When Shu Fei woke up to the weak winter sun, he was still at his desk. He must have drifted off at some point. At least the essay was finished. He checked the time on his phone, and widened his eyes in surprise at the '7:23 AM' on the screen. He pulled on a jacket that was two sizes too large, and grabbed his backpack as he rushed down the stairs. He had to leave, right now.
–
The classroom was full of the usual buzz and chatter. Like always, Shu Fei quietly took his seat and kept his head low. He wanted to doze off so bad.
A chair scraped against the floor beside him. He didn't bother checking which bully it was this time.
"Did you get home okay yesterday?"
He shot up to see him again. An Cheng.
"Yeah," his voice came out hoarse. "Do you always study here after school?"
"Nah. I just didn't want to go home straight away. It's a lot quieter here after dismissal. But enough about me," he peered at him closely. "You sure you're good? You sound awful."
A slight tickling sensation crawled below his Adam's apple. "Uh. Ahm," he fumbled. He cleared his throat, "I mean. It's probably a cold."
Shu Fei coughed.
An Cheng looked slightly concerned. When the teacher called for quiet, he moved back to his desk.
Shu Fei wanted to take a bullet to the head. Why did that sound so awkward?!
He coughed again. His body was probably rebelling against him for all the late hours he had been pulling off. At least, that was what his mother would say. Shu Fei thought he was just unlucky.
Morning period dragged on more than usual. Each time the dry itch crept up his throat, Shu Fei bit the inside of his cheek, forcing it down. He barely paid any attention to the English teacher's monotone. At the end of second period, he was getting sick of constantly suppressing coughs. When the bell rang, Shu Fei grabbed his backpack and sprinted to the boy's bathroom. He could peacefully hack as loud as he needed to in anonymity.
Shu Fei locked the stall and started coughing, covering his mouth. Each cough felt as if a boxer was punching him in the lungs. He felt something wet come up from his throat and land on the crook of his arm. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought how embarrassing it would be if he actually threw up in school.
When the coughing urge subsided, Shu Fei exhaled shakily and opened his eyes. Glistening on his sleeve, tissue-thin and fresh, were petals.
Crimson flower petals.
Without a second thought, he flushed them down the toilet. His heart pounded wildly.
Those...did not seem like regular cough symptoms.
-
His first afternoon class was PE. For some reason, the substitute teacher thought it was a wonderful idea to go on a 5km run. Outdoors. Uphill. Borderline diabolical.
Shu Fei jogged at a steady incline, the surroundings distant. The cold air stung his nose and cheeks, but that was why he liked running in winter. It took a great effort to get hot and sweaty.
Some places ahead of him, An Cheng's bright hair and height stood out among the other runners. His back made an iconic Dorito shape, noticeable even through his light blue polo shirt. It quite literally was the physique of swimwear models. Shu Fei watched him turn his head to talk with someone next to him. An Cheng's lips turned up at something they had just said, his smile warm and genuine.
Another tickling crept up Shu Fei's trachea, this time fiercer. His chest burned, even though he wasn't running particularly hard. Sweat started to form below his hair, then froze against his skin.
He gave in and allowed a cough to slip by, but it didn't stop there. Soon, he was slowing down, bending over to hack into his sleeve. Each cough felt like a painful release. Shu Fei felt the gaze of others as they overtook him.
"Shu Fei, are you okay?"
Shu Fei nodded weakly.
The classmate to his left was looking concerned.
"You look like you're having a medical emergency."
Shu Fei shook his head.
The classmate shrugged and continued. Shu Fei gasped for a while longer, then the coughs trickled to a stop. He lifted his head and saw the crimson staining his jacket. It stared back at him, dark and real. He quietly tucked the petals into his breast pocket.
There was something wrong with him.
—
When he came back home from school, Shu Fei went to his computer and typed, "coughing up flower petals," into the search bar. The results that came up...
His eyes widened.
"Hanahaki disease (花吐き病 (Japanese); 하나하키병 (Korean); 花吐病 (Chinese)) is a fictional disease where the victim of unrequited or one-sided love begins to vomit or cough up the petals and flowers of a flowering plant growing in their lungs, which will eventually grow large enough to render breathing impossible if left untreated. There is no set time for how long this disease lasts but it may last from 2 weeks to 3 months..."*[1]
Shu Fei leaned back in his chair.
No.
He refused to believe such an unscientific internet result. Plants fed on sunlight and water and stuff to grow, not unrequited love. Things just didn't make sense.
Yet he couldn't ignore the petals quietly bundled up in tissue on his desk. Or that the description matched with his physical symptoms.
Shu Fei buried his face in his hands.
Even if this preposterous disease was real, there wasn't a single person he could think of that he liked.
--
[1] * copy-and-pasted from Wikipedia