Clouded Distance

Chapter Eleven

Small Concerns

The commentator was just listing to clubs participating in the upcoming race for Iwatobi Festival when Hana arrived.

"Ah, I'm just on time!" she panted, coming to a stop beside Gou and her friend, Hanamura. Hana bent over, hands on her knees, in an attempt to get her breath back.

All of this because I didn't set my alarm this morning.

It had been chaotic that morning. After another argument with her mother about two clubs, Hana had been so frazzled that she'd forgotten to set her alarm clock that morning. As a result, she had woken up with half an hour left until school, and it had been a rush from then. She'd only just arrived in time.

"Hana, we were wondering where you were!" Gou exclaimed, hands on her hips.

Hana looked up at her friend, a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry." She straightened herself up and looked at the race before them. Haru was running the first leg of the race, followed by Makoto, then Nagisa, and then Rei. Her eyes narrowed at a few girls nearby who were giggling as they looked at Haru, who, like his teammates, stood in just his swim shorts.

Fortunately, the announcement for the beginning of the race sounded soon after she arrived, so the giggling ceased as everyone awaited the beginning of the race. 

"On your marks. Get set..."

The starting signal sounded, and all the competitors ran forward.

And instantly, Haru fell behind. 

"He's so slow," Hana moaned, burying her face in her hands.

"Could it be that Nanase-senpai's actually pretty slow on land?" Hanamura mused.

By the time Haru reached Makoto, the swim club was definitely in last. Fortunately, the baton pass went smoothly, and Makoto instantly made up for the lost ground as he caught up with the rest of the pack.

"That's amazing!" Hanamura exclaimed.

Gou grinned. "That's Makoto-senpai's power sprinting!"

Makoto neared Nagisa. They went out for the baton exchange -

"Ah, no!" Hana squeaked, watching the kickboard fly through the air. Nagisa caught it and continued running, but in the delay it took to recover the board, the swim club were in last place once again.

"We were so close," Hanamura moaned. "If only they hadn't dropped the kickboard."

Gou smirked. "It's not over yet."

"Huh?"

Hana grinned, watching Nagisa run toward the last member of their relay team. "It's time our former track team member to shine."

Sure enough, Rei, former track team member, was already getting ready to take the baton. Knowing Rei, Hana guessed that he was already running several calculations through his head to her the best receive possible.

Calculations or no, by the time Rei and Nagisa performed their exchange, it went perfectly. Rei instantly shot down the track. His running form was so much different to the other competitors. It was obvious he had once been a track team member.

Hana leaned forward as Rei passed the leader of the race and only continued to increase the distance between him and the rest, as he took a clear first place for the swim club.

"Victory comes to the swim club!"

Hana just managed to hear the voice over the speakers announce, as she screamed, clapping her hands as she watched Rei bring himself to a halt, and be greeted by his teammates.

Good job, Rei. She smiled. Who knew him being on the track team would benefit them today?

Hana went through the rest of the day in high spirits, forgetting about last night's argument. Surely, after that performance, they'd get some expressions of interest in the club.

However, when the time came...

"Why?" Gou cried, as no one showed up yet again.

Nagisa's shoulders slumped forward. "After all of Rei-chan's hard work!" he moaned. 

"Well, no matter how much attention we drew by running, we are a swim club after all," Rei pointed out.

"We've done all we can at this point. Now let's just wait." Makoto's face broke out into a sudden smile. "And anyway, starting today, the pool's officially open!"

Hana gasped, smiling brightly. She looked across at the others, who also looked excited. Almost simultaneously, they were pulling off the shirts Gou had them wear, and, now only in their bathers, headed down for the pool.

Before they entered, Makoto started a small speech.

"Let's shift gears and focus on training for prefecturals. Everyone, be sure to warm up thoroughly. The water's still pretty cold."

As Makoto spoke, Haru's eyes had come to rest on the bright blue water. His own vibrant kbue eyes widening, he took several steps forward, as though entranced.

Hana caught this action though and sighed. Haru, you're a lost cause, she thought with a tone of exasperation. She reached out and grabbed his forearm, preventing him from moving forward.

"You're going to listen to the captain's instructions today," she sang lightly, a smirk on her face. Haru glanced back at her and, after catching the look in her eye, decided to remain in his position.

Makoto must have caught their little exchange, because he sent an amused smile their way before continuing. "And though there's some time before we have to submit our tournament entry, aside from our individual events there's..."

"The medley relay!" they all called. Hana joined in the sudden explosion of excited voices, but more half-heartedly than the others. It just reminded her that she wouldn't be able to swim another relay, most probably ever again in her life.

That as one of the only downsides of being in a swim club that consisted only of boys.

Makoto chuckled. "I thought so. How about you, Haru?" He addressed the only one of them not to have responded.

"I only swim..."

The was a prolonged pause. While everyone else awaited the answer with a hopeful atmosphere, Hana just folded her arms and glared at her boyfriend. You'd better not say just freestyle after that, you idiot. If he did, Hana was going to have a few things to say to her boyfriend.

Haru glanced back at them. "... Freestyle and relays," he finished.

Hana smiled, relieved at his answer. From the excited exclamations and shining eyes of the others, it looked as though they were, as well.

Makoto smiled. "So we're in the really then. For our individual events, we'll choose our own before the entry date." He hesitated before adding, "As for me, since it's my last year, I think I'll try entering the freestyle, too."

What? Hana's eyes widened as Makoto announced this and she sent a sharp look his way, aware of Haru doing the same. She watched Makoto, pursing her lips. That had been a sudden decision. What had caused him to sign up for a race where he'd be competing against Haru?

The others didn't seem to notice anything unusual about it, though.

"Oh, really?" Nagisa exclaimed. "Then maybe I'll try racing butterfly, too!"

"Isn't butterfly your weakest stroke?"

Nagisa brushed the comment off. "This is really exciting somehow! Hey, Rei-chan, why don't you try entering the breaststroke?"

"Never mind entering, I still can't swim any stroke but the butterfly!" Rei said, instantly turning the idea down.

"Aw, don't say that!" Nagisa paused, and considered Rei carefully. "You're not the same Rei-chan you used to be. I bet at this point, you could swim any stroke you wanted!"

"You think so?"

Gou nodded. "Yeah. After all, you study up on swimming every day, Rei-kun," she pointed out.

Rei frowned, at least considering "I guess it could be possible, at least..."

"But now that you can swim, I bet your backstroke would be beautiful, Rei."

That was all it took. At the mention of this, Rei's demeanour changed from someone deep in thought, to someone ever to take on the challenge presented to him.

"All right then! I'll present a beautiful back, breaststroke and freestyle stroke to all of you!"

With his eyes gleaming with determination, Hana smiled, sure that he would he able to manage something. Rei's swimming had definitely developed a lot over this past year - she was sure the results would show

However, that didn't look like it would be the case.

He couldn't keep himself on top of the water while swimming breaststroke.

He only continued to go deeper into the water while swimming backstroke.

He crawled along the bottom of the pool while doing freestyle.

By the time the sun began to dip into the sky, Rei still hadn't been able to remain on top of the water while swimming any of the three other strokes.

"Why!?" Rei yelled at the end of the day, as Haru and Hana finished their instruction on swimming freestyle.

"Don't give up, Rei-kun!"

"Your form was perfect, Rei-chan!"

"Don't rush. Take your time getting the hang of it."

Different calls of encouragement came from those not currently in the water. Nagisa and Makoto had already tried

"Rei." Despite Haru's voice having been quiet, Rei looked up as the other boy spoke. "You don't need to force yourself to swim something different. As long as you have one swimming style of your own, that's enough, isn't it?"

Rei looked a little disheartened. Wanting to cheer him up, Hana sent a smile his way. "Don't worry, Rei," she chirped. "Freestyle is my only stroke, and it's not so bad. Specialising in butterfly is pretty cool, if you ask me. It's the stroke I struggle most with."

"Thank you, Hana-senpai." Rei sent a smile her way, but it didn't exactly reach his eyes. Hana didn't allow herself to bite at her lip until she had turned away from the group.

Was Rei really that troubled about not being able to swim like them?

If so, Hana felt suddenly helpless, not knowing how to help him.

*          *          *

Their first real day of training began the next day.

After she had quickly updated Hikaru of the progress of her story - the first draft was in the process of heavy editing, so much so that her page had red lines and corrections all through it - Hana had run down to the swim club, already fumbling with the zip of her bag to open it. With the pool being opened, they were really starting to get serious as a club and prepare for the prefecturals.

She changed as quickly as possible, and hurried down to the pool. As usual, she was the last one there. 

As she arrived, she felt a little twinge in her stomach as she noticed Gou and Haru sitting on the bench, looking to be deep in conversation. It's nothing, she told herself firmly as she donned her swimcap and pulled her goggles over her eyes.

Then, after choosing her lane, she dove into the water.

By the time it was time to come out again, Hana was breathing heavily. She had pushed herself a little too hard today in her program, wanting to catch up on everything she'd missed. She was paying for it now as she breathed heavily, their group trouping to the outdoor showers to wash the chlorine off their skin and hair.

The droplets of rain that came cascading out of the outdoor shower heads felt like summer rain. Hana sighed, her eyes drifting shut and tilted her head up, allowing the warm water to softly hit her face and trickle down her body. The warmth seeped through her skin, warming her right to the bone. She hadn't realised how cold the pool actually was until she felt the warm water lightly touch her skin. She sighed, allowing the water to rinse all the chlorine from her body.

She was definitely grateful that they had outdoor showers like this.

Shampoo was being handed around. Hana pumped some of the thick, creamy liquid into her hand and massaged it through her hair. Once she'd gotten right down to the roots, she tipped her head back and allowed the water to rinse out the white bubbles. They disappeared down the drain with the water.

"Ah, so nice and warm!" Nagisa exclaimed.

"It was rather cold in the pool, wasn't it?" Hana murmured, running her fingers through her wet hair, making sure the shampoo reached the shampoo at the roots and washed it all out. Another downside of having thick hair: this was often a long task.

As she finished her little rinse-off, Hana paused. Her eyes drifted toward Rei, who just stood there and allowed the water to cascade over his head. He looked a little distant. A frown crossed her lips as she realised, Rei hadn't spoken much at all that day, which was unusual for him.

Is he okay? Hana bit her lip, wanting to step forward and ask. But she wasn't sure if now was the right time. If it was something private or personal, Rei might not want to talk about it in front of a larger group, or might not want to talk about it at all.

She'd save it for a time where she could ask him in person. Nodding as she made that decision, Hana headed for the change rooms. Since she was the only one that had access to the female's changing room, she was able to dress quickly without fear of anyone walking in on her.

She walked out almost immediately, just a tad annoyed with her wet hair, causing a damp patch on the back of her shirt. As the day came to an end, a cool breeze had stirred, and it was a little colder for her with her wet hair against her neck.

It didn't take too much longer for the boys to walk out, and they headed off, talking the entire way. Nagisa was particularly animated as he talked in a fairly loud voice.

Once they reached the outside of the school, Nagisa was just finishing his story when Rei veered slightly away from their group. Of course, this little movement didn't go unnoticed.

"Hey, Rei-chan, let's all drop by Haru-chan's after this," Nagisa piped, watching him.

Rei looked away. "I'm sorry, I've got an errand to run today, so I'll go on ahead." He turned and walked in the opposite direction to where they wanted to go. "See you."

"Rei-chan..."

They all watched Rei go, lingering concern in the air. But, they decided to let it go, and headed for Haru's.

As they walked along, Haru and Hana fell a little behind Nagisa and Makoto. The two were talking, and didn't seem to have notice how they'd left their two other friends a little bit behind them.

Hana rubbed the back of her neck. She'd deliberately slowed her pace down a little so she and Haru could have some time to talk . A few butterflies fluttering in her stomach, Hana looked up at Haru. "What were you doing with Gou, earlier today?" she enquired in a soft tone.

He looked at her, mild surprise showing as he raised his eyebrows a little a her. "I was just asking her about Sousuke, and his sudden appearance at Samezuka," he said.

Hana flushed and looked down. She hadn't detected any lie in Haru's words. He hadn't spoken too quickly or paused before answering. Besides, she knew him too well.

She instantly felt foolish for thinking that there might have been something else going on between him and Gou. The two had been friends for a while, it wasn't unusual for the two of them to be talking with each other.

Gosh. Am I turning into some over-possessive, overly-paranoid girlfriend? Hana hoped not. She hadn't been like this before. She wondered what had suddenly spiked this kindling worry.

"Ah. I see." Wanting to change the topic of the conversation she said hastily, "And so, why is Sousuke at Samezuka?"

"Apparently he's already been scouted, and attends Samezuka to swim things his way before he enters university."

"Understandable." She sighed. "Gosh, lucky him. He already knows his career path."

Hana closed her eyes.

If only things were as easy as that for her.