“Seo Eunkyung!”

My head snapped up. I was currently leaning on the counter of the bar I was working at, almost falling asleep. My boss stormed over to me and began his usual lecture about being a responsible employee and how falling asleep on the job is not responsible.

            “I should fire you!” he cried out in frustration, already turning away from me to yell at someone else.

            “But you won’t.” I muttered under my breath.

            Unfortunately, today was a slow day at work. This did not help to keep me awake, as I had spent the last couple of nights staying up and working on a design for a car.  I was exhausted to say the least.

            I counted down the seconds for my last ten minutes of my shift. By the time I got to 78 seconds left, the door opened and in walked “Eun’s boys.” This was a nickname my co-workers had given a group of my friends. They were nine highly attractive—or so the girls at work said—guys from different parts of South Korea. They had been brought together by one thing: their love for speed.

            “Yah, brat, when does your shift end?” Kwanghee—the annoying one—called out to me. I pretended not to hear him and turned to Dongjun, instantly falling into an easy conversation with him.

            Honestly, I absolutely adored Dongjun. If these guys were drowning, I’m pretty sure I’d save Dongjun first. He was just so awesome, in my opinion. Way to mature for his age, equally as sarcastic as I was, and the top quality of the team. Everyone had a role on the team, and Dongjun’s was both maknae and ace.

            “Eyy~~ Don’t be like that!” Kwanghee called out in his usual, taunting voice.  Junyoung and Kevin both rolled their eyes at him. The guys all knew how I felt about Kwanghee at the moment. I was mad at him for a few reasons, like turning his little posse of girls against me, and “accidently” getting car oil all over me. The guy knew how to push my buttons and he did it well. Basically, he was in trouble.

            Siwan leaned over the counter, grabbing my messenger bag. “Let’s go, we’ve got a race tonight and we need you.” I groaned.

            “I thought you guys were taking a break! I’m so tired, I just wanna go home and sleep.” I hopped over the counter and gave Siwan a pleading look. “Can’t you guys win without me?”

            Siwan smirked and ruffled my hair. “Ani.”

            Which was his nice way of saying, “Stop complaining you big baby, and be grateful we trust you around the cars in the first place.”

            You see, ZE:A is very protective of their cars. They own three Honda Civic that they use for racing. One was bought, one was stolen, and the other was traded.

            I am actually one of the two people outside of ZE:A that they allowed near the keys of the car. The other person was Kim ChaEun—a.k.a Siwan’s girl. The two have been together for the past couple of months, although they won’t admit they’re dating. ChaEun comes from a family of mechanics, like me, so she kind of got a free pass from the guys. It’s nice having another girl around to talk to, even if it was so easy talking to the guys about things like feelings and personal issues.  

            We got to the racetracks in record time, as was ZE:A’s style. Tonight, ChaEun was nowhere to be seen.

            “Where’s your girl?” I asked Siwan in the bluntest tone I could give him. He ignored my obvious hint and shrugged.

            While we were checking up on the cars in one of the garages near the tracks, we could hear the roaring of engines, signaling that the other team had just arrived.

            “Ah,” I muttered in understanding as I looked up to see who it was. “That’s why you wanted me here.” I straightened up more to get a better look at the eight boys getting out of the car.

            “Block B.” Junyoung practically growled with dissatisfaction.