𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟓- 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄
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The day had started out as any other, with the sun casted overhead and the fluffy clouds drifting by aimlessly over iwatobi High. On days like this one would simply find comfort in the mundane, basking in the shade or simply enjoying a nice cold beverage.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the Swim Club.

(Y/N) stands at the edge of the pool, her hands firmly placed on her hips while she watches her friends dive in for another lap. "Come on! Faster, move it!" She yells, Coach Sasabe at her side with a fierce air to him.

The two had been pushing the boys to their limits with excessive training and harsh words that would strike at their egos.

Gōu watches them from the side, a nervous smile on her face while she watches the two continue to yell. 'So ruthless.' She sweatdrops, imagining her friend as the younger version of their coach.

The resemblance was uncanny, that was for sure, but they were excelling in their training, so she kept quiet.

Nagisa slowly climbs out the pool, Makoto right behind him as their arms and legs shake from exhaustion. "I'm glad Sasabe and (Y/N) are coaching us, but sometimes it feels like they'rere trying to kill us."

Makoto hums tiredly and hops out, his eyes a little droopy. "Now I understand why everyone calls him 'Koro the demon'.."

Eventually, Sasabe had grown tired of watching the boys swim, and dug up a bunch of old equipment he used to use. Several cameras were set up all over the pool from every angle, so they could properly analyze the boy's movements.

(Y/N) and Gōu had been in charge of tracking the swimmers, with the oldest of the two running with a camera submerged in the pool while the other ran to keep the top camera from falling or getting tangled.

After a while, their swimming began to show progress, and Sasabe called for the end of practice, much to their relief.

_____

(Y/N) gently pulls a long grey hoodie over her uniform, and shuts her locker within the pools club house. She looks up when she hears someone gasp, and turns to see Sasabe staring at an opened locker.

The words 'Forevar IWAToBI' were sprawled out in black marker. "Look at that, my graffiti's still here!" Their coach beams, and looks down when (Y/N) leans down to read.

She snickers after a moment. "Your english sucks."

"Well, he's not an English teacher, he's a coach." Haru reminds her from behind, and receives a wave of the hand from his friend.

"You got that right." Nagisa says. "Since you started drilling us on our exchange times we've gotten a lot better." He grins, before taking a small step to the side when he looks at his friend. "Plus, you're a lot nicer than (Y/N)." He dodges a towel being chucked at his head.

"I'm super nice!" She yells, and pouts when Makoto, Haru and Rei shake their heads at the same time.

"No." Says Haru.

"A bit intense.." Makoto mumbles with an apologetic smile.

"You threw a board at my head.." Rei shivers at the memory.

(Y/N) scoffs and rolls her eyes. She puffs out her cheeks, but deflates when Makoto steps up and gently places his two pointer fingers against her face and pushes. He chuckles when the air from her cheeks disappears. "Let's keep at it, I wanna be ready to face Rin at the relay."

At the mention of the sharp toothed boy, (Y/N) feels her hand twitch and press against the pocket where her phone was kept. She sidesteps her friends, who enthusiastically debate on the relay coming up.

Taking her phone out, she opens it to read a message she had gotten earlier that morning.

Frome: Rin Matsuoka
'Hi.' - 4:27 am

Her heart picks up at the message, but she ignores it. Pocketing her phone with a grumble, she turns to her friends once more, but tilts her head when she sees Rei looking down in thought, his brows creased and lips pulled together.

_____

The following day, Sasabe had called the team, including Miss Amakata to his house for a small get together meal. With the heatwave currently taking over, the teens were excited for a nice cool lunch with watermelon or even ice cream.

What they weren't expecting, was a hotpot so steamy and hot it made (Y/N) want to throw up the minute she caught a whiff.

"Why are we doing the hotpot thing in the middle of summer?" Makoto sighs from beside the nauseous girl, his hand rubbing small circles on her back.

Sasabe scoffs. "Because, according to latest research in sports medicine it's exactly what swimmers need the most!" He grins, proud of his new discovery. "Sasabe hotpot is chock full of vitamins, minerals and protein!"

(Y/N) shakes her head and swallows hard, getting used to the smell of crab and hot air. "Can you please turn on the air conditioning." She says softly, sweat running down not only herself, but the rest of the team's faces.

"Sorry! No AC."

"Any chance we could not do this and just say we did?" Rei suggests with a grimace as Sasabe plates him a bowl with a crab leg, the steam radiating making it less appetizing.

Slowly but surely, the group all take hesitant bites of the food, but were quickly surprised by the outcome. It was delicious, and the grinning coach watching them could feel his pride return tenfold.

(Y/N) cracks a crab leg and gently bites through the meat, her hair pulled into a high pony as to not get messed. She hums in satisfaction, still sweating but ecstatic at the taste.

"I think my face is gonna melt off.." Makoto complains from beside her, to which she chuckles. She takes her chopsticks into her mouth and holds them before shrugging off her light blue jacket.

A white tank top takes its place, and her friend stares at her, wide eyed but otherwise respectful as he keeps his eyes on her face. She motions for him to do the same, and smiles as he listens.

"Feeling better?" She whispers, the conversation infront of them fading before it could reach them. Makoto nods, his face even more red than before, his jacket mixing with hers in the floor behind them.

(Y/N) laughs at his burning face, and looks up when she hears a stack of papers falling from behind Nagisa. Peeking behind Haru, she eyes the magazines as Miss Amakata and Sasabe go to pick them up.

She watches the two adults, and jumps when Sasabe holds a picture of a swimsuit model up to her teacher, causing her to scream and point at the hotpot, her voice rising with every word.

"EVERYBODY LOOK, THE CRAB IS BURNING!"

_____

Quickly, the sun began to set, and Sasabe thought it a good idea to bring out some old sparklers for the teens to enjoy while he and Miss A munched on watermelon and discussed the embarrassing magazines inside.

(Y/N) smiles when she watches Rei try and dodge Nagisa's advances with his own sparkler, before bringing her hand up and connecting hers with Haru's.

She sat on the porch just outside the living room, Makoto and Haru on either side of her. "I haven't done this in a long time.." Haru mutters, his sparkler refusing to let go of hers before he forces it away, small sparks flying into the air.

(Y/N) hums and rests her cheek against his shoulder, her sparkler resting comfortably atop her folded lap. "I forgot how beautiful they are." She sighs, her gaze trained on the red sparks flyings about. She misses the two sets of eyes glancing to her from time to time, one blue with the other green.

"Oh! Coach Sasabe you've got so many pictures!" Gōu's voice makes her lift her head up, and turn around to see her friend bouncing towards them, a blue book in her hands.

The teens ignore both Sasabe and Miss A's yells to put whatever it was back, but they both sigh in relief when they see what exactly the younger girl had found.

"It's the swimming clubs photo album!"

Gently placing the book atop the wooden preach, the team all gather around to stare at the bundle of different pictures, all holding fond and happy memories.

"These bring back memories!" Nagisa awes, and points to a picture of the group together as kids, with a small Gōu hanging off her brother's shoulders. Rin's arm was hooked with a beaming (Y/N), who laughed at her friend's flustered expression.

"Hey look Gōu, this is when we had the barbecue behind the club!"

"Hey! Nobody told me about a barbecue!"

(Y/N) shakes her head and gestures to the picture, only containing herself, Makoto, Haru and Nagisa, no Rin or Gōu in sight. "This was before Rin transferred to our club."

Miss Amakata points to the small Haru, chuckling as she takes in his monotone expression. "Even back then Nanase looks so serious." The group all chuckle softly.

"Wouldn't hurt you to smile once in a while Nanase." Sasabe jokes, and receives no further reaction from the boy, as usual.

Picture after picture, the group had gone through every memory, most containing images of the group swimming, laughing and everything in between.

Miss A points to one in particular, a stand alone one that caught not only hers, but the rest of the groups attention. "Oh (Y/N), you and Rin seemed like the bestest of friends!" She coos, and (Y/N) looks down to see which picture she was referring to.

It was one of herself, only a few weeks after Rin had transferred to their school. They were both dressed in warm winter clothing, a long brown and black scarf wrapped around both their necks keeping them close. Rin had his right arm wrapped around her, while his other was extended to hold her gloved hand to his chest.

His face was turned away from the camera, while his red nose was smooshed against her warm cheek. (Y/N)'s mouth was frozen in a permanent laugh, most likely giggling from how cold his nose was.

Her eyes were closed but you could see she was bursting with energy, while her body was subconsciously leaning more towards him in an effort to keep him close.

"Oh yeah.." she mumbles, and Miss Amakata giggles once more.

"You both would have made a wonderful couple."

The statement makes the group all jump, and Gōu looks between (Y/N) and the picture. Her eyes were slowly becoming glossy, tears pricking the edges but she refused to let them fall. Sniffing twice she looks away from the book, and scratches her cheek.

"Mhm." She nods, and clears her throat to control herself. The team all watch her, sympathetic eyes watching and pitying her with every minute.

What they had yet to notice, was Gōu had quickly slipped the picture from its place in the book, and carefully placed it in her pocket before turning the page.

_____

(Y/N) had decided to hop in Miss Amakata's car instead of walking home with the rest of the group. She yawns as she waves them goodbye, and look out the window to stare at the night sky, twinkling with lights and full of colors.

She sighs before placing her hand into her jacket pocket to fish out her phone, but stops. Looking down, she sees that her jacket was not wrapped around her, nor was it anywhere in the car.

Makoto had it.

"Damn it." She groans, and gently asks her teacher to pull over so she could run back.

"Are you sure you don't want us to wait?" Miss Amakata asks from inside her car, Gōu watching her friend with slight worry.

(Y/N) shakes her head with a small smile. "You guys should get home, it's pretty late as it is and I don't want to keep you." With that, she turns and begins her slow jog back to where she last saw her friends.

It hadn't taken her that long, all of seven minutes, before she spotted her friends down by the shore line, dead trees and bushes surrounding them.

Carefully she makes her way down to them, none of them having noticed her due to the dense bush. She hears Haru's voice first, and stops when he mentions something that made her eyes widen.

"..after we started middle school, (Y/N) and I had bumped into Rin while he was visiting from Australia."

_____

Four years ago

The loud ringing of the train cross made thirteen year old (Y/N) squint as it rang in her ears. Haru yawns at her side, her hand clasped in hers while he rubs his eye from lack of sleep.

The sound of another pair of footsteps make them look up, and their breaths hitch when they see Rin standing on the other end of the crossing, his hair longer and eyes drifted downwards.

Slowly, he looks up, and the first thing he sees is bright (E/C) eyes staring back at him.

"(Y/N)!" Rin gasps, and groans when the passing train cuts his view of her short. As it finally passes, the barriers separating them lift up, and Haru wastes no time in pulling his friend across.

"Your back home?" He softly asks as they stop infront of Rin, his hand still tightly holding onto his shorter friend beside him.

Rin nods. "Yeah."

A small flicker of silence follows, before Haru looks to the side. "You know you could have called or something.."

"Yeah well, sorry, I'm no good with that sort of thing." Rin apologizes with a small smile, but (Y/N) pouts. She could see he was tired, less enthusiastic and more quiet than what she remembered.

"Rin-" she begins to speak up, but gets cut off.

"Hey, Haru." Rin says, his eyes flickering towards (Y/N) and Haru's hands. "What do you say we race eachother today?" His voice held an airy feel to it, it was more calculated, as if he had been rehearsing this question for days to get it right.

"To see which one of us is faster."

_____

"Well well well, look who it is." Sasabe beams from his place outside the swimming center's doors. "Rin's back in town!"

"Hey Coach, I was hoping Haru and I could do some swimming."

Sasabe shrugs. "Sure, it's reserved for right now anyway!" He looks down and raises an eyebrow at (Y/N). "Hey squirt, did you also come to race?" Slowly, she shakes her head, but offers him a small toothy grin in response.

"Just here for moral support." She jokes, and glances carefully towards Rin, who had already been eyeing her from the side, his eyes set in determination and something else she couldn't quite understand.

Jealousy.

_____

As time would have it, the race had slingshotted the trio's friendship into an entirely different direction. Rin had lost, and tried making a run for it after quickly changing back into his cloths.

"Wait Rin!" Haru calls out, a scared (Y/N) at his side. Reaching out, he flinches when his hand is slapped away, and their friend avoids their concerned gazes.

"Whats wrong? You're acting weird today."

Rin grits his teeth and shoves Haru's hand back. "I quit.." he mumbles, and both youngsters look at him in shock. Taking their silence he says it again. "I said I quit." He forces out, tears spilling from his eyes.

"I'm done swimming." He sniffs harshly, and finally turns his head. He locks eyes with (Y/N), and a small whimper breaks from his throat.

"You didn't even look at me." He whimpers, and (Y/N)'s eyes widen. Not understanding, she remains quiet, her chest pulling before falling as Rin turns around and walks away.

He turned his back on everything he loved that day, swimming, his father's dream of going to the Olympics, her. He had pushed it all away.

_____

Present time

(Y/N) harshly rubs her nose as she comes back to reality, the familiar sting in her chest returning as she listens.

"Wow, how come you never told us?" Nagisa speaks up, a deep frown pulling at his usually cheerful expression.

Haru sighs. "I couldn't bring myself to talk about it at the time so I didn't.."

"So that's why you suddenly dropped out of the swim club in middle school! And why (Y/N) stopped coming to our competitions after a while!"

Makoto gently grips his friend's jacket between his fists. "Haru had to stop swimming competitively because..he blamed himself for what happened to Rin.."

"And..(Y/N)?" Rei softly asks, his eyes flickering to the light blue jacket in his friend's grasp. (Y/N) had yet to reveal herself, but sighs, and slowly steps out from around the dead tree.

"I stopped coming to cheer for them." Her voice makes them all jump, and she softly smiles. "I couldn't bring myself to enjoy competitions afterwards..it just hurt." She ends her explanation with a deep exhale, and Makoto frowns.

"(Y/N).." he says softly, and gently takes her hand to have her stand by his side. Nagisa gently grabs her other hand and squeezes it, trying his best to comfort her.

Her gaze flickers up to meet Haru's, and she smiles, to which he slowly hit surely returns. Rei glances between the two for a moment, and sighs in frustration. "But you won your race the other day, shouldn't that mean you can finally put all this behind you?

You're free from that now! You can swim anywhere you want to and so can he!" (Y/N) watches as his frustration slowly starts to spill out, his calm composure breaking with every breath.

"Why he so upset about loosing?! And..why did he suddenly decide to enter the relay?"he turns his head to look at (Y/N), and gestures to her in exasperation.

"And he cared about you so much! What changed?! Why treat you so horribly yet he looks at you as if you're everything to him?!" His voice slowly grows, annoyance and anger and frustration pouring with every word, every twitch of his brow and every movement he made.

(Y/N)'s eyes widen as she listens, but she doesn't say anything. She allows him to express how he's feeling, the team let him to question everything he's wanted to know, as he had every right to do so.

"No matter how hard I try..I still don't understand it!"

"Rei, it's alright." Nagisa gently mumbles from his place beside (Y/N), his eyes pulled down in sympathy.

"I don't think it makes any sense either." Haru finally speaks up, the smallest of smiles on his lips. "You're right, I wish I had a better answer." Lifting his head up, he looks to the ocean, its pitch black waves circling all around.

"All I can say is that I look forward to racing him, I always do."

_____

(Y/N) lays in her bed, half asleep yet her eyes were still focused on the patterns on her ceiling. She taps her fingers against her chest, her hair sprawled out and framing her pillow like a hallo.

The sound of her phone buzzing makes her turn her head, and watch as the light illuminates the rest of her side table.

She sighs before picking it up and bringing it close, her eyes adjusting to the harsh lighting. She reads the message once, twice, and a third time, before frowning and rubbing her tongue across her teeth in thought.

From: Rei Ryugazaki
'I need you to accompany me somewhere tomorrow.'

Rubbing her eyes, (Y/N) thinks the message over. She taps her thumbs together, and finally comes to a decision before typing away.

To: Rei Ryugazaki
'Sounds a bit suspicious, but sure.'

_____

"WHAAT?!" Sasabe's yell reverberates through the pool, his face pulled into a harsh glare that causes the rest of the team to sweat drop.

"What do you mean Rei isn't practicing?! And (Y/N) just decided to ditch?!" He yells even more, his voice rising at the mention of the second manager. "I need her with me to reprimand you guys!"

Makoto stares at his coach nervously, but offers nothing more than a shake of his head. "It's not like them at all." From behind him, Nagisa frowns, slightly nervous at where the two had ended up.

"O-oh yeah." He starts nervously and rubs the back of his neck. "Maybe that ice cream I have Rei was spoiled and he's at (Y/N)'s because he's sick!" His suggestion causes Gōu to slap her palm against her cheek in shock.

"That's scandalous!" She loudly whispers. "And why would you give someone ice cream that had gone bad?"

"..I don't think ice cream can spoil." Sasabe grumbles, not believe a word of his student.

"Sure it wasn't something else?"

"Mackerel?" Gōu looks to Haru, who quickly shakes his head. "Don't look at me, I don't give him anything."

"Enough about that!" Sasabe quickly interjects. "We don't have a whole lotta time before regionals, so start practicing hard now!"

Nagisa however, ignores his coach, and bites his lips nervously. 'Is Rei doing what I think he's doing?' He suddenly goes pale, his eyes white as another thought comes to mind. 'He's dragging (Y/N) along too?! She's gonna kill him!'

_____

Meanwhile, Rin sits with his head down, a towel wrapped over his head as he calms down from practice. He breaths in deep, his mind fuzzy while his foot taps impatiently against the cold floor.

"Matsuoka!" Looking up, he stares at his Captain who yells at him from outside. "Someone named Ryugazaki and (L/N)'s asking for ya." At the mention of a familiar surname, he springs to his feet and bolts out the door.

Seijuro moves aside to let him pass, a teasing grin on his face as he watches his teammate dart out the door. "Have fun with your girlfriend!" He yells after him, snickering while the rest of the team look up at him in confusion.

Slamming the side door open, Rin turns his head in every direction possible, his breathing ragged and chest heaving.

"Wow, you're that impatient to see me?"

He visibly flinches at the voice, and slowly turns his head. His eyes connect with a dark (E/C), and studies the analyses face of the one person who still made his heart leap into his throat.

(Y/N) stands beside Rei, her arms folded and lips pulled down as she takes in Rin's appearance. She looks him up and down, and sighs. "Why did you drag me here." She mumbles to her friend from the corner of her mouth.

Rei simply offers her an encouraging nod, before clearing his throat and facing the maroon haired boy. "Mind if I call you Rin, or does that bother you?"

Rin looks up in surprise at his boldness, and furrows his brows. "What are you doing here?" He asks in a low tone, his gaze forever flickering towards (Y/N).

The blue haired teen catches this, and takes a step forward, the attention directing towards him once more.

"I need to speak with you."

_____

𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝟏𝟎