Free –High Speed! Reunion

Chapter 12: Irritated Heart Rate!

It was the winter of our last year in elementary school that was when Rin transferred to Iwatobi Elementary, "My name is Rin Matsuoka. I previously went to Sano Elementary School." He pointed towards his name on the blackboard, "I have a girly name, but I'm a boy. Looking forward to being in this class!" he bowed

Prior to Rin transferring to Iwatobi Elementary we met at a swim tournament back when he was a member of Sano Swim Club. It was later that day, "My name is Rin Matsuoka. I previously belonged to Sano Swimming Club. I have a girly name, but I'm a boy."

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to see Gin-chan, "Didn't he just transfer to our school?" she asked, I nodded in response to her question, "To transfer to our school and swim club all in the same day…that's way too big of a coincidence!" she exclaimed

"Come on, Gin-chan just leave it be." I replied as we headed towards the pool.


A few days later…

"Each team must decide the kind of garden you will make and the kinds of flowers you will plant and draw an illustration." The teacher explained

We were all drawing out ideas for flowers to go around the cherry blossom tree at my suggestion, "Hm, what flowers would go around a lonesome cherry blossom tree?" I mumbled, "What do you think, Sa-chan?" I asked turning to her

"Hm, cherry blossoms mean "kind or gentle" in flower language so mayb-" Sa-chan was explaining until we heard shouting from the right corner of the classroom and looked in the direction of Rin…

"I said you can do free!" he shouted, he then realised the whole classroom was looking at him, "Uh…Free…I mean…We should all write our own messages on the bricks around the garden." He stood up, "We'll do it our way! Be free!"

"That's a great idea." I stated

"That's lovely!" Sa-chan joined

It was settled, in addition to planting flowers around the cherry blossom tree we would all write messages on the bricks around the garden, I was still thinking about it even at swim practice, "What kind of message should I write?" I mumbled.

"Zaki, you're up next." Sa-chan pointed out

"Oh! Thanks Sa-chan." And I headed towards the starting block and dove in after Gin-chan reached the edge


After Practice…

"I wonder why Matsuoka-kun is so obsessed with making Nanase-kun swim the relay." Sa-chan mumbled

"You're right." Gin-chan replied, "I think that's why they were arguing in the classroom, earlier." She pointed out, "What do you think Zaki?"

"Hmmm, I think it would be a good idea." I responded

"Huh?" they said in unison

"I mean, I would like to Nanase-kun depend on others more…so maybe a relay is the best way to do that." I answered

"Enough about the boys relay!" Gin-chan shouted, "We should focus on our own relay!"

"You're right, Gin-chan! We are swimming sisters!" I replied

"See! Zaki gets it!" she said in turn and we all ran home together, laughter filling the air.

After the relay at the tournament, we won bronze whilst the boys went on to win gold in the relay but soon after that Rin left for Australia…


Present…

The guys were practicing for regionals with Coach Sasabe taking sometime out of work to coach them, "Hey! Put some effort into it!" Coach shouted, "Nagisa, you're bending your knees too much. You don't need such a powerful jump for a relay dive." He explained, "Makoto, you're form is terrible! You're not using your shoulders!" Coach is sounding harsh but he is amazing.

The guys begun to climb out of the pool, "I'm glad that Goro-chan agreed to coach us, but his training regimen is tough." Nagisa complained

"That's why everyone called him Goro the Demon." Makoto replied

"Coach Sasabe has a nickname like that?!" I exclaimed as I passed Makoto and Nagisa towels and Makoto nodded, "Wow…"

"Rei, if you can't coast into the wall, throw in one more kick! Not like that!" he shouted…now that I hear him, I can see why he got nicknamed as a demon…,"Haruka, watch your timing as you fall in!" he shouted, "No! You have to watch Rei more closely! Come on!" Coach Sasabe then slumped his shoulders, "You guys don't know what you're doing." He stated, "You leave me no other choice. How do you like this?!" as he pointed out cameras and monitors he had set up both above and in the pool

"Amazing" I mumbled as I looked at the monitors which were showing feed from cameras pointing at the pool, Gou grabbed the camera standing on our side of the pool so she could follow the Coach Sasabe. Haru then dove into the pool and the cameras moved along with him and I could see him swimming in the monitors, "I see. This lets them check their form from multiple angles."

"Haru-chan's being very proactive." Nagisa commented as Haru moved towards the pool and dove in again

"Yes, that's the way!" Coach Sasabe shouted, Haru improved his form based on the footage that he had just watched…

"What is it, Rei-chan?" Nagisa asked

"His form may be perfect now, but this isn't the way I like to see Haruka-senpai swim." Ryugazaki answered, "It was more beautiful before."

"Ryugazaki-kun…" I mumbled


A few days later…

"Excuse us!" We all shouted, Coach Sasabe had invited us to his house for dinner

"Oh, thanks for coming." He replied when we entered the house you could feel the heat being emitted from the hotpot in the air; I could already feel the sweat brewing on my forehead…

"Why are we having a hotpot in the middle of summer?" Makoto asked

"Because that's what sports medicine recommends for swimmers." Coach Sasabe answered, "This is my special Sasabe Hot Pot with plenty of protein and minerals."

"Can you at least turn on the air conditioning?" Nagisa asked

"No such thing." Sasabe answered, there was fan sitting behind Nagisa and Ryugazaki but it wasn't helping if anything it was blowing around the hot air even more, I was regretting wearing a light jacket but I was wearing a white shirt underneath and I feel as though at the rate I was sweating at it might end up becoming see through…

"Can we not do this?" Ryugazaki asked

"Why would you say that?" Sasabe asked as he prepared a bowl for Ryugazaki with a serving of crab leg, "I promise that it's good, so dig in." I think we were all apprehensive about the hotpot not just because of the heat emanating from it but there were some ingredients I didn't even know a hotpot could include and I nervously picked up a mushroom with my chopsticks and ate it…it was delicious!

"Wow, it's really good!" Miss Ama-chan cried

"See? We came up with this when I was in the swim club." Sasabe explained

"Oh, this is a tomato hot pot." Gou realised

"Right, you're a former Iwatobi Swim Club member, aren't you, Sasabe-san?" Miss Ama-chan asked

"Yes, and I was the last swim club member." Sasabe responded, "We couldn't find any new members, so it was abolished after I graduated."

"We brought the swim club back, so you should have been coaching us earlier." Nagisa stated as he stole a piece of Ryugazaki's hotpot

"Hey!" he shouted

"I was busy with my pizza delivery job." Sasabe retorted, "Here, there's rice inside." As he picked up a piece of what appeared to be squid.

"Give it to me!" Nagisa as he moved forward with his bowl however Sasabe dropped the supposed piece of squid into the hotpot the broth splashed onto the table causing Nagisa to move back bumping into a table causing a pile of magazines to fall.

"Are you okay?" I asked

"Oh, no." Miss Ama-chan cried as she picked up the magazines that had fallen

"What are these?" Nagisa asked looking at one of the magazines

"Really old magazines?" Haru replied

"Oh, it's okay." Sasabe said as he crawled over to pick up the magazines, "I'll clean it up."

"Coach Sasabe, are you the type who doesn't like to throw this stuff away?" Makoto asked

Suddenly, Coach Sasabe looked rather shocked and was lifting up a magazine which in turn caused Miss Ama-chan to looked panicked, "The crab's on fire!" she cried


After we finished the hotpot, we split open a watermelon and played with sparklers in Coach's backyard; Haru, Makoto and I were sat on the veranda holding small sparklers, "It's lit now!" Nagisa cheered, "Look, Rei-chan!" as he chased Rei with his sparkler

"Don't point that at me." Ryugazaki shouted

"I haven't done fireworks in a long time." Haru muttered

"Me neither." Makoto agreed

"Me too." I added, I remembered when I was younger during the Shota and I would play with sparklers in the backyard with our parents. We would draw out shapes or write words it was fun.

"What's this, Coach Sasabe?" Gou shouted and we all turned in the direction of her voice

"Huh? Huh? What's up?" Nagisa asked

"Did you find something?" Makoto asked

Gou came running up with a book in her hand and for some reason Coach Sasabe and Miss Ama-chan looked rather panicked, "Wait, Matsuoka-san!" Miss Ama-chan cried

"Hey, don't snoop around!" Coach Sasabe scolded

"It's a photo album of the swimming club." She explained holding a blue book with the title "This is my MEMORY!"

Gou opened up the photo album, "These bring back memories!" Nagisa acclaimed, "There's Gou-chan!" he pointed out; it was a photo of Gou clinging onto Rin's arm with Makoto and Haru standing to the right and Nagisa to the left. "This is when we had a barbeque behind the club."

"What? Nobody told me about that." Gou whined

"It was before Rin-chan transferred." Nagisa explained

"Nanase-kun looked so mature even then…" Miss Ama-chan commented

"You're supposed to smile for pictures." Sasabe stated

"Haru-chan is smiling on the inside." Nagisa expressed

"Haru-kun is always wearing the same expression; it's kind of hard to tell what he's thinking." I added

We then looked at a photo taken after a swimming tournament in the summer of fifth grade; I was sat on the left hand side holding a certificate for 6th place whilst Haru was sat on the other end with a certificate for 1st place and a gold trophy. Makoto, Nagisa, Gin-chan and Sa-chan were all stood up behind. Looking closer I could see Rin in the background; this was before he transferred to Iwatobi.

"This is from the summer tournament when we were in fifth grade." Makoto pointed out

"Haru-chan won then too, didn't he?" Nagisa asked, "Ah, so did you Zaki-chan!" Nagisa pointed out

"I don't think 6th place is that impressive…" I replied

"Huh? Is that my brother?" Gou asked as she pointed to Rin in the background of the picture

"We didn't know Rin yet." Haru explained

"Wow! We met before we got to know each other!" Nagisa cheered

"Connected by the red string of fate." Miss Ama-chan mused

"Do you call it that when it's between boys?" Gou asked

"Oh, this is where Rin starts showing up." Sasabe mentioned

"This was around when he transferred." Makoto added

The photograph showed us behind the swim club, that day it snowed a lot so we built snowmen…well I say snowmen when we built a snowman and a snowboy but then we ended up building snow animals the rest of the time, I remember building a little snow rabbit I used to make them all the time for my Dad when I was younger. "It snowed hard that day and we all made snowmen." Nagisa explained

"This is when you were training for the tournament." Sasabe joined, "Rin was really fired up."

"That's so my brother." Gou laughed, I looked in Ryugazaki's direction but he didn't look happy at all…I kind of felt bad it felt like we were excluding him and I think even Haru noticed Ryugazaki looked unhappy.


After we finished off the rest of the watermelon, we left Coach Sasabe's house; Gou got a ride home with Miss Ama-chan and I was grabbing my bike from the side of the house, "Huh?" I turned to see Makoto, "Zaki-chan are you riding your bike home?" he asked

"Yeah." I replied

"Haru and I are walking Nagisa and Rei to the train station, we can walk you home." He suggested

"Oh no, you don't have to!" I responded

"It's fine honestly." He insisted, "Besides, as a man I can't in good conscious let a young lady walk home in the dark by herself."

"I can't argue with that…" I gave in as I ran next to him with my bike

"That was fun!" Nagisa shouted, "We should drop by again!"

"The hot pot was too hot." Makoto commented

"The fan didn't help with the heat either…" I added

"But it tasted good." Nagisa responded

"Hmm, what's wrong Ryugazaki-kun?" I noticed he had stopped walking, the others turned to look at Ryugazaki as well.

"Just what happened between the four of you?" he asked

"The four of us?" Nagisa repeated, "Are you talking about Rin-chan?"

"You were all so close in those pictures." He stated, "You all looked so happy."

"Well…" Makoto begun

"Rei. I don't know if there's any point in talking about this now." Haru expressed, "But if you're interested I can tell you what happened."

"Please tell me." Ryugazaki responded, "I'm tired of being the only one on the outside!"

"Ryugazaki-kun…" I muttered

"Rei…" Makoto whispered

"I'm part of the team, too!" He finished

"Rei-chan…" Nagisa mumbled

"Okay." Haru answered

Haru led us to a nearby beach, to an outcrop of rocks I rested my bike on it and stood between Makoto and Nagisa as Haru begun to explain what happened, "Rin was obsessed with relays from the moment he joined our club." Haru begun, "He didn't tell us why until right before the final."

Haru explained to us what Rin had told them five years ago, that Rin's father was one of the first members of the swimming club and he was always part of a winning relay when he was in sixth grade. Rin's father dreamt of being an Olympic swimmer however he ended up becoming a fisherman and died in the typhoon.

"and Rin went to Australia." Haru explained, "Rin said that he would show me a sight I'd never seen before. And after we won the relay, it felt like I really did see it."

"I also felt like I saw something completely new." Nagisa added

"Yep, same here." Makoto agreed, I looked back and forth between Nagisa and Makoto, what kind of sight did they see?

"So if you swam together in the relay and won, why is your relationship so different now?" Ryugazaki asked

"During the winter break of my first year in middle school, I ran into Rin while he was visiting." Haru described, "He asked if we could swim together again…" I looked at both Nagisa and Makoto from their expressions it looked like it was their first time hearing this story as well… "But Rin wanted to see…who was faster."

"So we headed to the swim club and Sasabe agreed to be the referee for our race…" Haru paused, he looked like he was in so much pain, "Rin lost the race…After the race Rin said he was quitting swimming."

"I never knew that happened." Nagisa commented

"I couldn't tell anyone back then." Haru responded

"So that's why you quit the swim club in middle school…" I realised

"Haru stopped swimming because he felt guilty about what happened with Rin." Makoto added

"But didn't your race the other day put an end to all that?" Ryugazaki asked, "You're free now. You can swim the way you want. So why are you upset about losing? And why are you entering the relay? I don't understand!"

"Rei-chan…"

"Calm down, Ryugazaki-kun!" I intervened

"Haru?" Makoto mumbled, suddenly a smile spread across Haru's face

"I don't understand either." He responded, "But…For some reason, I'm looking forward to racing Rin again."


After that we dropped Nagisa and Ryugazaki off at the train station, Haru and Makoto walked me to my house we were all silent on the way home, "Um…" I begun

"What's wrong?" Makoto asked

"Thanks for sharing that story with us, Haru-kun." I answered, "It couldn't have been easy…"

"It's fine…" He responded

"After all you're an important part of the swim club too, Zaki-chan." Makoto added, "Haru's probably thinking that too, right Haru?" however Haru didn't respond to that and simply turned his head away, I couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh!" I noticed that we were at my house, I placed my bike inside my father's workshop where I usually left it and ran back to the two of them standing by the stairway leading to the front door, "Thanks for walking me home."

"No problem, Zaki-chan." Makoto answered, "Good night."

"Good night." I waved and begun to walk up the stairs, "Oh, wait!" I shouted and the two of them turned around to look at me, "Text me when you're home!" I could see Makoto and Haru nod and continue to walk home…They're such nice guys…


The Following Day…

It was after school, I was heading for the club-room, humming to myself in the hallway when I noticed something outside the window, "Huh?" it was Ryugazaki he was leaving school, "That's strange." It wasn't like him to skip out on practice, worried I followed him but I couldn't believe where he was going…

I kept my distance from him as much as I could, "This road leads t-" my phone suddenly rung and I panicked trying to open it, a message from Gou asking where I was; aaaahhh I was distracted following Ryugazaki…I forgot about swim practice! I replied "Sorry! My mom asked me to buy stuff for dinner! I'll make up for missing practice later!" I felt bad for lying but I needed to catch up with Ryugazaki, I could make out his back…barely…and I jogged to catch up to him.

Then he stopped, he was standing outside the gates and I hid behind the wall, I knew it this is… Samezuka Academy.

I followed him as far as I could, he now waiting outside of the swimming pool, is he seriously thinking about confronting Rin?! But my suspicions were affirmed when Rin stepped out of the pool area…I know it's wrong but I tried to get as close as possible to hear the conversation, I hid behind a tree; close enough so I could hear and far enough that wouldn't get caught spying…

"Rin-chan-san, yes?" Ryugazaki asked

"It's you." He responded

I could feel the hostility between the two of them in the air, the atmosphere was so tense and I couldn't even move, the silence between the two of them may have only lasted seconds but it felt like hours until Ryugazaki broke the silence, "I need to talk to you."


I had fun writing this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it as well~ I want to thank you all for your patience as well as the follows and favourites of the story. You don't know how much I appreciate it!