Episode 1: The Person You Wait For

Haruka POV
When I talk about Matsuoka Rin with someone else, the first thing that springs to my mind is his smiling face.
His dazzling smile from when he said, “I’ll show you a sight you’ve never seen before.”
Even now, I still think about it at times. If only at that time… If I hadn’t run into Rin at that railroad crossing during that first year of middle school winter break. If only I had hurried and crossed when the light at the intersection before was flashing. Or stopped at a convenience store and read a magazine. No, or better yet, if I hadn’t thought to go out at all that day. I should have stayed in my room and read a book. Then I wouldn’t have run into Rin, and I wouldn’t have raced him at Iwatobi SC, so then I wouldn’t have won and hurt him, and then I wouldn’t have parted from my new middle school comrades, and I probably wouldn’t have made the choice to stop swimming either.
Or maybe…
It’s possible that, that day, it was an unavoidable fate that I run into Rin.
It might have been fated that no matter what stops I made, or what detours I took, or even if I never left my house, that we would have been pulled by some invisible force, and in the end, we would have met somewhere else besides that railroad crossing…

That Matsuoka Rin has returned.
Holding the trophy we buried 4 years ago, that Makoto, Nagisa, and I had snuck into Iwatobi SC in order to dig it up. Matsuoka Rin was there. I believed we would meet again ever since I saw the phrases written on the wall under the sakura tree yesterday at Iwatobi Elementary, but I never imagined it would happen so fast.
If our meeting during the first year of middle school was fate, then our second meeting in the run down Iwatobi SC was also fate. The same Iwatobi SC as his breakdown. Iwatobi SC that is now run down in the middle of the night. We’re slaves to our fate, bound and shackled to it.
The Matsuoka Rin that returned from Australia wasn’t the Rin from Elementary school who I swam in a medley relay with, nor the Rin who I raced against during the winter break middle school. His whole body was shrouded in a ferocious aura. He seemed like a completely different person from back then.
It would be a lie to say I didn’t have a hunch this would happen. It’s because I felt something that I wore my swimsuit under my clothes. Even though there was no reason for the rundown SC’s pool to be filled with water, and a race against him would have to wait.
But Rin definitely said, “Let’s race, Haru.”
It wasn’t the Rin who lost to me and said, “I’ll quit swimming” while crying. Nor the one who smiled and said, “Let’s swim in a medley relay together!” It wasn’t either of those Rins, and yet all I felt was a little relieved.
He felt a little guilty about it, but he had a hunch as to why.
I think Rin wants to swim with me again.
Then, do I want to swim with Rin again? Compete against him?
I don’t know.
I’m not like Rin. Rin is aiming for the world. All I’m aiming for is to be in the water. To sleep in the water, to wake up in the water. To eat in the water, to laugh and cry in the water. To play in the water. To live in the water like I’m meant to be there, and die in the water like I’m meant to die there. That is the ideal. I’ve seriously thought like that ever since I was in elementary school.
At 10 you’re a prodigy, at 15 a genius. And then once you pass 20 you’re a normal person.
That was the proverb my grandma who has passed away always used to say. I’m not saying think of myself as a genius much less a prodigy, but still back then I used to think I was the best in the water. But once again, that’s all in the past. Now I just want to hurry up and become a normal person. Once I do that, I can forget all of these emotions and live in ease. I won’t hurt anyone, nor will I get hurt. If I become insensitive, even if I do hurt someone, or get hurt, I can just keep living without realizing it. While I don’t know how they were in the past, I’d become like almost all the adults in the world who now go around with dead eyes.

“Rin-chan has changed somewhat, hasn’t he?”
Nagisa sighed while saying on the way back from the rundown Iwatobi SC.
I just reunited with Nagisa, who just entered Iwatobi High school, today. The last time I saw him was when I was in the first year of middle school, but unlike Rin, Nagisa hasn’t changed at all. He’s tightly grasping the medley relay trophy that Rin tossed earlier in his arms like it’s precious.
I don’t say anything. I don’t know what to say.
I haven’t told Makoto or Nagisa about the time I met Rin the winter of the first year of middle school. If I told them, I’d probably hurt them both the same way. It’s best if I’m the only one who knows the feeling of this pain. I’m sure that Rin wouldn’t want his old teammates to know about it. That’s why all I do is stay silent and keep it to myself. Besides, it seems like Makoto sensed something about it when I quit the swim club in middle school.
Makoto can see into parts of me even if I don’t say anything.
The reason that Makoto’s not saying anything right now is probably because he can tell that I don’t want to talk about anything.
While the three of them walked down the night road, he glanced at Makoto’s profile.
It was dark so he couldn’t see his expression, but he probably didn’t want to worry Nagisa. Makoto then broke the silence, and he laughed while talking, trying to act bright like nothing was wrong.
“Well, it can’t be helped. I don’t know what happened, but everyone changes. He can’t stay an elementary schooler forever, you know?”
“Eh? Really? But I haven’t changed? Neither have you or Haru-chan!”
“Hehe. Does it seem that way? Actually, we might have…….”
Makoto said jokingly.
“……. have what?”
“We might have become bad people while you weren’t around, you know, Nagisa?”
Makoto smiled while saying that, and then look to me for confirmation.
“Right, Haru?”
I muttered ‘don’t put this on me’ in my head and responded.
“Not really……”
“See, Haru’s the same as before. He hasn’t changed at all. Even the way he said ‘not really……’ just now!”
Nagisa imitated me and laughed happily.
“Oh right! Hey, it’d be boring if we just went home now. So, can we all go over to Mako-chan’s house? We went over to Haru-chan’s house before we left, but I haven’t seen High School Makoto’s room yet!”
“We can go to my house, but is that ok for you Nagisa? If you’re too late won’t your parents worry?”
“It’s fine. I’ll get my sister to come pick me up in her car!”

In the end, the three of us went up to Makoto’s room.
“Your room hasn’t changed at all from before Mako-chan! …… Ah, this manga, I used to read it a lot back then. You still have it!”
Nagisa searched all around the room with sparkling eyes while Makoto watched him with a strained smile.
That’s when Ran and Ren came in and badgered Nagisa to “play a game with us!”
“Oh! Ran-chan, Ren-chan, you’ve gotten so big!”
Without feeling the several year gap, Ran and Ren quickly attached to Nagisa. It was like they had played with him just yesterday. I could never be like Nagisa in this way.
I thought Ran and Ren would want to play the game they’ve been into recently where you make a village for deep sea creatures, but instead, they pulled out a shooting game. Nagisa wasn’t compensating for the fact that he was playing against Ran and Ren, and was seriously competing against them. Ran and Ren were well aware of when people were treating them like children. If they know you’re going easy on them, they’ll start acting bored. So Nagisa’s a good opponent for them in that way. He doesn’t go easy on them, but he’s not too hard either. Nagisa himself was actually having fun too.
On the screen, the spaceship that Ran was controlling was destroyed.
“Hehe! I’m not going to go easy on you!”
Nagisa laughed like he was having fun.
“Next is my turn!”
Ren snatched the controller from Ran’s hands and started the next battle
While I blankly stared at the game screen, before I knew it I started thinking about Rin—— No, about water. Clicked my tongue at myself in my head, but my body was honest. The disturbance in my heart made me desperately yearn for water. I wanted to entrust my body to the water. It was probably frustration of going through all the trouble of wearing my swimsuit and there not being any water before. I won’t be able to sleep like this. The water in the bathtub at my house won’t be enough to calm it. When it was like this, I had no choice but to go there. That secret place where I wasted all day yesterday——.
I announced I was leaving first and stood up.
“Eh! Haru-chan, you’re already leaving?”
Ran and Ren called out but Nagisa used that chance to attack, and they yelled “Ah! That’s cheating!” and returned their attention to the game screen. Makoto looked at me with a slightly worried look but quickly smiled and gave a small wave.
“Bye, I’ll see you tomorrow. Haru”
“See you Haru-chan!”
The moment Nagisa looked this way, this time Ren attacked, and Nagisa’s ship was destroyed.
“Gyaa!!”
Nagisa fake screamed, and Ran and Ren laughed. Leaving those voices behind, I said goodbye to Makoto’s parents in the living room and left the Tachibana house by myself.
Then, without heading towards my house, I just went down the stone steps and headed towards the station.

That water was a few stops down the train line from Iwatobi station.
This was the first time I’d ever gone there so late. There might not be a train back. But I don’t care. I can just walk back. I wonder how long it’d talk to walk back to Iwatobi? Well, then I can just wait until morning to come back.
What was there was slightly run-down family oriented health spa. Whole families and couples could go in together, and the best part was, it was designed for you to wear swimsuits. If you got in naked, it’d just be a regular onsen, but in a swimsuit, it was a special world where you could be fully satisfied by the water. It was fine it was run down without many people. They have a cold bath for the sauna and a large lukewarm bathing area too. Even though there isn’t anyone else around, it’s not like I can swim in it but, it gave me a peace of mind from entrusting my body to a large body of water that I couldn’t obtain in the small bath in my house.
I got into the deserted health spa’s lukewarm bath while wearing a swimsuit and closed my eyes when I felt someone’s presence. There was the sound of footsteps coming closer, and then getting into the lukewarm bath. Why did they have to get into this bath? Even though I wanted to feel the water by myself.
And when I looked around, sitting there in swimsuits was Nagisa and Makoto.
Nagisa laughed at my shock.
“So mean, Haru-chan. Going to this fun of a place by yourself.”
Makoto was looking at me apologetically with his downturned eyebrows at an even deeper angle.
“Sorry, Haru. You were acting weird. So we followed you here.”
“Sorry for not calling out to you on the way. But this place is really nice, isn’t it?”
At Nagisa’s words, I looked off to the side and muttered
“It’s not a well-known place.”
“Could it be, you were here yesterday, Haru?”
“Yeah.”
“Even though you said you didn’t like onsens because the water was hot……”
“It’s not an onsen. It’s a health spa.”
“Then instead of a swim club, how about we make a health spa club?”
“No that’s definitely not something for high schoolers.”
Makoto interjected, and Nagisa laughed.
While I was sunk down in the water with the two of them beside me, I memorized the feeling of them in the water I hadn’t felt in a long time.
It was a feeling I couldn’t get in the water in the bathtub at my house.
Not just the feeling of water, but of other people in the water—— the feeling of comrades.
When I thought about it, it was a feeling I had been starting to forget ever since I quit the swim club in middle school. It goes without saying that the bathtub in my house is too small for more than one person.
As if he could tell I was feeling this way, Makoto said.
“It’s been a long time hasn’t it, Haru? Since we all got in the water wearing swimsuits together.”
“……”
In the water in the quiet health spa without anyone else in it, I gave a small nod.
A health spa club was completely unrealistic, but I don’t think it would be bad if the 3 of us came here together again after school.
“Then! How about tomorrow, we just try putting in an application for a club? We could ask Chousokabe-Sensei my homeroom teacher to be our advisor. He seems like the type who would like health clubs!”
“Chousokabe-Sensei is…. The Japanese history teacher? He does seem like the type.”
Makoto got into it a little.
But.
When I was rehydrating in the changing room with a hand on my hip, Nagisa spoke up.
“Look, Haru-chan, that”
It was a flyer announcing that this place would be shutting down next month.
Well, of course it is. Since it’s this deserted, there’s no way it could stay open. Since I didn’t notice it yesterday, it was probably put up today.
“Even though we just got to come here together.”
Nagisa spun around in disappointment.

We left the Health spa, and the three of us started walking down the pitch-black road.
The April night was still chilly, but when I looked up, I could see a countless number of stars twinkling above. It was just like looking up from the bottom of the ocean at a group of bioluminescent plankton, and it gave me the calming illusion of being at the bottom of the dark ocean.
The trains had stopped a while ago. So, Nagisa called his sister in college and asked her to pick us up in her car. She said she’d take Makoto and me to Iwatobi. Even though we could have waited for her at the station closest to the health spa, Nagisa said “We might as well walk down one station together?” so we walked to the next station.
It was like a nighttime picnic.
If I were by myself, I’d probably have spent hours in this feeling of being wrapped in the bioluminescent plankton at the bottom of the ocean and never been able to walk back to Iwatobi. While I think that might have been a calming time too, I was cherishing this time spent with comrades for the first time in a long time.
Rin taught me the concept of comrades. Since Rin left, I’d started thinking about only wanting to be alone again at some point. During that time, Makoto was always at my side, but this was a slightly different feeling of being able to call him a comrade all over again. He was a childhood friend who was always with me as we grew up. It was always obvious that he’d be there, but, he’s a special presence. And on top of that, Nagisa having just came back today makes me feel like my heart melted a little bit.
“Hey, Haru-chan. If the health spa club is no good, how about a night stroll club?”
It seems Nagisa wants to make a club no matter what.
“A night stroll club is no good. There’s no way the school would allow a club that would have high schoolers walking around at night.”
“But doesn’t it feel good? Walking at night. I like it. When we walk like this, it feels like the world is just us doesn’t it?”
“Well, there aren’t any houses around here, so it’s really just us.”
On the road next to the train tracks, I could hear a train getting closer.
Even though there shouldn’t be any running at this time, so it must be the sound of a freight train.
Breaking through the silence, a long freight train slowly passed by us with a gentle clacking that was a somewhat nostalgic sound.
I remembered an old movie I saw on late night television once. It was the story of 4 friends who lived out in rural America who went out to search for a dead body. It didn’t have anything to do with my age or the season it is now, so why did I think of that old movie? I remembered the adult protagonists line in the movie, or maybe it was a tagline for the movie.
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve.”
While started feeling sentimental, I looked down from the bioluminescent plankton like sky and continued walking down the road next to the train tracks.

By the time Nagisa’s sister picked us up in her car and took us back to our houses it was already late in the night.
“Good night, Haru”
Makoto opened the front door to his house and disappeared into the already dark house.
I climbed the stone steps and headed towards my house.
When I stopped on the way and looked back, it was just as the light in Makoto’s room on the second floor turned on. Makoto opened his window, looked out, and gave a small wave. I waved back and said, “thank you” in my head. I’m sure that Makoto would get it.
I returned to my empty house in the middle of the night, and left the trophy I brought back with me on a corner shelf in my living room.
“I think you should have this Haru-chan” Nagisa had said and pushed it onto me.
I went up the stairs and turned on the light in my room, then took off my jacket and laid down on the bed. The I once again remembered that day. That day from the winter of my first year in middle school. The day I met Rin at the train tracks.

That day, I went by myself to the Iwatobi shrine.
The last letter received from Rin was a letter that Rin’s friend from Sano Elementary, Yamazaki Sousuke, brought to me saying it was meant for me. I could tell from reading it that Rin was having a hard time in Australia, and was desperately trying his best. That’s why I didn’t think I should forcibly contact him. Rin was fighting for his dream on his own in a foreign land. That’s why I too would work for my dream.
But what is my dream…?
I hadn’t been able to face that answer head on when the winter of the first year of middle school came. I got the idea to send Rin a new year’s card. I thought it would be better than a letter asking how things have been going that would just trouble Rin. Then I came up with the idea to put an omamori from Iwatobi Shrine in the card.
It wasn’t an idea that was like me. If it were now, I definitely wouldn’t think of that. But at that time, I thought it was the best idea. I went out to Iwatobi Shrine by myself, in order to buy an omamori for Rin who was fighting by himself in a foreign country.
But the shrine’s office was already closed, and in the end, I missed my chance to buy an omamori. Instead, I put a coin in the box next to the office and innocently pulled a fortune. Then, on the way back, I met Rin at that railroad crossing. Nothing could be more ironic.

If that day I hadn’t thought to go buy a omamori. If I hadn’t headed out to the Shrine.
In order to stop those sorts of things from starting to run through my mind over and over again, I got up from my bed and opened the window. Mixed with the smell of the night air, the light smell of spring tickled my nose.
I opened the drawer to my desk and pulled out the fortune stored within.
“Slightly good luck.”
The person you wait for will come.
The things you wish for will come true. Though in the distant future.
It was the fortune I pulled that day instead of buying an omamori.
The person I was waiting for certainly came. If Rin was that person I was waiting for, but it wasn’t in any form I’d have wanted.
So that’s why I decided to keep this fortune until that far off day when the thing I wish for is granted, and stored it in my drawer. While I ask myself ‘What is the thing I wish for?’ and while I still don’t know what it is even now, I think I’ll keep waiting.