"Hanahaki? What the hell is that?" he hissed, rubbing his throat. The doctor across from him looked at him in sympathy.

"It's a rare disease that's affected only 2% of the population," he replied. He pulled up some X-rays of Don and he couldn't help but wince at what he saw. Shapes that looked like rope were wrapped loosely around his lungs and even his heart, the clear cause of the chest pains and laboured breathing that he had been feeling recently. Not only that, he could see that there were a few petals that were scattered around the walls of his lungs. He might not be a registered doctor, but even he knew that it was a bad sign.

"What the hell?"

"The disease causes the formation of petals to grow inside your lungs. They generally grow right here" the doctor pointed towards the top area of the lungs, the part that's closest with his throat. "Which causes you to start coughing them out. These petals also tend to irritate the throat, causing some internal scratching which is why blood is almost always present when you get your coughing fits."

"And those things that are wrapped around my organs?"

The doctor frowned. "Those are vines, usually found in the later stages of the disease or in worst case scenarios." Don couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course I get the worst case scenarios he thought glumly. The doctor, unaffected by Don's sour mood, continued. "They respond to your thoughts. When you feel some sort of emotion or you lie about those feelings, they'll constrict."

"And how did this happen?" He knew he was being slightly rude, but how could he not be? He was internally freaking out about the fact that his lungs had now been renovated into a greenery without his approval. He was allowed at least one panic session.

"Well…" the doctor trailed off, taking his glasses off. "Do you know how emotions, especially strong emotions, are able to physically affect the body?"

Don nodded. "Kind of. I've heard of things like stress headaches and stress leading to poor immune systems, but that's about it."

"That's a good start" the doctor nodded approvingly. "Strong emotions, especially negative emotions, can affect the body in many ways. Stress headaches, stomach aches, even some cardiovascular diseases can either appear or be affected by negative emotions. But those are only the most common ways negative emotions can affect us. Another less common way is through…"

"Hanahaki" he continued, understanding where the doctor was getting at. "So you're saying that the reason why flowers are growing within me is because it's a response to my feelings?"

"That's right. You're currently fighting against some strong emotion, right?" at Don's hesitant nod, the doctor continued. "Well, the flowers are a direct response to that. Your body is starting to buckle under the pressure of housing both your feelings and your strong need to hide those feelings, causing a great amount of stress. It's the body's way of saying 'since you're not going to say anything, we'll say it ourselves' and well…you know the rest."

Don sighed at that. Everyone's been telling him that his affinity for avoiding and burying his emotions would come back to bite him. Even so, he never expected this of all things. "So what's the emotion? If I know what it is, I can treat it and then get these flowers out of my body, right?"

"I'm afraid it's not that easy."

"What? How come?"

"Well, Hanahaki is a response to one specific emotion."

"And that is?"

The doctor looked him in the eye and Don had a distinct feeling that he was being dissected. As soon as he said what it was, it felt like Don's world was pulled from underneath him.

"Unrequited love"