𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟑- 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐒
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Evening rolled around a lot sooner than (Y/N) had hoped for.

Despite being excited for the chance to visit her old swimming center with the same group of boys she once had so much fun with, the girl still felt that something was off about the adventure she and her friends were about to begin.

Maybe it was the fact she was staying out way past her bedtime? Or maybe it was facing the fact that she'd have to say goodbye to a big part of her childhood, which she was by no means excited or ready to do.

Whatever the fear may be, (Y/N) knew for sure that she was definitely not looking forward to the grilled Mackerel currently being prepared in-front of her.

Haru had been adamant on stopping by his house one more time for a bite to eat before setting off. Although she should have been used to this by now, the smell of Mackerel had always made (Y/N) slightly nauseous with how much her friend consumed in a day.

"Mackerel again?" She grumbles, and dodges a smack from Haru and his spatula. "No one's forcing you to eat!" He quickly counters, and looks away as Makoto and Nagisa giggle from either side of him.

The green eyed boy looks down for a moment, the gears in his head turning as he thinks of the evening ahead. "Are you sure about this?" He softly asks, and the groups attention turns to him.

"Wha-!" Nagisa scolds in surprise. "You were all for it a while ago!" (Y/N) keeps her eyes on her tall friend, not to sure of whether or not he was trying to back out at the last minute. Makoto shakes his head. "I'm not! All I'm trying to say is that it's only the four of us."

His eyes never leave the grilled fish, a memory swirling beneath his eyes that the group all shared. Nagisa frowns. "Well what are we supposed to do? I mean Rins all the way in another country."

The name of their old childhood friend brings (Y/N)'s memories all the way back to when they were mere children, back to when their group was still complete.

_____

A younger (Y/N) stares down at the bricks lining across the dirt of an old tree. Its roots curving and growing with each day. Haru stood to her right while Rin and Makoto were off to her left.

"Sooo..I won't be going to middle school here." Rin speaks up, his words catching the whole group off guard with his confession. (Y/N) and Haru are the first to look up, the small girls eyes wide with questions. Makoto is the first to speak up, "What do you mean? Why not?"

Rin crosses his arms behind his back, his nonchalant attitude towards the whole thing not exactly helping. "I'll be in Australia." He looks down and watches (Y/N) fiddle with her fingers, her feet kicking up the dirt laid next to her.

"Why?" She softly asks, and Rin smiles. "I'm gonna go somewhere with a good swim team." His answer causes the little girl to scrunch her eyebrows and look away, her chest hurting at the notion that he didn't think their team was any good.

"But, why?" Haru finally speaks up, also hurt from his friend's words. "I wanna compete in the Olympics." Rin finally says, his eyes bright and full of excitement for his new adventure.

"But what about the relay?" Makoto asks, and watches as Rin turns on his heels to walk. "I'll still be around for that, I won't leave until the day after the tournament." (Y/N) balls her little hands into fists, getting more and more annoyed with each word. "It'll be the last time we swim together so let's make it count!"

Makoto sighs before turning to his other friends, both Haru and (Y/N) still visibly upset. "I swim free or I don't swim at all." The blue haired boy finally says, and Rin turns around, a fire in his eyes. "You can swim free in the relay with me, please Nanase." He pleads, his hand in a small fist. "This is our last shot, come on!"

The cherry blossom petals had begun to slowly fall to the ground, circling around the group and incasing them in a blinding white light. Rin's gaze moves towards (Y/N), and he sighs. He quickly makes his way towards her before grabbing her hand and pulling her gaze forward.

The small girl stares up at her friend, her mouth quivering at the thought of never seeing him again. Rin smiles warmly down at her. "Okay let's make a deal." He says softly, and both (Y/N)'s and Haru's eyes widen at the big grin their friend adorned so proudly.

"Swim with me and you'll see something you'll never forget!"

_____

"..Nagisa..did you bring us here to get murdered?"

"Stop saying that!" The ruby eyed boy whines for the tenth time that night towards, his cheeks puffed out and red. (Y/N) only hums as she stares up at the old swimming center, torn and worn down with age and years of neglect.

Makoto shivers, the shovel he brought along clutched tightly in his hands. "This place sure looks.." (Y/N) cuts him off with an exaggerated sigh. "Like crap." Her friends sweat drop at her bluntness but push it aside when Nagisa unwraps a small tissue paper.

"Don't worry, I've come prepared." They all look down at the powdery substance within the napkin, which would have looked suspicious to anyone passing by. "It's purifying salt!"

"Salt?"

"Some people say, that this place is haunted."

"Please don't scare me like that." Makoto nervously shakes his head, and reels back when Nagisa looks to him with an all too serious expression. "You think I'm lying?! People see shadows creeping around here at night Makoto, a girl I know even heard sobbing!"

The taller of the group grows visibly more pale with each word, and doesn't object to being doused in the holy salt. "This will protect us from evil spirits and stuff!" He douses Haru before turning and preparing to throw the protecting at (Y/N).

"Don't want one of them following you home!" His hand is quickly grabbed before he has time to throw it, and (Y/N) cautiously dips her finger into the napkin before placing her finger into her mouth. Her expression goes blank at the sweet flavor coating her tongue.

"Since when did sugar ward off ghosts?" She says flatly, and watches as Haru takes a small bit of the substance and places it into his mouth. The boy hums before turning and staring at the younger of the group. "Nagisa.." he sighs tiredly, not amused at his antics.

_____

"Salt, sugar, it's all the same right?" The group make it inside the building, with Nagisa still trying to explain the error of his ways to his unamused friends. "It's all the same, anything has magical properties if you believe hard enough!"

"I admire your optimism Nagi." (Y/N) says with a chuckle, and looks down to see Makoto tightly gripping the edge of her jacket. She knew the boy had a fear of ghosts when he was younger but she never would have thought that fear carries into his teenage years.

She allows him to anchor himself with her jacket, her hands folded infront of her as the wind picks up and clings to her body.

"Same thing with ghosts, people see what they wanna see!" Makoto tries to convince himself of the words, but shrieks when something clatters to the ground and jumps back. He curls himself smaller to fit behind (Y/N), fully prepared to sacrifice the only girl of the group to whatever ghost was present.

(Y/N) sighs, "Nagisa, stop trying to scare the poor boy." She laughs when Makoto lifts his head and sees a soda can kicked to the side, and the smaller boy looking back with a cheeky grin.

"You're doing this on purpose!" Makoto whines, but continues to glue himself behind (Y/N) incase of any actual threats. The group continues down the hallway, oblivious to the long, looming shadow stalking behind them as they walk deeper into the building.

_____

They all make quick work of the place, swerving between locker rooms, to the old showers and even past a lounge area. Their exploring came to a stop when they stumble across a wall decorated with old photos of swimming teams from when they were young.

"Doesn't this take you back?" Nagisa chuckles, before pointing to a familiar photo in the bottom left. "Look! This when we won the relay, remember?" The photo consisted of them all, with Makoto and Nagisa to the sides while Haru, Rin and (Y/N) were in the middle.

The young girl was crouched infront of Rin, a peace sign thrown to the camera while the maroon haired boy crouched slightly to prop his chin at the top of her head while his arm was wrapped around Haru's shoulders, causing said boy to crouch as well with his head turned to the side.

(Y/N) remembered that day as if it was yesterday. Despite only being a sub incase one of the boys couldn't compete, she was still just as ecstatic to be a part of the team. The sound of the airborne, the smell of chlorine stinging her nose. When Rin screamed at the top of his lungs and rushed to her side to give her a hug the moment they won.

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"We all earned this together." Rin carefully placed the trophy into a tin box, before placing it in a hole they had all clumsily dug up outside their swimming center. "So it doesn't make sense for us to take turns keeping it in our homes."

"No, we'll bury it in a time capsule." He kneels down to place the lid on top before standing up and nodding to each of his friends, small smiles on their faces, besides Haru. "And then we'll dig it up when we're all grown up." He ends his speech by looking down at a bright grinning (Y/N), and wraps his arms around her shoulders before nuzzling his nose into her hair, not yet clean from the chlorine.

"What can I say I'm a romantic!" His statement makes the small girl laugh before turning and smiling towards a still frowning Haru. The small boy jolts back as their gazes meet, but nods nonetheless before looking away, his cheeks a slight pink.

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"(Y/N)? (Y/N) come one, let's go." Makoto's voice brings the girl back, and she nods silently before turning away from the picture and following closely behind them.

"Do you think the old marker will still be there?" Nagisa asks, and doesn't notice the shadow drawing closer from the far end of the hallway they were just in. (Y/N) turns to walk away but stops when the back of her jacket is grabbed.

She turns around to see Makoto's paling face, and moves her eye-line to spot the figure. She squints as they draw closer, a cap hiding their face. Running her gaze over the person's body, (Y/N)'s eyes shoot up when she sees the person's hair.

The stranger stops to stand directly infront of the group, his eyes still hidden by the black cap. "Yo." He says through a smirk, and his hand moves the back of his cap.

"Who's this guy?" Nagisa loudly whispers to (Y/N), causing her to roll her eyes at her friend's horrible attempt at being subtle. She watches the familiar face hook his finger behind the strap of his cap, before pulling on it gently.

"What are the chances of me seeing you guys here?" He lets the strap hit the back of his head, and sucks in a deep breath when he lifts his head to stare right at her.

Makoto and Nagisa gasp at the realization. "Rin?!" They both yell, and relax a little when he removes the cap to reveal their childhood friend from all those years ago. (Y/N) scans his face, his hair had still remained the same length, always in his eyes while his features grew stronger and more defined.

"Wow! You're back from Australia!" Nagisa is quick to grab his old friend's arm with a bright smile, while Makoto offers him a warm smile.

Haru has yet to say anything, still slightly shocked that he's standing face to face with the same boy who wouldn't stop pestering him to race when they were younger.

But Rin ignores the excited questions of his former friends and instead strains his vision towards Haru, (Y/N) by his side. The maroon haired boy shifts his gaze to the girl, studying her features just as she was doing to him.

"Haru." Rin calls, causing the questions to screech to a standstill and all attention to shift between the two boys. Haru doesn't say a word, which prompts his old friends to continue speaking.

"Still hanging out with these guys? That's a little pathetic." His jab surprises not only the boys but (Y/N) as well. 'What the hell?' She thinks, and her body goes rigid as she starts to feel uncomfortable around her old friend.

Haru scrunches his eyebrows. "Speak for yourself so what about you?" He glares at Rin through his bangs, the same annoyance he felt all those years ago rushing back. "Learn any new tricks in Australia?"

Makoto gently scolds his friend, but stops when Rin cracks his neck, his demeanor shifting to a more hostile stance. "Glad you asked, I'll show you what they taught me." He waves his cap and gestures for Haru to follow as he walks away.

"How about a race?"

Haru wastes no time in following him, leaving his friends behind as he and Rin walk side by side to the old swimming pool they all used to train in.

It takes a moment for the interaction to register before (Y/N) turns to look between Makoto and Nagisa. "Did they seriously just ditch us?"

"Yup." Nagisa says nervously, watching as the two get further and further away.

"To swim against eachother like idiots?"

"..yup." Makoto answers this time, and (Y/N) can only reply with a shrug of her shoulders before she takes a step to follow after.

"Well.." she sighs with a lazy smile. "Let's enjoy the show!"

_____