Work Text:
It was just a normal afternoon.
Akito was just sitting and eating his lunch on the rooftop with his eccentric upperclassman, Rui. He doesn’t even know when they became so close and already has a habit of going to the rooftop to eat lunch together.
But a weird question from his upperclassman completely caught him off guard.
“Hey, Shinonome-kun, do you know what Hanahaki disease is?”
Akito choked on his food when he heard that question and he quickly grabbed his water bottle and drank the water from it to calm his throat down.
Sure, it’s everyday that he gets weird questions from his upperclassman but this question was a whole level of absurd.
Once he was calmed down, he looked at his upperclassman with a scowl. “What the hell!? I was eating, you know!” He scolded him.
Seeing his reaction, Rui looked at him confusedly. “What’s with that reaction, Shinonome-kun? It’s not like it’s a sensitive topic for you, is it?” He asked with his eyebrows raised.
“Of course not! But don’t ask me weird questions while I’m eating!” Akito denied angrily.
“Sorry.” Rui apologized with an exaggerated pout. “But do you know what it is, though?” He got back to his main topic, which is asking Akito about the Hanahaki disease.
“Yeah, I know. But it’s a fictional disease, so I wouldn’t dwell on it.” He replied to Rui as he closed his lunch box since after that sudden choking he didn’t have any mood to eat anymore.
“Fictional? But I heard rumors it’s real, though?” Rui questioned with pure curiosity in his voice, it’s the first time Akito has ever heard he was genuinely interested in something. But he didn’t buy any of it since he thought it might be an act to get him involved with something.
He grimaced and retorted back to him with a simple, “Rumors are rumors. No evidence they’re real.” He then leaned closer to his upperclassman and added with a smug smile. “Though, I didn't think you would be the type to listen to rumors even when you yourself are already surrounded by rumors, Kamishiro-senpai.” Akito whispered in a low voice.
Now this wasn’t what Rui expected his underclassman was going to do.
With how close Akito’s face is to his face, he couldn’t help but feel hot on his cheeks. But he covered it with a laugh.
“Haha! Yeah, I guess so! It’s pretty weird for me to care about rumors, huh?” Rui reflexively backed off, and unknowingly held his chest to calm his heartbeat that was going fast that did not go unnoticed by the other student.
Calm down.
Is what Rui was repeating to himself to calm his fast beating heart and Akito was looking at him weirdly.
"Oi, you okay?" He questioned him with almost concern on his tone. When Rui noticed that, he reeled back his hand from his chest and smiled to brush it off. "Yeah, just having a heart attack on how brave you are getting close to me like that." He teased his underclassman.
Now it's Akito's turn to feel hot on his cheeks.
He groaned in annoyance. "Why am I even surprised by your answer? I get close to you because I intended to tease you like you always did to me. So, I thought I could tease you back." He covered his face with his arm in embarrassment, the purple haired student could see that he was getting redder.
Rui snickered in response. "Well, good try. But you need to try harder to tease me." He stood up from the rooftop floor and brushed his pants from dust.
"So, you really don't believe the Hanahaki disease is real?"
It was that question again.
Akito reeled back his arm from his face and looked upwards to face his upperclassman with a face full of irritation.
"This topic again? I thought we already went past that."
He stood up from the rooftop floor to face his upperclassman face to face, but not before grabbing his lunch box.
He exhaled in exasperation. "No, I don't believe in that sort of stuff and besides doesn't that seem to not make any sense to you? Like how can someone literally cough out petals? Where did the petals even come from anyway? It's not like you can grow a flower inside your body."
Rui went quiet as he was registering Akito’s words, his expression went empty for a second before he quickly chuckled after that. "Really? That's interesting.."
He trailed off for a moment to think, his expression went empty again, and he continued his sentence.
He nodded in response.
"Yeah, I agree with you, Shinonome-kun. I'm really glad that I could hear your opinion on the Hanahaki disease. It's always interesting hearing you talk."
Akito shrugged his shoulders, "Trailing off and being all mysterious as always, huh, Kamishiro-senpai? Well whatever, not that it's my business."
He turned his back towards his upperclassman and raise his empty hand.
"Break is almost over. So, you better get going. See you around senpai." He said without turning his head. He waved his raised hand towards him and opened the rooftop door to go to his next class.
When Akito was out of sight, Rui did not move from his position to go to his next class.
He didn't even answer Akito's goodbye. He was silent. It looked like he froze. With a blank expression visible on his face.
Was he shocked hearing Akito’s answer?
Then a little bit after that, Rui raised his hand to his mouth and coughed to it. And coughed again.
When he was done, he lowered his hand to look at it. There were blood on them.
And there were also flower petals on them.
Rui wasn't surprised that there were flower petals and blood.
Since, isn't it obvious?
Rui Kamishiro, suffered from the Hanahaki disease and he thought he could cure it by asking his crush, which is none other than Akito about it.
But, he doesn't even believe it exists. So, how could Rui cure it if his crush doesn't even believe it?
He could just do the removal surgery, but he doesn't want his feelings for his underclassman to disappear.
Rui sighed in despair and he smiled sadly as he looked at the blue sky.
He was really stuck now.