Chapter Text
Nanase Haruka and Matsuoka Rin were pretty close friends – best friends by Haruka’s standard, despite the difference in their genders. Sure, there was the odd argument because of each own stubbornness (Haru) and pride (Rin). Haru would normally give Rin space and avoid competing with her but Rin nearly always either wore him down or offered him a deal he cannot refuse (normally something that involved water) and the invitation always satisfied each other’s need to compete. However, even though gender difference was the most frequent reason Haru used to deter Rin in her attempts to get him to swim competitively with her, it was not the main reason he was reluctant to race her; he is actually reluctant because she can be a very sore loser at times. The first time Haru learned about that particular trait of hers was after he thoroughly beat her at freestyle – the aftermath of that swim match was not pretty since Haru won by a whole 50 meters. This led to Rin challenging Haru to a round of games at the arcade where both of them found their skills to be evenly matched. Hence, they started using this method to sort of even the playing field whenever they wanted (translation: whenever Rin thought Haru was not swimming seriously in one of their competitions which happened more and more frequently after Haru finished a few races 25 m behind Rin on back-to-back races held on different days instead of both of them finishing really close to each other.)
Haru was very satisfied with how their relationship was but one day, Rin came up with the brilliant plan of challenging Haru to a 25 m butterfly race and relentlessly disturbed him with it by first refusing all freestyle races to refusing to spend time with him outside of the pool. She finally got him to agree when she started refusing to even be at the pool with him unless he raced her using butterfly just once. However, she overlooked that freestyle also allows swimmers to at least swim 15 m underwater1 which Haru used to his advantage before only pulling five times to reach the other side. After that particularly bad swim race; Rin stated one of the harshest statements Haru had ever heard. I’m never competing with you ever again. Haru could not believe his ears. Competing with each other was the one thing that the both of them had in common, after all (besides their girly names, but that does not count since Rin is a girl).
Unwilling to lose the person closest to him, Haru started bending over back to attend to all Rin’s invitations (read: demands) which he refused to do in the past. Sure, they were simple stuff like more jogs at parks instead of swimming in pools, more group outings to new as well as popular food outlets and frequent trips to clubs and pubs (a habit Rin picked up during her years as part of the Australia Swim Team) that helped keep their friendship going but Rin must have completely forgotten how much of an introvert and anti-socialist Haru was to not realise that Haru was not suffering through all these activities just to spend time with Rin since they no longer swam as much together. On the other hand, Haru equated these activities to climbing mountains (though meetings with old friends were more like hills since they were more bearable), dodging fire (both verbal ones [from Rin's friends who though he was cold and weird] and literal ones [those tended to occur near alcohol]) and dragging himself through social hell but he took leap after leap of faith that Rin would realize how much effort and personal rules Haru broke to remain the person constantly by her side; the first person Rin calls when she’s drunk, the shoulder that Rin cries on whenever the redhead gets sentimental (which happens more often than the redheaded tomboy would like to admit) and the first person Rin shares any personal news with. For all this Haru continued to drag himself through each outing especially those times he still went for all these social meets with Rin even though he knew he would be pushed to side as soon as Rin’s current crush or boyfriend joined them.
There were other times when Haru felt like he was following her blindly, such as when Rin suddenly starts calling him to pick her up from the most random of places – the park in the next city, some obscure café in the middle of nowhere and once, a railway station that had no connecting line to any of their friend’s areas, not to mention their own. But Haru still did his best when it involved Rin because he loves this woman; probably from the moment they first met. Rin was the only one who had the courage to befriend the ‘expressionless and emotionless robot’ as Haru was known as during their college years after all. In fact, Rin was the first person who made the effort to get to know who Haru really was as a person; not just a top student and excellent swimmer but also how good Haru’s cooking is (even with the staple mackerel), Haru’s hobby of baking and drawing (where drawings of Rin are carefully hidden by Haru so Rin will never find them), and just how Haru is Haru, chains and all. Haru also likes to think that Rin really understands all his philosophies about water because he has received less blank stares from her compared to others whenever he goes on a spiel about water and its healing properties or its likeness to situations in life. All these treasured memories and the fact that Rin's friendship saved Haru when his world was crumbling more times than he can count are reasons why Haru will give it his all and even dare to fly to be with her or as long as doing anything and everything he could made Rin happy.
Alas, it all turned out to be only a pretentious game when one day, after not seeing Rin for about half a year, Haru saw a scene unfold right in front him, one that would haunt him for a long time.
Rin, pushing a stroller in front of her.
Rin, laughing and giving her sharp, mega-volt grin to the man beside her who was also pushing a matching stroller.
Rin, kissing the man on the lips without a care of who was watching.
And Haru turned away with regret and loss heavy in his heart as he felt his and Rin’s Tiny Word disappear into nothingness just because he passed up too many chances to say anything.