Rin stood straight and cleared his throat. "I—I'm okay now." He said to Rei. He looked over to Haruka. "You, are you okay? You looked like you were in pain."

Haruka nodded. "I'm fine."

"What was that?" He said, looking over to Rei. "Did you feel it, too?"

Rei stared at him, eyes wide. "Did I feel what, officer?"

Rin raised an eyebrow and eyed Haruka who held his gaze for a short while before looking away. He ran his fingers through his hair. "Alright," he said to them. "Let's get down to business." He shifted his vision from Haruka to Rei. "What were you doing there?"

Rei adjusted his glasses as he spoke. "We heard that the swim club was going to be demolished tomorrow, so we wanted to visit it once last time."

"You do know it's private property, yeah?" Rin folded his arms over his chest. "Didn't you see the yellow tape? What about the sign on the door?"

"W-we're very sorry, officer. My friends and I did not notice those, Sir." Rei answered, his hands gripping the hem of his shorts, knuckles turning white.

"Be more observant next time. Ignorance is not an excuse. As for you," Rin looked over at Haruka. He studied the way Haruka's hair fell over his forehead, the blueness of his eyes, and the way his lips curled downward. Rin snapped back into attention and focused on what he was about to say. "What were you doing trying to strip?"

"I wanted to swim." Haruka answered.

"There are other places you could swim. Places you wouldn't have to trespass." Rin said. He let out a sigh and scratched the back of his head. "You do know you're getting fined for this, right?"

Rin lay on his bed, his arms under his head. "What was that…that headache?" He turned to his side and pulled his blanket closer to his chest. He shut his eyes and went to sleep. And, for the first time in ten years, he didn't dream that night. He had a peaceful sleep. No pools, no mackerel, no bodies of water. It was just plain darkness.

He woke up feeling energized. And then, it struck him. "Hey wait, I didn't dream of anything." He said to himself. "Nothing! Nothing at all!" He got up and grinned to himself. "It finally stopped! Great!" He walked over to his kitchen and made himself breakfast. He ate his food slowly, still grinning from ear to ear. "This is for real, right?" He asked himself. "I'm not dreaming that I've lost the ability to dream those kinds of dreams." As soon as he finished, he washed his bowl and headed to his bathroom.

"What a great way to start the day!" He said, entering his shower and turning the faucet on.

For the first time in weeks/months, he went to work happy that day.

"You're looking happy." Sousuke said as Rin sat down with a cup of coffee in his hands.

"How can I not be? I didn't dream anything last night." Rin answered, waving his hand as though dismissing something. He took a sip of his coffee and smirked at Sousuke. "I hope I don't dream anything for the rest of the week. Hopefully I'll end up getting normal dreams again. Whatever those are."

"Well, I'm glad you're finally getting some sleep now. You've been coming in with dark circles under your eyes lately." Sousuke said.

Rin shook his head. "You try dreaming about pools every fuckin' day, or try spending an hour or so in a bathtub."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Sousuke remarked, rubbing his chin. "Seems kinda relaxing."

"Yeah, if you can feel the water. The only thing that happens to me is I'm stuck looking at bathroom tiles. Or the ceiling. Sometimes, I'm seeing things while submerged. And it freaks me out that I'm not wet." Rin's voice rose as he spoke.

"Yeah, that sounds frustrating." Sousuke said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Hell yeah, it's frustrating." Rin straightened his back and finished his coffee. "Well, let's get started."

That night and the night after, and the night after, Rin's dreams were blank. And every morning, he would wake up happy and refreshed.

"Man, I never felt this energized!" He told Sousuke, stretching his arms up. "Nearly a week of peaceful sleep. I wonder what changed ."

Sousuke shrugged and watched Rin working happily, typing reports and fixing files faster than he did in the past few months. He watched as Rin smiled to himself from time to time.

Rin took a break. "Come on," he said, walking toward Sousuke's desk. "Let's grab a bite." Sousuke looked up at Rin and nodded. "Alright," he said, shutting down his computer. "Where we going?"

Rin took the keys on Sousuke's desk and spun it around his index finger. "Gou told me about this restaurant, let's eat there."

Haruka opened his eyes slowly. The sudden brightness forced him to shut his eyes instinctively. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He stood up and went straight for the bathtub. He turned the faucet and watched as the water fell into the bottom of the tub. He went back into his room and took the clothes he was going to change into and brought them back with him to the bathroom. He stripped his clothes quickly and dumped them on the clothes-bin he had nearby.

He sat in the bathtub and played with the water, creating small waves around his hand. He stared at it and thought of how peaceful his sleep had been. He watched as he began making small splashes and sighed. No more guns, no more sirens, and no more dealing with rowdy people.

If it lasts, that is.

When Haruka was twelve, he began dreaming about occasional swimming competitions. Sometimes, he would dream about playing soccer or other non-swimming sports. As the year progressed, he got more and more dreams that seemed more like memories than random things suddenly making itself known to him. By the time he was fourteen, he was able to piece together the life of someone whom he did not know.

This someone, whoever he or she was lost his or her father over a decade and a half ago. This person took swimming lessons and befriended a kid who kept recurring in the dreams. If it had not been for the fact that this brunet kid wasn't always, present, Haruka would have thought that the dreams were all pointing to him.

By the time he was fifteen, Haruka noticed that the pool dreams lessened, replaced instead by a beach-side scenery. Over the years, Haruka watched, and technically experienced, this person go through school and train to become a police officer, along with the black-haired guy. But oddly enough, no matter how many years had passed, Haruka never learned what the person's gender was. Was this person a boy or a girl? How old was this person? Around his age, perhaps, judging from the other kid. But in a way, Haruka felt that this person was a guy like himself.

Following it by stereotype, it would be very reasonable for this person to be a guy. There were sports. There was no attraction to the male who was always around. And, he once saw swimming trunks folded among the discarded clothes in this person's room.

Haruka abruptly lifted his head from the water, shaking it. He got up from the bathtub and wore his uniform. He headed to his kitchen and grilled mackerel, the smell of the smoke and fish sticking to his top.

He ate the fish slowly, savoring its taste along with the toast on his plate. Then, he headed to work.

It was the same the next day, dreamless. And for the day that followed, it was still dreamless. Haruka felt relieved. He didn't want any more of those kinds of dreams. He wanted to dream about things he liked, like swimming in a pool again.

Haruka went to work more rested than the past couple of weeks.

"You're looking less pale, Nanase-san." a co-worker commented and Haruka nodded.

"Nanase-san!" somebody called out to him. "A customer wants to speak with you. He's asking about the menu." Haruka nodded and followed the waiter out of the kitchen.

"Over there," the waiter said. "The officer with red hair."

Haruka locked eyes with the officer, whose eyes mimicked his own—wide and staring. He walked over to the officer and took a quick glance at the other officer. A familiar set of teal eyes looked at him. Haruka furrowed his eyebrows and frowned inwardly. The person who kept appearing in his dreams was sitting in front of him and he was with only one person, presumably his partner.

With what Haruka learned about the police from TV shows and books, they only had one partner. And whenever his dreams involved police work, he always saw this officer. 'Is this one the one that I—' Haruka's thought was interrupted by the voice of the officer sitting across the brunet, the officer that interrogated him that one night—Officer Matsuoka.

"It's you!" Rin said, pointing at Haruka. He looked over to Sousuke and added, "He also experienced that headache I mentioned the other day." He looked back at Haruka. "Isn't that right?"

Haruka nodded. "Is there anything I can do to help you, officer?"

"Oh, right." Rin took the menu and opened it. "You're the one who cooks these, right?" Haruka nodded.

"My sister mentioned this mackerel-pineapple pizza and I wanted to give it a try. Could you describe the taste, please?"

"I have one already prepared; would you like a free taste?"

"Sure." Rin answered. Haruka turned around and walked into the kitchen.

Sousuke looked at Rin. "You went here for some weird pizza?"

Rin laid the menu on the table. "I'm getting meat, too. But, hey, it's not every day that you could try something like that, don't you agree?"

Sousuke shrugged. "Tell me how it tastes, then."

Haruka slowly opened the kitchen door and went back to their table with a plate in his hand. "Here," he said, lowering the plate in front of Rin.

"Thanks. Here, Sousuke, you taste it, too." Rin said as Haruka turned around and returned to the kitchen.

"What a bother." Haruka said to himself as he opened the door to the kitchen.

A couple of minutes later, a waiter entered the kitchen and called out to Haruka. "Nanase-san, the officer said he wants a mackerel-pineapple pizza to go. And some..." Haruka's assistant chef listed down the others.

"Could you tell them the steak is going to take a while?" Haruka said. 'Just so they're prepared. They ordered a lot.'

The waiter went back to Rin and Sousuke and relayed Haruka's message.

"Alright." Rin said, leaning back into his seat. He turned back to Sousuke. "Like I said, I wasn't expecting this pizza to taste like this. It always looked so unappetizing in my dreams."

"In your dreams?" Sousuke parroted. "You've dreamt of this weird concoction?" He took a bite from the half-slice Rin gave him. He chewed it for a while, savoring the taste. "Surprisingly, it's not that bad."

"Right?" Rin said, smirking. "I think, if you give me the main ingredients, I'd be able to replicate this. I've seen it made so many times."

Sousuke stared at Rin, watching him intently. "Is this the only place that serves this pizza?"

Rin shrugged. "I don't know. Probably. Why?"

"And he's from the group that trespassed into that old swim club?" Sousuke asked. Rin nodded. "Is he the one who stripped—" again, Rin nodded. "Because he wanted to swim?"

Rin raised an eyebrow, his mouth beginning to frown. "Uh huh, and?"

Sousuke smirked. "And your pool and mackerel dreams have stopped."

Rin's eyes narrowed. "Don't screw with me." He let out a long sigh. "Why do I even tell you these things?"

Sousuke let out a low laugh. He watched as a waiter approached their table with a tray in his hands. The waiter set the food on the table. "What time does the chef get off of work?" He asked the waiter. Rin looked at him, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

"8 in the evening." The waiter answered.

"Thanks." Sousuke said. He attended to his food, pretending not to notice the look Rin was giving him—lips tight, eyes narrowed, eyebrows furrowed. "Just eat," Sousuke said to him.

Rin let out another sigh and relaxed his facial muscles. "Fine." He said, picking up his knife and his fork. "I'll do it. I'll ask him if he had dreams, too."

Haruka stepped out of the restaurant. Someone was leaning against the side of the door. He wore a beanie on his head, covering his hair and his head was bowed.

"I've been waiting for you." He said, lifting his head. His face was illuminated by the street light and red eyes locked with Haruka's widened ones.

Haruka narrowed his eyes. "What do you want?"

Rin stood up straight and faced Haruka fully. "I wanted to ask you a few questions." He said.

"I didn't do anything wrong this time."

"It's not that!" Rin snapped. He took a deep breath and fixed his beanie. "These are a bit more personal."

Haruka stared at him, unblinking.

Rin looked away from Haruka and bit his lip. "Do you like swimming a lot?" Haruka's eyes widened at this, but the rest of his face remained passive. "Well, I guess you do. Well, um," Rin stopped. He wasn't sure which question he wanted to bring up next. "That pizza of yours, did you learn it from somewhere else?"

"My grandmother. I learned it from my grandmother." Haruka answered.

"Do you—" Rin stopped again, his cheeks acquiring a pink tinge. "Do you spend hours in your bathtub every day?"

Haruka blinked. "Yeah."

"Have you, uh," Rin looked away from Haruka, admiring the lights from the windows on the opposite building. "Been having really long dreams that seem a bit unnatural?"

"Yeah. That officer you were with was always in it."

Rin snapped his attention to Haruka, turning his head to face him. "You kept seeing Sousuke?"

"Yeah. But not always. Mostly, I saw him while he was on duty."

Rin slapped his forehead, covering his eyes. "Do you know about soulmates?"

"Yeah."

"Would you believe me if I said we could be soulmates?"

Rin took a peek at Haruka from between his fingers. Haruka looked away.

"…Yeah."