Changmin was training six events in total, four freestyle and two butterfly, but he was really focusing on the 100- and 200-metre freestyles. Changmin was becoming a fantastic at closing his races – he wasn't the fastest off the diving block, but while many swimmers struggled with endurance at the turn, Changmin kept his head down and pulled ahead during that time. It was an interesting technique, one that wasn't exactly planned by the coaches and one that was surprising, considering that just a year ago, Changmin was struggling to complete his 15-kilometre runs in the mornings.

Changmin had stopped the heavy training a week before Nationals to give his body a chance to recuperate from the insult that he'd done to it with the inordinate amount of training. Really, he'd been training so much that Yunho was afraid that Changmin might come away with an injury from all of this. Yunho trained hard too, of course, being pushed by Changmin's work ethic – but his goal was to peak for Worlds, not Nationals, so he paced himself a bit more than Changmin did. Nevertheless, he couldn't remember the last time he trained that hard.

Yunho had never seen Changmin as nervous as he was at Nationals.

The first event was the 200-metre freestyle, arguably Changmin's best event, and one that Yunho had dominated in at one point in time. Yunho easily won his 200-metre freestyle heat, and qualified in first place going into the finals. However, perhaps the nerves finally got to Changmin – Changmin qualified second in his heat for his best event, the 200-metre freestyle, second to one of the rookies who didn't make the National Team last year. After having finished his own heats for the event, Yunho was watching on the screen in the warm-up area with their coach, who swore loudly as Changmin finished the race.

"For Christ's sake, that ing idiot," said the coach, shaking his head. Yunho bit his lip as, on the screen, Changmin turned around to check his time and seeing that it was almost a full second behind what he normally swam, frowning.

A few minutes later, Changmin reappeared in the warm-up area, still dripping wet. He looked angry, practically stalked into the room and snatched up a towel that Yunho wasn't even sure was his. Yunho put his things down on the floor so that he could go up to Changmin to offer him a word of encouragement, but the coach got there first.

Changmin didn't notice him at first, just pulling off his goggles and his swimming cap, so the hard smack to his head, with all of the other athletes and coaches watching, came as a surprise to him and made him let out a soft yelp.

"I didn't work so ing hard with you for you to swim like that," growled the coach, pointing a finger into Changmin's face. Changmin clenched his teeth and glared up at his coach, but that earned at him another slap, across the face this time, hard enough to make his head turn.

"You have the gall to look me in the eye after that garbage swim?"

Changmin righted himself again, letting out a long breath.

The whole warm-up hall was silent now, and every athlete and coach in the room, whether they were recovering from a race or just about to start one, was just watching the interaction. Yunho stood up uncertainly from where he was, his own heart pounding – he didn't know whether to step in.

The coach raised his hand again, Yunho began to move forward, and Changmin clenched his eyes shut and ducked his head – but the hand didn't make contact.

"You're going to get it if you don't win gold in finals, I'll make sure you won't be able to walk for the next month," threatened the coach as Changmin looked down at his feet. "This is what you get for chasing after sponsorships and money instead of focusing on your swim. Flushing everyone else's hard work down the toilet."

Changmin just stood perfectly still as the coach delivered a final blow to the side of his head.

"Ungrateful piece of ."

The coach left the warm-up area through the back doors, and Changmin finally raised his head slowly.

The low buzz in the room were back again, and the gazes finally turned away from Changmin.

It was quite a culture – no one spoke about what happened when things like this happened, and still, Yunho wasn't comfortable talking about it, especially if Changmin wasn't going to bring it up first. So when Changmin took the seat next to Yunho, Yunho just patted him on the back.

"Good swim," said Yunho quietly, but Changmin snorted.

Yunho handed him a water bottle and Changmin took it with a quiet, "Thanks."

"It really was a good swim overall. You were just a bit short off the block," said Yunho. "And you didn't get much kick off two of the turns. But your technique for the rest of the swim was still good. Remember to time your at the end. Even with the slow dive and turns, you still would have won that heat if you'd timed your right."

Changmin grunted. "Probably."

"You'll do better in the finals, once you're focused," said Yunho, patting his thigh. "You're definitely still the best swimmer in the country at this event."

"Well I'd like to be able to walk, so yeah, I'd better prove it," said Changmin bitterly.

"You will," said Yunho with a smile. He took Changmin's empty water bottle from him. "Let's go have something to eat, then get a massage before finals. I think that's going to be the best thing we can do at this point."

Changmin moodily agreed, and Yunho patted him on the back again as they left the area together.

Yunho had been worried for Changmin, but he needn't have; it was clear that Changmin was really looking to peak for this competition.

And did he ever peak.

Changmin had peaked specifically and perfectly for the hour of the 200-metre freestyle finals, and it was more than obvious. Yunho competed alongside Changmin in that event, and while he was the National Champion in this event last year, and he swam his absolute hardest to be able to defend the title, the fact was, Changmin was the better swimmer now.

The strangest thing, though, was that Yunho was okay with that.

Yunho had never thought that he would be okay with being second best, especially in a domestic meet, but he was.

After finishing the race, Changmin broke out into the widest, glitteriest grin, and with his eyes wide like a surprised deer, turned to Yunho in the next lane and just let out a string of, "Oh my God! Hyung!"s, which made Yunho laugh – Yunho reached over and hugged his younger teammate before they both made their way out of the pool.

"Congrats, National Champ," said Yunho with a smile.

Changmin deserved this, and this golden ticket to this year's National Team, and Yunho was genuinely happy for him.

Changmin deserved it.

Just before the medal ceremony, they got the chance to look at the replay of the swim they'd just done, and strangely, Yunho found himself watching Changmin more than himself. Changmin had fixed everything – he had the perfect push off the block into his dive, his turns were smooth, but most impressively, he'd just finished a as he touched the panels at the end of the race.

"Look, that was perfect timing," said Yunho, impressed – he hadn't exactly expected Changmin to be able to time like that – it had taken Yunho years of training to figure that out, and certainly, a lot of international swimmers didn't even time like that. It was a really mature demonstration of good swimming.

"It was all luck," said Changmin with a grin.

"Changmin, Yunho, the medal ceremony's going to be starting," said one of the ushers, and they both finally stepped away from the screen.

Yunho had been the National Champion on this event for the past three years, so it felt strange to finally have someone come along to take his place. For a whole quad, Yunho had been the best on this event, but he wasn't anymore. Yunho graciously accepted his silver medal and the bouquet, but in his head, he was just reminding to himself that there were many other swims to come and many other chances for him to become National Champion this year – this was only the first of many, many swims.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your National Champion, Shim Changmin!"

Beside him, Changmin stepped up onto the middle podium. He smiled, shook hands with the bronze medalist, a newcomer and a new addition to the National Team by default – and then he walked over to Yunho's side.

"This is weird," whispered Changmin as he leaned in to hug Yunho.

Yunho chuckled as he leaned in to return the hug. "You deserve it, Changmin."

Changmin laughed and stepped up on the podium.

Yunho watched his roommate and friend accept the gold medal – and he found himself applauding along, for everything that Changmin had achieved.

On their way back to the gym area, one reporter caught Yunho while another caught Changmin; Yunho hesitated for a bit but before he could even agree to the interview, a camera was in his face and the reporter was talking to him.

"Congratulations on your silver medal, Yunho."

"Thank you," said Yunho.

"Yunho, you were the National Champion on this event last year, and you had to settle for silver this year."

Yunho shrugged.

"Well, we actually have a really deep field," said Yunho. "We have a great team, and we'll have a really great team this year, too, by the looks of it. I think this is the deepest we've ever seen the Korean field in swimming. I think we have a great season to look forward to on the international stage."

"What do you think about the new National Champion, Shim Changmin?"

"He's really, really good," said Yunho without hesitation. "He's definitely the future of Korean swimming and I'm so happy to be able to pass on the trophy to someone so good. He trains really hard, he deserves this win and I'm really excited about how this team's going to do at this year's Worlds and even next year's Olympics."

The interviewer nodded, but apparently, this wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. "I know you two train together at the Athlete's Village, how is your relationship, and having to see your rival during training every day?"

Yunho almost rolled his eyes, but he remained professional said exactly what the reporter probably didn't want to hear. "We're really close. I'm so lucky to have him to push me in training every day, and uh – we're roommates, actually, and we have a lot of fun together outside of training. But really, he's been out-swimming me on this event, not just today, but consistently for the past couple of months and he's definitely the rightful National Champion."

"Do you hope to beat him in the 400-metre freestyle event tomorrow?"

This question actually made Yunho hesitate. "I hope whoever is better wins tomorrow," concluded Yunho.

"Would you hope that that's you?" asked the interviewer persistently.

Yunho felt a tiny bit of frustration in his chest. "Yes," he said bluntly. "I do. What athlete wouldn't want gold? But what I mean is that if Changmin wins tomorrow, he'd have won because he was better than me. And I would be okay with that."

The reporter finally looked satisfied.

"Thanks, Yunho."

"Thanks," said Yunho. But he did feel just a tiny bit off from that interview.