Chapter 4: Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank You for Waiting

"Good morning, Yamauchi!"

"Good morning, Ike!"

Arriving to class, Ike wore a broad grin as he called out to Yamauchi. It

was rather unusual for them to get here so early. It'd been one week since the

entrance ceremony, and Ike and Yamauchi would always make it to class

right before the bell rang.

"Whew, man! I was looking forward to today so much that I barely

slept last night!"

"Ah ha ha! This school is just the best! I can't believe that it's almost

time for swimming! And when I say swimming, I mean girls. And when I say

girls, I mean girls in school swimsuits!"

It was true that the swimming classes were co-ed. In other words, that

meant that Horikita, Kushida, and all of the other girls would be…showing

off a lot of skin. The girls backed away from Ike and Yamauchi's rabid

excitement. I, on the other hand, sat in my chair, isolated and alone. I

couldn't do so forever. I had to proactively work at joining a group of friends.

Fortunately, their conversation had ended, so I stood up. However, just

then…

"Hey, Professor! Come here for a sec!"

"Uh, you called?"

A chubby boy, apparently nicknamed "The Professor," approached

them slowly. If I remembered correctly, his name was Sotomura or

something like that.

"Professor, can you record the girls wearing their swimsuits for us?"

Ike asked.

"Leave it to me. I'll pretend to be sick so that I can skip class and

observe."

"Record? What are you planning?" I asked.

"The Professor is going to rank the girls' breast sizes for us. If we're

lucky, he'll get some pictures with his phone."

"Hey, hey." Sudou visibly drew back in response to Ike's plan. If the

girls found out about it, the consequences would be severe. However, despite

the content of the conversation, I was jealous of their easy banter. Having

friends had to be nice. I wanted friends, too.

"Pathetic," a familiar voice said.

"So, you're here, too, huh, Horikita?"

"I just arrived while you were looking at those boys over there. You

didn't notice me. If you want to be their friend, why not try just talking to

them?" she asked.

"Shut up and leave me alone already. If I could just do it, I wouldn't be

agonizing over it."

"From what I've seen, you don't seem to be unsociable or lacking in

communication skills, though."

"There are a lot of reasons why I can't do it. So far, you're the only

person I've been able to talk to, Horikita."

Even though I'd exchanged contact information with Ike and the

others, I still hadn't been able to actually hold a conversation with them yet.

"Wait just a minute. I already warned you not to, but you wouldn't be

thinking of me as your friend, would you?" said Horikita. She took a few

steps away from me, as if in disgust.

"It's fine. No matter how low I sink, I'd never dream of being your

friend," I replied.

"I see. I feel a little relieved."

I wondered just how much she hated having friends.

"Hey, Ayanokouji!" Ike called my name. When I looked up, I saw him

beaming at me.

"Wh-what is it?" I asked.

I stood, stuttering as I did so. Horikita no longer showed any interest in me. A chance to enter into a new group of friends had suddenly fallen into

my lap.

"To tell you the truth, we're taking bets on the girls' chest sizes."

"We've come up with some probabilities."

The Professor took out a tablet and opened a spreadsheet. The names of

all the girls in our class were displayed. There were numbers listed as well. I

honestly had no interest in gambling, but I couldn't let this opportunity go to

waste.

"Umm. So, is it okay if I join you?" I asked.

"Yeah! Come on, do it. Do it!"

As of right now, Hasebe was the likeliest contender for the biggest

breasts in the class. The odds sat at one to eight I hadn't heard most of the

names before. I couldn't even remember my classmates' names. This was too

awful.

"This is way more elaborate than I would have thought. Aren't you

observing them a little too closely?"

"Come on. We're men, aren't we? Men have only two things

constantly on their minds: tits and ass!"

Even if that were true, he really had no filter whatsoever. By the way,

Horikita was ranked lowest. If you managed to win the bet, that was over

thirty times your wager back. Well, in terms of breast size, it was obvious

who would win and who would lose. Horikita had no chance.

"So, what's your wager? It's 1000 points to join."

"I see…"

I clearly lacked information. Scanning the list, I realized that not only

did I not know the breast sizes of half the people here, I didn't even know the

names and faces of most the girls. Actually, aside from Horikita and Kushida,

I couldn't recall hearing about anyone else. Kushida seemed to have fairly

large breasts, but not large enough to take first place.

"Come on, play with us. It's no fun if there're only a few people

betting, you know?"

"I'll do it!" "Me too, me too!"

"I have experience scouting girls and checking out their tits!"

While I considered the offer, boys crawled out of the woodwork around

me, getting blatantly excited over the size of the girls' breasts. The girls in the

classroom looked at us like we were dirt.

"I'll join, too. By the way, my money's on Sakura," Yamauchi chimed

in. Sakura was a somewhat plain girl who wore glasses, but because I'd

barely talked to anyone, I honestly didn't know that much about her. While it

looked like he was pondering something, Yamauchi tapped the Professor and

Ike on the shoulders and whispered something to them.

"I'm only telling you guys about this. The truth is, I actually confessed

to Sakura."

"What?! S-seriously?!" Ike was the most surprised and flustered by

this. Had his goal to become the first guy in class to snag a girlfriend fallen

through?

"Yeah, seriously. But keep this on the down low. It's just between us,

okay? I mean, I thought she was really plain at first, but then I saw her

wearing regular clothes. She was huge, man."

"You doofus. If she's not cute, you shouldn't ask her out, even if she's

got huge tits. I wouldn't date anyone unless they were in the same league as

Kushida or Hasebe. I'm not interested in such a Plain Jane."

He spoke harshly because no one else was around. I wondered how

much I believed Yamauchi when he said that he'd asked Sakura out. I had my

doubts. In the end, I decided to place my bet on the girl with the highest odds.               

                                4.1

"All right! The pool!"

After lunch had ended, it was finally time for swim class. Finally, the

moment Ike and the others had so desperately been waiting for. Without even

trying to hide his excitement, Ike leapt up and headed with the others toward

the indoor pool. I followed behind them in what I thought was a stealthy

manner.

"Come on, let's go together, Ayanokouji!"

"Huh? O-okay."

I'd hesitated somewhat upon receiving Ike's invitation, but I hurried to

join and followed them to the locker room. Sudou promptly removed his

uniform and started to change, showing off his physique. He'd built up his

body through his years of basketball playing. Even in comparison with the

other students, he was clearly in incredible

shape. While the others wrapped themselves in bath towels, Sudou

unabashedly wore only his underwear. He stood there, semi-nude, and took

his swimsuit out of his bag. I couldn't keep myself from blurting something

out.

"Sudou, you're pretty bold. Aren't you nervous being around other

people?"

"In sports, you can't get flustered every time you have to change. If

you act all shifty, it'll have the opposite effect. You become the center of

attention."

He could say that again. In these sorts of places, sneaky guys got

mocked.

"All right, I'm going on ahead."

A moment later, Sudou left the locker room. I quickly finished

changing as well.

Upon seeing the fifty-meter pool, Ike cried out, "Whoa, this school is

something else! It's even better than the city pool, don't you think?" The water was clear and beautiful, and because it was indoors, we didn't have to

worry about the weather. The perfect environment.

"What about the girls? Aren't they here yet?"

Ike looked around, sniffing the air like a dog.

"They take a while to change, so they're probably not ready," I said.

"Hey, I wonder would what happen if I just suddenly jumped into the

girls' locker room?" Ike said.

"They'd gang up on you, beat the crap out of you, and then file

charges, probably."

"Don't give me such a realistic, deadpan answer and ruin my fun!" Ike

began to tremble with fright as he played that scenario in his head.

"If the girls sense you staring at them in their swimsuits, they'll

probably hate you."

"Come on, like there's a guy out there who wouldn't stare! Agh. What

am I gonna do if I get a boner?"

If that happened, they'd probably hate Ike from that moment all the

way until the day of our graduation. Wait a second, what was happening?

Had I started talking naturally to Ike and the others? Even though until this

morning I hadn't been able to join their group, I suddenly had my foot in the

door, so to speak. This was the moment for a new friendship to be born.

"Wow! It's so spacious! It's so much bigger than the pool at my junior

high school."

A few minutes after the boys had arrived, a girl's voice could be heard.

"A-are they here?!"

Ike looked ready to strike. If you were that obvious about it, the girls

were bound to hate you. Even so, I was curious, too. I mostly wondered about

Hasebe and Kushida, but a little about Horikita as well. I was particularly

interested in Hasebe, the girl rumored to have the biggest tits in class. I didn't

think there'd be any harm in taking a little peek. However, it turned out that

all of the boys' wishes were dashed by an unexpected turn of events.

"Hasebe isn't here! Wh-what's going on, Professor?!" Ike cried.

The Professor, who had been watching the class, was now in a panic. Standing on the second-floor observation deck, he scanned the room. Ike and

the others also looked around. At this height, the Professor's beady,

bespectacled eyes should have spotted his prey instantly. However…

He couldn't find the girls anywhere. He looked to his right and left, as

if in disbelief. Could they still be changing? Or could…

"B-behind you, Professor!"

"What?!"

Ike pointed and shouted. The situation had become clear. Hasebe stood

behind the Professor on the observation deck. One by one, the rest of the girls

appeared, until they'd all emerged onto the second floor. Sakura was among

them.

"Wh-what's going on? How did this happen?"

Ike slumped to the ground and buried his face in his hands, shaken by

this unbelievable turn of events. Hasebe seemed to be self-conscious about

being considered a beautiful girl. Furthermore, she seemed to dislike getting

curious looks from the boys. She was not amused at their attempts to ogle.

"Aw, but I thought I'd get to see big tits! Big tits! I thought this was

my chance!"

Ike appeared to be contemplating suicide. His wails of agony reached

Hasebe.

"Gross," the girls muttered among themselves. Ike was being far too

obvious, so it wasn't surprising that the girls hated him…

"Ike, don't be sad! Come on, there are still tons of girls out there for

us!" Yamauchi said.

"Y-yeah, that's right. You got a point. I can't get down in the dumps

now!" Ike cried.

"Bro!" Yamauchi and Ike reaffirmed their manly bond of friendship,

clasping their hands together.

"What are you two doing? That looks like fun."

"K-K-Kushida-chan?!"

Kushida showed up between the two of them. She was clad in her

school-issued swimwear, which nicely showed off her voluptuous figure. In an instant, nearly all of the boys' eyes were glued to Kushida's body. She

must have been a D or E cup. I didn't know for sure, but I estimated. She was

a lot bigger than I'd thought. Her butt and thighs were also more voluptuous

than I had pictured, which was strangely captivating. However, all of us boys

quickly averted our gaze.

Ah, the weather was so nice today… World peace truly was wonderful.

Once the inevitable physiological reaction kicked in, it was quite a

terrible shock.

"Why the pained expression?" Horikita examined my face closely, with

a suspicious look.

"I'm currently in the midst of an internal battle," I replied.

Horikita was in a school swimsuit. How to put it? Yeah. She looked

good. Not bad at all. But if I stared, it was likely that something bad would

result. I thought it best to grin and bear it until I calmed down. "......"

For some reason, Horikita was checking me out all over.

"Ayanokouji-kun, do you exercise?" she asked.

"Huh? No, not really. I'm not particularly proud of this, but in middle

school I was the kid who never had any after-school plans."

"Well, you say that, but…judging from the development of your

forearms and your back muscles, you seem above average."

"I guess my parents blessed me with good genes?"

"I don't think that's the only reason."

"Jeez, what's with you? Do you have a muscle fetish or something? Is

that it?"

"I suppose if you deny it that much, I have to believe you…"

She appeared somewhat dissatisfied. I guessed that Horikita had a

rather discerning eye and enjoyed using it.

"Are you a good swimmer, Horikita-san?"

Although Horikita gave a slightly puzzled look in response to

Kushida's question, she quietly answered. "I wouldn't say I'm particularly

good or bad at it."

"I was really bad at swimming when I was in junior high. But I gave it

my all and practiced really hard, and now I think I've gotten better," Kushida

said.

"I see." Horikita gave a disinterested response and backed away

slightly, clearly signaling that she didn't want to continue the conversation

further.

"All right, everyone, line up!"

A macho-looking middle-aged man, the kind of guy who apparently

devoted himself to sports, gathered everyone together and started the class.

He looked like a PE teacher, but also seemed like the kind of guy who was

attractive to men and women alike.

"There are sixteen of you, huh? I thought there would've been more,

but this is all right." Clearly, some of the students in that count had ditched class, but it

didn't appear to frustrate him.

"After you warm up, I want to see what you can really do. Swim for

me," the coach said.

"Excuse me, sir. I can't really swim, though…"

A lone boy sheepishly raised his hand and spoke up.

"Since you have me as your teacher, you'll be swimming by

summertime. Don't worry about a thing."

"Well, we don't really need to force ourselves to swim, do we? It's not

like we're going to the beach or anything."

"No way. I don't mind at all if you're bad at swimming now, but I'll

make sure you guys are winners in the end. Besides, being able to swim will

definitely come in handy later in life. Definitely."

Swimming would definitely come in handy? Well, I suppose knowing

how to swim would be convenient. However, hearing a teacher say

something like that made me feel uncomfortable. Though, he probably just

wanted to keep the students from sinking like rocks.

Everyone started their warm-up exercises. Ike kept peeking at the girls.

The teacher asked us to swim for about fifty meters. Students who could not

swim were allowed to touch the bottom of the pool with their feet. I hadn't

been in a pool since last summer. The water must have been temperature-

controlled, because I didn't feel chilled when I entered and adjusted right

away. After getting in, I started to swim lightly.

After fifty meters, I waited for everyone else to finish.

"He he he, that was an easy win for me. Did you all see my super

swimming skills?" Ike crowed.

He'd swum expertly, and now got out of the pool with a smug, self-

satisfied grin. No, Ike, your performance wasn't really that different from

anyone else's.

"Well, it looks like everyone can swim, for the most part."

"Of course, sir. Back in junior high, people called me 'the flying fish,'

you know." "I see. In that case, I'll have you start competing against each other.

We'll separate groups by gender. Fifty-meter freestyle."

"C-compete?! Are you serious?" Ike cried.

"I'll give out a special bonus to the first-place winner: 5000 points. The

student who comes in last place, however, will have to take supplementary

lessons. Get ready."

The skilled swimmers cheered with joy, while the less confident

students groaned.

"Because we don't have very many girls, I'll split you into two groups

of five people, and the student with the fastest overall time will be the winner.

As for the boys, I'll look at the top five finishing times and then move on to a

final round."

I'd never imagined that the school would award points as a prize.

Perhaps this was a way to light a fire under the students. Rather well thought

out, I had to say. Excluding the observers and the one student who couldn't

swim, there were sixteen boys and ten girls competing. The girls started first,

while the boys sat on the sidelines, filled with excitement as they cheered…

no, as they assessed the girls.

"Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-

chan. Haaaaaaa…"

It looked like Kushida had completely entranced Ike.

"You're scaring everyone, Ike, settle down," I mumbled.

"B-but, Kushida-chan is so goddamn cute, isn't she? And her breasts

are pretty big, too!"

Kushida immediately dominated the boys' attention. Would any of the

other girls catch up to her? If you focused on her face alone, Horikita could

definitely have been in the top tier, but because she loathed social interaction

so much, her popularity had dipped. Despite that, many of the boys thought

she looked great, so she got plenty of cheers at the starting line.

"Everyone, burn these images into your mind! Remember the fap

material you see here today!" Ike cried.

"Yeah!" everyone shouted.

Somehow, swimming had strengthened the boys' bond. The only

exception was Hirata, who seemed to avoid looking at the girls. The whistle

blew, and five of the girls dove into the water. Horikita was in the second

lane. She took the lead at the beginning of the race and kept her distance from

the others, maintaining her position at the front of the pack. She swam

confidently, effortlessly covering the fifty meters.

"Wow! Awesome, Horikita!"

Her time was approximately twenty-eight seconds. She was pretty fast.

Horikita slowly got out of the pool and went to the side, not even appearing

out of breath. To the boys, results were of secondary importance. Their eyes

were glued to the girls' jiggling butts. I stared at Horikita, too. Was it because

we were getting along? Well, she was a girl. There was something there, I

thought. Yeah.

After that came the second race. Kushida, the most popular girl, was in

the fourth lane. The boys cheered for her, smiling and waving.

"Whoo!"

Wow, those guys were really riled up. Some even tried to sneakily

cover their crotches. During our introductions, Kushida had announced that

she wanted to make friends with everyone in class. It looked like her wish

had already pretty much come true. It wasn't just the boys, either; girls were

around her constantly, too, chatting away happily. Kushida had an air that

attracted other people.

The second race began. The contest ended up being rather one-sided. A

girl named Onodera, who had been on swim teams before, won by a mile.

She finished with a time of about twenty-six seconds, netting her the win.

Kushida finished at about thirty-one seconds, which was a fairly good time,

but only resulted in her getting fourth place. I went over to the side of the

pool to talk with Horikita.

"You were so close. Second place, I mean. I guess that those guys on

the swim team were really tough, huh?"

"I don't mind whether I win or lose. Enough about me. Are you feeling

confident in yourself?" she asked.

"Oh, definitely. I just can't come in last." "That's not really something to take pride in. I thought boys were

supposed to be fixated on winning and losing."

"I don't like competing against people. I just like avoiding trouble,

after all," I said.

I'd given up on trying to get first place from the very beginning. All I

wanted was to avoid taking those supplementary lessons. I was assigned my

spot and placed in the second lane, while Sudou was in the first, right next to

me. It was impossible to even hope to match Sudou's pace, so I didn't plan to

try. I aimed to come in somewhere in the middle, just not last. With that in

mind, the race started, and we dove in.

Sudou finished the fifty-meter race with incredible speed. The boys and

girls cheered in admiration.

"Wow, you're amazing, Sudou. You finished the race in twenty-five

seconds!" they cried.

I, on the other hand, finished in thirty-six seconds. It looked like I got

tenth place. All right, no supplementary lessons for me.

"Sudou, won't you consider joining the swim team? If you practice,

you could probably win at competitions!"

"Basketball is my only sport. Swimming's just for fun." Sudou, who

hadn't even broken a sweat, calmly got out of the pool.

"Oh, wow, he has absolutely outstanding motor skills."

Ike, feeling envious, elbowed Sudou.

"Kya!"

A girl let out a joyful scream as Hirata took his starting position.

Whereas Sudou's body had attracted the boys' admiration, Hirata's body

attracted the girls. He was slender, but also well built. You could say he was

a macho pretty boy. After hearing the girls' delighted squeals for Hirata, Ike

spat in response. Sudou didn't seem very amused either, and shot Hirata a

glare.

"I'm going to blow you out of the water. I'll use all of my power," he

growled.

Didn't he say that he swam just for fun? After the teacher blew the whistle, Hirata dove into the pool with

beautiful form. Every time Hirata's arms cut through the water, the girls

cheered by the side of the pool. His form was effortlessly cool.

"He's surprisingly fast," Sudou commented. It was certainly true that

Hirata swam fast. There was no doubt that he'd shot ahead of the four other

boys who were competing with him. This, of course, prompted more shrieks

from the girls. Hirata didn't fail to live up to our expectations: He came in

first place. Deafening cheers reverberated throughout the room.

"Sensei, what was his time?" asked Ike, impatiently.

"Hirata's time was…26.13 seconds."

"All right. You can do it, Sudou. You can definitely win against him!

Bring down the hammer of justice!"

"Leave it to me. I'll demolish him and his popularity…"

Ike's encouragement had Sudou all fired up, but even if Hirata lost, it

wasn't likely that his popularity would drop.

"Hirata-kun, you were so cool! You're not just good at soccer, you're

really good at swimming!" one girl cried.

"You think so? Thank you!" he said.

"Hey, why are you ogling Hirata-kun like that?" another girl said.

"Huh? I'm 'ogling'?!"

There was an indignant squeal.

Hirata's immense popularity was unbelievably frustrating.

"Come on, girls, knock it off. Please don't fight over me. I belong to

everyone. I want to be everyone's friend. Besides, what if someone who's

better at swimming comes along?"

Kouenji mistakenly seemed to assume that the cheers were for him. He

put on a refreshing smile and then planted his feet by the starting line.

"Hey. Uh, why is Kouenji wearing a speedo?"

"Wh-what?"

Although the school allowed such tight swimwear, Kouenji was the

only one in our class wearing it. The briefs drew attention to his crotch, and the girls all looked away. However, in the third race, all eyes were on

Kouenji. The stance he took at the starting line was just like an athlete's. His

posture wasn't the only impressive thing, either. He looked to be in even

better physical shape than Sudou. Sudou and all of the other boys in class

held their breath as they attentively focused on Kouenji.

"I'm not particularly interested in winning or losing…but I don't like

losing," said Sudou, to no one in particular.

As the whistle blew, Kouenji dove into the pool with textbook form.

"Whoa! Wow!"

Sudou gave a surprised shout in response to Kouenji's unexpectedly

aggressive swimming. Hirata also stared in apparent amazement. Kouenji

splashed fiercely as he swam, but it didn't slow his incredible speed. He was

unquestionably faster than Sudou. After checking the time, the teacher

reflexively looked at his stopwatch twice.

"23.22 seconds."

"My abdominal muscles, back muscles, and psoas major muscle seem

to be in good shape, as usual. Not a bad performance," Kouenji said.

After getting out of the pool, he smirked and swept his hair up. He

wasn't short of breath at all. It was as if he hadn't even swum in the first

place.

"I'm fired up!" Sudou didn't want to lose, so his competitive spirit

flared. To be honest, Sudou was the only one who had any chance of winning

against Kouenji. The final round was more like a one-on-one match between

the two of them.

"I'm really looking forward to this. Both Kouejin-kun and Sudou-kun

are so fast," Kushida said.

"A-ah, yeah."

Standing beside a swimsuit-clad beauty, I'd entered a state of

emergency, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Hmm? What's the matter? Your face looks red for some reason. Are

you not feeling well, by chance?" she asked.

"Oh, no, no, that's not it at all…"

"Well, even so, something seems unusual. Why do we have swimming

classes in April, anyway?"

"Because we have such an incredible indoor pool. Oh, yeah, that

reminds me… You were pretty fast, Kushida. I can't believe that you weren't

very good at swimming in junior high."

"You're much faster than average, too, Ayanokouji-kun."

"Nah, I'm pretty average. I don't really like to exercise."

"Is that so? But you look like a really manly guy, Ayanokouji-kun.

Even though you're so slim, I could say that you're even better built than

Sudou, and he plays basketball."

Kushida examined my body in shock and awe, as if she were thinking

"Really? Really?" I was ten times more nervous now than when Horikita had

stared at me.

"I was just born naturally muscular. There's no special reason behind

it. To tell you the truth, I'm not in any clubs."

The conversation revolved around good health. I felt somewhat

nervous, but strangely satisfied as well. We continued in this way for a while;

I'd wanted to talk with Kushida alone.

"Wow, Kouenji is amazing. I thought that Sudou would have won in a

landslide… What the heck is going on, Ayanokouji?" Ike asked.

It looked like Kouenji had beaten Sudou by about a five-meter lead in

the final round. After he'd finished observing the race, Ike zeroed in on me,

his face like a demon's.

"Uh, nothing really. I didn't do anything," I replied.

"That's not what I'm talking about!"

He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and whispered in my ear.

"I'm aiming for Kushida-chan. Don't get in the way!"

I didn't exactly plan to get in the way, but his goal was slightly

unrealistic. I didn't think Kushida was the type who'd stoop to being with

someone like Ike. Of course, I didn't think she'd get with me, either.