Chapter 17: Swimming Class (Part 2)
"Wow, what a spacious swimming pool! It's way bigger than the one at my junior high."
"Shimizu-san, your skin is so smooth. Let me touch, let me touch."
"W-Wait, Nishikawa-san, where exactly are you touching…?"
A few minutes after the boys, the girls arrived wearing various kinds of swimsuits, chattering happily as they approached the pool.
Hearing their cheerful voices, Hikigaya instinctively turned toward the sound.
In the next moment, he forgot how to breathe.
Yukinoshita Yukino appeared like a personification of snow, just as her name implied.
As for her beauty—she was someone who couldn't be touched or possessed, only admired from afar.
She wore a conservative navy blue school swimsuit. Her fair skin, exposed to the air, glistened like crystal. Her elegant curves stretched from her shapely calves to her slender waist. Her petite waist was astonishingly thin.
She walked at the front of the group of girls. When her eyes met Hikigaya's, her gaze turned sharp and icy, as if it could freeze the entire pool.
As Hikigaya stared in a daze, someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw a girl named Kamuro Masumi.
A mysterious shade of purple entered his view.
She wore a sexy purple bikini, and her silky smooth skin complemented it perfectly.
Droplets of water slid swiftly down her glossy skin, gliding over her gracefully curved neck, pausing briefly in the dip of her collarbone, and finally disappearing into the snowy valley between her breasts. Her firm, straight legs were less about being healthy and more about exuding wild allure.
"Well? What do you think?" Kamuro stood before Hikigaya with arms crossed, her shapely figure completely on display.
This was bad.
Honestly, Hikigaya couldn't tear his eyes away. His willpower had been completely shattered. Even when he forced himself to look away, after a few seconds, gravity—boob gravity—naturally pulled his gaze right back.
"Well, how should I put this… looks good. Really suits you," Hikigaya said, trying to sound calm, though his cheeks were faintly red.
"Is that so? Thanks…" Kamuro didn't seem to care much about his opinion.
She just looked like she wanted to show off, and after getting his reaction, she coldly turned away and rejoined the girls.
Luckily, the other boys were too distracted by the rest of the girls, or else Hikigaya would've been stabbed by their glares.
"All right, everyone gather around—"
A muscle-bound middle-aged man, who looked like he carried the pride of the athletic world on his shoulders, gathered the students and began class.
"One person's missing… oh well, let's get started. After we warm up, I want you all to try swimming one lap so I can see how skilled you are. Since you're learning from me, I'll make sure you can swim by summer. Don't worry."
"Um, teacher, it's okay if we don't have to learn how to swim, right? I mean, it's not like we'll be going to the beach while we're at school," one girl raised her hand.
"That's no good. It doesn't matter how bad you are—I'll help you overcome it. Besides, knowing how to swim will come in handy, absolutely."
Unlike other teachers who let students do whatever they wanted, this P.E. teacher flatly refused to bend.
So that's how it is—seems like swimming might come in handy for school exams or future activities.
Putting that together with what the teacher just said, it's likely that swimming will play a role in some summer event.
The students in Class A clearly understood the hint and stopped complaining. They quickly lined up and, under the teacher's guidance, began doing warm-ups seriously.
Hikigaya stood in the back row. All he could see in front of him was a blur of pale skin, making him a bit dizzy.
Afterward, the students were told to swim one lap as a trial.
Those who couldn't swim just needed to step in and get a feel for the water with their feet.
The P.E. teacher stood by the pool, stopwatch in hand, observing and recording.
Though it was still only April and the air hadn't fully warmed up, the pool water had clearly been temperature-controlled—it wasn't as cold as Hikigaya expected, and his body adjusted quickly.
"Hmm, looks like almost everyone can swim. Next, let's do a race—boys and girls, 50 meters freestyle," the teacher said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, then added, "To motivate you, I'll give 5,000 points as a special reward to the winner. On the flip side, the slowest person will have to take extra lessons—so be prepared."
Unexpectedly, it turned out that teachers also had some authority to allocate points, not just the school administration.
Meaning if you negotiated properly with a teacher or showed your ability, you could potentially earn more points.
With that realization, students confident in their swimming puffed up their chests, ready to compete, while those less confident looked uneasy.
"We'll separate the races by gender, five people per group. Since there are fewer girls, they'll go first. They'll only swim once, and I'll time it—the fastest 50-meter swimmer wins. For the boys, the five fastest from the first round will swim again to determine first place."
After five minutes of prep, the P.E. teacher blew his whistle, and five girls dove into the pool.
Yukinoshita swam in lane two and took the lead immediately with elegant movements, like a mermaid.
Her long black hair floated gently with the ripples. Droplets on her skin sparkled under the sunlight that filtered through the water's surface, making her appear wrapped in a dazzling crystal aura.
She completed the 50 meters flawlessly, placing first in her group. Cheers of admiration came from both boys and girls.
However, once she got out of the pool, Yukinoshita didn't talk to the others who gathered around her.
She simply took a towel from another girl and sat on a nearby bench, drying her wet hair with an exhausted expression.
Are you somebody's grandma or what?
Kamuro wasn't in the same group as Yukinoshita, but she seemed athletic as well—her movements were sharp and powerful, and she too won her group.
Unfortunately, her time was two seconds slower than Yukinoshita's, putting her in second place among the girls.
Looks like those melons really do affect performance, huh…
Noticing Hikigaya's pitying gaze, Yukinoshita—despite winning—flushed with embarrassment and glared at him.
He quickly turned away in fear.
Terrifying. Dead. I almost just died.
What saved Hikigaya from that soul-freezing glare was the teacher calling him over for his own race.
Grateful, Hikigaya looked at the teacher with deep appreciation, vowing to give it his all in return for this act of salvation.
The result—
Hikigaya not only got placed in the same group as Kito-san but also twisted his waist from overexertion.