Chapter 1

Friday, 23 August 2013 @ 19h00

Irene POV

I was standing in the parking lot of the racing track – which is actually an old airstrip- as he requested. The message that he sent was unexpected and I was strangely nervous about what he would possibly want to discuss with me alone. As I sat in my car waiting, I started thinking about how long we’ve know each other, which felt like forever. We went to the same High school for a few years. He was 3 years my senior and during he’s final year, my parents decided to move from Seoul. We were not friends then, but we were aware of each other as we have a few mutual friends and our parents knew each other. I never particularly fancied him, I just always saw him around my older cousin that went to the same school, same year as him.

I heard his car before I saw his headlights move past the unmanned security booth at the entrance of the parking area. He was twisting and turning between curbs and islands and it seemed like I was watching a live version of Need for Speed. I started laughing hard, because I supposed that’s what I looked like too when I came into the lot a few minutes ago.

As he parked next to me, I rolled down my window while still trying to recover from the hilarity of our entrances. He just sat there staring at me for a bit, unnerving me. He left his car and made his way towards my door, opening it for me and leading me out by the hand.“What’s gotten into you?” I asked as he kept pulling me away from our cars.“Nothing’s gotten into me. I just needed to see you. I have something to tell you.”

And my nervousness was back. What could be so important that we needed to meet alone at the track? My mind went on a roller-coaster of what he could possibly want to tell me that I hadn’t noticed we’d walk away from our cars which was parked under a light. Nothing could have prepared me for what he said though. My mind started reeling and I couldn’t form coherent words as a response.

“I’m in love with you Bae. I want to be more than your track partner. I’ve been thinking long and hard about the possibility of us…and it makes sense”.

“…Uh, okay….I uh….well…”Wow, great response Irene, excellent communication skills you’re rocking. SAY SOMETHING! And then I started laughing. Nothing about this situation was funny but I couldn’t stop myself. I just could not understand why he would be into me. I’ve met a few of his ex-girlfriends. We are so not on the same level, they were all high class and girly. I was all about cars and grease.

He looked more than shocked at my outburst and then the embarrassment of rejection settled in. He started walking backward away from me, but then he stopped. He looked me in the eye and started laughing as well. We were a hideous pair, laughing at a joke no one told. When we eventually got our silliness under control he walked back to me, standing so close, I could feel the heat radiating from his body.

“So Miss Bae, found your tongue yet or do you need some help with that?” I slapped his shoulder and laughed a little again, trying hard not to cringe.

“That line was so greasy, you know that right?” “It got a response out of you. Worked better than my previous attempt.”

I instantly felt guilty for laughing. I’m such an idiot. I’ve been into this guy for a while now but I made sure to keep that under wraps. Our relationship was strictly professional. I didn’t need things to become awkward between us. We had to implicitly trust one another and feelings, especially the unrequited kind, would just be a burden on the whole team.

“I thought I saw your car speeding up the road earlier” came a loud voice from the direction of our cars. We both looked in the direction seeing TOP get out of his car. We hadn’t even heard him pull up, what with the intense staring we got going on. I instantly stepped away and turned in TOP’s direction, intending to walk there. I felt myself being pulled back and whirled around. I was met with dark and intense eyes and went completely girly on him. I started blushing, Hard.

“Are you seriously going to leave me hanging and just walk away?” he asked, still keeping those dark eyes trained on my face. I stared right back and smiled, leaning in closer to him. The closer I got to him, the bigger his eyes went. His reaction made me smile so wide, my cheekbones started hurting.

“What are you guys doing in the dark over there? TOP shouted, startling me a little. I forgot he was there.

“TOP, sh