"I got some amazing news for the team today!" announced Gou the next day, as they all hung out at the pool.

Eventhough they couldn't swim yet, they still liked to meet there and have fun.

"Ready for this? I was able to schedule a joint practice with the Samezuka swimming team!"

"For real?!" questioned Nagisa excited, turning to look at his friends happily.

"I wonder how Rin feels about that" commented Rosalya, folding her arms. She had a feeling he probably wasn't going to be too thrilled, especially considering his attitude towards her friends and herself, but, on the bright side, she would finally be able to see him swim again after so long.

"It's not that shocking he didn't wanna listen to his little sister, so I went over his head and talked to the team captain directly!" she replied cheerfully.

"You're an amazing manager, Gou!" exclaimed Nagisa, and the girl didn't even bother to correct him because she had finally come to terms with the fact that it wasn't going to work.

"Now that we got the green light to go ahead and use Samezuka's indoor pool, we don't have to wait 'till summer to start swimming!" exclaimed Mako happily, before turning to look at Haru sitting beside him with a smile.

"There's still a catch" Gou replied.

Of course there was. Nothing could ever be perfect.

"Since it's officially a joint practice, you have to show up with, at least, four swimmers, or they won't let us use the pool" everyone exchanged glances upon hearing the upsetting news, because they hadn't found another member who wanted to join. And they had tried everything.

"So, basically, we gotta find and recruit a team member before we got to practice later during the day" stated Nagisa "We gotta make this happen! Gou did some serious flirting for this opportunity!" named girl gasped upon hearing his words.

"I wasn't flirting!" she defended herself, and an argument about whether that was true or not followed.

In the meanwhile, Rosalya was immersed in her thoughts.

She was happy about the guys being able to use an indoor pool and swim again after so long, and she would do her best to help them.

But thinking about Samezuka, also made her think about Rin.

It was clear that something had happened to him, and maybe it had to do with losing to Haru in the race all those years ago, but the facts didn't add up. Rin wasn't that weak, he wouldn't throw away everything he had worked so hard for just because he lost against someone.

"Rosa?" Mako's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. The girl hadn't talked for a while now.

"Huh?" she questioned, meeting the boy's concerned eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah" Rosa put on a fake smile and a cheerful tone "I'm fine!"

"Why are you panting?" questioned Rosalya the next day, while she, Mako and Haru stood at the school entrance in front of a very tired Nagisa, who was desperately trying to catch his breath.

"Did you miss the train or something?" added Haru.

"Hey, Haru; hey, Mako; hey, Rosa" greeted Nagisa casually, still trying to recover himself, when Ryugazaki approached them "Oh, hey, Rei" Rosa raised an eyebrow upon hearing that, pretty sure Nagisa and Ryugazaki weren't on a first name basis.

"I assume you're his little buddy Haru?" he questioned bluntly, staring directly at the boy.

"No, you shouldn't, because I'm not anyone's little buddy" replied the black haired with the same tone.

"Uh...Ryugazaki, is it?" questioned Rosa, wanting to ease the atmosphere "Can we help you with something?"

"If you're still interested, I'm willing to participate in your joint practice as a trial member" replied Ryugazaki, much to everyone's surprise, and delight, since he didn't seem interested at all before.

"Really?!" questioned Nagisa, his eyes shining with excitement.

"But only on one condition" he replied, making everyone look at him curiously "I won't do any swimming"

And that's how they all ended at Samezuka Academy for the joint practice.

While everyone was busy admiring the indoor pool and Gou the muscles, Rosa scanned the place in search of Rin.

"Is something troubling you?" Mako observed. He had noticed the girl's unusual behaviour all day.

"I'm worried about Rin" she admitted "But it's okay, I won't let it affect me today" he smiled at her.

"Thanks for being here today, Rosa" he said, and she could tell how sincere he was.

"You don't have to thank me, you're my friends" she replied with a smile.

"Well, look who's here" Rosa heard a voice behind her and turned around to find Nathan there, already in his swimsuit.

"You sound familiar, have I seen you around before?" the girl teased.

"Maybe" he replied, playing along, before they both bursted into chuckles "It's good to see you"

"You too"

"Do you know each other?" Makoto questioned curiously, and Rosa suddenly realized he was still there.

"Yeah" she replied "This is Lance Nathan, we met yesterday. He's my best friend's twin brother" she explained, and the olive haired boy nodded in understanding "Nate, this is Tachibana Makoto"

"Nice to meet you, Tachibana" he replied, acknowledging him with a nod and a grin.

"Makoto is fine" replied the other boy with a smile"So you're a swimmer too?"

"Yeah, I'm on a scholarship" he replied, and Rosa nodded, faintly remembering Joy telling her about it once.

"Hey, I just realized, I never asked what you swam" the girl commented, looking at Nathan curiously.

"I swim all strokes, but my specialty is backstroke"

"Hey, Makoto does too!" she replied, looking at named boy "Right?"

"Yeah" he said with a shy smile.

"Cool!" Nathan stated "Guess that means we'll probably swim against each other"

"Hey" they all turned to look at the voice who had spoken, and they saw the captain of the Samezuka team smiling at them "Thanks for coming out, guys"

The six of them bowed and said their thanks.

"I guess I'll catch you later" Nathan spoke up "Good luck" he wished, before going off to warm up.

After the captain spoke to Haru about his medals, he turned to look at Rosalya.

"And you're Tawaraya Rosalya right?" he asked, surprising the girl a bit.

"Yeah, that's me"

"You are also known around here. Are you going to swim, too?" Rosalya was about to answer, until she saw a very familiar face staring at her from behind the boy.

Rin.

They stared at each other for some minutes, until Rosa finally turned to look back at the captain to answer his question. She reminded herself why she was there: she was there for the guys, to support them.

With those thoughts in mind, she pushed Rin away from her head.

"Unfortunately, no" replied the girl with a polite smile "I'm done swimming. I'm just the coach" Rin didn't show it, but he had heard her words. And to say he was surprised about them would be an understatement.

"That's a shame" admitted the captain "Some of us were really looking forward to swimming with you" Rosalya smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry to disappoint"

"No harm done" he shrugged it off, before Gou spotted Rin, who was still trying to process what he had just found out about Rosalya.

"Hey there, Rin!" greeted the girl happily, approaching her brother.

"Gou, what do you think you're doing, bringing these guys here?" questioned Rin with a blunt tone.

"Nice to see you as well, Mr. Sunshine" Rosalya said sarcastically, but good heartedly, though the guy's expression didn't falter.

"Hey, Rin!" Nagisa greeted his former friend, too "After all this time, we're finally getting the chance to swim together again!"

"Swim together?" repeated Rin, and his tone showed that he clearly didn't care "This is a complete waste of time" he started to walk away, and Rosalya frowned as she watched after him, thinking of what other ways she could use to get a reaction out of him. Teasing clearly didn't work, and questioning didn't either.

"What's up with him?" questioned a very clueless Rei to Mako and Rosa, since they were the ones closer to him.

"I have no idea" she replied remorsefully, and the olive-haired looked at her sympathetically.

Gou and Rosalya were standing at one side of the pool, and Rosa was timing the guys to see how long it took them to swim the length, to see how much improvement they needed. As of now, quite a bit; they needed to be faster.

Gou then spotted Rin staring at the practice from the balcony, and she nudged Rosa. She turned to look at her curiously, and the girl gestured to her brother above them.

"He really couldn't keep himself away for long, could he?" she questioned, shaking her head with a smile as she stared at Nagisa swimming "No matter how much he wanted to, it was just too much for him"

"Sure seems like it" replied Gou, and both girls chuckled silently.

"How was that, Rosa?" asked Nagisa, cheerful as always, as he stared at the girls from inside the pool once he was done.

"Good!" replied the girl with a nod and a smile "You can still improve, but it's quite good for someone who hasn't been swimming for some years" he smiled upon hearing that.

"Looks like Rei's next" he commented, spotting their trial member ready to jump into the pool. He looked kinda nervous, but Rosa didn't give much thought to it and solely focused on his swimming; she had an idea on how the other ones swum, because they had been teammates and she had trained them before; their styles hadn't changed much. But Rei was an unexplored case.

She wasn't sure he had swum before; based on his performance, she would write a training regimen and choose which style he could pull off best. She sure was expecting a lot of him, since his form was perfect when they saw him at track practice.

Once the captain gave the signal, the swimmers dived in.

And it wasn't at all what Rosalya had imagined Rei's swimming would be like.

The jump was terrible in the first place, he sunk like a pile of bricks.

He wasn't coming back up either.

And Rosa was terrified; images of an ocean storm and dangerous waves appeared in her mind. A figure getting carried away by the waves, unable to get back as he screamed for his life flashed in front of her.

She was not going to let it happen again.

Without a second thought, she took off her shoes and jumped to the water fully clothed to save Rei.

She dived in and helped him up to the surface, and Nagisa, who was still in the water, swum towards them for extra support.

"Are you alright?" Rei didn't answer as he got out of the pool.

Rosalya was very aware that everyone was watching her, but the only thing she could think of was how lucky she was that she wasn't wearing a white t-shirt.

In the meanwhile, Rin was still staring at the scene from the balcony, and his eyes went over and over again to Rosalya, eventhough he tried to look somewhere else.

He didn't understand why she quitted swimming. She used to love it so much, she even dreamt of becoming an Olympic swimmer, just like him.

When she was swimming with the guys and coaching them back in junior school, she was so happy. And when they talked through skype calls, she was always telling him of the great time she was having at the swimming school. Rin even felt a bit jealous of her good times, because he wasn't having any.

He couldn't believe it. He didn't know what happened to make her give up swimming just like that, but he was determined to find out and talk some sense into her.

She couldn't just leave swimming forever.

Some minutes later, everyone was surrounding Rei as he sat on one corner with a towel around him, looking down in shame. The captain had also given Rosa a towel, because she had jumped in with her clothes still on, and she had gotten a cold.

"Rei, we didn't know you couldn't swim" said Nagisa softly.

"Well, I can't" replied Rei, and he sounded very frustrated "It's not my fault! I did try to tell you that I wasn't gonna swim today!"

"You said you didn't wanna swim, but you never said you didn't know how" replied Nagisa logically, as he tried to sympathize with his situation.

"It would have meant admitting defeat" replied Rei, avoiding everyone's gaze; instead, he was staring at the ground "I'm not adept to that! There's nothing beautiful about being inferior" his knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists.

"Hey" Rosalya spoke up in a soft, almost motherly tone as she knelt down in front of the boy to give him some encouraging and comforting words "It's okay, Rei. We all started like you at some point. There's nothing to be ashamed of. It's not the end of the world" he didn't answer.

"I'm sorry I made you go through the trouble of rescuing me, Tawaraya" he chose to say instead, and she smiled at him brightly.

"No problem. And call me Rosa" she replied with a smile "I'll go to the Samezuka team and see if I can clear all this up" she added, walking towards the captain, who was talking with Nathan.

"Is Rei okay?" Nate immediately questioned upon seeing the girl approaching.

"I'm sure he will be" she replied with a small nod, giving Rei a glance over his shoulder; he was talking amiably with the boys, and she was glad they were there to provide moral support after the obvious humiliation he felt "I'm sorry we caused you so much trouble" she bowed apologetically, looking at the captain "We might have rushed into this without being well prepared"

"What the hell happened out there?" he questioned, folding his arms in disapproval.

"We needed to find another swimmer before now" she began explaining "And Rei was the only one we could find. He told us he would come but not swim, and we still pushed him to do it, so it's entirely on us. Again, I'm sorry, it won't happen again"

"He seems to have some potential" Seijuro stated, as Rosa looked at him curiously "With enough training, you might have a good team in your hands" the girl smiled. She knew that, but it was nice to hear it from someone else.

"Thank you" she replied, and he nodded in acknowledgement before turning to look at his team.

"Okay, the break is over, everyone get back to work!" he ordered, and the swimmers took their positions, including Haru.

"You know, for what's worth" Nathan spoke up besides her "The fact that Rei even agreed to be here despite not knowing how to swim is admirable"

"Yeah" she nodded with a smile "Nagisa's persistence was good in that regard, despite how annoying it might have been" she added with a chuckle, making Nathan smile as well "Pretty good swimming, by the way. Those strokes were great"

"I've been in this school for two years, if they weren't good I'd be pissed off" he stated.

"Well, they were" Rosalya assured, before turning to look at Haru, who was getting ready to dive in.

And his form was beautiful, as always.

His time was quite good, too; he was as fit as when he swum in junior school. Not having a pool to swim in hadn't affected him at all.

Rosa was sure that Rei thought that it was beautiful, too, because he stood up the moment Haru started to swim, his eyes shining.

Rosalya smiled upon seeing Haru; she loved the way he swum. So laid-back and...free. It was very inspiring.

And Rei looked very inspired, too.

Guess who decided to join the swimming team not long after that?

Ooh, so Rin seems to still have some interest in Rosalya afterall. I wonder what he'll do next? And Rosa seemed to have a very unusual scare when Rei didn't come back up, I wonder why...