"Rin-chan! Haru-chan! Over here!" Nagisa yelled once Rin and Haruka entered the swimming club. They were at the pools and Nagisa had been there for a while by now. He was standing by the poolside with Mikio by his side.
"Hey!" Rin approached the two younger boys with Haruka behind him.
"Miki-chan and I really wanted to watch you race," Nagisa said.
"I also want to race against you!" Mikio declared
Rin laughed. "You sure you're even good enough?" he asked. "Haru and I are going to participate in the next tournament after spring break."
Both Nagisa's and Mikio's eyes widened with admiration. Because they were a year younger, there was no talk of them participating in tournaments yet. It weren't even said for sure that you would participate in tournaments once you started fourth grade unless you were good enough. Rin and Haruka were both good enough though.
"We'll race them anyways, right, Nagisa?" Mikio asked.
"I only swim free," Haruka answered before he turned away from the other three and headed towards the pool. He jumped in and started swimming in that way that seemed to come as naturally to him as breathing.
Nagisa and Mikio stared at him with wide eyes and admiring expressions while Rin just stood with his hands in his sides and a confident smile.
The day of the tournament was two weeks after the spring break and it was open for public, thankfully. Nagisa had already told Makoto and Rei all about it before Rin and Haruka had the slightest chance, and he had begged for permission to go watch it.
"We'll all go," Makoto had said while smiling at Nagisa. Then he had looked up at Rin and Haruka who were standing a little further away. "Unless you don't want us to come?" he asked.
"Go ahead!" Rin had answered with all his confidence displayed on his face Haruka hadn't said a word. He didn't care either way.
So now, Makoto, Rei and Nagisa were standing among the other spectators, consisting of friends and families of the kids swimming down in the pools below.
"Mako-chan is this a swimming stadium?" Nagisa asked while he was looking around, taking in all his surroundings with those round, magenta eyes of his.
"A small one," Makoto answered. "Those for school tournaments are way bigger, at least those I went to when I was in middle school and high school were,"
"I want to swim at a big stadium!" Nagisa then declared.
"If you become a member of the swim club at your middle school, you might," Makoto answered.
"I don't get why you would want to swim in the first place," Rei said while looking down at the pool.
"Just watch Haru-chan swim and you'll understand!" Nagisa exclaimed.
"I can't swim regardless," Rei answered.
"Mako-chan can teach you!" Nagisa responded evenly cheerfully.
"I have no intention of learning. I've said it before," Rei answered, irritated.
Makoto laughed. "You almost sound like Rin and Haru," he said.
"The male's 100 m freestyle will now begin," a mechanical voice announced, causing all conversation between Makoto, Rei and Nagisa to die down.
The freestyle was where both Rin and Haruka would participate. They would be racing against one another. Sadly they had no more events they were participating in at this tournament.
The swimmers lined up by the poolside and each stood by their respective starting block. Haruka and Rin were standing next to each other. Rin was in the 5th lane, Haruka in the 6th.
"How good are they?" Makoto asked Nagisa out of curiosity. Unlike the young, blonde boy, he had never seen Rin and Haruka swim except that one time when they'd been trespassing and swam in a pool belonging to a private high school, and then Makoto had had other things on his mind so he hadn't been paying attention.
"They're fast. They say Rin-chan's kick is strong, but Haru-chan's faster," Nagisa explained. "Haru-chan looks like a dolphin when he swims!" he continued.
Makoto fought back a giggle. A few of his teammates from high school had associated him with a killer whale when he was swimming the backstroke.
"Take your marks!" a man called. "Ready." And then the signal for the swimmers to jump was heard.
Rin and Haruka jumped in the water at the same time and hit the surface almost at the same time. Rin was a little further ahead but they began their stroke in the same time as well. Everyone else was swimming too, but as the race progressed, the gap between Rin and Haruka and the others grew wider. It was clear who would be tying for first place. Either Rin or Haruka would make it first, no one else could do it.
Makoto was breath taken. He could only watch while minor thoughts were running through his head. He mostly thought about how amazing Rin and Haruka were when swimming. They were both amazing in the water, and super fast. He didn't think he'd even been half as fast when he was their age.
Rin reached the end first, 0.5 seconds before Haruka did. He was marked the winner and Haruka came in second place. Since the first tournament after spring break, at least the individual ones, were based of your age, there was no finally after this event. There weren't many fourth graders who were allowed to swim at the very first tournament.
"Haruka might be a fast swimmer, but it seems that Rin won," Rei said. "His kick might just be that much stronger that Haruka can't surpass him." He stared down at Rin and Haruka who both climbed out of the pool in the same time, and headed back to change.
"That's not true, Rei-chan," Nagisa said. "Yesterday they were racing several 100 m races and had me time them. They wanted to see who would win the more and thereby Rin-chan declared that he'd know who would win today. After 20 rounds it was 10 wins and 10 losses to both," Nagisa explained. "They were exhausted after that, so the coach had them stop for that day."
Makoto smiled at this. It didn't sound unlike Rin and Haruka to do something like this. Especially not Rin. Makoto might not have known the two for more than eight months by now, but he had noticed that Rin really seemed to hate losing to Haruka, especially at things they were evenly good at.
Makoto could see this happiness of not losing on Rin's face once they met up after the end of the tournament. Rin was beaming with happiness while Haruka looked indifferent, although, he was doing his best not to look at Rin.
"That was a good race," Makoto said.
"Wasn't it?!" Rin smiled. "And I beat Haru!" he kept on smiling.
"We saw it," Makoto answered.
"Your stroke was really beautiful, Haruka," Rei said.
"Thank you," Haruka muttered, although he didn't really understand what Rei meant by what he said.
"Anyways," Makoto said. "Since it's your birthday tomorrow, I decided that the winner of today's race picks what we'll have for dinner today and the loser picks what we'll have tomorrow, how does that sound?" he asked.
"Haru can pick for today and I'll pick for tomorrow," Rin declared. "I say something with lots of meat."
"Okay," Makoto smiled. "We'll need to figure out what though." He looked to Haruka. "What's for tonight then?" he asked.
"Mackerel," Haruka answered.
"Why mackerel?" Makoto asked.
"It's the only fish I haven't tasted yet," Haruka answered.
"Okay, let's have mackerel then," Makoto said.
"When'll I get to pick what we'll have for dinner?" Nagisa asked in a whiny tone.
"When you win a race," Rin said.
"No fair!" Nagisa exclaimed
Makoto smiled. "Okay, Nagisa picks for the day after tomorrow then," he said.
"Yay! Then I want cream and chocolate and strawberry marmalade and jam and…" Nagisa continued to line up all the sweet stuff he liked until Rei interrupted him.
"I'm starting to feel sick, can we please eat something healthy?" he asked.
"Then curry!" Nagisa decided.
Makoto laughed. "Curry it is then," he answered. "Now, let's go buy some mackerel," he said before he started walking towards the nearest shop where you could buy fish. The four boys followed him quickly.
They had mackerel that night and Haruka took an instant liking to it. It didn't go by unnoticed how Nagisa attempted to smuggle half his fish onto Haruka's plate and how it went missing shortly after.
Haruka may have lost a race that day, but he gained a favorite dish instead.