"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.
He figured there could only be one place for her to be after running off somewhere. This being back on the track where the rest of her track buddies were hanging out after their short practice. "Where's Mitora?" He asked a group just minding their own business by the starting line.
"Uh…" They were all too shocked by the sight of a boy wearing little while being soaking wet. To call this an uncommon sight would be an understatement.
"Maybe I should've changed first…" He muttered to himself, feeling the need to cross his arms in a futile bid to cover a bit of his skin. "Look, do you know where Mitora is?"
"She's running the track right now." One of them answered, pointing over across the field where one could see her running at full speed. "Don't know why, practice is over."
"Yeah, it was kind of weird seeing her leave, then come back and just start doing that." They were equally confused by this line of events and began walking away to continue their conversation elsewhere.
Due to Mitora's speed, it took little time for her to round the track back towards the start/finish line. There he stood confidently there, looking at her as she ran. The girl had been too focused on her running that she nearly didn't notice him. In fact, he assumed she would've, which was why he stood right in her direct path. However she made no attempt to stop as she had failed to see the half-naked boy standing before her.
"Mitora, stop!" He realized his error too late. She collided with him in full force, sending the pair flying and tumbling along the ground. Given that he wore nearly no clothes, Youta felt most of the impact on his bare skin, getting some cuts and bumps thanks to it. "Ugh, I shouldn't have tried looking cool there."
"Phew, that was rough." She felt the pain too, though nowhere near to the same degree as him. "Oh my gosh! Youta are you okay!?" Once she realized what had occurred, Mitora quickly rushed to him to check over him for potentially serious wounds.
"Eh, I'll be fine." After growing up with her roughhousing, he had developed some tolerance to pain. "Just need some bandages and I'll be good. What I should be asking is are you okay?" Youta turned the tables on her, having no choice but to confront her sudden exit to just randomly running around the track.
"There's nothing wrong with getting some practice in, is there?" Her attempt to play dumb failed in front of him. Aside from the fact that anyone with a brain would've been able to tell she was lying, Youta had grown accustomed to understanding when she'd lie.
"And I guess practice starts in the pool room, right?" He asked, knowing she had no escape.
"Well, it's just that when I saw you swimming. I thought you went and joined the swim team. That's what I figured the surprise you had for me was. Seeing you like that made me real worried that we wouldn't be able to see each other that much at all."
"Fortunately that's not the case." He then looked down at himself, still dressed only with the swim trunks. His appearance certainly didn't lend any trust for his statement. "I wasn't hanging out in the pool to be with the swimmers. It has to do with what my surprise is. Mitora, I'm now a part of the sports management club."
"The sports management club?" She repeated the last words of his statement, confused as she racked her brain over it. "I didn't know we have a sports management club."
"We do now." He explained to her how he became the inaugural member for such a club. Where even now he remained its only member. "My job is to help athletes with a variety of things." He wished he could be more specific, but it turned out the position meant being flexible as well.
"It didn't look like you were helping that girl out." She still remained unsure, as what she saw didn't resemble what she thought sports managers would do.
"Look, I'm only in this club for you." He finally admitted out loud the true reason. It was already obvious to anyone who knew his relationship with Mitora, but saying out loud was still an accomplishment. "Because I figured if I played a more active role in sports, then maybe we'd hang out more because we haven't done that in a long time now. I also thought I'd just be handing out water bottles, but this gig isn't so bad."
"Hehe, of course." She giggled. "You're the best person I know for this job. So I know you'll do your best." Hearing him tell her this got Mitora to calm down and return the smile she held each and every day.
"Great, so how about a proper introduction to your new sports manager?" He held out a hand for her to give a firm handshake as if acting like he became a new coach. She instead took his hand and pulled the boy in for a hug. "Oh, um, maybe not right now…" The conditions were perfect for the worst possible time for him to get a hug from her considering they were sitting on the track and he nothing but shorts on. "Ah, what the heck?" Though it caused him much anxiety, Youta did indeed return her hug.