Warning : Detailed description of blood and vomit

Donghyuck sat up on his bed, his hands thrashing around in an attempt to find the switch for the lamp and his body kept jerking. By the time he managed to turn the light on, the itching in his throat got to its worst and he fell off his bed with a thud. His hands came up to his neck, massaging it as he felt a sharp thorn pierce into the skin in his throat. The metallic taste of blood reached his mouth and he closed his eyes in pain. Donghyuck let out a cry, leaning to his side as a petal made its way up the cut in his throat. It gathered at the back of Donghyuck's mouth and he let out a shaky breath from his nose.

A cough erupted from his mouth before he curled into himself, one of his hands coming down to his stomach as he coughed out everything in his mouth. The blood splattered onto the ground, immediately staining the carpet and the floor was soon decorated in a thin layer of orange petals. He took deep breaths, knowing that all of his coughs had probably woken his parents (who now knew about his disease and had suggested he got surgery, but he declined) and remained on the floor. The cold surface of the carpet pressed against his warm cheeks that had a pool of blood around them. 

"For fuck’s sake," Donghyuck whispered, and immediately regretted it when he felt the strain in his throat. It was as if something sharp had dragged its way up his neck, and then stayed there (and there actually was something there).

He knows he should probably get surgery done, get the flower out of his body before it damages him even more, but from what he's heard (read on the internet), the surgery isn't always successful. Many people have lost loved one to the hanahaki disease, and sometimes, the cause is surgery. 

It is a painful procedure, after all. They cut open the body, peel the flower off, gently separating the plant from the organs before taking it out. But it doesn't end there. The toxins the plant releases in the body, all the chemicals. It all needs to be removed.

Donghyuck got up from the floor, finally gaining the strength to push himself up and leaned against his bed frame. He took deep breaths, grimacing every time the air brushed his wound in his throat and then forced himself to walk over to the bathroom. He was going to clean the mess on the ground in the morning, but he had to get rid of all the blood on his face. 

As he entered the bathroom, the light from the bulb hit him directly in the face, and he squinted. With a sigh, Donghyuck stumbled over to the sink, his entire body feeling weak (and apparently these were the side effects of the toxins). His shaky hands opened the tap, and with a heavy heart, Donghyuck looked up.

He almost puked at the sight.

His hair was sticking to his forehead, the blood trailed from his mouth to his neck (and it actually looked more like a map of what the inner part of his body must look like), tears were mixed with the red substance and his skin was pale. He looked horrible.

Donghyuck leaned forward, groaning as he felt something sharp sink into his back. The flower had been growing rapidly and had managed to reach his lower abdomen. He tried ignoring the pain, but then soon the area got swollen, and Donghyuck began to take medicine for it. 

He should move on.

From Minhyung.

Minhyung was never going to come back. Donghyuck was chasing after someone who had left him years ago. The second he had changed his name to Mark and became the flirt that he is now, Minhyung was no longer part of him. The cute awkward boy had been replaced by a cocky and self-absorbed person. 

And yet, Donghyuck's heart beat faster every time their eyes met.

It was stupid. He hated it. Why did it have to be Mark? Out of all people, it had to be the one who changed and left him within a few months, just because he wanted to become a popular guy in his school. Mark succeeded, and Donghyuck lost (his best friend). 

As Donghyuck sat in his biology class, copying down the notes from the board, his eyes wandered to his left, catching sight of Mark - who apparently failed his test so was having to do it again (and Minhyung used to be the smartest person in their school) - winking at a girl a few seats away from him. He watched as the girl blushed, bringing a hand to her face and covering her mouth to hide her ugly, hideous, disgu— woah, Donghyuck thought, shaking his head as he realised what he had just thought. How could he have said such harsh words about a girl he barely knew.

Mark seemed to notice Donghyuck's gaze on him, so then turned to him, flashing a smile before looking back at the girl. The smile he sent Donghyuck's way was a friendly one, but not the one he used to send him as Minhyung. And the smile he showed the girl, it was more like a smirk. One that meant he knew what he was doing, and the impact he had on girls. 

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

Donghyuck looked away from the exchange of looks and brought a hand to his stomach, closing his eyes as he felt the stem of the flower grow a little. It happened every time Donghyuck remembered that his love was unrequited and that Minhyung (Mark) could never be his. The flower was always there to torture Donghyuck, ready to have a growth spurt and slowly take over his entire body. The toxins it was releasing were getting more and more powerful, to the point that Donghyuck had fallen to the ground and stayed there for a while. His body was unresponsive and he panicked since it was after school and there was no one left.

He could've been on the floor for hours if it wasn't for his body's immune system to kick in and attempt to fight against the flower. It managed to get his legs and arms to work slightly, and Donghyuck hurried to fetch the tablets from his bag. He threw them in his mouth and gulped them down without water. A decision he regrets since they got stuck in his throat (alongside a stem), and took a while to actually swallow, but in the end, he had gotten his body back.

His parents had started warning him about the importance of getting the surgery done. He still didn't know how long the plants had been inside of him, and how long he had left before his body would fail on him. Honestly, he didn't want to find out.

He raised his eyes from his textbook one last time and saw the girl take a seat beside Mark and then slip her hand under the table.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was doing.

And with that, Donghyuck's throat clogged up for the sixth time that day, but this time, he couldn't go to the bathrooms.