Blood flows rapidly through the veins, heart pumping fast in anticipation, stomach twisting in all directions from thrill and excitement.

All of the sensations Minjoo has felt are coming down as her back was leaning against the car seat, both hands gripped onto her knees while Yujin’s Lexus accelerated to over 200km/h.

Her whole body felt trembles all around the car interior, coming from its powerful engine that’s been running inside the hood. To Minjoo’s surprise, it was a miracle the Lexus has yet to experience a breakdown from the younger’s daredevil driving. She assumed the car’s been maintained to withstand such high speed.

The older girl couldn’t help herself but feeling her shoulders tensed; her senses heightened as her eyes started to ponder around the car’s surrounding.

Minjoo ended up laying her eyes onto Yujin, only to see her eyes gazing at the road intensively with orbs blazing within the sight. She noticed how the younger’s hands clenched tightly onto the steering wheel in keeping the Lexus stable in a straight line, along with maintaining a proper sitting posture in the driving seat with both arms stretched outwards-- providing Minjoo the view of a confident driver.

Seeing Yujin entranced into battle mode made the older come up another reason why she’s attracted to the girl. Her headstrong and fierce expression the younger gave exuded an unspoken presence-- the quintessence of a fearless warrior upon taking any challenges and obstacles coming her way.

It was something Minjoo likes about the girl. The level of confidence Yujin has emitted around her encourages the older to face her inner fears, particularly with the fact she’s inside the Red Devil’s car as a passenger. As someone who didn’t partake in extracurricular activities beyond the school grounds, she wasn’t familiar with the nightlife on the streets, let alone street racing and cars; hence the uncertainty and intrusive thoughts rained down heavily in her mind.

Minjoo didn’t let it get the best of her though. She kept her word to Yujin of seeing the race to the end, even despite the older passed out from the drifting maneuver that happened earlier. It didn’t stop her from confronting her fears head-on.

In the back of her mind, Minjoo could only hope the younger notice her efforts.

All of a sudden, the older girl heard an incoming car taking speed from the right-sided lane. She glanced over at the side view mirror adjacent to where she’s seated to see the LP700-4 positioned itself close to the right corner of the Lexus’ tail end.

At that moment, Minjoo saw the car swerving away slightly-- bracing itself to collide onto the car’s back corner with its nose.

“Yujinie, behind you!” she urgently warned, hopefully, the young driver will quickly react to what she saw.

It certainly had Yujin’s attention as the younger quickly glanced over the side view mirror, immediately swerved the Lexus onto the other side of the lane, dodging the LP700-4’s attempt on a collision-- leaving the tires screeching along the pavement.

Unfortunately, it left not only Yujin’s position displaced, but the middle lane was also completely open: creating an opportunity for the Lamborghinis to take over the lead.

Multiple nitro superchargers has popped out from the supercars’ exhaust pipes, making it an additional boost into their horsepower for the Lamborghinis to forge ahead of the race as the SVJ and S Roadster model formed a line-- hogging the majority of the middle lane to ensure the Lexus wouldn’t get a chance to overtake the lead once more.

Oh, god. Did Minjoo something to mess up on helping her?

Her eyes darted between Yujin and supercars, fighting the urge to ask the younger if she did something wrong to lose the lead. She felt nervous around her, unsure about the reaction she’d get from someone who harbors a competitive nature.

“Don’t worry about me, babe. I figured something like this would happen.”

Minjoo raised her head as Yujin still kept eyeing on the road with a smirk on her face, as though she was having fun with the challenge that’s been imposed from the Lamborghinis. Aside from the fierce expression the young driver gives off while driving, her eyes never wavered-- shaken, if anything at all.

“B-but I made you lose the lead,” the older girl whispered, darting her eyes away from Yujin-- hands balled into fists while slightly biting her lower lip. “Aren’t you frustrated with the way these guys out there are doing?”

Yujin shook her head. Truthfully, the young driver already knew the supercars wouldn’t play fair in the street racing game, given with how aggressive they’re going at with their cars and specifications they tailored into the tuning-- not to mention about their attitude and disrespect they showed towards the racer.

Besides, the younger girl didn’t want to make a bad impression for Minjoo.

“I expected them to do that,” Yujin answered as she glanced upon the rearview mirror while headlights are beaming brightly. “We’re not alone in this, remember? We still have our own tricks in our sleeves.”

Minjoo peered her head over the shoulder as she saw the Mercedes Benz, Acura, and Nissan cars are coming close to where they are-- already lined up in a triangular formation, ready to perform a surprise time attack.

“You’re right,” the older nodded as she turned her head back towards the road ahead, spotting rows of signs at some distances for them to make a sharp turn. “H-hey, aren’t we going to slow down soon?” she then asked, voice trembled from nervousness as the feeling of anticipation is coming back to her.

“Nope!” Yujin responded as her lips popped with a ‘p’ sound, pressing the gas pedal further as the Lexus accelerated to match the SVJ’s speed head to head. “As I said, we’re giving the Lamboheads a race to remember us by.”

As soon as Yujin finished making a statement, she quickly reached her hand out to press the playlist button from the navigator’s menu: leaving the first couple of lines from Denise’s Emotional Fire playing through the car’s speakers.

[ ~ Here is a wonderland…

I can still find emotional fire! ~ ]

“Y-Yujinnnie, what are you doing?” Minjoo couldn’t help herself but asked as the Eurobeat started to build up into the song.

“Just getting into the mood, Minjoo-ah!” Yujin grinned as she cranked the volume up, the bass beats made the car interior rumbles into life. “Car goes faster when these kinds of songs are playing during race time!”

The older girl shook her head and cracked a smile upon Yujin’s driving antics. She wasn’t sure about the last statement the younger has made, but the former found it adorable regardless.

In the back of Minjoo’s mind, she prayed and could only hope for her, Yujin, and the rest of her racing friends to survive and win the race.

///

“! How has the Red Devil catching up to us with our nitro chargers going off!?” Cyrus clenched his teeth as he growled, eyeing on the Lexus driving alongside the left-sided lane with the supercar speeding a little over 210 km/h.

[ “What the !? Drive faster!” ] Leon ordered, his voice strained from the tension and frustration he has felt throughout the race.

“I’m trying, man!”

Truth to be told, Cyrus was going low on the nitrous as he barely pulled ahead of the Red Devil’s Lexus Coupe. He spent most of it just by playing catch up with his buddies earlier in the race; it wasn’t something he personally liked doing at all as he prefers to let the opponent showing all their cards before unleashing his.

Something that one of his car comrades didn’t do at all due to his ego being hurt.

[ “Cyrus, if you can’t outdrive her-- consider an alternative to stop her from driving.” ] Julius suggested, his voice mirthed. [ “Force her out from the race, if you get what I mean.” ]

His eyes widened upon the sinister idea. “Wait, what? You mean--”

[ “That’s a genius idea, Julius!” ] Leon howled, seemingly agreed with the idea. [ “You’re really getting into this, my man!” ]