✿

I was sitting in class, getting my notes out, when Yuuji entered my classroom. He did that often. Even though we didn't have the same class, he would come to see me in the morning so we could talk a bit. 

I always enjoyed seeing him. It made my day just a little bit better to talk to him. Instead of sitting on my desk, which he knew annoyed me, he pulled out a chair and sat next to me. "You want to hang out after school today? Maybe we can change things up a bit and just go to the library. That way you can study but we can still spend time together," he suggested. 

"What about your club?" I asked him. "I noticed that ever since we started dating you haven't been going to any of your after school club meetings."

He shrugged. "It's not as important as you are."

I couldn't help but smile at him. Normally I found stuff like that to be cheesy but with Yuuji, okay they were still cheesy, but he said it in a way that made them endearing and sweet. I guess he was the exception.

"Then let's hang out together after school." I told him. "I'll meet you at your locker." He put his chair back and left the classroom right before class started.

I've been dating Yuuji for two months now. I noticed that that ever since we started dating, the coughing fits lessened. They were still there of course, but instead of coughing up flower buds and giant amounts of blood, I only coughed up some blood and some petals here and there.

Was I starting to like him? Like, really like him? In the way that I loved Gojo?

✾

I saw Yuuji at his locker after school. Everyone had gone home, so it was just us two, minus the people who had club activities, but they weren't around us. I waved at him, and he smiled at me. 

As I was walking towards him, I suddenly felt a cough coming up. One that I couldn't hold back. But why? I thought that being with Yuuji made things better, so why was it coming out now?

I ran to the nearest toilet, got into the stall and started coughing up blood. It was more blood than I had coughed up in recent times. I coughed some more, and some brunnera flowers came out of my mouth, as well a blue iris. It was so painful. I felt like my lungs were burning up.

And then I realized that I forgot to lock the door to the stall behind me, because I saw Yuuji kneel down beside me. He looked at me, then he looked at the blood and the flowers. "M-Megumi!? What happened?"

I coughed again. It was getting hard to speak. My voice was hoarse. "I didn't want you to see this," I said, barely audible above a whisper. "I have the Hanahaki disease. It's hard to explain, but it's basically when-"

"Yeah, the Hanahaki disease. I know what it is, my older cousin died from it." He started rubbing my back. My eyes widened when I heard the word 'die'. It was really possible to die from this.

He continued explaining, "I used to be really close to her. And when she got it one day, I couldn't believe my eyes. She was still in love with her ex-boyfriend, who got engaged to another girl. Every night leading up to their wedding, she had these horrible coughing fits, and she would throw up red roses and blood. And finally, on the night of her exes' wedding, I saw her on the floor in a pool of blood and flower petals. She was dead."

My next words were quiet. "I'm in love. With someone I can't have."

He was looking down. "Who is it?" He asked me.

I took a deep, painful, shaky breath. Then I revealed it. "I'm in love with my guardian. He's 26 years old, and we've known each other since I was a kid. I've been in love with him all these years, even though it's never going to happen."

At first I was worried he would judge me, but Yuuji continued rubbing my back, comforting me. It made me feel a little warmer, and a little safer, knowing that I had one less person to hide it from, and one more person I could trust.

I started tearing up. "I-I know it's never going to happen. B-but I can't help it. I love him. I love him so much. And it hurts me. If only..." I leaned my head onto Yuuji's shoulder. "If only I wasn't in love with him anymore."

Yuuji started stroking my hair. "Then don't be," he said. And I looked up at him in surprise.

He clarified. "I know it's not that easy. That you can't just fall out of love with someone, because otherwise this disease wouldn't exist. But no matter how much time you take, no matter what happens, I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I-I want to be there for you."

Then he grabbed my shoulders and looked directly into my eyes. "Listen Megumi, I'm not just saying this because I saw it happen to my cousin and I feel bad for you. I really like you. I like you a lot. And I want to be by your side." He looked at me with complete resolve.

"So no matter how much time it takes, I'll wait for you to love me back. Instead of him, choose me." He said.

Choose me. His words echoed in my mind. Somehow, by hearing those words. I immediately felt better. The pain in my chest subsided a little, and I stopped coughing, at least for now.

Yuuji was in love with me. He was really in love with me.  

And I wanted to be in love with him too.

✿