White Walls

Chapter 5

Ever since he brought the first shade of colour to their room, the winter got harsher, and it snowed heavily through the night.

With the snow making small patterning sounds against the window, they chatted.

"Why are you in here?" He asked, fiddling with the small clip on his finger. Oxygen measure thing?

"Asthma, duh," she replied, looking straight up at the ceiling.

Even in the dimly lit room (meant for them to rest), Em could see the gentle shade of blue on the walls. They made minuscule waves along the walls, even up to the ceiling. Like a sad river, she thought.

Blue, not from the childlike joy and innocence.

Blue, from melancholy and longing.

"No, I don't mean asthma," he chuckled. His raspy chuckle could be heard even over the annoying hissing of the mask. "As in, your medical history and all. I want to know more about you." He continued, whispering the last sentence. He stared up at the ceiling, as though he could see the colours too.

(Tiny AN: I'm getting pissed because my phone is trying to spell COLOURS as COLORS -.-|| okay continue leggo)

"I was born at 7 months. Pretty premature for this wriggling baby. Asthma, was the string attached, in my case. What about you?" She mumbled, playing with her clip too. Nurse Jenn would probably see my crazy stats with how I'm playing with this thing, she thought.

"Um, childhood asthma too. I play a little bit of sports, so sometimes I end up like that." He muttered, clearing his throat at the "sports".

Nurse Jenn peeked from the door.

"Blood pressure time," she chirped, dragging in a small tray.

She checked their clipboards on the ends of their beds.

"Oh dear. Nebulizer treatment too. Give me a moment, kids," she said, hurrying out of the room.

Em grinned at Yuzuru. Nurse Jenn was such a lovely nurse.

She came back in, a minute later, with two more nebulizer masks and some medicine.

She connected them both to the nebulizers, which made a buzzing noise, drowning out any possibility of normal conversation.

Blood pressure took a very short time, and Nurse Jenn's "look at this twig of an arm, dear son you should eat more! Be plump, be you!" She exclaimed, giving him a hard slap on his back, to which Yuzu coughed, laughing.

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The next day, when they were freed from their oxygen masks, Em decided to bring Yuzuru around the hospital.

Since they were in the pediatric ward, they decided to play with some of the children. From small cases like a small infection to severe cases like cancer, children were never spared from suffering and disease. They were subjected to the same pain and torture as the adults.

"It's quite heartbreaking, looking at some of these kids. Some of them already have an expiry date, some won't even live to see the flowers bloom," sighed Em, as she touched the glass panel of the Pediatric ICU, where a small girl lay. Her name was Johanna, if Em remembered correctly. Every time she came back here, Johanna never left the compounds at all. It made her feel grateful that she was still alive and breathing, maybe not breathing well, but alive she was.