At Last [Free! Iwatobi Swim Club]

Old Friends, New Friends

"What?" Makoto exclaimed, taken aback, "They're going to tear it down?"

The two of them were still up on the roof, catching up when out of the blue, Nagisa told Makoto the bad news. Makoto almost spilt his bento box like Haru did, but steadied himself before he had the chance to.

Nagisa nodded affirmatively, "Yep, our old swimming club," After a moment of silence, he had an idea. "I know! How about we all go there, just one last time?"

Makoto brought his hand up to his chin, thinking. "What about Hanako? I don't know if she'd be interested or not. Also," Makoto's expression turned dark, "Haru probably wouldn't want anyone else knowing about that club."

Nagisa shrugged, and made for the stairs. He turned back and waited for Makoto to follow, and cracked a smile, "There's only one way to find out!" Makoto agreed, and the two of them walked down together.

When the coast was clear, a figure slinked out of the shadows, clutching her phone. Scarlet hair whipped in the breeze as the girl walked down after them, praying that she did the right thing.

- - -

"No."

"But Haru-chan!" Nagisa cried desperately, throwing a mini-tantrum like he was four-years old again, "This is the swimming club we're talking about, the place where we all met! You, me, Makoto and—"

Haru glared down at Nagisa, his eyes darting from Hanako's direction and back.

Please Nagisa, don't speak of his name, especially not around her.

Nagisa nodded silently to himself, before he turned to Hanako all smiles again, "Would you like to come, Hana-chan?"

Hanako thought about this. "It's been forever since I stepped foot near any kind of swimming pool, what will I do if it happens again? No, I can't keep hiding forever, I need to do this. I have to do this." Was what she wanted to say. Instead, she said "Give me a bit more time to think. I'll tell you guys after school, okay?"

Makoto gave Nagisa a warning look as the three of them filed into class, while Nagisa turned and walked back to his classes's building, but didn't say anything.

The room wasn't any different from the last classroom, though the walls of this one were neatly lined with various charts and table-graphs, a floor to ceiling fabric scroll printed with elaborate symbols that stood for the five Japanese vowels. There were a larger amount of seats in this room, as different students filed in and took their places in each row. Hanako barely managed to steal a seat next to the only two people she knew before the teacher waltzed into the room, on time.

"I understand that we have a new student in this class," The Japanese-teacher said, walking over to the chalkboard and wrote his name down, "Ms. Thompson, please sit with a student and work with them until you feel comfortable working on your own."

Hanako nodded and turned to Makoto, who was sitting adjacent to her this time. Makoto gave Hanako a smile, which spoke his answer. Sure, I'll work with you.

"Now, what do you need the most help with?" Makoto started, opening his workbook as the class did the same. Hanako made a face at him; Is it really not that obvious?

Makoto laughed, as if he knew what Hanako was telling him strictly through her expression, and flipped over to the back of his book. He started to write a romanised phrase at the top of the page. "Now, I want you to repeat these words, say it how you think it is said."

Hanako scrutinised over the phrase, sounding the sentence out unsurely, "Ow-hay-o go-zay-mass...?" Makoto tried to keep a straight face as she went over the phrase several times, each pronunciation even more worse than the last, before he couldn't take it anymore, and burst out laughing in the middle of a class-discussion. The teacher looked down at Makoto with dread, "Is something the matter, Mr. Tachibana?" He said impatiently.