High Speed!

Chapter 7:

It was a day that was quite sunny from morning on. How many times have I come here, thought Haruka as he looked up at the blue sky. The Hiyori Aquatic Center was particularly large even within the prefecture, so most meets were held there. He felt like every time he came here, it was sunny. It was an indoor pool so it didn't really matter if it was sunny or not, but he thought sunny was better.

"Weather's nice today."

Makoto's voice was bright as always. Especially on sunny days.

"Wow, it's huge."

It was Nagisa's first time to the center, and his eyes grew wide as he looked up at it.

And then, the extremely reticent Rin. Maybe he was nervous, although it wasn't like him.

At check-in Rin wrote down all four of their names, and the check-in person took out the girls' list and began looking for their names. Haruka thought Rin would say something, but he just watched this happen silently. The check-in person reached the end of the list without finding their names and looked up questioningly, about to say something. But, seeing their faces, the official seemed to understand and began to look on the boys' list.

Walking down the hall to the locker room, the smile Nagisa had been holding back burst forth at once.

"Did you see? They took out the girls' list. I wonder whose name they thought was a girl's. I bet it was Rin-chan's."

"No, it was all of ours."

"Even mine?"

"Yeah, yours too."

"Whaat? I didn't know Nagisa was a girl's name. You know, I saw the name Rin-rin on an animal at the zoo. A female."

Haruka held it back, but Makoto bent over, laughing. Shooting a side glance at Makoto, Rin said grumpily, "Get too relaxed and we'll lose. Hold it together better."

"Okay, okay."

Did he really get it? It felt like the only thing that had come across in Rin's retort to Nagisa was his nerves.

When they entered the locker room, they heard the sound of lockers opening and closing all over. There were already a lot of kids there. When Rin opened a nearby locker, the other three looked for empty lockers near his and opened their doors.

"Rin."

Rin turned at hearing his name suddenly called, and several on their way to the pool were looking at him. His face relaxed unconsciously. It was the kids from his old club, Sano SC.

"Hey, it's been a while."

He answered them with a light wave, and one gave a friendly smile as he approached. It was Sousuke Yamazaki, lanky and tall as always.

"You look pretty good."

"I guess. How about you?"

"Same as ever. But what I wanna know is, have you gotten to see your dad?"

Rin was stunned by this question.

"Uh, well."

Conscious of Haruka and the others, he gave a vague reply.

"Huh. Well, see you around then."

Appearing to sense the reason for Rin's evasiveness, Sousuke ended the conversation quickly and left the locker room. Only an odd silence remained.

No one said a word as they changed in silence. Finished changing first, Nagisa imitated Rin by snapping the strap of his goggles.

"I'm first!"