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"Sora? Sora. Here, I brought you a chair to sit in while you recover."
"I told you guys, I'm fine! Honestly, I'm at one hundred percent health. I can swim, okay?" I huffed at the group of swimmers who surrounded me. "10 minutes under water is like nothing to me."
Makoto pushed down on my shoulders gently until I was seated in the steel chair. Drips of cold water splattered onto my bare arms as they fell from the still wet tips of his olive green hair.
"I know you think you're fine, but it'll ease everyone's minds about what just happened. Some of the swimmers thought you had died down there." Makoto pleaded in a low voice, his expression still one of concern.
I turned my head away from the troubled expression on his face, crossing my arms somewhat moodily. I huffed out a breath of air through a thin gap between my lips in frustrated defeat. I knew I wouldn't be able to say no to that face.
"I am okay, but fine. I'll stay here for a bit. Just until you finish your warm up, and then I'm getting in and swimming. Deal?" I demanded, glancing at Makoto from the corner of my eye, looking for approval.
His expression dropped in relief and then he smiled broadly, his eyes narrowing. He squeezed my shoulders strongly.
"Deal. As long as you promise not to scare me like that ever again?"
I turned back until he was properly in my vision. I threw a questioning glance at him.
"Like what? Do you mean the whole underwater thing?" I asked.
"Yes, that exactly. Please don't do that without warning."
A small smile hijacked my lips. I was genuinely flattered at how much he cared for me. A smattering of blush dotted my cheeks.
How could someone like Makoto be so into me? So far my love life had mainly consisted of me stumbling through being single haphazardly and fending myself off from dirt bags trying to force their way into my life. Of course there had been the occasional boyfriend scattered throughout my awkward love life, but those relationships never lasted long.
"Alright you lot!" a booming voice shattered the thoughts occupying my mind, "Now that everything, and everyone, is sorted let's get to training. You all know your lanes so get to it."
The chatter from the large group died down as, one by one, the swimmers from Samezuka dove into the pool and made a start on their warm ups.
Makoto took his hands from my shoulders and straightened up. He put his hands on his slim hips and stretched his back, pushing said hips forward slightly. I averted my eyes to avoid staring at him awkwardly.
"I'll see you in the pool soon, Sora. Please make sure you recover properly before you get in, okay?" he said, dropping a hand down to pat my right thigh encouragingly.
I nodded solemnly, knowing I was well enough to swim, but stayed where I was to make Makoto happy.
He turned heel on me and walked off, calling out to Haruka. I sighed in a forlorn manner. Mainly because I still couldn't swim yet, but also because I was missing Makoto's presence already. It sounded absolutely absurd seeing that he was only a few feet away from me and I was longing for him to come back and wait with me.
I watched him prepare himself for swimming, bringing his green tinted goggles up from around his neck to fit securely over his eyes. Next was his plain black swimming cap which he retrieved from the hem of his togs by his hip with a soft 'snap'. He pulled it over his hair, tucking the flyaway strands underneath the black silicon prison. I allowed myself to giggle a little bit at a lock of olive hair that he had missed tucking away at the nape of his neck. It was rather adorable.
He dove into lane two with effortless grace and I was quite happy to admire the view from where I was seated. I sank back further into the cold chair and proceeded to watch the ongoing warm up.
I watched Makoto swim for a bit. Compared to Haruka's casual looking freestyle stroke, which he had gained with little to none hard work thanks to his genes, Makoto's freestyle stroke was a hard earned stroke, one he had worked on for what seemed many years to get it to the standard it was at currently. It was a less refined stroke than Haruka's but that's why I enjoyed watching him do it, it was different and yet beautiful in its own way.
He had been keeping up with Haruka for a lap or so of the pool, but it wasn't long before the Artificial Mermaid pulled ahead with ease. I turned my attention to Rei.
Poor Rei looked like he was struggling to keep up with the rest of the bunch. I didn't blame him, he was still learning. Or at least that's what I'd gathered from the snippets of conversation I'd heard about him. I think he'd joined only a few weeks before I did.
Nagisa was swimming behind Rei, he didn't seem to be taking the training too seriously at this point. He would let himself drop behind Rei then speed up, grabbing his toes, much to Rei's annoyance, as well as to his frustration. After teasing Rei a few times, he would overtake him until he caught up with Rei again. And then the cycle started again.
Poor Rei.
I smiled sympathetically for him.
I was only able to stomach watch a few more lengths of swimmers doing endless lengths before I got bored with sitting where I was.
I hauled myself from my chair and wandered over to the second lane, looking down into the water as Haruka executed a near perfect tumble turn without breaking rhythm.
I plopped myself down onto the diving block at the end of the lane and observed Haruka doing freestyle at and exceedingly casual pace, as if it were all too easy for him.
I really wanted to get back in the pool but I had told Makoto that I wouldn't get in until he had finished swimming his warm up.
I did a quick mental calculation.
Makoto was roughly two and a half lengths behind Haruka, but was mostly ahead of the other swimmers in the pool, including the Samezuka group. The warm up was 400m long and Haruka was 200m into it so far. That meant I'd have to wait at least another 10 and a half lengths before I could get in.
I sighed a gloomy sigh and rested my chin in my hands, returning to watching the group do their thing.
I noticed some movement in my peripheral vision, but I paid it no mind. Was probably someone going for their drink bottle.
"Looks like someone isn't so good at controlling their urges to jump into the nearest body of water." Came a snide remark next to me.
I had no need to turn my head to see who was talking to me.
"I have no time for you." I replied focusing myself on the splashing waves caused by Makoto's feet as they broke the surface of the water repeatedly.
"Aww, come on, you're not upset about last night still?" Rin cooed, a hint of arrogance riding the edge of his voice.
"Move along, Rin." I said, tapping my middle finger against my bottom lip in tame annoyance.
He disappeared from my vision and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I heard the scraping of steel on concrete and turned my head to the side to see Rin dragging up a chair next to me. I sucked the breath of relief back into my lungs, hissing through my teeth as it journeyed back in. He threw the chair back down next to me and dumped himself into it, crossing his legs.
"Seriously. Leave me alone." I scowled.
"So you're an Artificial Mermaid, am I right?" he said shimmying a hand through his dry red hair.
"Yes, what of it?"
"What's between you and Makoto? You got something going on or what?" he probed.
"That really isn't any of your business whether Makoto and I have something going on or not."
"But he isn't even an Artificial Mermaid though, why are you so interested in him?" Rin said, waving his hand round flippantly.
"I think that Makoto is a charming and extremely attractive boy, Artificial Mermaid or not. I'll also have you know I don't determine my boyfriends on whether they're like me."
"So you'd date him if he asked you out then?" Rin continued his probing.
"And what if I said I would? What does it even matter to you?" I replied, getting more and more annoyed with every question the red head asked.
"Why not date one of your kind? Me, for example." He grinned, flashing his sharp teeth at me again. "I think we'd make a great couple, you and I…"
I raised an eyebrow at him and smirked, holding back a laugh.
"If I wanted to date someone my kind, I'd much rather date Haruka than you. Plus, I don't even know you. I've only meet you once before today and to be honest, you didn't leave a good impression. So you can take any idea of ever dating me and shove that…"
Rin seized my hand and a shock of what felt like electricity jolted through my arm, making me jump. He squeezed me until my skin turn white and my arm was almost numb from the reaction our nerves were having to each other.
"See! Just feel that! We have great chemistry already! You can't deny it!" he babbled, getting worked up.
I tried to shake my hand free, but he was surprisingly strong.
"I don't know a single thing about you, nor do I want to, so please release my hand and leave me be."
"Then let's go on a date, then you can get to know me better. This weekend, we can meet up somewhere."
I stood up, hoping to pull my hand from his grasp, but failing in that attempt.
"Okay, you need to stop. I don't want to go on a date with you. I don't want to know you better. If anyone, I want to get to know Makoto better! He's the one I'm actually interested in! So let my hand go and leave me alone!" I said, raising my voice to a near yell.
By now, people were starting to stop at the end of the lanes and listen in.
Rin's expression changed into one of frustration and I could hear him grit his teeth.
"Makoto? Makoto?! Why Makoto?! I'm better than him! He doesn't deserve you!" he growled.
I heard a splash next to me, my dry legs becoming wet again. A small tidal wave swept over my feet. Suddenly Makoto was at my side, holding my wrist in his left hand, Rin's wrist in his right.
"I don't know one hundred percent what is going on, but this needs to stop right now!" he grunted pulling Rin's hand from mine.
My hand feel limp to my side, the numbness starting to dissipate. Makoto wrapped his arms around my shoulder and pulled me into his wet body, my back turning slick with water as he cradled me against his body. I felt my anger and frustration drain from my body as Makoto held me.
"Why are you better than me, huh?! What have you got against me that makes you superior to me?! Nothing! So why the hell is she picking you over me?!" Rin shouted, working himself up even more.
He ripped the goggles hanging from around his neck and threw them across the room where they hit a wall.
He glared venomously at Makoto.
"You're not worthy enough to even get this close to her." He hissed, lowering his voice.
"Look Rin, I don't even know you so why should I pick you over Makoto, who I know much better." I said, starting to become confused about the whole situation.
I wasn't even sure why Rin even got so worked up about the whole thing. I really didn't know anything about this guy.
"You know more about me than this guy," he said gesturing to Makoto who was leaning over me protectively. "You probably don't remember, but you know more about me than you realise."
And with that statement, Rin turned his heel on us and stormed off, slamming the door behind him as he exited the building.
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