041.
The first time Heechul upgrades from the five metre platform to the ten, the vertigo gets to him and he does a complete belly flop, almost drowning before his coach drags him out.
"I'm never trusting you again," Heechul hisses, and Hangeng guiltily clutches at his arm.
"Come on, I thought you'd like it."
"I almost died, in case you didn't notice."
Hangeng wilts and doesn't say anything for the next week as Heechul dives from the five metre platform, content with somersaults and pikes.
"Your form's been really good lately," Hangeng says casually as Heechul walks past.
He pauses dramatically, points a finger at himself, wide-eyed, before pushing Hangeng into the pool.
"Ahah, that was funny."
"Come on Heechul, it wouldn't hurt to try."
Heechul sucks at the straw, trying to get more Gatorade.
"Wouldn't hurt, does that translate to death?"
He sighs contently and pats at his tummy before running for the one metre springboard and dive bombing off the end. Henry whines for taking his place.
"Give it a shot," Kyuhyun says as he walks past, towel slung around his neck. "Unless you're scared, hyung." Kyuhyun's eyes go wide and he clutches at his chest before Zhou Mi punches at his arm, and Kyuhyun laughs.
"Be nice," Zhou Mi stage whispers. "It's not nice to make fun of other people's fears."
"Even if they're scared of spiders?" Kyuhyun stage whispers back, the bitch. Zhou Mi pushes him into the pool, and Kyuhyun flails.
Heechul glares at everyone, Ryeowook included as he hands out bottles of water. He shrinks, but Heechul climbs the staircase to the highest platform, Hyukjae already swinging his legs off the side.
"Hyung," he greets happily, hands white knuckled around the edge of the platform. Heechul gingerly sits next to him. "Like the view?"
He waves his arm grandly, the audience seats, fifty metre pool and twenty-five metre training pool included. If he has to admit it, then yeah, he does like the view.
Hyukjae stands slowly, stretching his arms before he lines his feet up against the edge.
"I'm going to jump now," he says to Heechul politely, and Heechul shuffles back as he watches Hyukjae bend his legs, arms spiralling back before he lifts clear off the platform.
His eyes go wide as the world slows and he sees Hyukjae tuck his legs together in a pike, spinning once, twice, three times, before straightening to enter the water. He splashes everyone in the ten metre radius, but Sungmin claps anyway.
"Nice," he calls out, and Hyukjae's head pops out of the water, grinning.
Heechul peers over the edge, looking around at the swimmers training in the other pool, the small pinpricks of people in the stands and the larger specks of his coach on the ground. Even ten metres, and then some, of distance between him and Hangeng, he can feel Hangeng's heavy gaze, his silent encouragement.
Jump, Heechul can practically feel, and he swallows.
For a while now, Heechul's enjoyed toying with the idea of a one point five turn and double somersault, but Hangeng had forbidden him.
"Five metre platform isn't enough," Hangeng had said, pointing to said platform. "See, if you jump, you don't have enough room for both the turn and the somersault. You have perfect form, but not enough speed to do both of them in the time the five metre platform lets you. If you go from the ten metre, you've plenty of room." Heechul followed the line of Hangeng's arm as he demonstrated, fingers curling and uncurling to demonstrate his point.
One and a half turns, two somersaults.
In his mind, Heechul lists it out. It sounds so simple and easy, when he knows it isn't, that it can't be. Diving never is, even though those brief seconds in the air before he hit the water felt the closest he had ever felt to flying.
"Come on," Hyukjae calls out from behind him, still dripping with water but wearing the biggest, dopiest grin Heechul had ever seen. "Once you do it, you'll never be able to go back."
Heechul stands slowly, legs a bit jelly-like as he approaches the edge of the platform. Hyukjae inches closer, but not too close.
"Look. Look at all this room and space. You have ten metres, double what you had before. It isn't the same, hyung. Once you jump from ten, you'll never want to go back."
Hyukjae touches Heechul's elbow hesitantly, and he jerks, but doesn't fall.
"Okay," he says breathlessly and tries to squash the vertigo he feels.
No, adrenaline.
The rush that goes to his head is addictive, but he positions himself, aligns his body against the edge and closes his eyes. Breathes deep, and straightens his body before he lifts his arms and jumps.
Hyukjae's right. It's this much closer to flying, and the pull of gravity towards the end of his jump, when he's straightening his legs for entry, causes him to skew and splash like he's a whale. He splutters a bit when he surfaces, but Hangeng is looking at him like he's just seen Heechul grow wings and fly -- a mixture of awe, amazement and a bit of jealousy.
"I told you you could, if you tried," Hangeng says softly when Heechul pulls himself out of the water and watches Donghae execute a perfect swan dive.
"I never said I couldn't," Heechul says back, just as soft, unable to keep a grin from his lips.
Hangeng can't keep Heechul away from the ten anymore. Every chance he gets, Heechul dives off it, spinning and turning every way before plunging into the water, eyes shut and nostrils flared as he breathes out.
"Your form sucks," Hangeng says as he watches Heechul pulling himself out of the pool. Heechul shrugs.
"I'm never going to be the perfect diver like Hyukjae or Donghae or Henry. I'm not diving material."
Hangeng slaps him lightly on the head.
"If you think like that, then yeah, you're not diving material. But you have great form when you try, maybe the best out of anyone here. You know, you could go to the World Championships if you tried."
Heechul sighs before they both automatically turn away from the pool when they hear Zhou Mi's shriek.
"Kyuhyun," they hear him whimper as they shake water off themselves and Kyuhyun laughs himself to death.
"I don't want to compete," Heechul says, off-handed. "I come here every morning and night because it's relaxing, because it's better than staying at home and doing nothing. The time I'm in the air is when nothing matters -- when the bills, exams, parents, don't matter. The time up there," he says as he points up to the roof, "is when everything down here is small and insignificant. They look like this."
He squeezes his index finger and thumb until there's maybe a millimetre of air between them, and then looks up to see Hangeng frowning at him, before he sighs.
"Do what you want," he mutters, throwing a towel at Heechul before walking away.
(insert epic backstory here about Heechul's lazy form and Hangeng's knee injury and problems so he coaches instead of competes and yeah... :Dv)