At six in the morning, Nagisa woke up to the sound of his blaring alarm clock. He sat up in bed, yawning and groggily hitting the snooze button. He rubbed his eyes and grabbed his cell phone off of his night stand nearby. Smiling, he texted Rei "good morning" as he always did.

G'morning, Rei-chan!

He cheerfully got up and started getting ready for school. Pulling his uniform on, he put his phone back in his pocket, excited about getting to see his friends at school. He walked to school, whistling to himself. He wondered when the swim club would be able to have their next practice. It'd been a while since he'd been able to swim with everyone. He hoped he could again soon. He stuffed his bag into his locker, gathered up his things, and walked to homeroom.

As usual, he was completely bored out of his mind during class. After attempting to pay attention and getting a total of three words down in his notebook, he spaced out and noticed some butterflies outside the window, flying around some flowers. Since he was sitting in the back of the room, it was pretty easy to text Rei without having the teacher notice him.

I saw butterflies today while spacin' off in class, they were beautiful! (*⌒∇⌒*)

He imagined how Rei would respond. He'd probably say something like, "Nagisa-kun, you need to pay more attention during class!", and other uptight-nerd things like that. They were only first years, he'd try harder next year, and the year after that, he'd be fine. From his phone screen, he saw that it was only 9:15. He sighed and wished for all of his classes to be over already, he wanted so badly to be with his friends. He put his phone away and felt his stomach grumble. He took his other wish back and instead wished for lunch to come soon at least. He watched the butterflies for a little while more until they flew away. He watched as the clock ticked slowly. He wished it was 12:30 already.

Miraculously, he was able to sit through the rest of his classes without passing out. Once he was dismissed, he ran as fast as he could to his locker to get his lunch. He then ran up the stairs to find Makoto, Haruka, and Gou to have lunch together. Once they all got together, they ate and talked about the usual things. Nagisa was so happy to finally be able to talk to his friends. He was happy to see Haruka eating nothing but fish and talking to Makoto about how much he wanted to swim. Happy to hear Gou correct him on her name every time he tried saying something to her. As if on reflex, he went to text Rei again.

Haru-chan brought mackerel again for lunch. He sure makes it seem tasty... O v O ;;

As soon as lunch ended, Nagisa clung onto everyone and prevented them from going back to class for a good minute or two. Defeated, he watched as they walked back to their own classes. Sighing, he started walking back to his own class, dragging it out as slowly as he possibly could without being late. He then went to the teacher and pretended to be sick. It was pretty obvious he was faking, but he was let out to the nurse's office anyway. After laying down and staring at more butterflies for a solid forty-five minutes, the nurse kicked him out, and he hid out in the boy's bathroom for the rest of the day.

The final bell rang, and he ran out of the bathroom as fast as he could. After shoving everything into his bag and shutting his locker, he caught up with his friends again.

"Hey,Gou-!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, it's Kou!"

She hit him in the stomach with her bag. He completely ignored her as usual and continued talking. "When can we have swim practice again?" He pouted. "It's been almost a month since the last time we swam together!"

"Oh..." She and Makoto exchanged a worried and sympathetic glance while Haruka stayed silent and looked the other way. Nagisa just blinked innocently at them. Gou wasn't sure what to say, and after a pause managed a measly,"We'll practice next time, I promise!"

She smiled nervously, but was relieved to see that Nagisa was somewhat satisfied with that response. Haruka, however, clearly wasn't as satisfied and was practically shaking. Gou was startled by how upset he was, so Makoto quickly changed the subject. "Hey, Nagisa, why don't we come over to your house and have dinner together tonight? I'll cook!"

Nagisa beamed. "Really? Sounds like fun!"

Haruka returned to normal and they all agreed that they'd come over to Nagisa's at six. They then went their separate ways. Nagisa watched as they all walked away from him again, Makoto quickening his pace to keep up with Haruka to make sure he doesn't come across a body of water to strip dramatically in front of, Gou walking in the opposite direction. He was excited to have his friends over, he wanted to spend as much time with them as much as he possibly could. He boarded the train and took the seat he always did. He thought about how Rei always rode the train with him, and how he was standing right in front of him, holding onto a bus handle and reading a book, when Nagisa first asked him to join the swim club. He thought about how Rei would get off the bus and run the last stretch everyday, since he used to be in the track club. He was so glad he decided to join the swim club in the end. Getting out his phone, he started texting Rei again.

There was no swim practice today. Haru-chan seemed kind of sad, but Gou-chan promised we'd practice again soon.

When he got home, he immediately sat down to watch some TV. He lazed around, knowing he should probably do homework, but really didn't feel like it. He'd do it after dinner he'd decided, maybe his friends were willing to help him with it? He hoped so. He didn't really take any good notes or pay attention at all anyway, and they usually did end up helping him. He was also really good at whining if it needed to come down to it.

When it was almost six, he was practically creeping through the peephole of his front door. As usual, he beamed as soon as he saw his friends show up on his doorstep. He opened the door and almost choked them to death with his hugs, as he always did. Once they finally made it inside, Gou, Haruka, and Nagisa all sat around at the table as Makoto cooked, as he promised. Nagisa really enjoyed watching and eating Makoto's cooking. Although it wasn't fish, Haruka couldn't really complain either. They all talked and ate together for a while, simply enjoying each other's company, despite Gou having to correct Nagisa on her preferred name every single time he tried talking to her.

Once they were all done eating, Nagisa asked if they'd stay over to help him with his homework. He begged and pleaded a little, though it didn't take much for them to give in, much to his liking. Haruka clearly would rather be soaking in his bathtub, though. Or that was just his face, even then Nagisa wasn't completely sure. After a few minutes of Gou trying to explain some math formulas to him though, he instantly spaced out and instead texted Rei again. He didn't notice when everyone else started watching him sympathetically as he happily tapped away at his phone's keypad.

Dinner was delicious tonight! (ノ＞▽＜。)ノ Everyone came over and Mako-chan cooked. Haru-chan wanted mackerel again, but this time he didn't say anything. I'm so full~ |D

When he was done, Gou didn't waste anymore time and made Nagisa do all of his work, no matter how much he whined, or how much he tried to stall and distract everyone. She refused to let him get any snacks or take any breaks. She even took away his phone and refused to let him use his own bathroom. She made sure there were absolutely no distractions possible. Nagisa wasn't sure if she genuinely wanted to help him or she just really wanted or needed to be back home. Either way, he knew he was grateful, and at the same time thought she was a demon with her level of ridiculous discipline. He pushed himself to finish all his work, and when he did, he was worn out and ready to collapse on his couch, watch TV and eat junk food. Gou returned his phone, and everyone congratulated him on getting his work done. It was around eight, and everybody went back home. He was proud of himself and slacked off for the rest of the night.

Later on, he got ready for bed. After laying down and staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, he sat back up and grabbed his phone off his night stand nearby. He scrolled through his one-sided conversation with Rei. Once he reread all his past messages, he sent him another one.

...I'm really happy you decided to join swim club

A minute passed.

Goodnight, Rei-chan

As soon as he sent the message, he felt a single tear drop roll off his face, landing on his phone screen. He wiped the screen off, only to have more tears fall onto it. Soon enough, he couldn't stop all the tears from pouring down his face, and he started sobbing loudly. He couldn't control it at all, and he completely broke down. He collapsed back onto the bed, and rolled over to his side, letting his phone slip out of his hand and onto the bed, landing next to him. He grabbed his pillow and hugged it tightly, burying his face into it and bringing his knees up to his elbows. His face was wet with tears as he let them continue falling. His face burned, and he tasted salt. Every time he said goodnight, he cried himself to sleep. Every time he woke up, he was ready to text Rei again, first thing in the morning, and start the cycle all over again.

"You can still get my texts up in heaven right?"