Ryan slowly rolled his eyes. "Right. I forgot that I was eating with a machine who only works out." He let out a small chuckle as he followed behind Arthur.

Arthur's lip twitched—the closest thing to a smile Ryan had seen all day.

They both went to a table that was at the end of the cafeteria, the quiet spot where no one comes except for them.

As they both took their place, they had barely started eating as someone pulled up next to them with a chair in their hand as they placed it next to Ryan and sat.

Ryan slowly looked up, chewing on his grilled chicken, and then froze.

"Maya?"

She slowly sat down next to him without any kind of hesitation, setting her tray on the table. The smell of her food mixed with the noise of laughter and chatter around them, but at their small table, things suddenly felt too quiet.

Arthur just sat across from them, eating his food without paying any kind of attention to the current situation, calm as ever; his focus was only fixed on his plate.

"Hey," Maya said; it was her first time when she talked this softly to Arthur. "You too look like you've been through hell."

Ryan gave a nervous laugh to her as his voice came out. "Yeah... it's something like that, haha."

Maya tilted her head a bit as her sharp eyes scanned him for a bit. Her gaze slowly shifted towards the faint bruises on Ryan's neck and forearms. "Wait, Ryan. You didn't have these bruises there after your match yesterday. How did you get them?"

Ryan froze in his place for a second as he forced a weak smile. "Uh... yeah, just slipped and fell during the training, you know."

"Training doesn't give you these kinds of bruises, and tripping down surely will not." She said, flatly, her voice filled with doubt.

Ryan looked down towards his food as he poked the grilled chicken with the fork. "It's fine, Maya. Don't stress about it a lot."

She didn't look convinced at all; her eyes moved towards Arthur, who hadn't paid any sort of attention to her.

"Arthur," she said, trying to get his attention.

There was no kind of response from his side; he just simply picked up another piece of chicken and ate.

"Arthur," she repeated her words, leaning forward slightly as she kept her hands on the table. "I want to train with you and Ryan." She looked at him with a pleading look in her eyes.

Ryan almost choked on his food. "Wait, what the—"

Arthur finally looked up, his expression unreadable as his voice came, blunt. "Why?"

"I don't want to stay at the number five position in my club forever." Maya said, her voice calm, with a pinch of sadness buried inside of it. "I want to get stronger, stronger than ever."

Arthur studied her for a while, then went back to eating. "Ask Leon to train you," he said simply.

Maya frowned as her voice came out. "Leon? Why him?"

Arthur didn't look up as he took another bite of his chicken. "He's your captain," Arthur replied, chewing up his chicken. "Not me."

She stared at him for a while; frustration was clearly visible on her face. "We have been friends for a while... let me train with you and Ryan, please."

Arthur wiped his mouth and replied. "Being friends and whatsoever don't have anything to do with this; it'll not make you stronger, but your work will. It doesn't matter where you work out."

Ryan sat silently, unsure if he should say anything or not. The tension between the two grew more—Maya was being stubborn, which was clashing with Arthur's emotionless calm.

The noise of the cafeteria filled the silence between them—laughter, the scrape of trays, and the hum of voices.

Arthur stood up, tossing his napkin onto the tray as he kept the fork and spoon in the tray too. "Eat fast," he said to Ryan. "We're training after class."

Ryan nodded as he took another bite of his food. "Yeah, got it."

Arthur walked off without another word, leaving Ryan and Maya sitting there.

Maya's gaze followed him until he disappeared around the corner. Then she looked back at Ryan as she gave him a small smile. "You're lucky, you know. Training with him, and so easily he agreed to train you."

Ryan blinked. "Lucky? He barely talks, and his training is not less than hell itself." Ryan said with his mouth full of food.

"That's not what I mean," she said. "You're learning from the best. I want that too. I'm tired of being stuck where I am."

Her tone was a bit low but full of resolve. Ryan could see it—the same fire that burned in her during her fight, the fire to leave her old self back.

He smiled slightly. "Then I guess we both want the same thing, and that is to not stay stuck at one level."

Maya laughed softly. "I guess so."

For a while, they just sat there in comfortable silence. Ryan glanced down at his bruised hands, then at Maya, and finally at the empty spot where Arthur had been sitting.

Maya looked a bit sad because Arthur had turned her proposal down, her head down as she played with her food. "Ryan, can you please do something about this thing? I really want to train and get stronger, and I can't do it on my own." She said, voice low.

Ryan looked at Arthur leaving the cafeteria, his back straight, his steps slow and composed. 'He could have agreed to let her train with him and me, but look at him. Acting like that.' Ryan let out a deep sigh as he looked at Maya.

Ryan looked at her as he chewed his chicken slowly. "Okay, don't worry about it. I'll talk to Arthur about it and make you train with us too."

Maya looked at Ryan with hope in her eyes, a small bright smile curled up on her lips. "Thanks, Ryan."

[Host, I know that you're going to take advantage of Arthur being a part of your crew.]

'Hey, it's not like that, you know.'

[You don't have to lie to me, and it's completely okay to use your authority on your crew. ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧]

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