Deal

"None of your business." Michael responded with a voice that lacked emotion yet carried a hint of sadness.

Michael after all had given up on life. How would someone feel knowing that they have less than a day left to live, and that one of their only family alive would be destroyed by their death?

While he does know that the best logical option is to spend his last hours with his mom, the human brain often goes against logic. Otherwise, every person on the planet would exercise and be in the best shape possible to increase their lifespan, physical capabilities, quality of life, etc.

Taking a seat for herself opposite to Michael, Rose said. "Well, it is my business. Kai asked me to try and figure out why you're being so hateful towards him all of a sudden. Though, by looking at you, I can tell it's something to do with why you're so miserable."

"Did Kai send you because you're a woman so I would find you attractive and open up? Well he thought wrong, you're as ugly as you could get." Michael responded in a nonchalant tone.

"If you think you can get rid off me by insulting me, you thought wrong." Rose added. "Unlike you, I care about Kai, so I will do what he asked me to do."

"Good for you." Michael responded.

"Why are you so pissed off after improving so much at swimming?"

Not getting any response, Rose continued talking.

"I spectated you while you were swimming. Both races whenever you would look at your time, you would look incredibly frustrated. Why is that? The only reason I could think of was because you expected a better time."

Rose hummed in thought then said. "Oh my, are you so pathetic that you feel envious of Kai?"

Michael grit his teeth when he heart what Rose said, he was already very guilty about what he did towards Kai, he knew that feeling envious of your friend is a pathetic trait.

"Shut up! Do you think that insulting me will help with anything?" Michael responded.

"You didn't deny what I said, how interesting." Rose added. "Alright, how about this. If you don't stop sulking and attend the race tomorrow, I wont tell Kai about how his supposed 'best friend' really thinks of him. Deal?"

Michael didn't know how to answer, what did it matter what Kai knew if he was already going to die?

"I'll take your silence as a yes, I'll watch you during the race." Rose said. Afterwards, she got up from her seat, and went downstairs to exit the restaurant.

'I'm already going to hurt everyone close to me when I die, I might as well decrease how hurt Kai is. This is to make up for how I treated him.'

Michael sighed and stood up, leaving his bill under one of the plates. He exited the restaurant and called a taxi to go back home.

When he arrived home, his mother still hadn't come back. He headed to bed immediately, he felt sluggish and sleepy after eating all those meals at Benny's.

-------------

Waking up the next day, Michael made himself breakfast.

"Good morning Mike."

"Good morning mom."

Michael suddenly hugged his mom without warning. Emily, feeling him hugging her pretty tightly, quietly said. "Oh, this is a welcome surprise. Is there anything bothering you? You can tell mom."

"No, it's fine. I just wanted a simple hug that's all."

"Alright, I have to go to work now sweetie, bye!"

As Emily closed the door behind her, Michael felt his eyes getting a little wet.

'I'll miss you mom."

In all honesty, Michael was scared.. very scared. It was death he was facing after all. Only a handful of insane people throughout history had truly been unafraid of death. Michael was not one of them.

Looking at the time, it read 6:30 AM.

'A little under 4 hours until my death, how exciting.'

Michael decided to play a few games of chess until he had to go out.

Seeing that it was now 8:10 AM, Michael started to pack his bag to go to the race.

Arriving at the swimming stadium entrance, Michael quickly changed into his swimsuit and started his warmup. After about 30 minutes of warming up, Michael got out and wore a jacket and pants over his swimsuit to keep himself warm.

'Oh the familiar chair, maybe it's because you're bad luck that I keep losing.'

Michael this time sat on a different chair, while unreasonably blaming an in-animate object for his failure.

"Swimmers in heat 8, please walk up to the starting blocks. If you are not there within 5 minutes you will be counted as absent."

'Here we go.'

As Michael heard his heat being called, he got behind his specified lane, and started to do some light stretches and jumping jacks.

After a few minutes passed, he took off his jacket and pants.

"Get set!"

"On your mark!"

'Here I go towards my death.' As Michael thought this, tears started welling up in his eyes.

*BEEP*

As soon as Michael passed merely the 20 meter mark out of a 1500 meter race, he heard a familiar sound.

[DING]

['Freestyle technique' HAS LEVELED-UP TO LEVEL 3]