Haruka was lying in his bed and staring up at the ceiling in the room he shared with Rin. Tomorrow he would begin his third, and final, year of high school. He wasn't sure how to feel about the whole thing.
It had been almost three years since Haruka moved to Tokyo with Makoto and the others because the hospital Makoto used to work at in Iwatobi was closing due to financial trouble. Therefore he had gotten a new job in Tokyo.
They had lived in a small apartment that Makoto had managed to get within a very short notice, and they had moved just as summer break started. Makoto had had to work for way longer than usual and for a lot less, so their lives had had to undergo an overall change. Haruka had had to learn how to cook, and become very good at it actually, at least the others said so.
They had started school, Haruka and Rin in their third year of middle school, Nagisa in his second year of middle school, and Rei in his second year of high school.
Along with school came new friends, Haruka and Rin befriended Yazaki Aki, Nitori Aiichirou and their next door neighbor Yamazaki Sousuke. It was because of Sousuke that Rin and Haruka had a falling out and stopped talking to each other for months, but also because of Makoto's childhood friend Shigino Kisumi.
Rin and Haruka had never known Kisumi because he got scouted as model before they were adopted by Makoto, but Kisumi had met Nagisa and Rei and upon meeting Rin and Haruka, both parties knew that they didn't like the other one. They kept it hidden, but an incident happened on the first night when Kisumi came to visit which led to Rin and Haruka accidentally exchanging a kiss.
Because of all these circumstances Haruka had run away, back to Iwatobi, on the day of New Years. Kisumi had spotted him and immediately contacted Makoto and lend him his car to go get Haruka back. He did so much for Makoto to help him get back what was the most important to him. After this, Haruka and Kisumi had talked things over and started getting along after that.
One could argue that it was Sousuke's fault that Rin and Haruka became friends again. Sousuke had pulled a prank on Haruka by saying that Rin had gotten lost in Shinjuku, while the boy had actually just been in the restroom. Haruka, however, had believed Sousuke entirely and ended up running all the way to Shinjuku because he had heard there was a serial killer and wanted to save Rin before it was too late. He ended up being spotted on TV, by Rin, who was safe and sound elsewhere in Tokyo. Rin had then rushed to get Haruka back, because, despite everything, they were brothers and friends. None of them wanted to let the other die if they could do something about it.
Thankfully the two found each other in time before they were found by the serial killer. They even managed to make up because they realized how much they really cared about each other. But they were found by the serial killer before they got out of Shinjuku. Fortunately the police stepped in, in time to save their lives. Then Rin and Haruka had run off, before the police could manage to ask them any questions about what had happened.
It has to be mentioned that Nagisa had a classmate named Matsuoka Gou who looked a lot like Rin. Within a matter of months she had taken a great interest in both Rin and Haruka, believing they were her older brothers. After looking at some documents that were created when Rin and Haruka arrived at the orphanage, and taking a blood test at the hospital, their relation was finally determined and Rin and Haruka were able to reunite with their biological mother and younger sister. But they decided to stay with Makoto, Rei and Nagisa, because they felt more at home with the three of them.
Shortly after everything had been cleared out, Kisumi had come up with an offer that the Tachibana family could live with him because he had plenty of room and wasn't poor. It would mean Makoto was able to work a bit less than before and could spend time with his precious family.
They had now lived in this apartment for two years, Rin, Haruka, Makoto, Rei, Nagisa and Kisumi all together. So far things were going well, but Haruka had a gut feeling that peace won't last forever. In fact he was sure of it. It had also been peaceful at their old home in Iwatobi, but that had been taken away from him within two weeks.
"Haru?" Rin entered the room, the smile in place on his face. "What are you doing?" he asked once he saw Haruka lying on the bed.
Haruka just looked up at Rin and said nothing. What was there to say anyway? He hadn't been doing anything at all.
"Yazaki-san just texted me, asking if we wanted to swim with her, Ai and Sousuke at Sasabe's swim club?" Rin asked.
Haruka didn't need that sentence to be repeated twice. To swim involved a pool, and a pool was by far the best thing he could think of. Not even beaten by his 'beloved' mackerel.
"You're not packing anything?" Rin asked.
"I'm wearing my swimsuit," Haruka answered.
"You still need a towel or Makoto and Matsuoka-san are both gonna kill me," Rin said.
Haruka sighed. Since two years ago when he and Rin had learned that they were really twins and that Rin was the older twin, Rin had been very dutiful about his role as the older one and attempted to look out for Haruka as much as he could. Only problem was, Haruka certainly wasn't in need of someone looking out for him. Honestly he believed Rin was more in need of someone to look after him.
Rin sighed too and went to grab the second towel and pack it in his bag. They then headed towards the entrée of the apartment but were stopped when Rei called out to them.
"Where are you two going?" he asked.
"Out for a swim with Sousuke and the others," Rin said.
"With Sou-chan, Ai-chan and Zaki-chan?" Nagisa came running from his seat next to Rei, his face shining brightly with joy. "Can I come with?"
"Weren't you supposed to do extra studies?" Haruka asked the youngest boy.
Nagisa pouted. "But it's so boring, and Rei-chan is too busy doing stuff on the laptop to pay attention to me and help out," he whined.
Rei sighed. "I don't mind you going," he said. "I bet a swim would do Nagisa some good," he fixed his glasses and put his focus back on the laptop screen.
"Rei-chan's the best!" Nagisa declared
Rin rolled his eyes. "Fine, but hurry it up," he demanded.
Nagisa smiled, and within a couple of minutes he had gathered his swimsuit and a towel and was ready to leave with Rin and Haruka.
"Should I ask Momo-chan, Gou-chan and Hana-chan if they want to come?" he asked.
"Didn't Gou leave with a friend of hers to Kyoto the other day?" Rin asked.
Nagisa smiled sheepishly. "Oh yeah, then just Momo-chan,"
"I don't care," Rin said. "Do whatever you want,"
Nagisa texted his best friend and classmate, Mikoshiba Momotaro, asking him to come meet them. The group slowly headed out, towards their destination. This was the only issue with Kisumi's place. They were living a little further away from everything than before. If they wanted to take a short detour that led them another way past the school, they would actually pass by the building where they first moved in. They sometimes did that if Rin wanted to meet up with Sousuke. He still lived there.
"Is Rei really that boring to be around?" Haruka asked curiously.
"Yeah," Nagisa answered while looking down at his shoes. "He is so focused on his studies right now, even if collage doesn't start until tomorrow either,"
Neither Rin, nor Haruka knew what to say. Nagisa and Rei were really close, just as close as they were, but unlike Rei and Nagisa, Rin and Haruka had the benefit of being in the same year and doing the same things, and having the same interests. Rei was starting his second year of collage and Nagisa was starting his second year of high school and while Rei still felt responsible for Nagisa, it was visible that something in their relationship was about to change. Haruka had a theory that they were growing apart, but he had yet to speak to anyone about it.
New update. Do you know how many times this chapter has changed title? At least three I think!
I'm sorry about yesterday. Suddenly the site didn't work and I decided not to update right away. I ended up remembering just before I went to bed and had to be quick about publishing the update. Hopefully something like that won't happen again.
Well, that's all for now, see you tomorrow.
Jackie