Youngjae wakes up coughing up petals. He's in love with Jackson. Mark, his best friend, helps him win Jackson over. Marks coughs up petals as he watches Youngjae prepare for his wedding.
Warnings: mild cursing
Author: Keannah
Word Count: 1.5k
White. That’s the color of the first petals that sway to the mahogany dining table from the confines of Youngjae’s mouth like confetti. Mark looks up at Youngjae from underneath his eyelashes, the two were sharing another one of their peaceful post-lunch reads, both concern and confusion present in his visage.
astilbe - “I will be waiting for you.”
His thin fingers pick up a few petals delicately, thumb and index finger running back and forth over the silk corollas, before dropping them to contrast with the wood of the table once again.
“That seemed pretty painful.” Mark purses his lips, looking up at Youngjae with his whole head now, not surprised to see the bewildered look on the blonde’s face. “Are you okay?”
“I think so? I didn’t feel it, I just felt an itch in my throat, and poof. Flower petals.”
“What do you think caused it? You’re not some ridiculous flower eater, are you, Jae?” Mark jokes, neatly placing his bookmark in his book and shutting it to pay full attention to his best friend.
“Not that I know of.” Youngjae runs his fingers through his hair in confusion and frustration. “Should we look it up?”
“Do you think the internet would have something about coughing up flower petals?”
“The internet has some really weird things, Jae. You’d be surprised.” Mark stands to grab his laptop and comes back to sit right next to Youngjae, powering it on and typing in carefully: I coughed up flower petals. What does it mean?
They scroll through about three pages of Google search before giving in. “We’re out of luck. Should you see a doctor or is that too ridiculous?”
“It might be my only option.” Youngjae lays his head on his arms and looks at Mark sadly, to which his best friend frowns.
“Don’t be so down. I mean, I would love to cough up flower petals. That seems so cool. And there’s gotta be a cure for this, we just need to find out what it is first.” Mark runs his fingers through Youngjae’s hair comfortingly, hand eventually coming down to rub the younger boy’s back. “It can’t be that bad, right?”
Mark regrets speaking too soon when Youngjae throws up the bulbs of flowers one day instead of petals, which happened to be much more painful than the silk petals passing through his throat. “Jae, let’s just go see a doctor. Today. A walk in. It’s clearly getting worse and more painful.”
He’s sitting next to Youngjae who’s still hunched over the toilet, patting his back gently and rubbing soothing circles. Youngjae sits up eventually, nodding in agreement. Mark’s fingers brush over the blonde’s neck briefly. “Is your throat okay?”
“Yeah. A little raw, but it won’t kill me. Just feels like a common cold.”
Mark sighs and stands up, offering his own to Youngjae before forcing him out the door of their apartment and into the car, driving him to a nearby clinic. By the time they arrive, Mark’s car is scattered with flower petals and bulbs - Mark doesn’t mind all too much, and Youngjae is more than upset about dirtying his best friends’ car.
“Don’t worry about it.” He waves off Youngjae’s apologies, getting out of the car and locking it when the younger follows suit.
Youngjae swings his feet as he sits on the examination table, Mark sitting in the uncomfortable plastic chair across from him as they wait for the doctor to come in, a nervous tick in the elder’s right leg, dark hair falling over his face as he glances down at his phone, still searching for answers about what could have been going on with Youngjae. There’s a rapping at the door before it swings open, a young doctor stepping inside with a friendly smile.
“Choi Youngjae?”
Youngjae returns his question with a meek nod, holding back the cough he felt itching in his throat, not wanting to weird the doctor out in anyway before explaining his situation and symptoms.
“Doctor Park. So what brings you here today?”
“This is going to sound really weird, but hear me out before you jump to any conclusions.” The doctor nods in agreement, and Youngjae lets out an exasperated sigh before continuing. “So one day I just like, coughed up flower petals. I have him,” he glances at Mark, “to vouch for me. It was like that for a few days, and then one day I threw up unblossomed flowers along with the petals.”
The doctor furrows his brows before opening his mouth to speak, typing away at his computer as he speaks. “It’s rare, but it happens. It'’s something called Hanahaki Disease. It’s caused by unrequited love. The only way to stop it is for the person to love you back, or a surgery. The downside of the surgery would be forgetting that person.”
“Love?” Mark raises a brow, nudging Youngjae. “Is there something I don’t know about?”
“So if I decide to get the surgery, said person would be wiped from my memory.”
“Correct.”
Mark looks at Youngjae worriedly. “Why don’t we find out who this person is and then we can figure out if pulling through with the surgery would be the better option. Right, Jae?”
The two leave in deep thought, a heavy sigh from Youngjae pulling Mark from his thoughts. “What’s up?”
“Jackson.”
“It’s Jackson?
“I think so.”
“Well what are we waiting for? It’s Jackson! That boy is already so whipped for you as it is. We just have to solidify it.”
Mark sends Youngjae and Jackson on a lot of dates from then, excusing himself out of it by saying he’s busy or has other plans, and the amount of triumph Mark feels when Youngjae and Jackson announce their relationship to him is beyond words. Finally - Youngjae is happy, he’s stopped coughing up flowers, and he’s in love.
Mark smooths his suit out in the mirror before turning to his best friend - heart a bit heavy, he’ll admit - and straightening Youngjae’s tie for him. “Today’s the big day.”
“And it’s all thanks to you.”
“Lies. I just helped a little bit.” Mark pats Youngjae’s shoulder and ends it with a squeeze, slinging his arm over him and looking at the two of them in the mirror.
“You look great. Jackson will probably cry.”
“If anyone’s going to cry, it’s going to be you. Hard to let go of me, isn’t it?”
withered flowers - rejected love
Mark offers Youngjae a half smile before patting his shoulder and walking away to the bathroom and crouching over the toilet, clutching his stomach with one hand and coughing out whatever is left. His heart sinks to the floor when he realized what had come out instead of vomit: petals. It was a variety - he recognized the same white flowers Youngjae had coughed out on the first day - astilbes, red carnations, pink carnations, yellow carnations, but there was one that hurt the most to see - the withered flowers.
“Fuck.” Mark curses, hot tears forming at the corners of his eyes, chest heaving and back against the bathroom door.
“Mark, are you in there? It’s about to start.”
“I’ll be out in a few, Jae.”
“Alright. Don’t be too long.”
Mark pulls through with the wedding with a forced smile, socializing and trying his best to stay away from Youngjae to keep his heart from aching and pouring his angst and heartbreak out and ruining the wedding. That’s the last thing he wants. To ruin things for his best friend. But it’s hard to stay away when Jackson keeps pulling him over and introducing him to everyone as the man that brought them together, or the man who made it happen, Jackson who lets him see that bright and vibrant smile on Youngjae’s face that he wishes so much could be for him.
“Before we do this surgery, Mark, are you positive this is what you want?”
“Yes.”
striped carnation - “No, I can’t be with you.”
purple hyacinth - “I’m sorry.”
The last thing Mark remembers before he goes to sleep is the anesthesiologist putting a mask over his nose and mouth, and nothing else. When he wakes up he sees Youngjae and Jackson hovering over him - except they’re only faint and blurred memories. Faces are familiar, but friendships and feelings aren’t.
“You idiot, you had surgery and you didn’t even tell me? I heard from your mom because I hadn’t heard from you since the wedding so I called her to ask how you were doing. She said you just had surgery and were recovering.” Youngjae’s eyes were welled up with tears, and he smacked Mark gently. “Do you have any idea how worried I was after you stopped contacting? I was about to go crazy.”
“Sorry I did that to you. But… not to be rude, but who are you?”
“Stop playing, Tuan.”
“But… I’m not. You look really familiar, but, I don’t know you. I’m sorry.”
“You’re joking, right? Mark, stop. It’s not funny. I was so worried for you and you’re over here acting like you don’t know me?”
“I don’t.”
“The surgery is like that.” Doctor Park walks in, slipping a clipboard into the front of Mark’s bed.
“What surgery did he have?”
“The one for Hanahaki disease.”
Youngjae shows up later with a bouquet of striped carnations and purple hyacinths.
Mark runs his fingers over the smooth petals, cradling the bouquet in his arms while a sorry Youngjae cries at his side, a dull ache in his heart.