Fifthmus Fic: An Exchange of Territory (For Lanerose, From Umarekawareru)

[mmmdraco]

TITLE: An Exchange of Territory
AUTHOR: umarekawareru
RECIPIENT: lanerose ( requests)
PAIRING: Akira/Yongha
WARNINGS: PG-13. Groping, kissing, Yongha being a tease.
SUMMARY: Ko Yongha had always thought Touya Akira was boring. But, sometimes it's good to see things from a different point of view.
NOTES: A million thanks to my betas summerslaughter and chaineddove, as well as to everyone who helped me and put up with me while I was writing this. It was fun, though. I hope you like it, lanerose!



An Exchange of Territory

I. FUSEKI - Japan

Ko Yongha wasn’t (never had been, in fact) a big fan of formalities and pre-established proceedings. He had always thought they were stupid, simply because often none of the involved parties enjoyed following protocol, and only did it because, as the ‘socially correct’ thing to do, it was expected of them. Despite this opinion, Yongha tolerated these kinds of reunions just fine, by virtue of his (unfortunately) extensive experience with them. Having grown up in a rich and influential family, he was well aware of how useful they were when it came to making connections and how important it was to save face during them, so he had learned how to sail through them easily at a young age. He was talented and he knew it, it was nothing shameful to be hidden, so he never once had bothered with faux-humility or any such demeanour, but he always took good care to leave a good first impression.

However, right at that moment and despite his best efforts, he was finding it difficult to impossible to concentrate on what the guide was saying, or to at least look like he remotely cared in some far-off corner of his mind. If Yongha were to be honest, he could not figure out what the point of this tour was supposed to be; in case the Japanese hadn’t noticed, there was a Go Institute in Korea as well, and even if they had been completely different (which actually, they weren’t), he doubted anyone would deem it interesting enough to require a guided visit. His fellow Korean pros seemed to be thinking along the same lines, Yongha noted with some amusement as he cast a glance around; even their team manager looked like he was trying his hardest not to yawn. But refusing the tour would have been rude to their Japanese hosts, and Lee-seonsaengnim had made it clear that they were to behave cordially at all times and not cause any international scandals, yes, Yongha, I’m talking to you, so Yongha thrust his hands in his pockets and wisely kept his thoughts to himself. At any rate, they had been trekking the Japanese Go Institute for nearly fifteen minutes already, an impressive feat considering the size of the building, so the end of their (admittedly polite) suffering was probably near.

“This is the Institute’s public gaming room,” blabbered on their guide, completely oblivious to the Koreans’ mood as he led them into a rather spacious hall. There were rows and rows of tables with boards on them, Yongha observed lazily, letting his eyes roam over the place. Only a few people were there, but they had halted their games; apparently, watching the Korean team was more interesting than their matches. Even the lady behind the counter was staring, and she blushed to the roots of her hair when Yongha smiled at her. He could practically hear Suyong rolling his eyes next to him.

“You don’t have to flirt with her, you know,” Suyong said, sounding faintly amused beneath the exasperated expression on his face. “You’re a guest; I don’t think you’ll have to pay if you want to play here.”

Yongha snorted. “As if I would want to,” he replied, winking at her and watching her scurry off in embarrassment. “I’m just an innocent, bored man seeking new forms of entertainment, Suyong. You should know that by now.”

“I don’t know about the innocent part,” Suyong whispered back, covering his mouth with his hand so the guide wouldn’t hear - an unfounded concern, in Yongha’s honest opinion. “But maybe you should seek for it elsewhere, I don’t think Shindou has forgotten what happened two years ago and that was enough entertainment to last all of us a lifetime.”

Yongha snorted lightly at the memory, but didn’t say anything. As expected, the guide continued on with his monologue, like he couldn’t care less if they were listening to him or not. “All sorts of people meet here to play - amateurs, Insei, and sometimes even pros. Outsiders are charged a small fee at the counter and -”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, PLAY HANE? HOW IS THAT A GOOD MOVE?”

The guide gave a small jump at the sudden shout, and tried to continue describing the room, but now not even Kim-seonsaengim was bothering to hide his lack of interest in the diatribe; they were all staring at the two people playing three tables away from them, who weren’t so much playing as they were struggling not to throw a goke at one another’s head.

“IT IS TOO! If black plays hane there, he’ll have a chance to live in the corner!”

Yongha looked at Suyong; from his expression, he too had recognised the familiar bleached bangs. “Speak of the devil,” Yongha smirked.

“ARE YOU BRAINDEAD, SHINDOU?” was his opponent’s screamed reply. Shindou got up, presumably to strangle him. Yongha had to make a superhuman effort not to laugh; never would he have imagined that the ex-Meijin’s son, the impassive, painfully polite, stick-up-your-ass Touya Akira, knew how to swear. (The guide didn’t seem nearly as appreciative of this unexpected feature of Touya’s personality, though; he had stopped talking and was turning paler by the second.) “That would become life in ko in the best of cases, and you have too many ko threats all over the board - look at this group, how can you fight with such a shaky base? YOU’LL NEVER WIN THE KO!”

“LOOK WHO’S TALKING! WHAT ABOUT THIS GROUP HERE, GENIUS?” Shindou retorted, stabbing the board with his finger and knocking off at least a dozen stones in the process - not like either of them seemed to notice. “IF BLACK COMES IN THROUGH HERE, HE’LL TAKE AWAY AT LEAST HALF OF YOUR TERRITORY IN THAT AREA!”

Although Yongha’s Japanese wasn’t advanced enough to understand everything, he knew roughly what they were saying, and it wasn’t difficult to figure out the rest from the context. Even if he hadn’t had a clue what they were saying, their shouting and the mortified looks on the guide and clerk’s faces would have been entertaining enough. Their volume kept rising, too; Yongha wondered briefly how long until either’s throat collapsed. “This is fun,” he commented with a grin.

“Um,” began the guide awkwardly, casting nervous glances at Shindou and Touya’s table. “Those are Shindou Hikaru 4-dan, and Touya Akira 6-dan,” he said, fidgeting and wearing an embarrassed smile. “Sometimes, dedicated professionals’ passion for baduk can show in these high-level discussions -”

“Well, your mistake in this side was stupider than mine in the corner!” Shindou shouted childishly, looking like he was one breath away from sticking his tongue out at Touya. A very high-level gesture indeed, Yongha thought with amusement. “And I’M GOING HOME!” Shindou knocked the chair over in his haste and strode off towards the exit, stomping his feet down with every step and ignoring Touya, who was also on his feet now, shouting after him.

“Shindou-sensei,” called the guide timidly. “Sensei, the Korean team has arrived, I can introduce you…”

No introductions were needed, though; Shindou’s eyes widened and then flared with rage when he caught a glimpse of Yongha. “What are you looking at?” Shindou snapped, pushing past him rather angrily and entering the elevator, ignoring the guide and clerk’s aghast shouts of, “Sensei!”

“Well,” Yongha smirked, watching as Shindou disappeared behind the closing elevator doors. “I feel loved.”

“Please forgive him, Ko-sensei,” the clerk apologized, bowing so low she might as well have been kissing the floor. “Shindou-sensei is nervous because he recently dropped out of the Kisei league.”

The guide hurried to translate, and Yongha nodded absently, too amused by Shindou’s outburst to feel offended. “Tell her it’s okay,” he told the guide in Korean. “It’s not her fault.”

He heard Suyong snort lightly next to him. “Of course not. It’s yours, right?” he asked rhetorically, voicing everyone else’s opinion on the matter. Indeed, there was no denying Suyong was right, but Yongha did wonder if Shindou planned to take his grudge with him to the grave. It certainly seemed that way; whenever they met at a convention or a tournament, Yongha could feel the Japanese pro glaring several types of murder at him wherever they went. Not that Yongha cared, either way, but he did think about these things when he was bored.

Yongha was shaken out of his slight reverie by the arrival of Touya Akira in person, who now looked more like his usual self and less like Mr Hyde, although his cheeks were still a bit flushed. Yongha smiled at him and bowed his head lightly in greeting, a gesture which Touya returned. “Please excuse Shindou,” he said in heavily accented Korean. “I hope you weren’t offended.”

“Not at all,” Yongha smirked, more interested in Touya’s apparent bipolarity than any apologies he had to offer for Shindou; those Yongha was already used to. “Your Korean is getting better, Touya-san.”

Touya bowed his head ever-so-slightly in polite acknowledgement. How could he go back to his usual uptight self so quickly, as if he hadn’t just been about to bite off Shindou’s head? “Thank you very much. We look forward to facing Korea in this week’s tournament.”

“Well, I think we’ll be leaving now,” Lee-seonsaengnim announced, bowing briefly at them. “Thank you for showing us around here.”

“My pleasure,” the guide said, bowing in return. Yongha shared a look with Suyong, who looked like he too was thinking that at least someone had enjoyed the tour. “Rest well!”

“Thank you, we will,” Lee-seonsaengnim replied, turning to leave. Touya bowed and then headed for the table he and Shindou had been previously occupying, presumably to put away the board and stones.

“Actually,” Yongha began, stopping and looking back after a few steps, “if it’s okay, I’d like to stay here and have a game with Touya-san, since we didn’t get to play last time we were both in the same tournament.”

Touya looked slightly surprised at the sudden challenge, as did everyone else, but he nodded nevertheless. “I’d love that, if Lee-seonsaengnim is okay with it.”

Lee-seonsaengnim became the centre of attention then as everyone awaited the verdict. He didn’t seem too thrilled to leave Yongha to his own devices, but eventually he sighed and nodded. “That sounds fine,” he said, and Yongha didn’t miss the warning look thrown in his direction. “Please take care of him,” he added, and to Yongha’s ears it sounded like he actually meant it beyond the formalities. It was amusing, in a sense, how Lee-seonsaengnim seemed to regard him as a dangerous beast to be kept under surveillance at all times.

Yongha nodded and bowed at Touya, letting a smile dance along his lips. “Let’s have a good game, then, Touya-san,” he said, and led the way to the table.

Touya, it turned out, wasn’t nearly as vocal when Shindou wasn’t around to be a bad influence. He was, in fact, very quiet when he played; he didn’t move an inch unless it was to place a stone, and his breathing was so soft that at times Yongha couldn’t even hear it. His eyes, on the other hand, were relentlessly scanning the board, hunting for even the slightest weakness that he could exploit. All in all, playing Touya felt uncomfortably like being stalked by a predator lurking in the shadow and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Yongha, however, was not one to back away from a challenge, so he fought back with all he had to hold onto his slim advantage. In the end, he won by two-and-a-half moku thanks to some miracle he wasn’t too sure of, and bowed to Touya respectfully. “Thank you for the game,” he said, letting out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. “It was very good.”

Touya nodded, smiling ever so slightly. “Yes, it was a very good game. This part here -” and he pointed “- was difficult. I wasn’t sure of living, but you made a small mistake here and I was able to save the group, just barely. You destroyed me here, though.”

Yongha nodded absently. Touya was right, of course, but he was listing Yongha’s mistakes in a completely calm and impersonal tone, nothing at all like the one he had used with Shindou, and he was shocked to realize that it was bothering him. With a mental snicker, Yongha wondered for a moment if that meant he wanted Touya shouting at him.

The discussion lasted quite a while, and by the time they went out of the Institute it was already dark, although that was partly due to the nasty grey clouds hanging in the sky. It turned out Yongha’s hotel was on Touya’s way home, so they ended up walking together. Touya didn’t have that many interesting topics to talk about (Yongha had the impression that all he knew of life outside of go had been learnt from hearing those around him talk) but his occasional blunders and ridiculous sentence structures that a Korean native would’ve never used more than made up for that. In fact, Yongha realised, Touya’s company wasn’t unpleasant at all, which was more than could be said for other people Yongha had met in his life.

Although he was still painfully polite, Touya’s initial resistance to conversation washed away after a while, and quite literally at that. They were only a couple of blocks away from Yongha’s hotel when it started raining like no tomorrow, and although they ran to get under cover, they still became rather wet.

“It looks like it’ll go on for a while,” Yongha commented, watching the occasional flash of lightning from under the awning of the hotel. He doubted even an umbrella would have been of much use in such weather; Touya would at least need Noah’s arc if he wanted to go on home in the middle of that storm. The whole thing was clearly some sort of sign from above, so Yongha decided he’d follow along and see what happened. “Why don’t you come in? I’ll buy you a drink while you wait for the storm to subside.”

Touya looked somewhat surprised at the sudden invitation, and Yongha could see that he was hesitating; surely he was well aware that he couldn’t go out in this weather, and it would certainly be rude to say no when Yongha was being kind, so he nodded after a moment or two. “Sure,” he replied, following Yongha towards the hotel bar.

The bar was emptier than Yongha had thought it would be; there were only a group of salarymen chain-smoking in a table by the window and a middle-aged man downing one glass after the other at one end of the bar. Yongha chose the opposite end of the bar and ordered for himself and for Touya, who didn’t seem like one to drink often - or at all. He seemed rather tense, actually, although he was trying to be polite and not let it show. He thanked the barman as he would the Emperor of Japan himself when a glass was placed in front of him, and kept glancing at the drunk man nervously. Somehow, it didn’t surprise Yongha at all.

Yongha decided to help Touya calm down first, so he chose a topic he knew Touya was comfortable with. “Your father’s been doing well lately,” he commented, although he knew that ‘doing well’ was the understatement of the century. He had been entering one tournament after another and winning them all. His kifu were scary, too; his game was improving at an unimaginable speed for someone his age and his winning streak had carried on for so long that people had stopped keeping count. “I heard he’d been made a ‘guest pro’ by the Korean Go Association?” A position which Yongha could safely say hadn’t been open to non-Koreans a few years ago, but the gods knew that lately everything was Touya Kouyo’s for the asking - although Yongha didn’t tell Touya that.

The conversation continued on in this vein for a while. Three drinks later, the man at the other end of the bar managed to coordinate his movements long enough to go up to his room, and after the fourth, Touya got a slight flush on his cheeks and started looking like he was having trouble sitting straight. Once the fifth rolled around, Yongha checked his watch and decided that, since Touya was already relaxed enough as it was, maybe it was time to get to the point while he still had the excuse the rainstorm provided. Yongha was okay with getting up to inexcusable things every once in a while, but he knew Touya had a more traditional outlook, so he decided to get on with it before the clouds ran out of water (which could happen any minute, if it continued raining in this manner).

Thankfully, Touya provided him the perfect opening. “Shindou’s just like that, you know. He always gets mad when I point out that he’s made a stupid mistake, but never when it’s Waya-san or his other Insei friends who tell him. I’m not sure I like the special treatment,” he said, almost as if he were talking to himself.

Yongha hadn’t come to hear Touya talk to himself, though; he was there because he wanted Touya to pay attention to him, to have an actual reaction to him that his good-manners wouldn’t be able to mask. “Speaking of Shindou, I’ve been meaning to ask for a while - what about that little scene at the Institute?” Yongha began, purposefully lowering his voice and watching Touya carefully. “Do you scream like that only where Go is involved, Touya-san?”

It worked like a charm; Touya became red in the face and almost sprayed gin all over the wooden surface of the bar. “Wh-what do you mean, Ko-san?” he spluttered, looking at his glass like it was the most interesting thing in the room and biting his lip.

That definitely counted as a reaction, Yongha thought with a smirk, and ordered another round from the barman.

***

Touya Akira was an early riser by nature. He enjoyed waking up to the first rays of sunlight pouring into the room through the slits in the blinds, and only set his alarm to be on the safe side. Sleeping in made his brain sluggish, and he didn’t understand how some people (like Shindou) were perfectly content to sleep their lives away under the blankets.

Or so Touya had thought, but the truth was at the moment he was contemplating burying the two halves of his throbbing head under the pillow and never coming out. “Ow,” he complained sleepily.

Speaking of Shindou, had he come to apologize for storming out on him the previous day? That would definitely be a first. Someone was in the room with him, that much was certain; he could hear a voice talking. Maybe Shindou was apologizing while he was still half-asleep, so he could deny it all later and blame it on some dream. Touya would have believed it, too; after all, Shindou wasn’t likely to be so creative as to apologize in Korean.

Touya’s brain did a double take at that. Since when did Shindou speak Korean?

“Bring up two helpings of rice and pancakes. Caramel sauce too. Oh, and soy sauce for the rice. Drinks? Just water, I think…”

Touya started opening his eyes, but regretted it instantly - the room was too bright, and it wasn’t helping his headache any. So he closed them again and draped an arm over his face just in case, wondering if the air conditioning in the Go Institute had given him a cold or something. Maybe he had been standing in the rain for too long last night and -

“Oh my god,” he muttered, horrified at the images flashing through his mind. He had played a match against Ko Yongha after Shindou had left, and he’d accompanied him to his hotel since it was on his way, and it was raining heavily so Yongha had invited him to a drink for the sake of international cooperation in the hotel bar and then another and then… “Oh my god,” he repeated, wishing he wasn’t hung over (and sore, he realised bitterly as he tried to move) so he could pretend it hadn’t happened. He glanced under the sheets and wanted to die.

Well. It did seem like they had done a lot of cooperation.

“Good morning, Touya-san,” said the voice. Its owner was sprawled on the armchair by the bed in a cat-like way that was positively indecent. His preferred pose was making his bathrobe open at the front, but Touya had a feeling that Yongha couldn’t care less if the fabric was covering anything or not. He had stopped talking to whoever was on the other end of the phone line and pressed the receiver against his chest to muffle their voices. “I’m on the phone with room service. Do you have any preferences, or should I just order for you?” Touya felt hyper-aware of the predatory glance that was running down his body, and even wrapping the sheet tighter around him didn’t make him feel any less vulnerable.

“Oh my god,” he said again; his brain was too busy being shocked to form any other sentences right now. How could he have let himself be led so easily? Feeling disgusted with himself, Touya got up despite his muscles’ protest at the sudden movement and made sure the sheet was still covering him before rescuing his clothes from various parts of the room. Along with Yongha’s, they littered the floor and formed a path that went from the door to the bed, Touya noted with unwanted morbid fascination. “I have to go,” he said after a while, pushing the thought out of his mind.

“You can use the shower first if you like,” Yongha suggested, watching him with something that looked a painful lot like amusement.

Touya shook his head. “No, thanks. I’m fine, I’ll shower when I get home,” he replied, aiming for polite rather than hysterical and probably failing miserably. There were a few buttons missing on his shirt and he wasn’t about to start looking for them with Yongha in the room, so he decided to throw away the shirt when he got home and pray he’d have a good excuse by the time his mother asked about it.

Yongha shrugged like he really didn’t care either way, which stung more than Touya would have liked. “Okay then,” the Korean replied, lifting the receiver again. “I’ll see you around.”

Touya nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yes,” he said, feeling incredibly awkward and out of place. “Yes.”

He heard Yongha say, on the phone, “Actually, make that only one helping of rice,” before Touya shut the door behind him and proceeded to flee from the hotel, practically at a run.

***

“This is a very important day for these young players and, by extension, for the whole Go world. All these excellent young players, the best of this new generation, have all gathered at this third edition of the Hokuto Cup, seeking glory not only for themselves, but for their countries as well. Japan, China, Korea - their roots don’t matter at times like this, because they are all aiming for a greater goal -”

“Why do I feel like I’ve heard this all before?” Yongha muttered to Suyong, tuning out the organiser’s words and hiding a yawn behind his hand. It was a reception dinner, after all; wasn’t there supposed to be more food and less talk? Then again, maybe this was the Japanese way of doing it, Yongha thought with a snicker.

“That’s because it’s the same speech every time,” Suyong replied, leaning back on his chair so only Yongha would hear. “All they do is change a couple of words just in case someone’s actually paying attention.”

Yongha snorted. “As if,” he said, glancing around the hall. The hyperactive kid from the Chinese team seemed to have been magically put to sleep by the useless diatribe, much like Korea’s own new third board, Kim Hyunshik, who kept dozing off and seemed about to start drooling on his own shoulder. Over at the Japanese team table, Shindou and the third board (was it Yachiru? Yongha forgot these things) were engaged in a staring contest, from the looks of it, while Touya was (expectedly) that so-called odd-one-out person listening to the organiser talk about things he didn’t understand. He was sitting with his back to Yongha, which wasn’t really that surprising considering the Japanese pro had been avoiding him all day long. It was really quite amusing to note how upset he got over such a trivial matter as a one-night stand.

Sudden clapping from the audience put a stop to Yongha’s train of thought, and he turned back toward the stage to see the organiser bowing in thanks and descending, followed by the interpreter. “What, it’s over already?” Yongha asked; not that he had any desire for it to continue. “The team leaders aren’t going to be saying a few words this time?”

“No, it’s been decided to skip that part this year,” Lee-seonsaengnim replied, standing up respectfully as the organiser left. “I wonder why?” he asked mock-thoughtfully, throwing Yongha a meaningful look.

“Who knows,” Yongha replied nonchalantly, opting out of the imminent string of reprimands and lectures. He spied the numerous plates of snacks and hors d’oeuvres laid out on three tables not too far away and excused himself with a little wave of his hand.

His path, it seemed, was not deemed to be easy. He was stopped a few times by people who wanted to make small talk with him, so getting to the food took longer than his stomach would have liked. Once he was eating, though, he found he didn’t have anyone to entertain him and was almost as bored as he had been during the speech. He’d lost track of Suyong because he was still short, so he blended in with the mass of people a little too well, and so he was reduced to listen in on two Japanese boys’ inane conversation by the drinks table about the second preliminary round of the Kisei league. They were getting to the part where Mushroom Head had his ass handed to him by Japan’s third board (apparently, his name was Yashiro) when Yongha spotted Shindou and Touya hanging around the desserts table. Yongha walked over to them, figuring he could at least get a kick out of teasing Touya (and maybe get laid again if he was lucky), and wasn’t surprised when Shindou immediately rounded on him as per his usual behaviour pattern.

“Calm down, Shindou-san,” Yongha said in slow Japanese, smirking. Teasing Shindou would work too. “I’m only here to talk. Drink?” he asked, pointing in the general direction of the drinks table, since he wasn’t sure he’d got the word right.

“I don’t want anything coming from you,” Shindou retorted, glaring at him. “Go bother someone else.”

Yongha turned to Touya, who was too quiet even for his usual standards. “I like here,” Yongha said with a slow, taunting smile. “What about Touya-san? Do I bother him?”

Touya, unexpectedly, looked at him in the face and joined in on the glaring. “I don’t know about you, Ko-san, but I come to Go tournaments to play Go,” he retorted, affronted, and started walking away. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have better things to do.”

Yongha watched him go, exuding an aura of pride with every step, and couldn’t help but chuckle. Contrary to what he had predicted, Touya Akira was turning out to be a pretty interesting individual.

II. CHUBAN - China

The delegation that came to welcome the Korean team at the Beijing Capital International Airport was, if one were to be honest, not so much a delegation as a couple of convenient taxis and the Le Ping brat blowing raspberries at Lu Li while Yang Hai took care of the diplomatics.

“I’m really sorry about this,” the Chinese pro apologized yet again, once they were all seated and heading for the Chinese Institute. “Initially, there were more of us here, but we were told your flight had been delayed and some people had to leave to finish tonight’s preparations.”

The Rising Stars tournament, sponsored by a famous Chinese company whose business had nothing to do with baduk, was an international competition for young players with a category of 4-dan or higher in their respective Institutes’ ranking. Since its conception, this competition had been advertised in papers, magazines, TV and the Internet, always keeping the western spelling of the name instead of adapting it to each country’s writing system because, allegedly, a name in English sold better.

Personally, Ko Yongha wasn’t very interested in how profitable the tournament was, or how many people came to watch. Although he couldn’t deny he was impressed by the amount of press coverage they were getting; it was only the opening ceremony and there were reporters and cameras practically everywhere.

“Excuse me, please make way for us!” Yang Hai was shouting, artfully leading the Koreans through the cluster of people. “Man, we’re so late…” he muttered to himself, glancing at his wristwatch with a frown.

The hall was large and spacious, but it was full of people drinking, eating and talking to each other. The traditional team tables had been pushed aside to make room for everyone to stand, and the stage was empty. Yongha looked at Suyong and grinned. “I think we missed the speeches,” he muttered, once they were inside the hall. “I don’t think I’ll be able to live with the guilt.”

“Me either. Do you think the flight can be delayed for the next tournament as well?” Suyong replied, grinning back. “Oh, by the way, you totally have to try these shrimp crackers, they’re delicious,” he added on second thought, walking towards a nearby table.

Apparently, Suyong wasn’t the only one infatuated with the crackers. There were a few other people eating those, and then there was Shindou, who had apparently been brought up by troglodytes, if his manners (or lack thereof) were anything to go by.“Good evening,” Yongha said, wondering how long he could stand watching Shindou before getting sick.

Shindou’s mouth was so full that Yongha wondered how he could move his jaw to chew. “You again, huh?” Shindou probably said, frowning at him in a mighty impersonation of an angry hamster.

“Yes, well,” Yongha replied, taking care to step out of Shindou’s spraying range. “I play go, you play go. We meet at tournaments. It’s a small world.”

“Then by all means take a spaceship and go to a different planet,” Shindou replied, wiping his face with a paper napkin after swallowing the contents of his mouth. He greeted Suyong with a smile, promising to play him even if they weren’t matched for the tournament, and then he stood on his tiptoes and started waving frantically. “Hey, Touya!” he called.

“Good evening,” Touya greeted them once he reached the table. He bowed slightly to Suyong and hesitated for a second after doing the same with Yongha, as if he was scared Yongha would bite or something equally ridiculous. Yongha shrugged mentally; it didn’t really matter, after all. He returned the bow politely and helped himself to a glass of apple cider, completely tuning out the conversation between Shindou, Touya and Suyong.

“Yooo-ong-ha!” someone singsonged, suddenly stalking up to him from behind. “What’s up?”

Yongha looked behind him and rolled his eyes at Hyunshik. “The ceiling,” he deadpanned. “Why are you here? I thought you said you’d be busy - how was it? - ‘seducing all the pretty women with your exotic North Korean accent’.” Yongha could feel Touya staring now, and he probably wasn’t the only one, considering the way Hyunshik was clinging to Yongha’s arm.

Hyunshik grinned. “I changed my mind,” he said. His breath already reeked of beer, and they hadn’t even been there for a full hour. “I don’t want to take all the ladies and make you two look bad. Hey, did you hear? It seems that old geezer Li Yeng is retiring!”

Why was Touya glaring like that, anyway? Yongha had been near him for half an hour at most; there was no way he would have managed to offend the Japanese boy in such a short time. Well, whatever.

“Really? How come?” Yongha asked, raising his eyebrows. That Li Yeng had been playing baduk since the beginning of time, and even though he was as old as the devil, he refused to die, much less retire.

Hyunshik shrugged. “Get me a drink and I’ll tell you the details,” he said, even though the bottles were on the table, well within his reach.

And Touya was still frowning. Well, whatever.

***

The tournament itself progressed the way these tournaments normally did, with wins and losses and rookie brats shaking like feathers when the cameras got near. Yongha got through the first day of matches with the not altogether unfamiliar feeling that there was someone glaring daggers at him, which wouldn’t have really surprised him if it hadn’t been for the fact that it happened even when Shindou wasn’t in the room.

“So basically you’re worried Shindou doesn’t hate you anymore,” Suyong suggested when Yongha brought up the topic. “I’m sure it must be tough.”

Yongha rolled his eyes and threw his pillow at Suyong’s head. “That’s not it at all, Shindou’s still glaring. I just think he’s not the only one these days,” he replied, taking a can of soda out of the drinks cabinet. “I have a feeling it’s Touya.”

Suyong raised his eyebrows. “You’ve always been popular, I guess,” he told Yongha, sitting down on the bed and shaking his head. “Seriously, though, what have you done to piss Touya off? I just can’t picture him actually glaring at someone.”

Yongha shrugged, taking a sip from the can. “How should I know?” he asked with a shake of his head. “Weird people have weird motives. And I haven’t even talked to him since the reception, you know.”

He would have thought it was all some sort of underhanded tactic to throw him off-balance had Touya actually been that kind of person, which he wasn’t, so Yongha wasn’t sure what to think anymore. The weirdest thing of all, in Yongha’s opinion, wasn’t the glaring itself but the fact that, the more he stayed clear of Touya’s path, the more Touya seemed to stomp all over the place. The only conclusion Yongha could draw from this all was that Touya was weird, so it would be better to let him do what he wanted and not think about it too much.

However, if he were to be honest, that was easier said than done, because no matter where they went he could feel Touya frowning at his back, and it was pissing him off. It wasn’t affecting his game or anything like that, but he had the rest of the day free of matches after beating China’s Lu Li into the ground, so he ended up waiting for Touya’s match to finish and feeling sorry for himself for not having anything else he’d rather be doing instead.

“Hey. Hey, Touya,” Yongha called, spotting the familiar hideous yellow tie from a mile away. “Can I talk to you?” he asked, jogging a bit to catch up with Touya.

Touya didn’t even turn around or wait for him, the bastard. “Well, you’re talking now, aren’t you?” he countered matter-of-factly. “Although I must say, I’m flattered that you actually found time in your busy schedule to greet me.”

Yongha raised an eyebrow at him even though he knew Touya couldn’t see. He would have called the situation ‘dumb’, but he didn’t even know what the situtation was. “What jumped up your ass, Touya? I have enough with Shindou’s glaring as it is.”

“So if you have enough with other people, you probably don’t need me for anything, right?” Touya replied with a short laugh, finally turning around. “And if that’s so, then why do you care?”

Yongha raised an eyebrow at him. Touya Akira acting like a spiteful maiden was so surreal that he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Who said I care?” he said with a smirk. “Look, if this is about that night, it was six months ago! It’s no big deal, maybe you should try getting over it.” He snorted lightly and added, “and you did reject me at the reception dinner that time, so if you were hoping I’d come back to you crying, I’m not your man.”

With that, Yongha spun around to leave, shaking his head and wondering how some people could be so naïve. Had Touya been expecting an apology? For what, anyway? There were several things he was guilty of, but lack of skill in the bedroom wasn’t one of them - not if Touya’s reactions to him that night were any indication, Yongha thought with a smirk. He’d had fun, Touya’d had fun, it had been a win-win situation. There was nothing to apologize for, unless Touya was the kind to cherish a boring and celibe existence, in which case, well, Yongha couldn’t say he was all that impressed.

“I understand,” he heard Touya say, but when Yongha turned back to look at him, Touya had already left.

***

The next morning, Yongha woke up in an exceptionally good mood. Korea had beaten China 3-0 the previous day, he hadn’t heard Lee-seonsaengnim’s earth-shaking snores through the thin hotel room walls and he had some free time until lunch; in three words, life was good. He got up, took some extra time in the shower and decided to go find some breakfast and (hopefully) entertainment.

“Good morning,” he greeted upon entering the elevator at the Chinese Institute, feeling the unfamiliar urge to be nice.

Touya was the only other person in the elevator when he entered, and Yongha was somewhat surprised at first to see that he wasn’t glaring; in fact, he bowed slightly to Yongha in return. “Good morning,” he replied politely. “Congratulations on yesterday’s win.”

Yongha nodded with a self-satisfied smile. “Thank you,” he said, pressing the ‘7’ button. Touya pressed ‘5’, and the elevator doors closed.

To be honest, Yongha couldn’t help but be slightly impressed by how seriously Touya had taken Yongha’s advice to get over it. In fact, the silence between them wasn’t awkward or tense, and although Yongha would hardly have gone into depression if Touya had ended up hating him, it was still nice being able to direct all his efforts into ticking Shindou off as per his usual routine.

“Oh, by the way, Ko-san,” he heard Touya say.

“Yes?” he inquired politely, turning to look at the Japanese player.

The next second, inexplicably, he found himself pinned to the elevator wall, and before his brain even had time to register what was going on, Touya had his tongue in Yongha’s mouth and his hand straying dangerously towards his pants. While Touya was still notoriously clumsy at kissing, his intensity more than made up for it; Yongha was barely able to move due to shock and Touya’s body pressing insistently against his, and Touya was taking advantage of this fact to grope him thoroughly.

After a moment, Yongha’s shocked brain caught up to his body and he moved an arm to press Touya closer, but then, just as suddenly as it had begun, Touya gave his lip a small bite and withdrew to the opposite side of the elevator, breathing heavily but otherwise looking as if he had been standing there innocently all along.

“What the -?”

The elevator doors opened with a ‘beep’ and a female voice said something in Chinese. “You have reached the Fifth Floor.”

“Oh, I’m getting off here,” Touya announced casually, and nodded at Yongha who, for the first time in his life, was at a loss for words. “Have a nice day!”

Then, Touya bowed slightly and got out, leaving Yongha to stare at him in disbelief until the elevator doors closed and hid Touya’s retreating figure.

***

Throughout the day, it became obvious that Touya had either more guts about him than one would expect, or a certain kink for exhibitonism. When Yongha was least expecting it, Touya would randomly snog him if they crossed in an empty corridor or corner him in the toilets and, while Yongha fully supported this kind of spontaneity, he rather wished Touya would stay and finish the job instead of sneaking away the moment Yongha reacted. And if they met in the game hall or the discussion room, Touya acted completely normal, treating him with extreme politeness, as if he hadn’t had his hand down Yongha’s pants just half an hour ago.

“Once I cut him there, he couldn’t do anything!” Hyanshuk said excitedly. He had been going on about his match with Le Ping since the day before, extolling his superb strategic and reading skills (which actually were nothing more than Le Ping making a mistake in midgame that cost him his upper-right corner and his influence in that side) to anyone who would listen.

Yongha wasn’t really listening per se, seeing as he didn’t really care, but he just happened to be standing there and that, it seemed, was good enough for Hyanshuk. However, life was short, and Yongha had no intention of wasting it listening to Hyanshuk’s self-delusion, so he got up and left, waving off the third board’s ensuing protests like an annoying bug.

Not many people were left in the Chinese Institute, seeing as the Japan vs China matches had finished about half an hour ago, so Yongha decided to grab a drink from the machine and go back to the hotel. He stood in front of the machine for a while, extremely aware that he was the only one in the corridor. He looked at the different drinks on offer without really seeing them; he was on his toes, expecting Touya to appear out of nowhere again. He felt an unwilling chill go down his spine and smirked at himself; as dissatisfying as these encounters were, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t anticipating the next one.

He digged some coins out of his suit pocket and pretended to be immersed in the task of choosing a drink, actually listening for any sounds that might give away someone else’s arrival. Indeed, as he lifted his hand to insert the exact amount required into the machine, someone grabbed his wrist and dragged him into its shadow. Yongha smiled in self-satisfaction against Touya’s mouth, and remained unmoving, wondering if lack of reaction would keep Touya there longer. He allowed Touya’s hands to roam over his chest and moved his head to the side to give him better access to his neck. He had an idea what the whole point of Touya’s behaviour was, but Yongha was pro-freedom of expression, so he wanted to allow Touya to explain himself as he liked.

Touya, however, didn’t seem to be thinking along the same lines. He withdrew yet again, but this time Yongha was ready and he grabbed Touya’s wrist and reversed the situation, so that now Touya was the one pinned against the wall. Touya looked shocked at the sudden turning of the tables; his eyes were wide and his breathing was heavy, and Yongha had to make a considerable effort not to ravish him right there and then.

“So, what’s this all about?” Yongha asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. The effect of the gesture was probably ruined by his own heavy breathing, but he had the upper hand now and he planned to enjoy it while he could.

Touya returned the look defiantly. “Surely you aren’t freaked out by a kiss or two, Ko-san? Because it’s totally no big deal, you know.”

Yongha chuckled. “I know,” he replied, amused. Touya Akira was indeed interesting; he was the first person to ever go this far to defend his wounded pride. “Feel free to continue, I’m not freaked out at all.”

Touya frowned and pushed him off with a strength that Yongha would not have believed possible if he hadn’t already experienced it multiple times that day. “Please excuse me,” Touya said, nodding at him politely once he was a safe distance away. After that, he turned and started walking away.

Yongha watched him go and grinned. “I’m looking forward to our match tomorrow,” he called.

Touya turned around briefly and shot him a somewhat devious smile. “Yes,” he replied with a nod, and immediately resumed his steps. “So am I.”

***

The morning of the match, the game hall was packed with journalists trying to get a couple of comments from the players and flashing their cameras at everyone and everything. The winner of that day’s games would become champion, so the tension was high. For once, Yongha didn’t really care if Korea took first place or not, as long as he won his game against Touya. He grabbed a can of iced tea from the machine and occupied his seat at the first board table while everyone else was busy fussing over innecessary things and talking to each other.

“Good morning.” Touya sat down in front of him a few minutes before the match was set to begin. Yongha was pretty sure that Touya wasn’t the type to arrive with so little time to spare, so Yongha assumed that the Japanese player had probably been too occupied being polite and diplomatic to everyone around him.

Yongha bowed his head slightly and smirked a bit. “Good morning, Touya-san,” he replied, happy to continue the impersonal small talk. “Did you sleep well tonight?”

“The final round of matches between the Korean and Japanese teams to decide the winner of the Rising Stars Tournament will begin shortly,” announced a female voice over the ruckus of last-minute spectators rushing in. “The komi will be 6,5 moku. The alloted time will be three hours per player, with five periods of byouyomi of ten seconds each. The order will be decided by the nigiri of the first board players…”

Yongha looked at Touya’s fist on the board and placed a single black stone. “Odd,” he said with a smirk, and Touya released the stones he was holding and started counting them.

“Twelve. Even,” Touya announced, nodding to the referee standing next to their table. “I’ll take black.”

If Touya had been aggressive during their match half a year ago, he was positively merciless now. Every one of his attacks was accurate and powerful, and he fought fiercely until the last point. Yongha had to use all of his skill and take a couple of risks just to reach the endgame, something which didn’t happen often, but even as he was struggling to stay alive he couldn’t help but enjoy the game. It was difficult, but it was fun and complex and good, so when they counted territory and he saw that his suspicions had been correct, he didn’t even feel upset.

“Black is ahead by five and a half moku,” he said, grinning in the face of his loss. “You’ve won, Touya.”

Then, wonder of wonders, Touya grinned back, but the vindictive look that had been in his eyes for the whole match didn’t completely disappear. “Thank you for the game,” he replied, bowing his head as the flashes started going off.

***

They were all exhausted when they boarded the plane back to Seoul the following morning, so the flight was mostly uneventful. Korea had ended up taking first place (both Suyong and Hyanshuk had won their matches) and somehow both of them had ended up in Yongha’s room, helping themselves to the contents of the drinks cabinet, so they had bags under their eyes and kept squinting their eyes to protect them from the light. They looked amusingly like a bad case of hemorrhoids, Yongha thought with a snicker as he watched Suyong wince when he sat down too quickly. “Shit,” he complained, blinking a few times to chase the dizzyness away. “My head hurts.”

Yongha ruffled Suyong’s hair with a grin, eliciting a protest like an angry cat. “Well, that’ll teach you not to drink other people’s alcohol,” he told him.

Yongha couldn’t really blame them, though; Go like they had played the previous day deserved proper celebration. Even Touya had come up to congratulate them on their win, though unfortunately those congratulations hadn’t extended beyond words. Yongha had tried to kick his teammates out of his room just in case Touya felt the need to go beyond diplomacy, but they had stubbornly remained to move from their camping site just in front of the drinks cabinet. Yongha wondered if maybe he should have followed Touya to his room after that, and he couldn’t help feeling amused at the whole situation, because it seemed that he was the one who couldn’t get it out of his mind. The irony wasn’t lost on him at all, and he laughed softly at himself, causing Suyong to look at him with an inquisitive frown.

“Nevermind,” Yongha told him with a grin, shaking his head. “You should worry about your head; it’s going to split in two when the plane takes off, you know.”

“I hate you,” Suyong replied, closing his eyes and using his hand to protect them from the sunlight coming in through the small window next to him.

III. YOSE - Korea

The thing about Touya was that he kept sneaking into Yongha’s thoughts, whether Yongha wanted him to or not, and it was starting to get bothersome. If he were to be honest with himself, Yongha found that his life had lost a great deal of interest now that Touya wasn’t around to sexually harass him in the corridors. He found that, irrationally, even though he could easily find someone to shag and get it out of his system, he rather missed those impromptu make-out sessions that turned him on and then left him to fend for himself. This masochistic attraction was another sign that he was probably going just a bit crazy, but he tried not to dwell on it too long for the sake of whatever sanity he still had left.

Yet four months after the Rising Stars Tournament, Yongha found himself cancelling a trip to the beach to participate in another under-21 tournament, this time in Seoul. He rescheduled a baduk tutoring game with one of his students (a young Yeongusaeng whose father was the executive director of a respected company) and went to Kimpo International Airport to welcome the Japanese and Chinese teams. He convinced Suyong to go with him because, although he knew why he was going to the reception, he liked to have an excuse.

Touya greeted him politely, but it wasn’t a cold politeness like before. “Good afternoon, Ko-san,” he said with a bow, and Yongha wondered amusedly how many make-out sessions it would take for Touya to speak a bit more informally around him. However, if Yongha had to be honest, he was actually relieved that Touya was still Touya, with his social awkwardness and his hideous clothes, and (hopefully) his random urges to grope Yongha every few hours.

Yongha bowed in return and tried not to smile when he felt Shindou glaring at him. “Good afternoon, Touya-san. Did you have a good flight?”

It was probably a bit stupid, but as he kept talking to Touya, who still made stupid mistakes in Korean and became astoundingly chatty if they were discussing baduk, Yongha couldn’t help but smile to himself, glad he’d decided to stay in the capital for the tournament.

***

The first match was not so much a match as it was China getting revenge for their 3-0 defeat at the Rising Stars tournament. Yongha lost by one and a half moku to Lu Li, Suyong resigned at the beginning of yose and Hyunshik didn’t even finish midgame. Yongha’s head felt like it was going to burst after the end of his game, so he made a trip to the toilet to wash his face and, luckily, avoid Lee-seonsaengnim’s attempts at sympathy and encouragement.

There were two people already there when he went in. Touya’s lavender sweater and horrid yellow tie were recognisable from a distance, and Yongha grinned to himself, thinking of Beijing and Touya’s vendetta a few months ago. Touya was washing his hands at the sink, and he nodded in greeting when he saw Yongha’s reflection in the mirror. “Good morning,” he said politely in Korean.

“Not really,” Yongha replied in Japanese, walking up to him. “You were waiting here for me?” he asked with a half-smile, ignoring the scandalized look that the guy two sinks away (Yongha’d seen him hanging around Shindou before) was giving them.

Touya frowned and coloured slightly, but he didn’t seem nearly as affected by Yongha’s taunts as before. “Actually, I was just washing my hands, but if believing that makes you happy, go ahead,” he snapped back, sticking to formal speech despite the tone of his voice. “How was your match?”

Yongha grinned; he had never heard Touya bicker like that with anyone other than Shindou, and he felt an odd sense of accomplishment when Touya retorted and played along with him. “Utter crap,” Yongha replied with a smile that was at odds with his statement. “Care to cheer me up?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the other guy rushing to get out of there, and he had to make a big effort not to laugh. Apparently, Touya wasn’t the only easily-impressed mind among the Japanese.

“No,” Touya said, dropping the napkin he’d used to dry his hands into the bin in the corner. “What did you come to the toilet for, anyway? You’re just standing there talking to me.”

Yongha chuckled and walked up to Touya, catching him by the wrist and pinning him to the wall. “So what do you want me to do instead?” he teased, amused, watching Touya’s colour rise. He ignored Touya’s half-hearted struggle and kissed him, satisfied that he was finally getting what he wanted after four months.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Touya asked him when Yongha released his lips and moved onto his neck. His voice sounded annoyed, although it was hard to take him seriously when he was gasping and not fighting it at all.

“What do you think I’m doing?” Yongha breathed with a smirk, pinning Touya harder against the wall. “I think it’s pretty self-explanatory.”

“I think you’re a jerk,” Touya replied, pushing back against Yongha despite his words. Yongha laughed and bent to kiss Touya again, using his only free hand to try to undo Touya’s belt and hoping the Japanese player wouldn’t go all chaste on him.

“Wait,” Touya breathed suddenly, putting a hand on Yongha’s chest to stop him, although the effect of that gesture was ruined by his moan when Yongha nibbled on his lower lip insistently. “Wait,” he repeated, pushing Yongha off. “You do realise we’re in a public space?”

Yongha stared at him in disbelief. “You can’t be serious,” he said, raising his eyebrows at Touya. “I don’t believe you’re the one to be telling me this.” He would be amused by the irony of it all, but at the moment he was finding it a difficult task. If he was going to be honest, he had missed these spontaneous make-out sessions, but he had been hoping that they would end properly, not leave him halfway again.

Touya sneaked out from under Yongha’s body and started fixing his clothes, an useless gesture in Yongha’s opinion considering how messed up his hair was and how heavily he was breathing. “Anyone could walk in on us here,” he said, straightening his tie in front of the mirror,“and besides, I’m meeting Shindou and Yashiro for lunch in five minutes.” After deciding he looked presentable again, Touya started walking towards the door, but he stopped with his hand on the knob and turned back to grab Yongha by his tie to kiss him.

“That’s better,” Yongha grinned, but Touya artfully slipped out of his grasp and back towards the door.

“See you later,” he said with a small smile, and walked out.

***

Korea lost again the following day, this time to Japan, but it was 2-1 so it wasn’t as shameful as it had been with China. Yongha managed to scrape a win against Touya, just barely, while Suyong and Hyunshik lost by a few moku. Shindou in particular played a magnificent game, but Yongha wasn’t about to tell him that, so he contented himself with pointing out Suyong’s only two mistakes in front of his Japanese rival to make it look like Shindou’s victory had been a lucky coincidence.

However, even though the day’s matches hadn’t been a complete defeat, their results were still notoriously bad. Personally, Yongha didn’t think that a couple of losses mattered that much, but Lee-seonsaengnim apparently disagreed, and honestly, if Yongha had known that playing a few disastrous games were enough to stop the team manager from sleeping (and by extension, from snoring), he would have done it a long time ago.

“Hyunshik dropped by my room just now,” Suyong said that evening, sitting on Yongha’s bed.

“What did he want?” Yongha asked, opening the can of iced tea he’d just bought downstairs.

Suyong shrugged. “He just came in wearing that tacky blue shirt with red kiss marks around the hems and said, ‘I need to shake off this stress. I’m going out! The night is young!’”

“And dark,” Yongha replied with a snicker, leaning against the doorframe. “That’s lucky for him, don’t you think?”

Suyong laughed and threw a nearby cushion at him. “It probably is,” he grinned, dodging when Yongha threw the cushion back.

On the bright side of things, though, Touya was actually getting into the highly reccommended habit of finishing what he began and, although he was still a bit of a prude in some aspects, Yongha considered this a big improvement. Touya was no longer jumping him in public spaces like he had done in Beijing, which made the day somewhat dull in hindsight, but if they were alone, Touya wasn’t nearly as obsessed with personal space, so Yongha was not complaining at all. He was still not entirely sure what he was doing, because he had never let anyone get to him the way Touya had, but when he went to Touya’s room to bother him at ungodly o’clock, Touya always opened the door, and for now that was enough.

“What are you doing here?” Touya said crankily, looking at Yongha standing in the threshold of his hotel room. “I was sleeping, can’t you come back tomorrow?”

Yongha rolled his eyes. “It’s barely 11 pm. What are you, an old man?” he asked, smiling despite himself.

“Don’t you have anyone else to bother?” Touya asked, stepping aside anyway.

“Not really,” Yongha told him.

Touya gave a long-suffering sigh. “Whatever,” he grunted, scratching his head sleepily. “Come in if you want to, don’t stand there all night long,” he added with an exasperated shake of his head that turned out oddly fond.

“Yes sir,” Yongha replied with a grin, closing the door after him and following Touya to the bed.

***

It was an unfortunate turn of events, but apparently Lee-seonsaengnim had come to terms with the fact that they couldn’t be successful in every tournament, and this epiphany had made his insomnia disappear without a trace. “Fuck,” groaned Yongha, pulling his pillow over his head to muffle the snores coming from the next room, and not for the first time wondering why he’d thought staying at a hotel would be more comfortable than going back home every night.

Yongha glanced at the clock on the bedside table: almost five am. He closed his eyes again and tried to concentrate on something else, but the team manager’s snoring was too loud, and after a while he resigned himself to his fate and decided to get dressed and go downstairs to the lobby since he was already awake.

What he did not expect, however, was that there would be someone else there already. He walked up to the man and sat down on the armchair opposite his, bowing slightly in greeting before doing so. “Yang Hai-san,” he said.

The Chinese team manager looked up at him and gave a lopsided smile. “Yo,” he said with a small wave. “I’d say ‘good night’, but I’m not sure that applies anymore. Maybe it’s ‘good morning’ by now.”

“I wouldn’t call it good,” Yongha muttered to himself with a sigh. Well, at least it was the last night of the tournament; he would be able to get a few months of peace after it was all over. “Yang Hai-san, you couldn’t sleep?” he asked politely.

“Nope,” Yang Hai replied, leaning back in the armchair with a sigh. “I usually play basic baduk strategy videos to put me to sleep, but it’s just not working tonight. I guess life and death for beginners isn’t dull enough, huh,” he said, scratching his head with a grin.

Yongha chuckled despite himself. “Try joseki next time,” he replied. Truly, the pros that appeared in that kind of videos were usually monotonous and had soporific voices, and Yongha did wonder sometimes if most baduk players would buy those tapes at all if it wasn’t for the cute female apprentices in them.

Yongha heard footsteps behind him, but didn’t turn around, figuring whoever it was would eventually come to join them and, if not, then it wasn’t really that important.

“Congratulations,” Yang Hai said, nodding at the newcomer. “You guys did well, but we’ll win next time,” he added with a friendly taunt.

Touya nodded and smiled. “Thank you. I’m looking forward to next time, then,” he said, bowing politely to Yang Hai and then sitting down in the chair next to Yongha’s.

The clock in the lobby wall signalled six am, and Yongha decided that, since he wasn’t going to get any more sleep, he might as well make good use of his time. “Say, I’ll treat you both to breakfast,” he announced, feeling uncharacteristically generous. “As long as you don’t eat too much, that is.”

Touya nodded, but Yang Hai shook his head. “A Japanese, a Korean and a Chinese walk into a bar?” he said with a grin. “Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll pass.”

The waiter at the café seemed rather pissed that they were forcing him to get start working at the break of dawn, but he handed them the menu nevertheless and contented himself with yawning next to the drinks shelf, waiting for them to decide.

Yongha ordered Western-style breakfast, while Touya stuck to the traditionally Asian style, rice with fish and tea, because apparently it was ‘healthier’.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Yongha told him with a grin, watching Touya eye his fried eggs and bacon disapprovingly. “I feel like I’m having breakfast with my mother.”

Touya rolled his eyes and swatted his arm. “You’re an idiot,” he replied, shaking his head. “How come you woke up so early, anyway?”

“I was having perverted dreams about you in the shower and I couldn’t go back to sleep after that,” Yongha replied with a smirk, watching Touya’s cheeks blush lightly. “You were being very distracting.”

“Oh god,” Touya laughed despite himself, throwing a bit of bread at him. “You freak.”

Yongha grinned and threw another bit at him, not caring about the annoyed looks the waiter was giving them. “Hypocrite. You know you love it,” he laughed. “And if you deny it, I have no problem with attacking you to death,” he added, holding up the piece of bread.

It only occurred to him after a while that it was somewhat ironic that he had ended up like this, sitting next to Touya at the bar of the café and sharing friendly banter, something he would never have imagined possible just a few months ago. Touya still spoke too politely and used the female form of the first person pronoun sometimes, but there was now a comfortable atmosphere in the air that hadn’t been there before.

That was the impression Yongha got, in any case, but then again, his perception had maybe become a bit warped lately. The worst part was that, if he thought about it, he had let himself be dragged into an actual relationship and he didn’t even mind, which probably meant that he was, in fact, just a bit crazy. And because he was starting to believe that thinking was overrated, he kissed Touya lightly (because he could) and continued eating, paying no mind to Touya’s ensuing protests.