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“Nanase-kun is quite fast,” Fujimoto Satoshi, athletic recruiter for Akita University, muttered as Haru broke ahead of the pack in the Medley Relay finals at the High School Nationals, “How can we get him to swim at our university?”
His wasn’t a fast school, but that could change if they got someone as fast as Nanase to swim for them.
Satoshi didn’t have a stellar track record for attracting raw talent, but if he could bag an athlete like Nanase Haruka, his colleagues would finally begin to take him seriously.
“Forget about Haru,” someone laughed next to him, “As he’s so very fond of saying, he only swims for himself and for his friends.”
Frowning deeply, Satoshi turned to the stranger. Stars adorned the side of this ignoramus’ head and the wide smile was vexing.
“And just who might you be?” Satoshi asked imperiously.
The star-spangled stranger laughed loudly, “Why I’m the one who taught that relay team to float in the first place! I’m so proud of those boys!”
Satoshi reevaluated his initial reaction and changed his mind about the stranger. Maybe he wasn’t so crass after all.
“What’s the key to getting Haru to swim for Akita, then?” Satoshi asked excitedly.
The jovial stranger’s face fell into a frown, “You won’t be able to get him to swim for any university. He doesn’t care about competing at all.”
Nanase-kun reached the final flags and a spirited din of shouting rumbled the bleachers like a tsunami gaining violent momentum.
All eyes were on Nanase and he was breathtaking!
How was such perfect form possible? How could Akitia University claim him?
Satoshi gasped in unison with the entire crowd as Nanase’s fingertips brushed against the wall .01 seconds faster than his opponent. The world erupted in a cacophony of cheers that electrified the soul!
Yes! This primal feeling of victory, of TRIUMH was what it meant to live! This was why sports held Satoshi captive! THIS WAS WHY FUJIMOTO SATOSHI LIVED!
Tearing himself away from the high of amazing athletic achievement, Satoshi wrote down the Iwatobi’s final time. With expert quickness, he calculated how fast Nanase-kun swam his leg of the relay and dropped his pen when he’d finished the calculations.
Utterly Staggering!
Greedily, Satoshi looked back down at the water – along with everyone of Satoshi’s more illustrious colleagues. The fly and breast members of Nanase’s relay team weren’t waiting for Nanase to begin their boisterous celebrations. They were jumping around, hugging, and laughing with far too much exuberance for having just swum a Nationals winning relay.
Ah youth!
But not all Nanase’s teammates had forgotten about their mighty hero. The backstroker kneeled down and offered Nanase a smile and a hand. Even from this lofty height, Satoshi could see Nanase beaming up at the backstroker as he accepted his help out of the water. Without missing a beat, the tall backstroker embraced Nanase the moment the water wonder was upright. Immediately, the other two boys joined in the hug, but it was to the backstroker that Nanase clung to the hardest, the longest.
So Nanase only swims for his friends, does he?
“Excuse me,” Satoshi said to the stranger next to him, “but who is that tall kid on Nanase’s relay team?”
The stranger looked to see who he was talking about, then broke out into a mile-wide smile.
“Oh that’s Tachibana Makoto. Very sweet kid. He helps at the swim club I run sometimes. He and Haru are pretty much inseparable.”
Satoshi looked back down at the boys or rather the mass of jumbled limbs and smiles that was the victorious Iwatobi relay.
Practically inseparable from Nanase?
Satoshi turned back to the time sheet where he’d written down the splits for the rest of Nanase’s relay and was pleasantly surprised by the backstroker’s time. Not quite as quick as Akita University was looking for, but acceptable. Especially for the brilliant plan Satoshi was hatching.
Satoshi looked around the bleachers, seeing his colleagues scattered around, looking wistfully at the victorious.
Nanase-kun was a coveted flower everyone wanted and Satoshi may just have figured out how to pick him.
A week had gone by since Nationals and already, it felt like a far-off dream. Haru looked out the window, thinking about water. At Nationals, the water had felt better than any water before; it was charged with energy that Haru could still feel clinging to him and would probably always cling to him. There’d be nothing else like it.
“Excuse me,” a small woman at the open door of their classroom peeped, diverting everyone’s attention except Haru’s, “There is an important phone call for Tachibana Makoto in the Teacher’s lounge. It sounds pretty urgent.”
The mention of Makoto’s name was the only thing that possibly could have roused Haru out of his thoughts. Critically, Haru eyed the woman who was here to take Makoto away and he thought he recognized her as a low-level administrator. Next to him, Makoto rose and Haru eyed him anxiously. Shock, confusion, and just a tinge of embarrassment could be read in Makoto’s shoulders as he got out of his seat and followed the woman out of the room. He had no idea what this was all about either.
When the door swallowed Makoto whole, the terrible realization hit Haru that the phone call might be because something bad happened to a member of the Tachibana clan.
The last ten minutes of class, the last of the day, were a tremendous agony and seemed to last an eternity. When the final bell rang, freeing the rest, Haru lingered, hoping Makoto would return to him.
It was finally Rei and Nagisa who came looking for him and they asked Haru what he was doing.
“Sitting.” Haru answered. He couldn’t bear to voice his concerns over Makoto aloud, lest they prove true, so he didn’t say anything at all.
“Well stop sitting and let’s get some ice cream? Where’s Mako-chan anyways?”
Haru rose from his chair – if he didn’t do so now, he spend all night waiting for Makoto here.
“I don’t know where Makoto is. Let’s go.”
The popsicle Haru had did nothing to take his mind off the Makoto shaped hole by his side, probably because Makoto wasn’t there to have the other half. At the small café table they sat at, Rei and Nagisa flirted over a shared sundae while Haru scanned the homeward-bound crowds anxiously, trying to find Makoto in every tall, muscular, brown haired guy who passed by. But the shining emeralds that were Makoto’s eyes could be found nowhere.
When Haru finally was able to say goodnight to Nagisa and Rei at the train station, Haru broke out into an all out sprint towards home. Makoto should be there by now, Haru reasoned, if something bad happened with a Tachibana, Haru would be able to find out more at the clan castle.
So focused was he on reaching his Makoto that he practically missed him sitting on the boardwalk, waiting for Haru along their usual route home. Fortuitously, Haru’s athletic skills did not extend to land and his slow running allowed Haru plenty of time to finally hear Makoto shouting Haru’s name.
Haru ran as fast as he could over to Makoto and through a herculean exercise of will power, managed not to throw his arms around Makoto immediately upon seeing him. That would violate the Rules of Friendship, the unspoken code that had allowed Haru and Makoto to spend nearly every moment of their lives together harmoniously. Those rules were sacred and couldn’t be broken, no matter how much Haru wanted to.
Instead, Haru satisfied himself with saying Makoto’s name.
“Makoto!” Haru cried breathlessly as he fell down on the boardwalk next to his friend, “What happened?”
Anxiously, he searched Makoto’s face for any sign of distress. Thankfully, there was instead a very excited smile, more excited than Haru had ever seen grace that much adored face before.
“The call was from a recruiter at Akita University. They want me to swim for them.”
A recruitment call?
“Akita University?” Haru whispered, double-checking that he’d heard properly.
Makoto nodded, his smile softening into that contemplative one he sometimes wore though there was a gleam of elation in his eyes that certainly was unfamiliar. Haru could see, without a shadow of a doubt, that Makoto couldn’t believe such excellent fortune had fallen on him.
That gleam in Makoto’s eyes shattered Haru into a thousand pieces. Darkness, completely alien to the glorious afternoon sunset, was seeping in around at Haru’s edges.
“Are you going to go?” Haru asked, his voice quavering. He was somewhere between dying and dreading to hear Makoto’s answer.
The smile slipped from Makoto’s face as he took a moment to think it over, expelling the gleam from those beloved eyes. Clearly, Makoto hadn’t had the opportunity to properly think over the offer. As he did so, Haru watched Makoto as though his very life depended on the answer.
And in a lot of ways, it really did feel like Haru’s whole life depended on Makoto’s answer.
All year, Haru had been dreading this moment, when Makoto announced what he’d be doing after they graduated, inevitably parting ways with Haru. Haru didn’t care if he himself swam at university, he didn’t care if he didn’t set records, he didn’t care if he left Iwatobi or not. He did care about being free, but more urgently, he cared about loosing the most important person in his universe, the one person who’d always been with him no matter how broken and separated from the world Haru was – he cared about loosing Makoto more than anything.
“I don’t know,” Makoto finally said, “Akita is pretty far away. I hadn’t planned on going too far. I’d miss my family too much.”
Makoto turned to look at Haru and his expression, one he’d never seen Makoto wear before, pierced Haru down to the marrow with panic. The expression that caused such a reaction from Haru was one of soul wrenching confusion.
Makoto was Haru’s steady rock, his one sure thing in the world. Makoto planned, he thought things out, he considered all the options – he was the solid thing Haru leaned on, his best and often times only support.
His person.
To see him in such a state of agonized confusion was nothing short of the most disturbing thing Haru had ever seen. Again he cursed the strict Rules of Friendship for not allowing him to take Makoto in his arms and hold him tight. He couldn’t bear to see Makoto in any kind of pain and this pain didn’t appear to have an easy remedy.
“I wouldn’t know anyone there and it would be lonely.” Makoto said quietly, casting his eyes back down to the sand, “But I never dreamed that anyone would want me.”
No one want Makoto?
Instant outrage swelled up in Haru. He knew Makoto meant that no one wanted him for swimming, a ridiculous notion because Makoto was faster than he gave himself credit for, but Haru couldn’t help but hear it as ‘no one wanted Makoto period’.
Haru wanted Makoto!
Over the past year, things had shifted, Haru had realized there were rules about how he could and could not interact with Makoto, and it had become increasingly difficult to understand in just what capacity Haru wanted Makoto. But he knew absolutely that he wanted Makoto with him.
The thought of him swimming in Akita was terrifying because it meant he couldn’t have Makoto anymore. He wasn’t ready to leave Makoto! He’d never be ready to leave Makoto!
The dying sun bathed Makoto in soft gold. Watching him, Haru felt many things.
After a few minutes spent wrestling with their separate turmoil, Makoto turned back to Haru, his smile once more lighting up his face.
“I should go tell my parents. They will be so excited!”
Knowing there was nothing more he could do now, Haru nodded and they silently went home.
Water had the wonderful habit of answering Haru’s important questions, so it came as no surprise that a sudden epiphany hit him while submerged in the tub later that night.
Haru swam for himself and for his friends – Makoto was his friend and Haru could swim for Makoto at Akita University! If the coach agreed not to bug Haru about times and competition and just let Haru swim the way he liked to swim – free, with Makoto – that wouldn’t be so bad! And he’d be there as a student athlete – he could take drawing classes and maybe even some cooking classes! He could do anything and still swim with Makoto. He could be free and still swim if he did it just for Makoto! And it would all be worth it to make Makoto so happy!
Haru whipped his brain into action, trying to flush out this beautiful vision of a future with Makoto. He wasn’t positive, but he was fairly sure a recruiter from Akita had tried contacting him before. Like all the others, Haru had ignored Akita, but if it meant he could keep swimming with Makoto, he needed to contact the recruiter again. He was in such a hurry to get out of the tub, Haru slipped and banged his shin painfully on the lip of the tub. But his heart was soaring to high to notice.
Just as expected, Akita University had contacted Haru, after Prefecturals, after his disastrous Regionals, and once more after Nationals. So whoever this Fujimoto was, he had been desperate enough to contact Haru on three separate occasions. Haru wasn’t a calculating person, not by a long shot, but he did feel a grim satisfaction knowing that he could use Fujimoto’s desperation as a bargaining tool to get everything he wanted.
Haru picked up his phone and dialed the number. It didn’t occur to Haru that it was well past business hours and entirely inappropriate to be calling a perfect stranger.
The phone began to ring.
“Hello?” a sleepy voice answered after the fifth ring.
“Is this Fujimoto-san?” Haru asked.
“Yes, who is this?”
“I am Nanase Haruka. You’ve contacted me three times about swimming for Akita University.”
Haru felt obscenely proud of himself for being able to pull out that little factoid. It had taken some effort to find out.
“Good evening, Nanase-kun,” the voice on the other end replied, “What can I do for you?”
Haru took a deep breath.
“I’d like to swim for Akita University.”
There was a long pause and Haru began to worry. Needlessly it turned out.
“We would love to have you, Nanase-kun.”
Haru’s heart leapt, but he sternly reminded himself that he had negotiating to do.
“I have conditions,” he said evenly, masking his violent emotions with an expertise that only came from much practice.
The recruiter said nothing and Haru took that as a sign for him to continue.
“First of all, I’m not coming unless Tachibana Makoto comes.”
“We’ve reached out to him,” Fujimoto-san answered noncommittally, but offered no further comment. From how let down Haru suddenly felt, he realized how much he’d been hoping the recruiter would tell him what Makoto had decided.
“My second condition is that I am the only one allowed to live with Makoto. I’m not sure how dorm assignments go, but I won’t live with anyone else but Makoto.”
“Deal. If Makoto comes.”
“I also never want to race Makoto. We are never to swim the same events.”
“That sounds like something you boys will have to work out between yourselves, but I think there are enough events to go around. We want him for backstroke anyways, not free.”
Haru remembered Makoto’s words I thought no one wanted me. Haru was nearly overcome for Makoto, hearing this recruiter contradict Makoto’s undervaluation of his abilities.
“My third condition is that I be allowed to study whatever I want.”
There was a brief pause.
“Everyone gets that condition. We practice early in the morning and later in the evening so our students can study whatever they wish.”
“Oh.” Haru said stupidly.
He’d always assumed that University was like High School, where there was a very strict set of classes you were allowed to take. Haru was excited to explore all the options later, but for now he had to make his final, and most important, demand.
“I can’t swim if people are trying to get me to make certain time cuts or compete more than I want. I swim fast when I feel the water and swim for my friends. When I don’t have freedom and my friends, the water consumes me. I want that as part of my contract, that no one – no coach, no school board member, no one – is going to force me to be what I’m not. I either swim free or not at all.”
The pause that followed this final demand was the longest twelve seconds of Haru’s life.
“I’ll start drafting your contract first thing in the morning.”
Fujimoto Satoshi listened to the phone disconnect triumphantly. Setting his phone down, he walked over to his kitchen and opened the cabinet with his impressive Sake collection. Carefully, he poured himself a healthy measure and took it out to his balcony. Outside, the moon was the only witness to his triumph.
“Here’s to capturing the rarest bird” he raised his glass skyward, toasting the moon, “May his coaches be blessed with infinite patience because that boy is going to be a pain in the neck to work with!”
Oh well! Not his problem!
Satoshi tossed back the glass and finished it in one triumphant gulp. No doubt the confined world of sports recruiters would be puzzling over Satoshi’s acquisition for quite some time to come!
“Haru? What’s wrong?” a bleary eyed Makoto asked ten minutes later when Haru flew down the shrine stairs to meet him.
“Will you come on a walk with me?” Haru asked, completely out of breath.
Makoto nodded, eyeing Haru suspiciously but saying nothing.
Of their own accord, their feet took them to the beach. This stretch of sand was the same one they passed every day going to and from school, the same one they jogged along for training, the same one at which they’d been sharing their most intimate thoughts together from time immemorial. Haru never realized until now how much this was their beach.
In a unison that can only be achieved by two hearts completely in synch, Makoto and Haru sat down on the sand without speaking a word. Makoto waited patiently for Haru to explain why he’d gotten Makoto out of bed in the middle of the night.
“I spoke to Fujimoto-san,” Haru began, “and he offered me a spot at Akita as well.”
Makoto was too shocked for words.
“If you go swim at Akita, I’ll go with you. But I won’t go without you.”
“Haru!” Makoto sputtered, “I thought you didn’t want to swim for a university!”
Haru felt a blush creep up his neck.
“I gave the recruiter my conditions and he said he’ll put them in my contract. I can swim free if they are honored.”
“But…Haru! You didn’t want to swim competitively anymore! What’s changed your mind?”
Haru smiled at Makoto.
“It’s like you said a long time ago. There’s no point if you’re not with me. And now I can be with you.”
Makoto gasped and Haru felt his cheeks get hot. In embarrassment, Haru averted his eyes down to the sand, wishing he’d said something less cheesy. So Haru was taken completely by surprise when Makoto wrapped his arms around Haru and pulled him close for a hug.
Haru’s immediate reaction was to pull away. According to the Rules of Friendship, a hug was only acceptable after a relay and only when there were other people joining in. But Makoto’s arms felt so nice around him, so right, that Haru commanded his brain to shut up and he returned Makoto’s embrace enthusiastically.
“I love you, Makoto,” Haru sighed. It was the same sentiment he’d repeated in his head a thousand times before and he felt that feeling strongly now.
Makoto tensed up momentarily, causing Haru to panic. Had Haru said that out loud? If this long hug was in violation of the Rules of Friendship, confessing out loud that Haru loves Makoto – no matter that Haru couldn’t say in exactly what way – was definitely not allowed!
“I love you too, Haruka.” Makoto said quietly, hugging Haru closer, “We will have a great time at Akita University!”
Haru relaxed, then turned his face into Makoto’s chest, burying his smile next to Makoto’s rapidly thumping heart.
Maybe the Rules of Friendship weren’t as important as Haru thought. Makoto knew nothing of them anyways and Haru had come up with them mostly from observation. A device to help Haru better understand this Makoto in his life. Maybe Haru didn’t want Makoto just as a friend anymore. Maybe the conflicting feelings he’d been harboring for his best friend meant something more.
But tonight wasn’t the night to think about that.
Tonight, it didn’t matter.
What did matter was that Haru would have plenty of opportunities to think about these surging new feelings later because they were going to share their futures together.
For now, it was enough to just enjoy the sound of Makoto’s beating heart and know that he wouldn’t have to say goodbye.
At this midnight hour, the world was mostly deserted. No one was out besides the full moon, the sparkling sea, and a pair of boys who loved each other, happily clinging to one another as they’d been doing and would continue to do through their entire lives.