Yunho opened his eyes.

His eyes were stinging from crying too much, and he hadn't slept a wink.

12:39 a.m.

He turned away towards the wall and closed his eyes again. More tears fell from his eyes.

It's over. My Olympic journey is over, and I can't believe it's over.

He forced back a sob.

"Stop crying," ordered Changmin. "I have to sleep."

"It's – It's over," whispered Yunho through his tears.

"Is that why you're crying?" scoffed Changmin. "You're the one that ended it, so why are you crying?"

Another sob escaped Yunho.

"I d-didn't end it because I wa-wanted to. I ended it because I c-can't do this anymore."

"Liar," said Changmin coldly. "You're just making excuses. I know you could go and run for two hours right now if you –"

Changmin stopped himself.

"Anyway. I need to sleep. Either shut up or go run."

Yunho clenched his teeth as more tears came to his eyes.

Changmin was wrong. He was wrong – Yunho wanted to do this, he wished he could. But he just simply couldn't.

Or could he?

Yunho looked up at the ceiling. Couldn't, when he's just lying here in bed because he didn't want to do his run? Couldn't, when he was lying here in bed and not passed out at the hospital?

Would he regret this very moment when he was older? This very moment, when he destroyed his own Olympic dream because he didn't want to go on a run?

Yunho sat up and slowly reached for the heart monitor on the bedside table.

He knew he was grasping at straws; he knew this was never going to work – he knew he was never going to make it.

But maybe he could extend his dream just one more day.

Yunho felt like his head was a bit clearer once he started running. He went outside, because he felt so caged in and so stuck – he thought it would be better than if he ran on the track. Every muscle complained and he was out of breath a lot sooner than he would have liked to be, especially because he'd been crying so hard before. He knew he should be focusing on how far he'd come instead of how far he still had to go, but it wasn't easy.

Yunho broke the run into two, taking a break after an hour. He sat on a bench outside for a while, cooling down. He really started feeling the cold then, so he moved his run inside to the tracks.

About a half hour later, one other person joined him on the track. Yunho didn't pay attention, was finally getting in the zone and focused on finishing his run – until he was passed by the other athlete.

Yunho looked up and saw that it was a female athlete, probably only half his size. She was running a lot faster than he was, though.

It was stupid, how Yunho's mind worked. He felt behind, even here. He didn't like trailing behind her, just seeing her back. If the girl lapped her, Yunho would probably go crazy.

So he ran faster, gritted his teeth and pushed himself, knowing that this was stupid and pointless. But she heard Yunho come up behind her, too, and she glanced back ever so slightly before she started running faster too.

This was so stupid.

She stayed ahead of him for the entire half an hour, albeit by not very much, after which Yunho finally called it quits, admitted defeat internally, and slowed to a walk.

Then, stupidly, she stopped running too, and slowed to a walk.

This was the most stupid thing ever.

Yunho turned and walked to the bench where his water bottle was. He basically fell into it, and drank. Once he felt better, he checked the time. It was almost 2:30 in the morning, and he was here, having a meaningless race against some other athlete that he didn't even know.

This was so stupid.

Yunho moodily reached for his towel and wiped his face, and caught his breath. He would have to shower, and then he had three hours to sleep if he was lucky.

So. Stupid.

The girl also walked to the bench, also breathing hard, but looking a lot more lively than Yunho. In fact, she didn't even sit down.

Yunho looked up at her face for the first time today, even though they'd been running together for the past half an hour. She was facing the bench so Yunho could only see her profile, but when he saw her face, his mouth dropped open.

I think know who that is.

She capped her water bottle cooly and turned away – and Yunho couldn't just watch her walk away without saying anything.

"...Yu… Yuna?"

She turned her head towards Yunho.

Oh my God.

It's really her.

I've been meaninglessly racing Kim Yuna on this track for the past half an hour.

She frowned. "Do I know you?"

"No! No. Sorry. Um... sunbae…?"

She winced, then raised an eyebrow. "You skate?"

"Uh... no."

"Then you're not my junior."

"Okay," said Yunho a bit timidly.

"Like, it's fine if you want to call me that, but I didn't actually do anything to improve you or your sport." She then smiled good-naturedly. "Right?"

"Yeah," managed Yunho.

"What sport?"

"I swim."

"Ah," she said easily. "Cool." She then looked Yunho up and down. "I probably could have guessed that."

"Yeah," blushed Yunho.

"Then do you know Shim Changmin?"

Yunho nodded. "He's my roommate."

"Oh, wow." Except, she didn't seem too wowed.

Yunho was ever so slightly hurt that she knew Changmin but not him, but then she spoke again. "I met him during a photoshoot we did for school uniforms last year. Nice guy."

"Oh. Yeah. He is. I like him a lot."

Yuna shrugged.

"What's your name? I'm Yuna."

"I know," said Yunho awkwardly. "I'm Yunho. Jung Yunho."

"Jung... oh! Oh - oh." She observed Yunho closer. "Oh, are you...?"

Yunho looked at her.

"...The one that got poisoned...?"

Yunho sighed. "Yep."

"Oh! Oh, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you at first! I just don't know that much about other sports. You're supposed to be the best swimmer in the country."

Yunho looked away. "Used to be. Just struggling along now."

"Mm," said Yuna, looking sympathetic. "After the incident, obviously. I heard you were in hospital for quite some time."

"...Yeah."

"Why are you working out so late?" asked Yuna.

"Just catching up on my hours," replied Yunho a bit shyly. "How about you? I thought you retired."

"I did," said Yuna, noticeably more cheerfully. "Thank God, yeah, I'm retired. But I just feel kind of dead when I don't run every once in a while."

Yunho sighed. "I think I'm going to retire soon, too."

Yuna raised an eyebrow. "Like… before the Olympics this year?"

Yunho nodded. "Yeah. I think I'm going to go to college instead."

"So why are you running right now?" asked Yuna with a small laugh.

Yunho hesitated. "Because…" He didn't know what to say.

Yuna smiled, reached up, and placed a firm hand on Yunho's shoulder. "I have to tell you, Yunho. It is nice not to have to wake up at five in the morning every day."

"I can imagine," agreed Yunho.

"Or train like a dog twenty-four seven."

Yunho swallowed. "Yes… I know."

"It's never easy. Or fun, for that matter. What they say about you becoming an Olympic champion because you love the sport is all just romantic stories made up by the media. Surely you know that."

Yunho hesitated. Did he?

"Once I made the decision to go elite, I didn't skate because I loved to. I skated because I had no other choice. Does anyone actually like all that weight training and running and skating until your feet are nothing but bruises?" she said matter-of-factly. "Anyway. It's not all honour and glory. All Olympic gold is is an award to recognize that you were the hardest worker in your sport in the past four years. Not that you don't already know that."

Yunho understood now, but he didn't always feel that way. Not before his injury.

"I don't know about that," said Yunho bravely. "I think you can enjoy your sport and be good at it, too."

Yuna raised an eyebrow. "If you still enjoy your sport after going elite, that probably means you're not working hard enough."

"I... disagree," said Yunho bravely.

Yuna didn't look offended at all that Yunho disagreed - in fact, she chuckled.

"Quite the romanticist, aren't you?" laughed Yuna. "Amazing."

"No. I just like to stay positive," defended Yunho.

"I never said that was a bad thing. Maybe training's better for you because you get to eat whatever you want all the time," said Yuna, punching his arm. Yunho winced. "Yunho, there are some things that can't be done with just passion, or your competitive spirit."

"Maybe," muttered Yunho.

"I think you've been extremely lucky if you're only now realizing that elite sports is more work than enjoyment. Now you get to feel like the rest of us. And by the way, not enjoying your sport doesn't mean you have no passion for it. In fact...continuing your sport despite hating it just shows how passionate you are about it. So don't feel bad. Or guilty. You're doing okay, Yunho."

Yuna patted Yunho's shoulder.

"Maybe I should have let you call me sunbae after all."

Yunho chuckled. "Probably."

"Anyway, I'm going to bed. I have to coach the little ones tomorrow morning," said Yuna. "Nice meeting you. Maybe we'll see each other around."

"Yeah. Nice meeting you too."

"Good luck at the Olympics."

"I'm not going," said Yunho.

"I think you will. And I think you're gonna kick when you're there." Yuna waved, then smiled. "Sorry I didn't let you beat me on the track today. Good luck, Yunho."

"Thanks," said Yunho blankly.

He didn't know if he could believe Yuna, but he really, really wanted to.

Notes:

I've always wanted to write a female character who's not just a love interest, which I've never done before. Since she was basically going to be the first female character I ever wrote who had more than 2 lines to say, I wanted to make sure I did her justice - meaning I didn't want her to have any of the 'female stereotypes'. It's only a cameo from her but it was still something significant for me! I hope I did okay, but feedback would be welcome.