In a small town on the outskirts of Japan, everybody knew each other, maybe not in the face, but definitely heard each other. It was difficult to hide one's secrets from curious neighbors or classmates, and to hope that your "faithful" friends would not tell your secret was very difficult and, to a greater extent, not always justified. Despite this, few people knew that not only the capital and big cities were affected by this terrible syndrome of khanahaki, but also their friends, and maybe their loved ones, were also infected.
***
None of the students had any idea that a regular gym class would turn into such a panic. Right during the basketball game, the new student coughed up a terrible cough. My classmates already wanted to help my friend until they saw... bright orange petals. These very petals were coughing up and spitting out the pupil along with the blood.
- Quiet, quiet, - his classmate tried to calm the guy down, - I'm Haru... I'll help you, - she said, but the classmate wasn't sure how strong the cough was.
And the petals were all around him, a whole bunch of petals. He was suffocating, and his face was red at first, and pale blue a little later. Some of the disciples tried to lift him up, but he couldn't stand on his feet, so he fell to the ground again.
Haruki clearly saw the thin stem of the flower looking out of the guy's mouth. He was crying in terrible pain.
- Get away from him! - the schoolchildren heard the teacher's voice that she was trying to go through the crowd to the sick student.
Haru saw how nervous the new boy started to collect petals and tossed them back somewhere.
- I'll... I'll help you, - the girl reacted quickly to collect the petals. They felt ugly, sticky, in the blood, but still they didn't lose their outer beauty.
Having passed through the crowd, the teacher froze in fear. She did not dare to approach the pupil because... She knew that if she came closer to him, there was a chance to get infected.
- Haruki, leave quickly, - the woman said in a trembling voice.
The rest of the students were talking with the whole crowd, only some of them, frightened by the teacher's words, ran out of the gym.
- But I want to help him, - said the girl, without even having to break away from her class.
But Nathan couldn't stand it, he fell down. With the last cough, the same stem came out of his throat and fell to the floor. Thin, with thorns. Around the student's corpse were beautiful bright orange petals. The classmates were numb. None of them knew what had happened to the newcomer at the time, not even a guess.
- These... are my favorite flowers.
Haru for some reason still remembers that phrase from the teacher.
Even a year later, the whole school still remembers the dead guy. Haruka can't remember the young man's face, only his breathless body surrounded by bright orange petals. What happened then, as if the teachers didn't want to tell him, was that it was an unfortunate prank of the pupil. But the students weren't stupid, they knew it wasn't a prank and it was much worse than it seemed.
Exactly one year later, on the date of that boy's death, some special doctors and a group of psychologists arrived at the school. They examined every pupil and talked to him.
And Haru thought at first that it had nothing to do with Hanahaqi's disease, which the whole school was talking about without saying a word. But one day it came to her.
- Murakami Haruki? - The doctor asked, looking at the girl.
- Yes, - she replied briefly.
Haruka was a little worried, to be honest. She was afraid of doctors and always tried to get away from school medical exams sometime. She always did, but not now. It was this medical examination that was specially controlled not only by teachers and doctors, but also by special guards, which did not give teenagers the slightest chance to escape.
- Tell me, have you had any contact with the victim? - The doctor was interested in preparing some papers and was already preparing to write something down.
- With the victim? You mean a classmate who died a year ago?
- According to your classmates, you tried to help that boy then. I need to know if you touched him.
- No... I didn't touch him, - Haruki said, trying to remember what she was doing at the time, even though it was like a fog, - but the guys wanted to help him get up, but he fell down.
The doctor listened attentively to the girl, filling out documents on the table.
- Have you had any recent breathing difficulties or chest pains?
- No, nothing like that happened.
- Did you touch the petals that that boy spit out? - the man did not say it until a few minutes later.
Haru remembered how she helped the sick man collect petals.
- Yes, - she could barely hear it.
The doctor's face made it clear that he was not happy with her answer.
- Go to the opposite office, where you will be fully examined, - the man said, - and please don't forget to inform the doctors before the examination that you probably have Hanahaki.
