In One Ear, Out the Other

Youta went through the rest of the school day as quickly as humanly possible, which was the same rate as everyone else, while also dealing with the sense of dread as his mind ran through all the potential ways for him to mess up. Unfortunately he struggled to come up with any outcomes that were beneficial to him as neither that girl nor his teacher gave him any direction to work with.

Once the bell rang signaling the end of the school day. He immediately gathered his things and headed straight for the pool. It annoyed him that he already had the task of working with someone. As the boy hoped to give Mitora the good news on his new position at this time. Well, at least he could tell her when they both got home.

Quickly, Youta made his way to the pool, where he stood with arms crossed by it waiting for her to arrive. While he did get here early, he was also aware that she'd have her own responsibilities with the team. So it would be important to get things squared away before that got in the way.

Which meant he believed he'd have to wait for her to get changed first to meet with him. Thus it came as a surprise when Fuwaka arrived right where he told her to meet him while still in her school uniform.

"So, what'd you need?" She said as he looked at her awestruck. "You here to give me tips for my breaststroke?"

"It has nothing to do with your performance." He answered, arms crossed. "Not like I could teach you anything anyway…" The boy muttered the latter point under his breath. Even though his teacher believed he could relate to them due to age, Youta knew he couldn't relate to them when it came to the love of their respective fields. "It's about some other stuff, but I don't want to interfere in your swim practice. You should get changed before we really get to work."

He expected her to walk away to the locker rooms without saying anything as he had gotten to a point of understanding her a tiny bit. So it came as a surprise when she instead suddenly began unbuttoning her top to strip out of her uniform. "Wh-what are you doing!?" Quickly, Youta averted his gaze and put his hands between them as he scolded the girl. "There's people here, I'm still here."

"But, it's just my swimsuit under here." She answered confused, as if he were the crazy one. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see her in a state of dressing down, but she was being honest when saying it was only her school issued swimsuit underneath.

"Wait, you're always wearing your swimsuit in class?" He asked, realizing now what her daily outfit now consisted of.

"It's so convenient, isn't it?" She smiled, clearly proud of herself for having what he viewed to be an idiotic system. "So you can tell me what you want me to do." Fuwaka continued on taking off her clothes. Her skirt fell to the damp floor with no care for its cleanliness. "You keep telling me you need something, but every time I ask, you say you'll tell me later. I gotta say, you really know how to keep a girl waiting."

"Like I said before, I'm the school's new sports manager." He finally got around to giving her a proper answer on his job and how things will work from now on. Though Youta also had little idea on what his mission entailed, so he was light on the details.

"And I'm the first one to get a manager? Cool." Even with him not saying much, it seemed she hardly listened to a word he said.

"Not sure if that's how I'd describe it." With his teacher referring to these students as "troubled", it seemed being in need of his services meant one was not in a good place. "Look, when it comes to you-" Youta was about to tell her what her issues were, but Fuwaka seemingly acted as if their conversation was over as she leaped into the pool's cool waters. There was a big splash, getting plenty of liquid all over his clothes.

"Whoo! The water's great." For the first time since they started talking, he heard her express some proper emotions.

"Did you forget something?" However he didn't notice this minor fact as his agitation on her lack of proper etiquette took precedent. It was no wonder she didn't have any friends. However, he did realize something else strange about this encounter. That would be the surprising lack of a coach showing up to wonder what was going on between them.

Youta turned his head towards the only adult in the room, which indicated their coach status. They in turn looked back at him and gave the boy a thumbs up without saying anything. This indicated his presence and somehow the actions occurring in front of him were acceptable. It seemed Mikimasa wasn't kidding about the other teachers complaining of needing help with some of their students. So they really wanted him to do this job for them.

"I'm just doing what I'm always doing." She answered him, grabbing the spare swimmer's cap to contain her hair as she swam. "Just go ahead and manage me, I'm not going to say no."

"You won't?" He had his suspicions, but there was nothing else he could do but try. "Okay, is there anyone here you would call a friend?"

"Not really." She answered rather bluntly. Youta would've figured one would try to be a bit more coy about such a fact. Yet she didn't have a hint of shame in her body.

"Okay… Then go talk to someone."

"Huh?" His order got her to suddenly stop her swimming to now properly respond to him. "Why?"

"Look, it sounds cringy when I say it, but I have a mission to get you to be more sociable." He explained to her. "That's not all, but I'll just start with that for now." Again, he murmured to himself about her situation. Why this girl had to be so difficult was beyond him. They were all high schoolers, this shouldn't be stuff they needed to learn or deal with anymore at this age. "I don't care who, just go talk to someone."

"Okay." As promised, she didn't put up a fight and climbed out of the pool. Her soaking body dripped water as she walked towards the group of her fellow swimmers. Youta didn't follow closely, but stuck near enough to be able to hear her. "Hey." She spoke simply to a random person.

"Oh, hey Fuwaka." The other girl responded to her as if this was a normal conversation. Without being told what she was, Youta wouldn't believe she had a negative relationship with anyone. "You need something?"

'Nah, just wanted to talk." She replied honestly, though it turned out to be the worst policy in this case.

"Okay, see you later then."

"Bye." Their conversation ended before it truly got off the ground as Fuwaka returned to him. "Okay, I did what you said." She announced as if she made an accomplishment.

"That's it?" He was awestruck on how short that conversation went. "I'm trying to get you to make friends and that's all you have to say?"

"Make friends? I thought you just said sociable." She had truly heard his words and tried to make the bare minimum from it. "I'm not really good with friendship and stuff."

"Why not?" Instead of forcing her to interact with people, he decided a different direction needed to be taken.

"Nobody seems interested in talking to me." She answered as they returned to their own spot by the pool. "I talk about things I like and they just zone out. But, I also do that whenever they're talking about hanging outside of school and karaoke and whatever else you guys like. It's not like we hate each other, but I just leave everyone alone and everyone just leaves me alone. I don't see the problem there."

"Clearly there is or I wouldn't be here." Despite agreeing with her to some extent, Youta knew that wouldn't win him any favors and would also fail his mission. Not to mention it wasn't the only reason for why he had been assigned to her. "You're too distant from everyone and I need to figure out a way to at least close that gap." He hung his head down in disappointment, realizing the challenge ahead of him.

"Man, you really need to loosen up." She had a grin he didn't see as the boy had left his guard down. Taking advantage of this, she quickly put herself behind him and shoved the boy into the pool.

"Ahh!" He screamed as he found himself in a short fall before being submerged in water. "Why did you… Do that!?" Youta struggled to speak as she thrashed about. Water splashed all over as she giggled from the sight. "I can't… Swi…" He couldn't keep himself afloat in his panic as the boy sunk like a rock under the surface.

"Huh, if I didn't know better. It looks like you can't swim." She said with a smile. However he didn't return to the surface as she watched his body go deeper into the pool with bubbles coming up. "Oh… You can't."

Her smile slowly was erased as she came to the realization of the situation before her. Fuwaka quickly dove into the water. Where she managed to reach him in no time and pulled the boy back up for air.

"Ugh…" He gasped upon being saved as she moved them to the edge for a hard surface to grip on.

"Sorry about that." She spoke as if he hadn't just faced a potential drowning. "Didn't see that one coming."

"Can't say I did either…" He responded, not in reference to her attempted prank, but rather in realizing just what he had gotten himself into when signing up as a sports manager.