As soon as he had calmed down, Haru had scrambled up to his desk and looked around furiously for a clean sheet of paper and a pencil. When he had located them and sat down, he found himself searching for words.
'I want to see you'? 'I miss you'? 'I love you'?
He dropped the pencil on the desk. It wasn't even certain that it had been Rin. It wasn't likely that Rin would sink into the middle of the Pacific and come back alive.
Maybe the water had realized that Rin wasn't ready to die yet.
He stared at the white paper for a minute, pondering over what he should write, and let out a sigh before staring down at the necklace he had placed next to the paper.
The more he stared at it, the more certain he became that it had been Rin, somehow still miraculously alive, who sent the message.
Anger suddenly bubbled up in him. Rin invaded his life unexpectedly, disappeared, reappeared to once again turn his world upside down, and disappeared again—this time, permanently.
But Rin achieved the impossible and took Haru off guard. Again.
He was tired of Rin throwing his emotions around.
Haru picked up the pencil again and scribbled an 'I hate you, Rin,' rolled the paper up, and roughly stuffed it into the bottle. Jamming the cork on, he stood up and dashed downstairs, running to the beach.
Wind bit his skin through his thin clothes, but Haru didn't feel any cold. His lungs became filled with icy air, but he didn't stop and kept running until he reached the rocks.
He placed the bottle down with a huff, backed off, and went home.
The next day he came back, the jar was gone.
Haru came back to the beach every day to a nonexistent jar. He began to think that it was all just a dream, but the presence of Rin's prized necklace on his desk reminded him that it was real.
So Haru kept hoping, and kept going back.
When no messages were present even after a week, Haru decided to show that Rin wasn't the only one who could be stubborn.
He sat down, back against the scratchy, rust-colored surface of the rock, and brought his knees up to his chest, hugging them as close to his body as possible.
And he sat there.
He sat there until the winds became chillier, until his breath frosted in the air, until the sun sank over the horizon and the moon was high up.
Haru was dozing off when he heard a clank.
The blue-eyed teen jolted up like he was electrocuted, whipping around to see the sight he's wanted to see for the entire week.
A parchment rested inside the jar.
Once he was in his room, Haru tried fervently to take out the cork from the opening of the jar, but his frozen fingers refused to comply. Frustrated, he placed the jar on the desk roughly and rubbed his hands together furiously to get some heat back into them.
He jumped a little when the door to his room slammed open.
"Haru!"
Haru turned around to be greeted by an out-of-breath Makoto.
"Where have you been the entire day?" the brunet started, walking closer to Haru and placing his hands on Haru's defrosting face. "You're freezing! Don't tell me that you've been at the beach the entire day!" Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed his childhood friend's hand and dragged him over to the bathroom. "Take a bath and warm up before you catch a cold. Make sure you dry off, ok? I'm going to go home to take care of Ran and Ren but I'm coming back tomorrow morning—"
"Makoto," Haru interrupted, exasperation evident in his tone. "Don't worry so much."
Makoto stared at Haru with a disapproving frown, but let out a sigh. "Just let me know when you're going out for an entire day. With your… recent mood, I'm going to feel worried."
After a few more words of reassurance have been exchanged, Makoto finally left Haru to take a bath in peace. Exhaling through his nose, Haru turned on the faucet, watching as the warm water began to fill the tub. Once it was full, he turned the faucet off and stripped off his clothes.
A tingling sensation ran up his leg when his numb toes touched the surface of the steaming water, causing Haru to let out a barely audible hiss. Slowly, Haru managed to immerse his whole body into the water, hisses turning into content sighs as warmth spread through his body.
He closed his eyes and leaned back until his back touched the hard wall of the bath tub.
The hole in his heart reminded Haru of its existence as Haru remained in that position.
Rin's warmth was better.
When Haru deemed himself defrosted enough, he had dried himself off and dressed himself in a long-sleeved shirt and sweats before reattempting to open the jar.
Haru's heart fell to his stomach when the paper that came out was the exact same one that Haru had used. But his spirit rose again when he discovered a set of letters on the backside of the paper.
"What you're saying and what you're doing are completely different.
You'll catch a cold.
Don't stay out so late."
Since then, several letters have been exchanged. Nothing complex or probing, just casual conversation that usually had Haru telling Rin about what had happened that day and Rin giving snarky remarks and comments.
Rin never told Haru about his current life. And Haru was ok with that; as long as he could talk to Rin, he was satisfied.
Or so he had thought.
Haru's letters began to go from "Makoto's cat stole my mackerel" to "Where are you?"
Rin's replies were vague and never quenched Haru's curiosity.
As the days passed, Haru began to long to see Rin's face. On the fourth week of this glass jar message exchange, Haru finally asked him why he won't show his face.
What came as a reply caught Haru off guard, not only because it was the longest reply Rin had ever written, but because the contents were so bizzare.
"The Matsuoka Family has a curse
In which the sons always drown and "die."
But really
We don't "die."
We become a part of the ocean.
All the sons who have "drowned" are here
In a Kingdom that humans can and will never reach.
Another curse is placed on us here, though,
One that doesn't allow us to see or talk to our lovers directly,
Else we die."
Haru never asked about the matter again, and they returned to having small, insignificant conversations.
Everything was fine.
Everything was perfectly fine.
Until the day Haru said, without the intent of actually seeing Rin, "It would be nice to see you again."
He had placed the jar into the space between the rocks, and had decided on sitting down next to them for a little bit before leaving. Usually, he only heard the soft crashing of the waves and the wind. But today, there was a sound that wasn't there before.
Splash. Thunk.
"Haru."
On this sunny Saturday afternoon, when no clouds were present to block the sun's gentle touches upon the peoples' skin, when the breeze wasn't too cold but just perfect, when the water of the ocean looked pleasant and beautiful—an unusual day for a winter, in short words—
Haru heard his lover's voice for the first time in more than three months.
Initially, Haru believed that he was hallucinating. He just missed Rin terribly, that's all.
But when that shaking, gentle voice, the voice that Haru loved so much, called his name out again, sapphire eyes sparkled.
"… Rin?"
He wanted to see him. He wanted to see Rin's face, his smile, his eyes, hair, everything.
But there was the curse.
"Haru, turn around."
"But—"
"Everything is alright. I found a way to break the curse. Just turn around."
Haru held his breath. A way to break the curse? Was this real? He could see Rin again?
Slowly, he turned around, and was greeted by a familiar sight.
His breath was taken away by the magenta hair that glittered in the sunlight.
"Rin."
So engrossed was he in taking in the very fact that Rin was real and there right before him that he failed to notice that the world around them had gone completely and utterly
Silent.
Reunion
Nonworth
This is a really ew and messy chapter, I'm not good with filling out the middle of the stories, I'm sorry /cry
But yes, probably one more chapter and then an extra, and then I'll end this.
Most seem to have guessed that Rin became a merman or something.
You might be right.
I might not have turned him into a merman.
Who knows. /mING
