𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟒- 𝐈𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍
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Five years ago

Twelve year old (Y/N) sits upright at her desk, her small hands clasped together while she stares, wide eyed at the new student joining her home room.

Rin stands with his hands at his side, his floppy maroon hair sprouting from all different directions. "Hey everyone, I'm Rin Matsuoka." He greets his new classmates with a grin.

"Before I came here I went to Sano elementary school." He jerks his thumb to the board behind him, his name written in messy white chalk. "My name might be girlie, but you can clearly see that I am a boy."

He moves his gaze across the classroom, and stops when he meets (Y/N)'s wide eyed expression. Spotting her, he grins before bowing.

"Nice to meet everybody."

His greeting hangs in the air, as most of the students were a bit stunned at his latex back demeanor. Rin stands back up, and flashes a toothy grin, his canines on full display.

_____

Makoto, Haru and (Y/N) had all since stepped out of their class to give Rin a tour of their school.

It wasn't long before they came across the large cherry blossom tree that grew just beside their swimming pool, its leaves and flowers having vanished due to the weather.

"Man that would be so cool, swimming with cherry blossoms." Rin muses, his eyes never leaving the water. (Y/N) awes at the suggestion, nodding her head frantically beside him.

"We should all do that when spring comes!" She suggests, turning to Makoto and Haru with a wide smile. Rin looks down at her, and his gaze softens as he stares at the back of her head, her excitement causing a small redness to take over his cheeks.

"It'd be freezing!" Makoto shuts down their idea, a frown tugging at his lips. "Unless you wanna catch pneumonia you better wait till summer to start swimming."

Rin chuckles at him, and throws a cocky arm around (Y/N) before tugging her against his side. "I'm just kidding man, you shouldn't take me so seriously all the time." Looking down at the surprised girl in his arm, he smiles at her, causing her to look down in embarrassment.

Haru frowns deeply at them, and shakes his head. "I've got something I wanna ask you."

His statement makes the maroon haired boy look up in surprise, before he offers the two other boys a grin. "Let me guess, you wanna take the new kid down a notch on his first day?"

"Oh no." Makoto disagrees. "I just wanted to say we recognize you from some of the tournaments we were in."

"What? So you guys remember me?" Rin asks in disbelieve but mostly he was happy. Looking down, he slowly lets go of (Y/N), and smiles more when she continues to stand close by him.

The glare he receives from the dark haired boy causes him to wave his hands in front of him, his playful smirk still plastered on his face. "Woah, what's with the scary look man? It's not my fault I ended up here when I moved."

Scratching the back of his head, Rin closes his eyes, showing he meant no harm. "Talk about coincidences, am I right?"

_____

"Hey everybody! I'm Rin Matsuoka!"

(Y/N) stares in shock from beside Makoto and Haru. They had finally finished school and headed over to the indoor swimming pool for practice.

What they didn't expect, was to see the same maroon haired boy they had just bid farewell to only an hour ago.

Rin introduces himself to the rest of the swimmers, the same introduction he gave to his home room done word for word.

After the formal greeting was all said and done, the group all met up once again near the diving boards. Rin stands next to (Y/N), a deliberate choice that not only Makoto, but Haru could see as well.

"Maaan, this coincidence is kind of uncanny." Rin grins, his arms folded as he watches the next swimmer step up to the platform to dive in. "Getting transferred to your school is one thing, but the same swim club is insane!"

(Y/N) folds her arms behind her back, a playfully bumps her hip with his. "It's actually pretty great if you ask me." She offers him a smile, and tilts her head when Rin stares at her, his grin only growing as he bites his lip to stop himself from blushing.

Makoto nods from beside (Y/N), a small smile of his own present. "Yeah it's pretty amazing, isn't it Haru-?" Turning to address his friend, he stops and watches, surprised, as Haru ignores them and dives into the pool.

"Rude.." (Y/N) pouts, and looks up when Rin quickly hops up onto a diving board before jumping in after Haru, catching up and matching each other's strides.

_____

The following day, the group had all bundled together near a desk farthest to the windows inside home room. Their teacher had assigned them all to draw a picture of ideas they had for the garden near the big cherry blossom tree.

(Y/N) gently chewed on the nib of her pencil, her mind elsewhere while Rin continuously bothered Haru from in-front of her.

The words "I only swim free" would often catch her ears, but she had zoned out for the most part, her fingers tapping away at the wooden desk.

She jumps when Rin shoots from his seat, his eyes glaring at the dark haired boy beside him. "Weren't you listening to the part where I said you could swim freestyle?!" He grumbles, and looks up to see the rest of the class had stopped what they were doing to see what the commotion was about.

Clearing his throat, he smiles awkwardly. "Freestyle..i-it's what he does, in fact.." he slowly stands, and taps his cheek. "Why don't we show the world how free we are by writing messages on the bricks around the garden?

Who's with me? Who's free!" Spreading his arms out, Rin looks around in success when the majority of his class nodded along to the idea, already coming up with ideas on what to write.

Grinning, he looks down to see (Y/N), her chin resting on folded arms as she looks up at him.

He holds her gaze for longer than he thought he would, and smiles when she chuckles at his expression, her eyes never leaving.

God, he really did love when her gaze was on him.

_____

Once again, swimming practice had begun, and was over before they knew it. (Y/N) yawns as she, Makoto and young Nagisa step out of the building to get on their bikes. Looking back, she frowns when she sees Haru begin to walk to gate, and calls out to him.

"Haru? Our bikes are over here!"

"I'm gonna run home today." The statement makes her frown even more, a bit suspicious on her friend's decision. Nagisa however beams at the idea, and jumps up and down. "That's so cool Haru! Hey, I feel like a run too, can I come with you?" His wide smile makes Haru shrug.

"Only if you can keep up." With that, the two turn away and begin jogging out the gate towards the road.

Makoto looks at them in surprise. "Hey! What about your bike?" He calls out, but sighs when he sees them take off. The sound of a bike rattling makes him look down, and see (Y/N) pushing both Haru and Nagisa's bike forward.

The two sigh, but smile nonetheless before each taking a bike, and begin to walk home together.

_____

Several days had passed by, and (Y/N) could see the dynamic between her friend's had become more up beat. With the relay drawing closer, Rin's stubbornness had yet to stop.

Almost everyday he would ask Haru to join the relay with him, and each time he would get rejected over and over, which only filled his desire to swim with him even more.

And considering that Nagisa had volunteered to be their fourth swimmer, it was only a matter of time before Haru finally gave in.

As the sun begins to set over the murky water, (Y/N) hums gently as she and Makoto sit side by side on the steps of a shrine Rin had invited them to.

They watch the boy fiddle with a small pebble he found on the ground, packets of snacks and drinks at their feet. "Hey tell me something, why is Nanase so obsessed with one event?" Chucking the stone, he misses his target by an inch, that being an empty can of iced coffee.

"He keeps saying over and over again that he only swims free." Picking up another rock, he gently tosses it in the palm of his hand, awaiting an answer.

(Y/N) simply shrugs, and leans backwards to rest on her elbows. "I dunno, it's not because he likes it, per se."

"What does that mean?" Rin chucks another rock, and Makoto sighs.

"He's never said anything about it, I think he feels at home in the water and doesn't wanna ruin it with rules or structure." The brown haired boy speaks up, and receives a gently tap on his knee from (Y/N)'s foot.

"Very observant Mako." She says, her head tilted back so she could stare at the archway leading up the stairs to the shrine. Her friend chuckles, and hums before placing his hand around her ankle, his thumb gently rubbing the skin underneath her socks.

"So he just swims free.."

"I still don't get it." Taking a few steps forward, Rin chucks the stone as far as he could, agitated at the fact he couldn't quite understand the stubborn blue eyed boy.

"There's gotta be someway to get him to swim in the relay.."

(Y/N) brings her head back up, and moves her lips to the side as she bites her cheek. "Maybe, you're frustrated with Haru's obsession but you're just as obsessed with the relay."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Rin gently smiles at her, and turns around to catch her gaze once more. The wind slowly starts to pick up, and (Y/N) watches as his hair begins to fly all over, her fingers itching to tie it up.

He thinks for a moment, before hunching his shoulders as a light laugh spills from his lips. "Let's just say I've got my reasons." He says softly, and walks back to his friends to enjoy the rest of the snacks they had bought.

_____

That evening sparked a conversation that would forever change the course of their friendship. The next day the group had gathered together to stare at the bundle of different writing all over the bricks lining the tree.

"Sooo, I'm not gonna to be going to middle school here.

"I'll be in Australia."

"I'm gonna go somewhere with a good swim team."

With every word that tumbled from Rin, (Y/N) could feel her bubbly attitude slowly begin to slip away.

The boy who she had grown close to, who made her friend group feel more alive had just told her he wanted to go half way across the world to join a team far better than the one he was already part of.

"But..why?" Haru's voice was much more monotone than before, and his eyes were permanently set on the brick Rin had written on.

'For the Team' was sprawled across in neat print, and (Y/N) feels her hand form into a tiny fist at the irony of those words.

"Cuz I wanna compete in the Olympics!"

To her, that wasn't a good enough reason, and her fondness for the messy haired boy slowly started to turn into irritation.

"Why are you only telling this us now?! What about the relay?" Makoto turns towards Rin, his eyes wide with confusion.

"I'm still here for that, I don't leave until the day after the tournament. It'll be the last time we swim together so let's make it count."

"..I swim free or I don't swim at all." Haru's voice becomes more agitated, more emotional than he intended for it to be.

Rin looks up at him, before turning towards (Y/N) and sighing at her sunken expression. Gently grabbing her hands, he brings them to his chest, and his shoulders relax when she meets his eyes.

"You can swim free with me, please Nanase." His gaze moves to Haru, pleading for him to finally stop being so damn stubborn and to just say yes. "This is our last shot, come on!"

Not once did Haru look up at him, and Rin groans softly. His hands were still tightly holding onto (Y/N)'s, and he finally sighs.

"Alright listen, I'll make you a promise.." he looks back down towards the girl in his hands, her eyes tracing every little detail they could to etch it into her mind one last time, and he grins.

_____

Present time

"Swim with me..and you'll see something.. you'll never forget.."

Rin mumbles into the night, leaning back against the wall of his bunk bed. His curtains were drawn close, allowing barely a hint of moonlight to stream in and cast over the room.

His hair was messier than usual, from sleep deprivation or stress he wasn't too sure, but that didn't bother him.

The small blue light from his phone causes him to look down, his teeth grinding against each other as he thinks. His foot, which was lying over the edge of his bed moves up and down from nerves.

He clenches his fist, before releasing it and sighing. Clearing his throat he brings the phone closer to his face and begins typing, his fingers moving fast and swiftly across the keyboard.

He pauses for a moment, reading his message twice before groaning and pressing delete on the whole paragraph. He taps his thumbs together before finally deciding, and moves to type once, twice, and finally sends the message.

Quickly shutting the phone off, Rin tosses it to the edge of his bed, and crawls back under the covers, his heart racing and eyes as wide as they could ever be from what he had just done.

His phone bounces off the sheets before facing upwards, the text he had sent shining bright as day.

To: (Y/N) (L/N)
'Hi.'

_____