Chapter five, 2016, falling in love: 5

'It's a circus!' Kyoko had heard how bad the classrooms in the left wing could be. Had experienced it first hand as well. But this was a circus.

The pool was divided in two halves. Those who wanted to be seen and those who didn't. Kyoko kept with the latter and so did Nori-chan. And to her surprise, so did Kuri-chan even if she had walked over to the other end to gaze along the left wing building. Something, or rather someone hadn't been there to be seen and she came back.

There was something downtrodden about her when she returned.

'I see. All that talk about love and heart, but this is what the real you looks like when you're in love. I wonder what I look like.'

Bad, bad idea. Kyoko could feel colour rising in her face. She slid into the pool and submerged. When she came back up again both Kuri-chan and Nori-chan were in the water. Nori-chan had apparent problems swimming and received help from their PE-teacher but Kuri-chan stretched out in a lazy and eye-catching medley. Most of the boys were whistling and shouting and even a few of the girls stared in admiration.

'Of course she moves like a goddess in the water as well. She's not human that girl. She didn't swim that well last winter when we trained together.'

Kuri-chan wasn't just good-looking. She ate the lengths with a speed that would have made her an interesting recruit for the swim team.

What was is she had said? "Two clicks three times per week keeps you in shape." 'Clicks?' Kyoko watched Kuri-chan eat away another 25 metres. 'Oh, kilometres!' Yu-kun had said something about that when referring to one of his games. 'She swims two kilometres at a time? Three times per week? She can have that body.'

Kyoko climbed out of the pool and sat down beside it. Drying in the sun felt good but it quickly got hot.

She saw most of the boys leering while pretending not to, and to balance it out most of the girls were giggling and pointing while pretending not to. If Nori-chan hadn't been so busy in the pool she'd offered half a dozen scathing remarks by now.

Then there was some commotion a bit away. The boys were shouting louder than usual.

And there he was, the cannonball prince. Water splattered all over the poolside when he landed and Kyoko had to make a hasty retreat.

'Ryu-kun! Grow up sometime!'

She moved into the shade under the roof. The sun was baking them and it was uncomfortably hot despite her being so close to the pool. Maybe she should have let him soak her.

"I'm the bomb! I'm the bombest of bombs!"

No wonder Nori-chan calls him her idiot brother. 'How can someone that childish be so popular?'

Or maybe it was because he was so childish. He radiated a carefree lack of worries and for some people maybe that was the very reason they were attracted to him. Kyoko couldn't tell. She was part of the gang around Kuri-chan and as such hadn't understood that she was supposed to have a crush on Ryu-kun.

She walked poolside and slid into the water. Her eyes sought in vain for her minds wishes.

Her interests lay elsewhere and elsewhere wasn't here. He was back in his classroom in the wing turned circus. 6:1, the second source of rumours. The monopoly held by 3:1 had been thoroughly broken even if nowhere close to overtaken. Ryu-kun was still Ryu-kun and Kuri-chan was still Kuri-chan. Nothing would change that. Not even Urufu-kun.

'You are,' she guessed, 'mostly famous for being Kuri-chan's unexpected boyfriend. Good!' The last remnants of bullying had ceased when she chose the geek over the prince. 'Geek, right! They were perfect for each other from the start. They just didn't know it.'

On second thought Kyoko suspected that the tall, Japanese looking Swede had no interest in being the centre of rumours. On third thought she wasn't all that certain.