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Goro had worked at the Iwatobi Swim Club for many years.
Enough years to start the first ones completely single and now return home and jump effusively into Miho's arms, enough to see the place decline and rise again from the rubble it was almost reduced to, and definitely enough to work alongside with someone who was once a small, shy student and was now a smiling mountain of muscle.
But despite that, the passing of the years hadn't hit him so directly in the face as in those moments, when his eyes stared insistently between the list of names of the new members and a pair of bright eyes as blue as the pool itself.
"Matsuoka Sakura" he pronounced, and holy gods, he kinda needed some wine to actually process this.
"Here!" replied a youthful, eager voice.
Sakura, the tradition of boys with female names continued, huh. If the shock hadn't been so great, perhaps he would have made some sharp comment about it.
Why hadn't Makoto told him that Haruka and Rin's son would be attending the club from now on? Did he wanted to give Goro, his good-old coach, a heart attack?
Goro could almost feel his hair quickly turning gray as he read that this boy was already ten years old. When?!
He still had fresh memories of the day his former students, now Olympic swimmers, had come to visit him to personally invite him to their wedding. It felt like a few months or a year ago at most since the day Makoto had mentioned in a conversation that the couple were considering adoption once they had retired from the sports world.
The train of memories had to be halted abruptly when he noticed Makoto already there, giving the children the formal speech before starting the first lesson of the day. Just look at him, so kind and conscientious, but not enough to prevent Goro from ending up on a hospital gurney. Okay, maybe he was exaggerating now, but he seriously felt the need to sit down for a moment.
After managing to lay down and shake off the initial shock, the day flew by, between the usual lessons and the smile of compassionate amusement that spread across Makoto's face when he was greeted with the poor coach's dismayed expression.
Soon it was time to leave, and almost as if out of a fever dream, Goro saw Rin and Haruka approaching, their features obviously reflecting the passage of time, but with the nervous vigor he'd seen a thousand times in any parent who'd surely spent the day waiting for the moment to have their beloved child back in. Typical.
“Rin, Haruka,” Goro called. And for a split second, he could have sworn that the faces staring back at him hadn't changed since those days at the old swim club. “It's been a while.”
Without hesitation, the couple greeted him with their own particular enthusiasm, and immediately, the questions began to rain down on him like a double whirlwind.
“How have you been, Sasabe-san?”
“Did Sakura behave on his first day? How did he do?”
“Is the pool still available?”
“Come on, come on, one at a time,” Goro said, bewildered at the two man speaking to him at the same time. “You're dazing this old man.”
“Oh,” Rin even took a step back, embarrassed. “Sorry.”
An amused sigh quickly escaped his throat. These two don't change, geez the thought flashed through his mind with more affection than he'd expected.
“Sakura is off to a good start,” Goro said, “though I suppose that shouldn’t surprise either of you.”
Rin snorted in amusement “Of course not,” visibly proud, he added. “Our Sakura is a natural”
Haruka, more discreetly, humphed in agreement. His gaze kept moving toward his son, who was talking with Makoto and other classmates a few steps away.
“However,” the coach interrupted, before Rin had a chance to talk more about his boy. “There are a couple of things I wanted to discuss with you regarding his behavior.”
Both men's faces froze in horror for a few seconds, while Goro savored the delight of knowing he had the power to make those Olympic medalists wear that kind of expression with just a few words.
"Don't tell me he bit someone!" Rin exclaimed, sounding semi-horrified.
"It's his way of showing he likes someone," Haruka immediately explained, earning a disapproving look from his husband, "which, as we've already told him, isn't always appropriate."
Goro immediately filed that information away as a mental note, glad that at least the boy didn't have his father's teeth.
“Thankfully, no bites today,” he clarified, seeing the tension drain from the parents faces, and with a thumbs-up, he assured them “But thanks for mentioning it. We'll keep an eye on the little shark.”
“So, what was it then?”
Although the panic had disappeared from their faces, both of them still looked anxious about what Goro was going to say. So, without further delay, the man spoke:
“First of all, your son jumped into the pool before the instruction, right after the warm-up. Luckily, he floated immediately and was like a fish in water, but even so, it wasn't a very conscious thing to do. The jump was almost instinctive; actually, i wonder why...” His accusatory look made it clear that he totally knew why.
Haruka had always been a difficult guy to read, but those solid two seconds of his gaze shifting to the floor were more than enough. Still, Rin was quick to chime in.
"Someone will have to explain why it's not safe to do that and why it's good to listen to me once in a while," his bitchy tone was almost amusing to hear. Who would have thought that Rin, impulsive and more than determined to jump anywhere to chase after Haruka, would try to appear like the responsible parent?
Of course, the aforementioned man quickly tilted his head, probably thinking of an excuse to make. Goro saved him the trouble.
“The other incident was less problematic,” Goro coughed, realizing how timely it would be, “but I wanted to mention it anyway.”
Rin seemed fully prepared to launch into some new scolding when Goro decided to drop the bomb:
“It was necessary to stop Sakura from trying to snap the spring on his goggles before he hurt his fingers,” he said—or rather, pronounced—and, feeling particularly sharp, added, “He was obviously trying to imitate someone, perhaps some athlete he'd seen on television.”
Ohoho, there he was, the Japanese gold champion, Matsuoka Rin, looking as if all the blood in his body had frozen and he himself was the child being scolded for that mistake. Goro was proud to know he hadn't lost his touch yet.
Rin seemed to be trying to find the words to justify himself when, suddenly, instead of words, a very brief but substantial chuckle escaped Haruka. The last memory Goro had of the boy laughing was already several years old, and he instantly had to hide a cough to avoid catching that small laugh.
“Haru!” Rin whined, a hint of a blush forming in his ears.
“Sorry,” Haruka murmured, still with a hint of a smile half-hidden on his lips. “I just remembered something.”
In a split second, Rin's gaze softened, and he was looking at Haruka with something indecipherable but definitely sweet. Goro was beginning to wonder if his entire life wasn't that of a supporting character in a romance drama. He had to cut it short before the glances became mutual and his former students became trapped in their own rose-tinted world.
"In any case," he cleared his throat, drawing attention back to his words. "Sakura performed excellently for the first day. And from the way he's talking about it, looks like we'll see him competing in a relay soon."
That seemed enough to bring them both back to reality, and expressions of satisfaction, or rather, pure excitement, appeared on their faces in unison.
Synchronized. Goro thought, noticing. Things must be going well in and out of the water.
“With your support, Goro-san, I'm sure he'll go far in his time here” Rin assured, smiling broadly.
“Don't go easy on him,” Haruka said, and that sounded like a challenge given with complete confidence in the wild-haired boy.
"Take that for granted," Goro proudly puffed out his chest, feeling that perhaps the years didn't weigh on him as much as he'd thought early. "They don't keep calling me the Demon Goro for nothing."
Sakura really is a beautiful name, Goro thought to himself, seeing how the boy, finally noticing his parents' presence, rushed over to greet them profusely. Very fitting for a new spring.