Kyuhyun was anxious, to say the least. Very anxious.
It’s been a good two years since he had last seen Yesung. But what he has last heard of him, around a year ago, the boy was doing exceedingly well. And as for Kyuhyun, he had rejected the S-Class request once again after leaving the academy, feeling that he is still not ready for it, especially after what had transpired between him and Yesung.

And the thought of meeting Yesung once again has left him with mixed emotions.

Kyuhyun combs his slender fingers through his unruly brunette curls as he let out a long breath of tension, walking into a locker room to prepare for the morning.
Before officially joining the Celestial Clan, the new recruits are required to go through a trial, a physical test that displays their abilities and level of skill which determines their ranking when they join. Most are put into rank 5 since they are still inexperienced, but in special cases, some make it into rank 4 if they were able to prove that they are capable and skilled.
The recruits this year must battle against a member of the Celestial Clan with their choice of weapon, and tantalizingly so, Kyuhyun was assigned to be one of the few members that must brawl with the newcomers. Kyuhyun swears upon his soul that Heechul, one of the many supervisors of the Celestial Clan and a fellow friend, purposely set him up for it, knowing full well about Kyuhyun and Yesung’s relationship. Kyuhyun simply notified the other that he was going to tear him a new one when Heechul cheekily informed him so.

Kyuhyun stares blankly at nothing with a grim expression stretched across his face as he began to wind hand-wrap around his hands, earning a few concerned glances from his fellow members.

“Don’t tell me you're afraid of the rookies, Kyu.” A voice teases from behind him.

“Oh stop teasing him,” Another one hushes.

“Both of you, Shut it.” Kyuhyun snaps, finally acting like he normally would as he turned to glare back at two of his teammates, Eunhyuk and Donghae.

“Ah come on man,” Eunhyuk whines, “Don’t look so glum. You won’t sustain any injuries from them.”

Kyuhyun just continues to glare at the other as he switches to wrap his other hand. “I’m not worried about the newcomers,” he hisses.

“He’s worried about one of the newcomers.” A voice chides in, bringing the three of their attention to the locker room door.

“I swear to god Kim Heechul—”

“Save your energy for later,” Heechul brushes the other off nonchalantly as he strides into the room, arms crossed firmly over his chest. “The adjudicators are ready whenever you guys are, and the newcomers are seated. They’re just finishing setting up the battle arena now. How are you guys feeling?”

“Fine. They’re just a bunch of noobs anyways.” Eunhyuk shrugs, looking bored as he leaned against the lockers, accepting the hand-wrap from Kyuhyun.

“Excited!” Donghae chirps in. “This will be so fun! And we get to meet and bond with the younger ones!”

“Battling them is considered bonding for you?” Heechul frowns, raising a concerned brow before turning to look at the still silent and sulking Kyuhyun.

“Betrayed.” Kyuhyun answers shortly, earning an eyeroll from his superior.

“Dramatic,” Heechul mutters under his breath as he finally uncrossed his arms.

“Hey! Let’s make a deal!” Donghae interrupts, wanting to lighten up their interaction a bit. “Whoever gets some sort, any sort of injury from one of the newcomers is a loser, and has to treat us out for dinner.”

“I’m in.” Heechul says almost immediately.

Eunhyuk narrows his eyes at their superior, “You’re not even fighting them, of course you’re in. You’ll get free food no matter who loses.” he says, before shrugging once. “But I guess I’m in.”

The three of them turn expectantly to Kyuhyun, in which he simply replied with a snort of disbelief and stands up from the locker room bench, rubbing lightly at his tightly wrapped hands.

“I have no time for your guys’ silly antics.” he says with a shake of his head. “But, if it gets me free food, I guess I’ll amuse you all.”

“Hey! It’s not guaranteed you won’t lose!” Eunhyuk said, obviously offended that Kyuhyun had implied that he was superior to them.

“Have you ever been offered a spot for S-Class?” Kyuhyun sneers, and the other just gave him a disgruntled look while muttering curses to Kyuhyun under his breath.

“Alright, enough with this childishness. Let’s go deal with the children at the battle arena first, before I deal with you three.” Heechul sighs with a shake of his, gesturing for them all to leave the locker room.

As they entered the battle arena, the crowd surrounding it immediately went silent.
The administrator of the trial first introduced the three members who were going to take on the hundreds of newcomers, before moving on to introduce the adjudicators of the trial.

It was a very easy task for Kyuhyun, as expected.
The rules were very basic for him:

1. He was not allowed to go all out on them.

2. He was not allowed to cause any life-threatening injures to them. (Basic scratches and bruises, along with nose-bleeds are to be expected however.)

3. He was not allowed to taunt them, or egg them on in anyway, or put them down.

4. Do not kill them.

5. Go easy on them so they can display their abilities. If they are able to keep up, he was allowed to go harder on them until the adjudicators have seen enough and have selected their rank.

And of course, they were all easy to follow.

The administrator would read off a name from the list of newcomers, and the said person would enter the arena with many watching eyes and declare his weapon of choice before battling one of the three Celestial members who switches out once in awhile.
With just a few flick of his wrists, most of them were knocked down quite easily. However, he did receive a few that managed to throw a punch that caught him off guard, but never actually landed on him.

Throughout most of it though, Kyuhyun’s mind was distracted by thoughts of Yesung.
He was anticipating the other, and a little nervous too. He didn’t know how he should react, let alone fight him. Contrary to what he usually says, he mistakenly let his emotions get the better of him, accidentally allowing one of the newcomers to graze him with a sword. The tip of the sword had came in contact with his chest and Kyuhyun jumped back just in time for it to barely cut a hole in his shirt.
He was such a mess already.

As his opponent exited the arena, Eunhyuk strides up the stage for the switch, but Kyuhyun raises a hand up to halt him as he eyed the administrator who had picked up the list of names again.

“Kim Jongwoon,” she reads.

Kyuhyun’s jaw clenches tightly as Eunhyuk approaches him anyways, looking a little puzzled by Kyuhyun’s sudden tense change.

“I’ll handle this one too, Hyukjae.” Kyuhyun says lowly.

“You sure?” his partner questions. “You look a little…..breezy.” he teased, gesturing at the gap in Kyuhyun’s shirt.  Kyuhyun just waves him off as the younger entered the arena, his hands falling to his sides as they closed tightly into fists.

The crowd suddenly breaks out into a hushed whisper as the younger appeared in the arena.
And admittedly, the sight of him caused Kyuhyun’s breath to catch in his throat as their eyes met.

All he could focus on were his eyes— eyes that are as blue as glacier ice as they stared back.

Yesung no longer looked like Yesung. But yet he was still him, and Kyuhyun was sure of it.

The younger had allowed his naturally wavy black hair grow out, no longer the golden blonde boy Kyuhyun had first met. He was a bit taller and leaner than he remembered, not bulky but still well-defined and toned. The dark hair, along with his black attire and piercing azure eyes contrasted greatly against his pale skin as he strode across the arena, stopping several feet away from Kyuhyun.

Sensing the tense air between the two, Donghae quickly waves for Eunhyuk to leave the arena, in which he gladly does so, skittering his way back to the sidelines to watch the scene unfold.

“Choose your weapon.” The administrator's voice declared, breaking the silence between them.

Yesung tilts his head a little as he continued to hold Kyuhyun’s unwavering gaze, before saying “Hand-to-hand combat.”

“You sure?” The administrator frowns, brows furrowing as she squinted at the scroll she had in hand. “It says you mastered in combat with daggers.”
Another wave of hushed whispers break through the audience again as they took interest in the blue-eyed male on stage. All the newcomers had fought and tested with what they had mastered at the academy since it is what they know and do best with. But not only that, hand-to-hand combat is hard to succeed in, especially against someone much more experienced.

However, Yesung just gives a short nod in response.

The administrator’s lips pull into a thin line as she finally set the scroll down, obviously displeased with the decision made, but says nothing else so that they may proceed.

“Begin.”

Kyuhyun grimaces as he crouches into his fighting stance, studying the now strange boy before him, but Yesung does not mirror his actions like he was taught to do. Instead, he proceeds to stand still, refusing to lose eye contact with his ex-mentor.

Deciding that they shouldn't drag this longer than it already has, Kyuhyun attacks first, lunging to grab the boy. Immediately, the boy moves into action, dodging the attack quickly.

In a blink of an eye, Yesung was suddenly behind Kyuhyun, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and flinging him off to the side with a surprising amount of strength. Kyuhyun refused to go down so easily however, widening his crouched stance as his feet skid across the floor, reaching down with one hand pressed to the dirt ground to stop the momentum. He winces as he feels his hand scrape painfully across the rough floor, wearing through the fabric of his hand-wrap and cutting through to his palms, but he successfully comes to a stop as he straightens back up.

“Damn it,” he breaths, inspecting his now skinned and bleeding hand. “I lost the bet.”
Off to the side, he sees Eunhyuk and Donghae high-fiving out of the corners of his eyes.

“Do not get distracted by trivial things.” A voice warns, and Kyuhyun looks up to meet those pair of cold blue eyes again.

“You’ve changed,” Kyuhyun says back simply, pulling off the bloodied remains of his hand-wrap.

“No,” Yesung replies shortly. “I’ve simply changed goals.”

Kyuhyun’s jaw clenches at his words, “And what may you be aiming for now?”

Yesung tilts his head a little again. “More power,” he whispers before lunging at Kyuhyun.

He was fast, too fast. Yesung naturally had a small physique, so compared to many, he lacked a little in strength. However, to make up for those losses, he trained to be faster, his small body allowing him quicker and more agile attacks, and ease to slip through another’s grasp.

An elbow jams into the side of Kyuhyun’s waist before he even realized Yesung was moving again, successfully knocking the air out of his lungs as he doubled over, followed by a knee to the stomach.
The elder male’s face twists in pain as he inhaled sharply before wrapping his arms around the smaller male's waist and tackles him roughly to the ground, earning him a blow to the face.

He was sustaining a surprising amount of injuries from a newcomer as he felt warm blood trickle down from his nose from the blow. They scuffle for a little but Kyuhyun was still stronger than the younger and finally pinned the boy down beneath him. He presses a hand to the boy's chest to hold him down as he drew a fist back to strike.

However, he halts mid-swing as he stared down at the familiar face beneath him. After all that has happened between them, and the two years for them to heal, he couldn't find the strength or heart to hurt Yesung, not again.

Seizing the split second of hesitation, Yesung shoves the other off and swings a kick at the elder’s side, in which Kyuhyun instinctively brought his left arm up to block. As his leg made contact with his arm, Yesung could hear a slight crack as the bone splintered from the attack. He immediately halts and retracts back from the elder when he realized what he had done.

Breathing raggedly, Yesung watched as Kyuhyun slowly got up onto his hands and knees, making sure to keep his weight off his injured arm, blood now falling from his nose and lips, puddling onto the dirt below.

Yesung takes a step back from the other when he realized Kyuhyun wasn’t going to fight back anymore. His jaw clenches in anger, displeased with the obvious outcome.

“Get up,” he growls, fists clenching at his sides as he glared at the broken man on the ground, but does not proceed to attack seeing as Kyuhyun was too injured to continue. He knew Kyuhyun was capable of doing more, so much more, but he was holding back. He was resisting to fight back more seriously for reasons unknown to Yesung.

“Stop!” One of the adjudicator finally shouts, standing up from his seat. “We've seen enough, Kim Jongwoon, you may be dismissed.”

Shooting Kyuhyun one last look of disdain, he gives the adjudicators a short bow before striding off the arena, uninjured and unfazed, not sparing a glance back as Eunhyuk and Donghae rushed out to the arena to help their injured teammate off stage.

“Great game that was….” A voice scoffs sarcastically as Kyuhyun stumbled his way back to the locker rooms with the help of s on either side of him.

“Shut up, Amber.” Kyuhyun retorts back gruffly, “Why are you even here?”

“I’m here to watch Jongwoon’s trial, obviously.” She says with a roll of her eyes. “But looks like I have another purpose here now,” She sighs as she gestures at Kyuhyun’s bruising arm and bleeding face, following them into the locker room.

Kyuhyun just gives her a grumpy grunt as he sat down on a bench, bringing his uninjured hand up to his mouth and used his teeth to unwind the hand-wrap.

Amber waves the other two off as Heechul entered the locker room, a frown etched across his pretty face as Eunhyuk and Donghae had to return to the arena.

She sits down next to Kyuhyun and grabs his injured arm, watching as the man’s expression twist into one of pain. She presses the bruising area gently with her fingertips to inspect it as Heechul stuck a first-aid kit forward, making a face of disgust as he noticed the blood and dirt covering Kyuhyun,

“Hm, it’s not too bad,” Amber says softly. “Just a small fracture.”

“He swung pretty hard though,” Heechul frowns.

“Do you want me to die?” Kyuhyun snaps, bringing his free hand up to brush away the blood that was still dripping from his nose.

“Heechul’s right though,” Amber sighs, opening the first-aid kit to find the bandage wrapping. “Jongwoon is not what you remember him to be now, Kyuhyun,”

“I can tell,” The injured man scoffs, earning a glare from the nurse before him.

“I don't mean just appearance wise, dumb .” She snaps. “When you first left, he was still…...him, you know? A little heartbroken, but he was still him. But when they brought in his new trainer, he changed. Jongwoon became quieter, more reserved, and less of the cheery boy he was. That new trainer of his taught him how to regain control of his powers, and when they discovered what it was, everything just….changed.”

“Powers? What’s his power?” Kyuhyun frowns, remembering how much of a toll it took on Yesung.

“It’s nothing we’ve ever seen before, Kyuhyun. For centuries, no Royal Dhampir has ever gotten powers like his.” She says, worry etched across her face as she bit her lip.

“What is it?” Heechul urges, curious as to what his powers may be considering that he was a royal himself.

“Fire,” She says, as the two Celestial members stared at her in confusion. Amber sighs again as she reaches forward to start wrapping Kyuhyun’s arm into a firm cast. “He can control and produce fire. And they’re not just your regular old fire, they are flames of sapphire.”

“So you’re saying, he was capable of torching Kyuhyun’s during the hand-to-hand combat?” Heechul questions.

“Sure,” Amber shrugs. “It’s technically not against the rules.”

“Then who's his new trainer? Is he from the Celestial Clan too?” Kyuhyun asks, wincing again as she tied a knot in the bandage to finish it off.

Amber shakes her head.”He’s from the Chinese branch of Dhampirs, Choi Siwon.”

“Isn’t he that really charming fellow or something, who's one of China’s top warriors but keeps to himself a lot? Really secretive and suspicious at times? Kinda like Kyuhyun?” Heechul inputs as he dampens a towel and starts scrubbing vigorously at Kyuhyun’s dirt-covered and bloodied face.

Amber nods once. “Yes. He’s a pretty kind and respectful man, but he really is secretive. Him and Jongwoon are always together too, just like Kyuhyun used to.”

“Are they….are they romantically involved too?” Heechul leans in to whisper, earning a glare and an elbow to the rib from Kyuhyun.

“Siwon seems to be attracted to him that way. You know how sweet and adorable Jongwoon is once you really get to know him. But I don’t believe Jongwoon is. I think he’s still in love with Kyuhyun.” She explains, now pulling out some wiping alcohol and cotton pads to clean the man’s skinned hand.

Kyuhyun’s heart skipped a beat at her words. Admittedly, he had meant to use the two years to forget about the boy, but his feelings never changed at all. He still loved him.

“Didn’t seem like it during the battle,” Heechul snorts with a roll of his eyes, earning him a glare from the both of them this time.

Amber just shakes her head again as she lets out a heavy sigh. “No, it’s still evident, but not quite as obvious. He is capable of shattering the bones in Kyuhyun’s arm, you know? He’s done so many times during practice against fellow students. He’s sent quite a few into the infirmary with a broken nose, leg, arm, and one time even some ribs. But he didn’t do too much to you, compared to what he’s really capable of that is. Jongwoon’s become a very…..cold and distant person now, and I don’t like it at all.”

There was a minute of silence as Kyuhyun sat there dazedly, trying to ignore the guilt from within him and comprehend everything.
“I’d like to meet this….Choi Siwon,” Kyuhyun commented quietly to break the stillness, before suddenly jerking his hand out of Amber’s grasp as he let out a hiss of pain when the alcohol-soaked cotton ball made contact with his wounded hand.

“Don’t be such a wuss,” She says with a roll of her eyes as Heechul snickered at his reaction. “You’ve gone through pain worse than this.”

“Yeah, but it still stings!” The injured man snaps angrily, resisting a little when Amber jerked his hand back to finish cleaning the wound.

“I swear to god Cho Kyuhyun, if you don’t let me finish bandaging you up I will shatter your already fractured arm.” She warns, and Kyuhyun knew the threat was empty but he still obeys, wanting to get it over with so he could return to watch the battles.

After Amber was done fixing him up, she left to head back to the arena, leaving him and Heechul alone in the locker room.

“She did a surprisingly decent job,” Kyuhyun mused, rubbing lightly at the bandages around his hand and arm.

“She’s a nurse, dumb . Of course she’s gotta do it right.” Heechul says as he rolled his eyes, crossing his arms firmly across his chest.

Kyuhyun just ignores the other’s remark as he stood up from the bench, wincing a little from the soreness in his muscles. There was a stretch of silence as Kyuhyun rolled his shoulders a little, the silence thickening some more as Kyuhyun slowly began to realize Heechul had something to say, but was holding back.

“Hurry up and spit it out,” he sighs, turning a little to glance back at the elder.

Heechul seemed to hold his breath for a few seconds as he debated over speaking or not.
“You hesitated out there,” he blurts out quickly.

Kyuhyun’s movements come to a sharp halt at his words, before he dropped his arms limply to his sides again. “I know,”

The elder man expected some sort of reasoning or excuse following his admittance, but there was none as Kyuhyun picked up the damp towel from the bench to wipe at his dirt covered arms.

“Why?” Heechul questions, realizing that the other wasn’t going to speak until pestered about it.

Kyuhyun simply shrugs once before throwing the towel away into a dirty hamper, heading out of the locker room. But Heechul quickly reached out and grabs the man’s shoulder, jerking him around to face him.

“Why.” He demands this time.

Kyuhyun looks tired and exasperated as he brushed Heechul’s hand off.
“I wasn’t feeling too well,” he says, the lie rolling off his tongue easily, but the other knew better.

“That doesn't cause you to hesitate, Cho.” Heechul says with a firm glare. “Answer me. Now.”

Kyuhyun looks up as he finally meets the other’s angry gaze, and he knew that he couldn’t lie or deny anything any longer, especially not to Heechul, someone who he had grown up with and considers to be his closest friend.

“I still love him, Heechul. There’s something inside of me that refuses to let go, and I’m head over heels for him no matter what I keep telling myself, forcing myself to stop. And like what I’ve always been warned, my emotions are clouding my judgement. That is why I hesitated.” Kyuhyun admits softly. “I love Kim Jongwoon.”

A/N: Heyoooo, sorry for the late, unedited, and kinda short update! I've just been a mess preparing for uni, signing up for my classes, rooming, and packing for the dorms T^T  I'll try to update as soon as I'm settled down again and my homework is finished and out of the way lmao. It doesn't help that I'm startng a new story soon too hahaha (Please subscribe to it shameless advertising  :  http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1172247/your-love-is-my-treasure-kyusung  )
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Anyways, hope y'all are still enjoying this story! Love you all~ 💕