"Hazuki! Wanna walk with us to the swimming club?" two of Nagisa's classmates asked. Two weeks of the new school year had passed and these two kids had just started swimming. However, today Nagisa had other plans.

"Sorry!" he said, smiling. "I agreed that I'd go with Rin-chan and Haru-chan today!" He zipped his bag and went outside of the school building to wait for Rin and Haruka. They were off around the same time this year, which made it easy for them to plan on meeting up and go to the swimming club together.

Nagisa sat down and waited patiently for Rin and Haruka to come out. He ended up waiting for somewhere between five and ten minutes before the door opened and Rin came out in a hurry.

"Rin-chan!" Nagisa yelled as soon as he saw Rin. He jumped up and hurried up to him.

"Sorry, guess I'm a bit late," Rin said, smiling awkwardly. "I was held up by our English teacher," he said.

"What for?" Nagisa asked.

"Apparently I'm good at English for a kid my age," Rin answered. "Anyways, where's Haru?" he asked.

"Haru-chan hasn't shown up yet," Nagisa said with a slightly disappointed look. "Think he forgot?"

Rin shook his head. "Haru isn't one to forget," he said. "Maybe he was held up too, for drifting off in class or something?" he suggested.

"Let's wait for Haru-chan then," Nagisa said before going back to where he sat before. Rin followed him and they sat together for two more minutes. Then both Rin and Nagisa started growing worried and the latter stood.

"I'm gonna go find Haru-chan," he said as he headed back towards the school building.

"Go ahead," Rin said. He stayed outside, just waiting, and this was probably a good thing, at least for now, or so Nagisa should come to think.

Nagisa walked down the hallway where the 5th graders had their classroom. Haruka was in class 2 whereas Rin was in class 1. Class 2 was a little further down the hallway. When Nagisa reached the door, he stopped to look inside.

He couldn't hear a thing. It was silent in there. He couldn't see anyone either. Had Haruka gone on ahead without them or something? It wasn't like him to ignore a promise though.

Nagisa decided to go in and see if Haruka's bag was still there, but when he took the first step inside the room, he caught sight of Haruka standing by a locker in the back of the classroom. He was stretching as far as he could but he couldn't reach whatever he needed. Nagisa looked upward and saw a book lying there. It was just that one book and he was pretty sure it was the Japanese textbook for 5th grade.

Nagisa took a step back as he couldn't be seen if Haruka happened to turn around. He knew that it would be better of him to offer his help, but Haruka just gave off a vibe that told Nagisa he didn't want anyone to help him. He didn't want anyone to see him either, so Nagisa agreed with himself to just silently watch and wait.

It didn't take long before Haruka gave up on his struggles to get the book down by attempting to reach as far as he could. He would never be able to reach far enough anyway. Nagisa watched as he went and grabbed his own chair, which was near the back, and brought it to the closet. He looked around as if to see if anyone was watching and then stepped up on the chair to get the book. It was now within his reach.

Nagisa pulled back quickly and hurried off as silently as possible. Once he turned away from the hallway, he ran the last bit down to the yard where Rin was still waiting. He didn't know how long he had taken, but longer than he should have. He would have to say something, but what?

"Took you long enough, where is Haru?" Rin asked as he stood up upon seeing Nagisa.

"Haru-chan is coming in a moment," Nagisa said.

"What held him up?" Rin asked.

"I don't know," Nagisa lied nervously.

Rin sighed. He had seen through Nagisa's lie, but he also knew that there was always a reason for Nagisa to lie and he had a feeling that if he wanted the truth, Nagisa wasn't the one he should ask for it.

Haruka then came out with a gloomy expression on his face. He didn't say a single word as he walked up to them, he didn't even apologized for being 20 minutes late.

"What took you so long?" Rin asked.

"Nothing important," Haruka answered.

"Did you run into Nagisa in there?" Rin asked.

Nagisa nearly panicked. "No!" he exclaimed. "I… I lied, Rin-chan. I didn't see Haru-chan in there, I just said he'd be here shortly because I was sure he would be!" This was another even bigger lie, but like this, no one would know the truth or have any desire to know it, or so Nagisa hoped.

Rin sent Nagisa a reproachful and irritated look while Haruka looked more relieved than anything else. Nagisa felt relieved too. It seemed like his lie had worked.

They went to the swimming practice together and everything went fine. Nagisa didn't forget what had happened earlier that day, but he didn't think about it as much while having fun with his friends at the swimming club. He went home with Rin and Haruka afterwards, as usual, and they had dinner with Rei and Makoto.

It wasn't until way later when Nagisa was reminded of what had happened again. He was preparing to go to bed when he walked by Rin's room and heard the two talking.

"What's wrong, Haru?" Rin asked.

"Nothing," Haruka answered.

"Don't lie, just tell me," Rin demanded.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Haruka asked then. Nagisa stopped outside the door to listen.

"Nagisa," Rin said, it wasn't like he knew Nagisa was outside, it was just his answer to Haruka's question.

"What about him?" Haruka asked.

Rin sighed, irritated. "He was lying," Rin answered. "I'm sure he saw something while he was inside looking for you."

"What did he say?"

"He won't say anything. When I asked him about what held you up he said he didn't know, and then he said he didn't see you at all, yet he knew you would be out with us not so long after he came out."

"It probably has nothing to do with me," Haruka denied.

"Why won't you tell me anything?!" Rin yelled in frustration.

"There's nothing to tell," Haruka answered, irritated.

Nagisa decided to get to bed quickly. If he was caught eavesdropping he would be in even bigger trouble. They were already questioning his lies. He hoped it wouldn't get worse. He didn't want to be dragged into a conflict between the twins. He had tried that once before and it hadn't gone well. Both had been mad at him for an entire day afterwards. If he didn't want to be involved, it would be best if he avoided Rin and Haruka for a little while.