a/n: just so no one gets confused, in swimming an IM is where you swim all four strokes in one race! so one lap is one stroke, then the next lap is a different stroke, and so on. sorry changkyun ,,

Johnny drops Taeil's slip about "daddy jokes" for now, but he still can't help but be paranoid until it's Monday again (if he was going to bring it up again, surely he would've done it by now, or he would've forgotten over the weekend, he reasons).

And after each of those practices until Monday, Taeil wanted to ask if they can go over all of the drills he just can't grasp. Maybe they could spend a few minutes working on the elbow thing again? It's frustrating that he can't understand something that sounds so simple, and it's frustrating that he can't just study for it like he would with a school subject he doesn't understand.

As patient and understanding as Johnny is, though, Taeil still doesn't dare ask him or risk pushing his boundaries, especially since Johnny had only been sent over to their lane to help the one time.

Then again, maybe Taeil is the one with all of the boundaries.

First thing after warmups on Monday, Coach Kim steps away from the whiteboard to reveal a wall of text.

"It's the second week! That means it's time to actually practice the other strokes, for those of you in the first two lanes." He then starts pointing to the board and listing out all of the exercises, but Taeil can't understand or remember a fraction of them. Chenle is already whispering to Lucas, so he isn't sure whether that means he does or doesn't know what's going on.

"Lane 2, I think you guys were comfortable with most of the strokes, right?"

The whole lane miraculously nods, though when Coach asks the first lane, he only gets nods from Chenle and Lucas.

"Okay, so three people...we can work with that." he mutters to himself. Then, to the whole team, "I need a captain or Mark to volunteer to help me."

Two hands shoot up immediately, and Coach points at the shorter of the two arms.

"Would I have to do most of what's on the board?"

"No, Mark, you're helping with form."

"Oh, nevermind, Johnny can do it then."

The other arm immediately drops, and Johnny pulls himself out of the pool to go to stand by the board.

"Would you like to supervise the other three lanes or teach IM to the first lane?"

"Hmm...I don't feel like arguing with Yuta over his times, I'll pass," he jokes.

Taeil sends a questioning glance over to Yuta, who jerks a thumb in their direction and mouths "He can't keep time for shit."

"What was that, Nakamoto?"

"I said 'he can't keep being this talented'."

"Mm hmm..." Coach squints over his coffee. "I heard 'I want to do a 200 sprint', but I guess I'll have to take your word for it. Work up to three 50s Fly," he adds to Johnny, who nods and walks over to the first lane again.

"I'm back! Did you guys miss me?"

Lucas raises a hand for a high five, and Johnny accepts. "Yeah, welcome back man!"

"Sweet! We're going to be starting off with a 25 butterfly just to get a feel for what we're doing. You guys can get out of the pool, I'll do one lap as an example and then you guys can start from the other end of the pool. Got it?"

Once again, he gets mixed responses, and he steps back to allow all five of them to climb out. Taeil subtly ducks under the lane rope and uses the ladder instead--he isn't sure how he's supposed to get out of the water without something to step or hold onto, and he doesn't plan on ever finding out.

Johnny stands to the side of the diving block, putting his goggles on before gesturing with a wide sweep of his arm, "Chenle, will you do me the honor of starting me?"

Chenle nods, cupping his hands around his mouth. "On your mark!"

"Who?" someone shouts from the other end of the pool.

"Not you, hyung! Get set...go!"

Taeil doesn't have time to wonder whether or not his sense of hearing is intact before Johnny has already leapt into the water. He's underwater for half of the pool before he surfaces, using both arms to pull himself foward and doing a dophin kick. Okay, he thinks he remembers this stroke. Rin and Rei swam that in Free, right? It looks tiring, even though the five of them don't have to walk that quickly to keep up with him.

He glides into the wall with both hands outstretched, quickly getting back to his feet and pulling his goggles and swimcap off.

"Does that make sense?"

Jungwoo raises a hand timidly. "Hi...could you run through that one more lap?"

Johnny pauses for a split second before asking, "Are all of you confused?"

Chenle shakes his head, so Taeil nods more vigorously in the hopes that'll imbalance things.

He sets his cap on the floor and puts his goggles back on. "Okay, just one more lap then. I'll go slower."

As soon as he's back in the water, Jungwoo turns to Taeil and says, "I understand, I just don't want to swim that."

Kun sends a half-hearted disapproving glance his way, and Taeil bites his lip to keep himself from smiling.

Watching him a second time does help though, and he feels a little more ready by the time Johnny has them get back in the water and start themselves.

He watches the others carefully too--Chenle mostly dolphin kicks his way through the 25, Lucas...looks like he's trying to throw himself out of the water with each stroke, and Jungwoo is stopping in the middle a lot to put his hand on his chest and catch his breath.

This is...concerning, to say the least. His confidence is slowly draining, but that's okay, he'll channel his inner Rei and maybe butterfly will be the one stroke he's good at.

He finally gets in the water after Kun and forgets how to move. He's supposed to pull...with both hands? How should he get his arms out of the water? He feels like a flopping fish desperately trying and failing to move.

He stops a good body length early, and like last time, Johnny is laughing and giving advice.

"Taeil hyung is back!" Chenle announces.

The captain gets back to his feet, brushing himself off even though the floor is clean (save for the constant puddles of chlorine).

"I think the main thing you all need to work on is the basic motion. Think of it like a body roll,"

That sounds like a terrible idea, is he allowed to say that? Yet there he is, turning to the side so they can see what he's doing.

"You start the body roll from your chest, and as you pull, you roll your body further. Then bam!" He pushes his hands to his sides, flicking his wrists back. "Your hands go back and you thrust your hips forward, and you roll your hips and legs into the dolphin kick."

Lucas mimicks him with a body roll and exaggerated hip thrust of his own, and Kun moves in between him and Chenle so he can nudge Chenle away, looking even more scandalized than Taeil feels.

"Are you serious?" Taeil asks, probably gaping a little and looking between Chenle and Johnny for confirmation.

They both nod and the latter shrugs and goes, "That's just what it is, you thrust into the water."

Kun covers a protesting Chenle's eyes and ears--barely stretching his hands to fit and accomplishing so little that Johnny couldn't help but laugh again.

"No, really! That's what it is, I swear." Chenle keeps trying to peel Kun's hands off of his eyes and Kun keeps glaring, so Johnny clears his throat and announces, "One more lap, let's go."

a/n: idk how funny this is but ive been on four teams and aLL FOUR TEAMS have described it as thrusting into the water,,,,, so pls share my pain
also ive been wondering if this is too much of a slow burn?? im bad at pacing tbh so if you guys think things should speed up a little bit, please be sure to leave a comment!