Once Rin's silhouette disappeared into the night for sure, Nagisa said softly, "Rin-chan... changed a lot." Well, that was a great conversation opener. The four of Iwatobi Swim Club stood in the dark swimming hall of Samezuka Academy in awkward silence. Rei cleared his throat.

"Maybe something happened in Australia," Makoto wondered. He looked at the dark-haired boy standing next to him, hair still wet from the race earlier. Haru's eyes looked at the ground in that hazy way it usually did when he was thinking about something.

"Haru," Makoto said, placing his hand on Haru's shoulder. "Let's go home."

Haru, without a word, started walking out the door in only his swim tights. Rei gawked and said, "You'll catch a cold!" Nagisa brought Haru his warm-up jacket as Makoto laughed.

As Haru pulled the sleeves of his jacket on, he couldn't help but think that Rin had met the four of them alone, outnumbered. But he acted as if he wasn't. The question that kept pounding into Haru's head was, Why?

Later that week, Rin got a text on his phone as he was relaxing in his bunk bed.

let's meet up. –Haru

How the…? Rin's first thoughts flew to confusion and questions that start with the five W's. More specifically, he wanted to ask Haru how he got ahold of his number, but damn it if he was going to sound flustered or confused. Another option was to ignore the text, which seemed to be a better idea.

Rin put down the phone, far away from him. There was no need to look at it after all—Haru wouldn't text him again, right? Of course not. This didn't prevent Rin from checking his phone every five minutes, though.

After about an hour, Rin finally shot back a reply.

what, do you want me to beat your pasty ass in a race again?

There. That was satisfyingly demeaning. Rin pushes his phone away from him again and tries to get a nap in when his phone buzzes.

yes. samezuka academy, 11 pm. –Haru

What the actual fuck…? This was kind of suspicious. And almost equally important, how did Haru get his number?

btw kou gave me your number. –Haru

Oh.

The first thing Rin saw when he entered the swimming pool facility was Haru sitting on a bench with a Styrofoam tray in his hands. Drugs?! I knew something weird was up with this meeting!

Instead Haru opened the tray and took out a wooden stick with a piece of fried mackerel skewered onto it. He offered it to Rin. It was still warm, crisp with oil, and redolent of Japanese street fare. Damn, after years of being in Australia, Rin missed this kind of food. And he knows he shouldn't, but…

"Whatever," he mutters quickly, taking a bite out of the skewer and a seat on the bench. Haru takes out another one and starts eating it as well.

As the silence between them grew tense, Rin coughed and asked tentatively, "Err… what do you want?" It was all the more awkward that Haru was looking at Rin very closely, making the other wonder if there was a fly on his face or something. He only got weirder since middle school, Rin concluded.

"When was the last time you felt free, Rin?"

Of course, Haru was going to go off on some abstraction the first time they have a face-to-face conversation. Unless he was asking him out on a date or something—"felt free?" No! What? Rin mentally slapped himself.

"Didn't you want to race? Come on, let's go," Rin grumbled.

"You beat me yesterday. That's good enough."

Rin looked down at his piece of fish in confusion. What did Haru want from him now? Oh right, he hadn't answered that question yet.

"Define 'free,'" he challenged.

Haru put a fist to his cheek, leaning onto it. I guess that was a pretty good response, Rin noted to himself. "The feeling you get when you swim. Gliding through water. No resistance, just serene movement. Like teamwork."

Didn't they just have a swimming race yesterday? "About twenty-four hours ago? I don't get what you're trying to ask," Rin said stiffly.

"No, no," Haru said, shaking his head gently as if he were trying to clarify his own thoughts in his mind. "Free, as in…" He struggled to find the words.

Rin stood up, frustrated. "Look, thanks for the food and all, but I came for a race, not to yap about philosophy. I'm going." As he started walking off, though, Haru clutched his wrist.

"Wait," Haru said softly. "Just… you're not alone." All Rin could do was stare at Haru's unyielding blue eyes, scoff, and shake the hand off. He didn't have time for this shit. Still, Rin couldn't help but feel a blush spreading across his cheeks. It had been years since he felt a warm hand.