Chapter Text
Teto had noticed it a few days ago. She'd been in her room, checking the music sheets she'd prepared for their songs when she suddenly felt her throat itch.
She didn't know why it did, she was fine the day before, had she caught something? She kept coughing into her hand before something felt... Wrong. She lifted her hand away from her face, only to find something strange. In her palm, surrounded by droplets of blood, laid a singular teal tulip petal.
Now this piqued her interest, had she... Coughed this out? Other than that, she'd never seen a teal tulip before, tulips didn't even possess the pigments to create blue.
However, one thing that she should've been concerned at first, was the blood. Unlike any sane person who would panic upon seeing that they had coughed out blood, Teto only stared at her palm in confusion.
She didn't think too much of it though, maybe it was coincidence?
What a mistake it was to ignore it.
Teto had found the coughing to have gotten worse, along with the amount of petals that followed with each cough had increased.
Teto hadn't gone to a doctor—what doctor would believe her coughing out flowers— instead, she opened up her search engine.
"coughing out flowers and blood" she typed out each letter with a shaky hand as her body racked with coughs.
"you might be looking for hanahaki disease" huh... She was sure that was a media trope...
She deleted her previous search and typed out "hanahaki disease" instead, hoping for different outcomes.
"Hanahaki disease is a rare disease caused by unrequited love" unrequited love huh? Teto chuckled at the screen.
"The disease is so rare in fact, that most people will think it's fictional. Symptoms include: coughing blood and flower petals, fatigue and nausea"
"There are only two ways of curing the disease, however each way has it's own conditions to actually work."
"The first option is to confess your love to the person you love. However, your love MUST be reciprocated. If not, your life will continue to be in danger."
"The second option is to get surgery, but because of the rarity of the disease, not many professionals may know how to remove the flowers. Another price to pay is that all feelings for that person will vanish and —in rare cases— so will their memories of said person"
Risk getting rejected or losing their memories of someone? What kind of choices are these? Teto only scowled at the screen before she turned it off.
She coughed out yet another blood stained petal, this time painted with more blood. Her lungs were starting to hurt, the flowers had already buried their roots deep into her lungs, searching for nutrition from her body.
Teto frowned as her phone out up again. Maybe she could find some clues on how to cure her?
"If you're having trouble finding who it is that you have fallen in love with, the color of the flower may give a hint"
Teto scoffed, she didn't need a hint, she already knew who these flowers blooming were for.
And they were for only one teal haired idol.
Teto woke up to the feeling of her throat being filled with a heavy warmth. Ah, right.
She turned around and collapsed off her bloodstained sheets as she knelt beside her bed, choking out the petals as blood streamed out of her mouth like some cursed waterfall.
Her bedroom was basically filled with bloody petals, likely enough to make a bouquet if you arranged the petals accordingly. Though that would be quite a sickening idea, handing the one you loved a bouquet made of flowers that were rapidly growing in your lungs.
...
She should probably get herself checked.
She'd been scared at first when she realized she was going to die, but now? Now, she just felt... Numb. She wasn't scared, she just felt at peace with the prospect of dying.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, staring at the smeared blood that stained her skin.
The ping of messages sounded out behind her, reminding her of the onslaught of texts from her friends. She'd told them it was just a mild sickness but she doubt they'd believe that anymore. After all, it's been a month already.
She winced at the sheer brightness of her screen as she opened up her contacts. She looked through them, mostly being from her friends and wishing her to get better. One contact name made her hesitate however, she stared at the screen, pain blossoming through her chest.
Miku
Are you alright? It's been a month and you still haven't come to hang out :(
Teto slowly typed out a response, not really eager to talk with the teal haired idol right now considering the fact that she felt like she was being stabbed in the chest.
Teto
Yeah, I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about so don't mind me, bet I'll be back on my feet in no time! (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
Miku
Ok, just don't push it too hard. Hope you recover soon so that we can hang out like before~ <(￣︶￣)>
Teto immediately shut down her phone. She hacked up another array of tulip petals, some seeming to be turning into full tulip buds.
Geez, just seeing Miku's name already made her want to claw her chest out from the pain. Imagine how much more damage it would have done by seeing her in person.
Teto opened her eyes and realized her body was contorted into an uncomfortable position on the floor. Her throat was once again blocked by flowers but her limbs felt too heavy to move but if she didn't then she'd suffocate uncomfortably on the ground.
Begrudgingly, she turned around and forced herself up, wincing at the pure agony that her body was being put through. She hunched over as she coughed up a round of tulip buds, the teal mostly covered with her blood.
The blood had seeped into the floorboards, dyeing the wood with layers of red. It would probably take a while to scrub it clean, should she try to clean it up before she died? She crossed the idea out, remembering that she would spill more crimson onto the floorboards when her inevitable death came.
The thorns pricked her throat, causing it to bulge out slightly. She couldn't even eat solid foods anymore due to the vines crawling up her throat. Liquid still irritated the wounds however. Her body felt stiff and sore, bones aching at every movement.
How much longer was this going to last?
Teto dropped onto the ground, thorned vines sprouting out of her body as flowers lined the vines. She gargled on the blood that spilled from her mouth as the flora continued to grow and sap nutrients from her body.
Pain seared throughout her body as her skin ripped from the thorns, spilling more blood onto the floorboards below.
She felt her body growing colder by the minute as her consciousness slowly started to dwindle. Notifications rang out from her phone that was knocked to the ground when she buckled but she had no reason to check or reply anymore. But the repeated pinging was quite annoying to say the least.
A few minutes passed and Teto wondered when she'd close her eyes and not wake up. She started to feel quite uncomfortable in that position honestly.
She coughed up more flowers that were repeatedly replaced by fresh petals. Her consciousness was slipping, vision spotting and blurring at the edges. Was it time for her t—
"Teto? Are you okay? It's me Miku! I'm coming in with the key you gave me," the faint sound of the door shutting reached her ears.
Teto smiled bitterly as she heard the front door open. How cruel fate truly was, to let the one she loved be the first to find her body covered with thorns and blood.
"Teto?" Footsteps grew closer and the door to her room opened.
Would she forgive her if they were to meet again? Maybe, but that's for fate to decide.
And the final flower bloomed from the dirt in which was the body of a girl who went by "Teto".