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I.
20 all!
Kun and Ten are so close. He could practically taste victory, they just needed to win this last set. Kun wipes the bead of sweat rolling down his temple before getting into a receiving position. Ten gets into position himself to Kun’s left, not without giving Kun’s ass a friendly pat with his racquet. “For good luck”, he mouths at him. Trust Ten to be this nonchalant at such a crucial time.
The referee signals both sides to begin the rally and Kun tunes everything out, focusing his eyes on the opponents on the other side of the court. The audience’s murmurs become hushed as their opponents get into position.
The Lee duo, Mark and Jeno, were a formidable force; They’re two of the youngest champions Korea has ever produced, appearing at international competitions as early as 16 years old. But they weren’t letting this opportunity slip through their fingers, not even against the promising pair. He wasn’t retiring without etching his name into the history books with his own two hands.
Mark aims a short serve at one of the front corners of the court, which Kun returns easily with a lob before moving back towards the center, Ten rotating to the back to cover long shots.
Jeno, the power-player, returns the lob with a well-aimed but expected smash towards Ten’s backhand side. Ten easily converts the smash into a cross-court drop shot, one Mark wasn’t expecting to go his way. Ten’s form and ability to feint is still top-notch despite the fatigue.
21 - 20! Korea service over. China serves.
This time, it’s Ten’s turn at the front. As Ten readies himself to serve, Kun psyches himself up for what is possibly the last point of the game. Inhale. He closes his eyes and imagines the cold touch of a gold medal against his chest at the award ceremony. Exhale. He imagines the weight of the trophy as he and Ten lift it at the podium. Kun opens his eyes and huffs the fatigue out of his system. With his arms raised and ready for battle, the referee once again signals the start of the rally.
...
“How does it feel to be part of the first Chinese team to qualify for the SM Invitational?”
“Question for Kun, how did scoring that last point feel? ”
“Congratulations, Ten! How are you planning to move forward with training for the Invitational next year? Will the condition of your knee affect your performance?”
Kun heaves a tired sigh, squinting to read the wall clock hung at the back of the press conference hall. He gives up after a couple of seconds, cursing his eyesight as he resigns himself to another 15 minutes of questions and the barrage of paparazzi lights.
“I’m very lucky that my knee hasn’t been acting up, despite the intensity of training and play. I’ll be playing as hard as I can, for as long as I can, and have fun while doing it.”, Ten replies optimistically. “I apologize in advance to the team’s medics for my stubbornness”, Ten adds, making the room of normally serious reporters chuckle at his quips.
It was at times like this Kun was thankful that he had a partner who enjoyed the limelight that followed being a national sports representative and could lighten the mood, from time to time.
He is pulled from his musings when a loud voice booms from the back of the room, “I have a question for Mr. Qian Kun”.
He politely smiles at the man who had called for his attention and signals for them to continue.
“Since you’re known for being an all-rounder type of player...”, Kun scans through the mental catalog of practiced answers he has prepared, nodding along while the reporter finishes his question. Unfortunately, he has no response ready for what was asked.
“Are you, perhaps, single?”
The hall is silent, seemingly just as dumb-founded as Kun. Everyone seems to snap out of it when Ten unfreezes beside him and bursts into boisterous laughter, slapping Kun’s arm while he was at it. The crowd joins in, laughing at the unusual question and it takes all of Kun’s remaining will-power to keep the practiced media-friendly smile on his face.
He clears his throat, and sits up straight. The room quiets down, eagerly awaiting his response. In all his years of professional play, Kun has never met a journalist this... straightforward . He aims his glare towards the source of his misery. “Thank you for your interesting question. May I have your name?”, he grits out.
“Seo Johnny, from Sports Korea”, the man replies cheerily, too chirpy for someone who just pulled a stunt like that.
“Well, Mr. Seo Johnny from Sports Korea,” Kun begins. “I would hope you have more professional questions seeing as I refuse to answer your previous question.” He just about manages to maintain his composure replying to Mr. Seo.
Seemingly unfazed, Johnny stands up and flashes him a charming grin. “Sorry, I was just a little bit star-struck. I meant ‘Are you ready for Singles’ if ever Ten retires after this tournament?”
II.
Kun surveys his surroundings while waiting for the instructions for the day. Coach Moon had insisted they came to Korea earlier to “get used to the air” before the SM Invitational, so here he was, still trying to figure out exactly how different the air was.
He sits at one of the benches by the courts, continuing his evaluation of the training venue the organizers of the tournament had so kindly provided. His field of view is suddenly blocked by a familiar face.
“Hey, long time no see! I hope you still remember me?” Standing before Kun was Johnny Seo, decked out in a suit, holding out his hand for a handshake. “Sorry if our first meeting wasn’t that great.”, he continues, suddenly shy.
Kun stares blankly at the outstretched hand, mentally debating whether or not he was ready to forgive the little stunt Seo had pulled at the press-con.
“It’s alright if you’re not ready to forgive me yet! I don’t blame you, suddenly being put onto the spot like that.” Johnny sheepishly withdraws his hand, opting to run it through his hair instead. “If it helps, this interview is formal now. Plus...” The taller man pulls something out from the file folder he had been holding, and brandishes it at Kun. “... there’s a script! So don’t worry about the 'unprofessional' questions”.
...
Several practiced, for-media smiles and standard athlete interview questions later, Johnny thanks him for his time and signals at his companion, who was introduced to Kun as intern Donghyuck, to stop the audio recording. Kun was about to leave to find Coach Moon when Johnny taps his shoulder.
“Hey so, I’m not sure if we’re okay already, but I’d like to make it up to you for the whole ‘are you single’ thing.” Johnny looks sincerely apologetic, and very hopeful for Kun’s reply. Kun nods at him to continue.
“If you’re free after Ten’s interview, we could go for a quick snack at the Starbucks nearby? My treat! I just really wanted to patch things up between us since we’ll probably be seeing each other a lot.”
Kun doesn’t think too much of the invite and agrees, assuring Johnny that he would meet him by the gymnasium entrance after his talk with Coach Moon. A coffee and baked treat doesn’t sound half bad, and he does need the connections while he was in Korea.
Donghyuck soon pulls Johnny away by the arm, whining about some missing sections in the interview recording. As the two compare notes and snap a few more pictures for their article, Ten saunters up to Kun from the bench where he waited for his turn.
“So... How was the interview?” Kun jumps at the question, not noticing that Ten had come closer. Something about Ten’s tone, however, makes Kun suspicious of his intentions. He’s known his partner long enough to know when he was up to no good.
Ten notices the apprehension on Kun’s features and is quick to defend himself. “Hey, I just wanted to know if there’s any weird questions I should be prepared for like, I don’t know, if I was single...”, he trails off. Kun wants nothing but to smack the smug grin off the man’s face.
Ten ducks out of the way of a smack to the arm, but was unable to escape a scolding for his teasing. “No, it was a perfectly standard interview, thank you very much!”, Kun huffs at him.
“Mhmm and Johnny looks positively ecstatic, why?” Ten wiggles an eyebrow and Kun is in disbelief at the nonsense spewing from his friend’s mouth. “I, he-what?”, he sputters.
Ten giggles at his partner and reassures him, “It’s nothing, I was just kidding. Maybe he’s just that happy all the time?”
Kun decides it’s best not to dwell too much on Ten’s antics.
III.
The next time Kun and Johnny have time to catch up is away from the bright gymnasium lights and the sound of gum-soled shoes squeaking against the green mats. The opening ceremony for the SM Invitational had just finished and everyone -the players, staff members, and media- was invited to a fancy celebratory dinner. The opening was grand, as expected from the illustrious SM Group, but the dinner party was even grander.
Elegant chandeliers hung from the high ceiling, illuminating the spacious ballroom. The centerpieces were made of simple bouquets, and the clean, white tablecloths were accented with wine red table-runners. It was also interesting to see all his athlete friends out of their uniforms, and in their fancy suits and dresses.
Ten seemed quite comfortable in his classic black suit and tie, but there were people like their Singles’ player Yangyang, who kept pulling at the collar of his black dress shirt and fiddling with his bowtie. The crisp white of his suit fit him well but he looks much more comfortable in the dri-fit jerseys and stretchy shorts.
“This time I’m absolutely sure that you aren’t single anymore”. Kun turns around from where he was admiring the set-up to face Johnny, who was headed in his direction. At this point, he’s immune to the “single” jabs from Johnny. He always made sure to poke fun at the incident ever since they patched things up. And he does that a lot. Every time they encountered each other, even so much as pass by each other in the corridors of the common gymnasium for the participants.
Johnny gets close enough to nudge him by the shoulder, “You aren’t, right?” he jokes. Kun rolls his eyes, but plays along anyway. “And what makes you think anything had changed ever since we last met?” Kung takes a sip from the glass of champagne he picks up from a waiter passing by. “You asked me the same thing yesterday?”, Kun peers up at him, the champagne flute still held against his lips.
Johnny barks out a laugh, not expecting Kun to actually reply to his question. He picks up a wine glass of his own, swirling the contents before taking a sip. “Well, I just figured that, since you looked especially dashing this fine evening,” Johnny shifts his intense gaze from the wine to Kun. “You must not have come alone”.
It takes Kun a few seconds to get his brain working again before he lets out an embarrassed cough. He vehemently denies having any partner for the evening, “I’m too busy for a partner of any kind, anyway”.
Looking at him properly, Kun can see where Ten was coming from. Johnny was indeed quite attractive. The red and black velvet suit did wonders for his physique, making Kun wonder if the man played sports himself.
“You don’t look so bad yourself. Maybe I should be asking you that damned ‘single’ question”.
IV.
After a 5-win streak in the preliminaries, Kun and the team felt quite confident for the quarterfinals against Denmark. He takes big strides as he takes his place in the middle of his teammates for the post-game interviews.
The team bows for the hall of reporters before taking their seats at the long table in front. The conference begins. Though the team was new to the event it seemed that most of the questions were still pretty standard. Kun manages to get by while on auto-pilot, and the time is almost up before he knows it.
“We can have one last question before our team has to go for the cooldown, anyone?”, their coach calls out. A hand shoots up from the back of the crowd and Coach Moon calls for them.
“This question is for Mr. Qian Kun”, the voice was familiar and Kun had to suppress a smile. This was a serious session, after all.
Johnny sits up straighter in his seat to peek over the heads of the other journalists. “Are you perhaps single, Mr. All-rounder Qian Kun?”. This time, Kun is ready for the question.
“Yes, but if you’re interested, you’re free to contact me after we win the finals.”
V.
Ten had a field day with the interview clips, once he found out what happened while he was at the doctor’s. Their team had managed to make it to the finals without injuries, but they still needed to keep a close eye on Ten’s condition. They couldn’t afford to have a valuable player like Ten be out of commission.
Ten was still re-watching clips well after the interview, even as they were at the locker rooms before the finals. It was starting to get on everyone’s nerves. Sicheng had just about had it earlier, attempting to steal Ten’s phone from his equipment bag while he was at a pre-match session with the team’s physical therapist. It was to no one’s surprise that Sicheng was caught.
Kun, on the other hand, wasn’t as pleased as Ten was. Johnny hadn’t been as lively when they passed by each other and he wasn’t asking him the question anymore. They even bumped into each other on the way to the warm-up courts and nothing . Had he misread the situation? He was pretty sure there was a reason Johnny still kept asking him, even after the apology coffee (date?).
He was in the middle of team stretches when the Sports Korea team had approached them for one last interview before the game. Even from a distance, he could easily tell whether or not Johnny was with them, with the man towering over most of the correspondents.
Each reporter had paired off with a member of Team China, with everyone collectively agreeing that Johnny should be interviewing Kun. He wasn’t the only one who noticed something off, it seems.
“Well, should we have the interview by the stands?” Johnny suggests. Kun nods and lets him lead the way, all while thinking of how to gently confront the other about the issue. He was too deep into thought to notice that the taller suddenly stopped, making him bump into Johnny’s back.
“Ow, why did-”, Kun begins. Johnny whirls around and cuts him off, “Were you serious?”.
Kun looks up at him, his mind still trying to catch up.
Johnny sighs, running his hand through his unusually unkempt locks. “At the press-con, were you serious when you answered me?”. Kun’s eyes widen in surprise, not expecting Johnny to bring up the issue himself, not when Johnny was the one acting off.
He regains his composure. “Do you remember how I took it the first time you asked? I was serious then, what makes you think I wasn’t serious all those times after”, Kun scoffs. He watches as Johnny lights up, practically glowing at his response.
Johnny sighs again, this time in relief, before rushing off to the nearest bench for the interview. Kun follows and takes a seat beside him, waiting for the click of the audio recorder.
“Ok so, first thing’s first,” Johnny begins, a twinkle in his eyes as he raises them from the notes app to meet Kun’s gaze. “Do you think you’ll still be single after the finals?”
+1:
Kun hasn’t felt this nervous for anything in a long time. This was a big announcement, he wasn’t sure how the fans, and the general public for that matter, would take his decision.
“ Mr. Qian? We’re ready for you ”
He bounces on the balls of his feet, an old pre-game habit to get rid of the nerves. Inhale. Kun closes his eyes, he thinks about how much he’s prepared for this. Exhale. He realizes that he has probably peaked in embarrassing himself in front of sports journalists and manages to relax.
Kun opens his eyes, bursting through the double doors and confidently striding into the conference hall. He bows before taking his seat, this time alone at the center of the long table. He greets those present, and then:
“Before anything else, I would like to clarify that this announcement does have something to do with my career. And no, I am still not going to play singles.”
As expected, someone from the back of the room raises their hand, but Kun doesn’t call them.
“And to the gentleman at the back, I’m sure you very well know that I am no longer single.”, Kun smirks. He then addresses the rest of the reporters, “Kindly wait until the end of my statement for other questions.”