Chapter 15

"I had to wake up so early to get here." I complained as I met up with Gou in front of the venue.

"But at least you made it in time! Let's get inside, they're all waiting in the bleachers." I walked beside Gou through the stadium and to the bleachers where the Swim Club was waiting.

"Did they all get a goodnight sleep?" I asked.

"I think so."

"Did they all eat a proper breakfast?"

"Yes."

"Did they stretch already?"

"They did a few, but they'll probably do more when it gets closer to their time."

"Did they-"

"Are you the manager or am I?" Gou laughed as she noticed my nerves for the boys. I awkwardly laughed as I continued to follow her.

"Sorry, I'm just kind of nervous…I guess." I was telling the truth, I was extremely nervous for them, but it was Haru that I was worried about the most, but I couldn't say anything to anyone.

"Haru?"

"Kei?" As I rolled over in my bed I saw my digital clock tell me the time. I groaned as I noticed that Haru had woken me at an ungodly hour.

"It's 3AM, why are you calling me?"

"I just needed to hear your voice." At that single statement I felt my breath get caught in my throat as my heart began to pound in my chest.

"Haru…"

"Are you coming tomorrow?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Good."

"Haru, is something wrong?"

"It's nothing." I sighed at his answer. He never did want to talk about his feelings. He would rather have you do all the talking, so he wouldn't have to.

"You need to go to sleep, Haru. You're swimming tomorrow and you need to make sure you're in top form."

"Okay, I'm sorry for waking you."

"It's okay, I don't mind…that much."

"Goodnight, Kei."

"Goodnight, Haru."

"Kei-chan!" Nagisa yelled as I walked over to everyone with Gou.

"Good morning. I hope you're all ready to kick some ass."

"Of course I am. I slept like a baby last nigh." Rei announced as he pushed his glasses up his nose as usual.

"That's what I like to hear."

"It's finally time!" Nagisa cheered in his seat.

"I'm getting nervous." Rei said.

"Don't be nervous, Rei. Just swim your very best, okay?" I reassured him of his swimming abilities as he nodded his head.

"What's wrong, Haru?" Makoto asked his closest friend.

"Nothing." He answered. At that moment some other students from Iwatobi showed up and explained that they had come to cheer the team on. I didn't pay attention since all my focus was on Haru.

"It's just about time." Rei announced as he stood up from his seat, Nagisa following after him.

"Let's go, Haru-chan!" Nagisa called out to his teammate.

"Go get 'em, guys!" Gou cheered her swimmers on.

"Right!" As they all stood up form their seats they placed their hands in the middle of the circle they formed.

"Then, let's each do the best we can and stay focused!" Makoto encouraged his teammates like a good captain should.

"Yeah!" As they finished they began to walk away from us to head down to the locker rooms, but I quickly got off my seat and ran after them.

"Haru!" I called his name in the middle of the tunnel. He turned around and stopped in his tracks, so I could catch up to him. The three other boys all turned around and gave me a confused look. I waved at them as I said, "Don't worry! I won't keep him long."

"Come on, let's leave the two lovebirds alone." Nagisa grinned as he pulled his remaining teammates away with him. I waited for them to walk around the corner before I looked up at Haru and smiled.

"Haru, I need you to do something for me. I need you to swim." Even though his facial expression didn't change much you could tell that he was a little surprised by my words as his eyes widened slightly. "Don't think about the scouts, universities, colleges, graduation or any of that stuff. I just want you to swim, Haru. Can you do that, for me? Can you just swim because you want to?" He nodded his head as he looked at me.

"I'll try."

Makoto's race was before Haru's and sadly he didn't make it to the finals with his time. Regionals was a tough place and we were all learning that first hand as we continued to watch swimmers compete to get into the finals.

When it came to Haru's race I felt my fingers intertwine together and my new bracelet rubbing up against my other wrist. I waited for them to start patiently, but as Haru got onto the platform and readied himself to begin I could feel myself hold my breath as I watched.

He dove into the water as normal and a part of me was pleased, but another part of me knew not to celebrate just yet. As everyone began to ease into their front crawls you could see Haru's speed gradually become slower. Until halfway through the lane Haru began to stop swimming. As he stood up in the pool his head hung low before he looked up to the ceiling and at that very moment I felt my heart break for him.

As soon as Haru climbed out of the pool I began to run down the tunnels and down the stairs to find the locker room that he was in. I wanted to see him. I needed to see him. All I felt in that moment was the urge to wrap my arms around him and tell him that it'll all be okay, but as I saw Rin turn into one of the locker rooms I heard his ferocious yell,

"Haru!" I reached the door as I saw Rin grab onto Haru's arm as his back was up against the lockers. "What do you think you were doing? Why the hell did you do that?"

"It has nothing to do with you."

"Like hell it doesn't! This was an important match with all the scouts watching!"

"What do I care about that? Because scouts were watching? So I can set records in front of a crowd? None of that is what I swim for."

"Then what do you swim for?" I felt the presence of people standing behind me, but I blocked them with my arm. This was something that shouldn't be interrupted and I knew that. Haru needed to say how he felt and I knew this was the only way to get it out of him.

"I swim for myself, my friends and Kei!" As I heard the slight gasps from behind me I knew that the people behind me were the three boys that completed the Swim Club.

"Then swim for those friends, Kei and for your own sake. Don't you understand what you do out there is going to impact your future?" Rin's voice sounded agitated as he grabbed onto Haru's other arm. "Don't you have a dream? Take this more seriously! I know you could-" And that's when it happened. That's when Haru raised his voice for the very first time and instead of being afraid I was sad. He lifted his arm free of Rin's grasp as he slammed his fist on the locker to grab his attention.

"You're the one who doesn't understand! What dream? What future? It's you who cares about all of that! I'm not you! I don't have any of that!" Rin became a statue of pure shock at that point. His arms had fallen limp to his sides as he held a surprised look on his face. Haru turned around and began to walk towards the door until he stopped in front of his audience.

"Haru…"

"Haruka-senpai…"

"You guys were in here?" He asked us. He lowered his head slightly out of shame as he realized that we had heard him just then before he looked back at us. "It's okay. Nagisa, Rei. Makoto. I'll swim the relay with you. That's what I've come so far for." He looked at me with soft eyes before saying, "Kei, I'll swim."

I waited patiently with the rest of the supporters for Iwatobi's Swim Club in the bleachers. Gou never asked me what had gone on when I found Haru and I was glad she didn't. Rei and Nagisa didn't make it to finals with their times and everything almost seemed to go down hill without any warning, so I waited for the relay. As I clasped my hands together over the bar I knew that something had to give. Something had to happen.

"They're coming." Gou said beside me. I looked up and saw the final round of the medley relay walk out and towards their lanes. I squinted slightly to see that Sosuke's shoulder was a vibrant red since the muscle was clearly swollen underneath the skin. I gripped the bar with my hands a little tighter since I knew Sosuke was about to swim with his shoulder that was clearly not able to function properly.

"I need you to make me a promise, Kei."

"What is it?"

"Don't tell Rin, please? I can't have him find out before Regionals." I stayed silent as I stared up at Sosuke. His eyes were pleading with me to keep his secret from his best friend, but I shook my head.

"If he asks me if something's wrong then I'll tell him – I will not lie to him. However, I will not run up to your room right now just to tell him." I stated my position on the matter.

"Thank you, Kei."

I began to think that it was all my fault for his shoulder to get so bad. If I had told Rin sooner then Sosuke wouldn't have to push himself right now, but I shook my head to get those thoughts out of my brain. Sosuke could make his own decisions and he decided to do this. I needed to be his friend and support his decision.

As Makoto readied himself we all waited for the signal gun to go off, so he could begin swimming. As soon as the swimmers went into the water it was clear that Samezuka's Momo had already pulled ahead of him.

"No…Makoto-senpai's true speed lies in his stroke. In terms of stroke speed, Makoto-senpai tops him." Gou told us. Makoto began to pull ahead of Momo with his stroke. As we watched to see who would touch the wall first after the turn it was almost simultaneously. Nagisa didn't wait to jump into the water as fast as he could though. "Nagisa-kun did a perfect exchange!"

"Their practicing has paid off." I said. Because of Nagisa's swimming ability he pulled in front of Samezuka almost immediately all the way up to the turn, but by the time they made it back to the wall Ai had caught up to Nagisa and they both touched the wall at the same time again. Even with Nagisa's lead, Sosuke quickly caught up to Rei as the butterfly leg of the race began.

"He's widening his lead." Miss Amakata narrated what was going on in the pool. Sosuke had caught up to Rei and it was true that he was surpassing him. However, after the turn Sosuke began to struggle in the water for a moment as you saw his head go under the water longer than usual, but as fast as his head had gone under water it came back up again and he continued to swim at full speed towards the wall. Rei and Sosuke both hit the wall, but Rei was slightly earlier than Sosuke, so Haru did another perfect exchange and jumped right into the water with Rin following him. Rin and Haru were battling it out in the pool as they continued to swim faster and faster. The pair managed to hit the turn at the same time and blasted off to head for the finish line. As everyone waited to the scoreboard to light up who the winner was after they placed their hands on the wall everyone was silent. Then I felt the loudest cheer peel itself out of my throat as I saw the glowing red 1 beside our schools name.

"They're going to nationals!" I cheered with Gou and her friends as we began to bounce up and down out of excitement.

We waited outside of the venue for the boys to emerge and as soon as they did I wrapped my arms around the four of them and gave them a group hug.

"I'm so proud of you guys! You guys have worked so hard and I'm so happy this has happened for you all."

"Kei-chan…" I looked over to Nagisa and waited as a smile came to his face as he stared at me. "Are you going to cry?" He teased me. I quickly let them go and began to rub my eyes. I was going to cry, but they were tears of happiness for the four boys who dedicated so much time to their club.

"I just got something in my eye." I mumbled as I rubbed my eye and they all laughed at me since they knew I was clearly lying.

A nice long chapter for you guys! I hope you all like it! Leave me a review! :D

-xoxo