A Metal Barrier Stood Between You and Me, Yet You Still Managed to Make Me Lose My Mind (Swimming Class, Continued)

The changing room was empty. Everyone else had left long ago.

Uesugi Hara took his time changing into his swimsuit. There was no one around, so there was no need to be modest. Even if someone had been there, he might not have cared. After all, he was packing some serious equipment; anyone who ought to feel self-conscious was someone else.

He hadn't planned to get in the water at first, and hadn't even changed into his swimsuit ahead of time. That was until the swimming teacher had just blown the whistle and announced a 50-meter freestyle race, with 5,000 Points as the prize for first place.

A race? Boring.

But 5,000 Points... Now that was interesting.

Uesugi Hara stuffed his uniform into a locker. Points practically being handed to him? No reason to turn them down.

When Uesugi Hara appeared by the pool in his swimsuit, the noisy water suddenly fell silent for half a second.

"Whoa—" Someone let out a low whistle, and several pairs of eyes immediately latched onto him. A girl blushed and whispered to her friend, "I had no idea Uesugi looked so good, and his body is so..." She trailed off, but her eyes were shining.

Someone beside her surreptitiously counted. "One, two... six! He's got a six-pack! The definition is so clear..." As she spoke, she tugged at her friend's arm and lowered her voice further. "I wonder what it'd feel like to touch..."

Even the boys swimming in the pool couldn't help sneaking a couple of glances. Broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and lean, well-defined arms—he wasn't built up with showy muscles, but there was a sharp, powerful feel to him. When he stood by the pool, a few boys who'd just been showing off their own physiques somehow seemed to lose some of their swagger.

Uesugi Hara paid no attention to the stares. They were all a bunch of shallow people.

He glanced over the length of the pool, calculating how fast he'd need to swim 50 meters.

They were just a bunch of students. There was no need to use his full strength.

"Morishita," Uesugi Hara said casually, his gaze settling on Morishita Ai, sitting by the pool. "Want me to cheer you on later?"

As he spoke, his eyes drifted downward without him realizing it.

First came a stretch of snow-white thigh. Of course, no one wore stockings to swimming class, so today Uesugi Hara had finally seen the bare skin beneath the "stocking freak's" usual look. Her skin was a pallid white, probably from spending so long out of the sun. Fine blue veins showed faintly beneath it, lending it an oddly alluring quality.

His gaze moved lower to her equally white calf, so slender it seemed like it might snap if bent.

At last, his eyes fell on her foot, dangling over the edge of the pool. It rested in the water, the tendons on its instep faintly visible. Her toes curled now and then, playfully stirring up tiny splashes.

Another one fit for human consumption.

(Sometime along the way, Uesugi Hara had discovered another one of his fetishes: he had a foot fetish.)

The thought had barely crossed Uesugi Hara's mind when his throat moved on its own and he swallowed.

That tiny movement happened to catch Morishita Ai's eye as she looked up.

Morishita Ai said nothing. She followed the direction of his gaze down to her foot in the water, then looked up and met his eyes.

"Uesugi Hara," she said in a flat tone, her face expressionless, as if stating something utterly ordinary. "Did you come here just to look at my feet?"

Her blunt question left Uesugi Hara at a loss for words. He instinctively wanted to dodge her look of disgust, so he rubbed his nose and tried to change the subject. "Of course not." He deliberately emphasized his words, circling back to what he'd said before. "Didn't I just say I'd cheer you on later?"

Morishita Ai stared at him for two seconds without replying. The foot she had in the water drew back slightly, toes curling against the pool wall as if she didn't want him to see it anymore.

"Suit yourself."

Uesugi Hara breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't try to keep the conversation going, instead turning back to lean against the pool and wait for the teacher's whistle.

Thinking back on it, had he really stared at Morishita Ai until she felt uncomfortable?

Strange.

Could she get embarrassed, too?

Uesugi Hara didn't dwell on it. He just assumed it was a normal reaction for a girl.

Aside from the few students who clearly said they couldn't swim, the teacher split the remaining boys and girls into two groups. The girls would go first.

Morishita Ai was in the first group.

The race began with a whistle from the teacher.

Uesugi Hara didn't hold back as he stood by the pool and shouted, "Morishita! Morishita! You're the best! Go!"

As he kept yelling, he got more and more into it, even breaking into a chant: "I'd go crazy for you! I'd lose my mind for you! I'd bang my head against a wall for you!"

He was so fired up, he might as well have been holding a sign that read "Morishita for the Win."

His voice was loud and wild, completely offbeat. Everyone watching nearby turned around, staring at him in stunned disbelief.

Seriously, man, did he feel no embarrassment at all?

And what had Morishita done to deserve this?

If she'd committed some unforgivable offense, then let the heavens strike her down—not make her die of embarrassment like this.

Of course, as long as Uesugi Hara wasn't embarrassed, everyone else would be.

The girls swimming in the pool were so startled that they all slowed down for a moment. Morishita Ai went rigid, too, and her kicks faltered. Her previously smooth form wobbled.

The result was predictable: Morishita Ai nearly came in last.

As soon as she climbed out of the pool, Morishita Ai covered her face with a towel and hurried over to Uesugi Hara.

Uesugi Hara was just about to ask her why, after he'd put so much effort into cheering her on, she'd only gotten slower.

Wasn't that how it went in TV dramas?

He was about to ask when she kicked him hard in the shin.

He froze, still not sure what had happened, and watched Morishita Ai walk briskly toward the changing room, her face set. She didn't even look at him, and she didn't bother wiping the water dripping from her hair.

Still stunned from the kick, Uesugi Hara turned to Kamuro Masumi, who was standing nearby. She'd been watching by the pool, too, so maybe she knew what was going on.

Kamuro Masumi shuddered at his glance and shrank back. She waved both hands frantically. "I'm fine! Don't cheer for me!" She was afraid he'd say he was going to cheer her on next.

Uesugi Hara raised an eyebrow. "I didn't say I was going to cheer for you. What are you getting so worked up about?"

Kamuro Masumi looked as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She hurriedly nodded along. "Right, I'm just getting worked up! As long as you don't cheer for me, that's fine!" For once, she was so docile that she didn't even snap back at him.

"I'm going to warm up, too. The second group will be up soon." As Kamuro Masumi spoke, she unconsciously edged farther away from Uesugi Hara.

"Okay," Uesugi Hara said. He bent down and rubbed his shin, still baffled. Didn't the heroine in TV dramas swim like she'd been injected with adrenaline when she heard someone cheer her on? Why had Morishita ended up with "motivational impairment"?

Without Uesugi Hara yelling nonsense from the poolside, Kamuro Masumi's group had a smooth race.

Kamuro Masumi came in first in the girls' group.

The boys' race wasn't much of a contest. When the whistle blew, Uesugi Hara shot forward almost skimming the water, his strokes crisp and powerful. The slowest swimmer had barely made it halfway when Uesugi Hara crashed through the water and struck the pool wall, stopping neatly at the finish.

The timer stopped at "23.11 seconds," nearly three seconds ahead of second place—a decisive win.

The teacher came over with the timer, eyes shining, and patted him on the shoulder as he urged him, "Uesugi, how about joining the swim club? With a little training, you could easily compete in major meets."

Uesugi Hara waved him off and wiped the water from his body with a towel. "No thanks, sir. I'm not interested." He cared more about the 5,000 Points.

After turning down the invitation, he draped the towel over his shoulder and went to look for Morishita Ai. He still needed to ask what exactly had been wrong with his cheering. How had it earned him a kick?

But after waiting outside the swimming hall for ages, he still didn't see her.

Where was Morishita Ai? She was long gone.

That was what he found out from Kamuro.

Uesugi Hara scratched his head, a little puzzled. Had she run off that fast?