(Rei's POV)

"P-Parents?" I think I just stepped on a landmine.

"Yeah, they're overseas, but they don't take the time off to visit their one and only child," Nagisa shrugs.

"Oh," I said silently.

"Thankfully Rei-chan's here!" He pats me on the back.

"What for?" I adjust my crooked glasses.

"It gets lonely when I'm by myself at my house."

"I see..." I let my voice trail off.

There was one word that I'm stuck on. Lonely. Out of all people, Nagisa can say the word lonely. He was the least expected person to say that. Even if he was the only person in the world, Nagisa wouldn't think he was lonely. Unfortunately, I was wrong. It looks like I don't know him that well either.

(Nagisa's POV)

I glance over at Rei-chan, he's looking a bit out of it. Hmmm, how should I cheer him up? Oh wait, is he even sad? Arrgh! Ice cream fixes everything!

"Rei-chan!" I practically shouted.

"Y-Yes?" He asks, a bit surprised.

"Let's get ice cream!" I point at the little shop near us.

"Isn't it a bit too early?" He scratches his head.

"We just had breakfast! And it's never too early for ice cream!" I exclaimed.

"Fine..." Rei-chan sighs.

I get a mix of the 5 flavors they served and Rei-chan got vanilla.

"You're as plain as your ice cream!" I start to laugh.

"I am not plain!" He says in defense.

"You wanna bite?" I held the ice cream close to his face.

"No thank you!" Rei-chan looks away.

(Rei's POV)

After walking Nagisa home I go back to my house and skim through video tutorials on how to swim. By evening, I mentally thought I could swim, but physically, I couldn't. Not yet. I'm not even sure if I'm ever going to swim, but if it's Nagisa-kun then maybe.

I didn't quit the track club yet, but right now I'm going through the resignation form. I'm getting ahead of myself, it's like I'm already a member of their swim team. I'm pretty sure Nagisa will pester me if I decided to do track instead of swimming. I laugh at Nagisa-kun's reaction.

I sure think about Nagisa a lot. Probably because he's been popping up recently. Now that I think about it, Nagisa looks pretty familiar. I'm sure I've seen him somewhere before.

I open up my year book and search for Hazuki Nagisa. I found it! I look at his picture He looks so small, I try not to laugh. He probably doesn't even know that I went to same middle school as him.

(Nagisa's POV)

Little by little, Rei-chan improved. We tried different swimming styles, but it looks like he was best with the Butterfly. You can do it Rei!

After a dreaded week of swimming in water and constantly reminding myself that it's all for Rei-chan, we finally made it.

"You can finally swim!" I resisted the temptation of hugging him. Rei-chan doesn't like body contact with other people, the only time he allows it is when I was teaching him.

"Nagisa... Senpai!" He starts to tear up.

"Geez, drop the senpai thingy. And save that face for when you graduate high school or something-" I was interrupted by Rei-chan as he hugged me.

"H-Hey!" My face felt warm.

"He couldn't do it without you!" Mako-chan puts his hand on my shoulder, "And to think Nagisa was reliable all along," He starts to cry.

"Not you too!" I whine at Mako-chan.

I look at Haru-chan for help. All he does is give me a silent thumbs up. Ugh! Well, Rei-chan doesn't do this often so I'm not passing up this opportunity.

I hug him back. With a bit of hidden feelings behind it.

A Few Months Later:

(Rei's POV)

I improved my time again! Another record set.

"Nagisa look-"

Haaaah... When was the last time Nagisa looked at my finishing time. The first week I joined the team? Most likely.

Nagisa barely comes to practice anymore. He's usually missing when I try to pick him up after school to go to club. I think of the possibilities of why he's not attending practice. And it looks like Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai don't seem bothered by it. It's like Nagisa has a free hall pass or something.

From the last 4 months, Nagisa attended practice twice. Twice! I don't think that Nagisa is some prodigy who can skip out anytime he likes. We hang out on weekends and stuff so it's not like we're strangers. I think our bond is strong and we both trust each other completely. I may even like him more than a friend. And Nagisa-kun and I are both positive that our feelings are mutual.

But all he says is, "Let's keep it to flirting ne~?"

So if we have a tight friendship, then why doesn't he ever tell me what's going on? He doesn't talk about his life as much as I do. And I was kind of hoping that he would open up to me, but it's been 4 months.

In all honesty, I'm worried about him. But what I'm more scared about is if he'll even tell me what's going on.

(Nagisa's POV)

I'm meeting Rei-chan at the cafe today. He suddenly asked me to meet up with him. I wonder if something's bothering him. I hear the entrance bell jingle and I look up. It was Rei-chan, he was looking around. I wave my hand up and he notices me. He walks over and takes a seat.

"Hey sweet thing!" I flirtatiously winked at him.

"Not again!" He shakes his head.

"Well how about this? If I was water, then I'd make you wet-"

"Please stop!" Rei-chan blushes.

"Pffft," I quietly laugh.

The waitress comes up and we act like nothing was happening.

"I'll have iced coffee and some brownies," I ordered.

The waitress writes it in her notepad and looks at Rei-chan, "And for you?"

"Just water please," He nods.

The waitress takes her leave and I look at Rei-chan.

"So what's up? It's unusual for you to just get water." I start off.

"Ahh, yeah, but besides that, I-I've been meaning to ask you something." He avoids eye contact.

"Ask ahead."

"Why are you always missing at practice? Wait let me rephrase that. Why aren't you coming to practice?"

(Rei's POV)

Nagisa-kun sigh, "Anything but that?"

"But why?"

"It's nothing important."

"Can't you tell me anything?" I was starting to pester him.

"There's nothing worth to tell."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't tell you..." Nagisa-kun gives me a pained smile.

"Nagisa if you ever need to talk then just-"

"There's nothing to talk about!" He raises his voice.

Everyone looks at us. After a few seconds, they went back to what they were doing.

"I just... can't." Nagisa-kun takes out some cash and puts it on the table. He stands up and starts to exit the cafe, "Just take my order ok?"

I lay on my bed and rewind what happened today in my head. The fact that Nagisa-kun won't talk to me about his situation, was his trust in me that shallow?

It kinda hurts.