Chapter Two: A Good Guy
Mizuki wakes up surprisingly late. She passed out in front of the TV in the living room. Judging from the blanket draped over her body, Dad came home late from work last night and didn't want to wake her. Mom would have undoubtedly woke her up to lecture her about manners.
She typically takes a quick shower and gets right to shampooing her hair when others typically waste time savoring the warm water. The less time she spends in the shower, the better. She usually blow-dries her hair as well, but seeing how there's no time to spare, she has no choice but to leave it damp.
P.E. is an absolute disaster. Today the class is tortured with dodge ball, and since Mizuki's mind is elsewhere, she seems to get hit more than usual. With a fresh headache and a bruised ego, she makes her way to the next class.
English is difficult as usual and Mizuki spends most of the period taking notes. It's a relief when the bell rings for lunch. Everyone else is sitting with friends while Mizuki sits alone, doing her best to avoid contact with anyone. It's not that her classmates are horribly mean; she just doesn't want to invest in a friendship that will soon cut short because of her poor social skills.
The lunch bell rings. It's time for Japanese History and Mizuki considers ditching. She caught Haruka staring at her during English, actually looking at her like she's the weirdo for noticing him staring in the first place. She felt his eyes on her during lunch as well. Just how did they go from near zero interaction to uncomfortable staring?
"Take your seats. It's pop quiz time." The teacher announces and the room collectively groans. For Mizuki, the quiz serves as a welcome distraction. She struggles to come up with answers for half of the questions. This is unlike her, since she already read through the book in her spare time.
She bites her lip and tucks her hair behind her ear. The sound of a pencil dropping to the floor makes her jump in her seat. Nervously looking behind her, near the window, her eyes make contact with Haruka's as he stares right back at her. Mizuki's heart leaps in her throat and she bites down harder on her bottom lip.
Haruka looks genuinely curious, not judging her. Underneath that, there's a strange gleam in his eyes like he's just testing the waters. He breaks eye contact, picks up his pencil, then resumes doodling on his paper.
Mizuki looks back down at hers, but it may as well been in Spanish. She writes down some half-assed answers and walks to the front of the class to turn it in just as the bell rings, leaving the classroom as quickly as possible.
As she washes her hands at the restroom, she looks at her reflection in the mirror. Her face is pale, and her long, light-brown hair is looking a bit wild. Her bangs used to be so long, they covered the left side of her face, till a close friend in middle school had convinced her she looked prettier with her bangs cut short. The effect showed off Mizuki's fine features and highlighted her large eyes, while stopping it from falling over her face.
Those days Mizuki started to believe that she looked quite pretty, especially after she no longer had to wear braces, which had put her front teeth back where they ought to be and stopped her looking like a rabbit.
A group of girls come in. Mizuki turns off the water and prepares to leave.
Just then, a chill runs down her body as she hesitates to open the door. She listens carefully. Her brow pulls together as she thinks she hears footsteps closing in over the buzzing chatter and innocent queries of the girls.
Turning the door knob, she steps into the hall. The chills won't stop and her heart is beating loudly against her chest. She sees Haruka with his back to her, staring out the window. She wants so badly to just walk away but her body refuses to move. Instead she settles with asking him, "Are you stalking me?" while clutching her chest.
Haruka watches her, his eyes intent, an almost bored expression on his face. Maybe he is stalking her. Just a little, though. Not in that creepy he's-going-to-bury-her-in-a-freezer-in-his-backyard kind of way. He simply wants to know more about her.
Haruka has this sudden urge to just drag her to the swim club. But he's trying to do this right. He's silently asking if they can talk it out with just a look.
It's no secret how Makoto and Haruka seem to have formed some sort of nonverbal communication, and it's only logical Haruka doesn't receive the desired reaction he expects from Mizuki. She clearly doesn't know how to deal with his constant staring.
"What is it you want?"
When he still doesn't answer, when he doesn't even remove his gaze from her face, she says, "Nanase-san! You need to stop that."
"What?" He pauses.
"Staring! It makes me uncomfortable."
"Sorry," he mumbles, finally removing his gaze and directing it over her head. "I want to talk," he finally puts it into words. "Right now, if you don't mind."
Is this is why he's been bothering me? He was waiting for the right time to take me aside and have a conversation, is that it? She looks around nervously. Haruka can tell she's about to bolt and he takes a cautious step towards her.
"W-w-we don't have anything to talk about." She hates it when she stutters. The sound makes her appear childish even to herself.
And then the girls from earlier leave the restroom, the brunette whispering something in her friend's ear that makes her laugh. Haruka performs a 'they-think-it's-a-love-confession' eye roll, and then the brunette flutters a good luck wave at him as they walk past, eventually turning the corner and disappear from sight.
"I want to apologize to you for the water bottle prank," he says without looking at Mizuki, who stands silently before him. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"Tachibana-kun told you to apologize," Mizuki says, her voice hoarse and strained. He should be sorry, she thinks, still reeling from what happened yesterday. He's nothing but trouble.
Haruka nods his head, unashamed. "As the captain of the swim club, he won't let me swim in the pool until I properly apologize."
They're silent for a while. Then he asks the question uppermost in his mind. "What's wrong with you?"
"What did you just say?"
The corners of his eyes crease in what might be a wince. "If I say 'nothing', can we move on and pretend I didn't ask anything?"
She almost smiles at that, which irritates her. "No."
He sighs. "Relax, I was only trying―"
"Do not," she points a finger at him, "tell me to relax when you just insulted me."
"That wasn't my intention."
"There's nothing wrong with me," she snaps. There's more hurt in her voice than she likes to admit. She hates that too.
"I wasn't trying to insult you. Believe me, I was worried. I didn't expect you would start shaking, crying, trembling, when I splashed water in your face," he comments softly. Mizuki sucks in a sharp breath, clearly feeling he's getting much too personal considering they barely know each other.
"I'm extremely aquaphobic. I don't like water, I don't feel at peace around it, and I fear it. I just don't care for the element," Mizuki says, then adds, "In some respects this is actually a blessing in disguise. If you think about it, a fun day at the beach can end terribly. Sharks mistake swimmers and surfers for their intended prey all the time. If you're in the water, you're on the menu. So I really don't bother. Doesn't the possibility of an attack terrify you? They have quite a set of teeth—ever seen one up close?"
"I know one personally," Haruka answers with a straight face. The sea monster he envisions in his head is none other than Rin Matsuoka, his childhood friend, showing off his pearly whites.
"I'm honestly amazed you're still alive, which baffles the mind, considering you'll go anywhere as long as there's water you can submerge into. A word of advice: the water is not predictable, so please practice caution if not restraint," Mizuki rants on without a hitch. "Drink moderately; our kidneys have to work overtime to filter excess water out of our circularly system to keep the overall amount at a safe level, and please, please be aware of the unhealthy amount of chlorine in pool water."
He just gapes at her. Totally dumbfounded, as if he can't believe she's actually giving him advice. Does she seriously expect him to put a halt to his obsessive swimming and love for water? Haruka is a swimmer. Underestimating the water will always come back to bite him in the ass. Being well prepared for a swim, be it in a pool or the ocean, goes with the territory.
Still, it's not the 'fear factor' part of her speech that bothers him. It's the 'overanalyzing' part. She'll waste her life away trying to avoid water at all costs, and he's almost a little insulted she doesn't even try to get past her phobia.
"You fear water," he says quietly, and his blue eyes voluntarily sweep to her warm hazel ones, "But you jumped in the ocean before."
"To save your life," Mizuki throws out her hands to emphasize her words. "I had no choice. It's not like I wanted to risk my life swimming in the ocean. Rip currents and waves can increase the chance of drowning. Additionally, waves that break on the shore can result in neck and spine injuries―"
"Don't overanalyze." This is a command, and at first Mizuki wants to respond but when Haruka looks at her beneath those thick lashes with a locked jaw, she seals her lips. His eyes glint with something she can't quite identify, and she wishes she doesn't want to as badly as she does. "You want to swim, don't you?" Haruka asks.
Mizuki glances down, shaking her head. "That's really not necessary. I'm fine. I just stay away from the water and all is well with the world." She's clearly lying. He wants her to trust him. He's not sure why though.
"You should swim," Haruka says. "Swimming has both positive and negative effects. As long as the positive outweighs the negative, you'll be safe."
Is he crazy? No, that's not it. Mizuki realizes he's not just some guy out to prank her. This dude's serious. He wouldn't be swimming like a total pro if he wasn't. Crazy or not, with the help of a professional swimmer, she might get over her crippling fear in due time.
Logically, Mizuki knows it's not that simple. She's aware she won't 'drown' in a bathtub, but she's unable to control thoughts of death that come up in her head. She knows it's mostly in her head. She conjures up images of dying in water, drowning, gasping for breath, or encountering eerie, unseen things such as snakes or sharks in the water.
The fear locks her in a vise, goading her limbs forward but hampering them at the same time. To flee, to run―it's all she can do. But she can change a lot of things in her life, right? She's going to stop running. She's going to stand up and break free from her fears.
She swallows thickly. Okay, Mizuki, time to be bold. "Then teach me," she mumbles.
"So you really want to swim?" he asks. He's almost smiling now—a cocky smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"I want to swim, I really do!" An embarrassing flush sweeps up her face. She's being bold. Too bold. What is up with her wanting to be courageous around him? The real Watanabe Mizuki is a coward. She's afraid of taking chances... but this, she admits, sounds like a good experience.
She fiddles with her sleeve as her bold attitude falters, squinting at Haruka as if he's become a painful sight. "There's still a chance it might all go wrong."
"I'll be there when that happens," he says, determined to keep his word. "I'll help you help yourself to get over your phobia."
Again a flush sweeps up Mizuki's face. He's very different from her—their lives are led differently, and they clearly don't have anything in common, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. They can still learn from one another.
"We can start right away." He thrusts out his hand for her to take.
"Wait, right now?" she gulps.
He inclines his head, his eyes never leaving hers. With a swift motion he catches her wrist and drags her along, all the while ignoring her protests, then arriving at the outdoor swimming pool.
She gapes.
The empty pool is overgrown with weeds, trash and dead leaves, and all the paint has been worn off the surrounding fence. Still holding onto her wrist, Haruka raises her arm in triumph, shouting: "This one is willing to help!"
All attention is concentrated on Mizuki.
Plucking out a nasty weed in the empty pool, Nagisa springs into the air and smiles up at her, then waves his arm in pure glee. "I'm glad you came along, Mizu-chan! That one won't lift a finger," he points at Miho Amakata, the homeroom teacher currently dozing off in her comfortable chair, complete with a black parasol.
Makoto stops stuffing his bag with leaves, and his features lit up at the sight of the girl. He regards Haruka gravely, however. "I thought you ditched us," he says; "only you dragged Watanabe-san into this. You're forcing her to help, aren't you?"
Haruka shrugs.
"You can lower her arm now," Makoto goes on, only this time he's smiling, clearly amused.
"Haru-chan! You can help mend this crack in the wall!" Haruka casts one nervous, hesitating glance at Nagisa where the boy is working, then turns and flees.
"Haru-chan!" The blonde runs after him with a broom, shouting threats as he tries to catch up. Meanwhile Makoto watches Mizuki enter the pool, which she proceeds to do with hesitation. All the while, with his arms crossed over his chest, he regards her movements with silent interest, as those of some strange new animal.
"He said he'd help me," she explains when she joins him with the cleanup, "but instead he tricked me. I thought he was serious."
"Oh, I'm sure Haru meant well," he replies heartily, "I've known him since we were kids. He's a good guy, honest."
She reflects. "I suppose he is," she says, "but—" here she shivers, "I just don't understand his fascination with water."
From Haruka they pass, naturally enough, to her phobia, and then to the swimming club, the pool, and other subjects. In five minutes they have each other's confidences, and they seem to have known one another for a lifetime. Makoto finds it easier to be frank and talkative with her than with others in class.
"You don't have to worry about a thing," he says presently, watching Haruka from afar. The boy just finished mending the wall with a taping knife under Nagisa's heavy supervision. "He's dead serious—especially when it concerns swimming, even though he doesn't look it. Haru wants you to enjoy swimming as much as we do. You're in good hands."
"I don't know," she answers shyly, "I might give up halfway." Mumbling this with low confidence, she bends down to pick up some leaves, and her long, silky hair tumbles bewitchingly over her shoulders.
Seeing this, "May I…" Makoto asks her permission, and she complies, as confused as she is. He wipes his hands on his pants, does her hair in a braid and ties it with his little sister's scrunchie; he'd forgotten he carried the darn thing in his pocket.
"There you go," he says with a smile. "Your hair won't get in the way as much."
She thanks him profusely.
At break time, Gou Matsuoka brings everyone drinks. "I got you something too," she smiles at Mizuki, "Flavored soy milk, your favorite! It's a reward for all your hard work."
Mizuki brightens at this, and the two hear her murmur with gusto, "Soy milk!"
"Where's Haruka-senpai?" Gou asks, looking round her gravely.
"Nagisa's gone as well…" Makoto doesn't like that it's so quiet all of a sudden—like the silence before the storm. The door kicks open at that moment and in comes Haruka, armed with a heavy water gun.
"Haru, what are you doing?" Makoto inquires with a tilt of his head.
"Yeah, why are we doing this again?" Nagisa asks, sporting a small but effective water gun.
"We'll be helping Mizuki get rid of her phobia," he answers slowly as he pumps up the gun. Mizuki chokes on her milk; she turns pale and her lips tighten.
There goes the good guy theory!