“How much longer is it going to be until you’re up? I wouldn’t have come so early if I’d known half of my day was going to be spent watching a bunch of unattractive guys flailing against each other. They’re all fully clothed too, there’s no redeeming factor to this day at all.”

Junhoe took a deep breath and counted to five before answering. “You’re not here to scope out dudes, Hanbin, you’re here to be my cheerleader. And you’re ing failing.”

“Okay, number one—I’m not your ing cheerleader. Number two—if I was I’d have worn a skirt and a wig strictly for entertainment purposes. This is so dull.”

Junhoe rolled his eyes as he watched his best friend stretch out next to him on the bench. They were sitting up at the top so Junhoe could get a good view of the floor. His first match was coming up soon, but he wanted to check out his competition for later rounds. To Hanbin’s point, Junhoe could have told him exactly when his first match was, but Junhoe hadn’t wanted to sit alone for two hours waiting.

Despite his complaining, Hanbin had been focused on the matches for the first hour, watching them with a technical eye that wasn’t quite as trained as Junhoe’s, but one that understood more than the casual observer or parent. Hanbin didn’t train in Jiu-Jitsu, but he and Junhoe had been best friends for twelve years now, and Hanbin had been coming to support Junhoe at his tournaments ever since he’d started them. Likewise Junhoe attended Hanbin’s boxing tournaments, and they both knew quite a bit about each other’s respective sports.

But just because they came to show support, that didn’t mean that they were always excited to be there for the full day. Junhoe had no cause to complain about Hanbin’s whining right now, because he knew he’d been nothing short of an absolute nuisance at Hanbin’s last competition, whining almost the entire time because he should have been at home working on a science project (that Hanbin had been quick to remind him that he’d had the entire week to get started on).

So if Hanbin was going to grumble about waiting around, Junhoe would just have to accept it. After today they’d be even again.

“Go get me a drink then if you’re just gonna lay here and ,” Junhoe replied, “I’m thirsty.”

“You’re always thirsty,” Hanbin teased back, “not that there’s anyone here worth thirsting over.”

Junhoe rolled his eyes again and shoved Hanbin’s legs off the bench. “Get yourself something too, might shut you up for a while.”

Hanbin sneered at him before making his way down out of the stands, heading for the concession area. Junhoe refocused his attention on the floor and the three bouts currently going on. The gym floor was divided up into three sections, and they had matches running concurrently for the first round. Junhoe recognized a few guys he always saw on the tournament circuit, paying them extra attention. There were other members of his club here but he never sat with them, instead keeping his distance and hanging with Hanbin.

He liked his clubmates, but they trained together nearly every day and Junhoe could only take so much of them at a time. He preferred Hanbin’s more amusing commentary to the dull chit chat of the other guys.

Sometimes Junhoe marvelled at how lucky he was to have found Hanbin so early on (though he’d never admit it out loud). As much as the term kindred spirits made him roll his eyes and gag, he couldn’t think of a more fitting title for his friendship with Hanbin. They were the perfect compliment to one another—similar where needed and just different enough to provide an opposing point of view during crucial moments—but what he was most grateful for was the fact that they were both unapologetically gay.

It had been awkward at first, coming out and dealing with their training partners (for the both of them, because you didn’t see many professional martial artists or boxers outing themselves) but he and Hanbin both had very strong personalities and weren’t the types of people who backed down under pressure.

Junhoe’s club had been a bit better about the news (his teammates were more awkward than hateful, but his coach had been surprisingly supportive from the beginning) but Hanbin had suffered harsher consequences of his honesty.

It made Junhoe laugh, though, because in the end Hanbin had come out victorious. One of the older (and much bigger) training students had been vehemently against training with a little  (as he’d spouted in Hanbin’s face one day) and had challenged him to a sparring match.

Hanbin had been the one who offered loser leaves the club terms.

Hanbin had then gone on to beat him via knockout (and when he’d come to a few seconds later, Hanbin had followed it up with a well-placed kick to the groin to add insult to injury).

Junhoe had never been more proud to call Hanbin his best friend.

That had been a year ago, and since then they’d both wet their feet in the dating scene. Hanbin had gotten a boyfriend first (and Junhoe had refused to own up to his jealousy for two weeks afterwards) but Junhoe had ended up having the longer (and better) relationship. They were both single now, though, and were constantly vetting potential love interests for each other. Junhoe had eyes on a classmate (he and Hanbin were nearly positive he was in the closet) while Hanbin was in a state of constant flirtation with one of his neighbours.

Junhoe didn’t like the neighbour, but he wasn’t sure if it was a legit dislike, or just jealousy again. He knew it was hypocritical of him but the truth was that he hated sharing Hanbin. Absolutely loathed it. He was trying to ignore the feelings, but he was so used to having Hanbin’s constant attention that not being the centre of his best friend’s world was a little tough to get used to. Hanbin never hesitated to make fun of him for it, and while Junhoe hated the teasing, he was grateful that Hanbin understood it, at least.

But he didn’t like thinking about emotionally complicated bull.

He checked the clock on the wall, grateful that he’d be up in thirty minutes. Once Hanbin got back with his water he’d wander down to find his coach and get warmed up, eager to get into the fight. Junhoe loved competitions, loved showing off (mostly because he always did well; he currently had an 83% victory rate) and he was expecting to rank well today. He always shot for complete annihilation, but he realistically was hoping to place top five. There were a few unknown competitors today with impressive records, so he’d grudgingly lowered his expectations from top three to five.

He might be cocky, but at least he was honest.

The first round of competition consisted of two matches, and the points earned from victories would decide who moved on. In the case of ties, overall points won during the round would break it.

Junhoe had never lost a first round bout ever. Two tournaments ago his first fight had been against the top ranked fighter (who’d beaten him three months earlier to win that particular tournament) and he’d honestly expected to experience his first early defeat then. But to his surprise he’d beaten his opponent. Hanbin had told him that he thought it was because the other fighter was distracted by his hair (Junhoe had just bleached it blonde) and Junhoe had dumped water over his head for being annoying.

He’d checked his fight listing for today but didn’t recognize the name of his first opponent. Kim Jinhwan. Junhoe had never heard his name before, which led him to believe that this guy must have just moved to Seoul. Even if he’d just been recently promoted up to purple belt, Junhoe would have seen his name at some point, since his closest teammate was a blue belt.

He didn’t know anything about him, and Junhoe was his first opponent of the day so he couldn’t even scout his first fight. He had no idea what the guy looked like, and he’d spent some time looking around in the stands for someone at his belt level who he didn’t recognize. There were too many people though, so he’d given up. He wasn’t worried anyway. He could take anyone.

Hanbin returned with his drink and they chatted for a few minutes before Junhoe bid him a momentary goodbye, heading down to meet with his coach and leaving Hanbin in the stands on his own.

Junhoe was ready for the match, eager to show himself off to the judges. He’d been working on his sweeps lately and was looking to put his training to the test against an opponent. Five minutes before his match was about to happen, Hanbin came down to give him a final word.

“I think I saw your opponent,” Hanbin said, and Junhoe turned to look at him, “he’s really short.”

Junhoe laughed, unable to help it. Had Hanbin really found the right guy? “How short?”

“He looks like he’s twelve.”

Junhoe laughed at Hanbin’s answer, his eyes sweeping around the floor. There. On the other side of the gym, there was a purple belt that Junhoe didn’t recognize, and Hanbin wasn’t lying--he was really short. Almost so small that Junhoe wondered if he was really supposed to meet him on the mat? Wouldn’t he just crush him right away?

“How am I supposed to fight him?” Junhoe asked.

“On your knees?” Hanbin replied, and it set Junhoe off laughing again.

“June-ya, don’t get cocky,” came the voice of his coach, and both boys bristled at being caught, “Mr. Kim, you can go and have a seat. You’ve been enough of a distraction already.”

Hanbin grinned and bowed to Junhoe’s coach before apologizing and excusing himself back up into the stands. Junhoe apologized as well, but his coach just shook his head and didn’t berate him any further. He understood that Junhoe’s way to blow off pre-match nerves was to talk . Junhoe was always polite to the face of his opponents.

“Don’t underestimate someone based on their size,” his coach started that lecture, though, and Junhoe took it in stride, “we’ve never seen him before, he may be powerful. Sometimes a more compact frame is a blessing, it provides more stability.”

Junhoe listened and nodded politely, though in his head he was already picturing himself standing victorious over the tiny little boy he was supposed to be facing. He really couldn’t have envisioned a better first match for himself.

They met on the floor and Junhoe couldn’t wipe the comical smirk from his face even as he bowed to his opponent. The kid looked even smaller up close. He also had a very cute heart-shaped mole under his right eye, and Junhoe thought it looked ridiculous. The kid didn’t look anything like a fighter.

Even though it was obvious that Junhoe was judging him based on his size, eyeing him up and down before smirking, Jinhwan just smiled back at him, open and friendly andeager. Eager for what? Junhoe pondered. An kicking?

Junhoe would gladly deliver him one.

Ten minutes later, though, he was sitting in the stands, fuming angry.

Turns out that Kim Jinhwan was a ing prodigy. Junhoe had never been so thoroughly dominated before in his life. Jinhwan’s reflexes were lightning quick, his legs much stronger than Junhoe had expected. But beyond anything physical, Jinhwan’s most impressive quality was strategy. He recognized his smaller stature and he used it to his favour, seemingly walking into things only to reverse the moves to his own advantage.

Junhoe had scored the first takedown and he’d been so surprised when Jinhwan hadn’t so much as struggled, but as soon as they hit the floor Jinhwan took advantage of Junhoe’s momentary lapse in concentration to sweep him into a reversed position, and then to Junhoe’s utter humiliation the kid had actually claimed a ing mount position.

Junhoe hated being mounted, despised it. It was an utter humiliation move in his eyes, and he much preferred being on the dominant side of the mount. But Jinhwan had mounted him three times in their fight. Junhoe hadn’t been able to mount Jinhwan at all.

Further humiliation had come at the end of the match as they shook hands. Jinhwan had leaned in close, whispering in his ear. Junhoe would never forget the words.

“I assume you just got promoted up from blue belt? Not a bad first fight, keep your head up, you’ll do better.”

It was obvious from the look on Jinhwan’s face that he knew that Junhoe was not a fresh purple belt. Junhoe had never wanted to knock someone out so bad before in his life.

Junhoe was sitting by himself in the stands (even Hanbin was keeping his distance for the moment) his eyes trained on Kim Jinhwan, who was across the gym floor celebrating his win with his teammates and friends. There was some guy there dressed in what Junhoe considered a very obnoxious hip hop get up (the sort of clothes Hanbin would probably wear, actually, and the comparison made Junhoe even angrier for some reason) and he was sitting next to Jinhwan, laughing and gesturing with his arms, as though he were recreating the fight.

Junhoe wished he had psychic powers, because he’d love to fling the entire stand they were sitting on into the wall. Hard. Really hard.

Two hours later found Hanbin once again in the concession line, buying drinks. After the humiliation of his first defeat, Junhoe had gone on to utterly decimate his second opponent. Hanbin thought it was a combination of anger after losing the first fight, and Junhoe needing to rake up an impressive amount of points in order to secure moving into the next round.

He’d moved on and had just finished his round of sixteen fight, coming in victorious. But he was still ruffled over losing the first one, so Hanbin had left him alone to stew while he bought him a drink. Throughout the day Hanbin had watched out for the other guy, Jinhwan, whenever he could spare a glance. He managed to destroy his second opponent the same way he’d destroyed Junhoe (which made Hanbin feel a little better, because it proved that he really was just that amazing) and even his round of sixteen fight had been impressive.

During boring matches Hanbin had found his eyes wandering into the stands, always looking for Jinhwan. Well, to be fair, it wasn’t really Jinhwan he was looking for--it was his friend.

The same guy who’s outfit had screamed obnoxious to Junhoe was indeed what drew Hanbin’s attention. One of the areas in which he and Junhoe differed was in their taste in music. They liked a lot of similar artists (most importantly Michael Jackson and Queen) but where Hanbin preferred hip hop, Junhoe was more into rock and blues.

This dude, though, was clearly into hip hop. Hanbin actually owned the same Been Trill snapback the guy was wearing, and he had his Supreme hoodie in three different colours. He walked with the kind of confident swagger that always drew Hanbin’s attention. Normally he’d find a way to go and talk to the guy (or at least make his interest obvious) but he couldn’t flirt with the friend of Junhoe’s newest sworn enemy.

After all, wasn’t it the friend of my enemy is also my enemy? Not the friend of my enemy is now my love interest? Junhoe would murder him if he knew.

But, of course, just as luck would have it--

“Hey, you’re friends with that big guy, right?”

Hanbin turned in confusion to the voice that was speaking behind him, his eyes falling on the very snapbacked figure he’d just been thinking about. “What big guy?” Hanbin was not about to get friendly with him, though, not after the pounding his friend had given Junhoe.

The guy smiled back and the first thing Hanbin noticed were his crooked front teeth. They made him think of a rabbit with the way they protruded.

“Junhoe, was it? The cocky tall dude that my midget best friend kicked the out of earlier.”

The laugh bubbled out of Hanbin before he could stop it. . He was going to have to fight himself on this one, apparently. “Oh yeah, the little guy! He’s really good.”

Bunny boy smiled again and Hanbin felt utterly doomed at the way his heart fluttered in his chest. .

“If he hears you calling him little guy he might knock you on your next!” The comment was said with a cheery laugh, no trace of a threat to accompany the words. Fine. If this guy was going to play friendly, then Hanbin would have to do the same. Just out of politeness.

“Ah he can try!” Hanbin replied with an equally friendly smile, “I am a rather accomplished boxer, though, so he might be surprised at who ends up on the floor.”

To Hanbin’s horror bunny boy’s smile grew so wide his eyes were barely visible (and  if it didn’t make him look absolutely adorable) and he clapped an amiable hand on Hanbin’s shoulder.

“You box? That’s super cool! My older brother is into boxing. It seems like a fun sport.”

Hanbin smiled back. He really needed to find a way to end this conversation, because bunny boy was really tugging on him in the worst possible way. “Do you do any sports?” But as much as he wanted to end the conversation, apparently his brain had other ideas.

“Just basketball.” came the response, and Hanbin hated himself for getting excited over it. Junhoe was never going to forgive him. Never.

“I play basketball too! Hold the free throw record at school,” he replied, never one to shy away from bragging about his accomplishments. Bunny boy’s smile settled into something a bit softer (and dare Hanbin say even affectionate) and he just stared at him for a minute before speaking.

“Why don’t I get your number? We can shoot hoops together sometime, because I’m pretty good at free throws myself.”

There weren’t many times that Hanbin fantasized about having super powers (like stopping time, or erasing people’s memories) but he was dreaming about exactly that right now. Was he really about to exchange numbers with this guy? This guy, who was friends with the enemy?

“That sounds awesome!” Hanbin was horrified to hear himself give his number out, equally as horrified when he saved the number in his own phone (the guy’s name was Bobby, but Hanbin still saved it as Bunny Boy). They parted ways then and Hanbin wondered if he shouldn’t head to the bathroom to check his face in the mirror. Maybe he was coming down with something? (He was definitely coming down with something, and that something was an  kicking as soon as Junhoe found out about the number exchange.)

He schooled his features and headed back up to the top of the stands where Junhoe was sitting (sulking) and handed him an ice cold Gatorade in his favourite flavour.

“What took you so long?” Junhoe asked, grabbing the drink and gulping it in irritation.

Had he really been that long? “Uh, long line at the register. Some grandma paying with a bunch of change.” Hanbin hastily uncapped his own drink and took a long gulp, hoping Junhoe wouldn’t continue on their topic.

Junhoe’s thoughts were actually still on his embarrassing defeat from earlier (the first time in five years that he’d suffered a defeat in the first stage) and he couldn’t stop thinking about that annoying short kid. What the was name again? Jinhwan? Whatever. Junhoe had simply underestimated him based on his size, that was all. Jinhwan was most certainly not faster than him (okay not that much faster, maybe a tiny bit faster, a fraction if he had to admit to it) and his form was not better. He also was not smarter, not at all.

Junhoe had not lost to Jinhwan—he’d lost to himself. That’s all there was to it.

“Dude, you’re gonna open a portal to the underworld with all that brooding.”

Junhoe glared at Hanbin, annoyed to have been called out.

“Shut up.”

Hanbin grinned back at him, and maybe this was one of those moments where they were utterly terrible for each other. They were both poor losers, but they were also horrible at showing one another sympathy.

“Why are you even still pissed, anyway? You just destroyed your last two opponents, bro! You’re in a good position for tomorrow.” Hanbin took a swig of his own drink. Now that Junhoe was done, Hanbin was dying to get out of the gym and get some food, but Junhoe wanted to stay and watch the rest of the matches. Maybe since he was in a bad mood, he could convince him otherwise.

“Ah, you’re right,” Junhoe replied, because it was true, Hanbin was right. Why was he still sulking after one stupid match? Maybe if he was lucky he’d get to fight Jinhwan again tomorrow, and he’d be ready for him then. He wouldn’t underestimate him. “You wanna get out of here and get some food?”

“Do I ever, bro!” Junhoe went to change, leaving Hanbin to sit alone in the stands. He couldn’t resist looking for Bobby again, smiling when his eyes fell on him. He really hoped Bobby was going to have a personality, because Hanbin was falling for him hard.

“What took you so long? I’m about to pass out, I feel like a dying man in the Sahara!” Jinhwan whined when Bobby reappeared finally, drinks in hand.

“Bull, there’s a water fountain just in the hall!” Bobby laughingly replied, handing him a bottle of water.

“I don’t drink water out of a fountain,” Jinhwan shot back, mockingly pretentious, “I’m too good for that.”

“Ah right, you’re not one of the common folk,” Bobby carried on, “my apologies, His Royal Highness.”

Jinhan grinned and took a long gulp. “Apology accepted. Now explain your delay!”

It was Bobby’s turn to grin back. “I was just getting a phone number.”

Jinhwan huffed and rolled his eyes. “I can’t bring you anywhere.”

“I couldn’t help it!” Bobby protested. “I swear it wasn’t my intention! You’re gonna laugh when I tell you who it is, though.”

Jinhwan was almost certain that he probably didn’t want to know, but he’d play along, only because Bobby was his best friend and he liked dramatic reveals. “Please tell me it’s not one of the master class guys?”

Bobby laughed at the teasing attempt. “What? No, they’re what, like 30? Not into old dudes.” Bobby looked around suddenly, like he was checking to make sure no one was around. It had Jinhwan worried.

“Remember that guy whose you kicked in the first fight?”

Jinhwan’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Why would you get his number?!” Jinhwan almost couldn’t believe Bobby--almost.

“Not him!” Bobby replied, “his friend! I was behind him in the line for drinks, and I swear all I meant to do was say hi. But then he turned around and looked at me, and man, let me tell you…”

Jinhwan shook his head. On one hand, at least it wasn’t the guy he’d faced, because that kid just screamed arrogant , and Jinhwan didn’t want Bobby dating someone like that. But on the other hand… If the guy was friends with him, then he was probably just as bad. Jinhwan didn’t reply to Bobby’s comment, he just gave him a disappointed shake of the head.

Bobby wasn’t deterred, though. “Seriously Jinan, he has the cutest face I’ve ever seen!” He really did. Bobby had a thing for cute guys. As much as he liked to look at dudes with hot bodies, he was the world’s biggest er for cute faces.

“Cuter than me?” Jinhwan whined, pouting at his best friend. He’d never heard Bobby gush so hard about someone he’d just met.

“Much cuter than you.” Bobby replied with a wink.

“Now I know you’re lying, because that’s impossible.” Jinhwan responded with a grin. “But in all honesty, are you sure it’s a good idea? What do you even know about him?”

“Nothing, hence why I want his number. You know, so we can talk?” Bobby sarcastically shot back.

Jinhwan grinned back at him. “Simmer down, I’m just trying to protect you from your own bad decisions.” He watched as Bobby just shook his head and smiled to himself, his habit when he was annoyed and didn’t want anyone to know.

“Wow Bobby, you’re actually giving me attitude over this? You really must have it bad for him.” Jinhwan laughed when Bobby blushed. This was an entirely different side of him that he’d never seen before.

“Ah, sorry. I just really like him? There’s something special about him. I know I just met him, but you know, sometimes you meet someone, and you just know that they’re right for you? Laugh at me all you want, Jinan, but that’s how I feel about him.”

If Jinhwan had been asked to write down a list of things he never expected to ever hear Bobby say, what he’d just said about this new kid he met would probably be right at the top, next to “I’m really attracted to women”. Bobby never really fell for people, or at least he hadn’t until now. Jinhwan actually thought it was sweet.

“Wow, look at you,” he said in wonderment, “it sounds like little Bobby Kim might be falling in love?”

Bobby reached out to punch him in the shoulder. “Shut up! I wouldn’t go quite that far, I mean, I just met the guy..”

Jinhwan couldn’t wipe the smirk off his face as he watched Bobby’s cheeks flush red. He resisted the urge to squeal, but honestly, Bobby being all cutely sentimental over some guy he’d just spoken to for the first time ever?

Jinhwan had to turn away to hide his expression, because the more he thought about it, the cuter it was. Bobby hated being called cute. He always wanted to be cool, wanted to be tough. But this? Blushing over some guy?

Jinhwan couldn’t help himself.

“Ahh, Bobby, this is so cute!”

And tomorrow, if Jinhwan lost the final, he’d blame it on the punch Bobby just gave his shoulder.

Still--worth it.