Open Waters

Chapter Fourteen

Clear Depths

For whatever reason, Makoto had been keeping an eye on Hana the day following their shopping. Hana thought that it would be likely for Makoto to realise something was up about her, considering that he could always read her like an open book, even when they were kids. But she'd brushed it off, laughing and smiling, and slowly Makoto's worry appeared to vanish. Hana was relieved. She didn't exactly want to explain why she had a swimsuit stuffed in her bag, which was what she would've had to confess if Makoto had confronted her. But he hadn't, so Hana found she could breathe freely again

They'd watched Rei attempt to swim again that day, dressed in his swimsuit and other swim attire, which made him looked rather professional. When he acheived the perfect entry angle for his dive, everyone felt a small sense of hope, which dimished once Rei sank to the bottom yet again.

When Haru had offered to teach Rei how to swim, everyone once again felt hopeful. But not even Haru's coaching could get Rei to swim freestyle. Hana felt her heart reach out to Rei, knowing how demoralising this must be for him, trying stroke after stroke and not being able to succeed in any. When practice finished, Rei had gone to sit on his own, and Haru had gone to talk to him.

Their talk had gone on longer than Hana could have anticipated, which left her feeling mildly ep anxious. Throughout the whole training session, she had wanted to get into the water, but not with everyone else around to start asking questions. She was sure that the longer she put it off, the more likely she was to chicken out and run off.

Eventually, everyone had left. Hana had invented some excuse to allow her to stay behind. As she'd expected, Makoto cast a concerned, suspicious glance her way, and even Haru spared her a second glance. But they'd gone off anyway, leaving Hana alone by the pool.

Now, Hana stared at the water just below her, glowing a strange orange colour to reflect the dying sunlight. The orange made the water appear to be almost warm and welcoming, completely different to her last experience with it.

Hana wrapped her arms around her body, her hands gripping her bare arms. Her light blue swimsuit covered her body instead of her school uniform. Hana couldn't remember the last time she had ever worn a swimsuit in order to go swimming. It felt weird.

She had gone to change not long after the boy's swimming practice ended, and had worn her tracksuit and jumper over the top as a means to hide it. But now the area by the pool was empty. Hana's clothes lay discarded by the pool, in the dryest area Hana could find; a place mostly unaffected by the small puddles caused by wet feet and water dripping off bodies.

Hana would have been in the pool earlier, but Rei and Haru had been talking late, to the point of sunset. Hana glanced up at the sky, and saw it was still a beautiful, deep orange, with streaks of pink. Normally, she didn't like orange, but sunset orange was different. Sunset orange was beautiful.

Hang on a second. Why am I paying so much attention to the sky? Hana shook her head, realising that she'd unconsciously been stalling.

Come on. Makoto is still afraid of the water, but he still dives in and swims. Rei can't swim at all, and he still keeps trying and trying, no matter how many times he sinks. Hana, you can do the same as them. The least you can do is just lower yourself into the water, and see where you go from there.

With a small start and quick scold, Hana gently lowered herself down so she sat, instantly making contact with a wet puddle on the floor. Now seated, Hana slowly moved her legs so they weren't on dry land anymore; she pushed them into the water.

Hana gasped, the chill rising from her legs and shooting up her body. She instinctively flinched at the cold and almost withdrew, but withheld and squeezed her eyes shut. Slowly, the initial shock of the cold passed to the point the cool water felt nice and gentle against her legs.

This wasn't as bad as Hana had thought it would be. She was sure something would have happened, that some unknown danger below would have seized her. But that hadn't happened. Even though, it was only her legs that were in the water. To wait to see how she fully reacted to the water, she was going to have to completely submerge herself.

Hana's breath hitched in her throat. This was the real challenge. To say she was nervous would be an understatement; something that resembled giant moths was attacking her stomach, a flutter of nerves. Her heart rate had increased slightly as well.

Stop delaying, and get a move on already! Hana's hands gripped the edge of the pool in a tight hold as she twisted her body around, and gently lowered herself into the water.

If the water had been cold against her legs, it was nothing compared to what she felt against her stomach and chest. Hana gasped, the cold stabbing at her body. But she knew the cold would pass soon; it had for her legs, after all.

Even though the cold passed, it took a little longer for the shock to wear off. When it had, Hana looked down, at the water lapping against her side.

 I'm… I'm in the water. Hana felt dazed. I'm in the water.

I'm in the water.

Oh God. I'm in the water.

A small panic was building it's way up inside Hana as she realised this, which started from her stomach and worked its way up. Hana's grip to the edge of the pool tightened as though it were her lifeline. She cursed herself for choosing the deeper end of theh pool to clamber into. The shallow end would have been a wiser choice, a much wiser choice, for there her feet could touch the bottom. If she had chosen the shallower end, she wouldn't be thinking thoughts such as, what if I let go? and panicking as a result.

Hana attempted to calm herself, telling herself that panicking wasn't going to make things any easier, and it would get her nowhere. But it wasn't working. The feel of something foreign and threatening in the water overtook her, dragging her further down into its depths. She gasped, and in that moment wanted nothing more but to scramble out from the water and bolt as far away from it as possible.

 But she didn't do it straight away. A small voice had stirred inside her. No. This is not the ocean, it was saying. It's a pool. There's nothing in the pool. Nothing. You're not drowning, you're not overcome with fright. You're not. You're holding on to the edge of the pool, and you're safe. You're fine.

 Hana repeated the words to herself over and over, even muttering them out loud. Soon, the words began to settle in, and her fear subsided. There was still something small at the back of her mind, but it was covered up with other thoughts and was hardly notiable.

 Hana closed her eyes, allowing herself to feel the water, to feel the cool liquid as it caressed her skin, to feel the odd way her legs dangled in the water.

 Though she was afraid, Hana was surprised to find that the water, once you got used to it, was actually rather nice.

 This is what Haru feels whenever he enters the water. Hana smiled a little. I kind of understand where he's coming from now.

 Once she was used to the sensation of being in the water, Hana decided to give actual swimming a try. She had been swimming a few times with Makoto as children before the accident. Was swimming like riding a bike, something that you never forgot? Hana hoped so.

Tentatively, Hana released her hold on the wall, pushing herself back slightly. At once, she began to thrash about, her childhood swimming lessons forgotten. She gasped and lunged forward it the water, once more grasping the wall. She breathed deeply, shaking water droplets from her face. That might not have been the wisest of all ideas, she reflected ruefully. She sighed, placing her head on her arms, surprised how content she felt, and how she could have stayed floating in the water all day if she could.

"Hana?"

Hana gasped lightly as she recognised the voice, feeling like a little kid who had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. She flushed furiously. Oh goodness. Out of all people to find me into the water, it's him.

Slowly, Hana raised her head, meeting eyes as pure blue as the water on a bright, clear summer's day. "Haru," she whispered.

Hana didn't know what he was still doing here, but she had a fair guess why. She guessed he had wanted to swim, without having to worry about training; he had wanted to just be the water. He was still in his swimsuit.

Haru gazed evenly down at her, expressionless as always. "What are you doing?"

 Hana glanced down at the water and back up at Haru, her expression portraying an isn't-it-obvious look. "I'm spending time in the water."

"How come? We both know you're afraid."

Hana sighed and looked down, her semi-wet hair falling over her face. "I know Makoto is still afraid of the water, and yet he still dives in," she said lowly. "I have seen how Rei can't swim, and yet there he is, continually diving into the water and giving his all even though all he does is swim. I have seen how free you are in the water." She glanced up at Haru, peeking through her eye lashes. "If Makoto and Rei can do it… then so can I. Just watching them makes me feel ashamed."

Haru walked closer to the water's edge, leaving Hana eying the minimal space between them. "No one's forcing you to do anything. Just because Makoto and Rei -"

"Haru. I know what I'm doing," she cut across, oddly firm for a change. Once he was silenced, she smiled softly. "This was my choice. Believe me."

Haru processed her words for a moment. Hana wasn't know what to make of his expression, so she just allowed herself to stand by patiently and wait.

"Can you swim?" Haru asked suddenly.

"I tried," Hana admitted with a sheepish smile. "All I managed to do was grab onto the edge before I sank."

"What stroke did you attempt?"

"I don't know. I didn't even try swimming. I just pushed away from the edge and started thrashing about."

Haru didn't respond. Hana was expecting him to do nothing, but then he lowered himself into the water beside her. Hana bit her lip to suppress a gasp, noting how close together they were. She could feel her cheeks warming up and desperately wished she could stop the blood flooding to her cheeks, which turned them a fiery red.

"If you're going to be in the water, you're going to have to learn how to swim," Haru said.

Hana blinked. "Huh?"

"You don't want your near-drowning experience to happen again, do you?"

Hana shuddered at the reminder. "No," she whispered, remembering his she'd panicked initially as she entered the water, all because of that one experience. "I don't."

"Then you need to learn to swim," Haru reasoned with her.

Hana chuckled lightly, seeing his point. Now she thought of it, the idea was as plain as day. She should have thought about that before she first entered the water. '"Now you put it that way… yeah, it definitely does make sense."

"I can teach you."

Hana blinked, completely caught off guard by his offer. "What?" she breathed. Her head whirled as she tried to process what exactly had just been offered. Haru had offered to teach her how to swim. She hadn't expected him to make this offer right off the bat. After all, he'd initially refused to reached Rei how to swim.

And yet here he was, willingly and genuinely offering to teach her how to swim.

"I can teach you to swim," Haru repeated.

Hana felt like embracing him, but refrained from doing so. That wouldn't exactly be the wisest thing to do in the water, at this present moment. "Haru…"

"Only," he said, raising one hand to silence her. "I can only teach you freestyle."

Hana smiled soflty, colour once more brightening her cheeks. "That's the only stroke I wanted to learn."

*          *          *

Hana hadn't ended up doing any swimming last night. It had grown dark before long, and she had to return before her parents became worried. She and Haru had left the pool together, Hana thankful that she hadn't put her hair underwater so her long, brown strands weren't dripping wet. She and Haru had walked back home together, on the way agreeing to stay behind a little after every practice for some time in the water.

Though there might not have been any pressure on Hana to learn how to swim soon, there was definitely some for Rei. On the seventh day of Gou's allotted time for him to learn how to swim, he still hadn't managed to successfully swim a stroke.

Now, as a result, the group were resorted to desperately looking for altnerate methods to allow him to swim.

"Since it's come to this, let's have him use a kick board in the tournament!" Nagisa cried desperately, holding the kick board out for everyone to see.

"Do the rules allow that?" Gou wondered.

Makoto walked on to the scene, looking thoughtfully at the blue board. "That's an option, but do the rules allow it?"

Hana laughed, spotting Gou's frustrated expression. "A little late, Makoto," she teased. "But, I don't know. Have you ever seen anyone enter with a kick board before? Which stroke would he swim other than just, kicking?"

Gou sighed. "We'll have to look that up," she said.

Silence fell over the group. Hana didn't want to admit it to everyone, but at this rate, she didn't like their chances of getting to swim with four swimmers. It looked like they might have to wait for the next competition. She was sure they were all thinking of this, but just didn't want to admit it to themsleves. And she didn't want to be the one to bring their hopes down.

In the sudden silence, they could hear a new sound. Hana pursed her lips as she heard it. It sounded like someone moving through the water.

Probably Haru, she reasoned. He always likes to get into the water as soon as possible once turning up for practice.

Makoto looked up to inspect the noise. His next words surprised everyone. "Someone's swimming butterfly," he noted. 

Hana gasped, shocked. She looked up and indeed saw someone swimming back to the start of the pool, using the butterfly stroke. She couldn't think of who it was. It couldn't be Haru. Haru only swam freestyle.

"Is that Haru-chan?" Nagisa wondered.

 Hana shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Haru only swims freestyle." A small smile crossed her face as she remembered last night.

 "It's not me."

 Speak of the devil. Hana bit her lip, holding down a laugh as she turned around, spotting Haru standing behind them. She then gasped, a sudden thought hitting her.

 "That means…" Gou whispered, picking up on Hana's line of thought. If Haru wasn't swimming, then the only other member of the swim club had to be… Rei.

 Sure enough, when the swimmer reached the end of the pool, he moved his swim cap to reveal his blue hair. He was breathing deeply.

 Everyone moved forward, and Hana almost stayed glued to the spot. But she followed them as she ran up to Rei. She couldn't believe it. After all the strokes Rei had attempted, the one he could swim was that hardest stroke of all, the butterfly stroke.

 "Rei-chan? Were just you swimming butterfly?" Nagisa exclaimed.

 Rei breathed deeply, regaining his breath before he looked up at them. "It was the only stroke I hadn't tried yet," he explained. "Once I tried it, I was able to swim."

 Gou looked at Rei as though he was some kind of unknown, foreign species. "What? Why?" she cried.

 Rei looked across the pool, to where Haru was standing on his own. Hana thought she saw Rei's lips moved, and thought she might have heard a soft sound pass his lips, but she couldn't confirm it.

 "Did you say something, Rei-chan?" Nagisa asked quietly,

Rei turned back to them, shaking his head. "No, I can't explain it either," he said, shrugging their initial questions of.

 "Seriously?" Gou remarked. She sounded a little irritated, though it was hardly noticeable.

 Makoto shrugged. "Well, I guess it worked out in the end."

Nagisa grinned and leaned a little further over the edge. "Hey, Rei-chan, can you do another lap?"

 "Sure."

Hana smiled as she watched Rei take off once again. He wasn't the fastest of butterfly swimmers, but he managed to stroke fairly well. Hana wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to properly swim butterfly. Freestyle looked like the easiest and most natural of strokes, which was why she was attempting it.

 She glanced over at Haru, and their eyes met briefly. Hana smiled at him, a soft blush to her cheeks.

 It was slowly becoming more obvious to her that swimming and the water weren't as bad as she first thought they were.

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whoo, chapter fourteen up! hana has started trying to get over her fear... of course, that's made all the better with haru-chan helping her out, haha. how long do you think it'll take for the others to find out? do you think hana will succeed?

next chapter coming soon! thank you all for reading :)