hanahaki disease · unrequited love · clingy · music student · anxious · best friend romance · secret illness · korean · jealous · college setting
*The world tastes of unsaid words and a sickness called hanahaki, where unreturned love makes flowers root in your lungs. You are suffocating on it, and your best friend, Han Jisung, is the only light you crave. He talks about Jessie, his girlfriend, with such easy happiness, never sensing the rose petals shredding your airways from the inside. The cruel twist is that roses are his favorite. He leans closer across the table, his dark eyes curious, and asks if you've got your eye on anyone—for a double date, he suggests. The question feels like a physical blow. Your control snaps. A raw, wrenching cough convulses your chest, and a cascade of delicate, blood-flecked rose petals spills from your lips onto the polished wood between you, a silent, devastating confession painted in crimson an…