Han Kin, a 23-year-old lawyer, started to head off for work. A new colleague was to be introduced today, not that it meant anything to him in the slightest. Kin was born with an extremely rare defect, he could not feel anything, he didn’t have any emotions. Because of this, he closed himself off, he assumed no one would like him anyway. He earned spectacular grades when he was very young, and graduated highschool at 15, where he began aspiring to fight for justice.
As he scanned his key card over the device on his office door, he could hear overlapping voices. “Are you telling me that there isn’t enough evidence!?” “Thank you for avenging my daughter…” “This cannot be happening!” Cries of agony, joy, and frustration. All of these, Kin would never understand. He shrugged it off and started his court paperwork. Soon after, Hunter, a fellow co-worker, started knocking on his door, “Hey! The new lawyer is here!” Kin gave him a cold thumbs-up, watching him almost cartwheel towards the meeting room. The strange thing was, he was older than Kin. Taking a seat around his fellow criminal justice attorneys, he stared at the clock, awaiting for the moment he could continue his work. The boss stood up, “Alright, let’s welcome our newest member of the family, Hannah Keys.”
Kin felt a strong pain in his chest the moment he locked eyes with her. His face was burning up, his palms, sweaty. He found her fascinating. Her midnight blue hair, contrasted by her light skin, flushed with blush that of a pale rose. Her deep, blue eyes, framed by her gray glasses. The way she smiled at everyone. ‘What is this?’ he wondered. The two tomato-faces swiftly glanced the other way. As Hannah started talking to the other employees, Kin just couldn’t keep his eyes off her. ‘She must have poisoned me,’ he thought. ‘Wait, poisonous eyes? Not only is that an insult, it’s completely foolish!’
“Hi! I’m Hannah! You must be Han Kin, right?”
“Yes I am, it’s nice to meet you.” He stuttered.
“I can’t wait to get to know you. I’ll see you around!” She turned and left to chat with the others.
After the meeting was over, Kin rushed to his computer, listing his symptoms in the search bar. “Maybe I’m sick,” He whispered to himself. He scrolled through various online blogs and websites, but the only thing came up was this thing called, ‘love.’ “Wait, what is love? Some type of feeling, right?” He paused. A feeling. Was he feeling?
The next few weeks flew by in a flash. Hannah and Kin were beginning to be the best of friends. They discussed their interests in music, Kin could play any string instrument you gave him, Hannah knew how to play the piano. Kin revealed his defect to Hannah, which, to Kin’s surprise, she was completely accepting of it. They exchanged advice on the daily. On her first official work day, Hannah knocked on the window. Kin quickly opened the door to greet her.
“Hello, Hannah.”
“Hi there,Kin! I just came by to ask you a few questions.”
Kin gestured for her to sit in the chair he reserved for clients as he shut the door behind her. He sat down in his chair, on the other side of the desk.
“So, what seems to be the problem?”
“I just wanted to know about this place. The atmosphere and such.” She fidgeted with her hands.
“Alright, let’s hear it.”
She reeled in a deep breath before speaking, “Are the lawyers here as immature at their job as they are just hanging out with buds? Am I going to succeed in this career? Will I fit in? Are my clients going to leave me because I’m not like everyone else?-”
Kin cut her off there, “I’m no fortune teller, but I do know that you’ll be fine. Do you think there is anyone in the office you can talk to? Someone you trust?”
Kin awaited her response, and then she answered, “There is, you see, there’s this guy I’m pretty into. He’s tall, with dirty-blonde hair, scorching gray-blue eyes. He’s awfully cute.” Kin couldn’t breathe. Coughing non stop, he excused himself from the room. ‘What is wrong with me?’ he thought, ‘ So what if she likes Alfred? Why should it matter me? Is this what love feels like?’ He rushed into the men’s room, collapsing against the sink, hacking violently. Once he started to calm down, he looked up at his reflection in the mirror. Immediately, he noticed the blood running from his mouth, dripping into the sink, which bore a single petal. ‘What was a flower doing in here? Did someone bring it in from the outside?’ He remembered that Hannah was still in his office, and returned. By the time he arrived, she was walking out the door. Kin explained that he wasn’t feeling too well and would be leaving early, she understood, and waved goodbye before disappearing into the long hallway of mayhem.
~
The next couple of weeks were troubling. Kin was coughing up more and more blood, discovering the flowers were coming from himself. It increased the more he saw, and felt attracted to, Hannah. He scheduled an appointment and learned that this strange predicament was called, ‘Hanahaki.’ Hanahaki is a disease that forms inside someone suffering from one-sided-love, flowers form in the victim’s lungs and if they are not treated properly, they will die. There were three ways the Hanahaki could be removed. The first was simple, the victim can confess their love, if their crush returns their feelings, the Hanahaki would disappear from them entirely. The second was a bit more complicated, the victim could have the Hanahaki removed surgically, however, their love for the person dies with it. The third was obvious, death.
This disease had literally destroyed Han Kin, inside, and out. It affected his eating and sleeping schedule, his exercising, his work ethic. Everything seemed to be falling apart. His office seemed troubled as well, but they suspected he was overworking himself, or that he was just sick. Then, one day, Kin excused himself from a meeting to use the restroom. He lost a bit of blood, he filled the entire sink with petals, and Hunter witnessed it all.
“Kin! What’s going on!?”
“Hunter, this doesn’t concern you.”
“It does concern me! You’re obviously not sick, so, I’ll ask again, what’s going on?”
Kin sighed, “Fine, I have Hanahaki.”
“You mean, you’re in love?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you couldn’t feel love.”
“I did too.”
To Kin’s request, Hunter didn’t tell a soul what he saw. He was still trying to figure out what to do. If he confessed to Hannah, which would be hard to accomplish since she had been buried in a mountain of cases to work on, there was a chance he’d be rejected. After all, she did admit to loving Alfred, but, to Kin, it might be the most logical solution. If she rejected him, he’d have no choice but to receive the surgery necessary, neither would have to worry.
This is what Kin believed until the ‘People V. Ivan Scarlett’ trial. Kin represented the people. During his opening statement, he started coughing, hard. He was coughing up full blossoms, blood was everywhere. There were screams and crying as Kin’s vision went blurry, the floor collided with his body.
He awoke a day later, in the hospital, faux flowers surrounding him. He looked around, noticing the cards atop their vases. They were all individually signed by all his fellow attorneys, no, all his friends. The doctor suddenly flung open the door.
“Han Kin. Do you know where you are?”
“Yes. I am in a hospital, because of what happened during trial.”
“Good. You understand that you are suffering from Hanahaki, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then you understand what it means to cough up full flowers?”
“No, I do not. Is it a bad omen?”
“Very much so. It means you only have a week left to live, unless you consider getting rid of this.”
“You mean, the surgery?”
The doctor nodded. This was it, he had to decide between the life and death of himself. It took Kin a while to make up his mind, he tried to buy some more time. He used up the whole week. Holding onto his life, the doctors told him it was too late. The Hanahaki had spread to every inch of his lungs. Hannah, burst through the door, crying.
“Kin! Why did you wait? You’re going to die!”
“You don't think I know that?”
“Kin, you don't understand, we can’t lose you!”
“At least I got to look into your eyes one last time…”
“Kin?”
“You’re the one I’m dying for. Ever since the meeting, the moment I saw you, I loved you.”
With that, he choked, and choked, and choked, on every flower, every petal, inside him. Hannah couldn’t take it, she fell to her knees, clutching Kin’s hand.
“Kin! You can’t leave, you don’t get it! It was you! You were the one I loved! I was too afraid to say it! I love you!”
She repeated the phrase, “I love you” until she couldn’t any longer. Beneath her violent sobs, a sharp gasp could be heard. Kin rose with a deep inhale, he squeezed Hannah’s hand.
“What’s going on…?”
Hannah hugged him, “Technically, you weren’t dead.”
That moment ended Kin’s Hanahaki, and started their everlasting love.