Alice was driving her BMW M6 GT3 and was currently at the Akinabalu Circuit. She passed through multiple cars and was pushing herself to the limit. As she was driving, she noticed a shadowy figure resembling a car in her back mirror. Alice was horrified seeing the car closing in, admitting its dark aura around it. As she was approaching a corner, the car suddenly appeared beside her. Alice tried to look inside the car but couldn't tell what she saw

In a moment, the car hit her and she lost control. She held the wheel as she headed towards the barriers. As she was about to hit it, lightning struck and Alice suddenly woke up sweating. She controlled her breathing and sighed lightly.

"W-What the hell was that dream?" Alice muttered to herself.

She looked around her room and noticed it was dawn. She tries to process what just happened to her in the dream.

"Damn another nightmare?" She muttered.

Alice got up from her bed and made her way to the bathroom. Inside, she opened the faucet and splashed the water on her face to freshen up. She looked up at the mirror and saw herself staring back.

"Man, I hate it when this happens. Why does it happen when I'm tired? This dream also felt so real as well." She muttered.

After she took a bath, she went back to wear her tracksuit and her duffle bag. She went downstairs and noticed that her grandfather was still sleeping, she went inside his room and saw him in bed sleeping soundly. She went up to him and held his hand, she kissed his hand and uttered a phrase.

"Wish me, luck gramps, see you when I return." Alice told him.

Her grandfather was still asleep. Alice smiled lightly and left the room. After checking all her belongings, she locked the doors and went out. She walked towards a nearby bus stop and waited for the earliest bus that came. The bus soon arrived and she got on it. The bus made a few more stops in the city before making its way to the national circuit. During the bus ride, she saw Mount Akinabalu standing tall under the rays of the sunrise. She arrived at the Akinabalu Circuit and went to the garage area.

She walks along the paths laid out on the pavement towards the paddock. There, she saw many mechanics working hard on their cars while the rest were arriving. Alice walked towards the paddock where she met Ghazali who was still working with a few of the mechanics.

"Morning Ally, you're quite early today." Ghazali told her.

"Early bird catches the worm, right? I also woke up early so that's partly the reason." She replied casually.

"I see. Well, there's a few hours left before the race starts, feel free to do whatever you want." He told.

"Alright, I'll be in the break room then." She told him.

Alice entered the break room and she was surprised when she saw Sugimoto sleeping soundly on the sofa. She looked at Ghazali and asked him.

"W-Why is he here so early?" She asked.

"He was with us the entire night. He said he wanted the car to be perfect so he helped us to tweak it to his liking." Ghazali revealed.

"I see, but how did you test it? Isn't the circuit closed for the night?" She asked as she was a bit confused.

"Ah, we may or may not have done some testing outside the circuit." He said.

"So you two were basically illegally racing just to find his preferred tuning. Wait until the federation hears about this." Alice sarcastically said.

A sweat drop appears on Ghazal's forehead.

"Please don't rat us out, we don't want to get sanctioned by the ROA." Ghazali told her, a bit scared by her.

"Fine, you're lucky I'm a driver for this team." Alice told him.

Ghazali smiled lightly before returning to check on their cars. Alice went inside the break room and placed her stuff on the table. She went over towards Sugimoto and crouched in front of him.

"So Senpai's been here the entire night huh? Quite admirable if I may say." She thought to herself.

Sugimoto was still sleeping soundly on the couch. Alice stared at him for a few moments. She looked around the break room to see if the coast was clear. Once she knew the coast was clear, she hovered over his head and began caressing his hair. She felt his hair was a bit stiff but didn't mind it. She touched the dyed part of his hair and smiled lightly.

"Man, I can't believe he actually went through with it. But it does go well with him." Alice admitted.

Alice felt embarrassed, but she continued anyway. She moved over to his cheek and caressed it lightly. Having reached her peak embarrassment, she felt she couldn't continue any longer and stopped midway. She looked around to see if she had been caught but she made it out alive. After relaxing her heart, she decides to wake him up.

"Psst, Senpai wake up, it's already morning." Alice whispered.

"5 more minutes..." He muttered drowsily.

Alice smiled and chuckled slightly seeing him like that. She soon began shaking his body to wake him up. After a while, Sugimoto soon rose up and looked around the room before he sat up and stretched.

"Morning kid, what time is it?" He said before yawning.

"Ah, it's almost 7:30 in the morning." She revealed after checking the clock.

He slowly stood up and looked at her.

"So, wanna grab breakfast? There's a Mamak stall nearby." Sugimoto told her.

"Sure, I haven't had anything to eat since this morning." She told him.

"Alright then, let's go tell Ghazali and the rest if they want to join." He told.

Alice nodded and they walked out of the break room to meet Ghazali. Ghazali stood in front of the cars when they greeted him.

"Yo Gaz, we're going to get breakfast at the Mamak stall. Want to tag along?" Sugimoto asked.

"You two go ahead first, we're almost finished with some of the finer details. I'll bring the rest of the crew with me." Ghazali told them.

"Ah alright then, meet you all there soon. Well, shall we go kid?" Sugimoto asked.

"Yeah, let's go then." Alice told him.

They walked out of the circuit and headed towards the local Mamak stall. While on their way walking, Alice had a small blush on her face as she remembered the thing she had done in the morning, she looked up at Sugimoto and felt a bit relieved that Sugimoto didn't know about it. Once they arrived, they sat down, and the local mamak stall went to them to take their order.

"Anneh, one roti canai, and hot Teh Tarik, please!" Sugimoto said.

"Done, how about you little girl?" The mamak asked her.

Alice was a bit infuriated when she was referred to as a little girl but let it go.

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"Fried beef noodles and Teh Tarik please." Alice said in an angry tone.

"Done, is that everything?" The mamak asked for confirmation.

"Yes, that will all." Sugimoto said.

As he left them alone, Alice noticed that he had taken their order without using a notepad or anything else. She felt confused by it and asked Sugimoto about it.

"Hey Senpai, did that guy take our orders or not? He didn't even write it down."She asked.

"Oh, they've memorized it." He replied casually.

Alice was astonished to hear it and couldn't believe it.

"Eh? Did they memorize it? What if there's a lot of people and they messed it up?" She asked him.

"Well it rarely happens, I've never gotten a wrong order from them." He revealed.

"Is that so? I guess I'll just wait and see." Alice told him.

After a while, the Mamak came to them and handed them their orders exactly as they wanted except her fried noodles, as it took a bit longer. Alice was surprised but wasn't impressed.

"See, not a single order wrong." Sugimoto told her.

"Yeah, but it's only three things, anyone else could do it." She said to him.

As they were about to eat, a van came and parked in front of the restaurant, there they saw Ghazali with more than a dozen crew members. Alice was surprised to see that they managed to cram more than a dozen people inside the van. They all went up to find a seat while Ghazali greeted them.

"We're here." Ghazali said to them.

"Glad you can make it, come sit down with us." Sugimoto told him.

Ghazalii pulled the chair and sat down, his eye bags were a bit dark as he had been working all night long.

"You didn't sleep at all Gaz?" Alice asked him.

"I've slept only for a while. But I'm okay." He yawns slightly.

The Mamak came over and started taking their orders, Alice noticed him taking their orders without the notepad again.

"Look Senpai, he's actually doing it." Alice told him.

"Yeah, they're really confident in their abilities." He said.

The Mamak soon went towards them and started taking Ghazali's order.

"I only want one Kopi O." Ghazali told him.

"How about food?" The Mamak asked.

"No need, I only want to drink." He replied.

"Okay, one Kopi O!" The Mamak loudly told his co-workers.

They looked on as the Mamak began preparing the food for them. Alice was skeptical that they could pull it off. After a few minutes, some of their orders started arriving, and the rest of the crew seemed satisfied with their orders. Alice watches for everyone's orders just to see if at least one person got it wrong.

"Damn, these guys are good. They got every order correct." Alice said.

"Told ya, the Mamak never gets it wrong." Sugimoto told her.

"Now that I think about it, I've never gotten a wrong order from them." Ghazali told.

Alice seems convinced by them and decides to accept it.

"I guess you two are right." She reluctantly said.

The Mamak came back and handed Ghazali his drink and Alice's food.

"Ah, thanks. Well, time to dig in!" Alice excitedly said.

As she was about to dig in, she noticed that instead of noodles, she got rice instead. Alice was confused seeing it being rice. Sugimoto and Ghazali saw this and were surprised.

"Huh, seems like they got it wrong." Ghazali told him.

"Yeah. This is the first time I saw them get an order wrong. I'll go tell them." Sugimoto said.

As Sugimoto was about to lift his hand to call the Mamak, Alice gestured for him to stop.

"N-No. It's okay. I'm good with this." Alice told them.

Alice grabbed a spoon and chowed down on the rice. Ghazali and Sugimoto shrugged, thinking she was okay with it. But Alice's emotions were completely different on the inside.

"I accidentally ordered Fried noodles because it's what I usually order. I wanted rice as I was on a diet. How did they know..." Alice thought to herself, with tears of joy in her eyes.

Alice looked at the Mamak with a bit of tears in her eyes. The Mamak noticed her and smiled while giving her the thumbs up. Alice replied back with a thumbs up as well.

As they were eating, Ghazali's phone suddenly rang. He grabbed it from the table and picked it up.

"Hey Manager, what's up?" Ghazali said.

"Hey Ghazali, can you open up, please? Why did you lock the garage?" The manager asked.

Ghazali's face darkens as soon as he hears this. He covered his phone and looked at them with a horrified face.

"I-I forgot to tell the manager that we've gone to eat without him." Ghazali told him.

Sugimoto and Alice were a bit surprised when they heard Ghazali had forgotten the manager.

"Y-You forget to tell him?" Alice muttered.

"Well tell him that we're out then." Sugimoto muttered.

"Alright then." Ghazali replied.

He continues muttering on the phone for a bit. After a while, he put his phone down and breathed a sigh of relief.

"He said to order him an iced tea after we come back. I'm glad he wasn't mad or anything." Ghazali told them.

"Well, that's a relief. Let's hurry up and finish our food." Alice said.

They all quickly finished their food and went inside the van, they somehow managed to fit Sugimoto and Alice inside it. After arriving, Ghazali gave him his iced tea and went back to work with the rest of the crew. After a while, the drivers were summoned by the marshalls for a quick briefing for the race. The marshalls began telling them all the rules and regulations throughout the race.

"For the second round of the ROA Cup, we will not be having a rolling start. Everyone will start their formation lap before the race starts. I hope this is clear for everyone in the room." The marshall said.

"There will be 25 laps in the race with a mandatory pit stop required before or during lap 13. The pit window will open at lap 7 as usual. There will be no wait time but changing the tires is mandatory." The other marshall told.

All the drivers in the room nodded, indicating they all understood the marshall. After the briefing, they all headed out to their garages to prepare for the race. Alice and Sugimoto went inside the main building to change into their racing suite. As they arrived in front of the changing room, Sugimoto entered the male changing room while Alice entered the female changing room.

Alice went inside the changing room and heard people talking inside. She peered around the corner and noticed Kara and Nadya already inside. She noticed that they were currently changing and Alice became flustered seeing them. Nadya looked over and saw a pair of eyes staring at them. She suddenly walked over to her and called her out.

"You better not be a peeping Tom, I will make you regret-" Nadya said in a thick accent but cut herself off as she saw Alice with a flustered face.

Nadya began smiling and greeted her.

"Ah, Miss Alice. Why are you not coming in, come change with us." Nadya offered.

"A-Ah, okay." Alice said while covering her eyes.

Nadya noticed that she was covering her eyes and she decided to lift her hands. She held her arm and pulled her to a bench.

"There's no need to be embarrassed Miss Alice. We're all girls here aren't we?" Nadya told her.

"Yo Alice, how long have you been spying on us." Kara jokingly said.

Alice became flustered as she diverted her gaze towards the lockers.

"I wasn't spying! I was just checking out the surroundings as I just got there." Alice told them.

Alice went over to a locker and began changing her clothes. As she was changing, Nadya went over and checked on Alice. Alice noticed her beside her and looked away from her direction.

"So Miss Alice, how determined are you for this race?" She asked her.

"O-Oh me? Well, I really do want to win this race. But I'm going to keep my heads down." She told her.

"I see, you're quite humble. You're also quite young, how long have you been racing?" Nadya asked her.

"Oh- Uhm- Well..." Alice stumbled on her words.

"She started when she was 6. She started going Pro this year." Kara answered for her.

Nadya seemed surprised by it and grew more curious about it.

"Ah, I see. But usually, people like you would be in Formula D or C by now." Nadya told her.

"My dad trained me to prepare for that, but things changed after he passed away." Alice told her.

"Sorry to hear that. But there is still a chance for you to join it since you're still young." Nadya sympathizes with her.

"I'm okay with my current state. I don't need to join to burden myself to learn an open wheeler." Alice told her.

Nadya seemed satisfied with her response, but there was still something she hadn't asked yet.

"Your last name is Shah right?" Nadya asked.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Alice asked her,

"Well, it sounds familiar. Is your father-... never mind." Nadya said before cutting herself off.

Alice looked a bit confused after she retracted her question. Alice shrugs it off and continues changing. After changing into her racing suit, she grabbed her duffle bag and placed it on her shoulder.

"Well, I'm off to the garage. Good luck for today's race." Alice told them.

"Good luck to you too Alice." Kara waved to her.

"Yes, good luck to you too." Nadya told her.

"Shah, Shah... Where have I heard that name before..." Nadya muttered to herself.

Alice soon exited the women's changing room and saw Sugimoto standing outside, waiting for Alice. Alice went up to him and announced herself to him.

"I'm done! Let's go back to the paddock before the others get worried." Alice told him.

"Ah, alright then. Let's go." Sugimoto told her.

They began walking out of the main building and soon arrived back at their garage. They waited for a while before the marshals approached them to begin moving to the grid. Ghazali went over the rest of the crew and began moving everything to the pits that were assigned to them. After they had moved everything, the manager gathered them for a final team talk.

"Alright everyone, we have a difficult afternoon ahead so I want everyone to be prepared. Listen to the driver's demands in case they need anything. Sugimoto will try to climb the ranks while Alice will try and maintain her position throughout the lap. We will call you guys when we think what's the best lap to pit in. I wish you all the best and pray for success." The manager said.

They all clapped and the crew began wishing the drivers good luck. The marshalls came in and began calling them to begin the formation lap. The drivers began driving out onto the track one by one. After a lap, Alice positioned herself on the second grid while Sugimoto was at the back of the grid. They all waited for the marshalls to begin the formation lap. Alice looked around the grid and saw people in the stands. She tried to find anyone familiar but couldn't find them. Suddenly in a glimpse, she noticed an orange lightstick in the crowd rising amongst the crowd.

Alice looked at the lightstick and noticed 2 more appeared beside it. Alice's eyes widened as she saw her friends in the stands waving the orange lightsticks. Alice smiled brightly seeing them in the crowd. She began feeling a bit more determined to win the race. The marshalls began waving green flags, indicating that they were ready to race.