Notes:
English is not my original language, an apology for the errors.
If you feel that the translation is not understandable, I invite you to read the original version in Spanish on this same platform
Finally, I was able to write and translate this chapter, sorry if there are mistakes.
Now, let's see Maki suffer for an unrequited love.
Chapter 2. Family
"Family members are often the last to find out that the patient was sick with Hanahaki. And they do not do so because they ignore the signs and symptoms, but because the patient tries to hide the condition from them as much as possible so as not to worry them... and this can happen with any other disease..."
"Why did you run off to the infirmary?" Mai asked, both girls headed home.
The sky above their heads already had its orange tones, it was common for both of them to wait after school to return to their home together, which was not far from that high school.
This custom had been well established since kindergarten, since their parents had accustomed them to the fact that they both had to accompany each other after leaving school and in those minutes when they were both walking, they always took the opportunity to talk about things they did not want. for others to hear or know.
And now in high school, that typical activity was still present... but really at this moment Maki didn't want Mai to know about her "strange illness".
"Eh? And how do you know that I went to the infirmary?" Maki questioned somewhat surprised. She believed that no one in that class had ever seen her peep through the window.
Mai rolled her eyes. "Why did I see you at the window watching that idiot and then you ran out of there?" She answer seriously. "I figured seeing so much 'sweetness' would have made you run and vomit."
To a certain extent Mai was right, Maki had gone out to vomit, but to vomit blood and petals in the face of such a love scene that hurt because she was the unrequited one.
Maki sometimes hated that Mai was right or that she was suspicious about her feelings.
The eldest sighed and pursed her mouth slightly. She didn't want to tell him anything yet.
"I've never seen you so worried about my 'little sister'?" Maki answered with too much curiosity, that made her twin roll her eyes and her cheeks turned red that revealed embarrassment.
"Silly! It just gave me the impression that you were NOT completely well" Mai answered with a grimace "You know that if something happens to one, the other sometimes feels it and we don't want to worry mom at this moment and less with the situation between our parents..."
"Awww it shows that you love me! Sometimes I thought you had an ice cube instead of a heart" Maki answered with a big smile, making her sister feel even more ashamed of her while the older one hugged her slightly to annoy her.
"Idiot! I actually love my cacti more than you! I don't even know why I care about you! Let go of me!" Mai answered, annoyed by those comments.
Maki just chuckled and then took a deep breath through her already wounded lungs.
It really hurt Maki a bit to breathe, but she didn't want to worry anyone, especially Mai. So she hid the pain from her as she could as she felt like small needles pricked her chest and her throat, which still burned even when she swallowed.
The silence between the two was prominent as they reached the train tracks. The security pens that divided the road began to go down, warning them that this transport would pass in a few minutes, so they decided to wait for it to train pass.
Once the feathers rose and the pedestrian light turned from red to green, Maki decided to break the silence as they continued walking.
"Well..." she began to speak more calmly "You're right, I did go to the infirmary because in physical education class I started to feel bad"
"And what are you supposed to have? It's very rare that you get sick and more than you are the healthier of the two, although sometimes you train like crazy" Mai asked looking at her sister as they continued walking through those streets.
Maki pursed her lips, she didn't want to worry her, so she decided to lie while she found some cure for that Hanahaki idiocy.
"Dr. Ieiri told me that I have the beginnings of a cough with phlegm... although it could also be a type of allergy to the change of seasons." She coughed a little as she felt her throat burning.
"And for all that, he sent me to rest for two days" Maki smiled big "So you'll have to pamper me and take care of me for these two days, little sister!" she teased as she wrapped her arm around her sister's neck.
"Noooo! Fuck!" Mai yelled "Maki Get away from me! You'll spread your fucking germs to me!" Mai made a disgusted face as she tried to wriggle out of her grasp.
Maki laughed slightly as she stuck out her tongue until she finally released it when she saw that Mai had made it clear about not getting close to her. "As I said, you'll have to pamper me!"
"Ugh! I guess I'll have to be disinfecting our room all the time! Especially my side and all my things!" Mai said angrily as she took her bag, which she dropped in the struggle.
"Rude!" replied the eldest with a smile.
Maki's right hand went to her chest, she only had two days to solve all that and incidentally make a decision about whether to have that operation... but above all, she had to think about the way she would tell her friends. parents that she was sick with unrequited love.
They both continued walking and admiring the sunset. Thinking of her parents made her reflect on whether they were really okay, especially since she didn't want to worry them.
Also, that Mai's words really left him thinking about the relationship between his parents.
"Hey Mai..." Maki named her twin after walking for a few minutes in total silence.
"What do you want?" The youngest replied without taking her eyes off the road.
"Why do you say that our parents are are bad in their marriage? Do you know or have you seen something that I haven't heard about?" Asked the eldest of hers without taking her eyes off her path.
Mai sighed, Maki could swear she heard that whistle of hers as she exhaled heavily.
"I just sensed it..." she shrugged her shoulders "I have a strange feeling that maybe they ended up getting divorced because they no longer love each other..."
"What makes you think that?" Maki asked, looking at Mai surprisingly. Who could feel sad when talking about that topic.
"Well, I only intuit it, I say it because dad is hardly home anymore, he spends all his time outside and when he comes back... mmm it's hard to explain but it seems that mom and him can't stand each other anymore, I say it because the last times I saw them together, they seemed to argue over very simple and silly things, I've also noticed that they don't hug each other like before and neither our mother nor our father leave flowers as they did before... I guess the love between they are over" Mai answered, looking at the sky for a moment.
Maki sighed at such an answer "I see..."
That made sense to the older sister. She hadn't thought of all those details as Mai had noticed.
And she felt that if she talked about her illness while her parents were on the brink of a divorce, she knew it would only cause more trouble for her family.
"Maki, if our parents were to get divorced, who would you stay with? With mom or dad?" Mai asked returning her gaze to the front of her.
That question left Maki very thoughtful, and she even raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, I don't know... if they get divorced before we start college, I guess with Mom because of the food and going to high school" she sighed and spent a moment her bag on her shoulder. "But if they get divorced when we start the University and if I managed to get in getting a sports scholarship, I suppose I'd prefer to live alone... "— "if I survive this damn disease" she thought that last thing to herself same.
"I see..." Mai replied, lowering her shoulders slightly.
"And your Mai? Who would you stay with? With Dad or Mom?" Maki asked curiously.
The younger of the twins released a little air. "I guess with Mom, unless I decide to share an apartment with Momo and Miwa as we have planned" she shrugged.
Maki smiled a little at that answer, deep down, she knew that Mai would be fine with her friends in case she wasn't there.
"Ugh! Yes, the theme of 'love' is strange! Above all, it's very troublesome" Maki commented with annoyance before adjusting her glasses.
"Puff!, Not that you say it, or whether the love ends between two people or in the opposite case, that it is a unilateral love, the one that never existed in one of those two people... in both ways it is Too troublesome and sad" Mai replied with annoyance.
Those words moved Maki's consciousness a little. She even felt her chest ache when she thought about that question about unrequited love. And just thinking about that feeling, her throat began to scratch. She made slight noises of annoyance at such a rasper.
"Speaking of which..."
"What's up with that?" Mai raised an eyebrow.
At first Maki was a little hesitant about directly telling her sister about the hananaki, because she felt that perhaps she wouldn't fully understand. Still she decided to ask.
"Do you think…" Her throat began to hurt"Do you think someone can die of love? So someone gets a very strange disease that is caused by something as silly as unrequited love..." Maki asked, hoping not to be judged.
Maki could swear she felt Mai's confused look at such a question.
"Dying for unrequited love? Seriously Maki, that idiot really made you feel bad..." Mai commented, raising her eyebrows even more.
"Of course not! It's just a simple question because I got curious about what you said about our parents and about those corny things about love" she answered annoyed.
Mai made a little noise in her throat, she seemed to be thinking about her answer.
"mmmm... I don't know... I've had several love disappointments and I'm still here, without dying for love, I suppose it depends on the person" Mai answered without taking her eyes off Maki.
Her older sister laughed slightly. "I suppose bad herbs never die or maybe you have a cactus instead of a heart" she said in a mocking tone.
"Idiot!" Only her sister answered before ignoring her for a while.
The truth in that aspect, Maki would have liked to be like Mai.
The younger twin was the one who rejected the boys and it seemed that her heart was a condominium, a heart easy to like and easy to forget. But instead with Maki... well, Yuta was her first love, the one that hurts the most because she loved him. it aroused feelings she thought she didn't have.
But things would only get worse for the big sister as they kept walking towards her house.
Both had reached a triangle division that announced that they were getting closer to home. As usual they went up the right street of said division and continued walking through those streets full of shops that adorned that main street, until they crossed a small bus stop.
Everything was going so well until something caught the attention of the older twin.
Maki was tempted to turn her head slightly towards the opposite corner from where the two of them were.
At first he thought that his vision had deceived him, like those times when something happens out of the corner of your eye and you are curious to see, but in the end that was a bad idea.
And there were Yuta and Rika, in that corner that divided a residential area from a commercial area.
Maki didn't know when she stopped, she had even stayed a few meters behind Mai.
And there was that poor girl with green hair, looking in the distance at that scene where those boyfriends tenderness and love.
Maki felt like those protagonists in a movie or in heartbreak stories, where she just stayed frozen watching her beloved kiss another... she even felt that time was passing slowly, turning that into a martyrdom for her soul.
Luckily, the two lovers had not noticed the presence of that twin.
Maki felt her heart shrink when she saw how those two said goodbye with a tender kiss on the lips. Watching as Rika rose on her toes to reach Yuta's face.
"See you tomorrow... I love you..." she could swear that she managed to see what Rika's lips said in an affectionate way, while she said goodbye moving her fine fingers, before entering that street full of expensive residences.
Yuta after that, continued long down that street opposite to Maki.
"Puaj! Seriously, I don't know what you saw in that womanizing idiot..." Mai had taken steps back to see why Maki had stopped, and when she noticed why, she got even more upset.
"You know, Maki, I never liked Yuta, let alone Rika. Puff! Seriously, That girl is unbearable!, I really don't like them both and to make the situation worse, I have to put up with them every fucking day of this school year" Mai commented with a big grimace upon seeing that scene.
Maki was not paying attention to those words that her sister was saying. Her poor heart felt fatal when she saw that scene, especially since she knew that Yuta did not live in this area. That made her remember the times he accompanied her to her house along this same route, especially after her training and after leaving her part-time job.
Yuta also returned home a little late with Maki and he did all this just so that she would get home safely, just as he had promised both to her and to her father...
Mai's words hurt her as well as all those memories they spent together on those homecomings.
Suddenly, Maki began to hyperventilate, she felt her lungs burn just like when she ran, but this time that burning was a thousand times worse, since now the poor thing felt that burning was going from her chest to her throat, invading her entire system.
Maki began to cough too much, desperately brought her left hand to her mouth, while she hoped that no petals would come out of her throat, but it was in vain, the poor girl felt like that white and soft thing was scraping her throat again, just like that clot.
She felt how the blood ran through her airways, passing with too much pain through those delicate lines where oxygen was running out.
Faced with such pain, Maki had to lean forward slightly in a gag as if she were going to vomit.
"Maki! What's the matter? Are you okay?" Mai's voice sounded very concerned as her hand rested on her sister's back.
Maki didn't want to worry her like this, but she really felt and looked terrible. Even a few tears fell from her eyes at such pain.
The poor girl was trying to breathe as she watched Yuta disappear around that corner. Really this feeling for him was killing her and even more so when she saw that he corresponded to another girl.
Maybe in her despair and delusion of death, she expected to see him rush to her aid... but that never happened. What was happening, was that she was worrying Mai too much. Who was all distraught, with tears of despair for not knowing what was happening or how she should help her older sister.
That crisis lasted about a minute, which was an eternity for Maki.
Her breathing began to regulate once she closed her eyes and cursed Yuta for all the damage he was causing her, perhaps that courage made that pain calm down a bit, although she still felt her lungs burn from such an effort when she coughed.
"Now... it's happening" she said with his voice all raspy, hiding in hier fist, that clot of blood and those two petals that came out of her throat. "Like I said, it's just a silly cough...for the season."
Mai really looked worried. "Are you sure? Do you want me to call an ambulance?"
Maki shook her head. "It won't be necessary, I feel better now... Let's go home..." she got back up as best she could, hiding her left fist behind her back, while her right hand took her bag that she had dropped down.
Mai just sighed. "I'm beginning to believe that seeing that idiot is going to kill you one day." she commented afflicted.
Maki agreed with Mai at that moment...what she felt for him was killing her...
Both finally arrived at their house, which was located in a good neighborhood of upper-middle-class families.
Although it looked like an old house on the outside, it looked quite modern on the inside.
On the walls they had a combination between the traditional and the current.
Those walls were decorated with swords and traditional symbols of his family due to the well-known last name they had and that they excelled in various martial arts. Just as there were some photographs of those two twins when they were newborns and more photos from when they were little, as well as more traditional photos of their parents in their traditional Japanese wedding attire and the occasional photo of their other relatives.
In the modern part, the furniture and electronic devices stood out. It could be said that it was a cozy house, where mostly three people lived.
"Mom, we're here!" Those twins warned once they entered the hall and took off their shoes to wear their favorite slippers. Maki's were in a purple shade and Mai's in a pastel pink.
Her mother stuck her head through the kitchen doorway. "Girls, you arrived just in time, dinner is going to be ready, so go wash your hands so you can come help me with the table."
"Let's go!"
"Yes right now, Ma!"
And so they both obeyed. Leaving their backpacks in the hall and going to wash their hands.
Maki carefully approached her mother, who was in front of the stove. "Ma! These two days I'm going to stay at home, I'm not going to attend high school" she said as she showed him the medical certificate and the medicines that Dr. Ieiri had prescribed.
Her mother quickly took her eyes off the pot and looked at the eldest of her daughters with a grimace of complete annoyance. "Now what did you do? Don't tell me you got expelled?! It's been years since they gave me a complaint about you, Maki!"
That girl admitted it without hesitation, since she was little, she is a very rebellious girl many times and she was expelled from kindergarten, elementary school and even high school from time to time... but this time it was for something totally different the one that had to leave the school for two days.
Maki sighed as she could. Although the pain had decreased, the discomfort in her lungs continued. "Eh?! Nothing of that! They sent me disability for two days because I am presenting some symptoms of bronchitis" showed that receipt, which her mother took from her in her hands and began to read.
"Oh!" It came out of her mother's mouth.
"What bad time you came to get sick! Maki I will not be able to take care of you and I will not be able to keep an eye on you in these two days either! I have to attend the restaurant since we have had more work than usual and incidentally, we must make the cuts to pass all the data to the manager" She rang worried. You could even see it in her eyes when she looked back at her daughter, that anger was now uneasy.
You'd think her mother was a twenty-four-seven homemaker, but she wasn't. The mother of those twins, after spending years convincing her husband to let her work, and using some of her savings that she had put together for most of her life. Together with other close friends, she had decided to open a small restaurant that served traditional food and Japanese desserts.
"Calm down, I'll be fine, I just need to rest and I should only be taking this medication every 8 hours" Maki shrugged her shoulders "I can take care of myself!" She smiled to try to calm her mother while she adjusted her glasses.
"Are you sure?" asked her mother with her eyes full of anguish.
She didn't want to worry her either. So Maki decided to lie.
"I'm very sure, also maybe I started to get bronchitis from going for a run very early in the morning, I promise I'll take the medicine" she smiled again.
Her mother sighed. "It's okay, even for your age you should take responsibility for things like that medically speaking" She said, sticking that medical prescription in front of the refrigerator with a magnet, as she usually did with important notes and bills to pay "But if you start to feel very bad, I will have to talk to your father, so that he comes for the health insurance thing." She comment seriously.
"Don't call him please!" She begged quickly "I'll get over it! I swear I'll take the medicine" Maki really didn't want to involve her father in all of this.
"Okay, anyway I'll leave your breakfast in the obento boxes inside the refrigerator and a remedy that your grandmother used to make for these cases of cough." replied her mother putting her hand on her hip.
"Thank you mom..." her eldest daughter answered with a slight smile of relief because her mother no longer insisted on that issue.
Instead, Mai sighed at the word 'father'.
That younger twin brought the dishes in her hands. "Speaking of dad, won't he get to eat with us again for dinner? Or at least, will he come home to sleep?" She ask with annoyance looking at that empty chair.
Her mother sighed. "He won't get to sleep again and maybe that's the way it will be for this week, you know that he is now with your uncle Naobito and your cousin Naoya in the regional martial arts championship." she said, returning her gaze to the pans. "Maki take the glasses to the table, please"
"That's what he says..." Mai said that in a barely audible whisper, as she put the plates on the table.
Maki sighed for all that and for what Mai said on her way home.
She really didn't know if her parents were going through a crisis in their marriage. Both had been married for almost 18 years and Maki really couldn't say if her marriage could be "an example to follow" on the subject of love for her.
She did not know if the love between them had already ended or if it still lasted, she only remembered that about two years to date, her father had already retired from his office job, and now he was more focused on his other trade as a teacher in Kendo and Kung fu. Something that passed from generation to generation towards the eldest son of her paternal family.
But since Maki had been born a woman instead of a man, she had not been allowed to inherit that profession, despite the fact that she did practice it and was very good at all kinds of martial arts, as well as in all the other sports that she proposed.
In itself, it was because of her father that she decided to go into sports. She wanted him to be proud of her eldest daughter.
Once the three of them sat down to eat, the conversation between them continued as normal...
"Mom!" Mai began to speak "On Saturday, I'm going out with Momo and Miwa to a small event at the mall, I promise to arrive before nightfall" she said before putting the chopsticks in her mouth.
Maki just listened while eating.
Her mother moved her eyebrows slightly to begin with that little interrogation. "Okay Mai, but tell me, will a boy also go with you?" she looked her youngest daughter in the eye.
Mai didn't know how to lie and you could see that when she pursed her lips at those questions.
"Yes, a classmate from our classroom will accompany us." She raise her voice "But I clarify that it is not a date, I swear! I would never date any of the guys in my class, none of them are my type!" she added quickly.
Her mother was a bit amused by all of that. "Okay, be careful, I won't tell your father that you went out with a boy that day and if he asks, I'll just say that you went alone with your Friends"
Mai sighed in relief —"Thank you Mom!"
Maki only shrugged her shoulders slightly and smiled a little at the complicity that both twins could have with their mother.
But that relief turned to pain as her mother now focused on her eldest daughter.
"By the way Maki, I haven't seen your friend around here anymore, that boy with black hair and dark circles under his eyes..." her mother commented mercilessly.
"Shit!" Maki internally screamed that she even stopped eating.
"Are you talking about Yuta?" Maki asked shyly.
"Yes, that boy, is everything alright with him? Before, I used to see him here almost all week" her mother commented before putting more food in her mouth.
Maki cleared her throat with difficulty "Well…" She took a breath as best she could. "That idiot is no longer my friend..." she commented annoyed.
Her mother was surprised by that. "Did they have a fight or something? I saw you two very united and happy. I say this because he always came in the morning to run and train with you before going to high school. You even seemed very happy when he came to help you with the physics project and other homework. I even got the impression that you liked being with him and that's why they went out often... I even thought I'd have him as a son-in-law"
Ouch! Right in the wound!
Maki felt her heart break at her mother's words.
"He's just a traitor who abandons his friends..." She blurted out angrily as she ate her rice.
"Eh? And why do you say that?" Asked her mother in amazement.
"What Maki is referring to is that now he has a girlfriend! and well... his girlfriend is a very cloying and unbearable girl. Also, I must admit that I never liked Yuta, just as dad said 'it looks like he's a womanizer' and it seems that he was right" Mai intervened quickly.
Maki looked at her sister with too much annoyance for those words, but they were partly right.
All that really hurt her, it ate her up inside.
Maki sighed, hiding the pain "Yes... he already has a girlfriend and well... I'm not going in there, even if he wanted to keep the friendship, he wouldn't have left his friends aside for that girl" She said annoyed before to eat with difficulty.
"Oh Maki, I'm really sorry to hear that, I really saw you very excited about that boy and I even saw in him a hint of affection and love for you!" said her mother looking at her with a face that her daughter had never seen before I had seen her do.
It was a mixture between sadness and mother's pain. It was the first time he saw her with such compassion towards her on the subject of her love.
Her mother took her hand across the table as a sign of comfort.
"It's okay..." Maki lied "Yuta is just an idiot, it doesn't even hurt that he left with her" she said trying to hide her pain too much, which only began to erupt in a coughing fit that was rising rapidly and mercilessly.
Maki with her right hand covered her mouth, since again, she felt that she was going to spit out petals.
"Maki are you alright?" Asked her mother, very worried about her, squeezing her daughter's left hand when she saw her suddenly pale and start coughing hard.
"I'm ok..." Maki said with difficulty and got up quickly to run to the bathroom as her cough increased.
The green-haired woman supposed that this would make her mother more credible about her medical disability from the school.
In truth, Maki felt that life hated her, even for her own mother to feel sorry for her unrequited love.
Petals came out of her throat again, but this time they were many white and pink petals with red spots. Which stained that white sink.
The poor girl looked in the mirror, it really looked fatal.
She was very pale and with watery eyes, which itched a little because of the burning that the arching had caused them, she even had to remove her glasses that bothered her.
Maki continued taking out those petals for another minute, while she remembered those moments that she spent with Yuta in that house and that yes, her mother witnessed it.
It hurt too much that his mother asked about him and it still hurt what he saw between Yuta and Rika before he got home. She hurt to think of the love of her parents too, it hurt to worry her mother and Mai like that... it hurt to be herself.
"Maki, are you okay?" she heard her mother's voice, who began to knock on the bathroom door.
"Yes I'm... fine," she lied with a very dry throat "I'm just... expelling white phlegm as the doctor said it would come out of my throat..."
"Open the door, I brought you the medicine and a glass of water," her mother commented from the other side.
"I'm coming!" she said with difficulty.
Maki quickly rinsed her mouth, letting the water wash away all the petals and the blood down the sink drain to get rid of that evidence.
Maki turned to look in the mirror one last time, now her cheeks were red, it seemed that the next symptom of hananaki was beginning to appear in her, which was the fever.
"I must avoid worrying them..." she told herself before wetting her face once more and then putting on her glasses.
Maki took a breath as best she could, arranged her hair and thus opened the door.
"It's over... it's just the cough with phlegm that the doctor said..." her voice sounded very hoarse.
"Here, take your medicine..." her mother commented with too much concern, even Mai was by her side also looking a little scared.
She took that glass and the syrup that his mother had in her hand.
Maki's eyes again filled with tears of pain once she drank that medicine, the taste of the syrup and the water itself burned her throat.
Her mother put her hand on her eldest daughter's forehead. She looked too distraught.
"You look somewhat irritated, it seems that you have a temperature. Maki, go take a bath with lukewarm water and go to bed, right now I'll bring you dinner and some other home remedy." Her mother commented, passing her hand across her daughter's forehead and cheeks.
"You won't tell dad... right?..." asked her daughter with too much concern for being a bother.
Her mother shook her head. "I won't tell your father this time so as not to worry him, okay?" She caressed her daughter's cheeks. "Maybe you just need to rest."
"Yes... I'll do that..." Maki responded with a very slight smile as she returned the glass of water, which was a martyrdom to drink.
And so, Maki went upstairs and went to do as her mother advised.
Maki had to do her best to hide from her family that she had this strange illness. So she would pretend to be fine despite dying of pain.
So tomorrow when she was alone, she would take the opportunity to investigate more about Hanahaki and what she had to do to heal...
She thought of that plan, while she was under the water in the shower, which drowned her sorrows and helped her hide her tears.
To be continue...
Notes:
First of all, I must apologize if I hadn't updated this fic, the truth is that I had a writer's block with this story, from which it seems that I'm getting out of it, thank heavens. Even so, perhaps your update reads slow.
I hope you liked this second chapter, the truth is I also wrote it thinking about a headcanon I have about, perhaps in another life, the twins would get along with their mother.
And tell me, what did you think of this chapter?❤️🌸