None of the athletes were permitted to taper their workouts for Trials; indeed, they were, theoretically, all of them, training to peak for the Olympics.

Every swimmer swam his hardest at Trials. It was going to be the biggest national meet of the year, as it was replacing this year's Nationals, and there was actually a crowd, and Yunho's parents had come to cheer him on, as did the parents of every other athlete on the team. Except, of course, Changmin's.

There was designated time for their family to see them before the meet, and while Changmin hung back at first, Yunho's mother was so enthusiastic to hug Changmin and wish him luck that Changmin didn't look out of place in the slightest. They left two hours before the meet started, to give the athletes enough time to stretch and warm up before the meet.

"Are you nervous?" asked Changmin as they stretched together in the warm-up gym.

Yunho shook his head. "Not really."

Yunho probably should have been nervous for this meet – but somehow, he found that he wasn't. He didn't understand why, but it was as if the Friendlies were his Trials. For some reason that he couldn't quite understand, the true Olympic Trials represented nothing more to him than showing his parents sitting in the stands and the people who were watching on their TVs what he could do.

"How about you?" asked Yunho, grunting through the particularly sore stretch through his shoulder.

"Mm… I don't think what I feel is nervousness," replied Changmin uncertainly. He looked up at Yunho. "But I feel tingly and antsy. And I just hope that we both have a strong showing here."

"Me too," agreed Yunho. He winked. "We'll see who gets to compete in those freestyle events."

Changmin laughed. "Maybe they'll send both of us for freestyle, who knows. It's two per country after all."

Yunho competed broadly in the Trials, with the goal of narrowing down to specific events after this meet to focus on the three or four distances that he had the best chance at winning. With Changmin having specialized in the freestyle and butterfly events, Yunho was fairly certain that it would be the backstroke and individual medley events – and perhaps one of the freestyle distances. It made sense this way, with Son Hojun, Yunho's good friend and their national stroke specialist, taking on that event on his own.

"I don't know. They'll probably have me focus on backstroke after Trials," guessed Yunho. Indeed, what would be the point of covering freestyle doubly well when they should be hoping to do cover all the grounds?

"Freestyle always gets more media coverage though," said Changmin. "I still think they might send us both for freestyle."

"Let's not count our chickens before they hatch," said Yunho hastily but still carefully.

Changmin smiled and squeezed Yunho's arm. "But sometimes… you just know they're going to hatch. Just like I know that we're going to be amazing today."

Yunho had to admit, Changmin was right about the meet.

Shockingly – or not – Changmin and Yunho completely swept the entire trials. Yunho won gold in the 200-m freestyle, and the team's long-distance specialist, Yoo Yeonseok, won the 1500-m freestyle with Yunho and Changmin trailing in second and third place respectively. Perhaps as was completely predictable, Changmin swept all golds in all of the other freestyle events, as well as all of the butterfly events, beating the national record on three of the events in the process. Yunho picked up all the golds in the backstroke and individual medley events, where Changmin hadn't competed. Yunho's good friend and veteran stroke specialist to the team, Hojun, won all of the golds in the stroke events.

As worried as they both were for this meet, and although the team wasn't named immediately after Trials as was traditional, it would have been absurd for either Yunho or Changmin to have been left off the team.

Yunho wasn't so worried anymore – he had done more than enough to prove himself of worthy of being at the Olympics this year, and he knew it. However, it was Changmin who was more nervous.

"How are you nervous? Seriously. How?" asked Yunho over dinner in their room one night.

"I don't know," said Changmin with a sigh.

"There's no way they'll leave either of us off the team now. I mean, we've been doing well in training, no one choked unexpectedly at Trials – I mean, Minho did, but he's never been a consistent swimmer, and he'll never be one. He's the kind of swimmer they were trying to filter out by changing the system, right?"

"Theoretically," agreed Changmin halfheartedly.

"I mean – like, if he did really well, right, and did better than… let's say, you, for instance – the point would have been that they still would take you, not him."

Changmin snorted. "You really think they would have taken me if he did better at Trials?"

"I mean – yes," replied Yunho.

Changmin sighed and smiled. "You're so naïve. Seriously. I can't believe you've been in this hellhole for so many years, and you still managed to stay so innocent."

"You're so cynical," complained Yunho, shaking his head. "Just you wait. We're both going to be on that team."

"I've just been screwed over a lot of times when it comes to stuff like this, I'm just – hoping that it won't happen this time," said Changmin darkly.

"You've done everything you can already, and there are no more opportunities for us to even show anything at this point," dismissed Yunho. "You killed everything. We both did."

Changmin nodded, albeit slowly.

It was a bit strange for Yunho.

He'd imagined the moment when the Olympic Team would be named so, so many times in his life that there was no way he could even begin to count it. He mostly imagined himself so very, very anxious until the very moment when he would be named, at which time he would hear the name and grab whoever happened to be next to him – a teammate or his family – hugging them tight, and shedding tears of joy.

The reality was, it was exactly like any other meet he'd ever been chosen for.

He was indeed more nervous than usual; however, if he was to nitpick at his emotions, his eyes welled up because he was so proud of himself, not because he was too happy. His other teammates who weren't chosen were watching with their heads down and shedding their own tears – this day would mark the day that they went home until the Olympics were over, so that the Olympic Team had the full attention of their coaches and full access to the pool and the equipment. So there was no hugging or celebrating on the spot besides Yunho and Changmin looking at each other as soon as both of their names were called to exchange a smile of relief.

As expected, Yeonseok and Hojun were the other members on the team. Choi Siwon, who was one of their B-listers and one of their teammates that went to the Friendlies with Yunho and came away with no medals, was the alternate.

"I told you," gasped Yunho, trying to hold back tears, as soon as Yunho and Changmin were in the privacy of their rooms again, after having consoled their crying teammates. "God, I have to call our parents, oh my God. I'm still shaking."

Changmin let out a long, unsteady breath.

However, the next words he said weren't the ones Yunho would have imagined, ever, in a million years.

"What a ridiculous choice," said Changmin slowly.

"What?" Yunho put his phone down. "What is?"

"Choi Siwon," replied Changmin flatly. "That he became the alternate."

Yunho looked at Changmin in disbelief. "Are you serious? Are you seriously questioning their choice on the alternate? Right now? Like, right now? When you were just told that you are going to the freaking Olympics? Shim Changmin."

Changmin wasn't satisfied. "Why did they choose him? It doesn't make any sense."

"He's the alternate. Who cares?"

"He doesn't deserve that spot. He was fifteenth at Trials. He's never been to a Worlds. He's got nothingon his resume."

"He's an alternate. So just don't get hurt," said Yunho.

Changmin grunted. "Even Soonil swims better than he does. There's a reason why he got that spot, and I think it has nothing to do with his swimming."

"Yeah, well, he's also the son of some kind of rich CEO."

Changmin almost positively jumped. "What?"

"You didn't know?" asked Yunho. "That's why he drives a Ferrari and has all the fancy – well, everything."

Changmin buried his face into his hands.

"Oh my god," said Changmin with his eyes closed. "I wish I'd known."

"Look, Changmin – it really, really doesn't matter," pleaded Yunho. "We're supposed to be super, super happy right now. I've dreamt about this moment since I was, like, seven. Please. Let's just be happy. I need to call my parents."

Changmin let out a breath and nodded. "You're right," he said. He shook his head. "I think I'm… yes. You're right. I'm overthinking. I always do. Don't mind me."

Yunho picked up his phone again. He started to dial, then he put his phone down again.

"Hey… Changmin."

Changmin looked up.

"We're actually going to the Olympics together."

Changmin finally smiled.