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With a small groan and a stretch Minho reached out to pull Jisung closer to his body. The boy had been keeping him nice and toasty all night and they both needed their sleep for the finals today. It was going to be a long day. They had the boulder and lead climbs all in one day. Minho frowned lightly as he patted the bedding beside him, it was void of any Jisung. Squinting his eyes open Minho glanced around the room trying to look for the younger boy. In a slight panic Minho sat up quickly. Jisung wasn’t in the room, not even in his own bed.

“Ji?” Minho’s voice croaked slightly. 

There was no response and so Minho grabbed his phone off the floor and checked the time it was five in the morning, his alarm was due to go off in just under an hour. There were no messages left. Minho quickly unlocked his phone and sent a quick message to Jisung to ask where he was. A few seconds later Minho heard a ping from across the room. Jisung’s phone.

“Huh? Maybe in the shower…” Minho mumbled as he pulled himself out of the bed and shoved on his team Korea shirt and jumper and some shorts. He picked up Jisung’s phone on the way. Heading out into the main room Changbin’s room was still shut and he could hear the boy snoring loudly, most likely San had already left to go to his own warm-up session. 

The kitchen was also empty except for Miihi who was awake and reading a book whilst eating some snacks that they had stored away. 

“Hey, have you seen Jisung?” Minho grabbed his water bottle off the side to fill it up and noticed Jisung’s wasn’t amongst the pile of empty bottles. 

“I’ve only been here for a few minutes so haven’t seen him. Unless he went down to the canteen to grab actual food?” Miihi shrugged. 

He hummed lightly and went to check the bathroom, his mind was starting to get a bit panicked, Jisung would never go to the canteen on his own. He would’ve woken Minho up beforehand.

Minho sent a quick message to See-Yung to see if he had spotted Jisung. It was unlike him to not message anyone about where he was. Hopefully he was just down at the climbing venue already warming up.

See-Yung 🧗🏼- Is Jisung at the Climbing venue already? I can’t find him.

The response was almost immediate. 

Lee Minho - No, there’s no climbers here yet, just staff setting up and a few coaches. 

Minho let out a string of swear words under his breath as he grabbed his shoes and slipped them on. That’s when he noticed Jisung’s climbing bag was missing. If Jisung wasn’t at the venue already he had no idea just where he would be. There could be endless locations. If he had Felix’s number he could’ve messaged the Australian but it was also early, the Australian wouldn’t need to be at the venue until about eight when the comp starts and he helps commentate.

Minho took a detour towards the canteen in the village. Sure Jisung probably wouldn’t be there, but Miihi mentioned it. He’d rather check it than miss. As he walked past the counters Minho grabbed himself a couple of pastries and without thinking of it he grabbed a takeaway bag and shoved a couple in there as well.  It was clearly void of any Jisung, not many athletes about. A few milling around grabbing a coffee but it was still super early. 

Minho checked his phone again, almost praying Jisung would respond to him, despite not having his phone with him. 

“Where are you Sungie…” Minho mumbled as he headed back down the walkway from the canteen, the flags of every country swishing lightly in the morning breeze. There were a few different places Jisung could potentially be, if he just wanted to get air, Minho could probably narrow it down to him sitting on the massive Olympic ring statue that always had hoards of people queuing up to get pictures with it. Potentially he could be in the gym or the spa area for some quieter moments. But Minho knew where to look. The swimming pool.

—-----------

Minho watched as Jisung pulled through another stroke, his head tilting out of the water to take a deep breath and stretch out for another stroke, legs kicking diligently. He was a good swimmer, Minho was almost jealous at the talent that leaked out of the boy.

Minho slid into the room and crouched down in front of the lane Jisung was swimming in, he had done a turn and was swimming towards Minho. Minho smiled softly as Jisung tapped the edge of the wall, head bopping up out of the water, out of breath. 

“Found you.” Minho said softly as he smiled gently as Jisung brushed his wet hair out of his face.

Jisung let out a deep breath as Minho moved out of the way so Jisung could pull himself out of the water. Minho followed behind as Jisung grabbed a towel off the seat and wrapped it around his shoulders. 

“I needed space, not from you...but from the world.” Jisung mumbled as he picked at a thread on the towel .

Minho sat down besides his boyfriend and grabbed a spare towel and leant in to dry Jisung’s hair as he stayed silent and let Jisung talk. 

“Everytime I open Instagram, I have new comments flooding my page, constantly telling me I shouldn’t have even gotten into the finals. That I shouldn’t be here at the Olympics in the first place and I switched teams just to be able to attend…I…Maybe I shouldn’t have made the finals…I stole someone else’s spot Min. There’s only meant to be two Korean climbers… I shouldn’t have been able to come.” Jisung tried to stop his breathing from hitching but after one sob was released he struggled to hold back anymore and tears started falling. 

“Come here bug.” Minho wrapped his arm around Jisung’s shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug. Rubbing his other hand up and down his back soothingly as Jisung choked out sobs were muffled slightly in Minho’s shoulder. 

“You moved to Korea after you got into the Olympics. If it wasn’t allowed then the IFSC and the Olympic board wouldn’t have allowed it.” 

“But that makes no difference..” Jisung mumbled, hiccuping slightly. 

“The people commenting on your posts clearly don’t understand the situation, and clearly don’t research anything before posting ridiculous comments that mean nothing. You moved to Korea to get better training and to become a better climber. It wasn’t for any other sort of advantage. You still easily could’ve made the final if you still climbed with GB.” Minho stroked the back of Jisung’s hair, getting rid of the tangles that had built up from swimming. 

“‘mm cold.” Jisung said as he tried to bury himself closer to Minho. 

“Okay, let’s get you some clothes. Did you wanna call Momo? Maybe clear your head a bit more before we have to give our phones into Iso?” Minho asked as he stood up and lifted Jisung into his arms, not caring that he was getting wet from Jisung’s swim shorts. 

Jisung nodded, his head still hiding in Minho’s shoulder. Minho carried Jisung back towards the changing room where his clothes were.

“Let’s get you dressed bug.” Minho spoke softly as he placed Jisung down onto the bench and grabbed Jisung’s South Korea top.  

Minho didn’t even need to say anything, Jisung dutifully lifted his arms up already knowing Minho was going to put his top on for him. The couple dressed quickly and in silence. Minho wanted to talk, to stop Jisung from folding back into himself but there was not much else he could say. Minho hummed softly as he grabbed Jisung’s shoes and socks as the boy shuffled on his shorts.

“Want me to give you some privacy whilst you call Momo?” Minho asked as he passed Jisung his phone that was still sitting snuggly in his pocket.

Jisung shrugged and hummed before shaking his head lightly, his hand reaching out to hold onto Minho’s. Minho took a seat beside him and leant against one of the wooden beams attached to the seat.

The older climber let Jisung lean against him as he fiddled with his phone for a second before unlocking it and calling his therapist. 

Minho wrapped an arm around Jisung’s waist and rubbed his hip lightly as Jisung began talking to Momo. He tried his best to not listen to his conversation as he explained how he was feeling. It was mostly the same as what he had said to Minho but it was in more detail and Jisung hummed and let Momo also talk back after he finished. 

As Jisung chatted away Minho sent a quick message to See-Yung and explained he found Jisung and they would be on their way to the venue shortly. After sending the message Minho scrolled on his phone for a bit and when he heard Jisung say a small bye he looked at his boyfriend as he ended the call. 

“Feeling better?” 

Jisung let out a long sigh and nodded lightly, “A bit. She said to just focus on my climbing and prove to everyone that regardless of my nationality I should prove that I belong there and to just have fun and climb my best.” 

“She’s right.” Minho stood up and reached out a hand to pull Jisung up, “Come on let’s go get some Olympic medals shall we?” 

—----------------

“And we are back! Today is finals day and as we just saw the climbers have had their observation period for their boulders this morning. I’m Matt, your commentator and today I’m joined with Olympian climber Felix from Australia!” 

“Hi Everyone, Thanks Matt for inviting me today. I’m super excited to see how the finals unravel.” 

“Now we have our first athlete Colin Duffy out on the mats already aiming for his first top on a boulder. Now Colin is a strong climber. The starting position has three limbs all spread out on three different volumes and holds making the starting position a bit difficult. This first move is slightly difficult, having to jump towards the five point mark.” 

“Oo and just saves his small jump by using his hand to hold onto the volume below. Now every time an athlete falls they will lose 0.1 points to their score. So the less attempts the better.” Matt explained to the audience.

Jisung glanced around the isolation zone, it was eerily quiet. He hated it. Usually whilst warming up there would be some chatting especially on the spray wall where some athletes were climbing to warm up their muscles. Jisung knew he was shaking his leg a lot. If he didn’t he felt like he may explode from his nerves. Minho sat beside him, he was also quiet, headphones sat snuggly over his ears as he tapped his fingers on his knee to the beat of whatever it was that he was listening to. Jisung had his own ipod playing music into his ears. Blocking out as much of the screams from the crowd as possible. He didn’t want to know what was happening out there. He could make a rough guess on his own by the speed in the turn over with each climber. 

He was going to be one of the last climbers out due to the ranking of the semi-finals. He wanted to be happy about it but the longer he waited the more climbers faces he had to see look annoyed or happy about their climbing when they came back into iso. Changbin and Seungmin were sitting opposite the couple and were both distracting themselves by stretching and fiddling with their bag full of extra equipment to take onto the mat. 

Jisung glanced as he watched Sam shaking his head and muttering to himself as he went and sat back down. They did have four boulders to get through and so after the first four climbers were out they’d also start the second boulder as well. Once that starts, it hopefully will make the round go faster. 

“So Felix as we start to see each climber out on the mats for their first climb, who are you excited to see?” Matt asked the Australian climber to help keep the audience entertained whilst watching the comp. 

“Well, We are all pretty friendly, I've done lots of different training camps with a lot of these climbers. It will be exciting to see if Alberto can keep his gold from the last Olympics. And of course Seungmin who is currently climbing, we’ve known each other since the youth circuit along with Jisung. So we are fairly close. I guess I'm really excited to see them all climb really.” Felix chuckled lightly as they watched Seungmin on the first problem.

“Yes, Seungmin has been doing lead climbing for a while now, I know he posted that he was practicing more outside bouldering to help improve his problem solving for bouldering comps, especially for the Olympics.” Matt nodded along. 

“Yep, I did go with him to France earlier in the year and we did a lot of climbing outside. It was a lot of fun. We actually met up with Sam and a few of the French team” Felix grinned. 

“We can see Seungmin managing to hit the ten point mark, this comp there's actually three zones for bouldering, we have 5,10 and 25. This is so there is a slightly more consistent gap within the scoring.” Matt explained. 

Boulder One results:

Han Jisung - 24.9

Lee Minho - 24.4

Seo Changbin - 24.1

 Kim Seungmin - 9.8

Alberto Gines Lopez - 9.8

Sam Avezou - 9.6

Jakob Schubert - 9.5

 Cole Liom - 9

Colin Duffy - 4.9

Hwang Hyunjin -4.7

“Now as we continue onto boulder two and three it will start to get a bit complicated as we have two climbers on the mat in one go, and soon there will be three climbers.” Matt chuckled lightly.

Jisung took a deep breath as he chalked up his hands, his arms were already burning and he had only done one problem. He knew his nerves were playing a part in it. The first problem didn’t cause him too much trouble, the cheers from the crowd boosting his energy ready for the olympic finals. The second problem was mainly slopey pinches. He had to make sure he hit each hold with such accuracy. With a quick toe-hook, Jisung managed to stretch up and reach the five point mark. Then there was a kick to the left where he had to place his foot across and grab a disgusting dish, which was so slopey. As he fingers lodged into the dish, Jisung felt his fingers immediately slip out and he fell down onto the mat, Jisung hissed at his fingers, he could already feel them thumping in pain.

“The weather today sure is affecting a lot of the climbing today. A lot of dry fire off the wall.” Felix commented. 

“Yeah, with the heat in France it really is making the friction on the holds nasty, lots of extra chalking up is needed. Jisung seemingly didn’t expect to slip out of that dish hold. He is immediately back on the wall after re-chalking up.” Matt added on. 

“He makes quick work of fixing his mistake and wedging in a foot rather than using his hand. Now the route setters did say there were multiple ways to climb this boulder so it seems like Jisung is going for a more unique attempt.” 

“There’s probably a lot of nerves playing as well which is why we are seeing athletes fall off holds that they would usually be secure on. We saw it earlier with Minho when he dropped the top hold a couple of times, unfortunately not making a flash on the first problem.” Felix explained as they watched on as Hyunjin run onto the mats.

“Okay, so whilst the climbers start to finish boulder two and start on three, I wanted to ask you Felix, as a professional climber, almost everyone brings a bag full of stuff onto the mat. What is actually in there?” 

Felix let out a small chuckle, “Well it really varies depending on the climber, but for me personally I’ll have my water bottle with me. I know a few climbers will take a break, have a few sips of water to ground themselves and get them to stop thinking as much.” 

“Another example, we can see Hyunjin actually, he has another pair of climbing shoes in his bag – like a lot of us. He is changing into a pair of more stiff shoes to tackle this slab. Stiff shoes offer more precise foot placements especially on smaller holds.” 

“Right, there's a lot of different climbing shoes, that's why we don’t see all climbers with the same brand or style. Very much up to preference.” Matt nodded along. “You can see Hyunjin is now breezing through the slab climb now. Very nice to see.”

“He definitely needed these top points to help his score after a low zone on the first climb and I believe he only reached the ten zone on problem two.” Felix mentioned, “He will most likely be around 29 points now? If my maths is correct.” 

Matt chuckled lightly, “yeah around that mark, now we will be giving rough estimates on points, but there will probably be appeals happening as well, so we’ll try and keep everyone updated about that as well, so if someone's score changes that will be why. Coaches can appeal for many reasons but it’s usually to try and get their climbers extra points, or get another climber’s points reduced.” 

“We have Minho coming out for the third problem, as Alberto is getting geared up to tackle problem two.” Matt announced as the buzzer went off for the climbers to start. 

Jisung gritted his teeth as he ran up towards the start of the climb. The slab should be easy. It was his favourite style, his most confident yet he could not for the life of him calm his nerves. He just couldn’t stick to the wall. 

Planting his feet on the tiny foot hold and balancing himself he got himself set up for the move to get to the first five marks. Letting out a deep breath he brought his foot up towards the foothold just to the left of him. He edged his toes out and balanced it onto the tiny foothold. Being careful to slowly shift his weight onto it as he slowly moved his hips and chest. Moving his hand up to hold a nasty handhold. It barely could be called a handhold considering it was a tiny slopey volume the size of a pound. As he placed all his weight onto his left foot it slipped on the hold and Jisung hissed lightly as he felt his leg scraping the volume below. 

“Jisung definitely seems to be struggling on this slab, which is unlike him.” Felix comments, “He loves a slab, I reckon the nerves are definitely surfacing. He’s scraped his knee and it looks like he is quickly checking whether he is bleeding and from here it looks like it's started to ooze some blood which he will have to wrap up before continuing to climb.” 

“I guess that’s something else climbers have in their bags lots of stuff ready for any blood technicals.” Matt added on.

“Yeah, climbers will have band-aids, or I guess in the UK you guys call it plasters right? They’ll have a bunch of them in their bag because if they start bleeding the timer doesn’t stop. They have to bandage themselves up there and then. You’ll often see that some athletes will have towels in their bag, not only to wipe their shoes from chalk, but also if they start bleeding they’ll sometimes try and get away with not wrapping it up for as long as possible. Using the towel to wipe their injury before they start climbing.” Felix explained. 

“Yeah, Jisung is trying to quickly put a plaster on, and it is probably wise. The judges would call him down from the climb if it was too bad.” Matt added on. 

Jisung bit his lip as he glanced towards the clock, he only had a minute left. He hadn’t even gotten further on the wall. On a slab his favourite bouldering style. He could feel his breathing hitch slightly, lips wobbling momentarily. He couldn’t cry on international television, but he was embarrassed. He was known for being able to flash slab climbs. Shaking his head he decided to grab his bags and head backstage. His mind was everywhere, there would be no point in trying a couple more times and getting more frustrated with himself. 

“You’ve got this Jisung!” 

Jisung’s head sprung up, he knew that voice. His eyes zoned in on his old coach, Chris. He was sitting wearing a GB hat and waving a South Korean flag, a proud smile on his face. Jisung let out a small smile, Chris had kept his promise. 

“Just Breathe!” Chris shouted. 

Jisung grinned and shook his head playfully and headed backstage, Chris always knew what to say. 

Rankings with one boulder to go:  

Lee Minho - 73.7

Kim Seungmin - 58.8

Seo Changbin - 58.6

Cole Liom - 58.6

Han Jisung - 54.4

Jakob Schubert - 43.8 

Colin Duffy - 39.8

Hwang Hyunjin -39.5

Alberto Gines Lopez - 29.5

Sam Avezou - 29.5

Jisung rushed back into isolation and collapsed on his seat, Minho was sorting out his shoes and glanced over towards his boyfriend, eyes widening slightly and brows furrowing as he clearly spotted Jisung’s glossy eyes. 

“You okay?” Minho asked softly to not draw too much attention towards them. 

Jisung nodded “Mhmm”, his voice cracking slightly from him holding back his sob. 

Minho placed his hand on Jisung’s knee, drawing circles and squeezing his thigh lightly. 

“I messed up the slab.” Jisung whispered, he glanced towards the other climbers but nearly all of them had headphones in or were too busy getting ready to go out for the last boulder.

“Good, I want that gold.” Minho grinned and winked, lightly ruffling Jisung’s hair. 

Jisung scoffed and shoved his boyfriend away lightly.

“It’s the olympics Jisung, if you weren’t nervous and you didn’t mess up at all I would be calling Mars and asking them to pick up their lost alien. Next up is the dynamic boulder. Which you’ve been working on so much. You’ve got this. I believe in you Jagi.” Minho squeezed Jisung’s leg lightly.

“Chris is in the crowd.” Jisung mumbled as he watched as Changbin headed out to do the last boulder. 

“Your GB coach? I didn’t realise he was in Paris.” 

Jisung hummed and nodded,” Yep, neither did I. I-I’m really glad he’s here. See-yung has been a great coach, but Chris.. Chris has been my coach since I was like ten. I owe him so much.” 

“Then go and make him proud and smash the last boulder, get out there and flash it.”

Final rankings after Bouldering (Lead to come):

Lee Minho - 98.5

Cole Liom - 83

Han Jisung - 79.4

Kim Seungmin - 68.8

Seo Changbin - 68.5

Jakob Schubert - 68.5

Hwang Hyunjin 64.2

Colin Duffy - 44.7

Sam Avezou - 39.5

Alberto Gines Lopez - 39.4

“Hello, Welcome back everyone to the last part of the Olympic Sport Climbing here in Paris. Earlier today we got to see our climbers face their first half of their climbing disciplines. You can catch up with them after this. But of course spoiler alert for the results as we take a quick look back at that round. I’m your commentator Matt and I'm joined by fellow Australian climber Olympian Felix.”

“Thanks for having me Matt. Definitely excited for the lead after some amazing bouldering earlier today.” Felix grinned. 

Jisung hummed along to his music as he made sure to focus on his stretches. It was busy in the warm-up room. Lots of athletes climbing on the spray wall and some nervous chatting. See-yung had already spoken to him and despite wanting him to warm up with Changbin and Minho, Jisung wanted the space. He was sat in third place and so still had a lot of work to do if he wanted to get the gold medal. 

Jisung hung on the fingerboards to keep his fingers stretched.

“Hmm Jagi, don't pull too hard, you’ll injure yourself before the climb.” Minho hummed out as he approached Jisung, chalking up his hands as he reached Jisung. 

Jisung turned towards Minho and pulled out his headphones, “Huh?” 

“You’re gonna injure yourself, you need to wrap your fingers, your skin must feel sore after the boulder round right?” Minho asked as he began digging through Jisung’s bag. 

Jisung had been too focused on bandaging his knee after his boulder round, he had forgotten how much the skin on his fingers burned every time he pressed the pads of his fingertips down on a hold.

Minho tutted lightly and shook his head as he pulled out the bandage and motioned for Jisung to take a seat on the mat. The older boy followed. 

“Also, you didn’t even use our matching bags!”

“Ah, right yeah, I got too nervous about it, I-I really want people to know, but it’s also scary Min.” Jisung took a deep breath. 

“If you weren’t scared then I would’ve questioned who you were.” Minho joked lightly as he took Jisung’s hand in his and began bandaging up his two fingers that were bright red and looked slightly irritated.  

“I want to Min. I’ll use it during the lead. Maybe it will help me stay calm, I can pretend you are there guiding me in the embodiment of an orange cat.” Jisung chuckled lightly and felt his cheeks start to burn as Minho kissed his fingers after finishing bandaging them. 

“Good, cause I'm rooting for you. But I'm not gonna go easy on you.” Minho smiled softly at Jisung. 

Jisung let out a short breath. He wanted to kiss Minho right there. But there were cameras, volunteers, other climbers and coaches. Too many people surrounding them. Jisung stood up quickly and grabbed Minho’s hand and pulled him quickly towards where the toilets were. They had time, still a few more minutes before they would be ushered into the seating area of their iso.

“Where are we going?” Minho bit back a  grin already sensing what Jisung wanted and where he was headed.

Jisung didn’t respond, focusing purely on getting to the unlocked toilet and pushing Minho inside, quickly locking the door behind him. Jisung didn't even have time to speak before Minho was pushing him against the locked door. Mouth pressing against his own in a heated kiss. Jisung let out a small huff as he kissed his boyfriend back. Hands wrapped around Minho’s neck as he pulled the climber closer. Minho let his hands rest on Jisung’s waist. Luckily neither of them had their harness on just yet, they both didn’t need them on until slightly later. Jisung bit down and pulled lightly on Minho’s bottom lip, sucking it lightly before pressing back into the kiss.

Minho moved one hand up to cup Jisung’s neck, finger rubbing Jisung’s cheek as he pressed himself up to Jisung, the younger boy spreading his legs just slightly to let Minho get closer. 

“Be quick…” Jisung let out a breath as Minho trailed his kisses down to Jisung’s neck, one of his hands pulling Jisung’s shirt out of the way before sucking lightly on the skin. 

Minho just gave a small hum in response and his hands found the edge of Jisung’s shorts. 

“I saw them head down this way. But they would’ve been back by now. Unless they’ve gotten lost.” Changbin's voice was heard in the distance.

Minho’s hands suddenly stilled as he pulled his head from Jisung’s neck. Jisung’s eyes widened as Minho quickly covered Jisung’s mouth with his hand. 

“Well they need to turn up soon, everyone is getting escorted to the iso area. We are about to start.” See-yung’s voice became clearer as they walked past the room that the pair were hiding in. 

“I’ll do another lap and try to find them, luckily they aren’t climbing until slightly later but we will need to hurry.” See-Yung added. 

Jisung gulped as Minho slowly moved his hand away from his mouth, “We gotta go.” Minho whispered. 

Jisung tried to catch his breath as he sucked in some air as Minho fixed Jisung’s shirt before punching Minho lightly on the arm. 

“Ow! What was that for?!” Minho rubbed his arm.

 “You didn’t leave a mark did you?” 

“It just looks like a mosquito got you,” Minho shrugged, “Named Minho.” Minho winked. Jisung punched him again.

—---

“The weather has gotten slightly cooler here in the arena, the first few climbers already finishing their time in Paris. This lead climb is all about endurance, nothing too crux worthy but the route setters have explained that the climbers will want to be accurate and move fast. It’s supposedly one that tires out quickly.” Matt began to explain as Alberto walked out onto the mats. 

“The climbers will definitely appreciate the cooler temperatures right now after battling the heat during boulders. I know I would definitely be a lot happier climbing in the cooler weather right now.” Felix added on. 

“If you are just joining us, welcome to Le Bourget! You are watching the top 10 athletes in the world compete in their very last event here at the Olympics. Out on stage we currently have Sam Avezou from France, a big crowd cheering for him here today. Now Felix tell me, when you guys are climbing, do you tend to zone out from all the cheering or do you use the cheers to help boost your energy?” Matt spoke into his microphone. 

“It really depends on the climber. As I specialise in speed climbing I tend to not even think about the cheers until the end. But when I have done lead climbing I think I usually enjoy the cheers when I'm coming up to the headwall. It’s when a lot of us have used up all our energy and we just need something to keep us going.” Felix explained. 

Jisung tapped away at his IPod to try and find the right song for him to listen to. His nerves had already started up again and he had only just sat down in his seat. After See-yung had walked away from the bathroom door the couple had quickly headed into Isolation and just used a simple excuse of them going to the toilets before the start. From the raised eyebrow See-yung had given them, he definitely thought differently. 

The Korean climber watched as Colin Duffy got ready to take the stage. Letting out a slightly shaky breath, Han hit play on his music and shut his eyes. He needed to tune everything out. 

He had made it to the olympic final, he just had one more climb to do and it was all over. Like Momo had suggested he just needed to have fun. They wouldn’t get this kind of international screening until the next Olympics already decided to be in LA. Jisung tapped his leg along to the tune of One Ok Rock’s ‘listen’. 

It wasn’t hard, he knew the route – well– he would like to think he did. Minho had spoken to him during the observation period and had given a few pointers that Jisung definitely wouldn’t have spotted on his own. What happens if he was looking at the wrong section of the climb though? Minho had said the sequence in the blue section was simple to figure out if Jisung took his time and did it feet first. But there were two different blue sections. What if Minho was explaining one area and Jisung was looking at the other blue section at the other end of the climb. Oh no… the entire route reading and observation period would be pointless. Jisung scratched his leg lightly, eyes peaking open and he glanced towards one of the belayers standing next to Jakob who were waiting to go out. He’d never been belayed by any of them before. What if Jisung did a dynamic move and slipped? What if the belayer had left too much slack and Jisung came hurdling down the wall? …Just like last time. Jisung sucked in a breath as he glanced down at his harness. He knew his harness, he’d had it for years. It was reliable. But he had it for ages now, what if today was the day it decided to unbuckle and loosen from his waist as Jisung jumps for the top hold of the wall, making him slip out of it and plummet to his death. 

He needed to do well, he was in third place. If he didn’t get a medal then it would’ve been a waste of time for him to go all the way to Korea, change the country he was participating in, for him just failed, Chris was watching. He couldn’t let down his coach that he had trained with for years. He had flown all this way. Well, he probably took the Eurostar, but he had taken time out of his week to come and watch Jisung. He couldn't fall short now.

He needed to climb well so there wouldn’t be any appeals against him, even a single appeal could ruin his chances of getting a medal. 

Jisung tried to gulp but his mouth was dry. Looking down he took a shaky hand and tried to open his bottle, it twisted easier than he thought, the cap flew off and the bottle slipped out of Jisung’s hand, the water splashing everywhere. 

“Ji? Are you good?” Minho peaked over to him. 

Jisung let out a shaky breath and nodded, not trusting his voice. His water. He needed to at least drink something before his climb. He was about to climb up a fifteen metre wall. He couldn’t go out there with a dry throat already. 

Jisung let out a pathetic whine and quickly pulled his knees up to his chest. If he regulated his breathing, then maybe he could try and get some saliva back in his throat. He'd be fine then to climb.

“Jagi?” Minho asked, concern laced in his voice. Jisung wanted to speak, but he was afraid of what would come out of his mouth. He just needed to breathe. 

“Jisung.” Minho’s voice was closer and the boy felt an arm on his knee, and one on his shoulder. 

“I-I..” Jisung’s voice stumbled over the words he wanted to come out. His brain worked too fast for him to think about what he wanted to say. 

“Shh Jisung, it’s okay. Just nod for me. Did you take your meds this morning?” Minho asked softly. 

A quick shake of his head. He assumed he’d get back to his room before Minho had woken up. He had hoped he could crawl back into Minho’s arms and sleep some before inevitably having to face today.

“Okay. I’ll grab one from your bag yeah?” Minho let go of Jisung’s knee and without thinking Jisung’s hand wrapped around Minho’s wrist. 

“D-Don’t go, I- Min.” Jisung choked out. He didn’t want people to look but he could already feel hundreds of eyes on him. 

His boyfriend hushed him lightly, hand coming back on his knee brushing it lightly. His calloused hand felt familiar and comforting. 

“I just need to grab your meds. Is that fine?” Minho said softly. 

Jisung nodded and Minho quickly dug around Jisung’s backpack, wasting no time in pulling out the small orange bottle and shaking one into his hand. He also reached in and grabbed another bottle of water. Jisung forgot that it was there. 

“Okay, you okay to take this yeah?” Minho asked and Jisung let his mouth fall open, Minho placed the tablet on Jisung’s tongue before pressing the bottle of water to Jisung’s lips. He didn’t take note of the fact he swallowed the tablet, Jisung was too focussed on how nice the water felt against his sore throat. 

“I-I can’t do it Min..” Jisung’s voice was shaky and it was hard to completely understand what he was saying. 

“I’m not a lead climber, I-I’ve r-read it wrong. I’m gonna fall, fall. Gonna let you and and everyone down.” Jisung felt the tears start to pour down his face, Minho was quick to cup his face and began to softly wipe them away. 

“You’re in the finals Jisung. Of course you’re an amazing climber. You’re a better climber than me, that's for sure. And you could beat Changbin in your sleep.” Minho interrupted Jisung. 

Jisung noticed a lot of whispering and talking behind him and noticed Cole wasn’t in the Isolation room. It was Minho, him and a few staff members and volunteers.

“B-but..”

“Nope, no negative thoughts okay. Think about everything Momo, Chris, and See-yung have all told you.”  Minho butted in. 

“A-and now I have a mark on myy neck, everyone is going to be talking about that. I can’t go out there Minho.” Jisung shook his head as a fresh wave of tears started to fall from his eyes. 

“Sshh, it’s fine Jisung. If people talk, they talk. But they better not say it’s anyone else but me. I need you to climb well. I need some competition for the gold medal. How else am I suppose to brag about winning if it’s not you in second place. How will you be able to flaunt around being  first place in the world at Sports Climbing if you don’t even climb.” Minho leant forward and kissed Jisung’s temple. 

“I believe in you Jagi. You might not believe in yourself right now. But know you are secure, you have a harness on…” Minho grabbed the bucket of rope that had been placed besides him by a staff member. He began looping it around Jisung, the boy watching how his boyfriend did the usual figure of eight knot. “..It will be tied up, an extra knot like you always do.” Minho added on the extra stopper knot. 

“You have Justin, your belayer. You had him in the qualifiers and the semi-finals. You can trust him. He’s qualified.” Minho stood Jisung up and picked up the familiar matching chalk bag that he now shared with his boyfriend. 

“You’ve got your funky new chalk bag filled to the brim with new chalk so you won’t run out halfway through your climb.” Minho strapped the chalkbag around Jisung’s waist, “Don’t pretend you weren’t thinking that.” Minho gave a pointed look and Jisung let out a small chuckle as he took a small shaky breath. He had briefly thought about it.

“Take a sip of water.” Minho passed over his own water bottle for Jisung to take a sip from. 

“And now you are ready, to take on the lead wall. Forget all about the route reading, take your time– but not too long that you get timed out. And go climb that lead wall, and I will see you after, when we find out who gets the gold.” Minho winked and kissed Jisung’s cheek one last time before nudging his boyfriend towards the front of the entrance way where they walked out into the crowd. 

He had no time to think about what just happened, he suddenly saw the signal to walk out and he was stepping out onto the Olympic stage for the very last time. 

“Now, we aren’t too sure what has happened, but there was a change in the order. Cole came out before Jisung. I have asked if there are any details about why this is, but was told the cameramen were ushered out of the isolation, and I haven’t had word about why Jisung didn’t take to the stage first.” Matt informed the audience online. 

“Very strange, sometimes it does happen if there’s a technical issue with a climber’s harness or the rope. But I don’t believe that’s the case.” Felix glanced down at his phone wanting to text his friend, Jisung wouldn’t see it until after his climb so  by then it would be pointless. 

“Nevertheless, Jisung is now out on the stage for his final climb.” Matt clapped his hand together. 

Jisung took one more look up at the wall, chalked his hands up and headed for the starting hold. Shaking out his arms and rolling his shoulders, His last climb began. 

The start was fairly simple, a few pinches to begin with some nice heel hooks to start the climb. Jisung wasted no time in clipping into the first quickdraw and kept moving. Just from the climb alone he knew there was a lot of endurance needed, especially if he reached the headwall. 

Jisung glanced up at the first section of the blue holds, the feet first section. Clipping into the next quickdraw and chalking up Jisung steadied himself as swung one leg up to start with a bat hang. It was a bit awkward, his feet barely holding their position as he brought the second leg up. He worked quickly, bringing his arms across and traversing over towards a nasty crimp hold. He slowly unhooked one of his feet and switched it to a heel hook for him to rock up to. 

He knew he probably looked like a bit of a twisted pretzel right now. 

“Now a lot of climbers have done this feet first, we did see Alberto slip and Sam slip after this section, the next few holds suddenly getting a lot harder and causing the climbers to get pumped quickly and drain their energy.” Matt explained. 

“Yep, as Jisung untangles his body you can see that he is slightly pumped, he’ll most likely take a second to rest here as we see him resting on the foot hold. There really aren't many places for the climbers to rest, it’s a very long endurance climb.” Felix added on. 

“I wanted to talk about the chalk bag that Jisung had on actually, Is that Minho’s bag?” Matt asked Felix as the camera panned to where Jisung was chalking up, a close up of the chalkbag. 

“I don’t think it is. But it does seem similar to Minho’s bag in the bouldering. Maybe it’s a matching set.” Felix smirked lightly, realising that Jisung and Minho actually had a pair of matching chalk bags. 

“Now Jisung is up near the top, the few climbers that can get a medal got near here. He was sitting in third place after the bouldering and so he was sitting comfortably. He doesn’t have a lot of work to do but after the last few climbers he definitely needs a big score to get into a medal position.” 

Jisung pulled up on his right arm as he edged towards the headwall. He had no idea how well anyone else had done, but he needed to get onto the headwall and above to guarantee himself a medal. He needed a medal, all his hard work would be for nothing.  Clipping in, Jisung pulled on the rope and bit it as he dragged through some extra slack as he reached up and clipped the next quickdraw that was just above the edge that was protruding out indicating the head wall.

He could feel his arms burning, there wasn’t anywhere to rest, just a few decent places to chalk up. His thighs had built up lactic acid and felt a bit like jelly as he swung his left leg up to a small foothold. 

“Jisung reached the headwall, the last section of the wall. This is full of big slopers which aren’t Jisung’s favourite, especially when you are pumped and mixing that in with some dual tex footholds to add to the difficulty.” Felix added, his voice getting slightly excited as Jisung took a steady breath and with one hand clipped himself onto one of the last clip drawers. 

Chalking up his left hand after clipping, Jisung began to slowly move his hand to the next sloper right before the dynamic move towards the end. Twisting his hip just slightly Jisung began edging his hand upwards, seconds later he felt his footslip from the hold and he was falling off the wall. There was a loud cheer around him and Jisung smiled brightly. 

“He must be guaranteed a medal after that climb! We still have Minho to come out to climb so i’m sure this will end up being very tight up the top.” Felix beamed as he watched his friend untie his rope and waved lightly at the crowd as he made his way over towards the seats where all the contestants were sat.  

Seungmin and Hyunjin rushed over to him and pulled him into a tight hug. 

“Jisung, that was great!” Seungmin patted him on the back. 

“That was so tense to watch.” Hyunjin agreed with Seungmin as they let Jisung sit down and slip off his shoes. A bucket filled with his bag and his shoes had been brought out for him. 

Quickly grabbing his water Jisung downed half of it whilst he watched Minho start his climb. He didn’t want to stop watching Minho’s climb so he awkwardly tried to slip his socks and shoes on whilst keeping his eyes trained on his boyfriend. 

Weirdly enough he felt pretty content, he didn’t feel like he would be upset about whether or not he won a medal, he knew it was going to be a tight result. He’d managed to get a few moves away from the top so he was in with a good chance. Jisung quickly scanned towards the coaches pit and spotted See-yung, his coach already looking at him giving him a thumbs up. Besides him was Chris. Jisung let out a smile and gave a thumbs up back to See-yung and a small wave to his old coach. 

Turning back to his boyfriend, Jisung clenched his hands together. Minho was chalking up, fingers gripping onto a crimp hard, Jisung could see Minho looked tired and his brain was clearly working overtime as he scanned all around the wall before making his next precise movement. He felt his face heat up slightly as he overheard Cole talking to Sam about how Minho’s chalkbag was matching Jisung’s. 

Jisung sucked in a breath as Minho’s foot popped as he was moving upwards, luckily managing to stay on the wall as he came up to the headwall. It almost felt like everything moved in slow motion for the next minute as his boyfriend clipped himself in, reaching for Jisung’s high point before he somehow dryfired off the wall. It looked like he had pulled too hard on the crimp and his fingers gave up. 

He’d gotten higher than Minho. 

Jisung glanced over towards See-Yung, he knew the cameras were pointing towards him, he could see the flashing red light in the corner of his eyes. See-yung was frantically looking at his phone. Jisung spotted Minho also glancing towards the scoreboard. There were 1.1 points in it. 

Jisung’s face cracked into a wide grin and he sprinted over to Minho who had a hand covering his mouth. 

The climber wrapped his arms around Minho just as the boy finished untying the rope. 

“Oh my..god.” Minho breathed out. 

“Min!” Jisung hid his face into Minho’s shoulder. He felt his boyfriend laugh lightly. 

“Ji..what the hell..” Minho chuckled and twirled Jisung round making Jisung squeal lightly. Pulling away Minho met Jisung’s eyes. 

“What just happened..” Minho whispered. 

“You did it Min.. You're an olympic champion, you’re my olympic champion.” Jisung giggled lightly, his eyes filling with tears as he saw Minho’s eyes gloss over as well. 

“J-jagi…” Minho breathed out. 

“Ahh Minho Hyung! Jisung- ah! Congrats.” Changbin came barrelling into the pair of them.

2024 Olympic Sport Climbing (Boulder and Lead) Results 

Gold Medalist - Lee Minho -176.5

Silver Medalist - Han Jisung - 175.4 

Bronze Medalist - Cole Liom - 163

4th -Seo Changbin - 152.5

 5th -Kim Seungmin - 140.8

6th- Jakob Schubert - 132.5

7th -Hwang Hyunjin -124.2

8th- Colin Duffy - 92.7 

9th - Sam Avezou - 78.5

10th - Alberto Gines Lopez - 78.4

“And there we have it! Your olympic Champion has been decided. Lee Minho of South Korea has claimed the gold medal. His teammate Han Jisung claiming second place with a mere 1.1 points between them! A very close call between the pairing. And we have Cole Liom bringing up third place.” Matt announced. 

Jisung barely had time to catch his breath, let alone get to speak to Minho as they had been separated in the midst of celebrations and now they were being rushed around to get ready for the medal ceremony. 

He was dressed in the South Korean colours, lined up behind the staff member that would lead them out onto the stage for them to get their medals. He felt a small tap on his butt as Minho’s hand rested there lightly for a couple of seconds, Jisung spun around and Minho stuck out his tongue. 

“And here we have it! Walking onto the stage are the winners of the Sports Climbing here at the Paris 2024 Olympics." Matt spoke. 

Jisung couldn’t stop the grin that sat on his face as they walked up to the platforms. The crowds were cheering loudly, a few South Korean flags waving in the audience and Jisung spotted his teammates standing just below in the coaches pit. 

“..and your silver medalist representing South Korea, Han Jisung!” 

Jisung stepped up onto the platform, grinning and waving wildly. He was presented with a large plushie in the shape of the red mascot that had been designed for the Paris Olympics. He bowed slightly to allow the silver medal to be placed over his neck. 

“Congratulations.” He was given a small smile and a shake of the hand.

Jisung hugged the plushie to his chest as he turned his head and watched Minho be presented with his gold medal. Minho suited gold. 

The flags behind them were raised and the South Korean national anthem began to play. Jisung didn’t want to pretend to sing it, he’d probably botch the lyrics. He had tried to learn the lyrics but amongst training and all the stress, he hadn’t even had the time to study them. But the tears came anyways so he at least looked too engrossed and feeling the moment. 

Jisung blinked a few stray tears away as the song ended, a staff member approaching them with a phone to take a picture with the three climbers. Jisung hugged his plushie with one hand and took the phone and held it up towards himself, Minho and Cole. The three of them grinning brightly, Minho pretending to take a bite of the medal, whilst Cole pointed at his with a funny shocked face. 

After giving the phone back, everyone was dismissed and Jisung jumped off the platform happily turning to look at Minho who was already smiling towards his boyfriend. 

“You’re going to be the talk of the town, you won’t be able to get any peace now.” Jisung laughed as Minho walked over to him. 

“Hmm, I mean, we could make it about both of us.” Minho smirked. 

“Well, I have a silver medal so i’m sure I’ll get a fair few journalists heading my way.” Jisung shrugged as Minho took a step closer. 

Minho hummed as he brushed a  stray hair away from Jisung’s face, “I mean true, but there is something else a lot more interesting.” Minho grinned, glancing towards Jisung’s lip. 

“W-well, don’t you want to just focus on your gold medal?” Jisung couldn’t help himself and also looked down at Minho's lips. They hadn’t even had a chance to really celebrate their wins. 

“I could, but I’d rather focus on you right now.” Minho said in a hushed voice. Jisung didn’t respond, he let his body move before his mind could catch up. He had already pulled himself towards Minho, locking their lips. 

He heard a flurry of camera shutters go off as he smiled into the kiss, he was pretty certain he heard See-Yung shout something towards them, but he didn’t care. He was kissing the Olympic Champion. 

He had won silver at the Olympics. What a silly little life he had going on.