Rin Matsuoka: College Life and Feelings

The Interesting Girl

Rin made his way out of the water and did a new personal record.

"Oi Rin! You did great! You even did a new personal best in freestyle!" Albert came up to him and patted him on his back.

"Haha, yeah I guess so, thanks Albert." Rin chuckled. All of sudden, the assistant coach, Zenith, came and handed Rin a towel to dry himself.

"You did great! I've never seen anyone swim like that." Zenith said as she smiled at him.

Rin took the towel and dried himself, he couldn't help but blush a little when Zenith complimented him. "Thanks, Miss Zenith." He smiled back at her.

As Albert saw how Rin was flustered he couldn't help but chuckle. "Well then, I have to practice on my backstroke now, catch you guys in a bit!" Albert said as he dove in the water.

Zenith and Rin watched how Albert did his very strong backstroke. "You guys are all great swimmers." Zenith said smiling and then it slowly turned into a frown. Rin noticed how she frowned.

"What's wrong?" Rin asked in a concerned tone. "Nothing. Here." Zenith gave Rin a water bottle. "Catch your breath for now." She said and walked away to attend to the other swimmer's.

Rin couldn't help but be worried on why she frowned after saying that they were great swimmers. Did she feel sad that they were great swimmers and she was not?

"What could it be?" Rin asked himself. He sat down on a bench to catch his breath while also thinking about this.

Mikhail came up to Rin as he sat on the bench. "Hey Rin! I'm surprised that you did so well today. You never usually put in effort in practice, so it's kind of shocking, did you sleep on your good side today or something?" Mikhail said chuckling.

Rin caught his breath and scoffed. "Yeah, I guess I did sleep on my good side of the bed after all." He said and drank from the water bottle that Zenith had gave him earlier.

"Rin come on, don't joke around. I'm serious, what made you be so productive in swimming today?" Mikhail asked.

Rin also thought to himself, "Why did I actually do so well today?" As he thought to himself he looked at Zenith from afar, staring at her.

Mikhail saw how he didn't answer him and his gaze was on something else. He looked towards what Rin was looking at, he realized he was looking at Zenith.

"Why are you looking at my niece?" Mikhail said crossing him arms.

"W-what? I'm not..I was just looking in that direction." Rin said nervously and blushed a bit.

"Hmph...alright. Well I hope that your practices are like today from now on. You got it?" Mikhail said.

"Yes, I know coach." Rin said sighing and got up. "Also I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?" Mikhail asked.

"Does our new assistant coach have any experience in swimming?" Rin said.

"Yes, she does. She's been swimming since all through high school, but in the beginning of this year she hurt her leg and wasn't able to swim for quite sometime, but now she's all healed, although she doesn't swim anymore. I'm the one who taught her how to swim, but she never asked me to help her swim again after her leg healed, but I never bothered to ask her. I know she wants to swim again, but there's something holding her back..who knows. But, why do you ask?" Mikhail said.

"Well, I've seen the way she looks at us when we swim, it's like she should be there too you know? She makes it seem that way." Rin said.

"Yeah, well it's up to her, right now she's an assistant coach though, so she's not really in to swimming right now." Mikhail said.

"So why did she join as an assistant coach?" Rin asked.

"I offered her to join as my assistant coach, and she said yes, so I really don't know. You should ask her since you're curious." Mikhail said while chuckling.

"I guess I will. Thanks coach, I'll see you tomorrow." Rin said and made his way towards the locker room to change.

As Rin walked to the locker room Mikhail couldn't help but wonder why Rin was asking so much of Zenith and eyed him as he entered the locker room. "What does this brat want?" He said chuckling and left.

(This is the end of chapter 2 hope you guys enjoyed! This was sorta longer than the first chapter so sorry about that. 😅)

(Next chapter: Will Rin ask Zenith about why she doesn't swim anymore? Is Mikhail catching on how Rin is so intrigued by Zenith? Who knows? Until next time ;).....)