Sounds in the Water (3)
The swimming we learned here was, by design, quiet. Breaststroke, where you push forward with arms and legs beneath the surface, or underwater swimming, where you stay submerged for long stretches and simply glide—those were the strokes they taught.
That was why, even as class went on, the sound of splashing barely ever rose. On the rare occasions it did, the instructor would correct the form at once, drill it again, and the student would fall into line almost immediately.
Most of them had already learned to swim before entering Private Acacia Academy. I had practiced myself half to death at the neighborhood pool, so I managed without much trouble.
Not everyone, however, was so prepared. Mistakes still happened. Chae-rin was one of those cases.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t swim. She was the sort who did warm-ups before the instructor even arrived, overflowing with eagerness for the water.
If it hadn’t been for the absurd demand that one swim elegantly and without a sound, she would have been faster and more precise than anyone else here.
But that was not what this place required. Quiet. Like a beautiful mermaid strolling through the depths. And so most of the lesson became a string of scoldings directed at Chae-rin.
I wanted to help her. I couldn’t. The witch holding my hand and smiling sweetly made sure of that.
“Shall we try underwater swimming first?”
“Underwater swimming… you say.”
The words alone made my face twist. Of course they did. The reason her followers had dunked me half to death was the violence they carried out under the pretext of underwater practice.
Every time I tried to surface for air they had pressed down hard on my head and body, and the agony of it still lived in my bones.
Now that Yoon Seo-a was here, though, they stood a short distance off, shoulders nearly touching, as if screening the glances that kept drifting our way.
“It’s fine. They won’t come over here.”
She spoke as if she had read the direction of my gaze.
“Is that so.”
The assurance didn’t inspire much trust, so I answered half-heartedly. She looked at me as though she were disappointed. Looking at me like that wouldn’t make me change my mind.
“Let’s begin. Our turn seems to be coming soon.”
Chae-rin finished being scolded. Students began pairing off again, two by two, and pushing off along the lane.
I looked at Yoon Seo-a and drew a deep breath. Taking that as the signal, she inhaled as well.
She was still smiling. The sight left me uneasy, but it was already too late to refuse.
I slipped under without a sound. Yoon Seo-a followed at once.
Hair that hadn’t all fit inside her swim cap, gathered into a single knot, floated upward in a soft cloud.
I kept our clasped hands and slowly drew them toward my body as I swam.
She wasn’t a beginner, and we were here to practice; pulling her from the start wouldn’t matter.
As expected, Yoon Seo-a matched my movements with languid ease.
She could have done this perfectly well without any practice at all. I checked the distance markers painted on the bottom, then began to turn so we could head back.
Even if no one was watching us during class, that only held true while we were at the starting line. Stick a head up midway and even the instructor would notice.
I was guiding her hand to reverse direction when it happened.
“...?!”
Yoon Seo-a closed the distance in a sudden rush and wrapped her whole body around mine.
Blub— Startled, I exhaled. The air left my mouth as bubbles racing for the surface; we, conversely, sank.
It was not my will. I stared wide-eyed at Yoon Seo-a, her face inches from mine, still smiling.
Then the pool floor met my back. I looked up at the girl who had settled astride me.
I still had air to spare. Underwater swimming was not a vigorous stroke, and we had not been racing; I could have held out a long while yet.
But my heart was hammering. The sight of her sitting on me overlapped with the eight arms that had once pinned me down outside the water.
Blub. More bubbles escaped my mouth and nose.
A chill ran down the nape of my neck. The sound of my own heartbeat filled my ears. Conditioned fear began to erode my composure. As I stared up at her with trembling eyes, Yoon Seo-a smiled sweetly and reached for my face.
The hand that stroked my cheek so gently drifted lower, lower still, until it found my throat. Her fingers closed carefully around it.
She was not trying to choke me. Even so, the pressure on my neck forced another violent rush of bubbles from my lungs.
This was the real limit. I had no idea why she was doing this, but I was on the edge of drowning.
I shoved against the pool floor and heaved myself up. Yoon Seo-a withdrew without resistance.
She did not, however, move completely aside. The moment I tried to swim for the surface she seized my hand again and began stroking back the way we had come.
Surfacing at once would only draw every eye; the choice was sensible enough. Unfortunately I no longer had any margin left.
“Gah…!”
The last air left my lungs. Strength drained from my arms and legs in a single rush.
Before, I had always managed to break the surface at the critical instant. This time I had stayed under to the absolute limit; holding on was impossible.
Is dying this absurdly going to be my end? The thought was bitterly unfair, yet my useless body continued to sink.
My eyes were just beginning to close when something suddenly gripped my face. Something soft pressed against my mouth. Breath flowed into me.
It was only a single lungful, but it was enough to catch the vitality that had been scattering and drag my fading consciousness back.
I opened my half-lidded eyes. At a distance where our noses nearly touched, Yoon Seo-a’s eyes were tightly shut.
Because she was the one who tormented me, I had never really looked before. Yoon Seo-a was an attractive woman.
Among the young ladies who entered Private Acacia Academy, who wasn’t beautiful? Yet she was different.
Ah—if I had to name one, Senior Seo-hee, whom I had met the day before the entrance ceremony, might stand on equal footing with her.
I was still blankly thinking that when her closed eyes slowly opened.
Until now I had believed her irises were simply black. This close, a faint blue light seemed to live in them.
Indigo, perhaps. Or, because we were underwater, aquamarine.
While I stared, she drew back and once more took my hand, leading me.
With the breath she had given me, swimming was no longer difficult.
“Hah!”
We reached the starting point and broke the surface together, neither waiting for the other.
“Cough, cough!”
I covered my mouth, spat water, and dragged air in and out until the fact that I had stood on the threshold of death finally sank in.
“Hah… hah….”
“Ha-eun, are you all right?”
All right? I hugged my trembling body and looked up at Yoon Seo-a’s calm face.
No—she did not look entirely fine either.
Her complexion was pale, the face of someone who had barely clawed free of respiratory failure.
None of that registered. Only the image of her sitting astride me underwater kept circling through my mind. Rage rose with it.
Just because I had stopped her from tormenting someone else, she had tormented me—and now she had nearly killed a person?
My head went white. My vision flickered.
When I came back to myself, everyone was staring. The swimming instructor wore an expression of pure disbelief. Yoon Seo-a’s clique looked horrified.
Only Chae-rin, among them all, was giving me a thumbs-up as if to say well done.
I took them in one by one, then turned my eyes to Yoon Seo-a. Her cheek was bright red, as if something had struck it, and her head was turned to one side.
No need to speak of it as though it belonged to someone else. I had slapped Yoon Seo-a’s cheek. With everything I had, pouring every feeling I possessed into the blow.
Yoon Seo-a expressionlessly touched the swelling cheek, then lifted one corner of her mouth.
“That hurts, Ha-eun.”
The voice carried no pain at all. The sight only made me angrier. I was raising my hand again when—
“What do you think you’re doing, Miss Yu Ha-eun! Violence in my class!”
The swimming instructor had already reached us and seized my arm. If she hadn’t, I would have struck again without question. Yoon Seo-a showed no sign of intending to stop me either.
I still tried to force my arm free despite the instructor’s grip, but in the end she twisted it cleanly behind my back.
I was the one who almost died—why am I the one being treated like this? I wanted to scream, but the last shred of reason held me back.
If I made a scene like that, the whole affair would explode beyond any hope of repair.
“Are you all right, Miss Yoon Seo-a? Good heavens, your cheek…!”
“Please calm yourself, teacher. I’m fine. It’s only swollen from the blow.”
“Even so, wouldn’t it be better to visit the infirmary? If a mark remains on your face—”
“Teacher. Did I not just say I was fine?”
At Yoon Seo-a’s high-handed tone the instructor, who had been fretting aloud, clamped her mouth shut.
Yoon Seo-a regarded her with something like pity, then spoke again.
“Please continue the class. As you suggested, I will go to the infirmary.”
“Ah… yes. Then I’ll hand Miss Yu Ha-eun over to the Conduct Management Department.”
“No. I’ll take Ha-eun with me as well. I have something to discuss with her alone.”
Perhaps because she had just been scolded herself, the instructor offered no further argument and released my arm.
She still kept glancing at me, ready to pin me the moment I lunged again.
No need for such tension; I had no intention of lunging a second time. I rubbed the arm that had been twisted, shot the instructor one last look, then spun on my heel and left the pool.
“Miss Yu Ha-eun! That—that complete lack of decorum…!”
“It’s fine. I’ll handle it myself.”
The words followed me, but I did not stop.
Only after I entered the changing room did I collapse into a corner and mutter under my breath.
“I’m screwed….”
What am I supposed to do now.