High Speed!

Chapter 3: Free

Chapter 3: Free

It was four days later that Haruka returned to swim practice. He walked into the locker room, out of breath but with the same expression as always.

Makoto was already changing. "Haru......"

"Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me! What's going on? Are you better already?"

"I'm fine," Haruka muttered, looking displeased at Makoto's worried expression.

"You're not fine. You're so out of breath; are you sure you don't still have a fever?"

Haruka waved him off like an annoyance and opened the door of his locker. Makoto raised his voice, sounding irritated. "Haru!"

"I ran here."

"From where?"

"My house, obviously," Haruka said, tossing his bag into his locker.

"Hey, Haru, you weren't at school today, were you?"

"I felt better this afternoon." Haruka answered as if the question was bothersome, and started to get undressed. As if to say I don't want to look at your worried face anymore,Haruka continued to change in silence.

"Haru, what are you going to do if your fever comes back?"

"Makoto!" Haruka's firm tone of voice and the clang of the locker shutting combined to drown out Makoto's words.

"...W-what?"

Haruka started walking, putting his left hand on Makoto's shoulder as he passed by. "Thank you." Leaving him with those words, Haruka exited the locker room.

Makoto suddenly felt a little weak. His jaw went slack at the unexpected words, and unconsciously, he raised his upturned eyebrows. Somehow, his feelings of worry over Haruka disappeared completely.

Haruka tried to swim the thousand meter crawl just as he always did. His breathing didn't get nearly as labored while he was in the water as it had while he was running. On the contrary, he felt as though he was being healed. For Haruka, this is how the water always was.

It was a lie that he'd felt better this afternoon. The truth was that he'd just started to feel better right now. School wouldn't heal his body or his heart, and so he had stayed home. As Haruka felt his strength returning in the water, he gradually increased his speed.

Haruka cut through the water in a glossy spray of foam, and when he lifted his face from the water, a single hand was held out to him. It was a more slender and delicate hand than Makoto's. It looks kind of like it would break if I grabbed it, he thought, hesitating for a second. He took off his goggles and looked up, his eyes narrowed.

"Welcome back. I'm glad you got better so soon." With a smile like a blooming sunflower, Aki was looking down at him. It was the hand that Haruka had shoved away that day under the line of poplars. He took the offered hand and pulled himself up onto the poolside.

"Thanks."

"Sure."

Tilting his head to the right to get out the water that had gotten into his ears, Haruka asked quietly, "Your scarf..." Just that short phrase escaped from his mouth.

Aki's sunflower smile clouded over just a little. "Yeah...?"

"I was thinking maybe you wouldn't want it anymore after it got like that, but..." Even after it had been washed, the newly-light-brown scarf had not returned to its original whiteness, but Haruka had entrusted it to Makoto anyway, leaving the task of returning it to Aki to him.