Top of the Key

The sound of the referee’s whistle gives you a brief moment of relief.

With 30 seconds left in the 4th quarter, you found your team down by one point. By whatever luck you have left, the opposing team’s point guard dribbled the ball off of his foot and out of bounds.

24 seconds left. 

You call for your last time out, and the referees grant it. You only have a minute to pull a play out of your ass and get the win for your team. It may not have been a championship game, but the atmosphere sure felt like it. A win here would mean the LG Sakers get to sit at the top of the standings with a perfect record. Through your strategies and players’ effort, the team essentially swept through every opponent with ease. Yet you felt a heavy shadow at the end of the first round, knowing fully well that road led to the only possible folly for your team’s championship aspirations, the undefeated Seoul SK Knights. 

The minute you bought for yourself and your team felt like hours. You try to take a few seconds to catch your breath, but you couldn’t help but notice that your hands were trembling violently.

“Shit”, you thought to yourself. 

A panic attack. A fucking panic attack. You were on the verge of breaking down, on the edge of oblivion. It’s not like that the team or management didn’t know. You fully disclosed the condition when they hired you. But a breakdown in one of the most important games in the season is not a good look for you or the team. 

You try to get your breathing under control only to fail. You start to feel the air getting sucked out of your lungs. As if a sumo wrestler decided to dive on you from the top rope. The trembling at your hands felt like an earthquake. You could hear your pulse ringing in your ears. Everything and everyone felt like they were closing in on you and miles away at the same time. You desperately try to delay the inevitable for just enough time to finish the game and rush to the locker room and breakdown there. As you stare into the crowd, breathing heavily and trying to delay your panic, you lock eyes with her.

In one of the VIP suites of the arena, a group of nine women were watching the game. Despite the similar masks they were all wearing, you knew it was her. At the very end was your girlfriend.

Kim Dahyun.

Even if you were separated by a sea of faces, you could tell that she knew you were on the edge of oblivion. When your eyes met, everything and everyone else around you disappeared. Time slowed down and it somehow felt like there were spotlights only on the two of you. No words were needed between you two (not that talking from that distance was actually possible). All you needed was one nod from her that worked like magic. You felt your breathing start to normalize. The tremors in your hands halted on their own. The ringing in your ears went away. She brought you back from the brink, and now you have to lock in. You turn to the scoreboard to see how long you have left in the break. 

40 seconds left in the timeout.

You can’t explain it, but when you faced your players you felt a second wind come from you, and you needed to spread it with the rest of them. You drew up a crazy half-court play with multiple screens and passes, all while hyping the players up and giving them your trust to follow it through. 

When the referees called everyone back into play, the last possession felt like the longest 24 seconds of your life that somehow also went by in a flash. The players execute the play to perfection, ending with an open three for your best shooter with the clock winding down to 0.

The shot goes in.

The final buzzer sounds off and the crowd goes wild. The graphics on the scoreboard light up with the Sakers’ first half record. 

9–0.

You need a moment to take it all in. You felt like the luckiest man on the face of the earth. The team made history with the best record in the first half of any season in the young league’s life. After shaking hands with the opposing team for a great game, you look again in the direction of Dahyun. You can see her celebrating with the rest of Twice, before Nayeon gets her to look in your direction. You give her a big smile and a nod, a mutual understanding of 

“See you at home. 

I love you.”

The rest of the time in the arena felt like a blur. You barely remember what answers you gave in the media scrum, but you do remember getting doused with a tub of Gatorade in the locker room. You congratulate the team, but remind them that the job’s not done. You tell them to enjoy the two week break for Chuseok and the all–star game, and come back energized for the second half of the season.

The drive back to your apartment was smooth considering it was half past 10. Not a lot of cars, so you open the window and enjoy the air. You park the car and take the elevator to your floor, while checking your phone for the numerous congratulatory messages from friends and colleagues. When you enter your home, the smell of carbonara, your favorite pasta, gets to your nostrils. You see a nice dinner set up for two on your dining table, along with candles that were the main source of light that illuminated the apartment. Save for a minecraft torch lamp on your wall and the overhead lighting for the kitchen counters. You notice a crack of light coming from the bathroom across the hall. You lock the door and put your bag on the couch before taking a seat at the table. You pour yourself a glass of red wine before picking up a fork, but like clockwork Dahyun yells through the bathroom door.

“Wait! Don’t start without me!”

You can’t help but smile and chuckle before putting the fork down, and take a sip of wine. You go to the window and look out at the view to try and relax, but somehow your mind goes back to those last 24 seconds. You start dissecting yourself again. You point out every mistake that led to you being down in crunch time. You doubt your choices, dismissing the great winning play for every mess that you made earlier. You feel yourself getting close to the edge again, being pulled into oblivion before you feel a hug from behind.

It was warm. You felt her head rest near the upper half of your back. You couldn't explain why, but a simple action like her hug worked better than all the past therapy and medications you’ve tried. In a moment that felt like eternity, she broke the silence.

“Why do you smell like grapes?”

You chuckle. “Basketball tradition, they doused me with a tub of Gatorade in the locker room.”

“What, they didn't have orange?” she replies jokingly.

You both giggle. She’s honestly unbelievable. A second ago you were about to break down, but then a hug and some jokes from her made you at peace again. You turn around and finally get to appreciate her outfit without a sea of faces between you. She was wearing a fairly simple outfit. A sleeveless crop top matched with a pair of high waisted, wide jeans. Her hair was its usual wavy texture, falling over her shoulder on one side. You can’t help but smile at her as you both walk back to the table to start eating the carbonara. 

“Is this real Guanciale?”, you ask.

“Yeah.” She answers. “I almost used bacon, but Momo-unnie gave me a tip on where to find some.”

“You're the best, you know that?”

“Come on, this is your night. You’re the first coach in the KBL to go undefeated in the first half of a season. At least for tonight, you’re the best.”

“I wanna say that your carbonara trumps that, but you’ve done so much more than you know.” She looks at you a bit confused, wondering what you meant by that. As much as you want to forget about it, you decide to tell her about your panic attack.

“You know what I mean. In the last minute of the game I was close to having a panic attack.” Your breathing gets heavier as you decide to recall the events. “I mean you saw it right? I was so close to fucking up and I knew it. My hands were shaking, everything started to sound like it was getting farther and farther away.” You didn’t notice but you started aggressively picking at your food. Dahyun did, and she knew you were having a hard time. She holds your free hand, trying to reassure you back into reality and away from the void.

“But you got through it, right?” She tries to reassure you, not just in general but also in your own strength.

“Only because of you.” You reply. “When we locked eyes a while ago, I felt it subside. It felt like finding the light at the end of a dark cave.” You hold her hand in return too, with a firm and warm grip that was more than reassuring. It was comforting.

“You know you’ve taken big steps already in dealing with your anxiety. You can’t forget about that.”, she tried to remind you in an assuring tone.

“And I won’t. It’s just you’ve been my rock these past few years. I’ve only been able to make those big steps because you were there helping me.”

Dahyun blushes. You start peppering the hand with kisses, slowly moving up her arm, then her shoulder, neck, her red cheeks, and then her mouth.  

Your lips meet with a soft quick peck, before you start ramping it up by kissing around her mouth waiting for it to open. Once it starts to get steamier, with your tongues meeting for a few seconds, she pulls back.

“Wait, wait.” She says, making you worry thinking you pushed a bit too far, “can we finish the carbonara before ‘dessert’? I worked hard on the recipe!”

You laugh as the worry subsides. You agree since you were starving too. You still conversed while you ate, asking about her day. She told a funny story of how Sana and Momo were so lost during the game that she and Jihyo spent most of it trying to explain what was happening. Apparently Jeongyeon tried to, but she gave up just before the first half. The idea of an annoyed Jeongyeon trying to explain the game to Momo and Sana made both of you laugh as the two of you finished the pasta. 

As you spit out your mouth wash, you see Dahyun drying the last plate from the batch that you washed earlier. As she puts it away, you sneak up behind her, spin her around, and crash your lips onto hers to continue where you left off. Your hands cling to her exposed waist, while her fingers interlock behind your neck. She brings your head down towards her, pulling you deeper into the kiss. You match her efforts, lightly lifting her up by her waist and making her stand on her toes to better reach your mouth.

The kiss was heavy. It carried a lot of weight, more than what you usually had. Aside from the usual passion and love that you had for Dahyun, it brought a lot more especially after this game. You had already confessed to Dahyun how much she meant to you and how much she’s done to help you overcome the challenges that you’ve faced. But just saying it isn’t enough, at least for you. You wanted her to know through your actions. No, you didn’t want her to just know. You wanted her to feel it. Tonight, that was your only goal.

The kiss gets deeper and evolves into a steamy make out session. The feeling and taste of Dahyun’s lips was intoxicating, encouraging you to take it to the next gear. In a single motion, your hands grab her thighs and hoist her up. She shrieks and giggles from the sudden movement, momentarily breaking the kiss but immediately starts lapping at you once again. Her hands grab on your shoulders tightly in order to secure her weight. Carrying her was never a problem. Hell you could do it for hours on end as long as your lips were locked together. For now, it was only a means to an end. With Dahyun secure, you spin around and plant her on the kitchen island counter. Making out became easier with the both of you properly face to face, but you want to move on to the main course. 

You give Dahyun one last deep kiss before beginning the journey down. You start with her neck, planting soft kisses and sucking on her pale skin. The feel and taste of her skin charged your actions as you started undoing her jeans. Despite the moans of pleasure that escaped her mouth, your time on her neck was short as you decided to continue down. You give her quick, consecutive kisses over her exposed shoulders and covered breasts, before moving on to her stomach. You take your time there, like you always do. You savour her hourglass figure, her smooth and soft skin, the slight protrusions of her abs. Your hands couldn’t remain idle, constantly exploring and caressing every inch of her exposed midriff. You slowly pepper her exposed belly with kisses, each of them tracing a path towards her navel. Soon, your lips and tongue had already made contact with nearly every inch of skin that surrounded her belly button, carefully delaying making contact with it. When you finally concentrate on her navel, she lets out a long moan of satisfaction. You spent the better part of the past few minutes teasing her, so that guttural reaction was earned. For you though, it felt like more than teasing. It was something closer to worship. Hell, you could see yourself doing this all night, but not tonight though. Tonight, you have a loftier goal that you need to see through.

While your mouth was preoccupied with appreciating the perfection of Dahyun’s midriff, your hands were busy in exposing the rest of her perfection. Her jeans were finally undone, removing a barrier from your goal. You break off from her midriff to pull her jeans down, slowly revealing more of her pale white skin to you. You savour the sight of her milky thighs as they tempt you to take a bite, but you control yourself. There’s a pace that you need to follow and that would be going too fast. You finally discard her pants, flinging them towards the direction of your living room. The sound of broken glass makes you think that you might’ve hit a lamp or picture frame, but there are more pressing matters to attend to. 

You take in the sight in front of you. Dahyun’s lying on the kitchen counter sans any pants. Her smooth milky legs glow in the darkness of your apartment, acting like light rays that lead you back to the source. She sits up on her elbows as your eyes meet. They’re filled with anticipation as she waits for your next action. She’ll soon find out that she doesn’t have to wait long. 

Your hands act on their own, slowly tracing and caressing a path along Dahyun’s legs. You work your way back up, going from her feet, then her calves, her knees, and finally stopping at her thighs. Knowing that she’s ticklish, you take your time in specific parts just to get a reaction. You earn some giggles and squirms, but they’re not enough. At least, not for tonight. Whatever path your hands and fingers traced, you followed it with quick and consecutive kisses. Each kiss eliciting a moan as your lips make contact with her skin. As you follow the path, you find yourself slowly sinking and finally kneeling before the counter. Anyone looking at you would mistakenly think you're deep in prayer, not realizing that the opposite is actually happening. To be fair though, what you were doing was close to prayer. Mainly appreciating, borderline worshipping the perfection in front of you that only a Higher Power could have created. But now isn’t the time for philosophical thoughts. There’s someone more important right in front of you that needs to be taken care of. 

You give in to the temptations of Dahyun’s creamy thighs. No matter how hard you try to hold yourself back, their inviting paleness and fullness has you abandon any sense of self control. You turn feral, trying to kiss every inch of her thighs. You jump from left to right, at first randomly alternating before finding a rhythm. After a minute, you find yourself switching it up. A quick kiss here. A light bite there. A long sensual lick going up to her core before stopping mere centimeters from her covered entrance. For a few minutes, you continued teasing her. You could feel her squirming on the counter, from both being ticklish and being teased. You found the reaction cute, just like she was. But it isn’t enough.

You wanted to move on to the main dessert, and Dahyun caught on to your intentions. When your mouth stopped teasing her thighs, your hands immediately reached for the bands of her cotton white panties. She lifted her hips to help you remove the final barrier, letting you pull it off of her easily. While removing it, you notice a string of her slickness forming a connection between her lower lips and a wet spot on her panties, an indication of her arousal from the past few minutes of teasing. After launching her underwear towards the general direction of the living room, hopefully close to her jeans, you finally find yourself face to face with the holy grail. Dahyun’s folds are finally fully exposed to you, leaving the woman with only her top as the only article of clothing she had on left. You couldn’t be bothered to strip her though, you wanted your dessert. 

As much as you wanted to let your feral side takeover again and rush Dahyun towards her orgasm, you wanted this time to be more intimate. More sensual. You wanted to give her the maximum amount of pleasure. You wanted her to savor it. So you go slow. Starting off with soft and slow kisses around her folds. You take your time, letting her know that you’re completely focused on her for tonight. Once you’re sure that you’ve made contact with every inch of her, besides her lower lips, you finally begin. You start with a long and slow lick along her folds, going from near her puckered hole up to her clit. She gives you a long and dragged out moan, which becomes your cue to continue. You lick her again. And again. And again. Each one becomes faster than the last. Each one making her moan. Eventually, you mix it up a bit. You saw that her clit needs attention, and you decide to give it. You give her swollen nub a variation of flicking with your tongue and sucking with the rest of your mouth. At first, you find yourself erratically switching between working her folds and focusing on her clit. Eventually, you get into a rhythm, systematically focusing on one or the other based on her reactions.

Speaking of reactions, by now Dahyun is a moaning wreck. The symphony of moans that escaped her mouth was music to your ears. Despite the moans and whimpers coming from her being incoherent, you somehow understood what they meant. She loves what you’re doing. And she wants more. You decide to grant her wish and finally bring your hands into action. Both were semi idle, tightly gripping Dahyun’s thighs, keeping them open and stationary to give you more room to work with. Now, you use your right hand and introduce your fingers into the mix. As you continue working her with your mouth, you ease a finger into her causing her to whimper. You start pumping into her at a steady pace while your mouth focuses on her clit. After a few minutes with the solitary finger, you decide to introduce a second finger. Then a third. What started out as whimpers evolved into full throated moans. Your mouth and hands were working in perfect unison, a steady rhythm of pumping into her with your fingers, licking her folds with your tongue, and sucking on her clit. The volume of her moans and whimpers indicated that she wasn’t just enjoying this, she was getting close.

With Dahyun’s peak hopefully around the corner, you decide to add in one last sensation that could get her over the edge. Your left hand still gripped her thigh, but not for long. Your hand starts to travel upwards, passing over her stomach before reaching its goal. You fully expected to have to wrestle under her top in order to reach her breasts, but to your surprise you found no such obstacle. You take a quick peek to check if she had only pulled it up, but no. She was already fully nude kneading her own chest. You wonder if she threw her top towards the living room too, trying to add another piece of broken furniture that you’d have to fix tomorrow. But that’s a problem for you in the future. Now? Her pleasure is the only thing on your mind. 

Your hand bumps into Dahyun’s as you reach for her mound. She welcomes it and rests her hand on top of yours, helping you knead her breast. You massage her perky handfuls, occasionally pinching her nipple. You spend a few minutes on her right mound before moving to the left, switching back and forth as you went on. The combination of all these sensations was driving her insane. It was intensely bringing her closer and closer to her release, you just didn’t know how close she was. Fortunately for you, she lets you know.

“Fuck. Chris, I’m close! I’m close!” She manages to get out in between pants and moans. “Just keep doing that! Please!” Who were you to deny her?

Dahyun’s words send you into overdrive. Whatever you were doing, you didn’t just keep it up. You took it into a higher gear as you chased her high. You continued licking and sucking her folds and clit. You sped up your pace of pumping into her with your fingers. You grabbed hold of her breast as she played with the other one. Her movements were growing erratic, constantly squirming on the counter top in response to your actions. You knew she just needed one last push to get her over the edge. So you give it to her. In one last pump into her, you curl your fingers to hit her most sensitive spot. You silently thank god because it finally gets her to her peak.