"Kou-san!" A girl with long, wavy dark hair ran up to Matsuoka Gou at lunchtime, her face pleading. "I have a favor to ask you!"
"A favor?" Gou had been on her way to eat with her friends and she paused and turned to the girl. "Oh, Akira-san. What kind of favor?"
"I need to learn how to swim!" The surprised look on Gou's face seemed to startle the girl, who clasped her hands together. "You're on the swim team, right? Can you teach me?"
"Sorry, but I'm not a swimmer," Gou said, shaking her head. The girl's face fell and Gou immediately felt sorry for her. "If you're really that interested in learning, I'm sure I can get one of the other members to teach you. Bring your swimsuit tomorrow and-"
"It's in my bag," Akira said, unzipping her bag. She started rummaging around and Gou put a hand on her wrist.
"You don't have to show me right here," she said with a sigh. "All right, then. Meet me at the pool house this afternoon and we'll go from there. You'll have to let them get on with practice around you, though. They're still training."
"Thank you!" Akira bowed. "Thank you so much!" She watched Gou walk down the hall, then slipped a pair of headphones into her ears, smiled and walked in the opposite direction.
000
After school, Akira went directly to the pool house, her heart thumping in her chest. She had seen the boys from the swim club through the window plenty of times but actually meeting them was something else. She had no idea whether they were going to be nice to her or think she was wasting their time.
Akira wasn't waiting long before another student came walking up and she straightened up, clutching her book bag in both hands. The boy was intently reading an English drill book and didn't seem to see her until he was standing right in front of her. He had a familiar face and Akira remembered him from her class. She pulled her headphones off immediately.
"Oh," he said when he saw her. "Are you lost?"
"Not exactly," Akira said. "I'm Fujitaka Akira," she said, bowing to the boy with the glasses. "Nice to meet you."
"Pleased to meet you," the boy said. "I'm-"
"Ryugazaki Rei," Akira finished for him with a smile. "We've never met but I'm in your class."
"You are?"
"I sit in the back," she said with a shrug, still smiling. "You're the smartest one in our class and I'm pretty average, so I'm not surprised you don't know me."
"I suppose that makes-"
"Congratulations!" Hazuki Nagisa popped out of nowhere with a grin and a penguin charm dangling from his finger. "You're the first female member of the Iwatobi Swim Club! Here's an Iwatobi-chan charm for you!"
"N-no," Akira said, her hands in front of her chest. "I'm not joining the team. I'm just meeting Kou-san here."
"Kou?" Nagisa looked at her in surprise. "Oh! You mean Gou-chan!"
"It's KOU," Gou said, dropping her book bag on Nagisa's head. "At least someone around here can get it right. And this is Akira-san. She'll be joining us today for practice."
"Akira?" Nagisa's face lit up. "Are you sure you don't want to join? You'd fit right in!"
"How is that?"
"Your name is kind of a boy's name, just like Gou-chan's! See, all of us guys have really girly names, so it's only natural that female members should have boyish names."
"How is that natural?" Gou smacked a laughing Nagisa with her bag. Two other guys came up and looked from Gou and Nagisa to Akira, who raised a hand and waved nervously.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi," replied the taller of the two. "Are you here to join?"
"No, I-"
"Akira-san is here to learn how to swim," Gou said, much to Akira's relief. "I told her you guys could give her some pointers." She pointed to Nagisa. "That's Hazuki Nagisa." She pointed at each of the other boys in turn. "That's Nanase Haruka, Ryugazaki Rei, and Tachibana Makoto."
"I'm Fujitaka Akira," she said, bowing to them. "Thank you for helping me!"
"It's no problem," Makoto said cheerfully. "Swimming is why we're all here, right?" He motioned for her to follow them into the pool house. "Why don't you get changed and meet us outside by the pool?"
"All right." Akira followed Gou into the unused girls' changing room while the boys went over to their side. "Are you sure this is all right?"
"Sure, it's no problem."
Five minutes later, Akira took a deep breath and stepped out of the pool house. She wore a black racing swimsuit with bright red and orange stripes in a criss-cross pattern, a black swim cap, and had a pair of goggles in her hand. The boys were all in their swimsuits, all of which were black with varying colored accents in different lengths. Akira didn't look out of place with them but there was something underneath the determined look she wore. Before anyone could try and figure it out, Nagisa spoke up.
"You look great! Like a real pro," Nagisa said. He turned to Haruka. "Doesn't she look good?"
"It's a nice suit," Haruka said with a nod. "It looks brand new."
"It is," Akira said, holding up her goggles and tugging at her swim cap. "I bought all this stuff last weekend."
"That must have cost a lot," Rei said. "My suit was pretty expensive, and I had to get the prescription goggles. You're dedicated."
"Something like that," Akira said with a smile.
"Well, if you want to learn to swim," Rei went on, "You're in the right place. Speaking as someone who couldn't swim when I first joined the team, I can personally assure you that it can be done. These guys are great."
"Let's go ahead and get in the water," Haruka said, diving in even as he spoke. While he swam a lap to warm up, the others got in the pool. The only exception was Akira, who stood behind the starting block looking worried. Nagisa popped out of the water, grinning at her and motioning for her to come in and join them.
"Come on in! It's a great temperature!" When Akira hesitated, he hoisted himself out and went over to her. "Here we go," he said, pushing her forward.
"I-I'm not ready," Akira said, trying to push back against him. Unfortunately, Nagisa was surprisingly strong and he got her to the edge of the pool with little effort.
"Gotta start somewhere!" Laughing playfully, he pushed Akira into the pool. She had barely hit the water before she was scrabbling at the side of the pool and sinking. The pool wasn't terribly deep but she somehow managed to find her way to the bottom, where she lay like a stone.
"Uh-oh," Haruka said, looking down at her.
"I'll get her," Makoto said, ducking under the water to fish her out.
The next thing she knew, Akira was coughing up water on the concrete with Makoto thumping her lightly on the back. She pulled off her swim cap and a messy, wet braid fell over her shoulder. The others were standing over her and she shook her head.
"I'm sorry," she said, staring at the ground.
"That's okay," Makoto said, giving her his usual kind smile. "You should have just said you weren't quite ready."
"It's not just that," Akira said, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I'm afraid of the water."
"Afraid of water?" Haruka looked surprised, as if he would never have considered that someone could have such a phobia.
"When I was a kid I liked the water. I went to have swimming lessons with a bunch of other kids and it was fun. Then one day they took us into the deeper end of the pool. I was kind of dog-paddling around and one of the other kids panicked." She hugged her knees tighter. "He grabbed me and pulled me under with him. The lifeguard pulled him out but they sort of forgot about me."
"That's terrible," Nagisa said, sitting down beside her. "But they got you in the end, right?"
"Yeah," Akira said. "But I almost drowned. And ever since then I've been too scared to even go in the water." She leaned her forehead against her knees. "I thought maybe if I went slowly I'd be able to handle it. I guess I'll never be able to learn to swim."
"That's not true," Gou said, holding up a finger. "You can learn how to do the backstroke! You don't have to put your face in the water so you might be able to do that. And we just happen to have a real backstroke expert here who can help you!" She turned her finger so she was pointing at Makoto. "Our captain!"
Everyone, including Akira, looked to Makoto. His eyes widened slightly under their gaze, then he smiled placidly at her. "Sure," he said. "I'll teach you from the beginning so you're sure to have the right form." He had intended this to be a joke but Akira grinned at him and jumped up.
"Thank you," she said. "Thank you so much! What do I do first?"
"Just rest for today and watch us," Makoto said, standing up. "See what you can pick up by watching. Tomorrow we'll start for sure."
"Oh. Okay then."
The other boys got up and dove back into the pool one by one while Akira sat on the starting block and watched them longingly. Gou came up beside her and smiled.
"Don't worry, you'll get it."
"I hope so." Akira watched Makoto swim easily through the water on his back, his arms pulling him forward. "I really hope so."
000
After practice, Haruka and Makoto said goodbye to the others and walked home together as usual. Makoto had told Akira to meet them tomorrow and they'd start with something easy. She'd seemed grateful and excited as the same time and Makoto had no problem believing that he would see her again.
"That was an interesting practice," he said. "Even Rei didn't almost drown."
"You don't mind teaching her?" Haruka took off his shoes and stepped into his house. Makoto followed him after doing the same. They went into the living room and put down their bags, then Makoto sat on the floor at the table while Haruka went and got them drinks from the kitchen.
"Not at all. She seems like a nice girl and it's not hard to teach someone to backstroke. Besides, didn't you see how interested she was when she was watching us swim?"
"Yeah." Haruka sat one bottle in front of Makoto, then sat across from him and opened his own.
"She wants to swim, so why not teach her? Besides, I can always just show her something to try and then swim while she practices." Makoto opened his bottle and took a drink. "Remember when we were kids and we used to watch the bigger kids swim? I remember thinking that they looked so cool I would practice every day if it meant I could be like them."
"Hmm."
"I know, I know," Makoto said with a shrug and a smile. "You just jumped right in and started swimming. That's how I knew it was safe to follow." Haruka looked at him and smiled back, a rare thing for him even around his best friend.
"Are you staying for dinner?"
"Depends on what we're having," Makoto asked, even though he was sure what the answer would be.
"Grilled mackerel," Haruka said without hesitation. "With pineapple."
"I figured," sighed Makoto. "And what's with the pineapple?"
"It's good. After I had it on the island it became my favorite." The look on Haruka's face was impassive as usual and Makoto knew there was no convincing him otherwise. For a moment he considered inviting Haruka to his house for dinner but he didn't know what his mother had planned for dinner. If he stayed with Haruka he could always take the leftovers for lunch the next day.
"All right," Makoto said. "But I'll skip the pineapple."
000
"Okay, first we're going to start with floating," Makoto said the next day. True to her word, Akira had been standing in front of the pool house with her earphones on before any of the others had arrrived, even Gou and Rei. He had intended to walk her to the pool but she'd disappeared before he'd even put his books in his backpack.
She'd changed into her suit in record time and was waiting beside the starting blocks. After some hesitant steps, she'd stepped into the water after holding her breath. As promised, it wasn't deep but she was short so the water came up just under her shoulders.
"I'll help you out at first," he went on. "Pretty much everyone can float. Just lean back into the water and relax." Akira looked at him as if he was crazy and Makoto smiled. "Okay, maybe just walk back and forth down the lane first."
"Sorry about this," Akira said quietly. "I know you've got better things to do than teach me how to float." Makoto shook his head.
"You know what they say," he said. "When you tutor someone you learn more than if you just studied on your own."
"I guess that's true," Akira said. She looked up the empty lane, then at the other boys, who were swimming in their own styles. "Maybe I will try floating."
"Here, I'll help you." Makoto put a hand on her back. "Just lean back and I'll help you." Too nervous to speak, Akira held her breath and leaned backward with her eyes closed. She felt Makoto's hands propping her up in the water and his support made her feel a little more at ease. She opened one eye, then the other to find him smiling over her. "You can breathe, you know." Akira shook her head. "You can't hold your breath forever."
A surprising length of time later Akira finally drew in a long gasp of breath and pushed herself back up until she was standing. Makoto gave her an encouraging look.
"That was good. Now we'll let you try it on your own."
"Are you sure?"
"We can take it as slow as you want," Makoto said. Akira shook her head and started to lean back again. "You ready?"
"Yeah. I have to learn how to swim by next Friday."
"That soon?" Makoto looked surprised and Akira nodded as he helped her lean back.
"It's, well, this is going to sound really stupid," she said. "You see, I play online games pretty much all the time," Akira said as she floated with Makoto's hands just beneath her. "And I met this guy on there, and we got really friendly. We agreed to meet but I realized I didn't have anything to talk about with him. He really likes swimming, though, so I thought if I learned how it might give us something to talk about."
"You could talk about gaming too," Makoto said helpfully.
"If I wanted to talk about the game, I would have just stayed online. I mean, I guess we could talk about RPGs or dating sims, but I don't think he plays those very much. Or at all. I don't really know much about him." Akira started to sink and Makoto pushed her back to the surface. Rather than floating, she stood up in front of Makoto. "You probably think I'm pretty stupid to be going on a date with a guy I don't know."
"Not really," Makoto said. "A lot of people meet that way. I play games sometimes with Haru," he said, pointing at himself. "Just fighting games and stuff like that, and sometimes my little brother and sister play with us. There was this time we played an RPG that was a two-player one. It was a lot of fun." He put a hand on her back lightly and she found herself blushing. "Let's try floating again. I think you can do it without my help if you want."
"O-okay," Akira replied, her dark eyes darting away from his face quickly. "Do you think I'll be able to learn in just ten days?"
"Definitely," Rei said, stopping in the lane beside them and pulling his goggles off his eyes. "It only took me a week, and I sank every time I tried. Just relax and don't worry about it."
"Thank you." This seemed to be just the advice Akira needed and she nodded. Before Makoto could help her this time, she fell back into the water and bobbed up with her face just above the water. Impressed with her determination, Rei waited for a long moment until she started breathing again to start swimming.
000
"I can't believe it's been a week already," Nagisa said as he sat beside Rei on the train on their way home. "Akira-chan is doing really wall."
"It's interesting to see her learning style," Rei replied. "Half the time she seems terrified, the other half she can't wait to get in the water. At least she's making swimming motions now."
"Maybe we should encourage her to work out or something. Maybe if she gets stronger she'll be better at swimming and get confident!" The train jostled them sideways and Nagisa looked up at the roof of the car. "Do you think we should give her a shirt?"
"You already gave her one of your charms, didn't you? There's only so much Iwatobi-chan a person can stand. Besides, she's not a member of the swim team." The train approached their station and Rei stood up.
"Maybe if she learns more, we could get her to join," Nagisa said thoughtfully. "If she gets good and decides to join she could get other girls to join too and we'd have a boys' and a girls' team. The more people we get, the better our club will look, right?"
Rei didn't answer right away and Nagisa looked at him curiously as they got off the train and started toward the end of the sidewalk where they usually separated. Today, however, Nagisa followed him and Rei turned to him.
"Where are you going? Your house is that way."
"What's wrong, Rei-chan? I thought you were glad Akira-chan is learning to swim." There was no answer and Nagisa leaned over into his line of sight. "You were encouraging her, I saw you."
"I'm perfectly happy for her," Rei said, looking straight ahead. "She's almost finished, right?"
"You're jealous!"
"Jealous?" Rei stopped short and stared at Nagisa, who was suddenly grinning. "What on Earth have I got to be jealous of her about?"
"You're used to being the new guy and she's learning almost faster than you did. You don't want to share," Nagisa said sagely, folding his arms over his chest. "You just want the swim club to be us guys forever, right?"
"Of course not," Rei said. "I know we need more members for the school to keep taking us seriously but I honestly don't think she's right for it. If we're thinking about starting a girls' team, we should begin with girls who are able to swim more than a couple of shaky laps." He pushed his glasses up further on his nose. "There's no way she could lead a team."
"So jealous."
"I am not!"
000
At last, the moment of truth had arrived. Gou and the four members of the Iwatobi Swim Team stood in front of Akira, who nodded decisively and settled her goggles on her face. Then she marched over to the pool and got onto the starting block. Nagisa clenched his fists excitedly.
"Akira-chan, are you going to dive?"
"Yes," she said, bending over the same way she had seen the others do during practice. The swim team held their collective breath for her, only to let it out seconds later when she got off the starting block and shook her head. "Nope."
"Maybe next time," Makoto said with a shrug. Akira didn't look back at them. Instead she slid into the water, turned around, took a breath and began to swim.
Her backstroke was still shaky and her arms weren't strong enough to keep up the pace she'd started with, but she made it down the lane and back. It was obvious that she was nervous at first but though her pace faltered, her form was true to what Makoto had taught her. Gradually she became aware that someone was cheering for her and she kept swimming, smiling even though she couldn't hear what Nagisa was saying. When she finished her fifth lap, Akira slapped the wall and stood up. Nagisa jumped up and down, then ran over to the side of the pool and squatted down in front of her.
"Akira-chan, you did it!"
"I did, didn't I?" Akira pushed her goggles onto the top of her head and smiled. "I didn't think I'd be able to do it."
"You did great," Makoto said, offering a hand to help her out of the pool. Akira took it gratefully and let him pull her up. He was stronger than she'd expected and she stumbled forward into his chest. "Whoa, careful," he said, steadying her.
"S-sorry," Akira apologized, fighting to keep herself from blushing. She had no idea why it was happening, especially with Makoto. He was nothing like Kyosuke, the guy she would be meeting for their date on Sunday. "Thank you for all your help, Senpai."
"Don't mention it," he said. Nagisa had joined the others and was trying to convince Haruka and Rei to come congratulate Akira as well. "I hope your date goes well." He kept his voice low and Akira realized that it was probably because he hadn't told the others why she wanted to learn so quickly. It only made her blush harder. Before Akira could think of something to say, Nagisa dragged the other two boys to the side of the pool and Gou joined them in their celebration.
"Hey," Gou said, looking at her with a bright smile. "You never did say why you wanted to learn so fast."
"You've gotta tell us," Nagisa said, letting go of Haruka and Rei. "Come on, it'll be our secret!" Akira looked at Makoto, who shrugged. It didn't matter to her if the others knew or not now, the important thing was that he hadn't told them first.
"Well, you see..."
000
Monday afternoon Akira stood with her head down in front of the members of the swim club. Nagisa leaned toward her. "I guess it didn't work out?"
"We weren't compatible at all," Akira said, her eyes on the ground. "He was really annoying and all he wanted to talk about was video games. And when I said I could only do the backstroke, he kind of made fun of me."
"Sorry," Gou said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Happens to the best of us, I guess."
"It's happened to you, Gou-chan?" Nagisa turned his attention to her, fascinated.
"KOU."
"Guess we'd better get practicing," Haruka said, turning away from the familiar scene and heading for the pool house.
"I guess I'd better get going too," Akira said. "I can still catch the early train home." She hitched her bag up on her shoulder and waved to the boys as they followed Haruka to the pool. Makoto waved to her, then turned to follow the others and she suddenly felt she had to say something to him before he disappeared. "Makoto-senpai," Akira called, hoping he would hear. Makoto stopped and turned back to her, and she hurried toward him. Makoto met her halfway.
"Is everything all right?"
"Thank you for all your help. Without you I never would have learned how to swim." She bit her lip and looked away. "I'm sorry I wasted your time."
"Hey," Makoto said, shaking his head. "When you said 'I'm afraid of the water,' all I could think about was how sad I would be if I could never swim. So I wanted to do everything I could to help you. You didn't waste my time," Makoto said, putting a hand on her head and smiling. It made Akira blush and for a moment her heart sped up. "If you want to pay me back, just keep swimming, okay?"
"I will," Akira beamed up at him. She started back toward the school building, then stopped and looked back. Makoto was walking into the pool house and she felt the words bubbling up in her chest before she could stop them. "Senpai," she called again, and he turned around curiously. "Can I swim with you again sometime?"
"Did you bring your suit today?" Akira nodded and he grinned at her, then motioned for her to follow. "Come on."
"Okay!"