Swimming Lesson

After lunch, the boys' long-awaited swimming lesson finally arrived.

"Woohoo!" Ike let out a strange cry and set off first, calling Ayanokoji along as he headed for the indoor pool. Konoe quietly followed the boys.

As soon as they reached the Locker Room, Sudo stripped down to his underwear so he could change quickly. His clearly visible muscles showed that his body had been thoroughly trained through sports, and his build was obviously superior to those of the other students.

"Sudo, you're really shameless about it, huh? Don't you care what people around you think?" Ayanokoji said to him. All the other students were wrapping themselves in bath towels while they changed.

"What's there to be nervous about when you're changing clothes after sports? If you keep sneaking around, you'll just draw attention to yourself."

"Hey, Konoe, your skin's way too pale!" Ike's voice came from beside them. Ayanokoji turned to look.

"Don't stand there looking eager to touch me. If you do, I'll beat you up." Konoe's voice was several degrees colder, but Ike didn't seem to care.

"Come to think of it, Konoe's pretty good-looking. He seems kind of feminine, though. Is he actually a girl in disguise? Why don't we pull his clothes open and take a look? Hahaha!" Yamauchi laughed from over here.

Seeing Konoe's expression darken, Ayanokoji, already changed, came over to smooth things over.

"Come on, everyone, hurry up and change. We don't want to keep the girls waiting, do we?"

At the mention of girls, Ike and Yamauchi naturally stopped focusing on Konoe and immediately put on their swimsuits.

Soon, the boys began filing out of the Locker Room one after another. Ayanokoji quietly waited for Konoe to finish changing before leaving with him.

Ayanokoji noticed that Konoe looked extremely frail—or perhaps sickly. Judging by how his muscles were distributed, he looked like someone who had never worked out before and had only just started. The strange thing was that Konoe didn't seem picky about food and often ate candy.

"How is it?" Ayanokoji asked casually, wanting to see whether what had happened earlier had affected Konoe.

"Hm? Don't worry. I'll make sure to warm up. Besides, aren't you worrying about me a little too much? It's just a swimming lesson."

Judging by Konoe's response, he seemed fine, Ayanokoji thought.

In fact, Konoe had taken note of what happened. But there was no point getting angry over such a petty person, so he wouldn't make a big deal of it.

The 50-meter Swimming Pool was crystal clear, and being indoors meant the weather wouldn't affect it. Kogenji, standing nearby, nodded in approval at the sight. His muscles looked quite exaggerated.

"Where are the girls? Haven't they finished changing yet?"

Ike hummed as he searched for the girls.

Konoe glanced up at the spectator seats above the pool. Students who couldn't take part in lessons for health reasons usually sat there to observe.

A few minutes later, the girls began filing out.

"Hasebe's not here! W-What's going on, Doctor?!" Ike shouted something incomprehensible.

Ike was talking about a beautiful girl named Hasebe Haruka. She was gorgeous and often drew the boys' attention and gossip, but she responded to their stares with contemptuous looks and undisguised disgust.

Just then, Konoe also noticed a boy who hadn't changed into his swimsuit. It seemed to be... Sotomura... Sotomura Hideo. The "Doctor" Ike had called out to was good with computers.

Doctor was anxiously looking around from his seat in the spectator section, but he hadn't noticed Hasebe behind him.

"Disgusting."

It turned out Hasebe had chosen to observe, too. She had clearly heard Ike shouting and was passing harsh judgment on Doctor for staring all over the girls' bodies.

Hasebe sat on the platform, looking down at the boys with contempt. Her gaze met Konoe's.

Hasebe really was beautiful, so it was no wonder Ike was so excited, Konoe thought. But he felt that looking away now would mean losing, so he stared right back into Hasebe's eyes. He wasn't even sure what contest he thought he was winning.

Before long, Hasebe looked away. Konoe felt a little pleased with himself after his victory, but then he realized how childish he'd been. He began to feel rather embarrassed.

Students gradually took their seats in the spectator section, one after another—seven or eight of them, probably.

Konoe turned back toward the pool. In the clear water, the girls were playing around with one another.

After watching the girls in their swimsuits for a while, the boys instead turned their gazes away.

"What are you thinking about?" Konoe asked with concern when he saw Ayanokoji bowing his head.

"I'm keeping my head down and fighting with myself." Ayanokoji glanced toward the girls, then lowered his head again.

"? What do you mean..."

Konoe followed Ayanokoji's gaze and began observing the girls. Then he understood. Blushing, he lowered his head just like Ayanokoji. It would be terrible if he reacted in front of everyone.

"Come to think of it, you're pretty muscular. Are you good at any sports?" Konoe tried to shift his attention.

"No. I've never joined a club, either. I guess I was born this way."

Konoe looked at his own body, pale and frail.

"Are you kidding me?" Konoe replied indignantly.

"Okay, everyone, gather around!" The voice belonged to a commanding Muscle Uncle. He had the air of both a gym teacher and an athlete. Anyone, boy or girl, might have been drawn to him.

"Quite a few of you are just observing, huh? I'll let it slide this first time, but next time, no observers without a special reason," he said sternly.

"I'll get straight to the point. Once you've warmed up, you'll go straight into the water. I want to see what you can do."

"Teacher, I'm not very good at swimming..." A boy spoke up, saying what Konoe had wanted to say.

"Since you're my student, I'll make sure you learn to swim before summer. Don't worry."

"No, you don't have to force me to learn. I'm not going to the beach anyway."

"That won't do. It doesn't matter how bad you are right now; I'll help you overcome it. Once you learn to swim, it'll definitely come in handy later. Definitely."

Hearing that, Konoe took swimming even more seriously.

Whether the teacher said it out of a sense of responsibility or because they really would need swimming later, learning to swim in class would be very beneficial for him.

After the warm-up, the teacher had them swim fifty meters to see how they did. Those who couldn't swim were told to get in and get used to the water first. The students could stand with their feet on the bottom of the pool.

Once it seemed like everyone had gotten used to the water, the teacher moved on to the next activity.

"Okay, now we'll go straight into a race. The boys and girls will each compete in a fifty-meter freestyle. The winner gets 5,000 points. The slowest person will have to attend remedial lessons."

As expected, the girls' winner was Swimming Club member Onodera Kayano, with a time of twenty-six seconds. But Konoe hadn't expected Kushida to place fourth, with a time of thirty-one seconds. That surprised him. Horikita came in second, which showed how good she was at sports.

Among the boys, Sudo swam the fifty meters with astonishing intensity, taking only twenty-five seconds. Ayanokoji took thirty-six seconds, though he seemed to enjoy diving underwater partway through each time he swam. Konoe had no idea what he was doing. Hirata clocked in at twenty-six seconds. The Soccer Club member really was strong.

Meanwhile, Kogenji wore an unconventional pair of briefs and churned up a huge amount of water as he swam. Surprisingly, he was extremely fast, finishing in twenty-three seconds.

"My muscles are as beautiful as ever. Not bad, wouldn't you say?"

He's a monster, Konoe judged.

After swimming fifty meters, he wasn't even out of breath. He casually swept his hair back, as if what he'd just done had been as easy as taking a stroll.

After the race, the teacher let everyone do as they pleased. Konoe used the time to work hard at trying to swim.

By the time the swimming lesson ended, Konoe had finally managed to control his body in the water.