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Snowball sat on his bed, looking at the flower petals that came from his mouth. This isn’t normal. Absolutely not. You can’t just, what, throw up flower petals. Those are natural nature things, not in object biology. Right? He never really paid attention in class.
He studied the flowers, realizing they were from Coiny’s favorite flowers. Violets and gladiouses. Coiny always said he liked those flowers because they represented loyalty and bravery, which matched his personality. Not like Snowball would disagree.
What? Just because he knew Coiny’s favorite flowers did not mean it meant anything. He’s not paying attention to that.. Cute.. Coin at all!
...
Okay fine! He liked Coiny, romantically. Not like it mattered, Snowball knows full well Coiny likes Pin.
Snowball grumbled. He hated the fact that Coiny liked Pin. And he wouldn’t love him. Coughing, he spits out more flower petals, all of them being from Coiny’s favorite flowers.
What in Goiky is he going to do about coughing up flower petals?? Looking at the flowers in his hands. He thinks of the worst thing he could ever do. Talk with.. Bossy Golf Ball about his situation. Ugh.
Putting his hands in a fist to hold the flower petals and that no one would see or ask about them. He made his way over to Golf Ball’s room.
Is this normal? Well he’s never seen anyone else experience it nor has he ever experienced in the past. Only really Golf Ball and Tennis Ball would know. He walked up two floors from his room, and went over to Golf Ball’s room.
He could just hear their nerdy yaps. Rolling his eyes, he knocked. He could hear Tennis Ball say something and open the door. Tennis Ball, confused on why Snowball of all people would come over to their room asked, “Snowball? You don’t usually like talking with us. May I ask why you are here?”
Tennis Ball invited him in, moving over so Snowball could enter. As Tennis Ball closed the door behind Snowball, Golf Ball yelled, “Why are you here you birdbrain?! And why did you invite him in, TB?!” Snowball sits down on the couch in the room.
Snowball growls at Golf Ball to intimidate her which does not work in the slightest and she keeps her glare at him. “Weeellll, I just needed to ask you guys something. Rude much?” Snowball mumbles. He hands them the flower pedals.
“I coughed these out and I don’t know if that’s normal.” Snowball responds, frowning. Golf Ball studies the flowers, thinking. She seemingly realizes what’s wrong as she lights up and runs out of the room.
“Are these.. Violets and gladioceses?" Tennis Ball asks, studying the flowers. Snowball nods, looking away. Tennis Ball hummed, putting them on a desk and paced.
“I don’t know if this is normal or not. We’ll just have to wait for Golfie’s hypothesis.”
“The fuck’s a hypothesis?!” Snowball exclaims. Tennis Ball sighs and just tells him to wait for Golf Ball to come back. While they wait, Tennis Ball asks Snowball if he wants some tea which he gladly accepts.
“What flavor do you want? I’ve got a lot like-”
“Lavendar.” Snowball cuts off Tennis Ball. He looks at him and nods, opening the cabinets. He grabs what he needs and makes the tea.
Snowball looked around the room, he couldn’t do much so it was kind of boring. He watched as Tennis Ball made the tea. This was lame. Drifting through his thoughts he couldn’t help but think about Coiny.
Everything about him was perfect. His voice, his laugh, his face, his personality, and everything else! He needs to stop. Why couldn’t he just stop thinking about that.. Beautiful.. Coin.
STOP! He likes Pin! Snowball knows full well that he does. And he can’t do anything about it.
Snowball starts coughing harshly. Hacking out a bunch of violet, gladiolus, and red rose petals. Now that’s a new one. Tennis Ball ran over to check up on Snowball hearing the coughs. He sees the new petals, and asks, “Are you okay? Did you just cough those out?” Snowball looked at him deadpan. He nodded.
Tennis Ball went back into the kitchen and took out the tea, giving Snowball his mug. Snowball simply placed the petals on the table in front of him. Snowball thanked him and drank it slowly. The tea stinging his throat a bit after his coughing fit.
After a bit, Golf Ball runs in, fear and alarm visible on her face. “YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!!!” Golf Ball immediately screams. Snowball yelps, “WHAT?!”
Golf Ball clears her throat and calmly tells Snowball, “Okay so I have looked through many different books and research, and it turns out you have Hanahaki Disease. Which is a disease that is caused by unrequited love. The disease will cause your lungs to grow flowers and you will cough them out. And the flowers will keep growing until you either confess to the one you love and they reciprocate your feelings, we surgically remove it which will make you lose and forget the feelings you had for them, or you die.”
Snowball stared at her stupidly.
“What? Are you so dim-witted that you can’t even comprehend what I just said?”
“Golf Ball. You said that way too fast” Snowball deadpanned. “I don’t think even Tennis Ball understands you.”
“You should talk slower Golfie, I only heard surgically and die.”
Golf Ball sighed before summarizing what she said slowly, “Basically. You have something called Hanahaki Disease. This is caused by love that is not returned. The disease will cause your lungs to grow flowers and you to cough out those flowers. They will keep growing until you either confess to the one you love and they return your feelings, we remove them with surgery, but it will make you forget your feelings, or you die.”
Snowball looked at her like she did something wrong. Golf Ball asks why Snowball is looking at her that way and he responds with, “Can’t we just respawn with the recovery center?”
Golf Ball shakes her head. “Recovery centers here or others will not work. You will not be able to recover at all.”
Snowball looked at her. The choices were either confess, surgery, or die? Those are all equally horrible choices. He can’t confess. He can’t bear to forget his love for Coiny. And death is pretty obvious. What the hell is he going to do? Maybe one option seemed better.
“Wait, you like someone?” Tennis Ball asked.
“Never would’ve thought.” Golf Ball remarked.
Snowball glared at her. But he couldn’t really do anything about them finding out that he had a crush. Golf Ball started thinking.
“Would you like us to do the surgery? We have all the medical tools needed to do it.” Golf Ball asked.
“No.” Snowball said, surprisingly confidently.
“You’re going to confess.”
“No.”
Golf Ball just stared at him. What was he on? He doesn’t want to do the surgery, but he doesn’t want to confess. He is allowing death to take him? How does he have that kind of mentality? He’s Snowball, right? You would at least expect Snowball of all people to confess to his crush. Whoever that is.
“If you don’t mind me asking who is your crush? Maybe we can help you confess to them? I don’t want to do the surgery on you without your permission.” Golf Ball inquired.
Snowball shook his head. He’s not telling them. He doesn’t care if he dies. He’s not doing the surgery. He’s not losing his feelings for Coiny. He’s not going to confess. What’s the point? Coiny's never going to love him back anyways so he’s dying either way.
He could care less.
“Snowball. You realize you are going to die if you do not do either. And if the one you love does not love you back.” Golf Ball says. Snowball nodded. He understands full well. He’s not stupid.
Golf Ball stared at him. “Okay. We’re unable to do anything else then.” Golf Ball knew she couldn’t help Snowball, not unless she knew his crush. Not unless he agreed to do the surgery. But she can’t without his permission.
Snowball left without another word. Tennis Ball watched him go. “I-is this the best we can do Golfie?” Golf Ball looked at him. “I don’t know. I’ll try to do more research about the Hanahaki Disease. Just in case there is another solution. I don’t know what you can do.”
Golf Ball goes to her science room and closes the door. Tennis Ball didn’t know what to do so he sat down on the couch, back to what he was doing prior.
Snowball stood outside of their door. He’s going to die unless Coiny reciprocates his feelings or he does the surgery. Growling, he went to his room. He’d rather die.
Coiny’s his best friend. Was. His best friend. It would be weird to confess, just to have him say no and for Snowball to die.
And life isn’t worth living without love, platonic or romantic. Snowball learned that first-hand.
He made it to his room, locking the door when he entered. Looking out the window, he saw his team. They were doing something. Snowball couldn’t tell what but he could see his team were having fun. Grassy was smiling widely like a little kid. Basketball was talking with Robot Flower. Eggy followed Grassy around. And Bell, he couldn’t tell what she was doing. It just looked like she was floating there.
He sighed. At least they were having fun, he assumed. His eyes drifted away from his team and saw... Coiny.
With Pin. As always. Of course. Who else would he be with? Not Snowball. He coughed harshly, hacking out more flower petals, more of Coiny’s favorites, more flowers that represented love. There was another new one, irises. Snowball sighed. His breathing, rugged. Fuck this isn’t getting any better.
He took one last glimpse at Coiny and closed his curtains.
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Nobody’s seen Snowball in weeks. His door was locked, his curtains were closed, and he didn’t answer his phone whenever someone called or texted. His phone wasn’t dead, that's for sure. People saw he was idle on Discord every so often. It was getting worrying. He hasn’t eaten or drunk any water. But maybe he had food and water in his room? No one could know for sure.
His team sat outside. They were extremely worried about Snowball, especially Grassy since he was his best friend. They tried to check up on him but he never answered their knocks.
They’ve asked Two to open his door room or teleport them inside his room, but they said they couldn’t do that for privacy reasons. Which obviously made sense but that meant they couldn’t do anything about it. Even if someone locked themselves up in there.
Eggy paced in front of her team, Grassy tried to occupy himself by playing with a ball and passing it to Basketball. Who was trying to distract herself from her worries. But they just couldn’t get their minds off of their missing teammate. Bell sat on the ground. Thinking to herself. Robot Flower, seemingly frowning, didn’t know what to do.
“When is he going to get out of the room?” Eggy asked out loud. She wasn’t exactly expecting an answer. But she still wanted to say it. “Grassy misses Snowball..” Grassy sighed, lips curling into a frown.
Basketball pats his head with her foot. “I know buddy, I’m worried about him.” Bell hummed. Eggy kept pacing, they didn’t know what to do. So they just had to wait it out. And see if Snowball would finally come out of his room.
Meanwhile, somewhere far from them, sat Coiny and Pin. Although Coiny and Snowball hadn’t hung out in a while, he was still worried. He’s his friend and Snowball being in his room for so long wasn’t normal, especially with how active and overconfident he was.
It always made Coiny laugh whenever Snowball did something stupid because of his overconfidence. It was cute.
Coiny has had a crush on Snowball for a very long time. But he never knew how to approach him so he never confessed. Coiny was sad that they drifted and he never confessed. But it was fine! He has Pin and that was just as good! Right..?
Plucking the grass, he frowned. What could Snowball be doing in his room? It isn’t as essential as eating or drinking, is it? He shouldn’t keep cooping himself in his room, that isn’t healthy. He missed seeing Snowball, even if it was from afar.
“Coin-y. Why do you look so sad?” Pin asked, looking at him.
“Oh it’s nothing, really.” Coiny replies.
“Is it about Snowball?” Pin pushed. Coiny looked at her before looking away and nodding. “I am sure he is fine. Maybe he is just doing something important?” Coiny looked at her skeptically before nodding. Yeah maybe.
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Golf Ball comes out of her room. She was unable to find another way to help Snowball. She didn’t realize it had been weeks, but that was normal for a workaholic like her. Tennis Ball looks up seeing Golf Ball come out.
“Golfie! It's been weeks! Have you found another way to help Snowball?” Tennis Ball wondered. She shakes her head. It’s been weeks. Wait. Is Snowball still okay? Is he already gone? With the way Tennis Ball asked it didn’t seem like it.
“Is Snowball still okay?” Golf Ball asked.
“I don’t know.. He hasn’t come out of his room since the day you told him he had hanahaki disease..” Tennis Ball mumbled. “He could be dead for all we know!” Golf Ball exclaims.
“I’m sure he isn’t. I’ve seen him idle on Discord. I saw it yesterday.”
“But that doesn’t mean he is alive.”
Tennis Ball looked away. That was true. “What do you suppose we do?”
“We’re going to have to talk to Pen and Eraser. They know Snowball more than us, surely they know who his crush is.” Golf Ball sighs.
Walking out of the hotel and over to the two, Pen notices the pair walking over to him and Eraser. “TB! GB! What are you two doing here?” Pen asks.
“This is for important reasons. We need to know who Snowball has a crush on.”
Pen looks over at Golf Ball and looks back at Eraser, who was confused. Probably on why Golf Ball and Tennis Ball are asking that question.
“Why would you need to know that? Not like he does have a crush. And how would that be important?” Pen asked. He knew Snowball didn’t like people knowing he had a crush. Especially since he thought it made him weak to love someone like that. He didn’t want anyone calling him weak at all. He hated being weak.
“Pen. We already know Snowball has a crush. This is important.”
“Well give a reason why this is important.” Eraser asked. He was skeptical how knowing someone’s crush is important like come on!
“He has hanahaki disease.” Golf Ball says. Looking straight at Eraser. Their eyes widened. Hanahaki disease. Pen knew exactly what hanahaki disease was and Eraser was somewhat familiar. Pen had been afraid of getting it so that was why he confessed to Eraser. Eraser, Blocky, and Snowball had all laughed at him for being afraid of it. It embarrassed him but his fear got him with Eraser.
That is why Snowball’s been so distant lately?! That isn’t good, that really isn’t good. That means Snowball’s been dealing with it for weeks?! Wait, why hasn’t Snowball confessed? Or at least did the surgery?
“He didn’t do the surgery or confess?” Pen asked, immensely worried. Golf Ball shook her head and told him that Snowball refused to have the surgery and he refused to confess.
He’d rather die.
“We came to you to ask who his crush is and at least be able to help him before he dies. Which I hope he hasn’t.” Golf Ball says, very pessimistically. Pen worries. Snowball can’t be dead yet right?
Right?
“Well.. Snowball hates letting others know who his crush is. But it’s Coiny.” Pen says. Golf Ball stares at him. “Coiny?” She asks after a bit. He nods.
“For someone like Snowball, I expected him to be straight!” Tennis Ball exclaims. Pen chuckles and nods. “Yeah. But Coiny was always his best friend.. During season one anyways.”
“Anyways we have to go to Coiny then.” Golf Ball and Tennis Ball waved goodbye to Pen and Eraser before making their way to Coiny and Pin. Who were sitting beside some trees.
“Golf Ball. Tennis Ball. What are you two doing here?” Pin asked as they approached.
“SNOWBALL IS DYING BECAUSE OF COINY!” Golf Ball shouts for some reason. Coiny looked at her, shocked. What could he have done that is causing Snowball to die?
“Sorry. What Golf Ball means is Snowball has hanahaki disease.” Pin and Coiny looked at him confused. “Do you not know what that is?” Coiny and Pin looked at each other and shook their heads.
“Okay basically, hanahaki disease is a disease that is caused by unrequited love. It will cause the victim’s lungs to grow flowers and them to cough it out. They will keep growing in the victim’s lungs until they confess to their unrequited love, they do a surgery to remove it, or they die. If the one they love does not love them back, they will also die.” Golf Ball explains.
“But we can recover, why would it matter if he dies?” Pin questions.
“Recovery centers will not work.”
Coiny’s eyes widened. Snowball would die permanently? “Wait what?”
“You heard me. Recovery centers do not work, here or from other places.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait! So, Snowball could be dying right now because of me?! Because he loves me?!” Coiny exclaims, standing up quickly. Golf Ball nods. “Where’s Two.” Coiny asks, his voice serious.
It scares Golf Ball and Tennis Ball. It even scares Pin. Golf Ball tells him they were on the hotel’s roof. Coiny runs away at once, almost knocking people over in the process. He just yells out apologies as he bolts towards the hotel.
He can’t lose Snowball. Not now. Not after learning he loves him. It can’t happen. It won’t.
He makes it there, running up the stairs. He, at first, goes to Snowball’s room, knocking vigorously on the door, yelling Snowball’s name but he didn’t answer. The rooms weren’t soundproof.
Coiny runs up to the hotel roof and finds Two.
“TWO!!” Coiny yells.
Two flinches as they turned around, that was loud. “What’s up my metal friend?” Two smiles.
“Take me to Snowball. Now.” Coiny says, his voice, clear and fearful.
“But why?” Two asks, worried.
“Please.”
“I’m sorry Coiny! But I can’t because privacy matters! I can’t just barge in his room!” Two explains.
“No. Teleport me to Snowball’s room. I don’t care about privacy. He’s going to die.
“That’s a bold statement-” Two begins before Coiny jumps onto them. “JUST FUCKING TAKE ME TO HIM!” Coiny screamed. This scares Two and they immediately teleport Coiny to Snowball’s room. They gasped multiple times for air. They didn’t expect Coiny to jump on them. Oh well. It should be fine.
Coiny gets teleported to Snowball’s room and he looks around it. It is an absolute mess. Flower petals and full bloom flowers were everywhere. Ranging from his favorite flowers, ones that represented love, ones that symbolized unrequited love, and Snowball’s favorite flowers. Some even had blood covering them. There was blood everywhere as well. Covering the walls, the floor, there were puddles of it accompanying the flowers that were everywhere.
Coiny gasps, breathing heavily, tears threatening to fall as he sees his room. He sees Snowball’s bed, a huge pile of flowers on it, blood staining the bed. He could see Snowball in the pile of flowers.
He ran over, pushing the flowers away from Snowball’s body.
No, no, no, no! He can’t be dead. He just couldn’t be. He can’t just be dead. Not now. Not after he finds out he loves him. He can’t die before they confess their feelings to each other. He can’t! He just can’t..
He finally pushes most of the flowers away from Snowball, who was still laying down, blood staining much of his body. Pulling his body up, Coiny starts shaking him, shouting at him to wake up. Coiny started crying, tears falling down his cheeks and marks of it falling down his metal face.
Snowball was so cold.. Colder than his snow.
“Snowball! Snowball please! Please wake up! Please! Y-you can’t be dead! N-not yet! No, no, no, no! Please..! Snowball, I-I love you!” Coiny kept shouting and pleading for Snowball to wake up but despite his shouts he knew he was dead.
Some of the blood on the flowers were still wet. And the blood dripping down his mouth was still moving and just barely staining his snow meant that he died only recently. Coiny was too late. If he had been faster, he could’ve saved him. Which hurt Coiny’s heart even more. Snowball’s blood stained Coiny’s legs and arms and face but he didn’t care. He just wanted Snowball to wake up. A distant wish that would never happen.
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Coiny had stopped shouting, his throat too pained to keep going. He hugged Snowball’s dead body. He stopped crying a long time ago, he had no more tears left to cry.
He heard knocks on the door.. He couldn’t bear to leave Snowball’s body, but the others had to know. Especially Pen and Eraser. What were they going to tell Blocky?
Getting off the bed and opening the door, Pin, Golf Ball, and Tennis Ball walked in. They saw Coiny’s state and the state of the room and understood what happened. Pin hugged Coiny, who hugged back weakly.
“I’m so sorry Coin-y..” She whispered. Coiny closed his eyes, too tired to keep them open. Two came in and saw Coiny and Snowball. Golf Ball told them the situation. Covering their mouth, they murmured that they were going to tell everyone what happened.
A few weeks had passed since what happened. Pen and Eraser were devastated hearing the news, mourning their lost friend. Snowball’s team weren’t as devastated as Pen and Eraser but Grassy was close to it.
They told Blocky on call, who couldn’t help but cry after the news, with Woody doing his best to comfort him but he couldn’t do anything much for his boyfriend.
Then there was Coiny. He hasn’t left his room in days after the one he loved died. Doing the same exact thing Snowball did, he isolated himself, never answering calls or texts. Never answering their knocks. Ignoring them completely.
All he could do was cry and sleep. Thinking how if he had been faster, he could’ve saved Snowball, and what they could’ve done together as boyfriends. All the possibilities down the drain. Never to be seen again.
Two and Four tried recovering him, but they failed. Golf Ball was right; you couldn’t recover those with the disease. Of course she was right, she was Golf Ball.
Coiny laid on his bed, his face and room a mess. He coughed harshly and out came a small flower petal. A lotus flower. It was Snowball’s favorite flower because of how it represented strength. Like him. Strong. And how he secretly thought it looked pretty.
Coiny smiled. He'd see Snowball soon.