As expected, the freezing chill of the water hits him and jars him from whatever daze he had been in before. Also as expected, the warmup alone took forever to complete.

He's finally back at the wall again (or rather, one of the infinite blondes is with one of the equally infinite brown haired boys at the wall, and Taeil is at the lane rope), and all Taeil can think about are his toes and how they may be turning numb at the moment. Maybe. Why can't swimming be a summer sport? That's the whole point of swimming.

The blonde boy turns a little more and--no, no no no, is that Not Sicheng? They're in the same lane?? Ugh, why hadn't he paid more attention before choosing to swim in this lane?

Taeil panics and immediately sticks his face back in the water. This is a foolproof plan, now his face is hidden and Not Sicheng can't recognize him and he also can't breathe. Absolutely delightful.

From his half submerged spot under the surface of the water, he can see that Sicheng and the rest of that lane are taking a break as well. Also good. Maybe he still has time to ditch and avoid embarassment.

He tilts his head to take a short breath before sticking his face back under the surface and nudging at Sicheng's foot with his own. Sicheng moves a little and Taeil can't really see what's going on until Sicheng apparently gives up and sticks his face under the surface too, giving a little wave.

Taeil waves back shortly before making a series of intense hand gestures which clearly translated to "Not You is over here, I have to go".

Sicheng fully submerges himself in the water just so Taeil can see the baffled look on his face. They resurface at the same time.

"You don't want me to what?" Sicheng whisper-asks, frowning.

"No! Not You is in my lane," Taeil hisses under his breath.

"Not Me?" Sicheng repeats, frown deepening. It seems to hit him after a second, and his jaw drops a little. "Oh, you don't mean...the shoulder?" he asks, mimicking slinging his arm around someone.

Taeil swats his hand down, shushing him just as Not Sicheng happens to turn around.

"Oh my god! You're the guy from the meeting! You wear heels?" Not Sicheng grins.

"I--well--it was one time," he stammers. "And I thought you were him, and--I mean the heels and the falling were two different incidents,"

"We love a stereotype breaking king," Not Sicheng sighs, treading water for a few unsuccessful seconds to give a brief clap.

A...a what now? King?

"I wouldn't really...say that, it was just one time..."

"An absolute legend," he insists. "I'm Chenle by the way! I forgot your name, you're...?"

"Taeil,"

"Ah, Taeil hyung! Okay," he smiles. "What about the rest of you?"

Quiet Boy smiles and raises his hand a little to peek out from the lane rope. "Oh! I'm Jungwoo,"

"And I'm Lucas!" the brunette exclaims, raising his fist dramatically. Chenle lets out a dolphin like laugh at that, and Taeil resolves to remember Lucas's name so that the overdramatic introductions can come to an end.

"Hi, I'm Kun," the magician waves. That's just one syllable, he can remember that. Gummy smile, magic tricks, Kun.

Chenle's face brightens at hearing his name, and he opens his mouth just as Coach Kim walks back over.

"How are we doing over here?"

Taeil is about to say "tired", but Lucas says "Great, man! Let's go!!" before anyone else can speak up, earning several glares. Coach smiles--his smile is wide and gummy like Kun's--and gives a nod.

"Okay! That's good. Just remember this is the first day, it's bad to burn yourself out so quickly," he advises. "If you're up for it, do extra laps while the others wait. As for the rest of you"--he checks his watch, making a face--"let's do another 100 just to see where you're at. First person, ready...go!"

He clings a little tighter to the lane rope so that Lucas has room to dive in, and a voice in the back of his head wonders why someone with as much stamina as Lucas would have to swim in the slowest lane.

...Then he sees how sloppy and poorly timed his arm movements and kicks are, in stark contrast to how smoothly Yuta had swam during tryouts.

Okay, that...makes a little bit more sense now. Taeil probably doesn't look any better himself, though, so he isn't one to talk. Especially since he realizes halfway through the first lap that he can't breathe or bring himself to move any further, and he winds up skipping another two laps by pretending his goggles are broken (and of course, he "can't figure out how to fix them", either. A modern tragedy.)

This continues for the rest of the forty five minutes of practice; he realizes he's exhausted, takes a long break and hopes the coach won't call him out on it, then they get another long break while the coach is preoccupied with the lanes that actually know what they're doing.

"You're doing great!" Sicheng cheers softly from the other lane. "Just five more minutes and then cooldown!"

Taeil offers a weak smile and a thumbs up, then goes back to wheezing in his corner. Junguwu? Jungwho? Seems to have overheard too, as he mumbles, "thank goodness...!" and practically melts against the part of the wall he's leaning on. Highly understandable.

The coach comes back over to explain another drill, this time with something about zippers? What? This doesn't make any sense, spaced out or not.

Coach doesn't move from his spot crouching by the pool. "Excuse me, you're...?"

"Ah, sorry, Taeil,"

"You don't have to apologize! Are you okay though? You've been taking a lot of breaks, do you have any medical conditions I need to know about?"

Taeil turns scarlet. "I--no, I just...have never...done a sport before."

Coach laughs a little and exclaims, "No, you're fine! I don't want to push you too hard if you have asthma or anything, but there's no shame in being out of shape either. We can work up from here, the captains and I will work you up to doing half of the practices by next week and that'll help with the breathing and stopping, okay?"

Taeil nods and hopes that the coach keeps talking so he can skip straight to cooldowns.

"Will I have to spend extra time at practices?"

"Not unless you want to. Just set personal goals and put some effort in, and we'll get you there."

This is already a lot of effort, he can't imagine having the energy to push himself harder. He doesn't want to be worked with either, the idea of someone watching him and judging just how bad he is makes him want to squirm.

"I will," he says instead.

"Alright, catch your breath then cooldown and hit the showers."

Coach Kim then bounces back onto his toes and walks off, though Taeil doesn't make a move until a hand taps at his shoulder.

"Hey, are we doing warmdowns?" Lucas asks, not as loud as before.

Does he mean cooldowns or is this some sport thing? Maybe Taeil is overthinking this.

"Um...yes," Taeil says. "Absolutely. Of course."

"Thanks man," he pants, switching sides just to dive back underwater. Isn't he tired?? Do athletes hate themselves or something?

Going as slow as possible during cooldowns is kind of relaxing though. Everyone is going sluggishly slow--throughout the entire pool, he notes as he stops at the other wall--and now that he's been swimming for an hour, the water feels kind of nice. No matter how slowly he goes, the water still supports him, so he's pretty much floating (with the occasional pull of his arms).

The showers are all full and his legs feel like jelly, so he resigns to changing in the bathrooms again. He tells himself he'll shower at home, but he honestly doesn't even think he could drive by that point.

Sicheng finds him somehow and Yuta ends up driving them home. He's unbelievably thankful and sleepy, but Yuta and Sicheng seem to understand without words.

Taeil dreams of homework, loud laughs echoing throughout the pool, and judgemental stares as he confesses he wore heels for Halloween.