Yunho more or less stumbled into his dorm back at the Athlete's Village, groggy from the jetlag, and really sincerely having missed his own bed.

He saw Changmin in the room when he went inside, and as soon as he saw him, Yunho opened his arms to embrace Changmin in a hug.

"Missed you," declared Yunho. Changmin fell into the hug too.

"Missed you too. So glad you won your meet," said Changmin proudly, then he released Yunho. "I told you you'd win. You didn't believe me."

"I just hope this means I might actually make it to the Olympics."

"It does. You've been back to yourself physically weeks and weeks ago. It's just up here," he said, tapping his head. "But anyway. Don't you worry. We're going to the Olympics together."

Yunho was sure that that was becoming his favourite thing to hear.

"I missed you a lot," sighed Changmin happily.

"So why didn't you answer my texts?" accused Yunho.

Changmin pouted. "I'm sorry. I was training, then I was talking to the private investigator, who thought he had some leads. But then I got caught up on the gossip."

"What gossip?"

Changmin's eyes grew round.

"What? Didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?" said Yunho, a bit curious but at the same time, not sure whether he could match Changmin's bubbling energy.

"What the short track speed skating team did!"

"No. What did they do?"

"They outed their coaches," said Changmin seriously.

Yunho raised his eyebrow.

"For what?"

"For assault, what else!" said Changmin incredulously, as if he didn't understand how it was possible that Yunho was even asking that question. "They said that their coach hits them, and that they won't put up with it anymore. They also said the senior athletes also bully their junior athletes, and they're pressing charges and they're giving press interviews about it!"

Yunho gaped. "What?"

"Right? It's amazing of them, I'm so happy for them!"

"So what's happening to them?"

"Overhaul," said Changmin matter-of-factly. "The athletes are training on their own while they overhaul the coaching staff, the other accused athletes go for investigations, and the – whatever their equivalent of the KSF is – their board members are being pressured to resign, because apparently they'd been reported before and they turned a blind eye."

Yunho's mouth dropped open. "What? That's –"

"Did any of us ever even bring it up with ourFederation? Hyung, why aren't we doing the same?"

Yunho shook his head. "But I mean – I just don't understand – like, why did they do that?"

"Hyung."

"I have to think," said Yunho, finally dropping his bag. He sat down on his bed and rubbed his temples with his fingers.

How did they manage this? And why did they suddenly do this? Yunho's seen the baseball team and the rowing team in similar situations, so he knew it wasn't confined to their sport. So what made the short track team so special that they decided to out their coaches?

"Hyung. We can –"

"But, like –" Yunho struggled with his words. "We only have like, 5 months left of this. You're gonna retire too after the Olympics, aren't you?"

"I mean, probably, but the point is, it doesn't matter if we have 5 years left or 5 days left on this team. What's wrong is wrong, and we deserve to be treated like –"

"But the thing is…" Yunho hesitated, because he was sure that Changmin was going to disagree with him. "What if it makes us slower?"

Changmin's reaction was predictable. "What? Hyung!"

"I know, I know," said Yunho hastily.

"Hyung, look at me and tell me that your actual desire to get gold at the Olympics is not enough to push you to be your best and you need someone to ing beat you like a dog instead."

Yunho winced a bit at the harsh words.

"I know, the end doesn't justify the means, but it's not just the actual – the actual act, right, it's also like, the skating team is going to lose a ton of time off training."

"That's not what you meant," said Changmin pointedly. "But anyway, even so."

"The short track speed skating team doesn't have Olympics coming up in 5 months," said Yunho.

"No," admitted Changmin. "But like I said. It doesn't really matter to me."

"But also, you know – the short track speed skating team is much more successful than we are," said Yunho, and as much as it hurt his pride, both Yunho and Changmin knew that was true. "They win like… a lotof golds every Olympics. People listen to them, they have fans. We're different."

"The fact that we're not as successful as them doesn't mean that we're any less human," shot back Changmin.

"I know, I know," sighed Yunho. "What are the other guys saying?"

"I don't know," said Changmin. "I don't really talk to the rest of them."

"Oh," said Yunho. "Right." He almost forgot.

Yunho scratched the top of his head. He really doubted that any of the other guys would care enough to report their coaches.

Maybe the skating team's coaches were especially bad about it – or maybe there were a bunch of Changmins on their team.

Yunho got changed, washed up, and laid in bed, and Changmin turned out the lights for them both. A bit later, he spoke frankly and directly.

"We should do the same."

Yunho hesitated. "Changmin…"

"We should do what they did, and we should do it sooner rather than later."

"Changmin, we at least have to wait until after this Olympic cycle is over," said Yunho.

"But –"

"Changmin, no," said Yunho firmly. "I reckon our coaches will be a bit more careful for the next few months after this anyway. They know they're not invincible now. I'll bet you anything they'll stop messing with us. It won't be too late to think about later."

Changmin whined, and Yunho sat up.

"Changmin. It's not just for you. It's for the team. Let's not stir the pot right now and put our best foot forward for the Olympics."

"Mm," said Changmin.

"Please," begged Yunho.

"Okay, okay," said Changmin, clearly still unhappy, but Yunho was satisfied.

In the next few weeks, several other teams had outed their coaches, including the male judo team and both ice hockey teams. And a few weeks later, the female gymnastics team outed their own coaches and staff for ual abuse, which blew up into a scandal that crumbled that entire team and federation into bits. Yunho couldn't say that he was surprised that the support around them hadn't been stronger. And of course, Yunho felt vindicated for the girls and it was a good thing that they did what they did, he was also really heartbroken for them that they wouldn't have proper support at the upcoming Olympics.

Each time a team came forward, Changmin didn't even bother pretending he didn't want to out the next. Yunho coaxed and coaxed and coaxed each time, because he didn't want the Federation to crumble before the Olympics.

"You can do it, and I will even help you," Yunho begged each time, "just after the Olympics."

If it was any consolation for Changmin, Yunho's predictions were correct and their coaches had stopped hitting them since this whole thing began, which, Yunho supposed, was the goal for Changmin anyway.

Yunho was still doing his extra training after nights, only because he never got the instruction to stop, but he was, he really was, getting used to it now. It wasn't nearly as hard as it was in the first few weeks, and although it still strained him, Yunho wasn't completely exhausted at the end of every night. It was an extra treat on the nights that Changmin decided to run with him to keep him company, and on those nights, shockingly, Yunho found that he actually enjoyed himself doing those extra workouts.

And perhaps Yunho was being rewarded for his hard work, because Yunho was chosen as one of the 20 swimmers who would compete at Trials. Perhaps Yunho was becoming cocky, or perhaps just more confident – but he found that while he was relieved, he wasn't surprised. Changmin was chosen as well, and Changmin was relieved too, for the reason that he chose to compete at Classics earlier in the year. But as Yunho saw it, it would have been impossible to leave Changmin out of Trials and be able to justify it. Changmin was by far the most successful swimmer of the year, and the media was all over him, too.

A couple weeks out until Trials, and the Olympic Team was starting to become clearer, and Yunho was starting to find, he was one of the ones in the clear too. His confidence was building again, and he was now beginning to see it; he was clearly out-swimming all of his teammates except Changmin, and although maybe he wasn't where he had originally wanted to be before the accident, but it was time that he finally acknowledged himself for the progress that he made.

And seeing the progress he'd made there in front of him, having his swims being timed and seeing that he was clocking in pretty much at the same pace as his previous self, and seeing that he can still do this, Yunho found that he had more days when he was positive than not.

"I really think we'll go to the Olympics together," said Changmin one night, looking more excited and elated than Yunho had ever seen him before. "And I really, really think we both have a really good chance of medaling there. "

"Don't jinx it," warned Yunho, although he didn't mind hearing that, at all. "one step at a time. Let's try to do well at Trials."

Changmin nodded seriously, but then grinned.

"I can't believe it actually became a thing for me," said Changmin. "I actually really, really want to go to the Olympics. I can't believe it."

Yunho laughed. "Me neither, honestly."

"Look what you've done to me." Changmin plopped down on his bed with a smile and breathed, "It's gonna be awesome."

And for some reason that he didn't understand, Yunho was so, so, so proud of him.