Author's Note: So… I apparently have this thing for Gou being oblivious to Seijuurou's feelings, if it weren't obvious yet from my two other Seigou fics. Haha. I'm still working on (my motivation for) the series of one-shots on Seigou going on various dates, but it'll come, I swear! Anyway, this'll be a two-shot and the second chapter's going to be released soon. I already have it planned out and outlined; I just need to put it into actual writing. :) Happy reading!

Disclaimer: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club and all related characters do not belong to me. Cover art credit goes to meru90 via Tumblr.

Warning(s): Slight OOC. Also, I don't know where this would fit into the canon timeline so… 8D

Gou's Dilemma

Chapter One

By Z's Athena

Matsuoka Gou had a dilemma.

Over by the pool, Nagisa was fooling around instead of training; Rei was reprimanding the blond and thereby neglecting his training as well; Haruka kept swimming back and forth at a leisurely pace and refused to follow the training regimen; and Makoto, ever-reliable Makoto, was nowhere in sight due to an errand he had to run for Amakata-sensei.

Needless to say, the Iwatobi swim club was pretty chaotic—more than the usual, anyway—that particular afternoon, but that was not where the team manager's problem lay.

Absentmindedly, Gou heaved another sigh which caught the attention of Nagisa who immediately waded over to where she was perched by the edge of the pool.

"What's the matter, Gou-chan?"

Realizing that no one was listening to his ramblings about the importance of following the training regimen in order to achieve the perfect body, Rei made his way over to where his friends were, too; meanwhile, Haru carried on with shutting the rest of the world out as he immersed himself in his beloved water.

Another forlorn sigh made its way out of Gou's lips as she debated on whether or not to disclose her problem to the two of them. She would much rather talk to Makoto, whose levelheadedness she could trust no matter what, but seeing as he was absent at the moment and that she felt really desperate right there and then, she supposed that Rei and Nagisa would do.

She thought over her words first before hesitantly voicing them out. "I… have a problem, you see. And I told you before: it's Kou!"

"Anything we can help out with?" Rei offered sincerely.

"It's… well, I don't know if you could help out per se, but I would appreciate your opinion on what I should do, at least."

"We're all ears, Gou-chan," Nagisa, who was being not playful for once, encouraged.

"It's Kou!" she started, but feeling relieved by how seriously her teammates were taking her, Gou felt assured that confiding in them wouldn't be such a bad idea. "Anyway, I… ah, have a... um, an interest in someone."

"Ooooh! Gou-chan has a crush!"

Flushing with embarrassment, Gou started regretting asking Nagisa, of all people, for their opinion on her current situation. "D-don't say it out loud, idiot!"

On the other hand, Rei had frozen up when the words left Gou's mouth. Stuttering and doing his best to sound nice, he told her, "Gou-san, I-I don't know what to say. I never knew you saw me that way…"

"I'm not talking about you!" Gou instantly clarified, much to the relief of Rei and, for some reason Gou couldn't particularly care about that moment, Nagisa.

At that point, Gou was really regretting asking for the two's opinions. She should have just asked Chigusa or waited for when Makoto was available to lend an ear. Oblivious to the red-head's plight, however, Nagisa commenced the rapid-fire interrogation.

"If it's not Rei-chan, then is it Mako-chan? Or Haru-chan? Or maybe even me? Or someone else from the school, perhaps? Someone we know?"

Nagisa showed no restraint with his questioning which only caused Gou to redden even more, and in her overwhelmed state, she found herself responding to him.

"It's not someone from Iwatobi, but it is someone we know."

Despite the meekness of Gou's voice, the two heard her loud and clear and began brainstorming.

"Not from Iwatobi but someone we know, eh. Is it Goro-chan?" Nagisa supplied hopefully.

With all the color draining from her face, Gou was quick to retort negatively.

"Then, is it someone from Samezuka?"

In an instant, all the color came flooding back to Gou's face to paint it a bright red from Rei's correct guess.

"Aha! Someone from Samezuka it is, then!" Nagisa was practically bouncing around in the water already, feeling excited about figuring out Gou's secret crush.

"Who do we know from Samezuka?" Rei mused out loud.

Nagisa then proceeded to enumerate the names of all the friends he made from the joint trainings between Samezuka and Iwatobi, thankfully skipping out on the name Gou was too embarrassed to hear. Deciding to not let things go any further, Gou stood up and cut him off before he could get to his name.

"You know what? Thanks for the concern, guys, but it really isn't a big deal. Thank you anyway—"

"Is it Mikoshiba?" came Haru's calm voice from out of the blue, popping up between his two teammates in the water.

"Haru-chan! I didn't know you were listening!"

"The water carried your voices over," came his odd-as-ever reply, but that wasn't what Gou was focused on. Upon hearing the correct answer from Haru, Gou blushed even further and stood stock-still, mortified at having been found out.

Noticing this, Rei smirked in triumph and loudly confirmed the revelation to Makoto who appeared in his swimwear right at that moment.

"Now, now. What's all this ruckus about?" he asked with his angelic smile, used to his teammates' rambunctiousness by now.

"Makoto-senpai…" Gou tearfully started to ask for his help in warding off Nagisa's teasing, but she was interrupted by the blond himself.

"Gou-chan has a crush on Mikoshiba-buchou!"

"Is that so? Good for you, Kou-chan!"

"It's not good at all, Makoto-senpai! What do I even do about it?" Gou wailed, much to the confusion of the four males.

Tilting his head to the side, Makoto patiently asked, "What do you mean, Kou-chan?"

"What I mean is: Should I confess? I don't even know how he feels about me, though! What if he rejects me? What if he likes someone else? What if… what if he's gay?" she rambled on anxiously.

Stupefied by their team manager's silly worries—who'd have thought that Gou was dense to this sort of thing?—the Iwatobi boys were at a loss as to what they should tell her. At least, Makoto and Rei were; Haru had already left their huddle and went back to his swimming and Nagisa was too oblivious to care about discretion.

"But Gou-chan, Mikoshiba-buchou likes y—" he began saying, but was immediately cut off by Rei who covered his mouth with his hand.

"Nagisa-kun, it isn't our place to confess on behalf of Mikoshiba-san!" Rei reprimanded in an angry whisper; thankfully, Gou was too distraught by her inner debate with herself that she didn't notice when Nagisa spoke up.

Always knowing just what to say, Makoto offered his advice to Gou. "Kou-chan, I think you should just tell him how you feel. It wouldn't do you well to bottle up your emotions and end up regretting things later."

Gou looked up at him when he patted her shoulder and instantly felt better. Makoto's friendly smile was enough to calm her down and when she looked over to the others, Rei was nodding his head in agreement while Nagisa merely gave her his usual too-innocent-to-be-really-innocent smile. Even Haru had stopped swimming for a while to give her a slight nod from across the pool.

She relaxed a little bit at their show of support, but one particular detail kept nagging at her. "O-okay. But… what about nii-chan? He might interfere or something."

"Leave Rin-chan to us!" Nagisa suggested. Gou was concerned about whom the offer had come from at first, but Makoto's reassuring hand on her shoulder made the unease leave her system and she found renewed courage with this.

"Thanks, you guys." Gou took her time and looked at each of them appreciatively before resuming her usual demeanor with a huge, calming breath. "Okay, now, back to practice! Nagisa-kun, quit horsing around. Haruka-senpai, you should work on your times now. Come on everyone!"

Relieved that Gou was back to normal, Makoto ruffled her hair affectionately before snapping on his goggles and diving into the pool.

She really was thankful for their offer to help. Although Gou felt a bit uneasy about what plan they could possibly come up with, especially with Nagisa on board, she was just grateful for their thoughtfulness. She doubted things would go perfectly for her, but she hoped that, at the very least, it'd be worth it.

And so, with a joint training between Samezuka and Iwatobi coming up in a few days, she could only wait and hope for the best.

To be continued...