I'll protect you

In the end, I, more or less, successfully reeled in my desire for Yuika-senpai. Or rather, I managed to push it down, telling myself that I had to fulfill my duty of teaching her the basics of swimming before doing something else first.

With that, after a ten-minute break where we just sat on the edge of the pool with zero distance between us, we resumed her special swimming class.

Having learned how to keep herself afloat while kicking her legs, we moved on to the next step. I taught her to float on her back, which was quite challenging for someone as tense as she was. I made use of the floaty ring to let her get familiar with how one was supposed to float above the water without doing much.

From there, I had her float on her own while making sure I was close to her in case she lost her balance. It took a couple of tries, but she eventually got the hang of it, her eyes closing as she relaxed into the sensation of the water holding her up.