~ Reader's Point of View
With each race that passed, you took mental notes of the winners, despite them being in the boys division and having no impact on your scoring whatsoever. It was force of habit. 'Daichi Akira, Eito Taisuki... Ryugazaki Rei.' The last name stuck in your head, for some reason. He hadn't even won his race, but there was something so different about his style of swimming. It was... Beautiful, almost. You couldn't shake the image of those boys cheering him on, either, and you turned to face them now.
All but one of them was present in the stands, and the short blonde haired boy who'd been cheering loudest for Ryugazaki Rei was now squealing "Makotooo! Go Makotooo!". You glanced down at the pool, finding that no race was currently happening, but a fairly tall, brown-haired boy was chuckling to himself and looking occasionally up at the boy chanting his name. Your eyes now fixed on who you presumed to be 'Makoto', you watched as he clambered into the pool backwards and positioned himself to start. The blonde-haired boy was practically exploding.
The start whistle blew, and you looked up at the score board to find the boy's full name- Makoto Tachibana. He was swimming backstroke, and well. He maintained second place throughout the entire race, until the last half-length when he was overtaken. You looked at his time after the race finished- still good enough to qualify.
You turned your head, half expecting the blonde boy to be cheering, though there was no sign of him in the stands anymore. You assumed that his race was up soon, and so squinted your eyes intently each time a new group of boys stepped up onto the diving boards. After 2 races, you finally saw the boy enter the poolside through a door at the back, immediately jumping up and waving at his teammates sat in the stands, "Makotoo! Reeeei! Gouuu! Haruuu!" The girl, who had red hair tied back in a ponytail, rolled her eyes, and muttered something under her breath.
Each of the others chuckled and waved back, apart from the black-haired boy who, once again, sat with a blank expression. You noticed he was the only one out of the younger boys who hadn't swum, or in the blonde boy's case, was about to swim, and came to the conclusion that he must be swimming freestyle, as after this race it was the only boys event left. You, too, swam freestyle, and were curious for those races to begin.
~ Haru's Point of View
After qualifying success on both Makoto and Rei's parts, we watched tentatively as Nagisa took his place on the diving board. My eyes were fixed on his concentrated yet still smiling face, until it fell under a mask of water as the whistle was blown. Goro chanted his name from a couple of seats down from me, but I couldn't bring myself to even open my mouth, mentally critiquing every movement Nagisa made as he glided through the water.
I could barely bring myself to watch anymore as his fingers hit the wall, signifying his 4th place finish. The frustration of 4th is unimaginable- only milliseconds away from qualifying. Goro clenched his hand into a fist and cursed under his breath, "Damn. So close."
Nagisa himself seemed to be the one most unphased by the outcome of the race, though it was hard to tell whether he was putting on a happy face or genuinely not bothered. He practically jumped out of the pool and flew over to the boy who'd come one place ahead of him, shaking his hand eagerly and chatting away.
That was until he was tapped on the back by an official of the event, and taken off to one side. The official had to kneel slightly to his height, and within a few seconds we could all see Nagisa's pinkish eyes light up as he engulfed the man in a tight hug. Goro, Ama, Makoto, Rei and Gou looked to one another, confused. I kept my eyes trained firmly on Nagisa.
It wasn't long after Nagisa's sudden excitement that an announcement was echoed through the room on a loudspeaker, "We apologise for the confusion, but it has come to our attention that Noritaka Reiji, who placed second in the 100m breast stroke event, left on a false start, and has therefore regrettably been disqualified from the event. This means that Hazuki Nagisa, formally 4th place, has now been moved up into a qualifying position."
I didn't even have to look up to guess Goro's expression.
