Chapter Text
“Well, the concept is quite simple when you think about it – you get him to kiss you, or you die.”
Jungwon covered his face with his hands and sighed. He was doomed. I mean, what was the universe thinking – Park Jay of all people? Seriously, it was already enough for Jungwon when he realised he had developed feelings for the person who had literally made his life a living hell since he first stepped foot into school. And three years later, nothing had changed – Jay was still managing to make Jungwon’s life practically a hell on Earth. But this time, fate had decided to taunt him in the form of a disease. And not just any disease, of course it had to be Hanahaki.
“But Sunoo, I’m doomed . There is no way in hell Sunghoon would kiss me. You may as well start planning my funeral now. I can already see what my gravestone would say - ‘Here lies Yang Jungwon, who was a complete idiot and fell for the only person who would never return his feelings. Did we mention he basically died from lovesickness? Oh, also that he fell for Park Jay, the guy who had tormented him for years. What a loser.’” Jungwon said, sliding down onto the floor of his bedroom, his phone up against his ear.
“Wonnie, relax, you’re not going to die. All you need to do is get Jay-hyung to kiss you. Simple as pie!” Sunoo’s voice chirped from Jungwon’s phone.
“Sunoo you must be joking. Jay wouldn’t even kiss me if I was the last person on earth and the survival of humankind depended on it.” Jungwon deadpanned into his phone.
“Just – relax. You’ve only coughed up petals twice, right?”
“Yeah, once in Biology a week ago and yesterday morning while I was brushing my teeth.”
“So, think about it this way – that’s only twice. People only die from Hanahaki when they’re coughing up, like, fifty flowers, in one fit. You’ve only coughed flowers up twice – and even then, they’re only petals, not even full flowers. You have plenty of time.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Jungwon finally sighed, tilting his head back as he glanced at the clock. It was 11.34pm. He said a quick goodbye to Sunoo, before hanging up the phone and plugging it in to charge. He climbed onto his bed, flinging his duvet over his head, and let out a breath of air he didn’t know he’d been holding in. Eventually he felt his mind wander off into nothingness, as he drifted off to sleep.
Jungwon woke up the next morning later than usual. An entire thirty minutes later than usual. He was screwed. As he got out of bed, his head hurting, he cursed his past self for not setting his alarm. He had been so wrapped up in this whole stupid hanahaki thing, that it had completely slipped his mind. Curse you, Park Jongseong.
He quickly shoved on a white T-shirt and a pair of dark-wash loose jeans and rushed downstairs.
“Morning, grandma,” he chirped to his grandmother, who was sitting down at the dining table, happily munching on a piece of toast and sipping on some English breakfast tea.
“Wonnie, you woke up a bit later than usual today,” his grandma began, and Jungwon could practically sense the incoming lecture, “Have you been getting enough sleep lately? I understand you're stressed about your exams, but you know, sleep is so important . If you don’t get enough sleep, than your brain can’t function properly and-”
“I know, halmoni , I know. I promise it was just a one off,” he reassured the older lady, as he reached for some toast and began to head towards the door. “I’ll go to bed super early tomorrow, so don’t worry about me.”
That was a lie. He hadn’t had the heart to tell his grandmother about the whole hanahaki ordeal yet, because she already had enough on her plate, and Jungwon didn’t want her to start worrying. Besides, his grandmother was a force to be reckoned with, when she wanted to be. Knowing her, she’d probably march up to Jay’s house, push down the door, and demand Jay kiss him, or else. Just the thought of it made Jungwon cringe mentally. Yeah, it was definitely better for both his and Jay’s sake if she didn’t know.
“Love you, halmoni , see you later!” he shouted as he reached for the door handle, hastily swallowing the last bite of toast he had grabbed earlier into his throat. He took a quick glance at his watch and mentally cursed Jay again. 8.28, the time read. There was no way he was going to make it to the bus stop before 8.30. Normally it was around a 7-minute walk, if he speed-walked it was usually around 5. He began picking up his pace, and soon was full on sprinting to the bus stop.
At 8.31, he turned the corner and spotted his bus, just pulling up outside his bus stop. He frantically waved at a worried-looking figure, who was around 5”9 in height, with jet black hair. Eventually the boy spotted him, and relief washed over his face. The boy stepped on to the bus, waving his hands around at the driver, trying to communicate something with him. Jungwon made a final sprint towards the bus, until he finally reached it and put his hands on his knees and bowed his head, completely out of breath.
“I swear, I had it on me literally two seconds ago, I just can’t seem to find it anywher-” Sunoo was exclaiming to the bus driver, who looked mildly annoyed. Sunoo caught sight of Jungwon behind him, and reached into his pocket, pulling out his bus card. “Oops! Silly me, it was in my pocket this whole time. Sorry for the delay, ahjussi .” He flashed the bus driver a smile and tapped his card on the reader, before turning around and winking at Jungwon, who mouthed a silent “thank you” to him.
Jungwon fished out his bus card from his pocket, and nodded at the bus driver as he tapped his card on the reader, and followed Sunoo up the stairs to the second floor of the bus.
“Thanks, Sunoo, you literally saved my life.” Jungwon said, gratefully to Sunoo once they were peacefully sitting down at the back of the top of the bus. “Seriously, I don’t think I could handle another one of Mr. Hwang’s lectures about punctuality.”
“I know,” Sunoo said back, a smug look plastered on his face, “What would you do without me?”
For the rest of the bus journey, they settled into a comfortable flow of conversation, until they eventually reached school. They both climbed down the stairs and out of the bus, and they were left standing right outside the school gates.
“You have English first period,” Sunoo asked, as they both began walking towards the school “Right?”
“Yep,” Jungwon deadpanned, his cheerful mood from the earlier bus ride instantly deteriorating. “With Jay.”
“Honestly, you two should just quit fighting and make out already.” Sunoo told Jungwon, a bored expression settling onto his features, “There’s so much unresolved tension between you two… I honestly don’t know how I didn’t see it earlier.”
“Unresolved tension-” Jungwon blurted out, appalled that Sunoo would even suggest the idea. “We have no such thing. Besides, as far as I’m concerned, he’s still an idiot, and the only good thing he’s got going for him is his looks, which are, at best, slightly above average And even that is cancelled out by the fact he’s a massive douchebag.”
That was a blatant lie, and even Jungwon himself knew it. If you asked anyone in their school to describe Park Jay’s looks, they would definitely not be just “slightly above average”. Jay’s looks were probably only a close second to Park Sunghoon’s, who was one of Jay’s best friends, and known throughout the school for being a part time model. For Balenciaga.
So, Park Jay was most definitely not “slightly above average”. No, he was what could only be described as mind-blowingly attractive. Of course, Jungwon knew this, but there was no way in hell that he would admit it out loud. Absolutely no way.
“Mhm, keep telling yourself that, Wonnie,” Sunoo smirked knowingly, reaching for his locker door and opening it. “Maybe one day you’ll even start to believe it yourself.”
“Fine. Be like that. I’m going to English.” Jungwon pouted, in an attempt to look angry, before collecting his books from his locker, and leaving Sunoo shouting after him as he made his way to English.
He entered the English classroom, books cradled in his arms. However, he was soon stopped in his tracks when he glanced over at his usual seat, which had a certain six foot, black-haired individual sitting in it, conversing with his other classmate, Sunghoon.
Jay seemed to notice Jungwon’s eyes boring into the side of him and turned his head to face Jungwon. As they made eye contact, Jungwon felt his heart do an involuntary little flip in his chest, as a small blush began to paint his cheeks.
He was wearing the standard school uniform that everyone wore, but somehow it sat perfectly on him. He had his top two buttons undone, showing just the right amount of skin that helped turn Jungwon’s stomach all mushy, and his tie was hanging loosely from his collar.
Jay seemed to notice the younger one had stopped in the doorway of the classroom and was looking at him, because his mouth shifted from its resting expression into a small, playful smirk.
“Think you might have some drool over here.” Jay said to him, gesturing to the corner of his mouth as he did so.
“You wish.” Jungwon responded snarkily, quickly breaking out of whatever trance Jay had held him in. He began walking over to where Jay was sitting. In his seat. “Now, can you get out of my seat?”
“Hey, Hoon, do you hear something?” Jay turned back to Sunghoon, who he was previously conversing with, “Like, a faint sorta whisper in the wind?”
“Oh, my god, not again.” Sunghoon muttered under his breath before leaving and returning back to his own seat, across the classroom.
“Jay, shut the fuck up.” Jungwon snapped at him. “Literally get out of my goddamn seat.”
“Don’t see your name on it,” Jay said, dropping the act and looking up from Jungwon’s seat to smirk at him.
Jungwon felt his heart skip another beat, as Jay’s eyes locked with his once more.
“J-just-” Jungwon start to stutter out, his voice betraying his nonchalant posture, as he took a deep breath and tried to compose himself,
“Look.” He began, his voice coming out steady this time. “Park Jay, if you don’t get out of my fu-”
“Language, please, Mr. Yang,” An authoritative voice called out from the front of the classroom. “And Mr. Park, please kindly vacate Mr. Yang’s seat and return to your designated seat.”
“Of course, Mr. Hwang, I had just left one of my text books on our dear Jungwonnie’s desk, so I had to go and collect it.” Jay beamed at Mr. Hwang, before grabbing his bag and finally getting up from Jungwon’s seat, moving towards the other side of the classroom to join Sunghoon.
“Suck up…” Jungwon muttered under his breath as Jay passed him, which earned him a shot of daggers glaring from Jay’s eyes as Jungwon settled into his seat.
It was one of the reasons that Jungwon had hated Jay in the first place, amongst others. He was always sucking up to the teachers, one way or another, and, of course, all the teachers adored him for reasons unbeknownst to Jungwon. Well, not exactly unbeknownst. Jay was the son of their principal after all, so all the teachers had to be nice to him, by default. That was probably the second reason why Jungwon despised Jay so much. He walked around the school with his nose stuck 20 feet up in the air, like he owned the school. Or at least that’s what it seemed like to Jungwon.
Sure, he’d heard of the other students' stories of how the principal's son was so “kind” and nice. There was always something new. Last month, he helped a poor, lost freshman find their way around school. And just a couple weeks ago, he picked up some random Sophomore’s books for them when they dropped them all over the hallway, bla bla bla. It seemed he was the only one not fooled by Jay’s act. Jungwon was 99% sure that it was an act. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to fall for it.
Just when Jungwon had settled into his seat, merely five minutes into the lesson, he felt something come up in his throat. Something that scratched the sides of his throat as if there were thorns on it. He cleared his throat in an attempt to get rid of whatever was blocking his oesophagus, when he began to taste a sort of metallic flavour in his mouth.
Oh, my god. Not again. You're joking.
His eyes widened slightly as he realised what was happening. Shit.
“Um, Mr. Hwang,” Jungwon began, his voice hoarse, “May I go to the bathroom?”
“Yes, but be quick please.” Mr. Hwang replied, barely glancing over at Jungwon, as he began to rise from his seat.
He hurriedly dashed out of the classroom and practically sprinted to the nearest bathroom. He pushed open the door hastily and ran to the nearest sink, not bothering to check if anyone else was in the bathroom. He began to cough and splutter into the sink, his hands shaking as they gripped the sides of the basin. Jungwon could feel his throat practically screaming in pain, as it constricted and expanded, trying to push out whatever godforsaken flower petal was in there this time.
Eventually, after around another painstaking sixty seconds of blood being splattered into the sink, accompanied with Jungwon coughing and spluttering rather ungraciously, a singular petal fell from his mouth and into the sink. His throat still felt raw as he picked the petal up from the sink, and held it closer to his face. The petal was quite small - just bigger than the width of his thumb - but rather elongated. It was a milky white colour, and its edges were littered with splotches of crimson red which ran down to the middle of the petal. Jungwon recognised it after a few seconds of holding it up through his eyeline.
A striped carnation.