“Hey! Hey, babe!” Slowly, Boa turned her attention to Joon, whose lanky figure was hanging halfway out his window. His perfect whites flashed wider when he noticed he had caught her attention. “Hey...so what do I get if I win?”

Boa turned her gaze back to the street. “Your stays attached to your body. That's what you get.”

Joon's smile fell before he pulled himself back into his car. “...” he muttered.

Boa was a beauty, athletic and fierce, with sleek hair that almost fell to her waist. A prize to many men that only Yunho could have possession of. She was a challenge to impress, a goddess who only had eyes for a god—by her standards. Men nearly fell at her feet, especially when they saw her race.

A man stepped between the cars; a man they were both familiar with. The person who organized and schemed and made sure everything ran like clockwork. Nickhun Horvejkul, the Thai entrepreneur who found it fit to make a business of illegal racing. His hair was an intricate mixture of blonde and dark brown, his eyes round orbs of innocent dark chocolate.

“Can't we get someone prettier to start the race?” Joon called from his window.

Nickhun shot him a glower. “None of these women wanted to be within this distance of you, Joon. So all you get is me.” His lips upturned in a shrewd smile before he raised his hand. “Ready.” Feet pressed down on gas pedals and cars purred to life, growling and begging for release. “Set.” Joon glanced over Boa, a smirk forming as the thought of beating her came to mind. “Go!” Nickhun dropped his hand and the cars shot forward.

The crowd exploded, heads whipping as streaks of pink and blue streaked by. Joon was quickly in the lead, looking in his mirror at the Ferrari and letting a laugh rush from his lips. “Eat it, !” He pushed down on the gas, increasing the distance.

However, Boa seemed far from bothered. She let him gain just enough as to feed his enlarged ego before gripping the stick shift and changing gears. Within moments, she passed Joon, leaving him far behind as the Ferrari’s engine roared and she flew across the finish line. Whistles and cheers went up and as Boa passed by Joon, coming back from the finish line, she smiled and waved. Joon sneered, screaming obscenities at her, in which she brushed off with a simple flip of the bird out her driver's side window.

*

Screams were made as Jaejoong's and Yunho's cars continued to share the lead. Yunho was swearing under his breathe, while Jaejoong remained disturbingly passive. His dark eyes narrowed in concentration. The finish line was within range. Taking a breathe, he shifted up a gear, than another within a second. The odometer spiked as his lurched forward, the nose of his car a few feet ahead of Yunho's as they crossed the line.

Yunho slammed his hand against the steering wheel, shouting obscenities. He looked out his window as Jaejoong passed; the two made eye contact and a source of pure fury radiated between them. Jaejoong stepped on the gas and made his way back towards where they started.

*

The timing was wrong. Straightaways were hard for Eli to evaluate. There were no turns to judge his momentum, no signs of the change in road. It was straight, no way to outdo your opponent, like with turns and curves. He either changed gears too late or too early. There was never a happy medium. Eli growled at himself as Rain crossed the finish aline ahead of him. A far too easy win.

*

“Ready.” Nickhun raised his hand. Steering wheels were gripped. “Set.”

“Watch this bastard drive,” said Thunder from his vantage point along the track. Simone's eyes never left the silver car.

The man across from Kris was nearly in arrogant hysterics. His menacing grin went unnoticed by the Chinaman in the silver car, whose eyes stayed locked on the street in front of him. His fingers tapped on the gear shift before taking hold of the wheel.

“Go!”

Tires screeched, smoke pouring from behind the cars as they lurched forward. Simone's jaw dropped at the sight of the silver car slicing through the track, barely giving its opponent any opening of getting ahead.

“Damn, he's fast,” she murmured as they watched Kris cross the finish line several yards ahead of his opposition.

“That car is insane,” said Ailee. “It was pieced together by Kris himself. Very few people have beat it since he showed up a couple months ago.”

“That was sad,” Simone snorted. “That guy didn't have a chance.”

“That's how it always is with him. You should have seen Joon's face when Kris blew him away. Made my life.” Thunder smirked.

Eli came up beside them, face content rather than what Simone was expecting. “So you still think you can race with the big dogs?”

Simone shrugged. “It doesn't look as challenging as you make it sound.”
Eli shook his head, tisking at her. “Alright. Then, you go tell Nickhun you want in next week and we'll see what you say.”

“Okay, where is he?” Simone asked, challenge igniting her eyes as she stared Eli down.

He pointed over to the other side of the street where the blonde man was speaking with one of the racers. “Good luck.”

Simone threw him a dry smile and crawled over the road block to cross the street. She didn't notice Eli's open stare at her rear end clothed in short, studded denim shorts—a glance that was quickly interrupted with a shove from Sanghyun.

“Nickhun?”

The Thai turned at his name. Round eyes acknowledged her questionably. “Yes?”

“I'd like to sign up for next week's races.”

An eyebrow rose as Nickhun looked her up and down. Simone held her ground, hands on her hips as she waited for an answer. Finally, he signed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Name?”

“Simone Virág.”

“Age?”

“Twenty two.”

Nickhun's fingers flew over the touchscreen before he asked, “Do you have an ID?”

Simone pulled out her passport, which she had kept on her at the advice of Sanghyun and Dara. There was always the chance that races could get busted and if a foreigner got caught, it wouldn't end well. Nickhun looked it over, tapped at his phone, and handed it to her. “Sign here, please.”

“What is this?”Simone asked, peering at the glowing screen.

“A waiver. You think people wouldn't try to sue me even when they're doing something illegal and dangerous.” Simone signed her name and handed the phone back to him. “That'll be 108,300 won.”

Simone glanced up at him. “How much?”she asked, trying to hide her surprise.

“I don't have all day, sweetheart.” He held out his hand, beckoning for the money.

Simone dug around her pockets, producing about a quarter of what he asked. Hesitantly, she passed it over. “Can I pay the rest later?”

“No.”

Simone's shoulder slumped. “Look, I don't have that on me.”

“Fine. Keep your—”

“Here.” A hand offered the total 108,300 won to Nickhun. Simone looked up into the face of someone she'd only see from across the street. Nickhun looked at him, skeptical. “If she wants to race, let her race. Take the money.”

Nickhun fleetingly glanced at Simone before taking Kris' money and returning Simone's to her. “We'll see you next week, then,” Nickhun said and walked off.

Simone watched him go, thinking of insults to throw, before she turned her attention to Kris. He was gone. She looked around her, frantically searching for the blonde head of hair. She saw his retreating back several yards away and ran after him.

“Hey, wait.” She called, but he didn't slow. “Hēi! Wǒ gēn nǐ shuōhuà!”

Kris stopped and hesitantly turned around. When he saw it was her, a flash of annoyance crossed over his face and he his heel to face her. “Can I help you?” he asked.

Without word, Simone the twenty-one thousand won she had at him. “I'll pay you the rest back later.”

Kris shook his head. “I'm not expecting you to pay me back.” He went to retreat, but Simone quickly darted in front of him.

“I don't like owing people,” she said firmly. “Take it.”

“I'm not looking for charity.”

“Its not charity! Its a debt that I'm repaying.”

Kris cleared his throat and spoke in English, as if that would get his point across better. “I'm not interested in you paying me back. Got it, American?” He stepped around her to move along his path.

“I have a name and its not 'American'!” she shouted at him in Chinese.

His eyebrows shot up, impressed by the fluent change of languages, but he didn't stop. He heard her growl from behind and a smirk formed upon the Chinaman's face.



“So what did you think of the races last night?” Sandara asked as she made omurice for Simone and Sanghyun.

“It wasn't too bad,” Simone answered, seated on the counter. “I'm signed up for the race next week.”

Hearing this Sanghyun's head snapped up, burning a hole into Simone's back with his glare. “I thought I said—”

“Sanghyun,” Simone sighed, without turning to look at him, “I don't care what you said. I'm racing. I don't need you telling me what to do.”

“You sound more like his sister than I do,” Sandara smiled.

“Because you're more mature,” Sanghyun muttered.

“Excuse me!”

“Its true.”

Simone whipped her head to look over her shoulder. Her nose scrunched up in annoyance and she scowled. “ you.”

“Whoa,” Sandara said and smacked Simone's knee. “Language, dear, language.”

“You would me.”

“Sanghyun!” Dara snapped.

“Maybe I would.”

“Simone!”

“Too bad. I'm too y for you too handle.”

“Bull.” A reluctant smile crawled across Simone's lips and she turned back around to hide it from him. “I'm still racing.”

“Fine. I won't say anything nice at your funeral.”

“Okay, you two,” said Sandara, “that's enough.” She began to scoop the omurice onto plates. She shoved Simone's into her hands rather harshly.

“Thank you, unni,” Simone said, batting her eyelashes.

“Shut up.”

“You know...” Sanghyun's voice held a confident tone to it even in the two words, “you're missing something important if you're going to race next week.”

Simone rolled her eyes as she took a bite of her breakfast. “Oh, yeah. And what's that?”

“A car.”

Simone froze in action. She snarled under her breathe as Sandara tried desperately not to laugh. “.”