If you remember back when episode 12 first aired there was a bit of drama about the crunchyroll subtitles because they translated one of Rin’s lines as “Why can’t I be free” when he was actually talking about the writing on the ground not being “free.” If you were still doubting or didn’t know that the subs had been changed here is an excerpt from the novel proving he was talking about the writing.

“I understand. I realized. Why I swim. Who I swim for–––”
“I said shut up!!”
I raised my fist. Haru grabbed my arm and we rolled together intertwined.
I sat astride Haru and raised my fist again.
But at that moment, the words etched into the ground caught my eye.
“–––”
I left my fist raised and stared at the words dumbfounded.
“……This morning, before we entered the stadium, I wrote that”
Haru said.
“This tree resembles it doesn’t it? The sakura tree from the schoolyard.”
As I was unable to speak, Haru quietly asked me,
“That’s why you came here too, isn’t it?”
“……”
I bit my lip hard.
And then I answered with a wrung out voice.
“Why isn’t it Free……?”
The words written on the ground.
It wasn’t ‘Free’, and of course, it wasn’t that vulgar word that starts with F.
“For the Team”
The words I wrote on the wall for our elementary school graduation.
What’s with that? Why…?
Even as I said that, I actually know. And somewhere in my heart I
actually knew the feelings he had when he wrote it. I just hadn’t wanted
to acknowledge it. I hadn’t wanted to look straight at it in order to
understand it. I knew that now.
I cried while straddling Haru. Like a loser. Tears poured from my eyes and fell down onto Haru’s face.