Life's Breakthrough (5)
"Ah, what the hell."
"Ah…"
Yu Dahye's four-game win streak challenge for the day. From the very start, though, it was clear this one wasn't going to be easy.
"Ugh, Twitch really needs to pop off this game…"
They'd been managing the early game decently enough on their own terms, but with accidents piling up in bot lane, Dahye's brow furrowed.
"Hey, careful top!"
"Got it."
Park Jimin, who'd recently taken an interest in AP champions, had pulled out Vladimir — a pick he'd been practicing here and there. This game he'd been bullying the enemy tank Sion in lane, stomping him into the dirt, when the enemy jungle Lillia came looking for a gank.
"…"
Against Sion's gank setup and Lillia's overwhelming move speed pressing him in, Jimin calmly landed his skillshots.
"Oh?"
"Ah! So close."
Vladimir had already opened a massive growth gap on Sion in lane. In a one-versus-two, he almost snagged the jungler instead — but missed it by a hair.
"I don't think I even got an auto off…"
"No, you did amazing!"
From the enemy's perspective, the gank meant to snuff out late-game Vladimir's potential had failed completely, and they still hadn't fixed the miserable top-lane matchup either.
Like a boxer cornering his opponent, Jimin kept grinding Sion down without rest. Their mid laner Talon pinged that he was coming top.
Talon collected Sion like a gift — the tank had been low-health farming top when he arrived and finished him off.
"Jimin, enemy red side."
"Okay."
Having sensed Lillia's movement, Dahye called out to Jimin. Talon left the enemy Jayce mid and joined up fast.
Even though their top side was short on hard CC, Jimin's rapid approach and Lillia's stubborn refusal to give up the red buff got the enemy jungler killed.
And Jayce, trailing in after them, got swept up and died as well.
"Nice! Okay, we can actually breathe now."
After the red buff, Dahye scrambled to snatch the enemy raptors too, smiling with satisfaction.
Talon, who'd been feasting on kills in the chaos, solo-killed Jayce. With Jimin's Vladimir growing completely uncontested up top, they had total control of the top side of the map.
"Aargh!"
A critical teamfight. Talon got focused by the enemy's skill barrage and was the first one cut down.
"…"
And then, from the flank of the enemy champions closing in for the ace, Jimin's Vladimir appeared. He spread his ultimate, Hemoplague, in an instant and unloaded his skill combo.
Enemy Kog'Maw melted on the spot. The enemies eyed the pool-less Vladimir, but all they saw was gold — he'd popped Zhonya's. While their attention locked onto him, their team's Twitch dropped stealth and ulted.
Twitch hadn't grown well, but he'd scraped together enough for a core item and harvested the low-health enemy champions.
Even tank Sion fell to the last tick of Jimin's Q.
"Ah, that was so good."
Dahye clapped without even thinking about it.
"Yay, we won again!"
"Haha…"
This time, with the bot-lane gap, he'd honestly thought they were going to lose. Watching Jimin close out the game on a Vladimir he barely even played, Dahye couldn't stop smiling.
"Ah, finally — one win left."
Diamond 1, ninety-seven LP. One more win and Dahye would hit Master. Territory she'd never set foot in before.
"Thank you for the hundred thousand won!"
Donations poured in. Some people wondered if this was even real, but the super plays up top and the sight of a beautiful streamer genuinely, radiantly happy kept them from closing the stream.
"Whew, I'm nervous…"
"…"
She was so earnest about Sol that her reactions were fantastic — and watching her, Jimin, who was just as wound up about her Master push, found himself smiling too.
Locked into jungle, Dahye switched over to ADC.
"Yeah — it's a promo. I should play my main role."
She nodded to herself.
"Riven?"
The enemy team locked first. Riven — once the poster child of broken top-lane champions.
"…"
Jimin barely hesitated before locking in his pick.
"Oh, Fiora!"
Fiora — the champion that had stunned so many of Dahye's viewers before.
Top was Jimin's Fiora versus Riven. Jungle was RealOh versus Lee Sin. Mid was Rox versus Syndra. Bot was Dahye's Ezreal-Karma versus Lucian-Nami.
Fitting for a Master promo, the game was fierce from the opening minutes.
"Ah, that's so bad."
Their hot-tempered jungler RealOh died to the enemy Lee Sin in an early skirmish. Dahye's expression darkened. She was irritated, but she still had to hard-focus lane to starve out the enemy Lucian-Nami.
"Haaah."
"Ah…"
Rox, sitting mid, got cleanly ganked and killed by Lee Sin. Dahye clamped her mouth shut — not even a curse came out — and just kept laning.
"Aang, come on!"
"…"
At the last second Ezreal's Q missed and Lucian escaped. She'd been so locked in that the oddly cute little sound of frustration made even Jimin, fully concentrated on his own lane, flinch.
"Ah, please."
Rox died to Lee Sin's gank again. Didn't even flash, walked into Syndra's Scatter the Weak, got hit by Lee Sin's sonic wave — free kill.
"Ah, fuck."
Chat had blown past the limits of her patience, and a curse slipped out of Dahye.
Two deaths and Rox was basically a damage support sitting mid. With nothing to expect from their mid laner, the other lanes had to play even harder.
"…"
Riven boldly tried a trade into Fiora, then flinched and backed off after getting hit by a Riposte into a blistering auto chain.
"Ah…"
Dahye sighed at the minimap — Lee Sin was heading for Fiora. The enemy Lee Sin was fed, and Fiora's condition wasn't perfect.
"So close."
"Oh?"
Fiora went down to Lee Sin, but she burned flash to take Riven with her — turning what should have been a free kill into a trade.
"I think I could've escaped…"
"No, you did well."
"Okay."
His answer was so short and flat even to Dahye that it was clear — Jimin was completely locked into the game.
"Ah, no."
The enemy damage line was already showing off. And with a fed Lee Sin running around as a bruiser, basically unkillable, she couldn't even guess how much more gold they'd need to melt him.
A stifling teamfight setup. Dahye's face had already gone stiff.
"…"
Dahye looked like she had a lot to say — then she just sighed, blocked the guy's chat, and left it at that.
"Nice — well, at least Jimin's doing great."
"Yeah."
Fiora picked off Riven on a side lane. The growth gap from lane phase had only kept widening. But the game was still heavily against them, and Dahye's reaction stayed muted.
"Huh?"
Dahye's eyes went wide.
Jimin took Riven down again. It wasn't even a fight anymore.
Ping! Ping!
Dahye — whose username literally said not to ping — hammered pings as she steered the team.
"We just can't get caught."
The enemy Lucian-Nami had terrifying siege power. But they held firm.
Fiora took the top tier-two turret and got another surge of gold. With a glimmer of hope, even Rox — who'd been playing like a ghost — started trying.
"Jimin, Lee Sin's missing."
"Okay."
All game long Jimin barely spoke, and when he did it was short and simple. Facing off against Riven to take bot's tier-two, Lee Sin and Riven both jumped him.
"Jimin!"
Dahye got so excited slamming pings that the Sol system locked her out for a bit — please wait before pinging again.
Having cut down the enemy jungle and top, the team went for Baron. But a fed Lucian-Nami and Syndra were still a problem.
"I'll TP."
"Huh? Yeah, yeah."
Jimin teleported to a nearby ward, and the main force moved with him. Rox and Ezreal opened with skills first, then RealOh dove in. It looked like he was going to melt — then Fiora appeared from behind.
"Yes!"
Dahye clapped and lost it completely.
Baron secured. The game that had looked lost was completely flipped. The once-irritating Lucian-Nami was backing off, and Syndra was losing steam by the minute.
Fiora, two full items ahead, sent Riven under turret to the afterlife again.
"Oh Jimin, keep pushing!"
"…"
Even when the enemies tried to fall back, Ezreal and Rox wouldn't let them go from range.
The enemies all-inned out of desperation. But Ezreal dodged a skill, and their damage line overcommitted forward.
"Ah please please please."
The four-on-four was basically a draw. RealOh latched on and took down Lucian, but Lee Sin ran wild and their whole squad collapsed. Only Lee Sin walked out of the four-on-four — a lost teamfight in practice. But Fiora was already in the enemy base.
Dahye slumped back in her chair like all the strength had left her body. But her face was smiling.
Lee Sin couldn't stop Fiora from taking the nexus.
"We won!"
"Ah… we won."
He still wasn't perfect at Sol. He'd wondered if he should group — but he'd kept pushing like Nuna told him to, and now Jimin let out a long breath of pure relief.
"Kyaaa!"
Dahye nearly jumped out of her seat at the Master rank she'd never reached before.
"Good work, Nuna."
"Yeah! Thank you!"
She kept staring at the monitor, even snapped a photo.
"Ah, what do I do, I'm so happy."
"Congratulations."
"Jimin, this is really all thanks to you."
Jimin, who'd carried yet another game, offered his congratulations.
So this is the end of it.
From Master onward, duo queueing was disabled. Jimin himself was Diamond 1 with high LP — Master wasn't far for him either. But pride came first. He'd been in a situation where he could've been cursed out and kicked, and in the end he'd gotten to see Dahye's face light up like this.
"Everyone, how I'm feeling right now is… ah, I'll just tell you later. Bye!"
"…"
As much as he could make critical calls in Sol at the crucial moment, Jimin still wasn't used to her stream.
"Ah!"
He had something to say. The moment the end screen appeared, Jimin checked whether Dahye had left Discord too.
She's still here.
He swallowed. Slowly, carefully, Jimin tried to find the words he wanted to say.