There's a pause when the television switches to a new commercial that will now broadcast on most channels as everyone anticipates for the countdown to begin; the long awaited four years over now. Where each day a decorated Olympian in addition to an unknown up and coming athlete graces the screens of every home all around the world and everyone will see the all too familiar interlocking rings; of black, red, blue, green, and yellow.

The new destination this time?

Tokyo.

“How do I even lose my charger, I use it every day,” Baekhyun questions, addressing the general air of his apartment, confused and waiting for his roommate to answer back once he gets out of the washroom.

With mussed brown hair falling in strands in front of his face and sleepy eyes, Baekhyun wishes he had packed earlier so he isn’t in such a rush this morning but it is to no avail.

“While you’re in there, can you grab my toothbrush and basically anything that keeps me clean?” Baekhyun asks, haphazardly throwing clothes into his bag. Good thing out of everything is that his sports bag is always ready and packed.

There’s a happy whistle from inside the washroom as answer, and Baekhyun snorts because if he isn’t a morning person, then Jongdae is very definition of ‘Sunshine’. On some other days when Baekhyun has to get up at ungodly hour to practice and is met with a smile that partly blinds him because his roommate enjoys using white strips a bit too much, he wants to stab his friend with a spoon.

Today however is different because they’re both awake for a completely different reason and that is to catch their flight in time.

Baekhyun feels another wave of regret when he can’t find his lucky water bottle even as he digs through his pile of clothes and realizes maybe he should have packed a week before when Jongdae mentioned it to him in the passing.

As he sits on top of his clothes, slightly out of breathe and trying to think of where he placed his things, Baekhyun wonders why he ignored the advice.

He’s unable to think of it and doesn’t have much time to react when a pile of toiletries are suddenly dropped into his lap and Baekhyun blinks glancing up at Jongdae, who is freshly out of the shower, towel wrapped around his waist and dark brown hair perfectly combed back.

“Here,” his friend states. “I think that’s everything. If you forget anything, we can just buy it there.”

Baekhyun nods unaffected by the state of undress, wholly trusting his friend and going to work on putting the supplies into plastic bags and making sure that they reach the regulations set upon them by the airlines.

He’s busy trying to remember as much as he can and preparing himself for the good two weeks where he will be away from home. Then out of all the days he’s known about it, it finally dawns on him.

“Holy .”

“What?” Jongdae asks as his head pops out of the hole of an obnoxiously designed white t-shirt.

Baekhyun’s eyes are wide and he pauses his packing for the time being.

“I can’t believe it…”

Jongdae waits for an answer as he slips on some jeans and when he realizes there’s none, he prompts his friend with a bit more impatience in his voice. “And?”

Baekhyun in a sharp breath.

“We’re going to the Olympics.”

“These seats are not made for tall people,” Chanyeol says somewhat forlorn as he states the obvious.

His teammate snorts and shakes his head.

“That’s because you’re abnormally tall,” he states as he takes the seat near the window, pulling his snapback onto his bleached white blonde hair.

“You’re one to talk Sehun,” Chanyeol answers but there’s not much bite behind his words as he takes the seat beside him.

His friend simply shrugs. “I’m not the one complaining though.”

Chanyeol purses his lips and tries to settle in his seat, for once not saying something back to Sehun since he knows his friend had gotten him.

When a tired mother and her crying baby walks past the both of them, Chanyeol already feels boredom settle into his bones as he waits for the plane to take off which will probably take fifteen minutes more considering the airline still has to run through safety procedures.

Chanyeol turns to Sehun, who by then has already put on earphones and completely shut out the world, staring out the window blankly.

It takes a few taps on his shoulder before he turns and when he does, Chanyeol is met with glaring eyes but it doesn’t deter him, having dealt with the look for years. After all, he’s gotten that look for far worse things than just tapping him on the shoulder.

He’s practically jittery in his seat and Sehun blinks, raising his brow to tell him to go on.

“Do you think we’ll get a meal on this flight?”

“...That’s all you have to ask me?”

“Well, that and do you want to help me brush up on my Japanese? I’ve been trying to learn it for the past month.”

“No.”

“Too bad. You’re trapped with me for the next two hours.”

“I hope the next time you swim that you swallow a mouth full of chlorine,” Sehun replies back in a deadpan.

“Love you too,” he says, with a singsong tone, knowing full well his blood is probably half chlorine already with all the time he’s spent in a body of water.

There’s silence on Sehun’s part and then, “What did I do to deserve this?”

“Everything,” Chanyeol answers easily with a wide smile.

Baekhyun whines slightly as he tries to massage the crick in his neck from sleeping on the plane and settles for hugging his pillow as he stares at the rotating luggage belt, waiting for his bag to appear.

His seat-mate, a female badminton player by the name of Yuju has long left him to find her friend, so Baekhyun takes this time alone to glance around Narita airport.

So far it's not different from Seoul until he tries to read the signs and sees that they’re all written in Japanese; and once he listens closer to the people that surround him, Baekhyun feels slightly alienated. Which is why when he finally spots Jongdae on the other side of the luggage belt, he speed walks to his friend for the need of comfort.

When his friend spots him, they embrace in a hug that seems as though they haven’t seen each other in years even though it's only been a few hours and Baekhyun breaks into a small laugh when they separate.

“Are you meeting with your coach before going to the village?” Jongdae asks.

Baekhyun shakes his head. “I’m on my own today, but I’ll have to get up early tomorrow.”

“We should explore a bit then before we get back.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Baekhyun says with a nod and then pauses. “Give me a second, I think I see my bag.”

Jongdae waves him off and he runs over the luggage belt only to see his bag be lifted off and onto the floor.

“Hey, I think that’s mine,” Baekhyun says and then slaps a hand over his mouth because what if they don’t even understand Korean?

“Oh, really? I think we might have the same model because my bag looks like this too.”

It registers in Baekhyun’s brain that apparently this person does speak Korean when he glances at the owner of the voice and slowly tilts his head up. He finds out the male is tall as well.

Instantly, there’s a small sense of annoyance because no one should be allowed to be that tall when Baekhyun isn’t that height. How dare that heathen of a male have genetics that he unfortunately isn’t blessed with.

He’s cute though. Baekhyun begrudgingly has to admit.

“Here, lemme check something,” Baekhyun answers as he takes the bag and looks at the bottom to see if there is his initials, nodding when he sees the jagged and faded lettering. “This is definitely mine.”

The red-haired male looks sheepish when he sees it too. “Sorry about that.”

“No problem,” Baekhyun says and when he’s about to leave, he’s stopped by his voice.

“Hey, are you participating too?” the male asks, probably referring to the fact his jacket blatantly displays their national flag.

Baekhyun blinks. “Yeah, you?”

The stranger nods with a smile. “Maybe I’ll see you there?”

“Maybe.”

After the airport, Chanyeol is left to his own devices when Sehun quickly ditches him when he sees his ‘friend’. Someone he has been meeting with from the games in Rio (he wasn't competing then, only coming as moral support and to experience how it was), and while Chanyeol has badgered him to confess who it is, Sehun hasn’t budged at all. Chanyeol just knows though that it’ll be a matter of time before he ends up telling him because if there is something that Chanyeol isn’t then that is someone who gives up easily obviously, based on his previous experiences.

This may only be his second time at the Olympics, but Chanyeol knows that he can do better this time around, and he plans to do his best.

And while Chanyeol does enjoy play with his work, instead of visiting tourist spots and the village right away like most of his teammates, he goes to the stadium where he’ll be swimming for his event.

When Chanyeol steps in and takes a deep breath, he’s hit with the familiar smell of chlorine and feels something click right into place.

Leaning against a railing with the clear still pool before him, he glances around at the empty stadium seats and wonders how it’ll feel. Even though Chanyeol has experienced it back in Rio, he knows how nervous and frightened he was.

But now, it’s different and he is as well.

It doesn’t matter if he’s far away from home and in a new environment where he can’t even understand what people are saying around him, what matters for him is when he’s in the water surrounded by nothing but his own thoughts.

He loves the feeling it gives him, the moment before he dives into the depths and the world around him ceases to exist.

Chanyeol knows things might not turn out the way he expects it to and there’s a strong chance of disappointment and hopes being crushed but he knows somewhere inside of him, that he’ll make it through because he’ll be doing what he loves to do.

Swim.

Despite the earlier plan of Baekhyun and Jongdae exploring, it quickly turns out that Jongdae has surprise practice when his coach texts him shortly after Baekhyun comes back with his luggage in tow. It’s a bit sad but not unexpected. Some coaches in particular aren’t too keen on giving their athletes too much free time after all, at least not until their event is over. So the two part ways shortly after that and Baekhyun finds himself on the bus heading to central Tokyo.

He ends up sitting beside an elderly Japanese woman on the bus and while he tries not to look, he finds himself drawn in by the smell of food that emits from the bag of the elderly woman’s. He realizes soon enough that because he left Korea so early that he actually hasn’t had breakfast yet aside from the biscuits that were given to him on the flight over.

It’s not long before the elderly woman notices him though and picks up on the fact he’s here for the Olympics.

She proceeds to smile at him before speaking to him in Japanese, not even bothered over the fact that Baekhyun tries to explain through his gestures that he can’t understand her.

However even with the language barrier, the woman is able to converse with him in one clear way and that’s with food that she pulls out of her bag.

Supposedly, Baekhyun’s still on a diet until after everything, but what his coach doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Actually he knows just how much it will if his coach finds out but Baekhyun tries not to worry about that when the elderly woman smiles sweetly at him again and urges him to try the crispy rounded bun that’s ed into his hands. However it's not without some consequence as his cheeks become sore from the hard pinch he gets and a word he recognizes out of the Japanese being thrown at him as ‘cute’ being uttered by the elderly woman.

Baekhyun tries not to be offended, especially since he is an Olympian. He isn’t supposed to be cute but he lets it slide since she is so nice to him even though they have just met.

The bun is regrettably not that warm anymore but when Baekhyun takes a bite, and the flavours hit his tongue, the tight feeling that’s been in his chest ever since leaving Korea loosens a bit.

As nerve wracking as everything is for him at the moment, Baekhyun is overwhelmed with a sense of happiness.

From a young child who only had a hopeful dream, Baekhyun is finally living it after all these these years. He sheds a small tear at the feeling that grows in his chest and when the woman notices, she starts to panic, her eyebrows wrinkled in concern wondering if she’s done something wrong.

Laughing brightly, Baekhyun beams at her and shakes his head, trying to convey that he is alright by giving her a pat on the hand.

Because he is.

Chanyeol has no idea what he expects when he gets to his room and opens the door but it definitely isn’t this. He feels a part of him die inside as he just shuts his eyes and closes the door quickly, telling the occupants that he’ll just come back later.

Chanyeol pretends what he just saw isn’t actually true, staring aimlessly at the wall before him and while he’s in the process of that, the two stars of the show quickly slam the door open as one shouts “It’s not what it looks like!”

Right away, he recognizes one of them to be his teammate, Taehyung who is going to swim for relay this year, the other however while has a familiar face there’s not much else to go on him.

Taehyung though grabs Chanyeol by his arm, wheezing slightly. “We were trying yoga.”

The tall swimmer blinks at him. “Right, of course.”

The other person hears Chanyeol’s tone of disbelief and butts in at this point. “Seriously, if we were actually ing, it'd be with less clothes on-”

Chanyeol chokes, the guy continues on.

“I'm Jimin by the way. On the rowing team.”

Chanyeol sputters out his own name, still a bit surprised and notices Jimin’s arms are indeed toned for that sort of event.

Jimin smiles brightly at him, undeterred by how they had just met and simply claps Taehyung on the shoulder before sauntering off down the hall with Chanyeol and Taehyung stare off after him. It isn’t long before Chanyeol sees just the way his teammate is looking at Jimin.

“So, you like him.”

There’s a sigh beside Chanyeol and a quick mumble of ‘shut up’ with no bite behind the words, before the subject is effectively closed and the pair shuffles back into their shared room.

Finally, without the confusion and horror from the first time, Chanyeol is able to see the commodities that they have provided for him and even though he knows he’s not going to get a lot, he wishes at most they provide a mini fridge.

Upon looking however sadly there is none but at the very least there’s a balcony with a lovely view of Tokyo and two separate beds with a shower. A TV is also included, but knowing Chanyeol, he’s probably not even going to be around other than for sleeping because when he’s in another country he loves to explore.

Also the fact that given the last time when he was roomed with a track athlete named Sungyeol who happened to make use of the free condoms given to them in Rio, Chanyeol is wary whenever he treks back to his bedroom.

As Chanyeol lays on the bed that isn’t occupied with clothing and luggage, he rolls to look at Taehyung who is rooting through his bag trying to find something.

“So, just so we’re clear if anything does happen can you place a sock on the door so I don’t get an eyeful?”

Taehyung’s shoulders tense at the implication and the tip of his ears turn red. He doesn’t say anything to deny it and instead nods quickly before he pulls out a long piece of fabric with familiar colours.

It clicks with Chanyeol instantly.

Being in the Olympic village with all the other athletes around the world, there is bound to be a showcase of pride for their own country and Chanyeol lets out a whoop, jumping off the bed to grab the flag.

“Balcony?” Taehyung asks as he follows his teammate out.

“Where else?” Chanyeol answers back as he tries to figure out how he’s going to use the railing as a secure hold for the fabric. Finally figuring out that he needs some ties, he sends Taehyung out before taking the chance to glance around at the other buildings, noticing already the bright flags of other nations hang from their own places.

There’s several shouts of excitement from across the village and Chanyeol widens his eyes when he sees a party already starting in one of the rooms. Someone has already ripped off one of their flags hanging from the railing to wear around themselves like a cape. Practice for later on, Chanyeol assumes and snorts. It’s not even the afternoon yet and people are already drinking.

The moment that Chanyeol thinks about the time, his stomach growls and it occurs to him that he hasn’t had the chance to eat anything yet.

“Food,” he states once Taehyung is back with some thin rope and his teammate repeats the word with an equally serious tone..

They quickly get to work after that with the idea of food is settled deeply into their minds.

In the end, their flag ends up slightly lopsided but tightly secured and that is a win in Chanyeol’s book. When he sees it flapping slightly in the wind, there is just something about it that makes Chanyeol proud and while he knows the next couple days will be a bit stressful, he’ll take the time to just enjoy today.

When Baekhyun arrives at the villa, he sees a bad omen right off the start and wonders if it's too late to back out now. Walking over to the bushes in front of the building, he picks up the fallen flag from his country and glances up at the balconies above, wondering just which room it came from and if they had purposely done it or it was simply an accident.

Of course, he’s heard of the stories courtesy of Jongdae who has already given him many anecdotes of what his teammates has done at the last olympics (too much if you were to ask Baekhyun, there were some things he didn’t need to know) and ponders if the athletes are already up to their arms in alcohol and just how many roommates are probably kicked out because of the infamous piece of clothing on the doorknob.

If Jongdae was beside him at the moment, he would make a joke about how his controls the things he does. Baekhyun on the other hand, is ruled by his stomach and it isn’t long before he learns there are perks when it comes to being an Olympian when he enters the cafeteria (finally, through trial and error and lots of miming to staff) in the villa.

Baekhyun learns, however, what self control really means since he’s still on his diet, and he’s pretty sure he lets out a small whimper as he passes on the exotic food dishes he sees that are displayed as well as the cart that is being pushed out with desserts of all kinds on it.

Next time. He promises himself as he settles into a chair, placing his luggage and flag haphazardly beside him in another chair. He props it up as if another person is sitting beside him and stares longingly at the food tables, trying to decide what will be good for him and what will not. He’s sure he can sneak in a guilty pleasure and the chances of his coach actually figuring it out, are be quite slim. His coach isn't the type to have a sharp eye.

Speaking of the devil though, just when Baekhyun’s about to plan a cheat meal, his coach texts him with the time of practice next morning. His secret meal temporarily pushed to the back burner, he texts back. After he sends a confirmation, Baekhyun nearly jumps out of his skin when he hears a shout of korean and looks up in time to see someone tall barrel towards him.

Instantly Baekhyun goes into defense mode (because Stranger Danger!) until he notices the twinsie suitcase by the guy’s side and the bright red hair, and it dawns on him that he’s the one from the airport mishap. Even though Baekhyun is no longer on high alert, he still finds himself wary because why does this guy want anything to do with him?

His question is immediately answered when the guy literally rips off the flag that Baekhyun has laid on his own suitcase before pointing at him in accusation.

“You stole it!” the guy hisses as he hugs the flag to his chest.

Baekhyun blinks confused and then another time as he starts to feel slightly miffed.

“I actually found it in the bushes so I was actually doing a great service by not leaving it there to rot, thank you very much,” he answers back with his eyes a bit narrowed.

In a few seconds, a blush covers his face and matches the red tones of his hair as the male nods.

“Oh, thanks,” he replies abashed, tone slightly awkward, before he puts out his hand. “I’m Chanyeol and I swear, the next time we meet I won’t be stealing from you or accusing you of anything.”

Baekhyun snorts. “Fair enough, I’m Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol looks at him in somewhat deep thought. “Rowing?”

“Nah, I’m actually a gymnast, floor exercises and pommel horse,” he says before trying to guess Chanyeol’s sport. “I want to say either basketball or swimming.”

“The latter. Sadly I’m clumsy on land than I am in water.”

“Funny,” Baekhyun replies, “because I’m the opposite. I can’t swim.”

Chanyeol smiles at that as he takes a seat across from him. “Well maybe I can teach you sometime.”

The gymnast quirks an eyebrow and he notices instantly that the swimmer is flirting with him, albeit surprisingly subtle about it and taps his chin thoughtfully. “If I teach you a few tricks on the floor in return.”

Chanyeol smile grows when he hears that. “Deal.”

The view is beautiful with the early morning rays of sunshine peeks through the cracks between the buildings and as Chanyeol shuffles towards the swimming arena, he gently rubs his temples with the impending headache from the lack of sleep he unfortunately has.

It’s not ideal especially considering his early morning practice, but at the same time he doesn’t regret the fact he lost the time by talking to Baekhyun late into the night.

If anything, Chanyeol feels for his phone in his back pocket and wonders if it is too soon to text the gymnast, questioning if Baekhyun also has practice at the moment.

But before Chanyeol can even unlock his phone, he feels an arm loop across his shoulder and instantly, the swimmer goes to elbow said person.

“,” Sehun groans beside him. “What a way to greet me this morning.”

“Screw off,” Chanyeol grumbles lightly, no heat behind his words.

Suddenly there’s a finger in his face and it pokes at his unfortunate eye bags.

“You know, coach is going to see that and yell at you.”

Chanyeol sighs in response, his shoulders drooping slightly as the pair nears the aquatic centre. “I know.”

“Also you should have checked the group chat yesterday because coach gathered everyone for a late meeting and he was pissed you were the only one that didn’t show up.”

With wide eyes, Chanyeol whips out his phone and opens his messages, noticing that his notifications were turned off and feels a sense of dread enter him at the same time he gets a whiff of the chlorine as they go into the centre.

“Do you think he’ll believe me if I said I got lost in the city?”

“Nah,” Sehun replies easily. “Gikwang ratted you out already when he said he spotted you in the cafeteria.”

“I’m going to wring his neck.”

“Coach won’t allow that. He’s our best bet for freestyle.”

Chanyeol groans, shuffling towards the locker room with Sehun chuckling behind him at his misery and when Chanyeol hears the sharp bark of his last name, he knows it's going to be a killer practice.

Baekhyun doesn’t stick his landing at the end of his routine, wobbling slightly as he tries to straighten himself up and he takes a deep sigh, shaking his head because he knows he could have done better.

In fact he has, back in Korea, and Baekhyun feels as though he’s a fish out of water when he watches a couple of other athletes from across the stadium.

His coach of five years, Kangin walks up to him and Baekhyun takes that moment to think about the fact that even though his coach hasn’t been in Olympics for ten years, his body is still fit enough to at least take some of his competitors down.

“You don’t even have to say it,” Baekhyun says before his coach has a second to even say anything to him. “It was bad.”

“Not bad,” Kangin responds, patting him on the shoulder with an intention to comfort him. “But it could have been better.”

“You think it’s nerves?”

Kangin shrugs. “It’s a possibility. Why don’t you take a break today then? We’ll try again tomorrow morning with pommel horse and if you're okay you can do the routine once more. So take this chance to explore the city, maybe try some of the local cuisine.”

Baekhyun’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “I can eat whatever?”

“We can call it your cheat day.”

The gymnast practically throws himself at his coach in pure happiness, w