Chapter 3 - Submerged

The clicking was driving the class insane. One girl kept sending frequent pointed glares his way but there was no chance of him noticing when his mind was on one thing only.

Two more minutes...

They'd made him wait until their lunch time until he demanded answers, and the morning had instantly become a long, painful drag as he tortured himself with guilt.

His pen continued to clatter side to side under his hand, to his peer's despair.

What if it's serious? He groaned quietly and inwardly, brushing off his classmate's concern when he asked about his well being.

"I'm fine." He said. Which was true, he was worrying about somebody else's health.

One more minute...

Izumi would have told him by now if she knew something was wrong. He was sure of it. She kept glancing in his direction, but it was more about the annoying clicking than anything else.

"Ow..." He muttered, his hand instinctively pressing at the back of his head.

"Will you quit it?" Rei hissed from behind him, having been the source of the thrown pencil.

"I can't help it, I-"

"Ahem! The lesson has not finished yet, Nagisa-Kun." Their teacher said sharply.

Abashed, the blonde turned back around and bowed his head slightly. "Yes, sorry."

"She would have said something before the lesson if it were serious." Rei breathed behind him once the teacher turned her back and continued to lecture.

Nagisa nodded, but chewed on his lip nonetheless. "What if she doesn't know? What if Emiko is so injured she's still in the hospital and hasn't managed to contact anybody?" He imagined her with a nebuliser and cardiac monitor hooked up to her body. It made his throat tighten up and his eyes water for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Nagisa!"

He spun around and turned bright red at the annoyed look on their teacher's face, a look he so often received, but usually for when he was being mischievous. The startled, watery look he returned her seemed to surprise her, but she still made him stay behind after the lesson.

"I'll wait for you outside." Rei muttered, yanking up his backpack and shuffling out of the room.

Emiko's disappearance that day hadn't caused much of a stir with the school, and it was Shimizu's idea to keep it that way. What did cause a stir, however, was when Nagisa stormed into the canteen and slapped his bag on her table.

"Have you heard from her?" He demanded loudly.

Shimizu blinked, taking a second to realise what he was talking about. "Yeah, she got home early this morning. Her parents wouldn't let her come to school today."

The blond sighed, sinking onto the bench opposite her. Rei slipped next to him, having only just caught up to him.

"I did wait for you, Nagisa-Senpai, the least you could do is wait for me." He muttered.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Nagisa whined, slapping his lunch onto the table. "I've been tearing my hair out with worry!"

"Perhaps next time you'll be more careful around the pool." Izumi muttered as she joined the table, to which the boys both glared at her.

"Nagisa has apologised for his actions, there's no need to keep chastising him." Rei replied hotly, not noticing the look of surprise and admiration coming from the boy he was defending. Instead he kept cool eye contact with Izumi, who blushed and dropped her gaze.

"You're right, sorry."

"It's fine!" Nagisa practically sang, now he'd heard good news about Emiko, the weight of guilt was not so heavy to bear. "I've learnt my lesson!"

"Well that's what you come to school for."

The four turn and find Haruka and Makoto waiting for them to scoot along the benches, which they do so automatically. It was Haruka who made the remark, and Makoto had tittered at the characteristic sarcasm.

"Hello, Makoto-Taichou, Haruka-San." Shimizu smiled brightly as the former slid onto the bench next to her, the latter taking the opposite Bench next to Rei.

"Hi," Makoto grinned, "have you spoken to Emiko-San?"

Both girls nodded, relaying the message to the rest of the swim club too.

"Did she have concussion?" Haruka asked as he started on his own lunch.

Izumi nodded. "Only mild, but they suggested that she rests for a day or two."

"I should go and see her!" Nagisa decided, his eyes lighting up. "I could take her some food or something to tell her I'm sorry."

Shimizu glanced to Izumi, who shrugged. "That's probably not a good idea."

Nagisa pouted. "Why?"

Again, the girls looked at each other, and it was Izumi who answered. "She'll be sleeping a lot, it wouldn't be nice to disturb her."

"Yeah, she'll be back soon. You can apologise then." Shimizu added.

Rei frowned, his eyes wandering over to Makoto, who also looked puzzled. It seemed that he was not the only one to notice the falseness of their excuse. Neither of them the type to pry, they chose to swallow down their curiosity with their lunch, and the topic of conversation moved from Emiko to swimming with relative ease.

Never one to give up, Nagisa began to ask where Emiko lived on the train journey home. This proved fruitless, as both of them insisted he should leave it. Eventually Rei had to offer a middle ground, knowing he would never hear the end of it if the girls got off the train and left him with an empty handed Nagisa.

"Why don't you text her?" He suggested, then looked at Izumi. "She wouldn't be disturbed and Nagisa can apologise."

Again with their glance between each other, Nagisa failed to notice anything with this new idea dazzling his one track mind, but Rei was starting to itch with curiosity.

"As long as you promise to only text her. Don't call and wake her up." Shizumi pointed her finger at the blond in question. He placed a hand on his chest and the other in the air.

"I swear!"

And they passed over her number, along with their own while they were on the topic.

"Emiko-Chan! Nagisa here, how are you feeling?"

She sighed, if she was honest with herself, she felt lousy and bored. She'd spent the morning cleaning the house, the afternoon catching up on homework and by three she had nothing to do but dwell on the fact that her friends would be enjoying the late summer afternoon in the pool. Her mother returned home from work to scold her for doing chores when she should have been resting. By five, she was truly sulking as she'd had to call in sick to work, and was confined to her bedroom.

"I'm very well, thank you! How was swimming?"

Throwing her phone aside, she wandered for the bathroom and be an to pour herself a bath.

He replied quickly.

"Uneventful! LOL!"

She smiled, but before she could write back answer, he'd sent another text.

"I'm really sorry about yesterday. When are you coming back?"

Her parents wouldn't be able to force her to stay off school, she would fall behind in her lessons. With this reassuring thought in mind, she typed back quickly.

"Tomorrow!"

With a joint project to start on, Haruka had offered Makoto dinner for the night so they could spend and evening un distracted from thei homework. Feeling too lazy to make anything, they settled on a pizza.

"Haru?"

Blue eyes shift up from the book full of research, and Makoto purses his lips before he speaks. "You don't mind the girls joining the club, do you?"

Haruka sighed, propping a leaf of scrap paper in the book he was reading and standing up. "Why?" He asks as he wanders for the kitchen. Makoto hurries out after him to explain.

"Well, you didn't seem all that positive about it, is all."

He realised as he said it, when you think of words to describe his best friend, positive wasn't necessarily at the top of the list. Usually that attribute was associated with himself. Haruka's eyes glistened with a ghost of a smile.

"It will have it's perks, letting them join."

Makoto laughed, "do you mean having girls around, or the indoor pool?"

Instead of dignifying the ridiculous question with an answer, Haruka pulled out the pizza from the oven and shoved the cutter into Makoto's hand.

"What do you think?" He muttered as fetched them some drinks.