Warning(s): cursing, driving lessons
Length: 7.1k words

Before Ange met Baekhyun, there was hardly anything that she looked forward to doing. However, the bleak days of wandering aimlessly through the calendar are over; she now has something that puts a sprinkle of cinnamon in her life—a little spice, a little tingle of something interesting.

When she and Kyungsoo get home, and after he issues an unnecessary apology about not being the best brother, she immediately heads to her room to get ahold of herself and to think about the events of that night. From sneaking into restricted property, to the mysterious men dropping off a bag with large wads of cash, to seeing Baekyhun dressed so strikingly as he held a gun to her forehead.

There is no other way to describe the dichotomy of what Baekhyun showed her as anything else but day and night.

It’s frightening and leaves Ange awake until it’s 2AM, but it’s a good sort of frightening. Her life has felt empty for a while, and this gives her excitement—no matter how dangerous. She wants to know more; she needs to know more.

What about a dark-haired boy dressed in an all-black ensemble is so intriguing? Is it the fact that he had a gun and he had pointed at her? Is it the bag of money that a pair of suspicious men dropped off for him? Is it the timing of his appearance coinciding with a robbery? Is it simply because searching for his name online yields no valuable result? Maybe it’s all of those things or maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s a lot simpler and lot less scary.

For Ange, the most intriguing thing about Baekhyun is the fact that he’s a supposed car mechanic.

Perhaps he fixes cars by day, but by night, he’s obviously not going out and doing just that.

- - - - -

“Ange, you said you’d give it a week,” Kyungsoo scolds her when they’re driving to Baekhyun’s property. They’re almost there, but Ange has spent the past 20 minutes trying to convince Kyungsoo that she can find a job waitressing—which doesn’t sit well with him. “Waitressing is a dead-end job,” Kyungsoo spits. “You’re not going to learn anything of substance that you can’t learn from Baekhyun too. Plus, you can actually start a good career by fixing cars.”

“Kyung—”

“It’s 2060, Ange.” Kyungsoo glares at her through the rearview mirror. “You’re nothing without a degree, so the least you can do is learn a useful trade.”

As much as he annoys her, it’s obvious that Kyungsoo is just trying to be a good older brother, so Ange lets him go off with his tirade.

Last night, Ange was so excited to go back to Baekhyun’s property and start snooping around, but the closer she gets, the more isolated she feels. There’s really not much out here, and she reckons that if someone is to fire a gun, no one would hear for miles—and that’s terrifying. It makes her think of those serial killer documentaries where bodies can get lay on the side of a road for years before anyone notices. The possibility of that happening to her is suddenly very real.

“Where’d you meet Baekhyun?” Ange asks Kyungsoo when he’s done blabbering. “And when?”

“My car broke down when I was driving to Daegu, and he drove past me,” Kyungsoo answers. “This was last year when you were in France. Why?”

“Do you trust him?”

“Of course,” Kyungsoo says without skipping a beat. “I wouldn’t let him look out after my baby sister if I didn’t trust him.” He takes his eyes off the road for a second and looks at Ange. “Is there something wrong?”

“No,” Ange mumbles. “I just don’t really know that much about him. You know a part of his house is burned?”

“Yeah, I know.” Kyungsoo slows the car down when you approach Baekhyun’s car workshop. “It happened last year, and he lost a lot in that fire.”

A lot?

“What do you mean? There’s only fire damage on like one part of the house.”

Kyungsoo stops the car and taps his thumbs on the steering wheel. Ange can almost see the gears turning in his head, but he says nothing of it and nudges his chin towards Baekhyun’s car workshop. “You should ask him about that yourself,” Kyungsoo says cryptically. “And be nice to him, okay? He’s gone through a lot.”

Ange and Kyungsoo part ways shortly after, and she steps inside Baekhyun’s workshop. The man himself is laying under the hood of a large pickup truck, and his legs are the only thing sticking out. However, when Ange approaches him, he seems to note the shift in the air (or maybe her footsteps are just loud), and he rolls out from under the truck to greet her with a smile.

“Good morning, Angel,” he beams. “Are you ready for today?”

“It depends…” Ange carefully inspects Baekhyun for any leftover trace from last night’s strange meeting. There isn’t any, however; like yesterday, his hair is down and covering his forehead, and he’s wearing a simple white shirt and black jeans. “What are we doing today?” she inquires. “Please don’t tell me I have to get on the ground.” She gestures towards her loose blouse and skirt. “I didn’t dress up to get underneath a car.”

“Then maybe I can teach you how to drive instead.” Baekhyun stands up, and Ange steps backwards to make way for him. “And maybe we can talk a little too.”

Oh , Ange thinks to herself. There was a time Kyungsoo brought her in for a “talk” and that was because he found out that her high school principal issued her a three-day suspension for “academic dishonesty.” Baekhyun bringing up a “talk” with her has the same energy.

“Is this about last night…?” Ange carefully asks.

Baekhyun whips around. “Last night?” He draws closer to her, and fear begins to creep its hand up to Ange’s throat. “What about last night?” Baekhyun whispers in what she construes as a tone of warning. “I thought Kyungsoo picked you up after I left.”

“Right, nothing happened last night,” Ange mumbles. “I went home.”

At the sound of that, Baekhyun breaks into a smile that’s more eerie than kind. “So today I’m going to teach you how to drive,” he continues like nothing has happened. “Aren’t you excited?”

Ange nods and tries to pretend like you are, but she can’t—not even for her own life. Try as she may, Ange can’t possibly forget what happened last night, and it’s all that she wants to talk and think about.

Baekhyun walks over to a tool board attached to a wall, and Ange watches as he grabs one set of keys from a row of at least a dozen. He beckons for Ange to come forward, and she follow him outside with slight hesitation.

“Driving is far from boring,” Baekhyun says, “and I have to show you that, Angel.” He looks over his shoulder to smile at her, and this time, it’s more genuine and reaches into his eyes. “Learning how to drive is one of the most liberating things you can do a person because once you have that skill and a car, the world suddenly opens up.”

Ange follows him to the back of the workshop and to the garage that he showed her from the previous day. Inside, she spots the same four cars—all still covered with a white sheet—parked neatly in a row. Baekhyun uncovers one with one flick of his wrist and immediately exposes the front of a black Nissan.

“Why is it so dusty?” Ange asks upon peering closer at its windshield. The Nissan itself is in good shape and looks to be of a cheap, recent model, but she can’t help to wrinkle her nose at the fact that it looks so…dirty. It seems like the only thing Baekhyun washes it with is dust.

“Because I use it a lot,” Baekhyun answers simply. “Now get in. You have a lot to learn.”

“Huh?”

Baekhyun tosses Ange his car keys as he gets in through the passenger side. Ange is left standing in front of the car with wide open while he stares at her through the dusty windshield.

“What are you doing?” Ange asks Baekhyun. Her voice is already shaking at the thought of having to drive a car today. At the very least, she thought he would show her the basics first—like where the brake and gas pedals are. She walks to the driver’s side and hesitantly opens the door. “What are you saying?” Ange blubbers. “You want me to start driving right away?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says with a shrug. “How else are you gonna learn?”

“I don’t know! What if I crash, though?”

“You’re not going to crash.” Baekhyun points to the large space in front of the Nissan. “There’s nothing to crash into, and your first lesson is to drive in a straight line which I think you’ll manage just fine.”

“I don’t even know which side the brake is on.”

“It’s on the left side.” Baekhyun tilts his head down to get a better look at her, and Ange swears that he’s pitying her at this very moment. “Maybe if you get in, I can teach you that and more.” Although he has softened his voice, it’s not enough, and Ange continues to stare at him in disbelief. “Look,” Baekhyun says tenderly, “I don’t know why you’re so scared, but literally nothing bad will happen. I promise.”

“You’re not going to get mad at me if I crash?”

“You won’t crash.”

There’s a tugging feeling in the pit of Ange’s stomach that tells her that this isn’t right and that she shouldn’t get in, but she does it anyways because the faster she gets this over with, the faster she can go home. Her decision to finally sit in the driver seat makes Baekhyun break out in a triumphant smile.

“You’re driving with the best,” Baekhyun assures Ange. “There’s nothing you need to worry about.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she mutters. “How do I turn this on?”

“Just stick the key in the ignition.”

“I’m trying, but it’s not working.”

“That’s because you’re not pressing it in hard enough.”

“What if I break the key, though?”

“You’re not going to break the key. Just press it in harder.”

“But it’s not going in—”

Ange’s failure to do what is probably the simplest thing about driving a car visibly upsets Baekhyun, and he takes an audible sigh that she feels on the back of her arm. Without another word, he grabs the keys away from her, and in a swift movement, sticks it into the ignition. He turns it with his index finger and thumb, and the next thing Ange knows, the car comes to life.

“So,” Baekhyun starts, his voice already exasperated, “this is a Nissan Versa, and it has a manual transmission. Look at your feet.” Ange glances down and feels a wave of panic wash over her when she realizes that there are three pedals instead of the two that Kyungsoo’s car has. “On the very right is the gas, the center is the brake, and the very left is the clutch.”

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s for when you want to change gears.”

“Huh?”

Baekhyun clicks his tongue. “I’ll teach all about gears later, but right now, we need to get out of this garage. Move the parking brake down.” He points to an extra lever by the center console, and Ange follows suit since it’s just a lever, right? “Now, put your left foot on the clutch and press it.” Applying pressure to a pedal is the probably the easiest thing that Ange has done all day, and so she manages to do it with only a slight bit of hesitance. “Good,” Baekhyun notes. “So now you’re going to put the car in first gear by moving this—the gearshift.”

He points to the car’s center console and the lever standing in the middle. The handle is marked with several numbers and a few letters, but none of them mean anything to Ange. Fortunately, Baekhyun isn’t finished with his instruction.

“Do you see the numbers?” Baekhyun asks, and Ange nods. “Those indicate which gear you’re on. Right now, you’re in neutral because the lever is in the middle. Simple, right?”

“Sure.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not that bad.” Baekhyun fingers the numbers on the handle. “If you want to switch to first gear, move it to where the one is.” He taps the 1 mark. “In this car, it’s the upper left, so put your hand on the lever and move it to the upper left side.”

Ange is more than confused at what she has to do, and Baekhyun’s gaze is nerve wracking enough, but she’d hate to disappoint him even more, so she tries to do as he says. Shifting the gearstick is a lot harder than she anticipates, and she doesn’t want to pull too hard because she’s afraid that she’ll break it and send the car careening forward. After two feeble attempts, Ange decides that she’s done, and she takes her hand off the lever.

“It’s not working,” she says, looking into Baekhyun’s narrowed eyes. “I’ll break it.”

“Angel,” Baekhyun huffs, “you’re not going to break it. Try again.” Ange takes a frustrated sigh and slaps her hand onto the gearstick, and Baekhyun hisses at that movement. “Do not do that again,” he stresses. “Now try again.”

“Baekhyun,” Ange mimics his huff, “I’m ing trying. It’s not—”

Before Ange can go on, Baekhyun places his hand over hers and forcefully moves the shift for her. His hand is calloused and rough, and it drapes over hers easily and completely. Just the very feeling silences Ange from whining, and she shuts from further outbursts. Ange is more surprised at the abruptness of the contact than she is with how Baekhyun shifts the lever into “first gear” with three soft jerks. Once he has done that, he detaches his cool hand from Ange’s to point at her feet.

“Now you’re in first gear,” he says casually. “So now I’m gonna teach you how to move forward. Is your left foot still on the clutch?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“You don’t sound sure. Is that a yes or a no?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Baekhyun peers over to look at Ange’s feet and nods. “Now put your right foot on the gas pedal, but don’t press on it yet.” He watches her place her foot on the gas. “Nice. Okay, now slowly release some pressure on the clutch, but don’t let go just yet, and while you’re doing that, also slowly put some pressure on the gas.”

“Huh?”

“Stop saying that,” Baekhyun scolds. “It’s simple. Think of it as a seesaw. As you’re lifting your left foot, you’re pressing down on your right.”

“Baekhyun, I’ve never done anything like this before!”

“Angel,” Baekhyun says, his voice very soft. “Just relax. You’re overthinking it. This is a lot simpler than you think it is. Now try again.”

Inside, Ange wants to die—to just pass away on the spot and float in the clouds—but Baekhyun is looking at her expectantly, and he doesn’t seem like the type to let her walk away so easily. She takes a deep breath to cleanse her body of stress and try to do as he instructed; she releases some pressure off the clutch pedal and slowly press down on the gas. At first, nothing happens, but as you continue with the balancing act of pressing and releasing one foot, the car slowly starts to move forward.

“Oh my, god,” Ange exclaim in triumph. “Oh my, god! I’m doing it! I’m driving!”

“You’re right, Angel.” Baekhyun’s voice is still soft. “But you’re still going slow. When the car starts to move faster than you can walk, that’s when you can slowly take your foot off the clutch.”

Instead of saying “huh?” like a complete idiot, Ange simply tightens her grip on the steering wheel and concentrates on the feeling of the car softly rumbling beneath her feet. Baekhyun wasn’t kidding when he said that this is a lot simpler than she was making it seem.

The car picks up speed, and it’s when Ange has managed to drive outside of the garage that she feels comfortable enough to start letting go of the clutch. Once her foot no longer exerts any pressure on it, she’s positively driving. Upon that realization, Ange breaks out into a sappy grin and starts laughing. She’s actually driving.

“Fun, right?” Baekhyun sits back in his seat as Ange starts turning the steering wheel slowly. Now that you’re in open space and there’s no danger of ramming into anything, you relax too. Driving is fun. Who would have thought? “Make sure you don’t jerk the steering wheel.” Baekhyun says. “Feel the car and use the speed gauge.”

“This is easy,” Ange remarks as she drivees the car in circles. The speed gauge says that she’s goi