Hello, again! Thanks for reading through the (extremely short) first chapter. :) The next chapter will most likely not be updated for quite a while, considering how much I procrastinated finishing this one.
Once again, a slightly OOC Haru and even some kind of OOC Kristoff...because I'm just that good at manipulating characters. :P
Anyway, enjoy!
After three days, Haru was discharged, with his left hand wrapped in gauze and a bandage on his forehead. Makoto insisted that he stay with his family until he recovered, but really, Makoto just wanted to prevent his friend from sneaking outside at night to go swimming. Haru begrudgingly agreed.
The following day, at school, Haru could feel a buzz going around amongst the Iwatobi High students. He could hear them whispering excitedly or see the eagerness in their faces or just feel their excitement in the air. By the last class of the day, he'd identified the source of it all.
Two European foreign exchange students were attending their school. They'd been introduced in front of the student body the day Haru was admitted to the hospital for his injuries. One of them was a tall, thickly built, boy. He had shaggy honey blond hair, a large nose, and a broad chest. He was introduced as Kristoff.
The other student was a slim girl with a refined air of elegance about her. She had very light blond hair kept in a bun, big green eyes, and very dainty features. Her head was held high with the maturity that comes with age, a maturity that surely no ordinary high school aged girl should have. At least no Japanese girl. The girl's name was Elsa, and there were many rumors that she was a queen.
Of course, there were many who doubted the rumor; after all, why would a queen leave her country to attend some high school in a remote area of Japan known for its fishing? And even if Elsa was a queen, where were all her bodyguards? Surely, she didn't think that everyone loved her enough not to even attempt to hurt her.
Nonetheless, stories continued to circulate about Elsa's life of grandeur back in whatever European country she came from, and even Kristoff found himself the subject of gossip.
And, then there was Haru, who had the lovely "queen" sitting right in front of him for the entire day. Now, whenever he tried to take a nap between classes, the area in front of him was mobbed by noisy, chattering boys and girls, wanting to ask Elsa questions. Oftentimes, poor Haru was bumped out of his chair by overly excited fans or haters.
The one time Haru himself actually talked to Elsa was when he came back to school. The moment he sat down in class, she turned around and spoke in perfect Japanese to introduce herself. Haru decided that she seemed like a nice, polite girl, who wasn't even that annoyed when he didn't move to shake her extended hand. On top of all that, she was stunningly beautiful; even the apathetic Nanase Haru would agree on that. He caught himself staring at her cream-colored blond hair or her big green doe eyes more than once since he first met her.
Makoto, of course, had gotten as caught up in the excitement as everyone else in their class, and at every available chance, he chattered on and on about the two foreign exchange students.
As for the other student, Kristoff, being placed a year younger than Elsa, he was with the first-year students. And in his class, coincidentally, was another member of the Iwatobi Swim Club: Nagisa. So it didn't come as a huge shock when, one day, during club activities, the hyperactive blond came to the pool with the tall, stocky foreigner in tow. Haru, Makoto, and Rei could only stare blankly at the obvious awkwardness in Kristoff's posture. The swimsuit Nagisa had fitted him in was clearly a couple sizes too small. Even taking into consideration that he was a foreigner, Kristoff was much, much taller and bigger than an average high schooler.
"Gou-kun!" Nagisa called out across the pool to the club's manager. "Look, I brought a new member!"
Kou gritted her teeth, clenching her clipboard. "I told you to call me Ko—" Her clipboard clattered to the ground, when she saw Kristoff's defined biceps and deltoids. She could practically feel her ovaries exploding. "He's in."
"So," Haru began, as he swam over to the two blondes and hoisted himself out of the water. "What style?"
Kristoff stuttered nervously, "U-um, what do you mean?" This black-haired guy's lack of expression was kind of freaking him out.
Haru remained silent for a moment before pointing at the pool and saying, "Swim."
Glancing back and forth between Haru and the pool a couple times, Kristoff nervously walked past Haru and Nagisa. He slowly slid himself in and stood stock still in the shallow end of the pool. The five members of the swim club stared at him expectantly.
"Um…Kristoff?" Nagisa stepped into the pool and swam next to the taller blond. "You gonna swim?"
The foreigner's expression tensed, as he studied his feet under the water. He mumbled softly, his voice trailing off, "I, uh…don't know...how to swim…"
The silence suddenly became infinitely more awkward.
"If I may ask…" Rei pinched the bridge of his nose. "…why did you want to join the swim club if you can't swim?"
"Because I forced him to come," the shorter blond stated happily. "He told he had job experience with water!"
"I said 'ice'. A little different from water," Kristoff said sheepishly as he lifted himself out of the pool and onto his feet. Suddenly, chills ran down his spine and he shivered. He turned and saw the black-haired swimmer's frigid glare directed at him. Haruka, was that what he was called?
"Did you say ice?" Haru asked, his passive appearance beginning to crack.
"Yes, Haruka…san…" This guy was definitely starting to creep him out.
Haru took wide strides forward until he was mere inches away from Kristoff's face. Despite being a good head shorter than the blonde foreigner, Haru's foreboding expression made Kristoff jump a bit.
"State your whereabouts of three days ago on the fourth of March at precisely one-thirteen A.M." Somehow Haru managed to glare down Kristoff while being below his eye level.
"What? Why?"
The swimmer's features twitched momentarily with impatience. Nagisa, who had walked over to stand next to Kristoff, took notice of Haru's uncharacteristic emotion. His eyes widened in awe.
After a minute of tense silence, Haru took a deep breath and seemed to shrink back to his usual size. He realized that all the other members of the club had been holding their breath as they listened to the conversation. Looking back up into Kristoff's face, Haru once again put on his apathetic face.
"Just know that you're at the top of my list, ice boy," Haru warned. "To pay for the crimes done to Pool-chan."
Annoyance suddenly flared up in Kristoff, and he straightened up. "Now hold on, buddy. I don't even know what you're talking about, Haruka, but there's no excuse for you to be rude—"
"Stop. Calling. Me. Haruka." Haru practically snarled, all his irritation flowing back into him in a second. He still tried his hardest to keep his calm appearance.
Kristoff's jaw stiffened in response, as he stared down at the shorter man.
Meanwhile, alarms were going off in Makoto's head. As quickly as he could move, he hoisted himself out of the water and moved towards the tense group.
He stopped just next to his raven-haired friend, a hand hovering hesitantly over his shoulder. "Haru…"
After a moment of intense glaring, Haru finally broke Kristoff's gaze and turned on his heels. Makoto trailed after him into the locker room. Everyone left standing around the pool seemed to breathe out in relief.
"Well, you two sure got along well," Rei commented sardonically from the pool.
Kou approached the foreigner. "Kristoff-kun?" She made eye contact with Nagisa to silently communicate her unease. When Kristoff finally met her gaze, she bowed deeply. "I'm very sorry! Please excuse the way Haru acted towards you! You see, this thing happened with the pool a couple days ago…it froze over—"
"Wait, what? It froze? You mean to ice?" Kristoff interrupted. A hundred horrible thoughts suddenly ran through his mind. Without listening to Kou trying to explain what happened, the blonde already knew without a doubt what had happened. And he could predict the trouble to come once the rumor of a frozen pool in the middle of a relatively warm spring began to circulate.
He needed to leave as soon as possible and find Elsa.
I feel like I can't properly portray Nagisa's energy...and also Haru came off as a jerk... Oh yeah, and I forgot about Amakata-sensei. TT_TT
But, please R&R, and if I made any grammar errors, feel free to correct me. :)