Pheo swept the floor with his makeshift broom, it had holes that the dirt would escape from but it still got most of it.
He wanted to keep the room clean, anything to help Ryu's condition.
Ryu has been comatose ever since. Pheo would still visit him everyday, hoping that somehow he would pull through.
He would sometimes suddenly heat up which would worry him. The vision of his skin changing colors like that other did would sometimes pop in his mind.
He won't die so easily
He tried to reassure himself. Ryu has always shown that he recovers faster than anyone else.
Maybe that's why he's still alive while the others have mostly died moments after discovery.
Pheo sat down next to him and touched his forehead, he was heating up but it was stable.
"Just hold on for a week" He told Ryu, knowing that he wouldn't be able to hear him.
He then noticed that someone was looking at them from the entrance, a small figure walking in alone.
"That was the person you hung out with right?" Jug went in, stopping midway.
He could tell that he was unwelcomed from the way Pheo looked at him.
"You know, if you were actually free you could get him to someone who knows what they're doing"
Jug went up beside him, knowing very well Pheo didn't want him anywhere near him.
"What made you change so much?" Jug looked at him as if he was trying to figure out a puzzle.
"You were so different when I first saw you" He said, "So similar to us"
"Your eyes spoke of tragedy, a life that lived in suffering"
Pheo shrugged, "I guess I just didn't find any need for freedom"
His answer made Jug think twice, "No need for freedom?"
It made him laugh, "I wish I had the same sediment"
"What do you know about freedom in the first place?" He asked him
"It's definition differs from every book I read" Pheo clarified, "But generally it's the power to do whatever"
"Exactly" Jug pointed at him, "The power to act, the power to speak, the power to think"
"The ability to do whatever you want" Jug got up and started pacing around
"Have you ever had everything you wanted, only for it to get stolen in front of your very eyes?" He vented out.
"When all that you have gets stolen from you and your life crumbled apart, no one will care, and time goes on"
Pheo saw that Jug was deep in his own thoughts. It made him think of his own life, "I know what it's like"
Those words stopped Jug from pacing around.
"To have something stolen from you, right in front of your eyes" He continued, "Within arms reach yet for it to be so far"
"To do everything you could, yet end up back at the start. Within arms reach"
Pheo recalled his past, his unyielding effort to save his mother, her memories the only motivation that kept him in his pursuit.
He recalled the many times his father caught him, the pain that would flow through his eyes as he saw his own son going further than he did when he thought he tried everything he could to save her.
The rage that would swell right after, the abuse that would have ensured.
"I had to watch as my father slowly descended into madness, to only be able to watch as my mother stayed frozen still. For my family to slowly break apart as I desperately try to find ways to patch it back together"
"Stop"
Jug held up his hand to stop Pheo, "We aren't the same"
"You were able to act" He told him, "That's the difference between you and me"
Jug went closer to Ryu. Pheo should've stopped him, but there was something about Jug that told him that he wasn't going to do anything.
"There are some things that people just can't fight against"
It brought Pheo back to the times he felt hopeless gettting his mother our of there, when he resolved himself to fix his family to the way they once were.
Jug reached out to Ryu. but stopped midway. Pheo noticed that his eyes glimmered with water, almost forming a tear. He turned away before he could see it fall down.
"Maybe you're right" Pheo admitted, "There are many things that man can't fight against such as nature or time"
Pheo looked at Jug, he had his back turned on him but he knew he was listening.
"But there is no harm in defying what seems certain"
Pheo said as he took a look at Ryu, his breathing was stable but he knew that inside a fierce battle took place.
Jug went to leave the room before stopping at the entrance.
"Maybe we aren't so similar after all"
He told Pheo before seeing himself out, noticing that Don was there listening from outside the room.
Don held his finger up to Jug's lips, staring him dead in his eyes.
He didn't look at him however, he simply walked away from the room and went off elsewhere.
Don stayed there for a while, taking a deep breath before going inside the room.
He saw that Pheo was still by Ryu's side, taking care of him while he was in that state.
He dropped the practice sword he held to the ground, "Are you ready?"
Pheo looked at him, nodded his head, and followed Don to practice.