Day 43: October 13
What did I read?: ハイ☆スピード!
How much did I read?: 4 pages
How long did it take me?: 1 hour 11 min
Haru's off wandering in his thoughts again - he's a contemplative one, our boy
He’s running alone for the first time in a while and thinking about how he never meant to get mixed up in all this relay team business. The relay seems important to so many people around him, but he doesn’t really get why. He doesn’t see what’s so special about the relay specifically. His take is basically, swimming is an individual sport anyway - once you dive in, you’re alone. (Why does this statement feel so…significant? Bittersweet? I don’t know) You just swim to the best of your ability, and that’s that. (Weirdly, that’s what I always liked about swimming vs. team sports, too…why deal with people when you can just do things under your own power xD I was chronically terrible at all team sports tbh - didn’t like them, didn’t want them, didn’t get them not that I was very good at any sport, but…y’know lol. Anyway.).
When he gets to practice, he finds himself alone with Nagisa for the day, which makes him feel awkward - he still doesn’t really know how to “be” toward Nagisa, because although he’s not this open, friendly person, he also doesn’t have the heart to push Nagisa away like he does pretty much everyone else 
But when they move into practice, he starts thinking about what Nagisa’s goals in swimming are (namely, swim fast, win relay). And he wonders whether everyone on the team has to have the same goal. Probably, right? That’s what teamwork is, working toward a common goal. But if that’s the case, then the meaning of swimming just becomes lost for him. Which seems…sad. Being a part of something or being with people always seems to mean giving up a part of himself. 
You know what’s interesting, I just realized that there’s like…literally no coach for this swim team I mean, the structure of the practices is mentioned juuust enough to give the impression that someone must be organizing things somehow, but not once has a coach shown up or been mentioned at all. This is interesting to me because they definitely have a former elementary school swim coach in the anime 
Where is he? Where are any adults tbh, I don’t think one’s shown up once These elementary school kids are mature enough to run themselves, apparently. It does have sort of a nice effect, though, having it all be about the kids and the way they deal with things within their own self-contained “society.”
Good words
絡み付く (からみつく) - to pester; to hassle
いまだに - still; even now; to this day
だからと言って - while it may be true that; just because; nevertheless; not necessarily
協調性 (きょうちょうせい) - cooperativeness; spirit of cooperation
不協和音 (ふきょうわおん) - discord; dissonance; cacophony; disharmony
言い表す (いいあらわす) - to express (in words)
ゼンマイ - spring (not, as I first thought, royal fern thanks for that extremely confusing moment, Jisho)
錆びつく (さびつく) - become rusted together; to become rusted shut; to rust; to become (completely) rusty; to be covered with rust
理解し難い (りかいしがたい) - hard to understand
蒔く (まく) - to sow; to plant; to seed
ありのまま - the truth; fact; as it is; as you are; frank; bare plain
へたり込む (へたりこむ) - to sit down hard; to sink down to the floor