched over the toilet bowl, heaving, Soonyoung felt the hands of death graced upon him as his orbs unintentionally met with the shorter’s. Tearing his gaze away to cast them on the white bathroom tiles, Soonyoung reached for the door knob, “U-Uh, please don’t mind me-”

“Close the door. And don’t think of running.”

The voice sounded grating and raw but it didn’t hide the matching scary look of the smaller. Gulping, Soonyoung reluctantly moved his body back into the small area as the door clicked shut behind him.

The silence which surrounded them was suffocating and Soonyoung couldn’t help but feel like he had walked into something he wasn’t supposed to and as much as the flower petals confused him, the male could only swallow thickly.

“Please keep quiet about this,” Soonyoung looked up at the resignation thick in the tired voice. Taking in the small figure who had settled himself the bathroom floor, eyes downcast on the petals before him, Soonyoung ventured, “What happened?”

“A condition,” Soonyoung furrowed his brow at the clipped answer, unconvinced. “It will pass so don’t worry,” Soonyoung pressed his lips together, wanting to ask more but the reluctance of the male was evident on his features as Jihoon began to dump the petals into the toilet bowl.

“Should the others-”

“Tell others and you’re dead,” Soonyoung barely got his question out as Jihoon stood up, the threat rolling off his small frame. Holding his hands up in defeat and relent, Soonyoung nodded as the other male simply cast another glance a Soonyoung before exiting the washroom.

With the sound of flushing whirling at the background, Soonyoung picked up the last hidden rose petal, eyes staring at the lush red, confused. And through the confusion at the situation, the vice-like hands of worry found itself at the back of Soonyoung’s mind.

---

‘A condition with flower petals,’ Soonyoung felt ridiculous searching it up and what struck as even more absurd when an answer actually came up, disproving Soonyoung’s original conviction that Jihoon was practising a new magic trick as a talent to showcase on reality shows. The Hanahaki disease where the patient coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. Soonyoung eyed the coined definition, mind whirling as he matched the description to what he saw.

‘The patient may show other bodily symptoms of tiredness, fits of cough and weight loss.’ Soonyoung felt himself go cold at the next line, the absurdity defied the laws of logic that Soonyoung’s mind was accustomed, but presented as a probable answer to Jihoon’s sickly appearance recently.

‘It must be a bad joke especially since it’s from Wikipedia,’ Soonyoung attempted to laugh it off as one of the many troll pages set up to trick naive users of the net but much to his dismay, many more of the following articles presented the same case and the same ending scenario of the disease left uncured. Death.

Hands that had gone clammy, gripped the phone as he stumbled out of his room, searching for Jihoon, making his way to the living room just to see the group snuggle against each other to enjoy the show, Soonyoung made a beeline towards the said male. “You’re going to die,” Soonyoung uttered, a hand grasping the other’s thin wrist. The shock that crossed the male’s face, flitted to horror and settled into a harsh grimness as Jihoon stood up quickly to tug Soonyoung away from the group of confused members.

“Don’t mind him, I just accidentally messed up an audio file,” The lie left the male’s lips as the shorter began to tug Soonyoung away.

“It seems like you don’t value your life,” As soon as the door of the room was locked behind them, the expression sent Soonyoung’s way was of pure threat.

“I’ve read about it,” Soonyoung interjected, hands gripped around his phone, “those flowers are killing you.”

“Yea.” The silence was too loud, like white noise thrumming with the anxiety stirring within Soonyoung.

“So why?” Soonyoung felt a shot of ang