AUTHOR'S NOTE: I swear these chapters just get longer and longer loool, I'm incapable of writing things that don't go on and on and on and on...

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P.S. P.S. Go check out my new One-Shot if you want some tooth-aching sweet Fluff for a change: SUNRISE DRIVE

The Speed Demon

Part II

'Oh my God.'

'What?'

'Look at that interior.'

Seulgi opened the driver's door and stepped in and Irene sat running her hands over the dashboard and back of the seats. They were of a black plush leather with orange embroidery stitched in the shape of racing lines down each side. 'This is ing cool,' she said. 'Like, properly cool. How do these guys afford these things?'

'By doing illegal activities.'

'Well, yeah. It was a rhetorical question. Babe.'

'What?'

'Can we keep it?'

'For now,' Seulgi said.

'But what about in the future?'

'Let's just get there first.'

'Get where?'

'Get- Never mind. It was a figure of speech.'

'Look at you.' Irene laughed. 'Getting all metaphorical and . Where are we going?'

'I don't know. Let me read.'

She sat there in petulant silence with her arms folded while Seulgi unclipped the sheaf of documents and read them through and studied the printed photos. Then she began humming to herself. When Seulgi was finished it was almost eight in the evening and all had turned dark save the solitary glimmer of the diner like a beacon in some more wretched time. As if it were calling to them. She tucked the papers away and opened the glovebox to put it in and stopped.

'Are you finished?' Irene said. And then, seeing Seulgi frozen: 'What? What is it?'

'I don't know.'

She leant over and checked the glovebox and laughed again.

'Woah. What the is all that?'

'I think it's better not to look.'

Irene took the contents of the glovebox and spread them out on the dashboard and held them up one by one. A small blue Durex box, tub of Vaseline, Q-Tips, a packet of potato chips. A Glock-17 and two magazines of ammunition.

'So,' she said. 'Condoms, lube, cotton buds, guns. What sort of a party was this guy planning?'

'Put those back.'

'Hey, I'm not judging. Everyone has their own hobbies, y'know? As long as they're not breaking the law or anything, it's fine by me. Although I suppose, in this case, this guy was breaking the law. Unless there's some random law where you're allowed to keep unregistered firearms in your glovebox.'

'There isn't.'

'Well then.'

'I expect he's going to be quite upset once he realises we found this.'

'Maybe that's he didn't want us taking his car. What do we do with this?'

'Put it back,' Seulgi said. 'And don't point it at my face.'

'The lube? Or the gun?'

'The gun.'

'I didn't.'

'Put it back.'

Irene stashed the condoms and the gun and everything else back into the glovebox and fastened her seatbelt. 'Well,' she said. 'What's the goss?'

'What?'

'The gossip. Never mind. It was a figure of speech. I meant: What do we have to do?'

Seulgi turned to her. 'It's tomorrow night.'

'What is?'

'This race that Hongki was talking about. There's an address to a warehouse on Sinheung road in Itaewon and it says we can find everything we need to find there tomorrow evening.'

'That's it?'

Seulgi nodded.

'Are you serious?'

'He did say we should go and do what we normally do.'

'Uh, no. He said we should do the exact opposite of what we normally do.'

'What do you mean?'

'He said no shooting, or driving things into rivers, or causing a fuss. Which is kinda what we always do, babe. Sorry to tell ya.'

'It'll be fine,' Seulgi said.

'So what's the plan?'

'Well. I suppose we go along tomorrow.'

'And then what?'

'Then we'll think of something else.'

'Brilliant,' Irene said. 'You know for a minute there, I thought you were going to come up with something legit, but no. I must've forgotten who you were.'

'It's worked for us before.'

'Bumbling through everything?'

Seulgi shrugged.

'I mean, yeah I guess. God, imagine if some actual evil criminal druglord heard about us from all the we've done. They'd think we were, like, the top cops in Korea or something. Like we were super agents and not just two vaguely intelligent idiots accidentally making our way through everything. It'd be quite bad for us, no?'

'That's not what this is, so don't worry about it. We've got bigger worries, honestly.'

'Like what?'

'Like the fact he wants me to infiltrate a street racing ring and I've never raced a day in my life?'

'So?' Irene said. 'How hard can it be?'

'Don't say that. Please don't say that.'

'I'm serious. It's just drive in a straight line, right? And I guess the occasional corner, too. But yeah, on the whole the premise sounds quite...simple.'

'I've never done anything like that before.'

'You've been in a couple car chases, though. Most of them with me in the passenger seat, willingly or unwillingly. And you did pretty fine, right?'

'By sheer luck.'

'Well, if I'm being honest for a minute babe, and no offence intended here, it seems like most of the we do is based on pure luck, y'know? Not that that's inherently a bad thing or anything. I'm just putting it out there.'

'I can't just go along and challenge someone to a street race.'

'Why not?'

'I'd lose. And even if I didn't, what then? I don't know how any of this works. I don't know anything about racing. Nothing. At all.'

'Maybe Hongki should've actually laid that out for you earlier. Huh.'

'Yeah,' Seulgi said, 'but he didn't. And he won't. So we're stuck trying to figure it out for ourselves.'

'Man, when you and Wheein talked about the department having no manpower I thought you were exaggerating, but this is literally that. And if they've got all this info in that folder, why don't they just turn up and arrest them?'

'Were you not listening earlier?'

'Not really.'

'They've tried that. They just drive away.'

Irene was quiet a moment. Then she said, 'You make a good point. I didn't think of that.'

'So instead they leave it to us.'

'To go and arrest them.'

'No, to go and race them. Or something.'

'You sure?'

'He wants us to find whoever's selling weapons,' Seulgi said, 'and I'm guessing that means getting deep in with them and finding out who's who. And the only way to do that is-'

'Street racing. I get it now.'

'We should've picked the other one.'

'The tourists one?'

'Terrorists.'

'Eh. Same difference.'

'I've never raced in my life.'

'I know,' Irene said. 'You've told me that already.'

'I don't know what to do.'

'I believe in you.'

'I mean...thank you, but.'

'But what?'

Seulgi looked at her as if to say: Not really going to help all that much, is it? Irene leant over and pulled her in for a kiss and smiled a tender smile. 'I believe in you, babe,' she said. 'And not just because you're you. Actually...never mind. Definitely because you're you.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Nothing.'

'No, go on. Tell me.'

'Well.'

'Well what?'

'You have this uncanny ability to be very good at anything you do.'

'Like what?'

'Like shooting people in the leg,' Irene said, half joking. 'Alright, well, you know what I mean. You're an expert marksman - even Wheein said as much. Indirectly, at least. You're good at chasing people. You're good at collecting information and knowing what to do with it. You're good at diplomacy. Good at interrogations. At high-speed pursuits. At solving high-pressure situations. At keeping me out of harm's way. You might bungle your way through undercover missions but you always end up coming out on top. Y'know, if you weren't my girlfriend, I'd say it was pretty ing terrifying. You're like one of those KGB sleeper agents or something. Hey, maybe Wendy was onto something when she started warning us about the Soviets. Maybe she was indirectly warning me about you. Maybe you've been sent to kill me. Like, uh, what's his name? John Conner? Maybe you're the Terminator. Although, that's a bit of stretch. The Terminator's got way more personality than you.'

'Thanks.'

'Very welcome. So, to sum up, I believe in you. And you should believe in yourself.'

'Well.'

'Well what?'

'At least if I crash this, I won't have Hongki to answer to, will I?'

'I guess not. That's the spirit! Are we going to keep those, by the way?'

'Keep what?'

'The condoms and the Vaseline. And the gun.'

'You're not keeping a ing gun.'

'What about the condoms and Vaseline?'

'Do you want to keep them?'

'Dunno,' Irene said, shrugging.

'What use would you get out of them?'

'Novelty items?'

'Novelty items for what?'

'I dunno that either. But still. I'm sure I could find some use out of them. I'm very resourceful when I want to be.' She paused and looked about. The rapidly cooling evening. Cars out on the avenue in the last of the streetlights. 'Can we go do something?' she said.

'Do what?'

'Go for a meal or something? I dunno. I'm bored.'

'Sure. Anywhere in particular?'

Irene thought for a moment. Then she smiled again. 'I know somewhere nice,' she said.

♣   ♣   ♣

Seulgi pulled the Camaro into the furthest bay of the 161 Waterside Cafe's parkinglot just before nine and stepped out with Irene behind her. For a while they just stood observing the car. The nightblack paint in that intimidating matte finish, the black of the wheelrims, the curvature of the hood. 'Not a bad looker, really,' Irene said.

'It's quite nice.'

'Not quite your Ferrari though, is it?'

'Not quite. But it makes a nice enough sound.'

The nice waitress with the great smile showed them to a table upstairs by the window and took their orders and left them. They were sat four tables down from where they had first met some three months ago. Everything seemed to hum with noise and yet none of it they could understand. The waitress came back with their drinks and they toasted to nothing in particular and drank and were quiet.

'I like this place,' Irene said.

'It's not bad.'

'It's got history, y'know?'

'What history?'

'Well, I mean...we've got history with it. It's where we first met.'

'I know. My memory's not that bad. Not yet.'

'Remember how annoyed you were at me?'

'You left me to pay the bill and then hijacked my car.'

'I didn't hijack anything.'

'You refused to get out until I drove you to my place.'

'Not really hijacking, is it?'

'Whatever.'

'You hungry?'

'Yeah, why?'

'You're being grumpy again.'

'I thought you liked it when I was grumpy,' Seulgi said.

Irene smiled. A warm and delicate smile, part of mischief and part of a tenderness Seulgi had come to appreciate equally in the past few weeks. 'I do,' she said. 'But normally I'm the one causing it, y'know? I feel like I owe you that much.'

'I don't even know what that means.'

When they had their food in front of them they ate in silence. They watched the slow turning of the earth. The ceaseless revolutions of a cold dark place out there in Seoul. Where many things existed beyond their knowing or acknowledgement. And so many city lights. Irene finished the last of her wine and dabbed at her lips with a napkin and sat back and picked at her food.

'Not hungry?' Seulgi said.

'Not as hungry as I thought I was, to be honest. Maybe I just need more wine.'

'No.'

'Why not? We're not on the job right now. I mean, technically I'm never on the job.'

'Still. I don't want you getting drunk. You know what happened the last time you got drunk with me. And the time before that.'

'What happened last time?'

'You broke into a closed room and called a drug dealer an ugly bald motherer.'

'Ah. Yeah. What about the time before that?'

Seulgi picked up her glass and drank.

'Right,' Irene said, smirking. 'We had . Seems like only yesterday.'

'Finish your food.'

'Are you paying?'

To this Seulgi made no reply. They ate quietly for a while. When Irene spoke next it was in a curious voice Seulgi couldn't quite place. 'Babe,' she said.

'What?'

'I've got a question.'

'Go on.'

'You don't love Jisoo, do you?'

'What? Why are you-'

'I know. But, like, you never came out and said: I don't love Jisoo.'

'I don't love Jisoo.'

'You promise?'

Seulgi just looked at her. 'I promise I don't love Jisoo,' she said. 'I love you. And that's final.'

'Good.' She broke into a smile again. It was strange, was that smile. A sort of grin Seulgi couldn't quite imagine on anybody's face except Irene's, like a sort of fashion accessory unique only to her and so very captivating in how it said nothing and everything all at once. How it kept her cards close to her chest and yet opened her up all the same. The sort of smile Seulgi wanted to take home and treasure forever.

'I've got a question for you,' Seulgi said.

'Sure.'

'It's about your parents.'

'What?'

Seulgi chewed and swallowed. 'You said something about that them that got me thinking. Sorry if it sounds like I'm being nosy.'

'It does. But I'm used to it now, so go ahead.'

'Sorry.'

'Stop apologising.'

'Sorry.'

'Classic. Anyway, go on.'

'You said something about the way you are now is because of them or something. About them being strict about your upbringing.'

'Uh huh,' Irene said, sipping her piping soup with a sort of refined nonchalance.

'What did you mean?'

'You want the whole story?'

'If you don't mind.'

Irene was quiet a minute. Looking about. Then she put her spoon down and held up the empty glass as if to still draw something of worth from the nothingness. 'Dunno what there is to say,' she said. 'I mean, like...where to start?'

'Wherever.'

'My mum's an insurance broker for this big insurance firm. I don't really wanna give out the name or anything, but...yeah. And my dad worked for LG.'

'Worked?'

'Uh huh.'

'What about now?'

'Oh, he still works there. But he did before, too.'

'Uh...'

'Anyway. He's pretty high up. You'd probably be able to say he's one of the big shots and get away with it, y'know? And I guess that's why I'm like I am now, if that makes any sense.' She took one look at the expression on Seulgi's face and continued.

'They always wanted me to go into the same as them. My dad wanted me to go into LG with him. You know, corporate . All that.'

'And you didn't want to?'

'I dunno. Maybe at some point I did. But I think seeing them like that - seeing the way it was, seeing how they were - it just kinda put me off. Left this bad taste in my mouth. I dunno how to describe it. It's like...seeing them working fourteen hours a day and having no time for me when I was still a kid and , and then hearing about the way people would them over at work over the littlest thing out of greed or spite, or how they'd imply they'd ed someone over for their own benefit...I dunno. It just didn't sit right with me. So, I uh...turned to a life of crime.'

'Right.'

'I mean, that sounds stupid, but it's what I did. I guess it was me lashing out at them for all the they wanted me to be, y'know? For trying to make me something I wasn't. That's just who I am. It was the same with me ex. You remember?'

Seulgi nodded. 'The one who tried to change who you were.'

'Yeah.' Irene smiled again. A soft and gentle smile. A non-Irene one. Or perhaps the most Irene smile there had ever been, and the more time Seulgi spent with her the more she realised how apart of Irene both aspects of that careful duality were - the outlandish, ever-present machismo, the quiet and reserved self-conscious. Two sides of the same precious coin.

'I guess I've always just had this aversion to being told what to do,' Irene said. 'Alright, that probably came out wrong. Makes me sound like some ing child or something that throws a tantrum when I don't get my own way, but I don't mean it like that. I just.... I dunno, babe. I'm not good at explaining myself.'

She looked at Seulgi and Seulgi flashed her a reassuring smile and rubbed a thumb softly over the back of her hand.

'Why'd you ask anyway?'

'I just wanted to talk about something important for a change,' Seulgi said.

'You bored of my natural charisma already? Too much for you to handle? It's only been, what, a couple months?'

'Bored? No. But sometimes different is good, you know?'

'Wow.'

Seulgi shot a cheeky grin. 'You want some more wine?' she said.

'Woah, say that again.'

'What?'

'I thought you hated me drinking.'

'Yeah, well. It's my treat.'

'In that case, waitress!'

The nice waitress in the pretty apron came over with a smile and her notepad ready.

'Wait a minute,' Seulgi said. 'I didn't mean-'

'I'll have two bottles of the Margaux, please. Thank you very much.'

When she was gone Irene sat there smirking.

'I didn't mean you could order whatever you wanted.'

'Yeah, well,' Irene said. 'Sometimes you've gotta be bold.'

'What?'

'Never mind. Thanks for offering, though. I appreciate it. Hey, if we're being serious and proper for a minute, can I ask you a question?'

'Sure.'

'How the did you afford that Testarossa?'

'What?'

'I'm serious. Like, this has been bugging me since the day we first met. You're not exactly Bill Gates. No offence, of course. But you're just a cop, babe. With Don Johnson's Ferrari. Or at least, used to have Don Johnson's Ferrari.'

Seulgi shrugged. 'I'm just frugal, is all.'

'C'mon.'

'What? I'm serious. Legit, I'm telling the truth!'

'No trust fund cash?'

'No.'

'No rich uncles suddenly passing away and leaving you a small fortune?'

'I'm just good with my money.'

'Not that good, though.'

'They're not even that expensive.'

'Uh, yes they ing are.' She paused and smiled at the waitress and took the two bottles and thanked her. 'I should know,' she said. 'I mean, I did buy one.'

'That's because you're not a pro.'

Irene laughed. 'A pro at what? Buying cars?'

'Uh, yeah.'

'C'mon now.'

'I'm serious. There's tricks to it, just like everything. You've got to be in the right place at the right time.'

'And that's you, is it? A wily purveyor of Italian sports cars?'

'I guess so.'

'You're such an idiot,' Irene said with a giggle. She poured herself a glass of wine and offered Seulgi one and Seulgi just nodded.

'Yeah, but I'm your idiot.'

'Yeah.' Irene smiled again. 'I guess you are.'

♣   ♣   ♣
 

They walked the whole two miles along that narrow section of the waterfront hand in hand without a word to one another and for once neither really cared to speak. They listened to the night. Kids laughing somewhere in the greater world without, birds in the enormous sky, echoes of the cars. The pale light of the moon guiding their way between the pools of warm streetlamp. It was only when Irene heard Seulgi laughing to herself did she turn and ask her what was so funny.

'Nothing,' Seulgi said.

'C'mon.'

'It's just I'm not used to you being quiet, is all.'

'Fine. I'll talk then.'

'No, it's quite alright.'

'Not a fan of my mouth?'

'I mean...'

'Now who's the ert?'

'I didn't-'

'Uh huh,' Irene said. 'Of course not. Oh, . What the ?'

'What?'

'Over there.'

She pointed far down along the path. Something moving under the arch of one of the walking bridges. A thin and mobile shape in the narrow shafts of moonlight.

'What the is that?'

'Is that what I think it is?' Seulgi said.

'It can't be. But, like...we can't both be hallucinating, can we?'

They stood and watched it for a while. It looked like a dog with wheels for legs. Just wheeling about.

'Woah,' Irene said. They watched it disappear under the bridge and never return.

'Groovy.'

'Was that-'

'A dog with no legs?'

'And wheels.'

'And wheels,' Irene said. 'Man, you know what?'

'What?'

'I'm starting to think Wendy's not all that loopy after all, y'know? Maybe she was onto something the whole time.'

♣   ♣   ♣

She pulled up at along the sidewalk at the very end of the street and cut the engine while they watched along the opposite side. Nothing much moved and nothing made any sound save the dim murmur of music reporting out of that distant place they could only just fathom in the night murk. It was as if they had picked the only street in Itaewon that was even remotely empty and when Seulgi thought about it a moment that made perfect sense. None of the shops were open. A couple guys in big winter coats shifted past and disappeared into the night like apparitions.

They sat in silence and watched. It looked like a large abandoned supermarket or warehouse with the windows boarded up. Or at least what they could see of it did. There were a couple guys stood around outside and cars parked across the street that looked no more interesting than the average Kia or Hyundai.

'Is that it?' Irene said.

'That's what the info said.'

'It's looks a bit...'

'A bit what?'

'Dunno. ?'

'What?'

'I mean, I thought it'd be more exciting than that. It looks like somewhere you'd pack your Amazon parcels.'

'Did you expect a big party or something?'

'Kinda. Like Miami Vice, y'know?'

'It's illegal street racing.'

'Still.'

They sat a moment longer. As if debating telepathically what to do next. Then Seulgi started the engine and the beams cut across the night like white light swimming through the fog and they turned off into the road and down along to where the warehouse was situated not even half a mile away. The closer they drew the louder the music became. Like an enormous thunder echo somewhere in the bowels of the place. The windows had been covered with plasterboard and wood and it looked abandoned save the thin teasing of neon strobe they could make out through the gaps. There was a small parkinglot out front and a ramp leading down the side of the building and around the back but they couldn't see anything else from there.

'What do we do?' Irene said. They eyed the two guys stood out front. They looked like professional wrestlers in suits that were too small for them. Like gorillas in human clothes.

'Well,' Seulgi said.

'Well?'

'Stay here.'

'Wait, what?'

But before she could say anything Seulgi was already halfway across the road and Irene could only watch her go, white suitjacket fluttering in the window. And white trouser. And white loafers with no socks. She said something to one of the gorillamen and then the other one came over and she said something else. Irene watched her for some time. She looked rather cool, in all honesty. But she would never tell Seulgi that. When she came back a couple minutes later she wore a grimace that looked not good at all.

'Well?' Irene said. Seulgi sat and rubbed her forehead and sighed.

'Go on then.'

'He says we're only allowed in on one condition,' Seulgi said.

'Which is?'

'We've got to give something up as collateral.'

'What? What do you mean?'

'In case we do anything stupid. Like cause a fuss.'

'Like shoot someone, you mean.'

Seulgi glared at her. 'Or get too drunk and call one of them an ugly bald motherfu-'

'Alright, alright. Point taken. Anyway. What do they want you to give up?'

Seulgi made a gesture to the car.

'This? You serious?'

'It is a street racing circuit.'

'They want you to give up the car?'

'We only lose it if we do anything wrong,' Seulgi said. 'So if I stay calm, and you stay sober, we keep the car.'

'I mean...not to take their side or anything, but that makes quite a lot of sense. It's like a deposit system or something. What is it with criminals and being supremely intelligent?'

Seulgi ignored her. The two gorillas in suits watched them with their arms crossed in front of them like stone golems. 'What do we do then?' Irene said. 'And like, where do we even go?'

'Around there.' She pointed down the alley at the side of the building. 'I'm guessing there's a back entrance.'

'Man, this is so dumb.'

'What is?'

'None of this 's even hidden. Like, ing look at it. It's not exactly inconspicuous. Why don't they just shut it down?'

'I've told you this. Because they-'

'Drive away. Right. But still. God, one day when I'm the Chief of Police I'll have this whole ing circuit behind bars within twenty-four hours, I'm telling you.'

'Uh huh.'

'Anyway, what are we going to do?'

Seulgi thought about it for a minute. She peered out the window at the night. No other cars kept them active company. After a moment longer she started up the engine and turned the Chevy down the side alley following the directions of the monkeysuit men and to a big garage door around the back.

What she drove into was like nothing they had expected. It was as if they had turned a corner into a high-end nightclub. The music seemed immediately to be everywhere. It was a huge warehouse hall emptied out and filled now with people and a DJ's booth in the far right corner and strobelighting painting them a hundred shades of every primary colour and speakers larger than they had ever seen before and people dancing everywhere. People in three-piece suits and street clothes and outrageous outfits that wouldn't have looked out of place if Wendy were wearing them.

Lining both sides of the room and near the garage door at the front were luxury cars sat like showroom items. There was a yellow Lamborghini Aventador and another Camaro like their own and two silver Porsches and a Ferrari 488 in a brilliant cherry red and others they had no time to gawp at.

Seulgi turned the car into a vacant slot on the left and parked up as best she could.

'Holy ,' Irene said, barely audible over the racket. 'This is what I call a ing party. How have I never seen this place before? It's massive.'

They got out of the Chevy and Seulgi locked up and stood by the rear bumper inspecting everything. People engulfing the empty spaces they had cleared for the Camaro to drive through. On the opposite side of the room were two doors leading out into some back room and away and more lights strung up like neon decorations and people laughing over drinks. Girls in short skirts and gaudy makeup and guys with terrible haircuts and solo cups of vodka.

'It's like one of Yeri's get-togethers,' Irene said.

'We should look around.'

'For what? This looks like a ing riot.'

They stood a while looking over everyone. A couple of them were obvious racers. A couple not as clear. But there was one in particular they turned to. Stood near the DJ's booth was a tall girl with light brown hair down past her shoulders and a striking sort of face that almost certainly wasn't Korean. She wore a black leather jacket like the Fonz and a pastel lemon shirt like Seulgi and black jeans and a pair of biker's gloves with stark white shoes. She was standing in front of a red Dodge Challenger - American import - with about half a dozen other girls crowding around her as if they wanted her attention. But she just stood there drinking and nodding her head.

'Over there,' Seulgi said, pointing.

Irene followed her gaze across the crowded room. 'Holy ,' she said. 'She is ing gorgeous.'

'Uh, yeah.'

'And that girl's not bad either.'

'What?'

'That red car.' She made a whistling noise. 'Man, she's a beauty. Why? What were you talking about?'

'Uh...the car. And her. She must be the one.'

'The one? You dumping me already?'

'What? No, I didn't mean- Never mind.'

'What one, then?'

'The document said there was a ringleader. A top dog.'

'The best racer?'

'Something like that.'

'Like in the Fast and the Furious?'

'Uh, sure.'

'Why would that be her?'

Seulgi shrugged. 'Just looks like it would be her.'

'Babe, I know you're good at this whole detective thing when you wanna be, but not that good.'

'What? Why?'

'You can't just pick people out of the room as criminals.'

'Technically, they're all criminals.'

'You know what I meant.'

'It's worth a shot.'

'Is it, though?'

'What other choice do we have? We've no idea what we're doing.'

Irene looked at her for a moment. Then she threw up her hands as if to say: it.

'Whatever,' she said. 'You're the boss, babe. Good luck.'

'What? Where are you going?'

'Dunno. To look around, I guess.'

'Don't ing get drunk.'

'I won't.'

'Promise me, Irene.'

'I promise. Just holler for me if anything goes wrong.'

'Holler how?'

'Give me a good Ronald Reagan, at the top of your voice. I'm sure I'll hear you and come running. Anyway, I'll catch you in a bit. Let me know what you find.'

'We've got a job to be doing.'

'I know,' Irene said. 'I'm good at the covert . Trust me, I'll find something. I promise.'

She leant on her toes and gave Seulgi a cheeky kiss and then she was gone and Seulgi was alone, hands in her pockets, watching people dance and laugh. When she looked again Irene had vanished entirely, already a part of the crowd. She stood there a long time, very much aware of the fact that she was not as cool as she would like to believe. That she was not Don Johnson. She watched the pretty girl with the other pretty girls around her. Thinking: If I were Don Johnson they would've been all over me.

She watched the douchebag racers flash their car keys and honk their horns and start flicking their headlamp beams on and off. Thinking: If I were Don Johnson they'd all be intimated by my beautiful presence. By the time she snapped out of it she'd been there nearly half an hour and one of the guys stood about ten metres down from her was eyeing her carefully.

Seulgi put her hands in her pocket again. Being in public had never been her strong suit nor would it ever be. Perhaps that was why she worked so well with Irene. Or other reasons. The guy watching her looked about thirty. He had his hair cropped and he wore a smug smile on his face that made no apologies for anything and one of his boys was saying something to him that he ignored. He came over. Seulgi wouldn't look at him.

'Who the are you?' he said.

'I'm just someone.'

One of the guys who'd held him back before put an arm out in front of him and tried to ward him back to no avail. 'He's drunk,' he said. 'He doesn't mean anything.'

'I'm not drunk. I just want to know who you are.'

'Like I said, I'm just someone.'

'Uh huh. That yours?'

'Yeah, that's mine.'

'Chevy Camaro.'

'That's right.'

'That's mine over there.' He pointed to the orange car they'd been stood around. A Japanese import car with offwhite rims and racing pedigree Rally Cross numbers printed on the doors in white livery paint.

'It's a Supra.'

'Toyota.'

'What other ing Supra?'

Seulgi didn't reply.

'What the are you looking at?'

'Nothing.'

'You looking at her?' he said, nodding to the pretty woman in the black leather jacket. 'Don't look at her. Look at me. I'm talking to you.'

'What do you want?'

He laughed. Turned to his boys. They gave her a look that said Sorry for this but were silent. 'You believe this?' he said. 'Who the do you think you are?'

Seulgi just stood there. She wanted to say something cool that would have him and his boys tripping over their words, something Irene would be proud of - hell, something Don Johnson would be proud of. Something that'd make them go: Woah. Now that's the Kang Seulgi I wanna see. But in all her infinite awkwardness she just said, 'Want to race?'

'What?'

'Uh...do you, uh...want to race? I mean, like, with our cars. Not with our...you know. Feet.'

'You want to race me?'

Seulgi nodded meekly.

'You want to race?'

'Yeah.'

'Me?'

'You.'

He looked at the two guys that stood behind him pensively. Then he nodded to them. One of them passed him a set of keys and the other turned and shifted through the evergrowing crowd and whistled and made a spinning motion with his index finger in the air as if to clear everyone out of the way. The man she'd asked to race didn't even bother with a reply. He just looked over at the woman in the leather jacket and nodded and got into his car and started the engine.

By the sound of it Seulgi guessed eight cylinders, same as her own. But anything else was a mystery entirely. She climbed into the Camaro and started the enormous growl of the V8 and followed him out into the middle of the warehouse and toward the front of the garage. People stood cleared by the sides of the room waving them through and cheering over the music. Seulgi looked at each of them. Their little drunk faces. She pulled out into the street and the Supra lined up just outside the driveway and the onlookers began to spill out behind her. She watched them again. The V8s warbled in the empty air. She looked at the striking orange of the Toyota as if it were on fire and then the idiots waving racing flags in front of her windscreen and then at herself in the rear-view mirror and thought: What in the absolute am I doing?

A girl in nothing but a croptop and jeanshorts stepped out into the road with three big painted billboards that said THREE and TWO and ONE. She looked like something from a Hollywood movie. The guy in the Supra revved his engine. They could hear the racket of people even with the windows wound all the way up. Seulgi looked at them again. She had no idea where she was even going but there was no time to say anything because the girl had already dropped the THREE into the road and then the TWO and the ONE and immediately the Supra sped away in a hiss of grey tiresmoke and was gone.

There was no time to think. Perhaps Irene had been right. She was a natural at the most unlikely of activities. As if she had this innate talent for everything she should not. She floored the accelerator and tailed the Supra best she could.

It was much faster than she had expected but so was the Camaro. She accidentally shortshifted and the V8 coughed and whined and she pushed it up into fourth again and took the right corner fast enough to kick the tail end out. The rear bumper went colliding into a metal trashcan on the sidewalk and it exploded instantly in a burst of paper and refuse and vanished. The Supra took a left and kept on going.

The Chevy could keep up well enough. By the time they had rounded two more lefts and were on a straight strip of Itaewon night road the crowd of drunken partygoers and late-night shoppers had turned out to hear the thunderous applause of the twin engines in tandem. She shifted into fourth again. The Camaro was already at a hundred and twenty. When she took the next right she was only going fifty-five and the deceleration made her head spin.

',' she muttered, shifting her feet about on the pedals. She eyed the rapidly receding world in the wingmirror. Buildings, shapes of buildings, all falling away like candlewax melting. The Supra looked almost dangerous in its orange paint there in the road. It slowed and Seulgi had to hammer the brakes to slow alongside it but it was too late. They made left and the Camaro with its enormous size and weight clipped the paintwork of the Toyota enough to leave a visible mark. But apologising was certainly out of the question. She dropped back a slight and let the Supra pull ahead.

They cut left onto another straight between the traffic, weaving at seventy and then eighty-five and taking another right turn and narrowly missing a row of parked cars outside a gaudy foreign nightclub for tourists. And not domestic ones. The onlookers watched the two cars like caricatures from a cartoon - there one moment, gone as they blinked. Just the sound of them echoing forever where they once had been. As they switched down another side street and out the far end Seulgi began to gauge her surroundings.

She'd been in Itaewon enough times to know where they were. They were maybe three blocks from Sinheung and that meant three blocks from the warehouse but from there she could make out nothing save the thin streetlights and the darkness beyond. Everything seemed too quiet for that time of night. At the next tight left the Supra almost spun out of control and Seulgi had to street hard into the drift of smoke and tiremarks to avoid colliding with it again. On the bend ahead of them she knew it was time to act. No more sitting and fretting. Irene was right.

By the feel of the Camaro she guessed that it was markedly faster in a straight line and much faster on the acceleration. Not quite as smooth on the shifts as her Testarossa and not as nice to drive and certainly not as nice to look at but whatever would be? And it didn't matter now. On the very last corner coming out onto the strip of tarmac at the opposite end she was wheel to wheel with the Supra and they could make out the faint flickerglow of lights and people stood waiting in the street not even half a mile away. She tried to look for the guy in the Supra but he was watching the road.

',' she said again, to nobody in particular. They were going one-twenty and on the straight he refused to slow so Seulgi shifted into sixth and almost immediately the car felt as if it were slipping away from her. So much power under the hood and all to the back wheels. She kicked out the rear and forced the steering straight and before she even had time to react she was amid the crowd of people and slowing very quickly with her foot hard on the brakes. She didn't even know if she'd won. She was oblivious right up until she saw people coming toward her in the wingmirror and the Supra only just crossing the makeshift line they'd set out where the Hollywood girl in the croptop had dropped her paper cards.

Seulgi sat there a minute catching her breath. She tried to think of something to calm herself - tried to think of Irene. That usually settled her. But all she could think in truth was: What the did I just do? And how?

Somebody knocked on her window and she smiled awkwardly and backed the car through the tangle of people and up the driveway and into the garage. When she stepped out of the parked Camaro the guy in the Supra was already looking for her and when he spotted her he pushed through the crowd as if imbued with a purpose from God.

Nice race, she wanted to say, but before there was chance he grabbed her by the collar of her suit and pushed her against the Chevy.

'What the ?'

'You want to tell me why you ran into me on that corner back there?'

'I didn't mean to,' Seulgi said.

'That right? You could've ing killed me.'

'You've could've killed yourself.'

'What's the supposed to mean?'

'Junho.'

They turned. The girl with the brown hair and the leather jacket was stood watching them. Junho took one more look at Seulgi and brushed down her suit and disappeared without another word.

'Thanks,' Seulgi said.

'Ignore him.' She stood looking at Seulgi for a minute.

'I'm, uh. Seulgi. Kang Seulgi.'

'Lalisa. Call me Lisa.'

'Lisa.' She held out her hand awkwardly and Lisa shook it and laughed.

'You're not a bad driver.'

'Thanks.'

'Nice car,' Lisa said. 'We don't get many Chevys here.'

'No?'

'Most American cars we get are Dodges. Challengers, Chargers. Y'know.'

'Like yours?'

They turned to the red Challenger parked across the filling room. 'Yeah,' Lisa said. 'Like mine. Challenger Demon SRT. About six months old.' She looked at Seulgi again with a sort of impressed smirk playing on her lips that made Seulgi feel rather small in her presence. 'You're good,' she said again. 'Real good. Junho's all talk but he knows how to drive. And don't worry about that. He loves the paintwork on that thing too much. He won't show it but I guarantee he respects you for that.'

'Do you race?'

'What?'

'Do you race?'

Lisa laughed. 'You think I'd bring a Dodge Demon to this place if I didn't race? Yeah, I do.'

'Are you good?'

'I've never lost. But I don't know if that says more about the competition than it does me.'

'Never?'

'Not once. Why? You looking to race everyone here tonight or something?'

'I just...' she was looking elsewhere and she trailed off.

Lisa looked at her. 'What?'

'It's, uh. It's nothing.'

'You sure? You're looking a little-'

'Babe!'

Lisa turned. Irene was stood there stumbling about like a fool. She smiled and laughed at nothing. She was wearing a pair of John Lennon sunglasses and a white Russian ushanka over her head and she had a bottle in her hand.

'I'm sorry about her,' Seulgi said. 'For whatever's about to happen.'

'Babe, look what I found!' She waved the bottle at them and giggled. 'It's Peach Schnapps! Can you ing believe it?'

'Do you know her or something?' Lisa said.

'She's Irene. No, wait. I mean...I'm Irene. She's-' she hiccupped. 'She's...babe. No. She's Seulgi. Seulgi sweetie.'

'Uh huh.'

'You want some of this?'

'I'm good, thanks,' Lisa said, mildly amused.

'What the are you wearing?' Seulgi said.

Irene ruffled the hat and laughed. 'Oh, this? It's a Soviet hat. A Soviet hat! Can you believe it? Attention, comrade! Why the do they even have Soviet hats here? Crazy , man. More and more I'm starting to think Wendy was onto something. You want some Peach Schnapps, babe?'

'Where've you been?'

'In the back.'

'Doing what?'

'Uh, gambling.'

'What?'

'Yeah, it's crazy, right? They've got this whole ing illegal casino set up back there and everything. Like you wouldn't believe. Anyway, what about you?'

'I've been, uh...'

'Racing,' Lisa said.

Irene drank. 'Oh,' she said. 'Is that right?'

'Yeah,' said Seulgi.

'Well. Did you win?'

'Yeah, I won.'

'See? I told you! You're crazy talented, babe. You want some Peach Schnapps now?'

'How much have you had to drink?'

'Few glasses.'

'A few glasses.'

Irene shrugged. 'And some shots.'

'How many shots?'

'Dunno. Like, half a bottle? But it just goes straight down. Whoo! Like you wouldn't even believe. Hey, babe, I've got some good news. And some bad news, but the good news is important. I was talking to these guys and they got me in on this game and I won, like, five million won. Just like that! Crazy . You want some of this?'

'No,' Lisa said again. 'I think I'm good.'

'Sorry, what's your name again?'

'Lisa.'

'Nice to meet you, Lisa. I'm-' she hiccupped.

'Irene.'

'Whoa. Groovy.'

Seulgi rubbed her head. They could barely hear one another over the party. 'What's the bad news?' she said.

'What?'

'You said there was good news and bad. What's the bad?'

'Ah. About that.'

'Irene.'

'I'm gonna need your car keys.'

'What?'

'I, uh, lost the car.'

'What do you mean you lost the car?'

'Okay, so...don't get mad at me.'

'Irene-'

'Promise me.'

'Irene.'

'Alright,' Irene said. 'So, I might have lost your car in a game of Baccarat.'

'What?'

'Yeah, these guys I was talking about. Real nice dudes. They let me play for free and I won five mil. But then I got a little tipsy and when they asked me to go for broke I said: Sure! Why not? All-in, baby! Like they do in Vegas, y'know? My luck's been good so far. And then, well...it wasn't. So...I guess it's their car now. Uh huh. So, you might wanna call up Kenny Loggins, because it looks like I've just entered the Danger Zone. If you catch my drift.'

Lisa just laughed at them. She turned to Seulgi and offered a pleasant smile and said, 'I'll catch you later, if you're still around. Seems like you two have got some talking to do. And, uh, sorry about the car.'

When she was gone Seulgi just looked at Irene. Swaying a little, giggling, sipping the Peach Schnapps. She stopped and turned to Seulgi.

'Babe,' she said. 'I'm really sorry about your car.'

'You know what?' Seulgi said.

'What?'

'I'm not even mad anymore. I'm actually almost impressed at this point.'