Divine Madness [Free!] [2]

🌸 Chapter 9 🌸

Rin laid back, his arms crossed behind the back of his head, as he stared unseeingly at the bunk bed above him. His roommate was off on his own, and Rin hadn't quite bothered acquainting himself with the boy. He didn't want to deal with troublesome and meddling individuals and thoughts.

Yet his mind was already swirling with those troublesome thoughts. He had gone to sign in to the Samezuka Swim team, and heard from the current team captain about none other than Heisuke.

"Hey, Matsuoka, sorry for intruding on personal matters –
but are you dating the Shidarezakura Heisuke-Chan?"

Of course, Rin had wanted to retort in response that he was dating that girl, but of course, that was a lie. He had grunted his way out of that question and he hated the way everyone turned to look.

So many of those boys wanted to date Shidarezakura Heisuke,
but in Rin's opinion, none of them were worthy of her.

And from there, Rin was begrudgingly reminded of Haruka – he was the person who least deserved Heisuke. Rin hated, absolutely hated the way he treated Heisuke – so carelessly and nonchalantly.

Ever since the day they met, Rin hated how Haruka never showed Heisuke any emotions.
No one so callous should be around someone as sweet as Heisuke.

Suddenly, the light on his phone lit up and it began to ring on the desk, but Rin ignored it completely as he continued to stare up at the bunk above him. He didn't want to talk to anyone right now. Then, as the call went out into the voicemail and Rin grimaced when he heard Makoto's voice speak up –

"Rin...? It's me, Makoto. We're starting up a swim club.
So, you should join the swim team. We might get to swim together at a tournament,"

"Don't need you to tell me that," Rin grunted to himself as he listened in. "I already decided to join the swim team. However, ... I'm not doing this for a chance to swim with you guys,"

"Rin-Kun, please..."

Rin's eyes flew open and his heart leapt when he recognised the soft, sweet voice of the very girl who had invaded his thoughts for the past five hours. He held his breath as he listened to her.

"Let's all swim together...
You, Haru-Kun, Mako-Chan and Nagisa-Chan... 
Even... I..."

And all of that flew out of the window as Rin quickly got off the bed, tripping over his blanket and he went sprawling down with a loud thud. But he pushed himself back up and reached to grab his phone, rushing to save the voicemail. He let out a sigh of relief and went to the saved voicemails.

By-passing Makoto's words in the message, Rin sat down on his bed and listened to Heisuke's soft voice again and again, leaning the phone against his forehead as he focused on her whisperings.

🌸

Few Days Later:

Heisuke folded the sleeves of her green school tracksuit down as she walked over to join Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa, Gou and Miss Amakata. They had gathered at the swimming pool club at the Iwatobi High School that afternoon to celebrate finishing up the clean-up and filling the pool.