"I-I have something to tell you" Rin spoke to Rosa, as they sat on the backyard of her house. The girl looked at him curiously upon hearing that.
"Sure" she nodded "What is it?"
"I'm not gonna attend middle school here" he admitted, earning him a surprised glance.
"You aren't?" she asked, and Rin shook his head, sort of worried about what her reaction was going to be.
"I'll be in Australia, at a swimming school" he explained, making her smile. If he was leaving, then telling him she was leaving too wouldn't be as hard as she thought it would be. She would miss every single one of the guys, but the one she was definitely going miss the most was Rin.
"Rin, that's awesome!" she exclaimed happily, knowing that his dream was to become an Olympic swimmer, and going to study abroad was going to be a good opportunity for him to fulfill that dream "I'm so happy for you!" Rin was a bit taken back by her response, thinking she would yell at him or start crying, but he smiled at her when he realized that she wasn't "I'm also leaving" she added after some minutes, and Rin arched his eyebrows upon hearing that.
"Where are you going?" he questioned curiously.
"There's this swimming school in England called Laguna Creek" she explained "I found it while I was researching something for school, and it delivered some of the greatest swimmers of all times" she added "I'm already enrolled for the new year"
"Why didn't you say anything before?"
"I didn't want to distract you guys from the relay" she admitted "The rest don't know it yet, and I want it to stay that way until after the tournament, so promise me you won't say anything"
"Okay. I won't" Rin nodded, and silence reigned for a few minutes "So you're going to achieve your dream" he knew that Rosa also wanted to swim in the Olympics one day.
"We both are" she pointed out with a smile "But you have to promise that you'll keep in touch with me" she said firmly "We're not going to be those types of friends who lose touch when one of them moves away" she stated.
"Okay" he nodded with a smile "I promise"
"Good. Or I'll come to Australia myself, and you won't get rid of me so easily"
"What a pain…" complained Rin, though he was secretly glad that Rosa was willing to do that for him.
"Well, this pain is your best friend, and you love me for it" said the girl playfully, making him chuckle slightly.
Rosa, after telling the guys where Rin was enrolled, she had no idea why they wanted to know that but she didn't ask, was waiting for Joy to answer her skype call, because she really needed someone to talk to. And the girl had always been her first choice.
Finally, she saw 'incoming call' on the screen and immediately accepted it.
"Hi there, girl!" greeted Joy, making Rosa chuckle. It had only been a couple of days since she moved to Iwatobi, but she had really missed her voice "How's it going? How's life over there?"
"It has been pretty good!" she replied happily "I missed this place a lot, and the guys, too! Not much has changed! What about you?"
"Things have been fine so far!" replied Joy "It feels sort of lonely without you here with me, but I think I'm having a new roommate sometime soon"
"Don't you dare forget about me!" ordered the girl sternly, upon hearing that.
"Don't worry, Rosa. No one can replace you!" said the other girl with a wink "Have you done anything interesting these days?"
"Uh…Does trespassing into an abandoned building count?" asked the black haired innocently, making her laugh.
"No way!" she said with a chuckle "Who knew our Rosa could be such a rebel?"
"Shut up" the girl chuckled "The old swimming club we used to go to is being torn out, and we wanted to dig up the trophy we won in the relay"
"Really?" asked Joy "In that case, I approve"
"I don't need your approval" said Rosa good-heartedly, but her expression darkened a bit when she remembered Rin's attitude.
"Hey, what's wrong?" asked her friend, noticing her expression.
"You know how Rin left for Australia and I haven't heard much of him ever since?" she replied.
"Yeah?" she asked, sensing that something had happened with the boy.
"He's back" stated Rosa, and her friend's eyes shot open.
"Really? That's great, Rosa! It will give you guys a chance to catch up!" said Joy, not knowing that the situation wasn't as happy as she thought.
"I wish it were that easy" replied Rosa sadly, making her friend frown upon hearing that "We saw him at the club, but it felt as if he was a completely different person"
"What do you mean?" questioned Joy, folding her arms "Different how?"
"He was so cold towards us" replied the girl "He called us pathetic, and challenged Haru to a race, while ignoring that Mako, Nagisa and I were there" she added "I thought that after five years, he'd be at least a bit happy to see me, but it was as if I wasn't there at all"
"Any idea what happened?"
Joy was a bit angry at Rin for doing that, even though she had never met him, but she knew about him because of what Rosa told her, and it didn't sound like him at all. She was careful not to let her emotions get the best of her, because she knew how much the maroon haired meant to her friend, and she didn't want to say anything against him.
"I don't know" replied Rosa shaking her head "But I will find out"
"That's the attitude, girl!" said Joy excited, making her smile "If he's gonna open up to someone, it will be to you. Afterall, you are very determined, and there's also the fact that you're head over heels for him, so…"
"Stop it" said Rosa, blushing slightly, though she was smiling.
"It's the truth!" replied Joy, and she was right. Rosa had had a crush on Rin ever since they were kids.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that you have to bring it up every single time we have a conversation" said the black haired logically, rolling her eyes.
"Well, I wouldn't have to if you ever stopped talking about him" she said good-heartedly, with just as much logic "I think I even heard you talking about him in your sleep once…"
"Don't make me end this call, Joy!" threatened Rosa, making her friend chuckle.
"Okay, okay. I'll stop"
Both girls kept talking until late, before one of them finally had to go.
"Why did you do that?" asked Rosa tiredly the next day, when the guys told her that they had sneaked into Samezuka academy.
"We wanted to see Rin…" replied Nagisa sheepishly, and the girl sighed.
"I think there are better ways to talk to him, guys" she said logically.
"We are sorry" replied Mako and Nagisa simultaneously, hanging their heads in shame.
"At least it didn't have major consequences" said Rosa optimistically, and then looked around, to find that someone was missing "Hey, where's Haru?" she added, looking at her friends.
"I don't know" replied Nagisa "He just started walking away" the three of them looked towards the door, and saw, indeed, that their friend walking some distance away from them.
"When did that happen?" questioned the olive-haired tiredly.
Gou then approached them, and they had a similar conversation to that of Rosa and she yesterday, only that 30% of it was Gou and Nagisa arguing over the pronunciation of her name.
"Hey, I've got a great idea!" the orange haired spoke up after some minutes "How about we start a swim club right here at school?" Rosalya opened her eyes wide upon hearing that "We can compete in tournaments, and we'll see Rin!" she stayed silent for some minutes, analyzing that. It sounded like fun, but the girl wasn't sure.
"I don't know, Nagi" replied Rosa "I'm not sure I'm ready to get back into the water just yet"
"What do you mean?" asked the other girl, having never heard of that before.
"After my little brother died, I decided to take a break from swimming" explained the girl with a kind smile "It's been a year since that" she added. It was a sensitive topic for her, but Gou deserved to know what was going on.
"You don't have to swim, you can have another position!" said Nagisa, bouncing up and down
"Please, Rosa" the girl smiled, not being able to say no to him. He was like a puppy.
"Okay, sure" she replied "It sounds like fun" she added, and Nagisa smiled happily.
"I'm not sure Haru would be on board with something like this" stated Mako.
Either way, they went to ask him.
"Whatever. Knock yourselves out" replied Haru while sitting in the bath with his swimsuit on.
"Wait, really?" questioned Rosalya, and the other two asked similar things. They didn't expect him to agree so easily.
"This is gonna be so fun!" exclaimed Nagisa "Awesome Haru, thanks!"
Later, the five of them were in Haru's living room as he dried off.
"You know that a swim club will be a lot of work, right Haru? And you'll have to help out" commented Mako, very aware of the boy's laziness.
"That's fine" replied the black haired, and Rosa's gaze stood on Gou who was covering her face while looking the other way.
"Uh…Gou?" she called, placing a hand on her shoulder "Are you alright?" the young girl turned around, and she was literally shining as she stared at Haru, who was staring right back at her with curiosity "Oh, I forgot!" she spoke up, turning to look at Haru "This is Rin's little sister"
"Hello, it's very nice to see you again Haruka" she greeted politely.
"Yeah, I know you" replied Haru "Gou, right?" the girl smiled and nodded.
"I'm sorry about what my brother did yesterday" she apologized on Rin's behalf as Haru put on a robe.
"No worries" he replied as he approached the oven, and Nagisa went to help him.
Rosa's gaze then stood on the trophy and the picture resting on one corner, and she smiled a bit when the memory of that day came back to her.
"Hey, is that…?" Gou left the phrase hanging in the air as she stared at the picture on the floor, while Nagisa and Haru prepared food for everyone to eat. It would probably involve a whole lot of mackerel.
"Oh, yeah" replied Mako, upon seeing what the maroon haired was looking at "That's the trophy the five of us won when we were little kids" Rosa felt weird everytime someone said that the five of them had won the trophy, when, in reality, it was just Rin, Haru, Mako and Nagisa that swam.
But when she told them not to include her since she hadn't swam, they immediately refused, claiming that she had been a huge help for them.
"You're all smiling" observed Gou.
"Everyone but Haru" added Rosa "As usual"
"I like to think that Haru is always smiling on the inside" Nagisa spoke up, walking into the room with a tray full of cups of tea, making Rin's sister chuckle.
"You guys make it sound like he's such grumpy person" she said chuckling, and the rest imitated her.
"So, Gou, this is actually the first time that Rin has ever come home since he left, right?" asked Mako, and Rosa frowned.
"I think he did come back once" she commented, faintly remembering a letter Rin had sent her a couple of years ago, where he said he was returning for the holidays…She was sure she had kept it, she just didn't know where it was.
"Really?" questioned Nagisa, surprised to hear that.
"Rin came back every year for the holidays without fail" replied the maroon haired, which meant that Rin had come back more times than Rosa thought. If he had come back a month ago, then he approximately had come five or six times for holidays.
Did he never hang out with the guys when he did? Because that was just cold…But then again, this 'New Rin', as Rosa liked to call him, was cold-hearted.
"Are you saying that Rin came back home every year and never got in touch with any of us?" demanded Nagisa, thinking the same thing as Rosa. Gou just nodded, not really knowing what else to say. It wasn't her fault that Rin had done that, but she still felt bad about it, since way back when Rin always talked about his amazing teammates "Man, what a jerk!"
Later that day, Rosalya was at her house, searching through her bookshelves for A Dark Night's Passing, a book she was supposed to read the first few chapters for Literature next week. She was sure it was around somewhere, her father was a fan of classical Literature works and he had given some of those books to her, in hopes that she would need them some day. A Dark Night's Passing was one of those; she just didn't know the exact location of it in her book shelf.
Suddenly, she saw a brown book standing out from a colorful row of works, and frowned, grabbing it.
"And where did you come from?" she questioned out loud, opening it. As she tried to remember what that was, a white paper fell from inside and hit the floor swiftly. Rosa crouched down to pick it up, and realized that it wasn't just any piece of paper; it was an envelope.
A memory suddenly came back to her. She remembered arriving to the dorms of Laguna Creek Academy, and the housemother telling her that the postman had delivered a letter for her that morning, which was in her room now. She rushed towards her bedroom, and found a white envelope with a colored frame decorating it, and she knew it was Rin's.
Once she was done reading it, she put it inside that brown book, which was her personal diary, where she wrote her innermost thoughts and feelings. She stopped using it such a long time ago, that she completely forgot she had it.
She took out the letter from the envelope and sat down on her bed, to read it more comfortably.
Hey,
Holidays are coming soon. I'll return to Iwatobi for the break. Maybe I'll run into Haru, Makoto or Nagisa while I'm there. My sis is very happy to see me again, and so is my mom. Everything's okay over here! And…Uh…Thanks for helping me with homework and stuff…I owe you one. How are things over there? Are you okay? Write back soon.
-Rin
Rosa had a huge smile on her face when she finished reading it. That was the last letter Rin ever wrote to her, and she remembered everything he talked about on it. He returned home for the holidays just like she did; her school was a boarding school, as you might already know, and she was free to return home for the holidays, but the rest of the year, she had to stay at the school.
And, to explain a bit about what Rin was talking about when he mentioned the homework…Rin didn't know much English when he first went to Australia, so he struggled with making friends and passing his classes since he didn't manage the language well, and, as Rosalya's mother tongue was English, he asked for her help, which she obviously gave. She was a huge part of the reason why Rin was able to adapt to Australia, even if they weren't in the same place. And he knew that.
The gears then started to work in her head. That was Rin's last letter to her, where he told her that he was coming back to Iwatobi for holidays. After that, she never heard from him again. She tried sending him more letters, emails and she even called his house once, wanting to know why Rin wasn't answering any of her letters, maybe something had happened to him that he didn't want to tell anybody about, but not even his mother could tell what was wrong, or if something was wrong at all.
Something happened for him to come back to Iwatobi, something brought him there again after four years, and that's why he stopped getting in touch with Rosa. She was sure it wasn't just a random coincidence, because Rin and her sent each other letters regularly, and they skyped almost every day. If she knew Rin at all, she knew he wouldn't throw that away just like that. There had to be a reason.
And she was going to find out.