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I was in my room, feeling like my lungs were on fire. For the past few nights, Satoru had been bringing woman over to the house, spending time with them at night, while pretending nothing was happening in the morning when he saw me and Tsumiki. It was making me sick, literally. 

Whenever Tsumiki asked about it, I lied and told her nothing was wrong and that I was okay, but inside I felt a burning sensation in my chest, and it was getting harder and harder to breath. 

Tonight was no different. Actually, it was worse. There was a girl with Satoru again, and knowing that made me sick once again. I was hunched over on the toilet, coughing up blood and something else. Was this some sort of weird lovesickness? What's happening to me. 

I guess my coughs were so loud that I heard Tsumiki come in my room and knock on the bathroom door. "Megumi? Are you sick? What's wrong?" She asked me.

"Don't come in!" I told her, but I coughed again loudly.

Of course, like the type of person she was, she didn't listen to me and she came in. "M-Megumi!?" She said in horror, probably from me hunched over along with all the blood on the toilet and some on the ground. "This is serious! We need to tell Gojo-san and you probably have to go the the hospital and-" she turned to leave, but I tugged on the hem of her shirt.

"D-don't leave" I stammered out. And then I coughed again painfully, feeling the burning sensation in my throat and in my lungs. I kept coughing and coughing, like there was something in my throat that I needed to get rid of. But the next thing I coughed up, wasn't some small solid objects like the last time. 

It was a small blue flower.

Me and Tsumiki looked at it in horror as the blue flower fell from my mouth onto the ground, on top of the pile of blood.

"W-what is that?" I pointed, shocked at what just came out of my mouth. "I didn't eat flowers or anything so why?"

Tsumiki reached over me and picked out one of the small solid objects I coughed up. She rinsed it gently, revealing it's appearance. It looked to be a blue flower petal.

She started pacing around the room, thinking. "You've been coughing a lot and getting sick recently, and more specifically you've been coughing up flowers. I think of heard of that disease before. It's called, um, the Hanahaki disease."

I looked at her in confusion. "The Hanahaki disease? What is that? It sounds fake." 

She shook her head. "I read about it once. Apparently it's an ancient disease that died out more than three centuries ago, so it's almost non-existent now. Almost," she said, looking at me dead in the eye, with complete seriousness. It guess it wasn't fake. 

"So you're saying I have it?" I asked her, coughing a little bit more, and a few more blue flower petals came out of my mouth and onto the floor. She caught one of the flower petals and held it up to the light. 

"Well if not the Hanahaki disease than what else would you be sick with? There's no other disease that does this?" She turned the petal over in her hand. "But I don't understand how you got it. The thing is, you can only get the Hanahaki disease when you are suffering from unrequited love. As far as I know, you aren't even friends with any girls, and you don't even have a crush, so how can it-"

Then she suddenly stopped talking, realizing the answer to her question even though I didn't say anything. She started putting the pieces together. "The way you and Gojo-san act around each other...always hugging...kissing...how he shows you favoritism...and how you got the disease once Gojo-san started bringing the girls over..."

I looked away from her, unable to meet her eyes.

"You're in love with Gojo-san, aren't you Megumi?"

Again, I didn't respond. But that silence just meant confirmation to her. She sunk to the ground right beside me, sitting on some blood. 

Then I looked at her, dead serious and said, "You can't say anything to him. No matter how bad this disease gets, no matter what happens to me, I don't want him to find out. Not about anything. You have to promise me, Tsumiki."

"But-"

"Promise me. Please." I pleaded with her, angry and frustrated tears pooling in my eyes. I couldn't handle myself right now, and if Satoru found out I feel like I would break, especially if I have to hear his rejection outright.

She sighed. "I don't know why I'm going along with this but...okay. But you have to promise me you'll be okay," she grabbed my hand. "I'm only going to keep it a secret if you promise me you'll be okay. I don't want you to end up dying because of heartbreak like how others did with the Hanahaki disease."

I nodded. "Yeah, I promise. I'll be okay."

I lied to her. But what else could I have done. I'd rather die of heartbreak than be rejected, as crazy as that is. But I guess if I got the Hanahaki disease, a disease based on unrequited love, then it means that I already was. 

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