Sugimoto stepped out of the changing room and they both made their way to the pits to meet with the manager and Ghazali. As they walked through the pitlane, they noticed Ghazali and the manager chatting outside their pit garage. Alice waved from afar and they replied to her wave as they approached them.

"We're here manager!" Alice said with enthusiasm

"Thanks for coming today drivers. I'm sorry you had to come here on your day off." The manager said apologetically.

"No problem chief. We don't have anything better to do anyways." Sugimoto said with assurances.

"So why did you call us over?" Sugimoto asked.

The manager fixes his glasses and has a small grin on his face.

"Shall we go in and see for ourselves?" The manager said to them.

Alice and Sugimoto looked at each other and shrugged. Ghazali went in front of the pit garage and began lifting the door. As the garage fully opened, they unveiled their cars in a different livery.

The Porsche 911 GT3 RS remains in its original black color. But with a noticeable orange trim running on the side that goes from the front to the rear. The name of the race team, "Akinabalu Motorsports" is plastered on the doors with the number 431. The sponsor's logo, "Aqua Infinite" was displayed on the hood, rear side window, and the side of the wing. Aqua Infinity's catchphrase "Refreshed" was written on the wing.

The BMW M6 GT3 on the other hand was changed from its original blue color to orange with black trim from the front to the rear. The name of the race team, "Akinabalu Motorsports" is plastered on the doors with the number 430. The sponsor's logo was displayed on the hood, rear side window, and the side of the wing. Aqua Infinity's catchphrase "Simply" was written on the wing.

Alice's eyes sparkled when she saw her newly colored M6 while Sugimoto crossed his arms and smiled lightly. They went up to their respective cars to inspect the newly added changes.

"So what do you guys think of it?" The manager asked them.

"It's incredible! My car looks so cool!" Alice said as she glazed her car.

"I like the new color schemes but why orange? Aren't we usually the black?" Sugimoto asked.

"It's true that we traditionally used black as our choice of color, but I decided to use a different color since we are entering a new era of Akinabalu Motorsports. I hope you don't mind." The manager explained.

Sugimoto looked at Alice who was still admiring her car. He huffed a bit and smiled.

"I don't mind it. It's actually looked pretty nice." Sugimoto said.

Alice went inside her car and noticed a few things had changed. A new seat and a few tweaks were made inside her car, but almost everything else remains the same. Ghazali went up to Alice to check up on her.

"Is everything alright in there?" Ghazali asked Alice.

"Yup, everything is fine. I'll just adjust a few things." Alice said.

Alice began adjusting everything in the car to her liking. Ghazali stood there trying to hold his laughter as he watched her adjust everything in the BMW.

"A-A few things huh?" Ghazali said as he covered his mouth.

After inspecting Alice, Ghazali went to Sugimoto and noticed him still checking out the car's exterior. Sugimoto placed his hand over the car's roof, seemingly a bit down.

"Yo Sugi, you okay?" Ghazali asked concernly.

Sugimoto turned around and noticed Ghazali standing behind him.

"Ah, yeah I'm okay. I was just a bit surprised. That's all." Sugimoto told him.

"I see, is there perhaps something you'd like to change?" Ghazali asked.

Sugimoto placed his hand on the roof of the car. He shakes his head and smiles a bit.

"No, this is fine." Sugimoto said slowly.

Sugimoto realizes how he's currently acting and decides to lighten up his mood.

"Alright, so what about performance? It's not all about the looks y'know?" Sugimoto asked.

"Well, we've upgraded a few things for performance enhancements, and we're still waiting for the ROA to approve them. So expect a few horsepower in this." Ghazali told Sugimoto.

"I see, that's good to hear. So when will we be testing this baby out?" Sugimoto asked.

The manager appeared from the blue and told Sugimoto.

"Hold your horsepower, Sugimoto. We're still not done with the car. We'll let you know once we've finished everything. " The manager said.

"Eh? And when is that?" Sugimoto asked.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Soon enough Sugimoto." The manager said.

Sugimoto inspected his car one last time before he went over to Alice who was still inside the car.

"Yo kid, want to grab lunc-" Sugimoto was about to ask before he cut himself off.

Sugimoto looked inside and noticed Alice was crying. He was too stunned to speak seeing her like that. Sugimoto looked closely and noticed that she wasn't crying tears of joy. Alice noticed that Sugimoto was there and began putting on a straight face.

"Ah Senpai, what's up?" Alice said as she played cool.

"You okay kid? Were you perhaps that overjoyed?" Sugimoto said concerningly.

"Y-Yeah, I was really ecstatic by the car, y'know?" Alice told him.

Sugimoto seemed uncertain about her answer but chose not to argue further.

"Well enough of that, let's go grab some lunch." Sugimoto said.

"Ah, sure! Let's grab a bite." Alice agreed.

She jumped out of the car and nearly stumbled, seemingly back to her normal self. As they began walking, Sugimoto wondered what was going on with her. He noticed Alice was still a bit gloomy. As they were walking, they passed by a hairdresser store. Sugimoto stopped for a bit and looked through the window. Alice noticed Sugimoto had stopped and decided to ask him.

"Hey Senpai, what are you looking for?" Alice asked him.

"Ah, I was just looking for something." Sugimoto replied casually.

"Like what? You want to get a haircut or something?" Alice asked curiously.

"Nah, I was looking for some orange hair dye." Sugimoto told her.

"Eh? You want to dye your hair!?" Alice said in shock.

"Yeah, since we are going to be known as the orange team. I might as well change my hairstyle. Besides we would match right?" Sugimoto told her.

Alice's eyes sparkled as he heard Sugimoto was interested in changing his looks. She looks more excited than when they revealed the new livery.

"Then let's buy some supplies then!" Alice said in an enthusiastic voice.

"Supplies? Why should we buy when the store is just here?" Sugimoto asked in a confused tone.

"Come on Senpai, it's better if we do it ourselves. Besides I've done this countless times. Look at my hair!" Alice said as she flicked her orange under-dyed hair.

Sugimoto crossed his arms unsure if it was a good idea. But he noticed Alice's cheerful expression with eyes pleading to let her do it. He sighed and decided to accept her offer.

"Fine, but I'm not planning to dye my entire hair, I want you to dye this part only." Sugimoto said to her and held out a few strands of hair.

He was referring to a few strands of hair near his right eye. He pulled them and showed Alice the only part he wanted to dye.

"Eh? Only this bit?" Alice said seemingly disappointed.

"You want to do it or not?" Sugimoto said sternly.

"Fine. Let's go buy some supplies!" Alice said with enthusiasm.

After she said that, a huge rumble could be heard from her tummy. Sugimoto stood there quietly as Alice felt a bit embarrassed.

"M-Maybe food first." She said awkwardly.

They went to grab a bite from a local restaurant before buying the supplies they needed to dye Sugimot's hair. When they returned to the garage, they noticed Ghazali standing by as the crew worked on their cars.

"Welcome back drivers. Had fun shopping?" Ghazali asked.

"Hey, Gaz! We sure did. You will be surprised when we show you what we bought!" Alice said to him.

"What did you guys buy?" Ghazali asked again.

"It's a secret, I'll show you when we finish." Alice expressed her enthusiasm before walking away.

Ghazali looked at Sugimoto with a confused look on his face and Sugimoto just huffed.

"You'll see, Gaz." Sugimoto reassured him.

"O-Okay then..." Ghazali said, still a bit confused.

Sugimoto went inside the break room and noticed Alice wearing gloves. He looked confused seeing what Alice was doing and decided to ask her.

"U-Uhm, kid. What are you doing?" Sugimoto asked concerningly.

"What does it look like I'm doing? We're going to dye your hair right?" Alice said.

"N-Now? I thought we'd do this some other day!" Sugimoto said to her.

"Come on, Senpai. It will be quick. It'll take a few hours!" Alice assures him.

"H-Hours? Kid we still have testing to do. There's no way there's time for that!" Sugimoto argues with her.

As Sugimoto finished his sentence, a notification from their phone rang. Sugimoto pulled out his phone and noticed a text from the team group chat.

"Sorry drivers, we've got a few technical issues with one of your cars. Expect to wait for a few hours." Ghazali texted and sent a sorry sticker after the text.

Alice smirked when she saw the text. She looked at Sugimoto's reaction and he was not as cheerful. Sugimoto breathed another sigh and sent a "thumbs up" sticker

"Fine, you win. You better not mess it up, kid. I don't want to get any weird looks from the ladies." Sugimoto told reluctantly.

Alice's eyes sparkled when she heard those words from Sugimoto. She went to get the rest of the items and placed them on the table.

"Don't worry Senpai, I'm a professional!" Alice reassures him.

She signals Sugimoto to sit at the chair near the table. Sugimoto followed her instructions and sat down. She covered his body with a towel and began preparing the things she needed.

"Alright Senpai, just relax and let me take care of everything." Alice told him.

Sugimoto nodded, and Alice began bleaching a strand of his hair above his right eye. Alice worked carefully to avoid accidentally bleaching the rest of his hair. After a few minutes, Alice showed Sugimoto his bleached strand.

"Man, I don't look half bad if I had white hair." Sugimoto chuckled.

"We'll wait for a few minutes before we dye it orange." Alice told him.

Sugimoto got up from his seat and stretched. He then went to the mirror and looked himself in it. He struck a quick pose for himself and Alice chuckled slightly.

"You really rocking the new hairstyle huh?" Alice teases him.

"Yeah, I never knew white would suit me." Sugimoto told her.

As Sugimoto began admiring his new hairstyle, the break room door opened and the manager came in.

"Alright drivers. We have gotten a few updates on the..." The manager said before he went silent.

The manager looked at Sugimoto with widened eyes. He went closer to him and inspected his hair.

"Hey Sugimoto, maybe you shouldn't push yourself too hard." The manager told him.

Sugimoto was confused at first before realizing that he was talking about stress.

"Hey, I'm not growing any white hair yet! I just wanted to dye my hair!" Sugimoto told the manager.

The manager looked around and noticed Alice was wearing gloves. He was a bit relieved to hear it.

"I-I see, I guess that's good to hear. What color will you change it to?" The manager asked.

"Orange." Sugimoto and Alice said at the same time.

"Ah, I see. What's the occasion?" The manager told them.

"Well, it's a new era, right? Might as well embrace it." Sugimoto told the manager.

"Ah, I see. I'm glad you guys are supportive of it." The manager told them.

As Sugimoto and the manager talked, Alice suddenly had an idea and decided to share it with the manager.

"Hey manager, why don't you join us?" Alice offered.

"I'd love to, but unfortunately I only have a few hairs left." The manager said as he showed his almost balding head.

"Well, we can still dye your mustache right?" Alice chuckled.

The manager exited the break room without a word. Alice and Sugimoto looked at each other seemingly a bit worried that they'd struck a nerve.

"Don't worry my beautiful mustache, I won't let them hurt you!" The manager said to himself while touching his mustache.

The manager ran out of the garage. Never to be seen again... He later returned to the garage after a few minutes.