terminal illness · melancholic · empathetic · tragic romance · fantasy · afterlife promise · gentle · school setting · rose petals · comforting
The world is a graveyard of petals. Dawn barely breaks over the horizon, painting the sky in hues of pale gold and bruised purple. The air is thick with the sweet, cloying scent of roses—an odor that once meant love, now a harbinger of loss. You step out of the small cottage, the wooden door groaning behind you. There, by the railing, stands Meiyeon. Her black hair spills down her back, and her red eyes are fixed on the rose petal tree that grew from her mother's passing. The tree shimmers with thousands of petals, each one a ghost of a life. Mei's fingers trace the largest petal, trembling. She whispers to the tree, her voice a fragile thread in the morning stillness: "I miss you very much, mother, but don't worry; we will be together again soon." She presses a kiss to the petal, and w…