Actually, the Hungry Gyaru Who Eats a Lot Was Being Cheated On, so I Decided to Win Her Heart (And Stomach) From Her Jerk Boyfriend - 54

Chapter 54: The Hungry Gyaru and Holding Hands

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Following Shizuku’s lead, I stepped into the water. The standard pool wasn’t that deep. The water only reached just about the pit of my stomach. I could easily touch the bottom and with the floatie I had on, there was little chance of drowning for me. But still, I found myself hesitating to let my feet leave the bottom of the pool. If I were to tip over or lose my balance somehow, I’d die for real and not to mention, the shame… The shame would be unbearable. 

After moving a little further, Shizuku smiled brightly at me. 

“Alright, let’s try floating now!”

“…Okay.”

I took a deep breath. I put my weight into the floatation ring and slowly lifted one foot from the bottom, followed by the other. My feet floated. But as soon as I relaxed my body, I felt like I was about to sink. Panicking, I moved my legs desperately to prevent that from happening. As a result, my body ended up drifting toward the wrong direction but I managed to stay afloat somehow. 

“Li-Like this…? Oh, I see…”

For a moment, I felt relieved, but when I turned to look at Shizuku, she gave me a wry smile, as if to say, “Is this for real?”

Then, she bluntly said. 

“Suou-kun, you’re much worse than I imagined.”

“Ugh-!”

It was a critical hit. Her honest reaction hurt even more than I had expected. 

“You’re tensing your body too much. Of course you can’t float if you’re that stiff. Plant your feet back to the bottom for now.”

After she said that, Shizuku swam to me. Following her instruction, I stopped floating and stood in place. Once my feet touched the bottom, I felt a sense of relief and let out a sigh.

“…Suou-kun, you really can’t swim for your life, huh?”

“I mean, I told you, didn’t I? I’m not trying to sound proud or anything, but without the floatie, I’d drown in less than three seconds.”

“Yeah. I can totally tell just by looking. To be honest, I’ve never seen someone this bad at swimming. You’re the first, Suou-kun.”

“Ugh…!”

Once again, she said nothing but the truth. I really couldn’t say anything against it. Seeing me like this, Shizuku smiled softly. 

“… Why are you smiling?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s just… I thought it was kind of cute to see Suou-kun actually have something he’s not good at.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Well, she didn’t seem to say that to mock me, so I let it be. 

“Of course I have something I’m not good at. Shizuku, what do you take me for?”

“Umm… A superhero, I guess?”

“You’re thinking way too highly of me.”

“Well, but… You’re definitely my hero, Suou-kun.”

Shizuku said as a matter of factly while looking straight at me. She was being genuine and since I couldn’t possibly joke about this after that reaction, I decided to avert my gaze from her. 

“Huh? Suou-kun… Are you feeling embarrassed?~”

“Who knows.”

I answered gruffly and she only responded with a simple,”Hoo~” Her blue eyes narrowed playfully at me. However, instead of saying anything more, she grabbed the strap attached to my float.

“Well, more importantly! We need to focus on your floating practice! I’ll make sure you don’t float away, so just try relaxing your body more. Start letting go of your feet slowly, Suou-kun!”

“…Okay.”

I nodded and tried lifting both of my feet off the ground again. For a moment, my whole body floated in the water, but I began to sink soon after. Just when I was about to flail my legs out of reflex, Shizuku came to my aid. 

“Relax, Suou-kun~ You need to relax your body~ Relaaax~”

Shizuku’s shooting voice interrupted my panicking instinct. Being treated like a child like this made me feel a bit frustrated, but once I followed her lead, my feet, which had been sinking, slowly began to float again. 

“That’s it! Just like that!”

Shizuku’s voice brightened with joy. Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I suddenly become hyper aware of the stares coming from the surrounding people. Well, this reaction was only natural though. People were bound to stare upon seeing the sight of a rather muscular high school student boy in a floatie being taught how to swim by a slender-looking girl. Yeah, of course other people might find our situation to be weird. 

But by the time I had shown off how panicked I was when I was about to sink earlier, it was already too late. I might as well just embrace the awkwardness and accept it. Thanks to Shizuku’s encouraging words, my legs began to sway and float in the water within a few minutes. I didn’t even have to think too deeply about it. My feet just naturally float in the water. 

“Oh, you’re looking so much better now. You’ve really improved compared to how you were in the beginning!”

“…Well, compared to how I was in the beginning, sure…”

“Alright. Next, let’s try floating without the floatie.”

“What?!”

I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a shocked voice upon hearing that. 

“No, no, no, you’re jumping over too many steps. I’m literally going to drown and die. I’m not even exaggerating here. I’m seriously going to drown and die.”

“It’s fine. You’ll be fine~ You’ll totally be fine~”

“How can you be so sure…”

“Anyway, hand me the floatie and stretch out your hands.”

Although I couldn’t follow Shizuku’s line of thinking, but I decided to do as she instructed. Then, Shizuku threaded her arm through the floatie’s strap to keep it from floating away and grabbed both of my hands. 

“…What’s with the hands?”

“What do you mean? I need to hold you to make sure you won’t float away somewhere. Suou-kun, if I don’t hold on to you, you’ll start drifting off into the wrong direction, right?”

“Well… I suppose you’re right.”

“Right?~ So just follow my lead and hold onto me, okay?~ You must never let me go… Got it?”

A part of me felt like I should be the one saying that, but… 

Well, whatever. 

I didn’t have any more pride left to preserve after all that fiasco, so I decided to take her outstretched hand. Her hands were a bit smaller and much more delicate than mine. I looked up and saw Shizuku smiling happily at me. 

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