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Finally.
Youngbin shouldered his freshly issued Team South Korea backpack, still smelling like new, and made his way off the shuttle bus emblazoned with Tokyo 2020 branding and into the Olympic Village. He’d been held up behind the rest of his teammates on the same flight due to a lost bag, but several draining hours later the baggage was recovered and here he was. French athletes spilled out of the shuttle bus along with Youngbin, chattering in bursts indecipherable to him. Due to the delay, he’d missed the chance to experience riding with his countrymen into the Olympic Village. He would have liked to share his excitement with the rest of his Table Tennis teammates of course, but also with a certain Doubles Badminton player. Unfortunately that Olympic moment would have to wait. Presently staff unloaded baggage from the underbelly of the shuttle and Youngbin hoped his bags would be delivered to his room accurately this time.
After making his way out of the drop-off zone and onto the real campus, Youngbin stepped off the pathway to put his pack down and stretch out his body. His back and shoulders were feeling tighter than he would have liked from a day of sitting in cramped spaces and worrying over his baggage. Not an auspicious start to Youngbin’s games, if he was being honest.
On the bright side, he was here now. Making his way to his housing complex, it was impossible not to notice that the Olympic Village was beautiful. It was built on an island district in Tokyo and surrounded by waterways. The urban planners had outdone themselves in making the campus beautiful. But there would be time to admire later. Right now all he really wanted to do was get to his room and lay down.
He checked in and found the building he was going to stay in, which was massive and only one of several of its kind in the village. He was once again reminded that upwards of ten thousand athletes from all across the world had gathered for the games.The accommodations were built to house four athletes per unit, and Youngbin would be sharing with three of his Table Tennis teammates. After an intimidating ride up with a coalition of Australian swimmers twice his size, Youngbin landed on his floor and made his way through the long halls to his room.
“Surprise~”
“Inseong?”
Sitting on one of the social-media-famous cardboard beds closest to the entrance was Youngbin’s boyfriend, wearing a standard issue South Korean sweatsuit identical to the one Youngbin was wearing. Youngbin’s heart swelled automatically with pride at the visual reminder that Inseong would be representing their country as an Olympian as well. But hold on, Youngbin would assume that Inseong was supposed to be rooming with his Badminton teammates. And his name was definitely not on the list Youngbin saw assigned to his room when he checked in just minutes ago.
Inseong’s mouth curled up and formed those cute, charming little creases on either side of his smile. “If you don’t mind, I orchestrated a roommate swap of sorts.”
“What?” Youngbin could feel his eyes still wide. His heart leaped at the possibility of getting more time with Inseong during the games, but.. “Is that allowed?”
Inseong wiggled his eyebrows. “What the staff don’t know won’t hurt anyone.”
“How did you manage it..?” Youngbin asked. “And who are the other two rooming with us then?”
“I just asked your teammates to switch. They were really great about it actually, especially after realizing our room is less than a minute’s walk from the cafeteria. Chani volunteered to stay in this room, quite heroically I might add. And I brought Jaeyoon along.” Jaeyoon was Inseong’s doubles partner, who Youngbin had met plenty of times and was fond of himself.
When Youngbin didn’t say anything, Inseong paused. “...Are you okay with the new arrangement? I didn’t run it past you because I was hoping it would be kind of a nice surprise..”
Upon seeing Inseong’s flagging confidence, Youngbin put his backpack down and closed the distance between them with two long strides. Standing in between Inseong’s legs, Youngbin leaned down and pressed a kiss to Inseong’s lips. As Inseong moved to take hold of Youngbin’s hands,Youngbin pulled away to confirm, “Of course it’s fine with me. I’m really happy, actually, that you went out of your way to switch so we could be together.”
Inseong wrapped his arms around Youngbin’s waist and pressed his cheek into Youngbin’s stomach as he pulled him into a hug. “Good.. if you kicked me out I might not have been able to recover my fighting spirit in time for my first match.”
“As if,” Youngbin replied, shaking his head with a fond smile.
“Guess what?” Inseong asked abruptly, digging his chin into Youngbin as he looked up at him.
“What..?” The twinkle in Inseong’s eye was familiar to Youngbin and a sign that he was likely up to no good.
“I saw some other athletes on TikTok testing how much these beds can support,” Inseong began as he gave the mattress he was sitting on a hard pat. Youngbin had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. “What do you think about conducting some tests of our own? Of course the activities I have in mind aren’t exactly social media appropriate...”
Youngbin wasn’t opposed to the idea but it wouldn’t hurt to tease a bit. “It hasn’t even been five minutes and you’re already trying to put the moves on me? That might be a personal best.”
Inseong gave Youngbin’s ass a playful smack. “Badminton doesn’t even record personal bests, if that was the joke you were going for. Come on, we can treat it like an experiment.”
“Oh yes, you’re very inquisitive.” Youngbin laughed. “That’s one of the things I love about you.”
“So you’re down?”
Youngbin gulped and cast his eyes towards the entrance. “You’re sure that Chani and Jaeyoon won’t be coming back soon?”
“I think I was quite clear when I asked if they would do the favor of steering clear for a while. I even asked them to find out where they kept the replacement bed frames in case of a collapse.” Inseong grinned wolfishly.
Youngbin rolled his eyes but inside he was delighted at the lengths Inseong would always enthusiastically go to when it came to their relationship. “Well then who am I to pass up this opportunity? For science, I mean.”
“Just be careful when you lay down, the key is to distribute your weight evenly.”
Hours later, Inseong declared to Youngbin as they lay side by side (Youngbin was actually halfway on top of Inseong to fit on the tiny bed) that this round of experimentation had come up inconclusive. They would probably have to conduct many more tests before they could be sure of their findings, preferably every night for the next three weeks. Youngbin was gripped by a fit of giggles at Inseong’s ridiculousness but eventually voiced his agreement. As Inseong pushed him down on the flimsy mattress for “another round of data collection” Youngbin reflected that it wasn’t such a bad start to the games after all.
Extra Scene
“Have you guys ever thought about switching sports and playing each other to see who was better at the other person’s event?” Jaeyoon asked over the chatter of the massive cafeteria in the village.
“We have,” Inseong and Youngbin responded in sync.
“It’s creepy when you guys do that,” Chani said through a mouthful.
“We both lost when we switched sports, of course,” Inseong continued, completely ignoring the comment.
“But he’s no slouch,” Youngbin said, jabbing a thumb towards Inseong. “I couldn’t take it easy.”
“Youngbin would make a good badminton player too,” Inseong replied. “I keep trying to get him to try playing doubles with me.”
“Watch out hyung,” Chani joked to Jaeyoon, “You might be replaced.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” Youngbin said quickly. “There are still plenty of things I’d like to achieve as a table tennis player first.”
“Well if you guys ever want to test your couple’s chemistry on the court, I can grab another teammate and we can face off. But you still haven’t answered my original question: who was better at the other person’s event?”
“He was.”
“He was!”
The couple answered at the exact same time once again. Jaeyoon threw up his hands.
“Who cares about the answer,” Chani grumbled. “They’re just gonna keep acting lovey-dovey instead. Ugh. I knew I should have just switched.”