Episode 4: Trapped Orca

When I was in elementary school, I used to refer to myself as “boku.”
I only started saying “ore” when I entered middle school.
Even during elementary school, once we reached the upper grades, the boys in my class who used to call themselves “boku” all slowly began their transition to “ore.” Among them, I somehow stayed at the “boku” stage and never quite made it to “ore.” I mean, when someone who was still saying “boku” the day before suddenly switches to “ore” the next day, it’s kind of embarrassing. In hindsight, it was nothing more than excessive self-consciousness, but that’s what I thought back then.
However, I couldn’t just keep using “boku” forever. So once I reached middle school, I took the plunge and tried referring myself as “ore.”
“Haru, are you going to join a school club? I (ore) am still unsure…”
“….ore?”
Haru stared at me with a dubious look.
And it somehow made me feel really awkward.
Even now, there are still times I wonder… if I should call myself “ore.”
“Makoto, you have such a large body, you should walk tall with more confidence.”
That was what everyone said to me, but that part of me that was wimpish, and easily-scared was probably something I was born with.
Even though that’s how I was, Haruka was always there for me.
Haru and I are the same age, our homes are right across from each other, and our families were close to each other. That’s why it was natural for us to be always together like brothers. Haru has always been by my side for as long as I could remember.
Just having Haru nearby makes me feel at ease. The swirling feeling of anxiety and fear in my chest quickly goes away simply because Haru is there.
But……

Haru isn’t here now.
Of course he isn’t. Because I’m in a tiny fitting room at a sports shop. I’m at a loss of what to do here only in my underwear. I don’t have clothes, shoes, my phone, or anything. The sports shop on a Sunday is busy, and I’m way too embarrassed to go out there like this.
Why did it become like this?
This all started because Rei said if he had a new swimsuit he’d be able to swim, and so we all went to the large sports shop in town to go shopping for one.
Haru, Nagisa, Rei, Gou-chan, and I all met up and rode a train into the city on Sunday morning. We were looking at the swimsuits lined up in the swimming corner of the large sports shop without any intention of buying one when we became excited. These were professional swimsuits that are usually out of reach for a normal high school student, and so just for a bit…… we started trying them on.
Not just Rei, but Haru, Nagisa, and I too went into the fitting rooms with swimming suits, and tried them on and showed them off just like a fashion show.
I’m tall and have a big body, so the swimsuits I picked up were almost all long types. I couldn’t help thinking that short types didn’t suit my body type.
But just then, as if I was possessed by it, I short type swimsuit with green lines caught my eye. Normally I would think it was the type of swimsuit that would never look good on me, but since this was the first time I’d been to a sports shop with Haru and other friends in a long time, I was probably more excited than normal. Besides it might surprisingly look good on me.
But that was a mistake.
Inside the fitting room, I took off my clothes and pulled on the short type swimsuit over my underwear. I could see myself in the mirror. My upper body was naked, and my bottom was covered in a new short type swimsuit. It really did give me a strange feeling.
It reminded me of when I first changed from calling myself “boku” to “ore” in middle school. That same embarrassing, awkward feeling. It really was a weird feeling.
But that was just at first. Once I got used to it, it was no big deal. I’m sure it would be the same with the swimsuit. I really couldn’t tell if it suited me or not myself, though.
I was a bit embarrassed, but I decided to ask Haru and Nagisa and Rei what they thought. I opened the fitting room curtain and took one step of out the room.
“Haru? Nagisa, Rei?
I saw Nagisa and Rei a few shelves away where the goggles were being sold. They were quite far away, so if I didn’t yell they probably wouldn’t be able to hear me.
I couldn’t see Haru anywhere. The swimsuit area was big, and there were fitting rooms in a few different locations. Haru was probably trying one on in a different place.
I looked around the noisy and busy store searching for Haru.
Just then I heard an incredibly loud voice, and then there was someone standing in front of me.
“Oh, That swimsuit!”
“Y-yes?”
The man with short red hair looked at my face with a “hm?” but then it seemed he quickly remembered and said with a hearty guffaw
“Oh! You’re the captain of the Iwatobi swim club right?!”
It was the Mikoshiba-bucho who I met last week at the joint practice with the Samezuka swim club.
Why was the captain of the Samezuka swim club here!? While I was at a loss for words, Mikoshiba-bucho kept talking to me excitedly.
“Hmm. That swimsuit, it looks quite good on you…… However, there’s a guy who it would look better on. That’s right, that’s me!”
“Yeah……”
I wasn’t sure how to react, and so I was once again at a loss for words.
“Actually, that swimsuit caught my eye the last time I visited this store. You have quite good taste. As expected of the captain of the Iwatobi swim club.”
“Yeah…… Thank you……”
I was overwhelmed by Mikoshiba-bucho’s excitement outside the fitting room, and so I just said thanks. Then Mikoshiba-bucho leaned right into my face and asked
“So, are you going to buy that swimsuit?”
“N-No………”
“Thank goodness! I’m so relieved. Then would you give that one to me? I already tried it on the last time I came. I came here with all of the members of my swim club to look at new swimsuits, but I already had my heart set on that one!”
Mikoshiba-bucho hadn’t come here by himself. If he was with all the members of the Samezuka swim club that probably meant Rin was here too. Where was Rin?
I went to look around for Rin, but Mikoshiba-bucho got super close to me like he was trying to cut off my gaze. What is with this guy’s energy?
“What’s wrong? If you aren’t going to buy it, then give it to me. Please, I’m begging you!”
Mikoshiba-bucho lifted his hands together in front of my face and lowered his head.
“S-sure…..”
I winced and stepped back without thinking into one of the two fitting rooms next to each other and pulled the curtain closed.
“Sorry! No rush. Take your time changing!”
Mikoshiba-bucho said outside the fitting room.
It was kinda charming how excited he was about this swimsuit.
I hurried to take it off to hand it to him. I went to take the short type swimsuit off from over my underwear quickly, and on the other side of the curtain, I heard an un-composed voice.
“Well? Are you done changing?”
He sounded just like a kid who couldn’t wait until he got home to open the box to a toy and I laughed. I quickly took off the swimsuit and held it out from a gap in the curtain.
“Sorry for the wait. Here you go.”
Outside Mikoshiba-bucho had been waiting while fidgeting like a kid then took the swimsuit from my arms and said
“Thanks! Sorry for pushing you. I’ll definitely repay you for this someday! See you!”
And then hurried away.
It suddenly became quiet around me.
It was just like a typhoon had passed.
I sighed and was going to put back on my clothes when I realized.
My clothes that I just took off weren’t there.
And that’s when I realized. There were two fitting rooms next to each other. Since I was being pushed by Mikoshiba-bucho, I entered a different fitting room than the one that I took my clothes off in.
I could see myself reflected in the mirror. Seeing my large body in underwear even shorter than the short type swimsuit made me feel uneasy and embarrassed. I couldn’t go looking like this into the next fitting room.
Thinking about it it was quite strange.
Even though I could stand on the poolside in just a swimsuit in front of lots of people without feeling embarrassed at all. I’d just have to ask an employee to grab my clothes from the fitting room next door. I peeked out a gap in the curtain and looked around.
There were no employees nearby.
Mikoshiba-bucho was at a register far away.
I couldn’t see Nagisa and Rei who were over by where they’re selling goggles until a moment ago.
I was too embarrassed to yell out to call someone over.
What in the world should I do……!?
And so that’s how I ended up in a tiny fitting room in just my underwear at a complete loss for what to do.

But well, there was no reason to panic.
Someone would come to use the adjoining fitting room soon enough, and they’d notice the clothes left there. When that happens, I’ll just call out to them.
I decided to wait calmly.
Before long, I heard footsteps and voices coming closer.
“Ah, this one seems to be open! ……Huh? For some reason, there’s clothes inside……”
I felt so relieved.
I was so worried about what to do, but in the end, it was nothing to worry about.
Those are mine. Sorry, but could you pass them over to me?
That’s all I had to say.
Just as I was about to open my mouth to do it, I heard a familiar voice.
“What’s wrong, Nitori?”
That voice is…
“I think someone forgot some things…….”
“Isn’t that weird? Where is the owner of the clothes?”
I’m the owner. I’m here! The words were stuck in the back of my throat.
That’s right. There’s no mistaking it. That voice is…
“It doesn’t seem like there’s anyone nearby…… What should we do, Matsuoka-senpai……?”
It really is Rin.
“Oh! That’s right……!”

Rin’s underclassman named Nitori, probably the first year who lent Rei the speedo at the joint practice, said with a disturbed voice.
“What is it?”
“Well, I just remembered an urban legend I heard in elementary school.”
Rin’s underclassman started talking in a frightened voice.
“A Japanese couple went on an overseas vacation for sightseeing when the woman went to a downtown clothing shop to buy clothes for presents and entered a fitting room. But no matter how long her boyfriend waited the woman didn’t come out. Worried, he opened the curtain and found it empty. Actually, there was a pathway behind the mirror, and the woman was taken away by something through that. So, she went missing, and a few years later, the man went back to the small island of the foreign country for work where he spotted her in a small exhibition shop with a completely transformed appearance……”
“What had she been completely transformed into?”
“I-it’s too terrifying for me to even say it……!”
“What’s with that…? Then don’t tell the story to begin with.”
“Do you want to know the punchline?”
“Wasn’t that it?”
After he said it with a straight voice, I heard a small exhale of breath.
It was a laugh.
Rin is smiling.
He’s on the other side of the curtain, so I can’t see his face, but I’m sure that Rin is smiling.
I wonder if he has the same smiling face as that time in elementary school?
The Rin we met again at the rundown swimming school. The Rin I saw at the Samezuka pool. I couldn’t really imagine how that Rin would smile.
But hearing that laugh made me feel a little better.
Even if he was no longer able to smile at Haru and the rest of us, he could smile with his new friends. He had that sort of relationship with them. It’s obvious since winning against Haru in their race that Rin had taken a new step forward at Samezuka.
I’m glad……
I thought that from the bottom of my heart and felt my cheeks slacken.
In the mirror inside the fitting room, I saw my own smiling face.
Just then, I heard a voice again. This time it was a store employee’s voice.
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah, these clothes, I think someone forgot them……”
“Then, please give them to me.”
It seems Rin’s underclassman had given the clothes to an employee.
Just like that my clothes were taken away by the store employee
I was stuck in the fitting room, silent and unable to move.
I wonder why I didn’t say anything?
This all would have been solved if I had just said “Those are my clothes.”
The reason I didn’t is probably because I heard Rin and his underclassman’s conversation
And Rin’s laughing voice.
If I said something and Rin noticed me,
I’m sure that Rin would be really unhappy.
That would probably irritate Rin again, and he’d demandingly ask “Where’s Haru?” Even though he was finally making a new place for himself with new friends. Even though he was finally smiling and telling jokes. I felt like it would spoil everything.
I continued to not say anything and held my breath, and before long it seems that Rin entered the fitting room next to me and I hear his underclassman call out in a frightened voice.
“Are you ok, Matsuoka-senpai……?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“That urban legend I told you…… Don’t you disappear too Matsuoka-senpai. I really don’t want to find you on a small island in some country in a completely transformed state……”
Whether that was a joke or not, it seemed that Rin’s underclassman was a real airhead.
“That’s impossible.”
Rin closed the curtain and started changing.
I held my breath so that he wouldn’t notice me.
I could hear the clicking of his belt through the thin wood walls of the fitting room. The the rustling of him removing his clothes.
That’s right. When we saw Rin at the rundown swimming school, he quickly threw off his clothes. He couldn’t do that sort of dynamic changing in a fitting room. When I realized this obvious thing, I imagined Rin doing that dynamic changing style in the small fitting room and almost burst out laughing, and I desperately held it in.
“You look so cool Matsuoka-senpai! It’s amazing!”
“Geez. Is all you can say ‘amazing’ and ‘you look cool’?”
“I’m sorry. But I really do think it looks good on you……”
“That doesn’t matter. What’s important is how it fits your body.”
Rin was right. I was embarrassed at myself who was only worrying about the appearance of the suit like whether it was long or short.
“Then how does it feel? Do you think it would make you go faster?”
“Well, not quite. I guess this one’s out.”
I hear the curtain shut again and Rin changing back into his clothes, and then he and his underclassman went off somewhere.
“Let’s look at that next, that! I’m sure it would really suit you Matsuoka-senpai.”
“I told you it doesn’t matter if it looks good on me or not. Stop worrying about me and look for a swimsuit for yourself. You want to decrease your time, don’t you?”
Their voices got further away.
Rin really is Rin. He’s still the same as in elementary school. He hasn’t changed at all.
That makes me happy, and I smiled to myself in the fitting room.
Just the the curtain was pulled open.
I raised my head in surprise, and Nagisa and Rei were standing there.
“Oh! Mako-chan, you were in here!”
“Wait, Nagisa why are you opening it so suddenly…… What if someone else had been in here?”
“It’s ok. I wouldn’t make that sort of mistake. If you’re wondering why, it’s because we could see your shoes under the curtain Makoto-senpai.”
Rei said while pushing up his glasses with a finger.
“Still, what if I had been in the middle of changing…?”
“There’s no reason to be embarrassed about that is there? We change in front of each other in the changing room all the time.”
“More importantly, Makoto-senpai, why are you just in your underwear? Where are your clothes?”
“By the way, Mako-chan, weren’t you smiling when we opened the curtain?”
“Eh, was I?”
“You were. Did something happen?”
“No, not really…… Ah! Actually, Nagisa. My clothes. A lot happened, and the store employee took my clothes from the fitting room next door. They mistook it as forgotten items. Would you go get them for me?”
“Eh? What’s with that? What happened?”
“How did it become like that? I don’t really get what happened, but I get that it must have been quite troubling. I’ll get them right away!”
“Yeah. Hold on Mako-chan”
“Thanks. I’m counting on you.”
As I hear Nagisa and Rei’s footsteps moving away, I felt my cheeks slacken again.
Before this, I sent a text to Rin.
“Let’s swim together at a tournament sometime.”
I never got a response, but I’m sure that Rin is fine.
Rin’s new comrades from Samezuka and us. If we could swim together at a tournament sometime. Even if we are on different teams, if we could swim like we did that time. If we can see Rin’s smiling face again. If we can smile together.
There would be nothing better than that.