Race 18. Up the Ante
Drifting HeartsL.Joe woke up and found that he had woken up first, Aria’s head was on his chest. He didn't realize that they had fallen asleep during the movie. He turned it off and then debated whether he should move away or fake sleeping.
He pulled out his phone and noticed several missed calls from his brothers. He didn't think they would worry about him, but then again all they did was call in the morning when he wasn't in his bed.
He sighed and put his phone away, he felt her stir and he faked sleep to not alarm her.
Aria woke with something warm beneath her. Her head was loopy before she registered that it was L.Joe's chest. She didn't want to do this, to get close to him like this.
Why had she invited him over in the first place? What had come over her? He was nice but was that enough to get through everything?
She shook her head as she got off of him, he was still asleep and she was grateful that he wasn't awake. That would have made this awkward. She walked around before getting ready and then made some breakfast. “You shouldn’t be special.” Aria whispered to herself as she watched him sleep. She wasn’t going to let another person get this close to her again. She already lost someone close to her and she wasn’t ready to do that again. She walked away to go find something else to do, it would be weird if she just watched him to sleep until he woke up.
L.Joe faked a big waking up moment, but he had heard what she had said. Being special, that meant she had lost someone before too. But he was already becoming special, she had never invited anyone to her house before. So why would she try to stop now?
He walked around curiously as he looked for a bathroom, Aria’s head popped out of her room and she smiled at him. On her own. For the first time. He smiled back, “Good morning.” He greeted her.
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty. The bathroom is over there.” She gestured, “There’s an extra toothbrush and stuff all set up. I don’t have clothes for you though, I mean I have old clothes from my mentor, if you want those.” She told him.
He felt his hope shatter, did she have a relationship with her mentor before? He had taught her everything he knew, maybe they had gotten that close as well. “Oh okay, thanks.” He said calmly, before going to get himself ready.
He took a deep breath and calmed his nerves, he had a midnight race tonight. They had increased the bid and he needed to be focused. He was motivated to win, for himself, his hyung, and for the validation from Aria. A knock on the door interrupted him and he answered.
“The clothes you can try on is outside. He hasn’t been here for about a year but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. And I made breakfast, you can have some when you’re done.” Aria told him.
“Thanks.” He said and he finished getting ready, taking the clothes and heading out for food. She had made pancakes and they ate in silence.
When he finished, he looked at the clock, they had slept in until 1PM, “Wow. You sleep in huh?” He joked with her.
“We stay up late for midnight races. Of course, I sleep in. I hope you know that you’ll change your sleep cycle too.” Aria told him.
“So what do you wanna do until the race?” He asked her, “We still have 6 hours.”
“TV?” She offered.
“Sure, let’s not fall asleep this time.” He said, going to sit on the pull-out bed she had and flipped through the channels. She came to the bed and sat next to me.
They got ready quickly when 8PM hit and she drove him to his house to pick up the Audi. His brothers were all freaking out when they saw him. They all rushed him but Aria stepping out of her car made everyone quiet.
“Damn it.” CAP muttered to himself quietly.
“You know that nothing happened.” L.Joe said, rolling his eyes. “But yeah. You don’t know a lot about her.”
“Come on, there’s Eunkwang to race tonight.” Aria called after him. She got back into her car and drove off, she couldn’t be caught in this place.
L.Joe felt a little sad at that but he knew she couldn’t help it. He wasn’t at her level yet, he needed to get there before she could be proud of being associated with him.
“What did you do, man?” CAP asked him. “How did you even get her to talk to you?”
L.Joe grinned, “None of your business.” He said, grabbing the keys and opening the car door. “I’ll meet you guys there.” He said and drove off.
The crowd was bigger this time and he waited in line again. He was second this time, there was someone new racing and the newest one always went first. He saw that Aria was waiting in the back for her turn, she was always last. He saw the two-lap track and it really was the same as the practice track at Hyeongkon’s garage.
He wasn’t even worried anymore, he knew he could do this. He could race like he did before, it wasn’t that hard. “You ran away from us!” CAP shouted as they pulled up into the circle, the five of them crashed into L.Joe and he had to stop himself from falling.
“You’re the only one who cares anyway, hyung.” Ricky said rolling his eyes, “Just make sure you bring the money to the hospital tonight, okay?” He said to L.Joe.
“Yeah, I know. I’ll be there.” L.Joe said.
“Okay, well, I’m gonna be over there. Anyone else wanna join me?” Ricky said as he moved away from L.Joe. The others followed with Chunji dragging CAP along.
“L.Joe versus Eunkwang!” Micky called them into the race. L.Joe pulled up to the track and Eunkwang’s white Lexus was across from him. A girl stood between them and then raised the flag, to signal them to go.
L.Joe floored it and got to the inside first, he was in the lead and watched as Eunkwang kept trying to get the courage to try and pass him. He smirked as he drifted into the turn, gained speed and put more space between him and Eunkwang. He got past the first lap and continued to drift into the circles.
Taking off the emergency brake in the third bend, he eased off the gas and saw Eunkwang catch up a little, he was in the last straight and pressed Nos, riding out the speed until the finish line.
Jumping out of the car in ecstasy, he kept out of the way for Eunkwang to reach the finish line. He was grumpy and kicked the ground with his foot. Micky handed the $10k to L.Joe, “Don’t spend your money too quickly.” He said, before he went to another race.
L.Joe looked around and saw that he was alone, he wasn’t with his brothers anymore. They had disappeared, he went to the second floor to watch Aria race.
Author's Note;;
UPDATE ^-^
Now i'm going to try and finish this fic.. :o
And my joong ki one~ :3 lol.
i made a new fic for Kris please check it out here
Comments