Bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt

Taeyeon rolled over to her side to see her phone lit up from an incoming call. Groaning she looked at the number before answering, “What the hell.”

“Omg! Taeyeon! I need your help!”

“What time is it?”

“2am? Tokyo time so that means 2am by you? Don’t tell me you are sleeping?”

Rolling onto her back, now wide awake, “Yuri what do you need at 2am from me?”

“I need you here in Tokyo by tonight.”

“No.”

“What? Why not?! I really need you! Only you. My one and only Taengoo.”

Taeyeon cringed at her high school nickname, “Yuri I am busy. End of story.”

“You owe me. December 2005.”

Rolling her eyes back Taeyeon hated that they were childhood friends, “I can’t believe you are bringing that up as blackmail.”

“I am texting you some plane tickets. I will be waiting for you when you land.”

“Are you going to tell me why I am coming?”

“To do what you do best obviously. Love ya! See you soon!”

Taeyeon hung up her phone before it beeped with a link to her tickets, “I can’t believe her…I have a life too.” Maybe she can get a little bit of sleep before boarding a plane to Tokyo for who knows what.

~Many hours later~

Taeyeon rolled her suitcase out of the airport in Tokyo, jetlagged and cranky. She didn’t want to be here and hated that Yuri bribed her to coming so she wasn’t very happy to see the souped-up green BMW pull up, “Taengooo!”

Rolling her eyes, Taeyeon threw her bag in the back of the car before being engulfed in a huge hug, “I want 50% of the take.”

Yuri frowned into the hug, “Talking business already? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Nope. You blackmailed me to come here!” Taeyeon released herself from Yuri’s hold to get into the car and buckled up.

“I had no choice! So the engineer of our car had a freak accident last night and is in the hospital. Long story on that one, but you see we have this race…well not any race…THE race of the year with like the biggest stakes I have seen in like forever. As you can tell, we need you. We need the best.”

Taeyeon shut her eyes, “So you brought me in as a glorified mechanic? So not worth my skills. I want 60% now.”

“I have a little surprise back at the shop that might lift your spirits up.”

Taeyeon cracked her eye open, “Does it have something to do with the car?”

Yuri grinned, “Taeyeon the car is the reason we are even in this race.”

Taeyeon tried to hide her smile that threatened to show. Nothing got her blood pumping like a new engine to work on.

Yuri shifted up and raced to the shop so Taeyeon could get to work as soon as possible.

When the two pulled in to the shop, Taeyeon’s eyes grew wide, “…she is beautiful.”

Yuri snickered, “I know right. I was going to send you a ton of pictures and brag but everything went to …so umm you are here now.”

Taeyeon nearly floated out of the car in excitement, “No way! There are like only 3 in the world!”

Yuri smiled happily, “It is on loan from an anonymous source but yes, you are looking at one of the only 3 in the world.”

Smoothing her hand over the metal, Taeyeon prickled with excitement, “And I get to make you even better.”

“You have permission to do whatever it takes to make this the fastest car.”

“When is the race?”

Yuri bit her lip, “Tomorrow night…”

“What?! I only get one day with this beauty?!”

Yuri popped the hood, “So our previous mechanic did some work already so there should be too much to be done.”

Taeyeon scoffed as she buried her head into the hood, “The nitro is hooked up wrong here and this could be made better with a few adjustments, there is a lot to be done! Not to mention you were so secretive about the car, I could have written some new codes for the computer while on the plane to save time. I will be up all night!”

Yuri patted Taeyeon on the shoulder, “I will be here to help.”

Taeyeon whipped out her computer from her bag and plugged it into the dash, “Wow…this thing is a masterpiece. I am going to enjoy making you the best you will ever be.”

“Just admit that you are going to love being up all night to do this work.”

“Only a little.”

“So you get 10% of the winnings?”

“50.”

“11%?”

“15 and you have a deal.”

Yuri smiled, “Great. Now let’s make this the best race car.”

Taeyeon cracked her fingers, “I will make this thing a work of art.”

Yuri laughed, “What do you want me to do first?”

“Get me a Sprite.”

“I am not your lacky! I can do real work. You know I don’t just race the cars right?”

Taeyeon laughed, “Fine, take that nitro and put it here and then run those lines to here and here.”

Yuri pulled out a wrench from her back pocket, “You got it boss.”

With many hours of work ahead of them, Yuri and Taeyeon wasted no time reworking the engine. Although Taeyeon was still miffed Yuri bribed her into coming here, she couldn’t be happier. When else will she get a chance to work on a multimillion dollar car like this ever again?

Even working all night wouldn’t make her smile go away but when the morning came and it was up to Yuri to test drive and run the diagnostics, Taeyeon slept like a baby dreaming of even more codes that she could insert to make this the ultimate racing car.

She couldn’t wait to finally get this car to the starting line and see what the car really has. Plus, she had a reputation to defend.

The night drew closer as Yuri jumped on Taeyeon’s bed to wake her up, “It is time!”

Taeyeon yawned as she cracked her eyes open, “I feel like I just went to bed.”

“You? I helped you fix the car, then I test drove it and got the diagnostics for you. I am working on like 2 hours of sleep and 10 cups of coffee.”

Stretching Taeyeon rolled over on her side, “If I remember right, you were sleeping in the car when I got back with the new codes.”

“A small nap!”

“I don’t remember you waking up when I finished working on the car and I had to wake you up to test drive it.”

“Whatever,” Yuri handed Taeyeon a tablet, “Here is from the test run. We are leaving in a couple of hours.”

Taeyeon tied her hair up as she went through the specs, “Humm we can get your time down on the curves.”

“I leave the rest up to you! I am going to put something super y on!”

Taeyeon rolled her eyes, “1 person said you look y in your racing suit and now you think that is true. There is no y racing outfit out there.”

“You are so uptight. I will let you know, female racers are the iest because we know how to ride it hard.”

Taeyeon laughed, “Don’t even start! No ual racing innuendos while I am here.”

“You are no fun! I will just hang out with my racing crowd while you are with the nerds.”

“Well I like being with the nerds better anyway.”

Yuri pushed Taeyeon out of bed, “Up up up and make my car a star. Also I hope you packed something good to wear for the race. No nerdy hoodie. If you are in my group, you need to be dressed Tokyo style.”

“What does that mean?”

Yuri grinned, “I will make you a y beast.”

“No way!”

“No butts!”

Taeyeon tried to evade Yuri’s assault on her wardrobe but eventually Yuri got her in something leather, a leather coat to be exact. Although Taeyeon loved race day, she despised the networking around it. Everyone is coming up to the car hoping to steal her ideas and she had to somehow be interested in the occasional ‘cool car.’

Taeyeon needed a drink bad.

“Gin. Double.” Taeyeon slapped down some cash and played on her phone while waiting for her drink.

“Whiskey sour.”

Taeyeon looked up, hearing the feminine voice next to her, and thought her heart would jump out of her chest. A bombshell brunette looked beyond y in a white racing suit counting her cash. Taeyeon might need to admit to Yuri that there are a certain type of racers that look great in the suit, Yuri is not one of them.

“Keep the change.”

Taeyeon’s eyes stayed glue to the woman, even after her drink was placed in front of her. She wondered who she might be but Taeyeon didn’t have the chance to ask as Yuri became the biggest , “Thanks for the drink!”

“That was mine!” Taeyeon tried to snatch the drink away but Yuri was too quick and downed it in one shot.

“Too slow shorty!” Yuri laughed, “By the way, I saw what you did.”

“What?” Taeyeon was annoyed as she ordered a new drink.

“Her name is Jessica.”

Taeyeon’s heart palpitated, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Yuri nudged Taeyeon, “Aww don’t be shy although she is way out of your league. Like way way way out of your league.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“She is the best racer here, besides me of course.”

“So? I am the best at what I do.”

“She is a heartbreaker. So many have tried and so many have failed. I just don’t want you to get your heart broken.”

“I don’t plan on getting my heart broken, plus she doesn’t even know who I am.”

Yuri patted her friend on the back, “you should keep it that way.”

Taeyeon turned back to watch the brunette walk through the crowd like she owned the place. There was definitely something about her.