Haru remembers the first day it happened, how tightly it pulled while he was alone.
He shouldn't know who it's about, but he feels the tears pool in his eyes and just remembers.
Haruka remembers the relay, remembers watching Rin, feeling him through water separating them and feels the rush of excitement, of joy; it was his first relay and the first time that he'd really focused so much on Rin.
He breathes in tightly, trying to ignore the tugging on his pinky, trying to ignore Rin.
Haru remembers how Rin hugged him after the relay, remembers the rush of the contact, the attention he now paid to him, and the thrill of winning; they become a tangled mess of memories like the tight tugging on his pinky.
He refuses to cry, refuses to think that his soulmate could be, should be in Australia; he hugs himself close and yet wishes to be normal, to not feel the tugging that started out gently the further and further Rin went away on that dastardly plane.
The tugging grew more severe today, knowing that Rin was across the world from him; he clings to his knees and tries not to imagine meeting Rin, how the very miniscule tugging on his finger, too light to notice, suddenly left him as he stared at the kid in his class.
He remembers how Rin introduced himself and how thrilling it was to be near a kid like him with energy to last a lifetime, remembers gentle teasing as if they were flirting.
It hadn't meant anything then; they didn't notice their pull, their drive to be together.
Haru wonders if Rin feels it too, wonders if it really is Rin who tugs him near now as he thinks about the thrill of being near the other boy and the playful banter of kids who never cared to think of soulmates.
Every once in a while, the tugging lightens up, but Haruka knows that there is no way to trace it back to it's source as he stares at his pinky, feels the way his cheeks brighten lightly; he knows that he doesn't feel better prepared at all for the day that they meet again.
Soulmates still feel like a stretch though he's always rather liked Rin, always wondered what it would be like to close that small gap between them especially since the relay, his very first one.
He breathes in deep yet feels the vivid tugging, too real to feel true, fade away, so very slowly, and stares up at Rin.
They both grew so much and yet Haru doesn't feel ready perhaps Rin doesn't either as they don't kiss, don't acknowledge how the tugging completely stopped once they saw each other, nor do they make their feelings before all of this known.
Rin guides him to the pool where they race, and Haru's world tilts just like when Rin leaves and the tugging began nearly painfully.
A part of him longs to hold on to Rin, who assures him that he wants to quit swimming; he doesn't reach out, can't, because neither are ready to acknowledge their feelings.
High school comes in a blur as Haru stares glumly away, trying not to piece together the thoughts in his head: Rin, water, Rin, swimming, Mackerel, Rin, and yet it goes on.
He doesn't just think of him as Rin anymore as a part of him longs to call him my Rin, having a soulmate sends his heart in flurries of waves, eager to crash, to escape yet not yet ready to admit that.
Haru does care for his friends, is excited to be near them again in his own way, but neither of them realize the incesstant tugging and how a part of it dulls even now.
He instinctively clutches his pinky now as if it were a sign of every last thought of Rin, a sign of how he still feels, and what he can't control.
Having a soulmate is like losing your freedom in a way as all it causes him to think about is Rin; he doesn't ask his friends if they have soulmates. He doesn't want to know.
Haruka pretends that he doesn't feel that Rin's closer than Australia though no matter what, he doesn't know where exactly he's at.
He watches his finger, half expecting the ache to suddenly leave, half expecting Rin to show up in his class with a cute introduction yet knows that Rin is not the same as before, can't be since the last time he saw him.
His heart aches, but he doesn't acknowledge the cracks and tears; Rin still sometimes doesn't feel like his soulmate.
Breaking into the old pool is what lightens the tug fully, finally he sees his soulmate again, nearly loses himself in the stronger feeling of slight freedom or at least freedom from the ache and finally the rush of the turbulent seas of his emotions, incomprehensible within him, as he suddenly longs for more.
He doesn't feel ready, nervously embraces the promise of a race, before finally in front of friends and all and stopped by a tug and a kiss; it's an accident.
Haruka can't breathe, feels submerged under the water, and yet clings to him as if Rin holds all of the answers.
There is no 'I love you's, no explanations, just a kiss that bites further in his heart than he'll probably ever tell Rin.
Pulling back is almost a tug like that of his pinky when Rin's far away in and of itself; he bites his lip, not deliberately as he stares at him.
Rin has changed and that is clear, but Haru loves him.
Haruka wonders if it would have taken more time if they weren't held together by the tug of their pinkies and lost in a daze of memories.
He almost asks Rin when did he know, when did he realize, and figures that that would have been harder for the other to figure out since he'd left behind many others.
Haru breathes and lets go of some of the worries clogging his mind up; they'll have a chance to figure this all out later when lips aren't burning from brief passion.
He smiles weakly at his soulmate as Rin looks away, embarrassed, and thrills silently over seeing some of his old Rin peeking through the facade.
Haru hopes that they'll have plenty of time to figure this all out as the years go by, for now one kiss is enough, before life complicates everything further.