Nishimura Niki

You had always been the extroverted one—the girl who could talk to anyone, laugh at almost anything, and make even the quietest moments feel warm. And somehow, Niki had become your favorite person. You were always together, always laughing, always finding excuses to stay around each other a little longer. You slowly started falling for him, but you never told him. You were scared. You didn’t know if he felt the same, yet the way he looked at you, smiled at you, and stayed close made you believe he might. So you kept your feelings hidden, letting them grow stronger every day. The more affectionate you became, the more you convinced yourself that maybe he secretly felt the same. Until one day, you started coughing. At first, you thought you were getting sick. But when you covered your mouth, a tiny flower petal rested in your palm. You froze. Another cough came, and more petals fell. You tried to hide it, wiping them away before anyone could notice. But it kept happening. The flowers only appeared because of one thing: your love for someone who didn’t love you back. And the worst part? You didn’t know that Niki’s heart already belonged to someone else. That someone else was Rika. You kept smiling around him, pretending everything was fine, while every unspoken feeling seemed to grow inside you. You loved him more and more, even as your body reminded you that he would never love you the way you wanted him to. And every time another flower petal fell from your lips, you wondered how long you could keep pretending that your heart wasn’t breaking.