Chapter 30

Just because Park Hoojin’s brother was a gangster, doesn’t mean Hoojin is, I kept trying to reason with myself. And I’d hardly known him before he went and (thankfully) got himself booked by Taejun.

There were many reasons that I did not want to be associated at all with gangsters of any sort, especially ones from the Seven Directions Gang, but there were two extremely pressing ones. One, obviously, the debt. Two, my brother’s work literally involved investigating and prosecuting people like them.

I did find it ironic though that I had so much issue with Park Hoojin when Park Bwonghuan had actually had a pretty positive influence in my life, relatively speaking. He’d set me up with a job with Do Hoon and working there had given some sort of direction to my life. I had been able to learn an honest trade. If not for him I might have also fallen into gang activity from a young age.

And that’s why Park Hoojin isn’t a gangster, I thought to myself victoriously. Park Bwonghuan would have never allowed it.

Despite reasoning over and over with myself until I came back to that conclusion (or something similar), the issue kept returning to haunt me all Saturday long. The fact that I had almost fallen in with someone who had any sort of connection to the Seven Directions gang was concerning as hell.

At least I found out from Taejun that Park Bwonghuan hadn’t been offed by his gang, as Han Jungho had so maliciously hinted. He was apparently living in America now, leaving his past behind.

I’m not really sure why that had given me any sort of comfort at all.

A text message came in. It was Taejun (again).

[ Congrats. You’re clean. ]

Oh fucking thank god. I went limp from relief. My drug use must have been recent enough that it hadn’t shown up. And I’d only used them once. Either way, it was one less thing to worry about.

[ For now. Results were inconclusive. ]

Or… not?

[ I’m choosing to believe you, Jaehyun. But if you positively fail the next one there will be consequences. ]

I read the messages with growing irritation. My brother wasn’t my guardian. Far from it. I wished he would just get off my back. There was no way he hadn’t done his fair share of drugs and partying at that rich kid university of his.

[ ur worse than a helicopter parent. im never giving u hair again ] I texted back childishly.

His reply was far more mature than mine.

[ Is that an admission of guilt? ]

[ I can come get you right now. ]

[ … i was kidding hyung ]

There was no way Taejun knew where I was right now.

Right?

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I decided not to share the fact that Hoojin may or may not have been a legitimate gangster to Eunsoo and Ryusuke. Even when Ryu noticed me sulking at the meet that night, I just told him that I was just thinking about my brother.

He had given me a weird look. “Your brother is actually pretty tolerant. You should appreciate that,” he had said.

If only he knew just how invasive Taejun really was.

Later, when a rival driver from the competition came over to talk to the Tigers, Eunsoo and Ryusuke had just about bodily dragged me away to look at some other car on the other side of the lot, ignoring the strange looks everyone was giving us.

“What’s gotten into you two?” I snapped at them.

“That guy is also a drug dealer,” Eunsoo said secretly.

That made me jumpy that there were indeed multiple dealers aside from Sungmin in the meet. But I was tired of being parented by people.

“So? He probably just wanted to talk about the upcoming race?” After the last harrowing event in the mountain, I wanted as much intel as possible in the last leg of the race. I needed total preparation for it.

“Probably. But there’s always that chance,” Ryusuke said.

“The further you stay away from any sort of drug activity the better,” said Eunsoo in an uncharacteristically nurturing tone.

So that’s why Taejun had let them off the hook last night. He’d turned my friends into a pair of vigilante anti-drug honor guards motivated by their own self preservation.

That clever bastard.

“Really, Eunsoo?! The only person who has ever given me drugs is you!”

“I’m swearing off of them,” he replied with a saintly voice. “I’m going clean for life.”

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I was already in a bad mood when Comet’s crew rocked up. To my dismay, Soelhee was still attached to him. Angry as I was, I wouldn’t say anything that would give Seolhee the satisfaction of knowing she was getting under my skin.

Thankfully, for me, Eunsoo did. “Seolhee, really? This guy? Come on.”

“Jealous, Eunsoo?” Comet grinned at him.

“Dude. I’m pretty sure you know I’m not.”

I’ll never get over how casually Eunsoo weaponized his sexuality.

“Well,” said Comet awkwardly. His eyes landed on me. “I know he is.”

“I can get with whoever I want,” said Seolhee with a vicious little smile. Those fangs of hers might well have just sunk into my heart. “For now, Comet’s my lucky guy.”

The emphasis on the word ‘lucky’ was extremely telling of just how much she thought of herself.

“Comet, even you’re not this dumb. You know she’s just playing you to get back at Jae.” Even Ryusuke jumped in. That’s right. I remembered Ryu was particularly hateful of Comet.

“For what?” said Seolhee innocently.

“You know damn well,” I said, unable to resist giving her the silent treatment.

“That’s my girl you’re talking to,” Comet snapped at me. “And Sato, frankly, I don’t care. If Seolhee wants to use me, who am I to say no? Not my fault your guy here got a little uppity with her.”

The sleazy way he talked disgusted me. Unbidden thoughts of how Seolhee might be ‘using’ him jumped into my head, but I chased them out immediately.

“She’s not your girl. Did you just come here to gloat, or what’s your reason for being here?” Ryusuke said. It was interesting to see the usually mild Ryusuke being so aggressive to his nemesis.

“Whoa! Hold onto your Chihuahua, Eunsoo,” Comet snapped.

“He’s not my dog, he can say whatever he wants, especially to your dumb face,” Eunsoo replied coolly. Despite the mild insult, Eunsoo’s calm tone was trying to dispel the rising tension.

Ryusuke’s eyes flashed with anger, but Comet continued. “I’m just here to see my car after Jester here tried to wreck it this week.”

“It’s not your car anymore,” I said irritatedly. Without our usual inter-team liaison, Sungmin, this encounter was quickly turning into a fight. Also, why did Comet call Eunsoo and Ryu by their names and me by that nickname I hated?! (Right. I hated it, that’s why.)

“A fucking pity that is. I’m surprised a street rat like you hasn’t tried to sell it. Since you’re so in need of money.” Comet was outnumbered here, but he certainly was doing his best to enrage everyone present. Seolhee was loving this. She had an unhealthy love of thrills, and it seemed that a fight was on the verge of breaking out. Maybe she had put Comet up to this?

After all, the rest of Comet’s team was just a few cars over. It was the only thing keeping me from planting my fist in his face.

“I can do whatever I want with it,” I growled. “It races well.”

“What makes you think Jae needs money?” Eunsoo said in alarm. I froze. I had barely even registered that part. With how anxious I had been the last few days about my need for an income, I’d forgotten that not everyone in the world was privy to my troubles. Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to be…

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“Come on. Everyone knows. He’s been pestering every other person to race every damn day since he got here. I’m surprised LC hasn’t thrown him out yet. Especially with his fed brother prowling around now.”

Comet looked directly at me to deliver the next line. “Almost 50 mil in debt. How old are you again?”

Oh yeah. My blood was boiling now. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so angry. I stepped forward. Comet probably thought it was toward him, but my anger was at Seolhee. There was absolutely no reason for her to have antagonized me this much.

“How much did you tell this guy, Seolhee? I don’t get why you’re so intent on fucking with me. Just because I got angry at you first?!” I barely kept myself from yelling. I didn’t want to attract even more attention.

We all knew Seolhee could be as venomous as she wanted. But clearly she wasn’t done using Comet, because she retreated behind Comet in a show of timidness. This bolstered Comet’s sizeable male ego, and he seemed to puff out even more aggressively.

Eunsoo pulled me back. “Let’s all calm down–”

“Yeah, Comet, get the hell out of here,” Ryu said. “Seolhee, you need to sort this out with Jae instead of dragging every scumbag in this meet into your mess.”

“What makes you think you can talk to her like that?” Comet snarled at Ryusuke.

It was truly mind blowing to see Ryu worked up like this. Eunsoo tried to cut in, but Ryusuke barreled right over him. “I’m her friend, and her teammate. This is a matter between us Tigers. You’re not needed here, asshole. Go bother someone else.”

Comet seemed to be just as surprised as me at Ryu’s sudden spout of anger.

“You’re nothing to her, Comet. Don’t pick a fight just because she told you to.”

That seemed to strike a nerve with Comet despite him saying that he didn’t care earlier. “You’re awful mouthy for a fucking runt, aren’t you? Shitty ilbon-nom, I’ll–”

“Don’t talk to my boy Ryu like that,” snapped Eunsoo, despite telling everyone to calm down just a second ago.

Ryu stepped forward. “You’ll fucking what?”

Comet stepped forward as well. I don’t know what had gotten into Ryu that he was about to pick a fight with a guy twice his size.

“Fucking stop,” interrupted Eunsoo. He yanked Ryu back, and gave Comet a small push. “Just step off.”

“Don’t touch me, homo,” Comet snarled. He shoved Eunsoo.

He was an idiot if he thought any of us were going to stand for that. Eunsoo was able to hold Ryu back, but not me. I shoved Comet back. Comet swung.

I ducked but he was fast, and his fist still clipped me. But it wasn’t enough to stun me at all. I punched back at him but he dodged it. I’d only ever fought Hoojin, and Comet was already proving to be a more skilled combatant. With how often he picked fights, he had to be.

“Let’s fucking go,” he snarled.

I think someone, probably Eunsoo, was telling us to stop. I felt a tug on my shoulder. Rage was all I knew now. I jerked free and rushed Comet.

We traded blows. It was hard to keep up with Comet’s speed. I was able to deflect some of them as I was trying to counter punch so I wasn’t being stunned every second, but I could still feel the blows landing on me, more on me than on him.

He boxed me like a cat, with both punches and strikes. It was so aggressive he didn’t even need to defend himself. But he seemed only be going for my head, leaving the lower part of himself unguarded. I punched low into his gut, and was satisfied to hear him grunt in pain and surprise as I knocked the air out of him.

He tried to return the favor. But I remembered how Taejun had ended our fist fight before it had even started (not that I was really trying to start one) with one move. I side stepped and grabbed Comet’s arm, jerking him forward with it.

Comet let out another pained sound as I tried to twist his arm. But I didn’t know how to follow up. I couldn’t remember how Taejun had gotten me on the ground. Comet broke free and grappled me around my waist. He attempted to throw me down, but I managed to keep my footing as I scrabbled backwards from him. I elbowed down on him, trying to break him off, but that did nothing.

He punched me right in the ribs. I wheezed in shock from the pain. Bone on bone, that had to have hurt his fist as much as it had hurt me. But he did it again, and again, until I was gasping for breath.

This time I couldn’t keep my footing and both of us went down. Again I found myself in the disadvantageous position of being on the bottom. My arms went up to block the first blow Comet threw at me, but then he pinned me down by the neck and squeezed.

It wasn’t enough to cut off my breath, but panicked memories of Jungho’s goon choking me out flooded through my mind, and idiotically, I grabbed at his wrist, trying to break off his grip. With my hands tugging uselessly at his wrist, Comet was free to punch the ever living daylights out of my face.

And I couldn’t do jack shit about it.

Fortunately for me, someone else did. As I laid there half senseless from all the stars in my vision, someone finally managed to pull Comet off of me.

I hadn’t noticed that our fight had pulled in the surrounding groups.

“What the hell is going on here,” hissed a voice. The vision in one of my eyes was blurring out, but I could barely make out the Sunchasers’ leader, Fireball. He and someone else were holding back Comet as he struggled and hissed insults, looking for all the world like a spitting cat.

Eunsoo helped me struggle to my feet. I could smell and feel the blood pouring out of my nose, and I throbbed painfully everywhere Comet had struck me. There were a lot of places.

“I think they were fighting over Chanel Cat,” some bystander said.

“No, we weren’t,” I growled. I hated that. Yes, she had contributed, but I had only started the fight with Comet because he kept going after my friends. Eunsoo helped me settle down on the hood of my car.

“I’ll go find something for you to wipe that blood offUGHHHfff!” Eunsoo cut himself off with a dismayed sound as I wiped it off on my sleeve. “Fucking yuck dude,” he said sadly.

Whatever. My sleeve was black anyways.

Ryusuke was standing there tugging on his fingers and looking a little guilty. “Should have been me,” he mumbled.

“It should have been neither of you,” Eunsoo snapped at him. Small Ryu shrunk even more.

I had definitely taken the L in that fight. The vision in my eye was still blurred, and blood kept dripping out of my nose. Comet looked slightly ruffled and that was about it. But he hadn’t had his anger beaten out of him like I had, and was still yelling.

“What are you even so mad about?” Fireball said in frustration. That managed to shut him up. We glared at each other sullenly. It was a bit confusing to remember now (or maybe I’d taken a few too many punches to the face).

Someone had gone and fetched Sungmin after all. He pushed through to us. “I can’t take my eyes off any of you for a damn minute,” he snapped at us. “What the hell happened here?”

“I beat the shit out of your little jerk over there,” Comet said smugly.

Sungmin shot him a glare that surprisingly melted the look of satisfaction off Comet’s face. “Is that really how you want to start this?” he said. His voice rumbled in a low growl. “Why were you dumbasses fighting in the first place?”

Despite being at each other’s throats just now, all five of us (Soelhee included) united in stubborn silence. No one wanted to be the rat.

“Someone answer me right now before I really get pissed,” Sungmin said. I doubted if I would care if Sungmin got ‘really pissed’.

“They were disrespecting Seolhee,” Comet mumbled.

“These guys? Really?” Sungmin said wearily. “Seolhee, did you start some shit again?”

Seolhee huffed at Sungmin with surprising audacity. “Why do you always blame me, Sungmin? I was just here.”

Sungmin gave her a withering look. “Seolhee, I know you far too well.” But he didn’t press the issue and instead looked me over.

“You really did get beat to shit,” he grumbled. “You need to put ice on that eye stat.” Sungmin turned to Eunsoo and Ryu. “One of you take him back to get treated. One. Of you. You don’t have to follow each other around everywhere all the damn time.”

Eunsoo opened his mouth to protest, but he was just not able to get any words in tonight. “I don’t want to hear it, Eunsoo,” Sungmin said.

But Sungmin wasn’t finished yet. Even Fireball had gone quiet as Sungmin rampaged through us all with reprimands. “Comet, if you’ve made it so Jaehyun can’t drive in the next leg of the tournament, we’re going to have a fucking problem.”

“Yeah? I can do so much worse to him. That’s my damn car he’s driving.”

“I could have been driving your GTR,” I snapped. “I won it fair and square.”

“Fair and square my ass,” Comet seethed.

“Seonghyuk,” Fireball said warningly.

Seonghyuk/Comet ignored him and stepped forward. “You swapped out your car last minute. With his.” He jabbed his finger at me then Ryusuke.

“You never specified his car,” Sungmin growled. It had been his idea in the first place. “Step off, Comet.”

“So it’s free game like that, is it?” Comet shook off Fireball’s hand trying to hold him back. “Fine. I want that car back.”

“I’ll race you any time,” I snapped.

“Yeah, of course you will, you rabid little dog. No. I’m challenging this car. But he’ll be the one driving it.” To all of our surprise, Comet was pointing straight at Ryusuke. “You drove his car, now he can drive ‘yours’.”

““I’m not letting you guys fucking race for pinks before the tournament is over,” Sungmin said irritably. “And if you think Ryusuke’s dumb enough to agree to that, you really are a moron.”

Fireball, who should have been trying to stop his guy, had gone quiet. It wasn’t hard to imagine why. The Sunchasers were in 4th place right now. If Ryusuke took the bait, then Comet had a 50/50 chance of walking off with one of our cars, leaving us crippled for the last leg of the tournament.

“Yeah. Yeah. Everyone knows you never let Sato race because he’s a shitty fucking driver. He hasn’t raced in ages. In fact… the last time was against me, wasn’t it?” he was grinning viciously, and I wanted to get up and fight him again. Eunsoo sensed my intent and pushed me back down. “You miss that 370Z of yours, Sato?”

Ryu’s face took on a dark expression. His anger from before had been tempered by my fight, but I could see he was struggling not to fall for Comet’s taunts.

“Take your mad dog home, Fireball. He’s talking out his ass now. You’re really letting him do this?” Sungmin said irritably.

“We have a lot of cars,” Fireball said dismissively. So he really was on board with Comet’s ridiculous challenge.

Now that he had his leader’s backing, Comet pressed his offense. “Yeah, I gutted that thing down and sold it piece by piece. You’ll never see it again.”

“This is stupid. Do you not see what car he drives now?”

Eunsoo was saying something to Ryu, trying to calm him down. Even though I was right next to them, I could barely hear it.

“Yeah, fat chance he bought it himself. It’s obvious as hell that his dad gave it to him.” Ryu jerked forward angrily and was yanked back by Eunsoo. “But that’s just your whole life, isn’t it, rich boy? Everything handed to you on a silver platter. Bet you’ve never had to work for anything.”

“You don’t know me,” Ryu seethed.

“I know the only reason Sungmin even let you into the Blue Tigers is because you and Eunsoo are a buy-1-get-1 free deal only. You just rode Eunsoo’s coattails right into this circuit. Fuck knows you can’t do it by yourself. You’re a damn parasite.”

Maybe I had gotten a few good punches after all. There was a screw loose in Comet’s head. Even though I had just been roundly thrashed, I stood up again, determined to go for a second round. But Sungmin stepped in between me and Comet.

“That’s not the damn reason,” Sungmin snarled. “If Fireball won’t tell you off, I will. You’re out of line. Go–”

“I’ll do it,” Ryu said. “I’ll take your challenge.”

Everyone was stunned.

Sungmin groaned. “Ryu–”

“But if you’re choosing the car, I will too. Put that GTR of yours on the line.”

That gave Comet pause. But he soon returned to his glee. “A stock Nissan Z against a tuned GTR? You really are a damn idiot–”

“And if I’m the challenged, then I’ll choose the game,” Ryusuke said. I’m not sure why Sungmin or Eunsoo weren’t trying to stop him.

“I’ll thrash you in anything,” Comet gloated. “What’ll it be?”

Ryusuke didn’t even flinch. “Time attack.”

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They set the date of the race for tomorrow night. I’m surprised they didn’t go right then and there, but apparently Ryu or LC had to also choose the track as well.

I don’t think Fireball was happy about Comet’s GTR being put on the line, but he had backed Comet, and Comet himself had put down the car. Fireball seemed resigned to it after they finally left. They still had the advantage. On paper, there was no chance of my untuned Z beating the GTR.

With my vision fucked up, Ryu had taken on the duty of driving me and my Z home. We’d driven together several times in it but it was the first time he was the one driving. When he had settled into the seat (after making a lot of adjustments because of our height difference), Ryu had turned to me and asked me if I trusted him with my car.

“You know how to drive, don’t you?” I just wanted to go home. Though I’d definitely had worse beatings, the pain was pretty keen at the moment. The worst of it was my eye, which throbbed painfully to the back of its socket. It had swollen shut now, and was extremely sensitive to the touch.

As we pulled onto the road, Ryusuke spoke up again. “I meant in the race.”

I looked over at him. Despite how confidently he had taken on Comet’s challenge, Ryusuke now seemed extremely guilty. “I… I did let him get to me in the end,” he said miserably. “I shouldn’t have let him goad me like that.”

“That prick Comet had no call talking to you like that. I wish I could have punched him one last time.”

Ryu laughed nervously. “Good think you didn’t try, or you’d probably have two black eyes.” He sighed. “I probably shouldn’t have taken him up on that challenge.”

“Do you think you’ll lose?” I asked.

Ryu didn’t answer.

I wish I could have taken back what I said. I didn’t like seeing Ryu looking like that. He had been a good friend to me, helping me with everything from setting up my computer and getting Taejun off my back. We’d even had a conversation similar to this in this Z. Just our roles were reversed now. Now it was Ryu in need of reassurance.

“Well, I’m glad you took it on instead of letting that jerk run his mouth. And look, the only reason I have this car is because you lent me yours,” I said. Even though he had only met me two days prior to that, Ryusuke had so easily allowed me to drive his uber expensive hypercar with hardly a second thought. The least I could do was repay the favor.

“Of course I trust you,” I said. I’d never seen Ryusuke drive competitively yet, so I couldn’t rightly say if Ryusuke had a chance or not in the upcoming race. I might be car-less after tomorrow night. But at any rate, Ryusuke deserved to have that chance to recuperate his pride.

“And that extends past the challenge. You’ve helped me so much so far, and you’ve been a good friend. This car is just a car.”

Ryusuke swallowed. I hoped I was saying the right things. I’ve never been on the reassurance delivering end of a conversation like this.

“Thanks, Jae,” he said. His voice was tight with emotion.

“Mmmm,” I mumbled. Hoping to dispel his gloomy mood, I tried cracking a joke. “If you do end up losing, hook me up with a Kamataichi, yea?”

It worked. Ryusuke let out a little snort. “I wouldn’t count on it,” he said.

“Yeah. Because you’ll win, right?”

He cracked a little smile.

“Plus, you’re even getting some practice in right now.” The little jokes were definitely improving Ryusuke’s mood bit by bit.

“This is hardly practice,” he chuckled.

“Then go for it. Let’s see what you got.”

Ryu looked over to me to see if I was serious. Why wouldn’t I be? “Why not? Besides, you do need to get used to driving this before tomorrow.”

I guess that made sense to Ryu too.

“Don’t regret it,” he said, as he reached for the stick shift.

I didn’t.

And by the time we got home, I had full confidence in Ryu’s race tomorrow.