Chapter 2 - Second Hour

Haruka sighed miserably as he stared down at the paper on his lap. He really disliked maths - it was so restrictive. Either you were right or wrong. No debating. No freedom. And it served no purpose in the long run for him anyway.

Damn Makoto. Why'd he have to get in his head that doing their homework was the most sensible thing to do if they were going to be stuck for so long? It wasn't like it was even important unless they were struggling with the syllabus - which they weren't.

He looked to the broad boy. Makoto was gnawing on the end of the pencil he was meant to be writing with, a look of bewilderment painting his face; scrunched up nose and head tilted to the right slightly. He'd always made the same expression when he was confused, ever since they were children.

Haruka looked down at the work again. It didn't seem too difficult at all. Simultaneous equations were pretty easy to figure out once you knew the substitution method. Which Makoto surely did. Why was he so stuck on it? A small shake of his head demonstrated his frustration at his friend. Maybe he should be paying more attention in class if he was finding it so difficult.

Makoto let out a deep breath, erasing what he'd written five minutes ago. Haruka rolled his eyes. Perhaps he should help. So frustrating, he thought. I wish I could just swim. I'm so close to the pool, but so far too. It just wasn't fair.

He scooted closer to his friend, refusing to make eye contact, and leaned over to look at the problem. He was only on the second equation! They'd been at this for fifteen minutes already. There was absolutely no way that he could be finding it quite so hard.

"Oh, Haru, I just can't do it!" Makoto whined pitifully. If Haruka was someone to be influenced by that sort of sorrowful tone he would have immediately hugged the other boy. As it was, Haruka was not one of those people. Instead, he shot his friend a look that he hoped showed all of his irritation at his moaning, and snatched the sheet out of his hand.

The equation he was having troubles with read:

2x - y = 1

3x + 2y = 33

Haruka could easily see where Makoto had gone wrong. He knew the method, he'd just messed up by trying to make the two 'y' variables the same instead of the 'x's. He said as much and received an even more confused look in return.

"You can't take minus two away from positive two to make zero," Haru said calmly. "What you have to do is make the two 'x's the same because they're both positive: plus six take away plus six equals zero. Do you understand?"

Makoto nodded uncertainly. "I think so. So if I do that, I get... " He began to scribble down his workings. Haruka watched, uninterested. It didn't seem as though Makoto was really having trouble with the method, but more like he just wasn't really paying attention to the details.

After a few seconds, and a bit of mouth scrunching up to one side when he was deep in thought, the struggling boy turned back to Haruka, showing him his workings.

"So," Makoto observed, "'y' equals nine, right?"

Haruka nodded. "Yes. Now substitute the 'y' value back into the initial equation and it's easy algebra to calculate what 'x' is."

A very happy grin spread across Makoto's face as he thanked him for his help. Haruka didn't respond, not finding it necessary to. Hopefully he wouldn't be expected to help any more, finding the whole ordeal completely boring. Even more boring than the I-spy game they'd been playing before. Both that, and now the homework, had been Makoto's suggestion and Haruka hadn't actually agreed to either. He always managed to find himself doing what Makoto wanted whether he felt like doing it or not. Haruka blamed his friend's easy nature. If he said no then Makoto would just end up doing nothing. It was a weak quality in a person.

Makoto's gentle voice brought him out of his thoughts again. "Have you already finished the worksheet, Haru?"

The sheet had taken him only ten minutes to complete. He'd considered doing the extra questions they'd been set but he couldn't really be bothered. A lot of extra work for no good reason.

At his nod, Makoto eyes widened and travelled down to his own work. He slumped momentarily before turning to Haruka enthusiastically, with a childish expression of glee. As so often when he was trying to show he was happier than he was, Makoto's green eyes disappeared behind his eyelids. Haruka didn't like it when the other boy did that. It felt like a forced happiness to him. Yeah, occasionally when Makoto did it it was genuine, but more likely than not, the bearing denoted a dishonesty. Such fake attitudes were insulting to him.

He did wonder whether this was a real look of joy or not though. And if it was fake, why?

"You're so clever, Haru. I wish I could understand things just half as easily as you! Then I wouldn't have to spend so much time studying!" Makoto laughed a little at that, as though it had been a joke.

Haruka shook his head again. "You only need to study so much," his voice sounded bossy without meaning to. Oh well, he needs someone to boss him about anyway. Might as well be me, "because you don't pay enough attention. You focus too much on socialising in class and not on the lesson."

Well, he hadn't meant to say that. Whether Makoto decided to socialise with others or not was none of his concern. And it had never bothered him before. Except maybe when he'd run off with Kisumi to Basketball Club back in Middle School. Not that he'd been jealous, of course. It was just... Makoto wouldn't have liked to play basketball that much anyway, but he didn't have the courage to say no to Kisumi himself. Again, it was a weakness in his character. Haruka sometimes didn't understand how he put up with such a faint-hearted friend.

Makoto had opened his eyes, taking on his hurt puppy dog look. He was so easy to read; why was that? Haruka sighed though. He hadn't meant to upset his friend like that. Next Makoto would apologise for upsetting him and he really didn't want to deal with that awkwardness.

He went to open his mouth to apologise himself, but the words died on his tongue at Makoto's next sentence.

"I don't think that's fair, Haru."

Was Makoto finally standing up for himself? The thought shook Haruka hard. He'd definitely not expected that sort of reaction from the gentle-mannered man. Having no idea of what to say to that, he remained silent and waited for Makoto to continue.

"I," Makoto took a deep breath as if preparing himself for a battle. "I don't spend too much time socialising: I just like talking to people. And anyway you're the one who spends most of the lesson staring at the window." Haruka's eyes widened in shock, but Makoto wasn't done. "You don't know what it's like finding things difficult. You always found everything so easy - even making friends is easy for you, and you don't have to do anything. People are just drawn to you, because of your swimming or because of your calm nature!"

For a few moments he looked as though he wanted to continue, but Haruka could physically see him swallow anything else that had seemed likely to come out. Why wouldn't he just speak his mind? If what he'd just said was only the tip of the iceberg, then who knew how much he was sitting on.

Makoto apologised and went back to his work, pointedly avoiding his gaze when he tried to capture it.

Haruka's thoughts were whizzing. He had never known that Makoto felt that way about his friends. Haruka hadn't noticed that people were so drawn to him - he knew people always said he was beautiful when he swam, but that was it. Did he draw people to him? He supposed so. It had been that way with Rin, hadn't it, back in Elementary School? Rin had spotted him swimming at a local swimming meet, and suddenly moved schools at the end of the school year in order to swim with Haruka. But he'd wanted to swim with Makoto and Nagisa too, right? Haruka shrugged uncomfortably.

They both settled into an uncomfortable silence. Makoto had a look of deep worry on his face: probably worried that he'd offended Haruka. He always worries too much, Haruka thought absently.

"Why are you so worried about the exams, Makoto?" he asked quietly. He knew the answer, but he was half hoping that it would draw another strong response from the other. Haruka was more than curious about all the thoughts that his best friend was suppressing. He was oblivious about how to dig them out as it had never been necessary to drag Makoto's thoughts out of him. Makoto was what Haruka thought would be described as an open-book: he never hid anything from anybody. Until now, that was.

Makoto's expression was very serious now, and his eyes looked sad. Why is he sad?

"Because I want to pass and go onto University. Why are you so unconcerned by the exams?"

The answer was obvious, but the return question was unexpected. Haruka wasn't so sure about what to respond. He'd never been a great lover of school, or school work, but he'd never been quite so uncaring about serious exams before. He supposed it would seem odd to Makoto: someone who noticed his every action in minute detail for some reason.

He shrugged off the question, deciding not to answer it. Makoto's lip curled up in a look of disgust briefly. Huh. "What do you want to study at University?"

"I don't know yet. What do you want to do?"

What was with all these return questions that Haruka had no answer to? He went with another roll of his shoulders and dropped the subject completely. That hadn't gone the way he'd wanted it to. Unless those questions were what was eating Makoto up inside. It could be possible that such a worrisome guy would only wonder and worry about other people.

Haruka sighed again. He hated it when people were busybodies in that way, preferring just to be left alone instead. The tension between the two of them because of Makoto's perpetual brooding was getting worse every day. Would it come to a head when they were both forced to bear each other's company for so long with no escape? Haruka had no idea. The two of them hadn't ever really fought before. Makoto was easy to subdue, and Haruka didn't tend to seek out confrontation if he could avoid it. He wasn't sure they'd be able to avoid if they were stuck for much longer. It had only been two hours and they were already fighting.

He tried to divert his thoughts; thinking about the possibility of outcomes was pointless.

The dripping of the shower head behind him kept a steady rhythm. Drip. Beat. Beat. Beat. Drip. Haruka found it kind of soothing after a while, dropping his head back to rest on the lockers and closing his eyes. Only another hour at most, he was sure of it. Nagisa and Rei wouldn't really lock them in there for twelve hours. That was completely unthinkable.

Only another hour at most.