Running After You

Chapter 7: The Job Details

"Oh, Mitora." Youta was shocked to see her by the pool. At this time he'd expected her to still be at track, even if today was set for a more quiet practice due to their prior meet. "I didn't think you'd be here."

"Is this supposed to be..." She had remembered he wanted to surprise her with something. When it was first told, the girl got excited on the prospect of him potentially joining the track team. As that had been related to their conversation that night. However, now things seemed different as she stood above him, seeing him play with another girl in the swimming pool.

Another girl who happened to be very, very attractive. The kind of girl they tell you not to worry about, but deep inside you do. "I-I'm so sorry." She nervously put up her hands in defense, as if she was about to be attacked for encroaching on someone else's territory. "I asked your teacher where you were and he said here, but I guess you're busy right now."

She then took off in a dead sprint. However her speed was so great, that her feet failed to gain traction on the slippery ground. So her body moved much slower than her legs indicated. Though it was still quick enough to make a hasty escape due to him being in the pool.

"Mitora, wait..." Now it was his turn to try to move quickly, though being an incompetent swimmer meant his attempts to quickly catch her. However his trashing only got water to splash about as the boy barely moved through the water in his desperate bid to get to the pool's edge.

Meanwhile, Fuwaka could only watch the pair in silence. Never before had she seen such urgency, yet little movement from anyone before. Their slo-mo chase ended when Youta finally reached the edge and lifted himself out of the water. He was about to call her name out once more, only to realize he was too late as she eventually rounded the corner out of the room. "Ugh, why is she freaking out?"

"Who was that?" Fuwaka asked. "Looks like one of the track runner."

"She's a friend of mine." He answered, sitting down along the edge with his legs in the water. "And yeah she does do track."

"Is that why you're a sports manager?" She asked, getting out of the pool with water drizzling down her smooth skin.

"What? Well, maybe..." Youta could only quietly admit the truth. There was something embarrassing about saying that he basically created an entirely new club just to be with one person. Perhaps because it made him out to be some kind of stalker or creep. "But my job is for the athletes with problems and she doesn't have any. So I already knew going into this that I wouldn't end up being her manager."

"That sucks for you." She shook body to dry out the rest of her excess wetness. "But you can go talk to her now. I'd say your job here is done."

"Huh? But-" He realized that all he had done with her was attempt on learning to swim. None of his mission goals were even on his mind during their short lesson.

"I'll go hang out with the rest of my teammates." she cut him off, turning to look at the other swimmers. "You make a good point. It's not so bad talking about stuff other than swimming. So I'd say mission accomplished for you and you should go talk to your friend." Fuwaka also wasn't naive. She had a sneaking suspicion on what the problem here was between him and Mitora. So it made more sense to her that he take care of this pressing issue first.

"Thanks." He got up, relieved this mission turned out better than expected. However also as expected in his life, one problem solved only for another to pop right up. "I'll see you later." With that, they both went their separate ways as he headed out of the pool room. Youta still wore nothing but his borrowed swimming trunks, but getting properly dressed had no priority compared to making sure his best friend was okay.