The Coach's Grip....

"A Game of Guilt and Glances."

In a world where victory demands discipline and loyalty, Coach Ryder stands firm - cold, sharp, untouchable. He has no patience for careless players or pretty boys who think the world owes them everything.
And Ethan - rich, reckless, golden - is exactly the kind of boy Ryder can't stand.

But when fate ties them together on the court, something dangerous stirs beneath the surface. Glares turn into glances. Words left unsaid hang heavy in the air. Every fight, every misunderstanding, only pulls them deeper into a quiet, bitter gravity neither of them wants to admit.

As Ethan hides silent wounds behind his careless smirk, and Ryder struggles with the weight of guilt he cannot name, their world becomes a quiet war of missed chances, broken trust, and forbidden tension. The court is no longer a place of practice - it's a battlefield where pride clashes with longing, where every match is a dance of pain and restraint.

And somewhere in the silence between them... something else begins to burn.
Soft. Slow. Dangerous.

A story of two men trapped between rivalry and yearning, between duty and desire - where the greatest game they play is the one they cannot speak aloud.

#6 in slowburnbl
#7 unresolvedtension
"JULY 01 2025"