"What is all this supposed to be?"
Makoto looked through the pile of clothes Kou had just stuffed into his arms. Some kind of black-and-white sheet… a green shirt with a V-neck that, even without putting it on, he could see dipped far too low… white slacks… and—
"Boxers?" He held up the yellow garment for examination. "I— I have my own underwear…"
"It's your turban," Kou groaned. "You're supposed to be in the desert, remember? This was the best thing I could get on short notice. Just tuck the leg holes inside out before you put it on, and no one will notice. Now go change!"
"I still don't get why we have to dress up…" Makoto moaned, but knowing he would lose the argument, obediently headed for the locker room flanking the open-air pool.
Nagisa fumed out of the locker room just as Makoto reached the door. "GOU—"
"It's Kou!"
"Gou, this outfit makes me look like a girl!" he whined.
The redhead rolled her eyes. "It's Arabian. You have to wear a veil so you don't get heat stroke."
"That doesn't explain why it's so…" Nagisa searched for a proper word. "…midriff-baring!" Indeed it was; the front edges of the red vest refused to approach each other any nearer than the blond's nipples, and the pink mesh lining extended several inches below the edge of the vest itself, floating suggestively down to the orange-striped red scarves adorning the boy's hips.
"You're worried about your belly showing, when you're trying to start a club for swimming… in public… shirtless?" Kou raised an eyebrow.
"You know what I mean! This is… lewd."
"You were the one who got the bright idea to dress up in costumes to advertise for a fourth member."
"I thought we would dress up in… I don't know. T-shirts with our names on them," Nagisa mused, miming a line across his belly button where his name would fall. "And a cute little animal. Like a penguin or something. Oh! And Haru-chan could have a dolphin! And Mako-chan would have… maybe a killer whale?"
Kou coughed pointedly. "That's dumb. Nobody wants to join for a T-shirt. They're gonna join because they see how much we need them — hence the desert theme. You guys need a fourth member to get in the water, so you're dressed up like you need the water itself."
"You said you were gonna be the fourth member!" Nagisa shouted, remembering that he was mad at her. "We wouldn't need to do any recruiting if you would swim!"
"I don't swim; I'm the manager." The girl gave him a fixed glare. "It's not my fault the school board won't count members who won't compete."
Nagisa opened his mouth to retort when the locker room door creaked open. "Mako-chan, tell Gou these costumes are stu—" But it wasn't Makoto.
The only word either Kou or Nagisa could come up with to describe Haruka in that split second was sheik. He did look like the spitting image of Middle Eastern royalty; it wasn't just the clothes, but something in how he held himself.
Unhooking the cobalt blue scarf from the interior of his turban, Haruka broke the moment of wonder with a blunt question.
"How do you expect me to swim in this?"