Chapter Text
(Opening Song: ‘Running Out of Time’ by Poets of the Fall)
“Haru-chan! Haru-chan!”
Haruka Nanase rose from the bathtub, grunting. “Drop the -chan, Makoto,” he grumbled, more likely out of habit because he knew it was futile.
“C’mon, Haru-chan! We’re going to be late!” Makoto Tachibana, his friend since forever, half-yelled. “And please don’t cook today, we don’t have much time!”
“I do what I want.”
“Haru!” Makoto whined, but then lifted his hand. “Look! Mom made lunches for us at school, so please get going, Haru-chan! Please?”
“Whatever.” Despite his evident hesitation, Haruka stepped out from the bathtub and went to his bedroom. Within five minutes, he reappeared in front of Makoto, wearing his school uniform. He looked irritated that he couldn’t cook his own mackerel, but a glance at the two bentos his best friend was holding changed his mind. He took one of them, the one wrapped in blue cloth, and went towards the door. “Let’s go, Makoto.”
Makoto brightened. “Yeah! Ah, Haru! Wait up!”
They were walking next to the sea as usual, with Makoto filling in the silence occasionally. But at some point he stopped. Haru didn’t mind, because keeping up with his chattering needed effort that he was reluctant to give.
But then Makoto also stopped walking.
Haru didn’t realize it until he was a few steps ahead. He turned and saw his best friend standing there with an unrecognizable expression on his face, staring right at him. It made him frown in confusion. Reading Makoto, and vice versa, was something both of them excelled at.
“Makoto?”
It was enough to snap the taller boy from his daze. “Ah, nothing! Sorry! Sorry! I’m just a bit tired.”
“Aren’t you the one who told me to hurry up?” Haru asked, huffing.
Makoto laughed nervously and took several steps to stand next to Haru. “Yes, yes, sorry, Haru-chan!”
“Drop the -chan.”
They continued walking. Makoto resumed his monologue and didn’t stop until they arrived at school.
The cliff was quiet. No rain, no storm. Nothing. Not tonight.
Only the sounds from the sea crashing against the rocks were the only source of voice. Iwatobi was a small town near the sea, and the chance to find someone out from their houses at this time of day was close to zero. There were only a few cars passing by the street right above it, quick and uncaring.
But today was different.
At the bottom of the cliff, held back by rocks so it couldn’t float freely to the sea, was a body of a teenage boy. His head was bleeding and his eyes were closed. Yet, there was a small smile on his face. He looked strangely peaceful.
A week later, a teenage girl’s ball slipped from her hand and fell to the cliff as she walked on the small sidewalk next to the street. She grabbed the railing, looked down to see where her ball was going, and called the police.
She didn’t get her ball back, but the town’s sweetheart was finally found after a massive search was conducted. The death broke the whole neighborhood. Police investigation was done and concluded the death as suicide.
Makoto Tachibana, nineteen years old, killed himself by jumping off the cliff in an isolated area not far from his place of residence.
Thirteen Years Later
This should have been a quiet morning, Detective Sousuke Yamazaki thought to himself, rubbing his tired eyes as he walked into the familiar beach of Iwatobi. But I guess I cannot have everything. “What’s going on here?”
“We just found a body, sir,” Aoki, a rookie cop, replied as he brought Sousuke towards the crowd. He sounded nauseous and Sousuke couldn’t blame him. It was a rare occurrence that a dead body would be found in such a small, quiet town. They spotted the small group of police officers and paramedics. “A fisherman on his way to work reported it two hours ago.”
“Cause of death?”
“Drowning, most probably. His body was swept ashore, and they said he’s been dead for at least a day. But, uh…”
Sousuke stopped walking and stared hard at his subordinate. “What?”
“We found his bag, and there’s only this letter inside.” Aoki handed him a piece of paper, put securely inside the clear evidence bag. “I think you’d like to read it.”
Taking it, Sousuke skimmed through the words. It was short and the handwriting was strangely familiar.
Makoto died because of me. I killed him and it took me thirteen years to understand that.
Tell his family I’m sorry. I love him.
Please don’t tell anyone about my passing, especially Rin. He’s still competing.
Almost right after he finished reading, Sousuke threw the letter back to Aoki and rushed forward. As he tried to get through the crowd, he could hear words like ‘male, thirty-two years old’ ringing in his ears. He knew exactly why they could find out the deceased’s age really well, and why they were in the same age.
Still, what he finally saw made his breath caught.
In the middle of the crowd, inside an open black cadaver bag, laid no other than Haruka Nanase, an ex-gold medalist swimmer.