Round 05: Live fast, drive faster (Part 1/2)
Title: live fast, drive faster
Team: AU
Rating: PG-13, character death and implied sex
Fandom: EXO
Pairing: Jongin/Sehun
Summary: I wonder if you know how they live in Tokyo / If you've seen it and you mean it then you know you have to go / Fast and furious
Author's Note: A big thank you to Team AU and betas! I'll thank you properly after the reveal :D
Prompt Used: Infinite - The Chaser
Seoul City Central
Three months earlier
The night is young and so are they. Moonlight glances off gleaming bonnets, extinguished headlights and a head of dark, messy hair. Kim Jongin sits on the sidewalk, enjoying the silence of the night.
"So, transferring to Tokyo, huh? Land of brake-hard-and-turn racing?" The other boy takes a long drag on his cigarette, waiting for an answer. Jongin shrugs noncommittally.
"Learning opportunities and stuff. I qualified anyway, and it's better than this stuffy old university. Should be fun." The two sit in silence for a while more, the occasional faraway whine of an engine breaking the silence.
You only have one chance, you know, his older brother had said. Jongin's hardly a stranger to street racing -- his brother had shown him the cars, the races, the people, everyone and everything in the circuit on precious midnight trips that they would embark on during the holidays, waiting until their parents were asleep and then escaping out through an innocently opened kitchen window. "Let's take a walk, the air is fresher out there" was Jongin's favourite thing to hear as a child - it meant another trip to the circuit.
When Jongin was fourteen, he turned down one trip. The next morning, there were policemen at their door, and the news showed the charred wreckage of a yellow Honda. The midnight trips continued soon enough - that same year, his brother's friends taught Jongin how to drive.
"Take care of my car while I'm in Tokyo. Remember, not a scratch."
"That pretty white darling over there? No promises. Good thing you left your precious Silvia with someone else, or I'd be horribly tempted to bring it to a race. You know how those usually turn out." The two laugh a little, then lapse back into companionable silence.
Jongin's sure he'll miss this while in Tokyo.
-----
Shibuya, Tokyo
Present day
Jongin's phone buzzes loudly on the desk, startling him awake and earning him a death glare from the class goody-two-shoes next to him. The professor doesn't seem to have heard anything. Shooting down the goody-two-shoes's "put that thing away, we're having lessons" face with a few choice words, Jongin unlocks the phone and reads the message.
From: Butt
To: Your Majesty
I'm hungry. Lunch?
Jongin quickly types in a reply, putting his phone down just as the professor glances in his direction.
From: Your Majesty
To: Butt
Really, Do Kyungsoo? Middle of the lecture? But yeah, lunch. Professor isn't wearing a yellow tie today, so you owe me a drink.
From: Butt
To: Your Majesty
Not worth listening anyway, it's all in the readings. Oh, I've got something to show you tonight. You free?
From: Your Majesty
To: Butt
...is this going where I think it is going?
From: Butt
To: Your Majesty
Class dismissed. I'm hungry, let's go.
Jongin all but jumps out of his seat, shoves his readings and foolscap into his bag and dashes out, pushing past the goody-two-shoes ("Oops. Sorry, not sorry.") and all but dragging Kyungsoo out of the lecture theatre. They reach the campus early - the only ones there are the Applied Chemistry majors, whose lecturer broke an ankle while ice-skating (or so the Law professor said).
"So, what is it you want to show me? Nightlife?" Jongin asks through a mouthful of taco. Kyungsoo nods and playfully shoves Jongin when the latter wiggles his eyebrows.
"Not that kind of nightlife, you idiot! Ever heard of the Shibuya circuit?" Jongin laughs and nods, but freezes as Kyungsoo's words sink in.
"Shibuya circuit? THE Shibuya circuit? Come on, who hasn't heard of it?" Kyungsoo smiles.
"Good. Shibuya, tonight, then!"
-----
Jongin's spent quite a bit of the ride to Shibuya constantly being corrected ("drift racing, not just street racing"), but he's rather looking forward to it. Kyungsoo's car is a black Toyota Supra with flame patterns, exactly what Jongin imagined Kyungsoo would ride. They park in a garage nearby, Kyungsoo promising to introduce Jongin to "a bunch of really awesome guys, they're my friends", but Jongin soon finds himself in the middle of the crowd with Kyungsoo nowhere to be seen. A race is rounding up, and Jongin's lucky - his blind wandering got him a prime spot right next to the finish.
A brilliant white Nissan GTR screeches into the square, followed by another two cars. A racer - he looks no older than 24 - gets out of the GTR to cheers and applause from the crowd. He smiles, bows, and talks with the other drivers who are out of their cars by now.
The race is over, and bit by bit the crowd breaks up. The racer walks in Jongin's direction as someone right behind Jongin waves to the racer. Jongin steps aside and moves to walk away when he hears something familiar -- Korean. They're conversing in Korean, the other two parties in the conversation praising the racer's every move in the race. Jongin's not that impressed. His eye roll goes unnoticed, but his mutter of "I could do that too" doesn't. The conversation ends there, and all three turn to face him.
"You could do it too? Really?" The racer's friend in a blue hoodie gives him the once-over. Alright, then. Jongin chooses to glare at him instead of answering. The racer from earlier just laughs and looks Jongin in the eye."Give the kid a break, Tao. This will be fun. Got a car, kid?" Now that's a bit of a problem. Jongin shakes his head slightly and tries not to flinch when the racer laughs at him. The one called Tao smirks - the other one just looks bored.
The racer reaches into his pocket and a second later, a silver object whizzes through the air and straight into Jongin's hands. A set of car keys. Before Jongin can say anything, the racer jerks his thumb at a silver car behind him. "Take the Silvia, it belongs to a friend of mine. What say you to a friendly challenge?" Blink. Another blink. Jongin's not sure what to say.
"...hello? Earth to New Kid? Friendly challenge? You know, not the you-lose-you-get-off-my-turf type of challenge, just a race for fun with no consequences?" The racer waves his hand in front of Jongin's face, and all Jongin can do is nod.
"Good. Let's get started, then. Name's Minseok."
"Jongin."
The crowd that had lapsed into deathly silence just a moment earlier now buzzes with excitement as both racers head to their cars.
-----
Jongin slides into the driver's seat of the Silvia, taking a moment to take a look at the controls, running his hand over the gearstick and the steering wheel. Audi steering wheel, no roll cage, modified for speed and aesthetic appeal... Almost like my own Silvia, Jongin thinks. His favourite Silvia sits quietly in a garage in Korea, keys in the trust of a friend who can hardly even tell the accelerator from the brake pedal (no fear of damage there, he thinks). The controls are foreign yet feel familiar, and for a second, Jongin's back home again, king of the streets, unchallenged.
His little walk down memory lane is interrupted by a loud honk coming from Minseok's direction. Jongin guns the ignition and follows Minseok as he taxis out of the square to a nearby parking lot, the crowd rushing past them to get a good view of the race. Once they both are at the starting line, a Japanese racer signals for them to wind down their windows. Jongin's barely listening to the racer explaining the course, but even before the racer steps away from their cars and both windows are up, Jongin's attention is already on the tarmac and Minseok's Skyline next to him.
"Ready!" Jongin revs his engine, and Minseok ignores him.
"Set!" Minseok smiles. Jongin fully intends to wipe that grin off his face by the first turn.
"Go!" Both cars tear down the straight, deaf to the cheers of the crowd, blind to the bets being placed, to everything except their own engine, the path ahead and the other's car.
The straight is rather uneventful, both cars bumper to bumper, driving along the straight at the same speed. Minseok's still smiling, as if this was a walk in the park for him (then again, Jongin thought, he probably was used to racing in this parking lot, it would be a walk in the park for him). Jongin's contemplating whether to nudge Minseok's car when suddenly, Minseok pulls back. Jongin realises two things, both a second too late - the first is that he's got the inside line going into a very tight turn, and the second is that he needs to turn. Now.
"Brake late and slide? Can't be too difficult now." Jongin steps hard on the brake and turns the wheel. Tyres screech as he steps on the clutch and pulls the handbrake. He's past the entrance of the turn already but there's nothing he can do about it any more except to release the handbrake, turn the wheel and wait for the bloody car to turn. He gets through alright, or so he thinks until he hears a jarring crash, feeling the rear of his car hit Minseok's right bumper. Not quite like Minseok's earlier turn, then. Jongin mutters a few choice words as he continues down the straight, Minseok's car now trailing a little behind him and with a dented right bumper.
Minseok overtakes him on the third straight. They're side by side, but then Minseok is pulling away, and he's cutting in front of Jongin before Jongin's able to react. They continue driving, and Jongin tries to overtake him, but Minseok covers himself well, closing the door on Jongin every time.
Minseok's still ahead. Third turn, no problems. Fourth turn, nothing wrong. Fifth turn, Jongin can't even see the tail of the Skyline, which is very much due to the way he's driving. By the sixth turn, Jongin has scraped the wall several times and hit an unfortunate parallel parker's Mitsubishi Eclipse. On the bright side, Jongin's quite sure he's getting the hang of drifting - wall scrapes and damage done to car aside, it seems to be getting easier. Or so Jongin thinks right before the eighth turn. Jongin does the same manoeuvre again, but the same thing happens - his car spins more than he had expected it to, and the battered tail of the Silvia badly scratches a black Supra with flame patterns. It happens to look terribly familiar. Oops.
By the fifteenth turn, just two turns before the finish line, Jongin is highly annoyed with himself, the car, and drift racing in general. He's lost count of how many cars and other vehicles he's hit and Minseok probably has finished the race by now. Jongin speeds along the fifteenth straight and barely scrapes past the sixteenth turn (more rear bumper damage, Minseok's not going to be very happy about this), but along the final straight, right before the seventeenth turn, Jongin loses control. His car spins wildly, hitting the wall at the seventeenth turn, and wrecks a parked Mitsubishi Evolution. When he finally drives (or bumps, given the state of the car) to a halt next to Minseok on the roof of the carpark and gets out, there is deathly silence all around. No one moves, not even Jongin - he stares straight at Minseok, who's smiling.
Minseok starts clapping first, and the crowd soon follows, but the applause is hesitant and halfhearted. Jongin has never had to face such applause - back in Seoul, the applause was thunderous, the crowd roared with approval, and the loser would be mocked. Jongin's not sure which is worse - being mocked by a winner with the weight of the crowd behind him, or this applause.
Minseok's phone goes off, and he walks away to take the call. The race over, the crowd now disperses, tutting and bemoaning how it was a ten-second race. Jongin leans against the heavily damaged Silvia in a daze, not sure what he's going to do next or how he's going to pay for the damages done to both the Silvia and Minseok's car. He's snapped out of it by a tap on his shoulder. It's Minseok, two other guys behind him, and he's still smiling. They're all smiling.
"Good race, although a bit less damage would have been nice. Now come with me, the boss wants to see you about the damage. We'll escort you to his office."
So not only has Jongin gotten himself into a debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars, he's also offended a street gang. Great. His mother would have a lot to say.
-----
The first thing Jongin notices is that the room looks absolutely nothing like an office. The next thing he notices is that none of the people in the room look anywhere near remotely annoyed with him, not even Kyungsoo. The person leaning against the wall in the corner winks and throws him a two-fingered salute, not something Jongin expected to get for wrecking three cars.
The boss smiles and beckons for him to step closer. Jongin's not too sure what to expect. Somewhere in the back of his head, his paranoid side begins formulating escape plans. The ventilation windows? Jumping right above an opponent is typically a stupid idea. The door? Nope, Minseok's there. Just as Jongin's contemplating the effectiveness of a chair as a weapon, a loud 'ahem' startles Jongin so much that he nearly grabs the chair right there and then. The man folds his arms and fixes Jongin with an unreadable stare that scares him but somehow, Jongin can't pull away. An eternity passes in deathly silence before the man opens his mouth to speak.
"So, I hear you wrecked my Silvia." Jongin nods. There's nothing else he can say.
"And my Eclipse too." Nod.
"My Evo?" Nod.
"Minseok's Skyline?" Another nod.
"Scratched Kyungsoo's Supra? Destroyed a few motorbikes? Caused at least seven figures' worth of damage?" Nod. Nod. Guilty nod. Jongin's quite surprised when the boss laughs and leans back. Kyungsoo laughs and murmurs something along the lines of 'never knew' and 'entirely worth it'.
"Well, damage aside, I have to say you're pretty good at it. Have you been doing this for quite a while?" Jongin opens his mouth but nothing comes out, so he settles for another nod. The boss smiles and holds out his hand. "I'm Kris Wu."
Jongin cautiously shakes his hand. "Kim Jongin."
Kris starts talking about the immense damage caused, and Jongin finds himself getting more and more distracted by the way Guy In The Corner's pen is spinning continuously on his thumb while his fingers remain still. His friend in a black leather jacket is equally engrossed in watching the pen, and Kyungsoo seems perfectly content staring off into space. One thing Kris says, however, does catch everyone's attention.
"Wait, so if I join you-"
"We'll write off the cost of the damage and you'll learn to look where you're driving."
Jongin hesitates again.
"... do I get a car?"
The room erupts in cheers and applause as Kris and Jongin shake hands.
-----
Jongin finds out from Kyungsoo that Black Leather Jacket and Guy In The Corner are Chanyeol and Baekhyun, but he has little time to offer them any more than a wave before Kyungsoo's dragging him off elsewhere to meet others. Jongin's introduced to Lay and Tao along the way, Minseok's two friends from earlier. Kyungsoo takes a fair amount of time explaining their achievements on the street track, but Jongin's quite sure he doesn't catch anything more than 'very good at drift racing.'
In the garage, Kyungsoo calls out to two people. Or at least, one person and a pair of legs peeking out from under a silver 1991 Lotus Elan.
"Jongin, meet Joonmyun, one of our best racers," the man leaning against the car smiles at Jongin, "and this here is Chen, our team's tech guy." Kyungsoo nudges the legs with his foot and a grease-covered hand appears from beneath the car, offers Jongin a little wave, and then retreats back under the car. "Guys, this is Kim Jongin."
Joonmyun smiles a little at him "New around here?" Jongin nods. "Congrats on making it here, then." Kyungsoo laughs. "Dude raced Minseok and you can bet he's good with cars. Just not so good with not hitting them."
A groan is heard from somewhere under the Elan. "Seriously? Don't tell me he hit the Eclipse, I just repaired that the other day."
"...okay. I won't tell you he hit the Eclipse."
The pair of legs are suddenly a person giving Jongin the once-over. "So for all the damage, is he any good?"
"You can ask Kris or Minseok."
The mechanic laughs and pats Jongin on the shoulder. "Welcome to the club, then."
Kyungsoo spends a bit of time chatting with Joonmyun and Chen while Jongin gets the go-ahead to take a look around the garage. Jongin can identify only some of them - an apple green Hyundai Genesis, Kyungsoo's Supra from earlier, a forest green Ford Gran Torino, quite a few cars that Jongin can't remember, and Minseok's Skyline. The garage is very different from what Jongin remembers his neighbourhood garage was like - Chen's workspace is tidy, tools in the toolboxes and everything put neatly in place.
Kyungsoo drags Baekhyun over, and through the conversation that follows Jongin learns that the gang is not only a team of brilliant racers, but Kris also owns half the place ("rich guy with nothing much to do - that kind of guy"). Chanyeol soon joins them and begins to give Jongin what he calls "the newcomer's tour." Jongin's quite sure he'll be spending quite a lot of time at the garage from now on.
-----
A few days later, Jongin turns up at the parking lot (car park?) where Kris asked to meet him for his first drifting lesson - the same parking lot where he trashed three of Kris's cars. He's an hour early, or so he thinks until he spots Kris waiting beside a 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Kris waves as Jongin jogs over, waving aside his hasty apologies for being 'late'. The first thing Jongin notices, however, is that Kris is holding two sets of keys - one marked with the Chevrolet logo and the other a Mitsubishi logo. Kris stops mid-sentence and follows Jongin's gaze.
"Pretty sharp, aren't you." Kris chuckles and holds out the pair of keys Jongin is looking at. "Yes, you will get to use it, and I'm lending it to you since you don't have a car of your own."
Jongin blinks. Kris is still holding out the keys.
Jongin blinks again.
"The car isn't going to start itself, you know. Go on. Yours to practise with, yours to swap, just that I'd rather you not crash it again." Jongin takes the keys from Kris, still speechless.
Kris points at a blue car some distance from his Chevrolet. "Lancer Evolution MR. Pretty different from the Nissan, but seeing as you wrecked that a few days ago, it can't be helped. Go practise; I'll see you back here next week." Kris gets in the Chevrolet and starts the engine, Jongin still standing off at the side with keys in hand.
The window of the Chevrolet winds down and Kris leans out. "I expect it to still be in one piece when I see you in one week. Have fun." With that, the Chevrolet drives out of the lot and away from Jongin.
-----
Jongin impresses much of the gang with how fast he learns. By the second lesson, he's stopped crashing into things; by the fifth, he's pulling off spectacular turns and skids; by the eighth, drifting circles around Lay and Tao; by the twelfth, he's beaten Kris, Minseok and Joonmyun. Before Jongin's first race, the gang sponsors a new paint job for his Evolution, throws a dinner ("Here's to Jongin not crashing his car tomorrow!" Baekhyun proclaims over a mug of beer) and gives Jongin all kinds of tips. Some of them are precious advice and some (mostly from Chanyeol and Baekhyun) are downright useless, but Jongin appreciates everything anyway. The gang is now his family in Japan, and they treat him as one of their own.
The night of the race, Jongin spends a good amount of time being introduced to other racers, shaking hands, trying (perhaps failing, he's never been one for memory work) to remember names, making small talk and excusing himself. He hits it off very well with one racer, a senior and more experienced racer named Changmin, Kris and Joonmyun's longtime senior and friend.
"Only more experienced compared to you, but then again that makes everyone here experienced. No offence, tadpole." Jongin wonders for a moment whether the guy is crazy, but decides that everyone in the circuit probably is, if Changmin and Baekhyun and Chanyeol are anything to go by. Besides, 'tadpole' isn't that bad a nickname - tadpoles are cute anyway.
"Come on, tadpole. I'll tell you which racers you ought to look out for. They're brilliant, but fortunately for you, only one or two of them are in this race." Changmin hops off the bonnet of his Mazda RX-7 and puts a hand on Jongin's shoulder.
"See that one over there? Name's Lu Han. A tough one to beat on straights and streets, but it's fair game if you challenge him to touge racing or anything with plenty of turns and winding roads." Jongin nods - he met Lu Han earlier, and he seemed nice enough.
Changmin points to a girl in a black and yellow windbreaker, her long blond hair tied back into a high ponytail. "That one? Name's CL, she's Sandara's cousin. Over from America for a bit, and darn good when no drifting is involved. She's just watching the race today, I think." Jongin just nods again, and Changmin steers him around to continue introducing the rest of the racers.
He's talking a bit too fast for Jongin to catch everything, but the important bits stick in Jongin's head. Jonghyun, easily distracted during races, absolutely impossible to defeat otherwise; Youngwoon, leader of the Minato team; his boyfriend Leeteuk, unpredictable and difficult to overtake ("he's better at defending his lead, not increasing it, so get past him and everything's bright and sunny for you"); so many other names that Jongin's struggling to remember them all.
"Also, that last one over there - see the one with the black hair, black jacket and silver Mercedes?" Jongin turns to see the racer Kris introduced him to earlier. "That's Oh Sehun, and you'll want to watch out for his-" Before Changmin can finish, a shrill whistle signals the racers to their cars. Changmin hastily wishes Jongin luck and retreats to the crowd to watch as Jongin makes his way towards the referee for the draw to decide starting positions.
As luck would have it, Jongin draws the number 2. First row, second lane. Oh Sehun draws a 4, two lanes to Jongin's left. Chanyeol and Baekhyun draw 5 and 6, the row behind Jongin and Sehun.
As the final preparations are made, Jongin realises he's nervous. He's never felt nervous behind the steering wheel before - not in Korea, not on other four-lane roads, not in Tokyo. Then again, the first and last time he actually raced in Tokyo, three cars had to be sent to the scrap pile. A female racer steps between the centre two cars (Jongin's Evo and a bright yellow Taurus SHO belonging to a certain Hiroki), flags in hand.
"Ready!" Engines rev all around.
"Set!" Jongin's grip on the steering wheel tightens.
"Go!" All cars tear down the road, the roar of their engines almost louder than the roar of the crowd.
-----
The course is fairly simple - five laps around the neighbourhood and past the Tokyo Tower. Simple enough.
By the start of the second lap, Jongin, Sehun and Hiroki are leading, Leeteuk close behind them and keeping the competition at bay. As Sehun rounds a sharp corner, immediately followed by Jongin and Hiroki, a loud crash is heard from somewhere out of sight behind them. Jongin sees smoke in his side mirror.
It's near the end of the fourth lap, and the tie hasn't been broken. All three racers are equally fast, all able to block each other, with no competition other than the two cars next to them. All three zip past the square. They're now on the fifth and final lap.
That's where shit hits the fan.
At the second turn, Jongin takes the lead. Sehun drifts through the turn ahead of Hiroki, but Hiroki has other plans. He doesn't drift through the turn, he swerves instead. What he was planning becomes apparent almost immediately - the front of his car plows straight into the side of Sehun's Mercedes. The sound of twisting metal and shattering glass is almost louder than the engines themselves.
The crowd roars with disapproval, but it makes no difference - Sehun's Mercedes is carried a short distance before Hiroki pulls away and streaks off in pursuit of Jongin, leaving a wrecked Mercedes behind. It comes to a stop at the side and a shaken but otherwise unhurt Sehun climbs out, leaning against a nearby lamppost to catch his breath and then walk back.
They're at the fifteenth turn of the round and final turn of the race. Jongin's still ahead, but he can see Hiroki gaining on him. He realises one thing - if he and Hiroki end up bumper to bumper again, then his Evo will end up a wreck on the pavement like Sehun's Mercedes. The only thing Jongin can do is to speed up and keep driving - Sehun has his sympathy, but Jongin's raced against enough cheating drivers to know that street racing and rules hardly ever click.
Jongin screeches into the square to thunderous cheers and applause just seconds before Hiroki arrives. He's barely out of his car when Kyungsoo is there, and so are Kris and Minseok and Tao and Joonmyun as Jongin finds himself in the middle of a huge tangle of limbs that he assumes is a hug. Hiroki is there, arguing with another racer on his team in rapid Japanese, and even over the crowd Jongin catches a few words typically only used for the greatest of sinners. Jongin glances over at where the racers are pulling in one by one - Leeteuk, Chanyeol and Baekhyun, a female racer, another female racer. Everyone's back.
Except one.
Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo, how familiar is Oh Sehun with the neighbourhood?" Kyungsoo blinks at Jongin's question.
"Not very. Why?"
Jongin turns to Kris. "Give me ten minutes, I'll be back by then. Also, could you send someone to tow the car back from the second turn?" Confusion flits across Kris's face but is gone as quickly as it came. Kris nods and walks over to where Chen is chatting with a few others. The rest of the gang backs away from the Evo as Jongin starts the engine and drives out of the square.
He speeds past the heavily-damaged Mercedes that is Sehun's car, and continues on. Jongin spots a figure along the deserted track on the sixth straight, and slows down enough to come to a stop next to the figure, who's stopped to look at him.
Jongin winds down the window and leans slightly out. "Hey. It's Sehun, right?"
"Oh, it's you. I thought you were in the lead?"
"I thought you had a car?" Jongin's reply makes Sehun laugh. They both know Sehun's car is sitting in a partial wreck of shattered glass and twisted metal four turns back.
"Someone's gone to save your car. You don't really intend to walk the entire length of the track back, do you?" Jongin's not too sure what to make of Sehun's noncommittal shrug as an answer, but he's quite sure he knows what he wants to do next.
"Get in." Sehun just blinks at Jongin and Jongin wonders for a second if spelling out the obvious in bright yellow letters across the sky would have been a better idea.
"Come on. Nine turns is a lot on foot and you're not that familiar with the neighbourhood."
"...thanks, then." Sehun opens the passenger door and slides in, not bothering with the buckle. They spend the next few turns in awkward silence.
"So, spill. Why drive an extra round to help a poor, stranded racer?" Sehun asks as Jongin turns onto the tenth straight. Jongin shrugs.
"Maybe because he's a poor, stranded racer. Also because since the race is over but the car is running, I might as well help said poor, stranded racer so he doesn't have to risk getting lost in my neighbourhood. Cleanup here is difficult if you get into any trouble." Jongin's mouth has gone on autopilot. Fortunately, the attempt at a joke doesn't offend Sehun, who smiles a little.
"You're the new guy, aren't you?"
"So my new nickname is "The New Guy" now? Damn, I wanted something cool like 'Kai'. I'm Kim Jongin."
"Oh." Their little conversation ends there and they lapse into awkward silence once again.
Jongin parks the car at the side and heads over to where Chen and a few other mechanics are standing over Sehun's Mercedes. Sehun, meanwhile, is accosted by Luhan who then proceeds to fuss over him while muttering something about Hiroki dying in a hole.
"Nothing much here. Taemin's already checked for fuel leaks or major component damage, but quite fortunately for Sehun, the damage seems to be confined to the doors and the glass. Is Sehun okay, by the way?" Jongin nods and thanks Chen before walking away to go talk to Sehun. Luhan's still angrily muttering away, and Jongin catches little snippets of Mandarin like 'mother' 'eighteen generations of his family line' 'die a horrible death'. He decides against asking. Jongin hears Sehun tell Luhan not to waste his breath on 'cheating scum, they're not worth the time' and is debating with himself whether to leave when Sehun spots him and offers him a tired smile.
The exchange is a functional and polite one - Jongin relays what Chen said about the Mercedes, and after pleasantries are exchanged, Sehun and Luhan turn to leave, politely declining Kris's and Jongin's offer of seeing them out of the neighbourhood.
-----
The next race, Jongin makes it a point to accidentally ram Hiroki into a lamppost. A lap later, Sehun swears he didn't notice the smoking wreck of Hiroki's Taurus in his way.
From the wreckage of Hiroki's Taurus spring forth the buds of their friendship.
-----
It's a particularly cool night, and since the nearby café is still open, Jongin figures he'd do his new friend a favour.
"Coffee?" Jongin asks, holding out a cup to Sehun. Sehun blinks.
"Caramel macchiato, extra shot, non-fat milk. One of your favourites, if I'm not wrong." Jongin nudges Sehun with his elbow.
"How did you know?" Sehun takes the cup from Jongin, eyes wide with astonishment. Jongin just smiles. "Intelligent guess."
The conversation ends there, with both of them sipping their coffees, until Jongin attempts to break the awkward silence with "What do you do for a living again?" Not his best conversation starter, but it would do.
"Keio University, Mechanical Engineering. Not that far from your field, isn't it? Architecture major?" Jongin just nods.
"Why Japan, though? Not happy with Korea?"
Sehun's question surprises Jongin, but he answers anyway. "Learning opportunities, 'go out and see the world', and I qualified anyway. It's better than staying in an average university in Korea. I didn't exactly qualify for the top ones after all."
Silence again.
"Speaking of which, your home turf isn't Shibuya, right?" Jongin glances at Sehun, who shakes his head.
"Shinjuku. Dangerous, I know, but I have, ah, friends there. I usually race on other turfs, though." Something in Sehun's voice tells Jongin that the conversation should end there.
So it does.
-----
They go out for supper after one of their races on Sehun's home turf of Shinjuku. Sehun leads Jongin to a roadside sushi cart a little bit outside the neighbourhood, and they talk about everything under the sun over sushi and tea.
Jongin and Sehun reach for the soy sauce at the same time, and as their hands touch, both quickly withdraw as though electrified. Not that far from the truth, as Jongin rubs the back of his hand and curses static electricity to the heavens. Sehun just laughs, and Jongin laughs with him.
"So, plan for the next race? Or is that confidential?" Jongin asks. Sehun raises an eyebrow at Jongin, who raises both hands in surrender.
"Okay, okay, I won't ask if you think I'm a spy Kris sent." Sehun's eyebrows go higher up his forehead and Jongin throws his hands up in the air.
"Can't a guy even ask a simple question around here?" Sehun's eyebrows are in danger of disappearing into his hair. Out of witty retorts, Jongin opts to swipe Sehun's sushi, and after a while, decent conversation resumes.
-----
Jongin finds Sehun sitting on a bench in Tokyo Central Park one night. He doesn't bother to ask why or what, or to ask anything at all - he just sits down next to Sehun the way friends do. What comes next is more than unexpected.
"What would you do if you like someone?"
"...you're asking Kim Jongin, whose current lack of a girlfriend speaks volumes about his dating skills."
"Answer the question."
"...I'd tell them?"
"What if you couldn't?
"...I'd show them?"
All of a sudden Sehun's lips are on his, hesitant but determined, and Jongin's somehow not surprised to find himself returning the kiss. When Sehun pulls away, Jongin's mind is racing, but the only thing that comes out of his mouth is a simple "...oh."
Sehun just laughs.
-----
Sehun picks up his pants from the floor, where they were hastily discarded over an hour ago. He turns on the radio, and the DJ's voice fills the room with praise for a boy band as Jongin catches the pants and shirt that Sehun tosses to him. Seeing as Sehun didn't bother with putting on a shirt, Jongin doesn't either. A catchy song begins playing ("are those bongos?" Jongin asks, but Sehun ignores him) and Sehun hums along as he makes his way towards the fridge.
As Sehun peers into the freezer, Jongin's eyes are fixed on Sehun's back, and he remembers how it felt under his fingers, how it arched as he pressed butterfly kisses down Sehun's neck, remembers Sehun's back glistening with sweat. He closes his eyes, sealing those images of Sehun into his mind.
Jongin opens his eyes just as Sehun flops down on the sofa next to him, holding a tub of ice-cream. He takes the spoon Sehun offers and begins attacking the ice-cream. Sehun's still humming along to the song as the refrain begins. Jongin raises his eyebrows.
"Really? 'Protect her so she won't forget me'? 'I will go wherever my person is'? What kind of song is this?" Sehun elbows him in the ribs.
"Shut up, it's one of my favourite songs, and if you don't think the lyrics are powerful, you are an unromantic and wooden fool." Sehun jabs Jongin in the arm again as the song begins an extensive rap description of heartbreak. Not quite his type of music, but alright. He makes a face and continues working on the ice-cream.
Jongin's eyes wander around the apartment, finally landing on a picture sitting atop the chest of drawers across the room. The picture is of of a smiling, younger Sehun with a handsome, smiling man who looks a few years older than Sehun in the photo, an old lady with a kind face, and a grey-haired man whose smile doesn't reach his eyes. Sehun's noticed, and Jongin gestures to the picture.
"Your parents?" Sehun stiffens, but just nods. A long while passes in silence and more ice-cream before Sehun speaks.
"Only my mother talks to me now, and even then, not that often. Father threw me out in my final year of high school. He found out I-that he and I had fundamentally different ideas on what a soulmate should be like." It takes Jongin a few minutes to realise what Sehun meant.
"Then how did you-" Jongin searches for an appropriate word.
"Manage? Mother sends money from Korea every few months. There's plenty of it at home anyway, what with Father's telecommunications company and Mother's fashion line. Sejoon - my brother - he's doing well, and he tries to talk to me, but he's busy in the USA. Last I heard, he got a job at some big firm there." Sehun's voice is slightly bitter, and Jongin can't resist putting an arm around Sehun. "I came here for university because I wanted to get away from all that shit in Korea. I made acquaintances here, got into street racing, and basically take care of myself with a bit of help from a gang. Made promises, got their help, learned how to not die on the streets and all that jazz. I'm not dead yet, so it seems to be working."
Sighing, Sehun leans into Jongin's arms. Jongin doesn't ask any further.
-----
In a relationship, there are no secrets.
With Oh Sehun, however, there are certain things Jongin doesn't ask, and Sehun doesn't tell. When Sehun begins turning up in the garage more frequently with a dented bumper or crushed door, Chen gives him odd looks but doesn't ask questions. Sehun pays for the repairs, and leaves, but comes back a few days later with more crash-related damage. Jongin assumes Sehun's just been careless in races.
Chen, on the other hand, only puts up with not knowing for so long. One night when Sehun's gone back to Shinjuku, Chen drags Jongin over to a corner of the garage and demands to know what Sehun has been doing with his car.
"Look, how would I know? Probably just more race damage." Chen isn't satisfied with Jongin's answer.
"I know race damage when I see it, Jongin, and I'm sure it isn't race damage we're talking about here. You don't get destroyed rear bumpers through 'race damage', you get them when people try to ram you. The only one on the circuit who dared do it to Sehun was Hiroki, and you know what happened." Jongin takes a while to process what Chen is saying.
"So if it isn't race damage-" Chen waits for Jongin to complete the sentence, but when it never comes, Chen does it for him.
"Then someone has constantly been trying to do him in."
Next
Team: AU
Rating: PG-13, character death and implied sex
Fandom: EXO
Pairing: Jongin/Sehun
Summary: I wonder if you know how they live in Tokyo / If you've seen it and you mean it then you know you have to go / Fast and furious
Author's Note: A big thank you to Team AU and betas! I'll thank you properly after the reveal :D
Prompt Used: Infinite - The Chaser
Seoul City Central
Three months earlier
The night is young and so are they. Moonlight glances off gleaming bonnets, extinguished headlights and a head of dark, messy hair. Kim Jongin sits on the sidewalk, enjoying the silence of the night.
"So, transferring to Tokyo, huh? Land of brake-hard-and-turn racing?" The other boy takes a long drag on his cigarette, waiting for an answer. Jongin shrugs noncommittally.
"Learning opportunities and stuff. I qualified anyway, and it's better than this stuffy old university. Should be fun." The two sit in silence for a while more, the occasional faraway whine of an engine breaking the silence.
You only have one chance, you know, his older brother had said. Jongin's hardly a stranger to street racing -- his brother had shown him the cars, the races, the people, everyone and everything in the circuit on precious midnight trips that they would embark on during the holidays, waiting until their parents were asleep and then escaping out through an innocently opened kitchen window. "Let's take a walk, the air is fresher out there" was Jongin's favourite thing to hear as a child - it meant another trip to the circuit.
When Jongin was fourteen, he turned down one trip. The next morning, there were policemen at their door, and the news showed the charred wreckage of a yellow Honda. The midnight trips continued soon enough - that same year, his brother's friends taught Jongin how to drive.
"Take care of my car while I'm in Tokyo. Remember, not a scratch."
"That pretty white darling over there? No promises. Good thing you left your precious Silvia with someone else, or I'd be horribly tempted to bring it to a race. You know how those usually turn out." The two laugh a little, then lapse back into companionable silence.
Jongin's sure he'll miss this while in Tokyo.
-----
Shibuya, Tokyo
Present day
Jongin's phone buzzes loudly on the desk, startling him awake and earning him a death glare from the class goody-two-shoes next to him. The professor doesn't seem to have heard anything. Shooting down the goody-two-shoes's "put that thing away, we're having lessons" face with a few choice words, Jongin unlocks the phone and reads the message.
From: Butt
To: Your Majesty
I'm hungry. Lunch?
Jongin quickly types in a reply, putting his phone down just as the professor glances in his direction.
From: Your Majesty
To: Butt
Really, Do Kyungsoo? Middle of the lecture? But yeah, lunch. Professor isn't wearing a yellow tie today, so you owe me a drink.
From: Butt
To: Your Majesty
Not worth listening anyway, it's all in the readings. Oh, I've got something to show you tonight. You free?
From: Your Majesty
To: Butt
...is this going where I think it is going?
From: Butt
To: Your Majesty
Class dismissed. I'm hungry, let's go.
Jongin all but jumps out of his seat, shoves his readings and foolscap into his bag and dashes out, pushing past the goody-two-shoes ("Oops. Sorry, not sorry.") and all but dragging Kyungsoo out of the lecture theatre. They reach the campus early - the only ones there are the Applied Chemistry majors, whose lecturer broke an ankle while ice-skating (or so the Law professor said).
"So, what is it you want to show me? Nightlife?" Jongin asks through a mouthful of taco. Kyungsoo nods and playfully shoves Jongin when the latter wiggles his eyebrows.
"Not that kind of nightlife, you idiot! Ever heard of the Shibuya circuit?" Jongin laughs and nods, but freezes as Kyungsoo's words sink in.
"Shibuya circuit? THE Shibuya circuit? Come on, who hasn't heard of it?" Kyungsoo smiles.
"Good. Shibuya, tonight, then!"
-----
Jongin's spent quite a bit of the ride to Shibuya constantly being corrected ("drift racing, not just street racing"), but he's rather looking forward to it. Kyungsoo's car is a black Toyota Supra with flame patterns, exactly what Jongin imagined Kyungsoo would ride. They park in a garage nearby, Kyungsoo promising to introduce Jongin to "a bunch of really awesome guys, they're my friends", but Jongin soon finds himself in the middle of the crowd with Kyungsoo nowhere to be seen. A race is rounding up, and Jongin's lucky - his blind wandering got him a prime spot right next to the finish.
A brilliant white Nissan GTR screeches into the square, followed by another two cars. A racer - he looks no older than 24 - gets out of the GTR to cheers and applause from the crowd. He smiles, bows, and talks with the other drivers who are out of their cars by now.
The race is over, and bit by bit the crowd breaks up. The racer walks in Jongin's direction as someone right behind Jongin waves to the racer. Jongin steps aside and moves to walk away when he hears something familiar -- Korean. They're conversing in Korean, the other two parties in the conversation praising the racer's every move in the race. Jongin's not that impressed. His eye roll goes unnoticed, but his mutter of "I could do that too" doesn't. The conversation ends there, and all three turn to face him.
"You could do it too? Really?" The racer's friend in a blue hoodie gives him the once-over. Alright, then. Jongin chooses to glare at him instead of answering. The racer from earlier just laughs and looks Jongin in the eye."Give the kid a break, Tao. This will be fun. Got a car, kid?" Now that's a bit of a problem. Jongin shakes his head slightly and tries not to flinch when the racer laughs at him. The one called Tao smirks - the other one just looks bored.
The racer reaches into his pocket and a second later, a silver object whizzes through the air and straight into Jongin's hands. A set of car keys. Before Jongin can say anything, the racer jerks his thumb at a silver car behind him. "Take the Silvia, it belongs to a friend of mine. What say you to a friendly challenge?" Blink. Another blink. Jongin's not sure what to say.
"...hello? Earth to New Kid? Friendly challenge? You know, not the you-lose-you-get-off-my-turf type of challenge, just a race for fun with no consequences?" The racer waves his hand in front of Jongin's face, and all Jongin can do is nod.
"Good. Let's get started, then. Name's Minseok."
"Jongin."
The crowd that had lapsed into deathly silence just a moment earlier now buzzes with excitement as both racers head to their cars.
-----
Jongin slides into the driver's seat of the Silvia, taking a moment to take a look at the controls, running his hand over the gearstick and the steering wheel. Audi steering wheel, no roll cage, modified for speed and aesthetic appeal... Almost like my own Silvia, Jongin thinks. His favourite Silvia sits quietly in a garage in Korea, keys in the trust of a friend who can hardly even tell the accelerator from the brake pedal (no fear of damage there, he thinks). The controls are foreign yet feel familiar, and for a second, Jongin's back home again, king of the streets, unchallenged.
His little walk down memory lane is interrupted by a loud honk coming from Minseok's direction. Jongin guns the ignition and follows Minseok as he taxis out of the square to a nearby parking lot, the crowd rushing past them to get a good view of the race. Once they both are at the starting line, a Japanese racer signals for them to wind down their windows. Jongin's barely listening to the racer explaining the course, but even before the racer steps away from their cars and both windows are up, Jongin's attention is already on the tarmac and Minseok's Skyline next to him.
"Ready!" Jongin revs his engine, and Minseok ignores him.
"Set!" Minseok smiles. Jongin fully intends to wipe that grin off his face by the first turn.
"Go!" Both cars tear down the straight, deaf to the cheers of the crowd, blind to the bets being placed, to everything except their own engine, the path ahead and the other's car.
The straight is rather uneventful, both cars bumper to bumper, driving along the straight at the same speed. Minseok's still smiling, as if this was a walk in the park for him (then again, Jongin thought, he probably was used to racing in this parking lot, it would be a walk in the park for him). Jongin's contemplating whether to nudge Minseok's car when suddenly, Minseok pulls back. Jongin realises two things, both a second too late - the first is that he's got the inside line going into a very tight turn, and the second is that he needs to turn. Now.
"Brake late and slide? Can't be too difficult now." Jongin steps hard on the brake and turns the wheel. Tyres screech as he steps on the clutch and pulls the handbrake. He's past the entrance of the turn already but there's nothing he can do about it any more except to release the handbrake, turn the wheel and wait for the bloody car to turn. He gets through alright, or so he thinks until he hears a jarring crash, feeling the rear of his car hit Minseok's right bumper. Not quite like Minseok's earlier turn, then. Jongin mutters a few choice words as he continues down the straight, Minseok's car now trailing a little behind him and with a dented right bumper.
Minseok overtakes him on the third straight. They're side by side, but then Minseok is pulling away, and he's cutting in front of Jongin before Jongin's able to react. They continue driving, and Jongin tries to overtake him, but Minseok covers himself well, closing the door on Jongin every time.
Minseok's still ahead. Third turn, no problems. Fourth turn, nothing wrong. Fifth turn, Jongin can't even see the tail of the Skyline, which is very much due to the way he's driving. By the sixth turn, Jongin has scraped the wall several times and hit an unfortunate parallel parker's Mitsubishi Eclipse. On the bright side, Jongin's quite sure he's getting the hang of drifting - wall scrapes and damage done to car aside, it seems to be getting easier. Or so Jongin thinks right before the eighth turn. Jongin does the same manoeuvre again, but the same thing happens - his car spins more than he had expected it to, and the battered tail of the Silvia badly scratches a black Supra with flame patterns. It happens to look terribly familiar. Oops.
By the fifteenth turn, just two turns before the finish line, Jongin is highly annoyed with himself, the car, and drift racing in general. He's lost count of how many cars and other vehicles he's hit and Minseok probably has finished the race by now. Jongin speeds along the fifteenth straight and barely scrapes past the sixteenth turn (more rear bumper damage, Minseok's not going to be very happy about this), but along the final straight, right before the seventeenth turn, Jongin loses control. His car spins wildly, hitting the wall at the seventeenth turn, and wrecks a parked Mitsubishi Evolution. When he finally drives (or bumps, given the state of the car) to a halt next to Minseok on the roof of the carpark and gets out, there is deathly silence all around. No one moves, not even Jongin - he stares straight at Minseok, who's smiling.
Minseok starts clapping first, and the crowd soon follows, but the applause is hesitant and halfhearted. Jongin has never had to face such applause - back in Seoul, the applause was thunderous, the crowd roared with approval, and the loser would be mocked. Jongin's not sure which is worse - being mocked by a winner with the weight of the crowd behind him, or this applause.
Minseok's phone goes off, and he walks away to take the call. The race over, the crowd now disperses, tutting and bemoaning how it was a ten-second race. Jongin leans against the heavily damaged Silvia in a daze, not sure what he's going to do next or how he's going to pay for the damages done to both the Silvia and Minseok's car. He's snapped out of it by a tap on his shoulder. It's Minseok, two other guys behind him, and he's still smiling. They're all smiling.
"Good race, although a bit less damage would have been nice. Now come with me, the boss wants to see you about the damage. We'll escort you to his office."
So not only has Jongin gotten himself into a debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars, he's also offended a street gang. Great. His mother would have a lot to say.
-----
The first thing Jongin notices is that the room looks absolutely nothing like an office. The next thing he notices is that none of the people in the room look anywhere near remotely annoyed with him, not even Kyungsoo. The person leaning against the wall in the corner winks and throws him a two-fingered salute, not something Jongin expected to get for wrecking three cars.
The boss smiles and beckons for him to step closer. Jongin's not too sure what to expect. Somewhere in the back of his head, his paranoid side begins formulating escape plans. The ventilation windows? Jumping right above an opponent is typically a stupid idea. The door? Nope, Minseok's there. Just as Jongin's contemplating the effectiveness of a chair as a weapon, a loud 'ahem' startles Jongin so much that he nearly grabs the chair right there and then. The man folds his arms and fixes Jongin with an unreadable stare that scares him but somehow, Jongin can't pull away. An eternity passes in deathly silence before the man opens his mouth to speak.
"So, I hear you wrecked my Silvia." Jongin nods. There's nothing else he can say.
"And my Eclipse too." Nod.
"My Evo?" Nod.
"Minseok's Skyline?" Another nod.
"Scratched Kyungsoo's Supra? Destroyed a few motorbikes? Caused at least seven figures' worth of damage?" Nod. Nod. Guilty nod. Jongin's quite surprised when the boss laughs and leans back. Kyungsoo laughs and murmurs something along the lines of 'never knew' and 'entirely worth it'.
"Well, damage aside, I have to say you're pretty good at it. Have you been doing this for quite a while?" Jongin opens his mouth but nothing comes out, so he settles for another nod. The boss smiles and holds out his hand. "I'm Kris Wu."
Jongin cautiously shakes his hand. "Kim Jongin."
Kris starts talking about the immense damage caused, and Jongin finds himself getting more and more distracted by the way Guy In The Corner's pen is spinning continuously on his thumb while his fingers remain still. His friend in a black leather jacket is equally engrossed in watching the pen, and Kyungsoo seems perfectly content staring off into space. One thing Kris says, however, does catch everyone's attention.
"Wait, so if I join you-"
"We'll write off the cost of the damage and you'll learn to look where you're driving."
Jongin hesitates again.
"... do I get a car?"
The room erupts in cheers and applause as Kris and Jongin shake hands.
-----
Jongin finds out from Kyungsoo that Black Leather Jacket and Guy In The Corner are Chanyeol and Baekhyun, but he has little time to offer them any more than a wave before Kyungsoo's dragging him off elsewhere to meet others. Jongin's introduced to Lay and Tao along the way, Minseok's two friends from earlier. Kyungsoo takes a fair amount of time explaining their achievements on the street track, but Jongin's quite sure he doesn't catch anything more than 'very good at drift racing.'
In the garage, Kyungsoo calls out to two people. Or at least, one person and a pair of legs peeking out from under a silver 1991 Lotus Elan.
"Jongin, meet Joonmyun, one of our best racers," the man leaning against the car smiles at Jongin, "and this here is Chen, our team's tech guy." Kyungsoo nudges the legs with his foot and a grease-covered hand appears from beneath the car, offers Jongin a little wave, and then retreats back under the car. "Guys, this is Kim Jongin."
Joonmyun smiles a little at him "New around here?" Jongin nods. "Congrats on making it here, then." Kyungsoo laughs. "Dude raced Minseok and you can bet he's good with cars. Just not so good with not hitting them."
A groan is heard from somewhere under the Elan. "Seriously? Don't tell me he hit the Eclipse, I just repaired that the other day."
"...okay. I won't tell you he hit the Eclipse."
The pair of legs are suddenly a person giving Jongin the once-over. "So for all the damage, is he any good?"
"You can ask Kris or Minseok."
The mechanic laughs and pats Jongin on the shoulder. "Welcome to the club, then."
Kyungsoo spends a bit of time chatting with Joonmyun and Chen while Jongin gets the go-ahead to take a look around the garage. Jongin can identify only some of them - an apple green Hyundai Genesis, Kyungsoo's Supra from earlier, a forest green Ford Gran Torino, quite a few cars that Jongin can't remember, and Minseok's Skyline. The garage is very different from what Jongin remembers his neighbourhood garage was like - Chen's workspace is tidy, tools in the toolboxes and everything put neatly in place.
Kyungsoo drags Baekhyun over, and through the conversation that follows Jongin learns that the gang is not only a team of brilliant racers, but Kris also owns half the place ("rich guy with nothing much to do - that kind of guy"). Chanyeol soon joins them and begins to give Jongin what he calls "the newcomer's tour." Jongin's quite sure he'll be spending quite a lot of time at the garage from now on.
-----
A few days later, Jongin turns up at the parking lot (car park?) where Kris asked to meet him for his first drifting lesson - the same parking lot where he trashed three of Kris's cars. He's an hour early, or so he thinks until he spots Kris waiting beside a 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. Kris waves as Jongin jogs over, waving aside his hasty apologies for being 'late'. The first thing Jongin notices, however, is that Kris is holding two sets of keys - one marked with the Chevrolet logo and the other a Mitsubishi logo. Kris stops mid-sentence and follows Jongin's gaze.
"Pretty sharp, aren't you." Kris chuckles and holds out the pair of keys Jongin is looking at. "Yes, you will get to use it, and I'm lending it to you since you don't have a car of your own."
Jongin blinks. Kris is still holding out the keys.
Jongin blinks again.
"The car isn't going to start itself, you know. Go on. Yours to practise with, yours to swap, just that I'd rather you not crash it again." Jongin takes the keys from Kris, still speechless.
Kris points at a blue car some distance from his Chevrolet. "Lancer Evolution MR. Pretty different from the Nissan, but seeing as you wrecked that a few days ago, it can't be helped. Go practise; I'll see you back here next week." Kris gets in the Chevrolet and starts the engine, Jongin still standing off at the side with keys in hand.
The window of the Chevrolet winds down and Kris leans out. "I expect it to still be in one piece when I see you in one week. Have fun." With that, the Chevrolet drives out of the lot and away from Jongin.
-----
Jongin impresses much of the gang with how fast he learns. By the second lesson, he's stopped crashing into things; by the fifth, he's pulling off spectacular turns and skids; by the eighth, drifting circles around Lay and Tao; by the twelfth, he's beaten Kris, Minseok and Joonmyun. Before Jongin's first race, the gang sponsors a new paint job for his Evolution, throws a dinner ("Here's to Jongin not crashing his car tomorrow!" Baekhyun proclaims over a mug of beer) and gives Jongin all kinds of tips. Some of them are precious advice and some (mostly from Chanyeol and Baekhyun) are downright useless, but Jongin appreciates everything anyway. The gang is now his family in Japan, and they treat him as one of their own.
The night of the race, Jongin spends a good amount of time being introduced to other racers, shaking hands, trying (perhaps failing, he's never been one for memory work) to remember names, making small talk and excusing himself. He hits it off very well with one racer, a senior and more experienced racer named Changmin, Kris and Joonmyun's longtime senior and friend.
"Only more experienced compared to you, but then again that makes everyone here experienced. No offence, tadpole." Jongin wonders for a moment whether the guy is crazy, but decides that everyone in the circuit probably is, if Changmin and Baekhyun and Chanyeol are anything to go by. Besides, 'tadpole' isn't that bad a nickname - tadpoles are cute anyway.
"Come on, tadpole. I'll tell you which racers you ought to look out for. They're brilliant, but fortunately for you, only one or two of them are in this race." Changmin hops off the bonnet of his Mazda RX-7 and puts a hand on Jongin's shoulder.
"See that one over there? Name's Lu Han. A tough one to beat on straights and streets, but it's fair game if you challenge him to touge racing or anything with plenty of turns and winding roads." Jongin nods - he met Lu Han earlier, and he seemed nice enough.
Changmin points to a girl in a black and yellow windbreaker, her long blond hair tied back into a high ponytail. "That one? Name's CL, she's Sandara's cousin. Over from America for a bit, and darn good when no drifting is involved. She's just watching the race today, I think." Jongin just nods again, and Changmin steers him around to continue introducing the rest of the racers.
He's talking a bit too fast for Jongin to catch everything, but the important bits stick in Jongin's head. Jonghyun, easily distracted during races, absolutely impossible to defeat otherwise; Youngwoon, leader of the Minato team; his boyfriend Leeteuk, unpredictable and difficult to overtake ("he's better at defending his lead, not increasing it, so get past him and everything's bright and sunny for you"); so many other names that Jongin's struggling to remember them all.
"Also, that last one over there - see the one with the black hair, black jacket and silver Mercedes?" Jongin turns to see the racer Kris introduced him to earlier. "That's Oh Sehun, and you'll want to watch out for his-" Before Changmin can finish, a shrill whistle signals the racers to their cars. Changmin hastily wishes Jongin luck and retreats to the crowd to watch as Jongin makes his way towards the referee for the draw to decide starting positions.
As luck would have it, Jongin draws the number 2. First row, second lane. Oh Sehun draws a 4, two lanes to Jongin's left. Chanyeol and Baekhyun draw 5 and 6, the row behind Jongin and Sehun.
As the final preparations are made, Jongin realises he's nervous. He's never felt nervous behind the steering wheel before - not in Korea, not on other four-lane roads, not in Tokyo. Then again, the first and last time he actually raced in Tokyo, three cars had to be sent to the scrap pile. A female racer steps between the centre two cars (Jongin's Evo and a bright yellow Taurus SHO belonging to a certain Hiroki), flags in hand.
"Ready!" Engines rev all around.
"Set!" Jongin's grip on the steering wheel tightens.
"Go!" All cars tear down the road, the roar of their engines almost louder than the roar of the crowd.
-----
The course is fairly simple - five laps around the neighbourhood and past the Tokyo Tower. Simple enough.
By the start of the second lap, Jongin, Sehun and Hiroki are leading, Leeteuk close behind them and keeping the competition at bay. As Sehun rounds a sharp corner, immediately followed by Jongin and Hiroki, a loud crash is heard from somewhere out of sight behind them. Jongin sees smoke in his side mirror.
It's near the end of the fourth lap, and the tie hasn't been broken. All three racers are equally fast, all able to block each other, with no competition other than the two cars next to them. All three zip past the square. They're now on the fifth and final lap.
That's where shit hits the fan.
At the second turn, Jongin takes the lead. Sehun drifts through the turn ahead of Hiroki, but Hiroki has other plans. He doesn't drift through the turn, he swerves instead. What he was planning becomes apparent almost immediately - the front of his car plows straight into the side of Sehun's Mercedes. The sound of twisting metal and shattering glass is almost louder than the engines themselves.
The crowd roars with disapproval, but it makes no difference - Sehun's Mercedes is carried a short distance before Hiroki pulls away and streaks off in pursuit of Jongin, leaving a wrecked Mercedes behind. It comes to a stop at the side and a shaken but otherwise unhurt Sehun climbs out, leaning against a nearby lamppost to catch his breath and then walk back.
They're at the fifteenth turn of the round and final turn of the race. Jongin's still ahead, but he can see Hiroki gaining on him. He realises one thing - if he and Hiroki end up bumper to bumper again, then his Evo will end up a wreck on the pavement like Sehun's Mercedes. The only thing Jongin can do is to speed up and keep driving - Sehun has his sympathy, but Jongin's raced against enough cheating drivers to know that street racing and rules hardly ever click.
Jongin screeches into the square to thunderous cheers and applause just seconds before Hiroki arrives. He's barely out of his car when Kyungsoo is there, and so are Kris and Minseok and Tao and Joonmyun as Jongin finds himself in the middle of a huge tangle of limbs that he assumes is a hug. Hiroki is there, arguing with another racer on his team in rapid Japanese, and even over the crowd Jongin catches a few words typically only used for the greatest of sinners. Jongin glances over at where the racers are pulling in one by one - Leeteuk, Chanyeol and Baekhyun, a female racer, another female racer. Everyone's back.
Except one.
Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo, how familiar is Oh Sehun with the neighbourhood?" Kyungsoo blinks at Jongin's question.
"Not very. Why?"
Jongin turns to Kris. "Give me ten minutes, I'll be back by then. Also, could you send someone to tow the car back from the second turn?" Confusion flits across Kris's face but is gone as quickly as it came. Kris nods and walks over to where Chen is chatting with a few others. The rest of the gang backs away from the Evo as Jongin starts the engine and drives out of the square.
He speeds past the heavily-damaged Mercedes that is Sehun's car, and continues on. Jongin spots a figure along the deserted track on the sixth straight, and slows down enough to come to a stop next to the figure, who's stopped to look at him.
Jongin winds down the window and leans slightly out. "Hey. It's Sehun, right?"
"Oh, it's you. I thought you were in the lead?"
"I thought you had a car?" Jongin's reply makes Sehun laugh. They both know Sehun's car is sitting in a partial wreck of shattered glass and twisted metal four turns back.
"Someone's gone to save your car. You don't really intend to walk the entire length of the track back, do you?" Jongin's not too sure what to make of Sehun's noncommittal shrug as an answer, but he's quite sure he knows what he wants to do next.
"Get in." Sehun just blinks at Jongin and Jongin wonders for a second if spelling out the obvious in bright yellow letters across the sky would have been a better idea.
"Come on. Nine turns is a lot on foot and you're not that familiar with the neighbourhood."
"...thanks, then." Sehun opens the passenger door and slides in, not bothering with the buckle. They spend the next few turns in awkward silence.
"So, spill. Why drive an extra round to help a poor, stranded racer?" Sehun asks as Jongin turns onto the tenth straight. Jongin shrugs.
"Maybe because he's a poor, stranded racer. Also because since the race is over but the car is running, I might as well help said poor, stranded racer so he doesn't have to risk getting lost in my neighbourhood. Cleanup here is difficult if you get into any trouble." Jongin's mouth has gone on autopilot. Fortunately, the attempt at a joke doesn't offend Sehun, who smiles a little.
"You're the new guy, aren't you?"
"So my new nickname is "The New Guy" now? Damn, I wanted something cool like 'Kai'. I'm Kim Jongin."
"Oh." Their little conversation ends there and they lapse into awkward silence once again.
Jongin parks the car at the side and heads over to where Chen and a few other mechanics are standing over Sehun's Mercedes. Sehun, meanwhile, is accosted by Luhan who then proceeds to fuss over him while muttering something about Hiroki dying in a hole.
"Nothing much here. Taemin's already checked for fuel leaks or major component damage, but quite fortunately for Sehun, the damage seems to be confined to the doors and the glass. Is Sehun okay, by the way?" Jongin nods and thanks Chen before walking away to go talk to Sehun. Luhan's still angrily muttering away, and Jongin catches little snippets of Mandarin like 'mother' 'eighteen generations of his family line' 'die a horrible death'. He decides against asking. Jongin hears Sehun tell Luhan not to waste his breath on 'cheating scum, they're not worth the time' and is debating with himself whether to leave when Sehun spots him and offers him a tired smile.
The exchange is a functional and polite one - Jongin relays what Chen said about the Mercedes, and after pleasantries are exchanged, Sehun and Luhan turn to leave, politely declining Kris's and Jongin's offer of seeing them out of the neighbourhood.
-----
The next race, Jongin makes it a point to accidentally ram Hiroki into a lamppost. A lap later, Sehun swears he didn't notice the smoking wreck of Hiroki's Taurus in his way.
From the wreckage of Hiroki's Taurus spring forth the buds of their friendship.
-----
It's a particularly cool night, and since the nearby café is still open, Jongin figures he'd do his new friend a favour.
"Coffee?" Jongin asks, holding out a cup to Sehun. Sehun blinks.
"Caramel macchiato, extra shot, non-fat milk. One of your favourites, if I'm not wrong." Jongin nudges Sehun with his elbow.
"How did you know?" Sehun takes the cup from Jongin, eyes wide with astonishment. Jongin just smiles. "Intelligent guess."
The conversation ends there, with both of them sipping their coffees, until Jongin attempts to break the awkward silence with "What do you do for a living again?" Not his best conversation starter, but it would do.
"Keio University, Mechanical Engineering. Not that far from your field, isn't it? Architecture major?" Jongin just nods.
"Why Japan, though? Not happy with Korea?"
Sehun's question surprises Jongin, but he answers anyway. "Learning opportunities, 'go out and see the world', and I qualified anyway. It's better than staying in an average university in Korea. I didn't exactly qualify for the top ones after all."
Silence again.
"Speaking of which, your home turf isn't Shibuya, right?" Jongin glances at Sehun, who shakes his head.
"Shinjuku. Dangerous, I know, but I have, ah, friends there. I usually race on other turfs, though." Something in Sehun's voice tells Jongin that the conversation should end there.
So it does.
-----
They go out for supper after one of their races on Sehun's home turf of Shinjuku. Sehun leads Jongin to a roadside sushi cart a little bit outside the neighbourhood, and they talk about everything under the sun over sushi and tea.
Jongin and Sehun reach for the soy sauce at the same time, and as their hands touch, both quickly withdraw as though electrified. Not that far from the truth, as Jongin rubs the back of his hand and curses static electricity to the heavens. Sehun just laughs, and Jongin laughs with him.
"So, plan for the next race? Or is that confidential?" Jongin asks. Sehun raises an eyebrow at Jongin, who raises both hands in surrender.
"Okay, okay, I won't ask if you think I'm a spy Kris sent." Sehun's eyebrows go higher up his forehead and Jongin throws his hands up in the air.
"Can't a guy even ask a simple question around here?" Sehun's eyebrows are in danger of disappearing into his hair. Out of witty retorts, Jongin opts to swipe Sehun's sushi, and after a while, decent conversation resumes.
-----
Jongin finds Sehun sitting on a bench in Tokyo Central Park one night. He doesn't bother to ask why or what, or to ask anything at all - he just sits down next to Sehun the way friends do. What comes next is more than unexpected.
"What would you do if you like someone?"
"...you're asking Kim Jongin, whose current lack of a girlfriend speaks volumes about his dating skills."
"Answer the question."
"...I'd tell them?"
"What if you couldn't?
"...I'd show them?"
All of a sudden Sehun's lips are on his, hesitant but determined, and Jongin's somehow not surprised to find himself returning the kiss. When Sehun pulls away, Jongin's mind is racing, but the only thing that comes out of his mouth is a simple "...oh."
Sehun just laughs.
-----
Sehun picks up his pants from the floor, where they were hastily discarded over an hour ago. He turns on the radio, and the DJ's voice fills the room with praise for a boy band as Jongin catches the pants and shirt that Sehun tosses to him. Seeing as Sehun didn't bother with putting on a shirt, Jongin doesn't either. A catchy song begins playing ("are those bongos?" Jongin asks, but Sehun ignores him) and Sehun hums along as he makes his way towards the fridge.
As Sehun peers into the freezer, Jongin's eyes are fixed on Sehun's back, and he remembers how it felt under his fingers, how it arched as he pressed butterfly kisses down Sehun's neck, remembers Sehun's back glistening with sweat. He closes his eyes, sealing those images of Sehun into his mind.
Jongin opens his eyes just as Sehun flops down on the sofa next to him, holding a tub of ice-cream. He takes the spoon Sehun offers and begins attacking the ice-cream. Sehun's still humming along to the song as the refrain begins. Jongin raises his eyebrows.
"Really? 'Protect her so she won't forget me'? 'I will go wherever my person is'? What kind of song is this?" Sehun elbows him in the ribs.
"Shut up, it's one of my favourite songs, and if you don't think the lyrics are powerful, you are an unromantic and wooden fool." Sehun jabs Jongin in the arm again as the song begins an extensive rap description of heartbreak. Not quite his type of music, but alright. He makes a face and continues working on the ice-cream.
Jongin's eyes wander around the apartment, finally landing on a picture sitting atop the chest of drawers across the room. The picture is of of a smiling, younger Sehun with a handsome, smiling man who looks a few years older than Sehun in the photo, an old lady with a kind face, and a grey-haired man whose smile doesn't reach his eyes. Sehun's noticed, and Jongin gestures to the picture.
"Your parents?" Sehun stiffens, but just nods. A long while passes in silence and more ice-cream before Sehun speaks.
"Only my mother talks to me now, and even then, not that often. Father threw me out in my final year of high school. He found out I-that he and I had fundamentally different ideas on what a soulmate should be like." It takes Jongin a few minutes to realise what Sehun meant.
"Then how did you-" Jongin searches for an appropriate word.
"Manage? Mother sends money from Korea every few months. There's plenty of it at home anyway, what with Father's telecommunications company and Mother's fashion line. Sejoon - my brother - he's doing well, and he tries to talk to me, but he's busy in the USA. Last I heard, he got a job at some big firm there." Sehun's voice is slightly bitter, and Jongin can't resist putting an arm around Sehun. "I came here for university because I wanted to get away from all that shit in Korea. I made acquaintances here, got into street racing, and basically take care of myself with a bit of help from a gang. Made promises, got their help, learned how to not die on the streets and all that jazz. I'm not dead yet, so it seems to be working."
Sighing, Sehun leans into Jongin's arms. Jongin doesn't ask any further.
-----
In a relationship, there are no secrets.
With Oh Sehun, however, there are certain things Jongin doesn't ask, and Sehun doesn't tell. When Sehun begins turning up in the garage more frequently with a dented bumper or crushed door, Chen gives him odd looks but doesn't ask questions. Sehun pays for the repairs, and leaves, but comes back a few days later with more crash-related damage. Jongin assumes Sehun's just been careless in races.
Chen, on the other hand, only puts up with not knowing for so long. One night when Sehun's gone back to Shinjuku, Chen drags Jongin over to a corner of the garage and demands to know what Sehun has been doing with his car.
"Look, how would I know? Probably just more race damage." Chen isn't satisfied with Jongin's answer.
"I know race damage when I see it, Jongin, and I'm sure it isn't race damage we're talking about here. You don't get destroyed rear bumpers through 'race damage', you get them when people try to ram you. The only one on the circuit who dared do it to Sehun was Hiroki, and you know what happened." Jongin takes a while to process what Chen is saying.
"So if it isn't race damage-" Chen waits for Jongin to complete the sentence, but when it never comes, Chen does it for him.
"Then someone has constantly been trying to do him in."
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