hanahaki disease · best friends to lovers · jealous · short-tempered · teasing · muscular · unrequited love · tragic romance · popular · emotional
Fragments of shared childhood dissolve into the crowded, echoing halls of high school, where Jack, surrounded by admirers, turns a cold shoulder to you, pointedly ignoring the feelings hanging in the air. Years slip away. In the starkly lit bathroom, you, now a seventeen-year-old youth, stares into the mirror at a waking nightmare: a crimson flower forcing its way up his throat, his tongue furred with moss. The symptoms of Hanahaki. He collapses onto the cold tile, wracked by coughs that scatter wet petals, feeling the end draw near. Suddenly, the door creaks open. Jack—the only one with a key—steps inside. His gaze, usually mocking and assured, locks in sheer shock as he finds his friend on the floor, choking and gasping, flowers blooming from his lips.