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Kaito can't remember when the symptoms started to happen. He happened to be leaning on Shuichi's locker, for starters. When Shuichi walks to the locker, Kaito's already placated smile seems to grow brighter. But something's wrong. Shuichi already has a big smile on his face, along with a blush upon his face. But before Kaito asks him why he's blushing, they do their usual greeting first.
"Hey, Shuichi!", Kaito says in a bright manner. Shuichi looks at him with the smile, the blush gone.
"Oh, hey, Kaito", he says in a cheerful manner.
"You look happy", Kaito says. "Got good grades? Got invited to a party? Made a new friend?"
Shuichi blushes again. He can't get over how cute the boy was.
"Actually, I... met this interesting girl today", Shuichi replies, then sighs like a dreaming girl. Kaito's smile falters slightly.
"Huh? Who's the pretty lady?"
"Her name is Kaede Akamatsu", Shuichi says in a heartbeat. "S-she's really beautiful, Kaito. She told me that she actually likes what I do for a living... she actually complimented me. A new girl in school, complimenting me..."
Kaito feels this strange, sinking feeling in his stomach. Something that affects his happiness, though he doesn't know what, though.
But he lets his friend continue talking about Kaede, a pianist who was sent to this prestigious school to celebrate her one hundredth piano recital. Shuichi is a shy boy, but sometimes, he gets love struck easily. And this time, it was with Kaede.
"She sounds really unique", Shuichi says, wrapping up his talk about Kaede. "Should I ever talk to her again?"
Kaito still has that uncomfortable feeling inside him. But yet, he tries to smile for Shuichi, wanting to encourage him into getting what he wants.
"You should!", Kaito gives Shuichi a thumbs up. "Pursue your dreams, Shuichi!"
Shuichi's amber eyes brighten. "T-thank you, Kaito."
Then they walk together, talking about school matters. Kaito pretends to be supportive of Shuichi, but deep inside, he feels somewhat lonely that he won't be there for the boy much longer. It makes Kaito feel sick and makes his palms sweat as Shuichi occasionally goes back to talking about Kaede and how beautiful she is.
This new girl is going to be overwhelming, even if he hadn't met her or saw her.
~~~
Kaito bids a goodbye to Shuichi as he reaches his house, then opens the door. The uncomfortable feeling in his stomach has now turned to an itching throat. He starts to cough. He goes to the first floor's bathroom, and locks himself in, as he starts to cough and hack even harder. It is so painful, then finally...
Something light purple comes out of his mouth. He glances at it. It's a flower petal, and it floats delicately onto the floors.
Shit. No, this can't be happening.
Though he's not a big fan of flowers, he loves orchids. He loves how his grandmother plants them and they turn to beautiful, bright, aerial flowers.
"Oh god, no", he can't be going through this. He can't be going through this disease. He backs away, and finds his back touching the bathroom door. He inhales. Fuck, he has trouble breathing too.
He stares at it in disbelief. He... didn't want this. Why is fate so cruel to him? Trembling, he kneels down and scoops the petal up, putting it in the trash bin, then exiting the bathroom.
~~~
Nothing has happened two days after that, and Kaito is able to finally push that occurrence away from his memories.
Until he feels something in his itching throat. He starts to sweat. Kaito asks his teacher if he can go to the bathroom, and when he finally gets permission from the teacher, he immediately gets up and sprints through the hallways, until he finds the nearest bathroom. Hurriedly, Kaito goes in it and goes to the sink, coughing and hacking.
Orchid petals start to flutter to the ground beneath him. After this session, he picks it up and puts it in the trash bin.
~~~
It was originally a weekly occurrence, but it becomes more and more frequent each month. Shuichi makes it worse by asking Kaede to sit with them at their table. Kaito can't help but feel uncomfortable, especially with the petals slowly piling up in his throat, but he forces a smile.
"Guys, this is Kaede", Shuichi says, pointing to Kaede, obviously. Kaede smiles and waves a hand.
"Hello! It's nice to meet you guys", she says. She's a positive girl, but Kaito is still hesitant towards her.
"My name's Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars!", Kaito greets, resisting the urge to cough in front of the others.
As Kaede and Shuichi sits down and starts small talk, he can't take the piling petals anymore.
"Hey, uh, I need to go to the bathroom", Kaito says, then excuses himself to the cafeteria's bathroom. Luckily, it's so empty that he can cough in peace.
He locks the bathroom door, the process to cough at the sink. Piles and piles of orchid petals came fluttering down from his lungs. He would only get to breathe like this when he's emptying his lungs from flower petals.
Why had it come to this?
Routinely, he picks up the flower petals from the sink, and throws them to the trash bin. His lungs start to slowly pile up again of flower petals. Breathing properly is limited for him. After that, he runs out of the bathroom, and greets his friends with a smile.
~~~
Kaito's family knows about this sickness of his, and suggested him to go to the doctor. The doctor said that they can do the surgery, but the side effects of said surgery was not feeling love for the person you fell in love with. Kaito refuses.
"Feeling no love to this person is like death!", Kaito shouts at the doctor. "Is this the only thing you can come up with as a cure?"
Kaito's condition gets worse every single day Kaede comes to eat at them at the cafeteria. But this time, it's different.
As he was disposing the flower petals he had coughed up, one of them had red tinged to it.
Kaito's eyes widen. It must mean his condition is getting worse. He sighs a bit, then smiles.
"Whatever."
~~~
"What're you gonna get for Shuichi's birthday?", Maki asks Kaito one day.
Kaito shrugs. "He likes those detective books, so I'll give him that."
Maki sighs. "You give him that gift every year."
"Yeah? But he likes it."
"Hey, Shuichi's having a party in his house." A party? That boy would never have a party. "It was Kaede's idea, by the way."
Kaito blinks, as his throat starts to itch. That makes sense.
"They actually also confirmed their relationship at our chat", Maki adds. "Huh. I expected them to have a relationship this quick, to be honest."
Kaito opening his mouth is his grave mistake if he wants to keep secrets.
He starts to cough and hack, and Maki just stands there, dumbfounded. Orchid petals fly across the air, each of them all tinged with blood.
"What the fuck!", Maki shouts, as Kaito finally ends the coughing. "Kaito, what the fuck?"
"Haha, I think I got some explaining to do", Kaito says.
~~~
Maki looks at Kaito with an expressionless emotion, but Kaito knows she's completely worried about him.
"Have you tried removing it yet?", Maki asks.
Kaito shakes his head. "Nah. I want to feel love, you know!" He smiles. Maki motions to hit Kaito, but then hesitates.
"You idiot", Maki sighs. "You're risking your life for someone who's already with someone else."
Kaito sighs, a tear escaping his eye.
"I know. But I'll never stop loving him, even if I die because I can't breathe."
Then he coughs a full orchid.
"I... think we need to stop talking about love", Maki says.
~~~
A few months after, Kaede is nowhere to be seen. When Shuichi sits with them at lunch time, she wasn't with him. What happened to them both?
"Hey, Shuichi, where's Kaede?", Kaito asks.
"Um, she left", Shuichi says. "She got kicked out of school due to her bad grades. We broke up after that dilemma."
"Oh, okay then", Kaito says, but he still feels his throat itching. Again, he goes to the bathroom, and fills the sink with orchids, all covered in blood.
"It's... getting worse", Kaito pants as a thick atmosphere surrounds him. He's running out of time, but he still doesn't have the confidence to confess to him.
What now?
~~~
A few hours later, after classes, Shuichi wan't usually in they're meeting spot, that's right next to his locker. Where could he be? He decides to go look for him, even though it's obvious where he would stop by: the first floor's empty room. He's in front of the door, but before he can reach for the door knob...
He hears a coughing sound. And the voice after that.
"Shit, it's getting worse!"
Without thinking, Kaito barges in, to see a surprising sight on the floors.
Shuichi is surrounded in bluebells, some with blood on them. Tears where sliding down his cheeks, but more tears start to stream down his cheeks as Kaito sees him. Kaito looks at him with wide eyes, then closes the door. He kneels right next to Shuichi, who turns away as he starts to weep again. Kaito's throat is itching, so he has to get those damn flowers out of his lungs.
He starts to cough and hack, alerting Shuichi, who turns around to see him, surprise in his eyes as he sees purple orchid petals delicately flying out from Kaito's mouth, landing on the wooden floors softly. Once he's done, he looks at Shuichi, with tears streaming down his face.
"You're a man", Kaito says. "And men shouldn't cry."
He kisses Shuichi after that, and he feels his lungs emptying. He kisses him deeper and deeper, and eventually, Shuichi shares the kiss with him. After a few minutes, they break apart, to look at each other in the eyes.
"The impossible is possible. All you gotta do is make it so."