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His eyes squinted.
Small shadows were loitering in front of the swim club. Four of those left behind a smaller one. Those four were no strangers. But the other one?
Curious.
The man held up a hand. The girl at the front desk absentmindedly nodded as if to acknowledge his departure. Not one smile. He stuck his hand back into his pocket and sighed. She never liked him that much, did she? Well, he never had that much luck with girls in the first place.
While pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he stepped towards the gradually fading daylight. The automatic doors opened in front of him with a light sound. He closed his eyes and stepped through the opening. A cold breeze smelling of early spring filled his nostrils.
Ah, spring.
Sasabe Goro strolled out and stopped just after the automatic doors behind him closed. He tipped his head backwards a little and ran a hand through his freshly washed hair. Still quite wet. Not dry and puffy enough.
That was when he heard it.
Clang.
“Hm?”
He opened his eyes instantly and found himself looking at the setting sun in an orange-hued horizon. What was that? His eyes searched for the source of the sound along the pathway near the parking lot.
Paper bag on the ground.
Little girl also on the ground.
“Damn it.”
Goro gave a low grunt before jogging towards the small figure in the distance. He closed in on the girl with apple red hair. Not one of his students. That's for sure. Although the color was suspiciously familiar. He huffed a little when he arrived close to her.
“Oi, you alright, little miss?”
The girl looked up at him. She wasn't crying. For some reason he found that strange. She was a young kid. Usually those of her age were rather quick to cry after falling down.
“I'm fine,” she said. “...I just tripped over my own feet.”
Goro raised an eyebrow.
“Are you sure?”
He held out a hand.
"Yeah, I think so."
She grabbed his hand and let herself be pulled up.
“Thank you very much.”
“Alright. Let me check your legs.”
He searched her knees for any scratches.
“Hm, nothing to see here. Are you hurting anywhere?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Goro squinted a little at her suspiciously familiar face and red hair.
The girl looked a little awkward.
“Ah!” He exclaimed, “Are you Matsuoka's little sister?"
Her eyes widened instantly.
“Yes!”
Her face burst into a bright smile. He grinned back at her.
“I'm his coach, Sasabe Goro. Pleased to meet you, miss...?”
She quickly bowed her head.
“I'm Matsuoka Gou. Thank you for always looking out for my brother.”
She was a well-mannered little lady.
“No no, it's a pleasure, Gou-chan,” he said, scratching the back of his head.
Then he blinked.
“Ah, didn't your brother leave the other way just now?”
Gou nodded.
“He went with his friends.”
“I see. But what are you doing here all alone?”
Her eyes skirted around for something.
“Well, I brought him- Ah!”
She picked up the paper bag from the ground.
“My big brother asked me to bring this to Grandma's house.”
“And you brought it all the way here?”
“Yeah, because my Mom asked me to. She's very busy with work, so I said I would give it to him.”
A responsible little lady on top of that. He couldn't remember whether he had been like this at her age. Probably not. Still, he couldn't help but be a little worried for her. It was almost dusk.
“I see. Where's your Grandma's house? Is it far from here?” Goro asked.
“It's near the next train station in town.”
“Is it the one close to sea?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, I'm coming with you then. I'm heading into that direction as well.”
Gou nodded.
As a responsible adult he could at least look out for her until she reached the next station. They walked to the train station near the swimming club. Upon seeing the train they had to take on the rails, he shot into a light panic. He wasn't the only one.
“Let's hurry, Coach!”
Gou took off beside him. Her ponytail flurried after her.
Goro was about to start his sprint, but quickly realized that she would fall behind with her slow and unbalanced running. He wasn't going to wait another fifteen minutes until the next one arrived! Gou let out a yelp when he took her under his right arm. She clutched tightly onto the paper bag, while being carried by the coach.
The train started up immediately after the doors closed behind them. Goro checked the other passengers. Multiple stares greeted him. A couple of his students were already inside the train. He felt a little awkward, so he put Gou down.
“Sorry about that.”
She shook her head.
“No, thank you very much.”
They took the seats by the window.
Before sitting down Goro turned his head and mouthed at his students.
“It's Matsuoka's little sister.”
There were some audible 'ooh's and 'aah's. Realizing that their coach wasn't doing anything suspicious, the students quickly went back to whatever they were doing.
Awkward.
He let out a deep sigh and then looked back at the small girl.
Gou was staring at his arms. Her eyes were big. More awkward.
“Is there... something wrong?” he asked.
She blinked, then shook her head.
“No, it's just your... arms.”
“Hm?”
“They're big."
She seemed fascinated with them. Overly so. They were quite bulky, but not any more impressive compared to the arms of other swimmers he knew.
"Oh? I guess they are. You develop a lot of your muscles if you swim regularly. I worked hard to get 'm like this," he proudly said.
Gou blinked again.
"What about big brother's?"
Goro put a hand under his chin.
“Well, it may look as if he doesn't have much yet, but I bet he's well on the way to developing some big ones if he keeps on swimming.”
“Ah I see,” Gou said and looked down at her feet.
The train's pace was slow, but they were already due to arrive at the next station. Iwatobi was a small town after all.
He heard Gou's voice again.
“I wonder if I'll see any next year. My big brother's muscles, I mean.”
He folded his legs and hummed a little.
“I think you should see some...” he said, “Wait. Next year? What do you mean?”
“Big brother is leaving soon.”
“You mean, alone?”
She nodded.
“To Australia. He's going to join a swimming school.”
“Wow.”
He didn't know what else to say. He had vaguely heard that the kid go out of town and leave the club after the tournament on Saturday. Not that he would be going abroad or anything.
“I knew he was pretty damn serious about swimming, but not to that extent.”
The train came to a halt.
“This is my stop. See you on Saturday at the tournament, Coach Sasabe.”
She bowed.
“Ah yeah. See you soon, Gou-chan.”
“I look forward to it,” she said with a smile.
“Huh?”
“Seeing his muscles. He'll work hard to get them. Just like you, Coach.”
“...and that was the one time I impressed a girl with my muscles.”
Goro looked at the lot in front of him. All members of the Iwatobi Swim Club were staring at him, then cautiously glanced at a red-faced Gou. Rin was also present and looked shocked to say the least.
It all started when Nagisa nagged him about whether he had ever impressed any girls with his obviously well-formed muscles in his lifetime. Apparently Gou was blabbing about muscles again and said her friend Chigusa was really impressed with how the boys looked, and how Gou totally agreed with her, then the topic changed to who had the most impressive muscles, and for some reason Rei and Rin got caught in some ridiculous stand off, while Makoto tried to pacify them, but Haruka said to leave it alone, but then it got completely out of hand... To cut a long story short, Nagisa ended up asking him that question and suddenly everyone was all ears.
Much to his dismay, there was no escape.
There were plenty, he had said. However, when asked to give any examples nothing came to mind except this. To be fair, every girl he had “impressed” and dated, all ended up dumping him. This was the safest and the least painful option, but as he went on telling them about this experience, he realized he was starting to sound exceptionally pitiful.
He had impressed an elementary school girl.
But perhaps he should have expected that most of the reactions weren't aimed at him, but at Gou.
Rin abruptly turned to look at her.
“Is that why you kept checking me out every time I came back?”
Gou was still completely red in the face.
“Shut up,” she muttered.
Rin loudly went on.
“You have got to be kidding me. Do you even know how embarrassing it is to have my own sister checking out measuring my muscle mass?”
“Weren't you the one bragging about how big they got last time?” She bit back.
Rin looked as if he was about to gnash on his pointy teeth.
“Well, I'm allowed to be excited about my own progress.”
Gou frowned.
“What? Why shouldn't I look forward to my own big brother's progress while he is away?”
He returned an almost identical frown.
“You're just excited I'm catering to your stupid fetish.”
“How many times do I have to say this! It's not-” Gou deeply inhaled. “- a fetish!!”
“C'mon on Rin-chan, there was no need to call her fetish stupid~,” Nagisa interrupted.
“Nagisa-kun! I just said it wasn't a fetish!”
Nagisa obviously ignored her.
“I agree with Gou-san,” Rei said. “It's not a fetish.”
Gou seemed a little relieved.
“Thank you, Rei-kun.”
Rin rolled his eyes.
“Geez. Then what do you call it if it's not a fetish?”
“Science!” Rei pushed his glasses up his nose. “She did it for science. The proof is in her notebook. It's full of notes and drawings of various swimmers' bodies.”
“What?” The older brother looked a little aghast.
Makoto laughed a little. “Yeah, we sure saw it. Her notebook is very detailed. You should see it, Rin. It's quite amazing, really.”
Rin covered his face in his hands and sighed.
“Why doesn't this surprise me?”
“Ah, that's right,” Haruka suddenly said. “Gou showed me a notebook of your muscles, Rin.”
“Haruka-senpai!”
Both Rin's and Gou's faces couldn't have gotten any redder at that moment.
“Damn it, Gou! Don't go showing him unnecessary stuff like that!” he cried out, but was ignored in favor of Haruka.
“Senpai, you promised me not to tell anyone else about this!”
“Did I?” Haruka blinked innocently.
Gou groaned loudly at him and returned to arguing with her brother.
All Haruka remembered was that she seemed very fond of that notebook. Obviously she was keeping track of the progress her brother was making while he was away from home. Seeing the Matsuoka siblings bicker with each other warmed his heart a little.
He looked at the coach.
“Coach Sasabe?”
Goro looked at the boy standing by the pool.
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
After saying that, Haruka dived back into the pool.
The coach looked on and gave a small shrug.
“I don't know what you're grateful for, but... you're welcome.”