The ceiling was dark.

For the past two hours, Rosa had been tossing and turning in bed, trying to force her brain shut so she could sleep. She had tried every position imaginable; head on pillow, feet on pillow, down, across, one sheet, two sheets, no sheet, three pillows, two pillows, but everything was proven fruitless. She simply could not doze off, her brain was going ten miles per hour, thoughts rushing in and out.

She hadn't realized how difficult it would be for her to see Rin again (especially because of the rather bitter way they parted) until she had him standing right in front of her, and all her hours of learning Japanese had been tossed out the window.

It was hard, very hard. It was hard not teasing him about losing to Mikoshiba, it was hard not laughing at the antics Nathan and him pulled, it was hard not to challenge him like she had gotten used to doing every time they swam together, it was hard not being able to congratulate him and tell him how much his swimming had improved, it was hard knowing how difficult it would be for him to accept Mikoshiba's decision of being captain and not saying anything to comfort him.

It was hard.

It's not like she didn't try to say something; she tried, multiple times on several different occasions across the day, but the words always got stuck in her throat, and pushed back down, buried in her heart.

Coming to terms with the fact that there was no way she'd be able to go to sleep, she turned on her night lamp, thankful that she had chosen to put away the framed picture of Rin and her that she had placed on the table a month after they began dating. She was also thankful that her aunt had done some cleaning while she was away, so she had no idea where the box with that picture had ended up. Otherwise, she'd probably be halfway unpacking it right now, to torture herself more because she loved doing that, apparently.

She pushed the covers aside, and carefully stepped around Toby's sleeping body on her carpet, before approaching the window on the other side of the bed. The clock in her wall marked 2 AM.

She really didn't want it to, but the moon shining down on her immediately brought forward memories of the many nights that Rin and her had spent under it, like she was doing right now. Alone. She vividly remembered the nocturne picnic they had, the cooking split between both of them. Or the night of the bonfire, when she took forever to light it up and Rin had to do it for her. Or the summer festival, when they watched the fireworks. Or that night that he came looking for her to the beach when he realized where she had spent her entire day.

And, of course, the night that they shared their first kiss. How could she forget about that? It was the beginning of everything, including the end.

She felt something nuzzling her hand, and, when she looked down, she found that Toby was staring at her with curious eyes, almost as if he could tell there was something going on.

And, to be honest, she was sure he did. Toby was a very intelligent dog, very perceptive of the feelings of his owners. When her aunt arrived late from her shift at the hospital and fell asleep on the couch while watching something, Rosa sometimes found Toby right next to her, often awake, keeping her company.

"Sorry for waking you up." She knelt down to pet him. "I'm not the only one sad here. I'm sure you miss Rin, too, don't you?" Upon hearing the boy's name, his ears perked up, recognizing it. Whenever the two of them stayed home for a movie, Toby was always there. When they had food, Rin would always give him something, and, sometimes, Toby even fell asleep on him. Rosa had tried to shoo him away a couple of times, but the boy said that he didn't mind because, quote and quote, 'Steve hates me, so I might as well take Toby's charity instead', Steve being his cat, which adored Gou but didn't let Rin get even an inch close to him.

Toby, like her, had gotten used to having Rin around, and now that they didn't, it felt very empty. No 'I'll be faster than you next time', no banter, no random dates at any time of the day, just a lot of awkwardness, averted gazes, and a whole lot of silence.

And she absolutely hated it. All of it.

"When did things turn so bad?" she questioned, to no one in particular. She also wasn't entirely sure what she was referring to: if it was the situation she was in right now, or the reason why she was in it.

As if understanding her thoughts, Toby walked over to the shelves and bookcase in the corner of the room, and just sat there, like the good guardian that he was. He was staring at her with a gaze in which Rosa could almost read the words 'well, don't just stand there. Come over'.

And she did.

She knew very well what was sitting on that side of her bedroom: photographs. Each shelf was dedicated to someone in particular: the fourth one to Laguna Creek and Joy, the third one to Iwatobi and Nathan, the second one to Luke and her family, and the first one was solely composed of pictures of Rin and her.

Yes, she had an entire shelf dedicated to her ex-boyfriend.

Except he wasn't her ex yet. He wasn't even her boyfriend. He was her childhood friend. The Boyfriend Rin photographs were probably in the box her aunt had put away, but she remembered that she had many of them still in her phone.

Even though the light of her lamp was quite powerful, it wasn't strong enough to reach the furthest corner of the room, so she had star fairy lights hanging across the wood, surrounding the photographs. She reached for the switch, and turned them on; the pictures immediately came to life, and she started going down the row, staring at them one by one, while trying to remember where they were taken, and what exactly they were doing.

Rin looked rather annoyed in this one, as she held her hand over his head, mocking his shortness (he was almost two heads taller than her now). Here they were shaking hands in front of a pool, though she looked rather upset; she had probably lost a race against him (that didn't change as years went by. In fact, she probably became a lot more competitive with him). Oh, the one she got from Sasabe last year, where Rin and her were sleeping outside the club after spending the night at his house. This one was captured in her aunt's garden, probably by her mother, as they chased each other across the grass. She loved the following one, it was the one they took once they won the tournament, as she piggybacked Rin, who was holding the trophy.

But, the last one had to be her favorite one. She was sitting behind a desk, a laptop in front of her, and Rin's sleeping face in a small window at the corner of the screen. His cheek was on his right hand, mouth opened, and his free hand resting on the pages of the book they had been reading.

She remembered that day crystal clear. They had been studying English until late since Rin had a test the other day, but the poor boy was so exhausted that he fell asleep, while Rosa searched the internet for a way to explain to him the concept of countable and uncountable nouns in a way that would be easy to understand. And, when she came back to the call, like the good friend she was, she took a picture to record that hilarious (and kind of cute) moment. Up until today, Rin had no idea that a picture like that even existed, and she planned on keeping it that way for a long time, so she could laugh about it whenever she wanted.

She hadn't realized that a few tears had fallen off her eye until she sniffled.

But, surprisingly enough, they weren't sad tears.

In fact, she didn't even feel upset. Her heart filled with warmth as she contemplated the memories that Rin and her had made over the years, but there was also a longing, a yearning, to be able to take pictures like that again.

As she stared at the fairy lights and the photographs, cheeks wet and Toby back asleep on the carpet, as if his job was done already, she had an epiphany, to put it dramatically.

This was her last year at Iwatobi.

It was Haru and Mako's last year.

It was Nathan's last year.

It was Rin's last year.

Once school was done, they would all go their separate ways, seeing each other maybe once, twice a year. This was her last chance to create memories with all these people. Her last chance to laugh at Haru's obsession with being free, her last chance to get scolded by Manager Gou, her last chance to tease and mock and spend time with Rin, at least for a while, until they met again at the Olympics, like they said they would as kids.

Did she really want to spend the entirety of her last year ignoring, avoiding, and never once getting the chance to hang out with Rin?

I mean, sure. He broke up with her. She hadn't completely moved on from their relationship. She felt like she wanted to sink into a hole every time she was near him, but...all that could get worked through. And the best way to do that was to face it headfirst.

And so, she made the decision. She would no longer try to hide and escape her past with Rin, she would stare it straight in the face and say 'thanks for the memories, but now it's time for a new beginning'.

And, hopefully, Rin would open that door for her.

Oh, Rosa, if only things were that simple…

This was a shorter chapter than the previous ones because I wanted Rosa´s reflections to be the main focus. The following one will be longer, the question is, will Rosa actually be able to do what she wants to do?

Thanks for reading this short but very meaningful chapter! See you next week!