It's Free if it Takes Over Thirty Minutes
Chapter 9
Rin was desperate to reconnect with his old friend now that they attended the same school. He ordered pizza once or twice a week just to see Haru. He'd stay late from practice and talk with Haru in the locker room. He was concerned for Haru's health and assumed it was because Haru may have been over working himself. Rin decided that it was his responsibility to help Haru as much as he could. He tried to help Haru study and train. He even went as far as to stealing Haru's room key and making a copy so that he could clean up and do Haru's laundry for him.
"Rin, stop."
"C'mon, Haru. Let me wash your swimsuits so that you can get to work on time."
"I can do it."
"Haru, you were in the fucking hospital, don't fight with me."
Haru mumbled, but didn't actually say anything.
"Haruuu~ Just go."
"I can take care of myself."
"Remember? Hospital? Do what I say."
Haru didn't want to talk to Rin about the Hospital. In reality, Rin's assumption was completely wrong. Haru was perfectly fine with school, training, chores, and work. What Haru tried to hide deep down is that Rin was the reason he ended up in the hospital. Haru had always had a hard time dealing with change. Having Rin leave, and then abruptly show up again in his life, was really messing with his head. Haru hadn't made a single friend since he began college. This was much unlike his best friend Makoto who was a total social butterfly. Haru didn't mind being alone though, he could still call Makoto when he needed.
"Haru! Go. Now." Haru had begun to take the swimsuits away from Rin, but Rin resisted.
Sighing, and knowing Rin wouldn't go away, Haru said, "Fine." He grabbed his work hat and his coat from the closet and left the room for work.
Haru was gone and Rin's pointy smile faded into a frown. "What am I going to do with you, Haru?" he thought out loud. He decided to take Haru's clothes back to his own apartment because the house had a shared washing machine. It would have been too much hassle to go to the Laundromat's and have to pay. He could also bother Haru into coming to his house even when he didn't have a pizza order now.
Putting Haru's clothes into the machine, Rin smelt something funny. He pressed one of the swimsuits to his nose and inhaled the chlorine scent that lingered. Closing his eyes he smiled at the smell. He'd learned over the years you pick out swimmers by the distinct scent of chlorine they could never rid themselves of. Suddenly realizing he'd been sniffing Haru's clothes for a good five minutes, his face turned red and he comically shoved the rest of the clothes in the machine. Once he had begun to run it, he pulled out his phone and texted Haru.
Hey. I washed your clothes at my apartment, come pick 'em up when you're done with work. I'll drive you back to your dorm.
Haru got yelled at for checking his phone while on the job. He quickly got back to placing pieces of pepperoni on the pizza. The lights were dim inside the pizzeria, it was late at night which was a really strange shift for Haru to work. He was tired, but he had finished all of his school work, so he didn't mind being there. Thankfully, Haru's boss wasn't working him too hard and let him return to his work behind the scenes. This was most likely because of Haru's hospital visit, but Haru pretended it was otherwise.
After thirty pizzas were all delivered in thirty minutes and a much need bathroom break, Haru headed over to Rin's apartment. It wasn't Haru doing the delivering, so he had to walk to Rin's house which was a good hour of walking. When Haru got there, he just opened the unlocked door and plopped down on to Rin's couch. When Haru noticed that he had been lying on the couch for ten minutes and Rin still hadn't shown his face, he knew something was up. It would have been obvious that Haru was there because there's a bell that rings when the door is opened.
Haru got up and walked around the first floor, checking to see if Rin was in any of the rooms. He wasn't in the kitchen or the living room obviously. The first room Haru stumbled upon was the laundry room that had a bag filled with Haru's neatly folded clothes. The bathroom doors were unlocked and Rinless, the same with a storage room. The last room, and Haru's last chance to finding Rin was a door located at the end of the hallway. Knocking on the door, there was no answer. As Haru was about to walk away though, it cracked open slightly. The door lead to Rin's room, and a Rin sulking on the bed.
"Rin?"
"Yeah."
"Are you alright?" Haru took an awkward step closer.
"Yeah."
"What's up?"
"It's nothing. Let's get going. I have your clothes already done."
"No."
"What?"
"I'm not letting you run away again."
"Run away? What? I told you nothing's wrong!"
"Rin, tell me."
"It's none of your business!"
Grabbing Rin's arm, "Tell me! Stop push me away!"
Seeing the hurt in Haru's usually distant eyes, Rin gave up and fell onto the bed. Sighing, "I'm the shittiest friend."
Haru agreed in his mind, but knew that he would be the shitty friend if he said it out loud. He settled for a, "What happened?"
"It's Ai. I haven't talked to him for over a year, not since I left. But he still texts me. At least once a month. Usually once every two weeks, or his message would start with an, 'I'm sorry this message is late, I've been really busy!' I don't know what to do. I want him to stop worrying about an asshole like me. Anyways, are you hungry?"
Haru nodded. The boys made their ways to the kitchen and Rin presented Haru with a mackerel dish he had prepared before Haru had gotten there. Haru smiled, a fairly rare sight, and this made Rin feel immensely better. Rin made himself a plain bowl of spicy noodles and the two ate. They hosted conversations about school, professors, coaches, Haru's work. They even made strange scenarios about the man with the upstairs flat after they watched him leave. Rin had told Haru before that he's never even officially met the man, despite his attempts to introduce himself. Even after they had finished eating, their conversation carried on for another twenty minutes. It carried on until Rin commented that it was getting late and Haru's dorm had a curfew.
"So, all your clothes are all folded up in this bag," Rin said, handing the bag to Haru. Haru took the bag and walked over to the door where his shoes were neatly placed.
"Is that all you're wearing? Didn't you wear a coat to work?" Rin observed.
"Yeah. I left it at work," Haru shrugged.
"Hold up. Let me get you a jacket or something atleast! You'll freeze."
Haru was about to protest, but Rin had already left. When Rin returned he was holding his old Samezuka swimming jacket, decorated with the signature red zipper and the triangles running down the sides of the sleeves. "Here," Rin held the jacket out, "this is all I could find at the moment."
Nostalgia hit the two from their high school years, remembering races they had against each other. Haru put it on without a word and opened the door, ringing the dumb bell. "
When the two were in the car, they didn't speak. Not until Haru opened his mouth anyways.
"You should call Nitori,"
The car slowed down when Rin heard his words.
"If you could reconnect with me, why not him?"
"Because, he shouldn't-"
"Rin, you're making him suffer by ignoring him. You know, when you didn't contact any of us, we started to think you had drowned in an ocean or something! We had to rely on Kou to tell us whether you were even alive. He's gonna think you only talked to him because you had to in high school." This was more than Haru had said in over a month.
Rin dropped Haru off and the next words he said he didn't say until Haru was gone. It's like Haru's spiel had taken the words from Rin's mouth.
Those next words came out shaky and uncertain, the phone up to his ear, "Hello, Ai?"
Thanks for reading, I'm sorry for the late updates all week!On another note, I'm looking for people interested in doing betas for my chapters. You will get credit at the top of every chapter you beta. If you're interested, message me on tumblr (I'm okcat1), AO3, or here. We'll work something out then.Thanks again for reading,Lavi