Chapter Text
Chongyun was lying curled up on his bedroom floor. Painful coughs escaped his mouth. His throat felt like it was being ripped open like thorns are tearing down his flesh.
Scattered over his bed were old pictures of him and his best friend, who had moved away at the age of 10.
Though it's been several years since his best friend had moved away, whenever old memories of him came up, the pain in his chest got unbearable.
He held a hand over his mouth as he continually coughed up blue flower petals stained with his blood.
Not able to do anything to stop his pain or the coughing he just silently endured it, waiting for it to finally end.
As the pressure in his chest grew weaker, he was able to move again.
His hands were covered in blood and flowers petals. He slowly got up from the floor making sure to not touch anything in the process, in fear of ruining it.
He made his way across the corridor to the bathroom. He threw the petals into the toilet and went to wash his hands.
Getting rid of the bloodstains was a pain that he had to go through more often recently, as his coughing fits olny grew in number.
He wasn't sure why it happens more often now than it had in the last few years. It might just be that he feels lonely quite often nowadays.
His way of dealing with this constant loneliness was pulling out a small box from the very last corner of his closet. It was filled with old pictures. Some of them were so damaged from the sun that the images on them could be hardly seen at all.
Though one could say that his so-called comfort box brought him more pain than it actually helped him, he couldn't seem to stop going over the pictures of himself and his best friend again and again.
No one could deny that Chongyun was lading a lonely life, far too lonely for such a young boy.
In school, he made sure to isolate himself from the other students in fear of growing too attached to them and causing his Illness to act up.
He constantly had to make sure to keep his emotions in balance. Any small mistake could be the trigger to another coughing fit and he wasn't ready to embarrass himself in front of his peers again. He still hadn't recovered from the last time that had happened.
He never actually took notice of his condition until a certain person stepped into his life.
He was merely 4 years old when he met his best friend.
Their parents knew each other so they were meant to meet in one way or another. It was only when Chongyun grew closer to the other boy that his parents realized he would start coughing when he was around his friend for too long.
They eventually took him to a doctor to get his lungs checked. On that day he got diagnosed with a rare condition called Hanahaki Disease. A flower, more precisely a blue Hydrangea macrophylla, is growing in his right lung.
It scared him.
The doctors said that he wouldn't even take notice of it most of the time.
Yet just knowing that there was a flower growing in his lung terrified him.
All he wanted was to be normal. Just normal.
He stood in front of his mirror staring at his reflection. He still had blood at the sides of his mouth and dark shadows stretched out under his eyes. Tomorrow was Wednesday so he would have to go to school again, but with his lungs aching this much he didn't know if staying home wouldn't be better.
He went back into his room but stopped in the doorway. The pictures were still laying all over his bed. His heart started to feel uptight. Breathing slowly got harder again. He held onto the doorframe for support as he slowly slid down onto the floor.
He grabbed his shirt right over his chest and started pulling on it as if it would ease the pain.
He was so lonely without him. He had felt empty and left out ever since his friend had moved away. Ever since he had left him behind.
Tears started to run down his face and left a salty tray on his cheeks. He just wanted to feel like a normal teenager again. He wanted to have friends in school.
But no one ever talked to him. Everyone in his school just saw him as a strange loner with bad lungs.
He never took part in PE class, he always ate alone and only cold food, never talked to anyone and would start coughing uncontrollably at random times. Occasionally some classmates would ask him what the homework was or if they could copy his homework. Some even asked him for tips on how to study for a test, but other than that no one tried to approach him.
It was well known that he was a straight-A student. What else should he do in all the free time he had other than studying, reading and playing video games.
He did play with people online and he would consider a few of them as friends but he knew he would never meet any of them and it was good that way. He liked playing a particular game where the main goal was to exorcise demons and rid the world of evil spirits. Some weekends he would stay up all night talking to his few online friends in Voice Chat and play that game.
Still, this wasn't what he wanted. He wanted, he yearned for more than just those few online friends. He felt a bit greedy when he thought like that. He should be glad that he wasn't completely alone, but still, he couldn't stop himself longing for real friends.
More and more tears ran down his face and he grew more and more tired.
He took all the pictures from his bed and tried to not look at them too much. He pushed the box into the corner of his closet and lay down on his bed.
It took a while but he started to feel more and more sleepy with each passing minute. The time between his blinks got longer and longer until he eventually just kept his eyes shut.