Chapter Text
"Ready, everyone?" Ichika smiled, turning back to face her fellow band members. "One last run-through before we go home."
"All ready!" Saki giggled in reply as her hands rested themselves on the keyboard, ready to play.
"Sure," Shiho replied, her eyes fixed on her bass guitar. "Honami?"
"One, two, three, four!" With the countdown, the group of childhood friends launched into their rehearsal, music drifting through the hallways of the peaceful Classroom SEKAI. In a nearby empty classroom, Miku glanced up from the pile of music sheets she had spilled onto the floor.
"How many times have they practiced that song again?" She asked Luka, who was helping her to gather up the scattered pages.
"Long enough that I can remember every single note of it," Luka chuckled as the pages in her hand kept adding in numbers, her eyes glued onto the mess that is their very floor right now.
“They’ve been practicing that for some time now. Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it?” Miku slowly pushed herself off the floor and stretched. “They’ve really come a long way,” Miku remarked, patting her skirt.
In the other room, the four childhood friends are enjoying their practice with perfect harmony. All was going well when Ichika suddenly felt a pain in her chest. She tried to push the feelings down, but it kept aching back. She held the tears in her eyes and kept playing, albeit a bit out of tune.
With no cue, Ichika’s throat tightened up as she felt something was stuck in her throat. Her singing came to an abrupt halt, starting to cough violently while the pain in her chest became increasingly intense.
“Icchan! Are you okay?” Saki ran towards Ichika, who was grasping her throat. “I-I’m fine- *cough*” Ichika answered. “I-I’ll find s-something to swallow down my throat-*cough*” She ran out of the classroom, with the other 3 following her.
Ichika accidentally went into the wrong room, and at this point, the pain made her collapse on the ground. The coughs kept increasing in volume, with each time multiplying the pain tenfold.
With a final cough, Ichika got rid of the thing stuck in her throat, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Ichika-chan! Are you alright?” Honami asked her, ‘Why did you run off like that? You made us worried.“ “I feel better now, maybe we can continue playing,” Ichika suggested. All the other girls looked at each other and shook their heads. “Let’s end the practice here. Ichika, go back home and take a rest.” Shiho said. “Maybe you strained your voice too hard, make sure to take some water breaks!” Honami said while giving Ichika a bottle of water.
“Drink some hot tea when you get back! My doctor always said that hot tea is good for your throat!” Saki replies with a sweet smile. The three girls laughed at the strawberry blonde’s statement. But that’s when Ichika noticed something on the ground - a vibrant yellow carnation petal, stained scarlet by splotches of blood, at the place she just lied upon. Confused, Ichika took the petal, and stealthily stored it in her pocket, so others wouldn’t worry about her. Not long after, the childhood friends took out their phones and waved goodbyes to the virtual singers before going home.
——————
Back in her bedroom, Ichika tries to focus herself on writing lyrics for Leo/Need’s newest song, but her thoughts keep running back to the bloody carnation petal. Where did it come from? The SEKAI didn’t have any carnations, at least, according to her memory.
“Maybe I am thinking too much…” Ichika thought, pushing back her chair and stretching. “Saki said warm tea could help…… I’ll get some downstairs.” After getting to the kitchen and preparing her hot tea, she sat down by her cacti, staring into the dusk. She was relaxing when her mind unconsciously drifted to Saki. Her scarlet eyes, her gorgeous hair, her cheerful personality……
Suddenly, the pain in her chest spiked as something felt like it was stuck in her throat. Ichika grabs her neck, desperately trying to get rid of it, spilling her tea in the process “It’s like the feeling back in band practice, but worse, a thousand times worse!” Ichika thought The pain kept coming back, and multiple violent coughs came.
After a painful minute, the pain subsided, and Ichika blew a huge sigh of relief and realized the mess she had made. Her spilled tea, the broken teacup, the bloody flower petals, huh? Ichika thought. She definitely didn’t keep any of those flowers in her garden. But then another violent cough interrupted her thoughts, and Ichika finally saw where those petals came from; herself.
Ichika immediately backed off and stood up. She touched the petals again to confirm if they were real, and there they were, bloody and definitely real. Ichika looked around the mess she had created and curled up into a ball.
“What the hell is happening to me?”
——————
The next day, bells rang across Miyamasuzaka school. Lunchtime arrives in a blink of an eye, and every student is excited for this moment.
"Lunchtime!” Saki cheered, pumping her fists into the air. She whipped around, almost hitting Ichika over the eyes in excitement and jumped onto her table. “Icchan, wanna have lunch with Hona-chan and me today?” Saki grinned.
Ichika, who's still blurry from yesterday’s trauma, declined her request. She was too sick to eat anything anyway, but her heart betrays the initial thought by longing for more alone time with Saki.
“Aww, that’s unfortunate. By the way, did your cough go away last night?”
"Ye- yeah, it did. The hot tea trick you suggested helped me as well.” Ichika replied with a small smile.
“Hehe! That’s great, Icchan! Alright, see you after lunch!” She skips and hops away while waving to Ichika.
“Bye.” She waves and sits idly at her desk. Her mind is still filled with so many thoughts from last night. Why did she vomit out flowers? What was this disease she encountered, and why did it have to happen to her?
“Hoshino-san?” A familiar sound comes into the field. Ichika turned her head and the cerulean-haired girl was standing by the windowsill, eating a pack of salad. “Are you ok? Is something bothering your mind?”
“Kiritani-san.… I’m fine, thanks. I just didn’t sleep well last night.” She comes up with the nearest logical explanation, “Are you eating alone today? I usually see you spending time with your group members.”
“They’re pretty busy today,” Haruka replies back. “Minori is coming with me soon though.”
Ah, Ichika thought, that’s cute. They came out as a couple a few days ago, and they’ve been really close together. “Maybe we can go out together one day with my band members! We’re all fans of your group, especially Saki. She’s been watching your shows since primary school.”
“Fufu, that would be nice,” She chuckles, taking another slice of tomato off the translucent plastic container. “We could go to a cafe? I heard there’s a place called WEEKEND GARAGE. Kohane gave me some coupons.”
“Sure, I’ll tell my friends about it.” Ichika pulls up her phone, but before she can type anything, her chest starts hurting. No, not here! Not in front of Kiritani-san!
Haruka notices Ichika’s sudden pained expression, quickly places her lunch aside, and walks closer. “H-Hoshino san, are you alright?”
“I-I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Ichika felt her chest tighten even more, and a foreign yet similar feeling roamed her throat. She pushed the petals back, preventing it from going out. “I just had a bad night yesterday.”
“You look really pale, Hoshino-san. "Wait here, I’ll fetch a bottle of water from downstairs.” Haruka then ran out of the room.
Ichika painfully holds in petals in her throat and messages her friends on Sekaigram.
Ichika39_Ln: Hi!
Hona_hona_Ln: Ichika-chan! Saki-chan said that you were feeling unwell! Are you okay? Did you catch a cold?
Ichika39_Ln: I’m fine, Honami. I just had a rough night.
Sakiiii_Ln: Are you sure? You sounded like you had burnt your throat last night. Did the hot tea trick not work? :(
S.h.0108_Ln: Ichika, if you’re hurt, you can let us know. We’ll be by your side.
Ichika chuckled a bit at Saki’s innocence, and she answered:
Ichika39_Ln: No, the hot tea helped actually :)
Sakiiii_Ln: That’s good to hear!
Ichika39_Ln: By the way, Kiritani-san asked us if we could go to the WEEKEND GARAGE together.
S.h.0108_Ln: Hmm, we could go there. I heard there are multiple rap bands there, we could learn from them as well.
Hona_hona_Ln: That’s right! I heard that they just released an apple pie coffee as well! I’m excited to try that out!
Sakiiii_Ln: Then let’s pick a date for us to go there! Just imagine, we could be like couples on a date, just like Haruka-chan and Minori-chan!
A date... Ichika thought. Instantly, she thought of herself sitting on the cafe’s bench, sitting with Saki then eating some ice cream together with her, maybe even slowly touching their lips together….
Ichika39_Ln: Yeah, that would be ni-
Before Ichika could finish the message, she felt her lungs start to squeeze tight again. She tried to hold the petals back, but the attempt failed; She coughed violently, trying to clear her throat. The edges of those petals poked her from the inside out, and it finally went out from her mouth. Petals and blood being spilled out in her palm, more than what she had seen last night.
‘Hoshino-san!” The same voice from before coming from the class's door. It’s Haruka. Oh no, did she finally figure out what happened?
“Ki-Kiritani-san?”
“I saw you cough out blood and flowers!” The short-haired female hurriedly closes the distance and offers a bottle. “Here, have some water, it’ll soothe your throat a bit.”
Ichika wiped the remnants of blood off her mouth and drank some water. “Th-thanks, Kiritani-san.”
Haruka took a seat right next to her, opening her mouth with a surprising question. “Hoshino-san, sorry if I’m being rude, but do you have any feelings for someone?”
Ichika paused for one moment, contemplating whether to put another lie or just straight up truth. Though since her classmate already saw these petals, it might not hurt to answer by the latter. “Yes, I do. But h-how did you know?”
“I think… You have a disease called… Hanahaki disease.”
“What?”
Whatever this disease is, it does seem to be an unusual one judging from Haruka’s unreadable expression. “Hanahaki is a disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love.” Haruka paused, waiting for Ichika to catch up with the knowledge. “Hanahaki… huh,” Ichika thought.
“Could you tell me more about it, Kiritani-san?”, “Sure. Well. It can be cured in 3 ways. One is where your beloved accepts your feelings, Two is the obtainer moving on and Three is where it will be removed by surgical means.” Ichika gulped.
“From what I’ve heard, there’s a low percentage of surgeons that are skilled enough to remove it. Especially since after the procedure, You won’t be able to feel affection for your previous lover again.” Haruka stopped there to give Ichika some time, especially since she looked like she froze from it.
“My feelings…”, Ichika said to herself. “If the obtainer’s lover doesn’t return their feelings…” Haruka inhaled. “Wh-what will happen to them…?” She asked, scared. The latter takes a deep breath, “They will die. Same thing if you don’t cure it.”
Ichika’s face immediately went pale. Yesterday she looked for an answer, but now she just wants to run away from everything. The disease could actually kill someone? She thought that it was just a simply odd disease and that it’ll go away eventually. But now, her life now depends on her blonde-haired childhood friend loving her back….
What a sick joke. Ichika thought.
“Kiritani-san, I know this is a difficult task to fulfill,” Ichika knows that this is something that only herself can solve, and she doesn’t want to put Haruka in the midst of this mess, nor have her force saki into loving her back. “But can you not tell my friends? I don’t want them to worry about me.”
Haruka thinks about it for a second, contemplating, and nods her head eventually. “I understand your concern- I’ll not tell Saki and others. But please do try and confess to her. You only have a few weeks before it becomes lethal.” Haruka explains with a concerned tone, something that she should’ve said beforehand.
As Minori greets her from the 1-C class door, the idol bids her goodbye with a conflicted smile and leaves the classroom, leaving behind several crimson petals and a silently crying girl.