It all started when she realised she was in love.
In love with a guy she knew her whole life.
Gray Fullbuster.
They were childhood friends and grew up on the same street, going to the same kindergarten, elementary, high school and University.
She started to notice everything about him one day.
She started to notice the crinkle in his eyes when he smiled at something. She started to notice when he would tell her that he was fine even though he wasn't after losing a game at Ice Hockey practice. She started to notice how he would play with his pen around his fingers in class. She started to notice how he would sit in a certain manner. She started to notice every single detail about him she didn't before.
Then she realised she was acting weird.
Her heart skipped a beat when he enters the room. Her palms would get clammy. Her stomach would be filled with butterflies. Sometimes all of it happen at the same time and she feels as though she needed to puke from how nervous she felt.
When he speaks, she felt everything around the two of them disappear and only he existed in her eyes.
His lips moved with every word he spoke and she wondered, how it would feel to kiss them? How soft were his lips?
She would panic when he frowned, thinking he had caught her but he thought she had gone off to dreamland in the middle of their conversation.
She thanked the gods that he was oblivious about her strange actions towards him yet she hated the fact that he did not noticed.
Gray wasn't a playboy. He has had girlfriends before, two perhaps, and they never lasted because they just dated him for the so-called fame he had in school.
So, to say he's oblivious to such things, would not be too far from the truth.
"Juv. Juv!" Gray snapped his fingers in front of Juvia who was zoning out.
Her eyes blinked quickly and focused on him, seeing the man cocked a brow at her. "W-what?"
He rolled his eyes, "I said I was going to go, I'm meeting someone for dinner,"
Juvia brought herself back to reality, looking around her dorm where the two of them had been studying for the finals. The table they were sharing was empty on one side.
The side she leaned on was littered with her stationary while his was the side that was cleaned.
"R-right, I'll see you tomorrow," she said but he was already putting on his shoes.
An inaudible sigh left her mouth and Juvia got up from where she sat, going to Gray who was opening the door.
She opened her mouth to say goodbye but his phone rang, a girl's name flashing across it, Claire. A smile painted on Gray's lips immediately, he answered the call with a chuckle, "I'm coming, just wait a little while more."
Juvia waited for his voice to disappear down the hallway as the door shut closed slowly, seemingly to prolong her pain.
All of a sudden, her chest tightened. She gasped sharply, pressing her palm against the hurting area.
She begun a coughing fit involuntarily and felt her lungs protest in agony. She couldn't stop.
It hurts. She thought.
Her lungs squeezed and screamed in pain while her heart felt as if there were thorns probing through the thick muscles.
Unable to stand any longer from the pain, Juvia dropped to the floor.
Holding herself up with two hands on the ground, she bent over, finding it a little easier to breathe through the heaving she was doing now.
She took in a wheezy breath and found herself choking on something.
It is painful.
It hurt so much that she thought she was going to die right there and then. Her roommate, Lisanna, would return to find her dead body on the floor. Her stepbrother was going to blame himself for not looking after her on his own. Her friends are going to mourn.
She did not even realise she was tearing up until the droplets splattered on the polished wood beneath her.
Another cough escaped her diaphragm as she tried to get rid of whatever was there.
Right after, she felt something leave her throat. On her tongue, she could feel its roughness in the center but smooth towards the outside. She hurriedly spat out the nasty thing in her mouth.
Azure eyes widened in shock when she saw what it was.
A string of saliva connected her to the dark violet flower that sat on the ground.
It was the only thing that confirmed that Juvia had indeed coughed out a flower.
And it did not take long for her to realise what was happening.
Hanahaki. A disease where the person in the giving end of unrequited love coughs out flowers. It can only be cured if their beloved returns their feelings. Otherwise, flowers slowly fill up their lungs and roots grow out of them, essentially ridding of their right to breathe, much less even live.
She begun to cough violently once again, another purple flower left her mouth, only this time, it was coming out petal by petal.
*Author's note*
I know it's short but I'm thinking if I should make this into a story instead of a one-shot. It's an idea I've had in my head but never really had it gone anywhere. But I'll share it with you guys to see what you think.