Haruka Nanase sat silently in the middle of a hallway, his arms encircling his bent legs. To an outside observer, it would seem that he was contemplating something, or even half-asleep, but in fact he was replaying the scene he'd just witnessed - or experienced, to be more precise.
"Freak!" the largest boy had sneered. Funny, Haruka thought, that he was somehow the freak when he was in such better shape than this boy. How the bully had held on to his social power, Haruka and his friends didn't understand.
But by now, Haruka had come to accept that in the eyes of his classmates, with the sole exceptions of Rin and Makoto, he was a freak. And by now, he knew how best to cope with the attacks. He stood as still as he could, ignoring the boys' torment and imagining himself floating in the clearest pool he could envision. Even with this mental precaution, though, the shrieks of "Water freak! Water freak!" still penetrated his mind.
It could only have been two minutes or so before the group left Haruka, running to avoid being tardy to their next class, yet in the world of his mind, where time ran slower, it felt more like five. And so it seemed to Haruka that he had been sitting in the hallway for half an hour when he heard someone calling him again.
"Haru-chan?" a concerned voice echoed in his imaginary pool. With an internal sigh of frustration, Haruka returned himself to reality. "Are you all right, Haru-chan?" Nagisa repeated.
"Fine," Haruka said.
Nagisa plopped down beside him, stretching out his legs and rocking back and forth. "Were people being mean to you?" he asked.
"They can think what they want," Haruka replied. "The water doesn't like them."
"Are you sure you're okay, Haru-chan?"
"Yes." Haruka rose to his feet and turned away. "I'm going to go to the pool."
"But you have class!" Nagisa protested. "Aren't you worried about missing class? You could be sent to the principal!"
"No," Haruka said simply. "The water will protect me."