whatever happened that night? ➳ makoharu

07 ➳ Saturday Night Plans

**unedited**

Like I said, I was going to make friends on Monday. I entered the Sports Complex feeling confident and my fists clenched. That morning, Makoto and I had barely exchanged words because he'd left in a rush to meet up with Hannah and their friends. I was aggravated but I knew I could prove myself if I could make at least one friend today.

"Um, hello Nanase-san," Coach timidly greeted me. Today, she was casually wearing a neon orange shirt with tight black yoga capris. The everyday smile on her face had vanished and she looked like she'd been hit by a bus. I stared at her for a moment. She was unusually quiet and her face showed isolation. "We're just doing laps again and today uh," she paused and turned around, wiping her face with her hand. ". . .just working on breaststroke."

"Are you okay?" I asked, walking over. But she ran to the other end of the pool, helping out the rude guy's breastroke. I couldn't help but wonder why she'd been crying, but the thought evidently passed and I was back to reality within seconds.

"Runt!" The rude guy called from across the pool. "Alyssa wants to talk to you!"

I steadied myself and hurried over to Alyssa. Before I knew what was happening, she grabbed my hand and led me to the training room, locking the door behind her.

"W-what's going on?" I blurted. She burst into tears, and dropped her knees to the floor. "Coach!"

"I-I-I didn't t-t-hink I would have to tell y-uou this because y-you're my student b-but I told Sam so I'm going to tell you," she sobbed. It was clear now that Sam was the rude guy. "It's really sudden and I'm truly sorry f-for putting this much weight on you. Last night, I broke up with my boyfriend."

"No," I said, comfortingly. I was being so stupid, I had no clue what to tell her actually. "I'm. . . so sorry."

"Me too," she agreed, her voice cracking. "Again, this is so sudden and I'm really sorry an-"

I pulled her close to me and gave her a nice and long hug. What are you doing Haru? You're gay! GAY! GAY FOR MAKOTO STOP IT! But I couldn't let go of her and she hugged me back, her cries echoing in the room.

"Thank you, Haru," she whispered.

We both got up and exited the training room, only to be confronted by Sam. He practically hovered over me like a giant, his body like massive block of solid rocks. "Runt, Coach wants us to practice together."

"Y-yeah, okay," I said, shakily. "What are we doing?" Alyssa sniveled and shrugged off the tears, then said, "Just help each other out on your breakstroke."

"Got it," Sam said, and he dove in with an enormous SPLASH!

I stood outside watching him swim and he was doing it all wrong. After watching Nagisa swim for so many years, I knew the correct form, I just couldn't interpret it very well. "Sam!" I shouted, loud enough so that he could hear me underwater. "Kick your legs out a little bit more!"

"That's it!" Alyssa cried, jumping to her feet. She'd been sitting on the bench nearby, texting someone and now she was into it. "Great job, Haru, you seriously helped him!"

"I was just doing my job," I said, shyly. "Hey, can I ask you something?" She turned towards me, her hands on her hips, a perceptibly smile on her face. I twiddled my thumbs as I stuttered. "Do y-you maybe, uh, wanna go out for like coffee or something?"

Alyssa blushed and covered her face with her hands, spinning around. "Er, I'll have to get back to you, Haru," she replied. "I mean, your my student so it would be kind of weird, don't you think?"

"Yeah," I lied. I didn't have a problem with it whatsoever considering she'd been like a friend to me my time in Tokyo. "I get it." I started walking away to go get some water when she stopped me.