Of Interest
Youta's first day as a sports manager turned out to be a disaster. Not only did he fail to achieve his mission with Fuwaka. The boy ended up soaked from her apparent joke of pushing him into the pool, which nearly caused him to drown.
To say he was upset would be an understatement. Worst of all, he was unable to tell Mitora about the supposedly great news as a result of how busy he ended up. Not to mention that day was a field meet anyway, so she also ended up being unable to find the time. Not to mention that when she arrived home, that girl ended up plopping herself right to be from exhaustion.
When she asked about it the following morning, most of the allure for him had already gone away. However Youta did want to make it a somewhat special announcement. So he told her he would tell her about it sometime after school, preferable during her practice today. Which would have a reduced load so they could recover from their hard work yesterday.
Until then, he'd need to figure out a new way in solving this problem presented before him. While he may have thought the issue to be dumb, this didn't mean he'd give up when he barely got started. So during his break period, Youta pulled out a book to read intently.
"What's that you're reading?" In a surprise twist, it was Fuwaka who approached him at his desk.
"Why do you care?" He responded coldly. While he had to continue working with her, the boy still held a bit of a grudge about her actions yesterday. "We'll talk later, so it's not like I'm not going to see you again."
"It's just that it looks like… Whoa it is!" She expressed herself in a manner he had yet seen. "You're reading 'The Way of Water'?" He had picked up the book from the library earlier in the morning. It was a book which claimed to discuss how to swim in an effective manner for anyone ranging from experts all the way down to those who were unable to swim.
"If I'm going to continue to work with you. I'd like to not have my life in danger from being in such close proximity to the pool." He replied. While Youta knew she wouldn't pull that stunt again. The surface they walked on was always wet. It wouldn't take much for him to slip and fall once again into danger.
"Not sure how that's going to help you though." She took the chair from the empty desk in front of him to sit instead of leave. "It's just a book. If you want to learn how to swim, then you gotta do it yourself."
"You make a good point, but I don't have anyone to teach me. And I'd rather not be in water all by myself until I'm more confident I don't meet with a water grave." Youta continued to talk while his face was buried into the book. Despite her talking, he wasn't distracted in the slightest when trying to absorb the information.
"Are you forgetting that you do know a swimmer?" She spoke, pointing to herself. "I'd love to teach you and it'd be cool to see another new swimmer."
"Don't forget I'm still only a sports manager." He grew tired of all the attempts of making him become an athlete. "At this rate, not for long though." Youta mutter under his breath. This girl had given him a tough challenge that was much more difficult than he'd imagine. How could someone like him have her give more effort in both the classroom and for her social status?
"Dude, swimming's awesome." She continued to pester him, as if for once she actually wanted something in her life. "That book's great, I read it all the time, but it's not like swimming for real."
"You read?" From her studies were described by Mikimasa, he always assumed she'd never do anything that resembled academic work. As the book he read wasn't just some self-help book written by a random celebrity or athlete. It focused heavily on the scientific ideas behind swimming, hence why he chose it when he saw it in the library over all the other books revolving around the activity.
"Of course, I know everything this thing has to say." She pushed a finger on top of the book to press it down so they could look each other in the eyes. "Like keeping my toes pointed to reduce drag or streamlining during starts and turns to keep up maximum speeds."
"Huh, you really have read this a lot." He had skimmed to the end to see what were useful for advanced swimmers. Though even Youta didn't understand the deeper principles like she apparently did as she would then go into a brief explanation of the things she just said.
"...Isn't it so crazy how things work?" She said after she had finished her long winded talk.
"Wow… You're really into this." He was at a loss for words. Where was this girl when he needed her to be talkative to other people? It was as if she had been replaced with a twin who had a completely different personality.
"I love cutting through the water." She took shocked response as if it were another excuse to talk about swimming and activities related to it. "We're always talking about pushing through to get faster, but like you gotta get into the flow of things. It's not like other sports. We're not pushing harder, we're trying to figure out how to make it easier."
"That's pretty interesting." He had never given much thought on what it took to be a swimmer. Obviously as one who had no knowledge of swimming, he also normally didn't have any care for it before. "So how do you figure these things out in the water?"
"Whoa." She didn't answer his question and instead said something else which gave him a hint on how to handle her. "No one's ever really asked me more about swimming before."
"What?" This naturally made no sense to him. "But you're on a swim team. Surely they all care."
"But they don't really care about all those small details." She sighed, leaning onto his desk. "It's just about training to get strong, faster, but I don't even care about winning either. It's just fun to be able to get into the water and swim."
"So this is why you don't have any friends…" He whispered this to himself, understanding the position she found herself in. Fuwaka was not as competitive as the other swimmers, yet was far from casual for those who didn't swim like those on the team.
"Really? What's got you changing your mind?" She took note that it had only took a few minutes of talking for him to be singing a different tune. There had to be come kind of catch from him relenting.
"It's nice when someone shares an interest with you, right?" He said, playing coy. "I've never seen you like this before, but you're actually talking like a normal person now."
"Huh, I didn't even notice." She paused to think about her actions during their conversation. "Cool." Though it wasn't as if she had made some complete transformation. Not that he needed or wanted her to. As now it became a little more obvious she needed some motivation on going outside of her comfort zone.
"But don't you want to know more about me though?" He went for the kill shot. "I'm taking the time to figure out all the things you like. Wouldn't it be fair if you learned a few things about myself?"
"I don't know if I'm interested in the same things as you." She was hesitant on the idea, which meant he needed to use his only weapon on her.
"Then maybe I'll just learn how to swim with someone else. I'm sure the coach could give me a few pointers."
"Wait no!" It worked as she grabbed his arm. "You gotta learn from me. You already read that book, so I can even teach you all the advanced stuff."
"I doubt I need to learn the advanced stuff." Even though he wanted to get closer to her. There was no need for him to become a competitive swimmer either. "But from now on, we need to be fair to each other. After all, I'm the sports manager for a reason. So if I'm going to be taking the time to get to know you, then you better get to know me too."
"Aye aye." She gave him a salute to give affirmation to his offer. "Can't let a catch like you off the hook." He sighed from her terrible fishing analogy, hoping this wouldn't become a fixture in their relationship. "You got a swimsuit?"
"Well, obviously not." He hadn't needed to take swimming lessons, so there was no reason for him to own a swimsuit as part of his wardrobe, let alone have one with him in this moment.
"Guess you can just borrow my spare swimsuit then."
"I'll just ask your coach if they got extras!" There was no way he'd ever consider wearing a girl's swimsuit. That'd be insane.