Welcome to Your Last Race (Street Racers #3)

2. Taehyung

Jungkook holds a piece of paper with the messiest notes I've seen in my life. The three of them wrote it together. I've never seen them take notes on other racers, either. And do it all in Jungkook and Yeeun's hotel room in Tokyo. Everything about this situation is unfamiliar, and a part of me wants it to be over already. The lack of familiarity doesn't make a night before the final race easier.

Final race.

"The guy from Brazil is sketchy, but not a good racer. Same with the Osaka guy, but more sketchy. The guy from Berlin is a great racer, but he struggles with being a shit," Jungkook says, squinting at the paper. Yeeun and Wooshik sit on his sides, I'm pacing in front of the bed.

"What are they doing in the final race if they all lack something?" Yeeun asks.

"Pure luck," Wooshik says. "I think they knew it was a possibility the four of us would get into the final race and they got together to sabotage us."

The three of them lost in their last races. Four pairs raced two nights ago. All races happened at the same time, but on different roads. Yeeun with the guy from Osaka. Jungkook with the Brazilian racer. Wooshik with the one from Berlin. I raced someone from Tokyo.

The final line-up is Berlin, Brazil, Osaka and Seoul.

I'm in the final race. Of the Japan Race. One step away from the win.

"So what? Pure luck is all I have?"

"No," Jungkook says. He's started sounding like some kind of my manager, not to say a motivational coach on the stage at TED-x. It's fun, and takes my mind off of the race. He stands up and drops his arm on my shoulder. "You know what differs you from these guys you're gonna race? You have both – racing skills and a crazy mind for sabotage."

The reality of the Japan Race – it's only half about your racing skills. The rest is how good you are at sabotaging other racers. You have to get creative while being an unusually good racer. Winning is not enough. You have to make others lose. No one tells you that, we figured it out on the first day. Because – according to the rules – we can't race anyone from our team unless it's the final race, we went crazy with that. Especially me and Jungkook, quickly earning a spotlight.

We played dirty. Befriend Robin – the guy who runs the event, spikes, break into the garages and fuck around with cars, turn electric cars into our toys with some equipment bought illegally in the dark streets of Tokyo. A lot of shit the racers hated us for. The public was loving it.

Some races I won with nothing but my racing skills. No way it'll be enough tomorrow. Tomorrow, during the last race in the Japan Race. My insides whirl again at the thought. Excitement and fear are indistinguishable sometimes.

"Don't worry, though," Wooshik says, slipping off the bed. "We've got a plan."

"Yes, we do," Jungkook adds, as they head to the door. "So, you guys stay in while we fuck around in the garages."

"The word choice is immaculate, you know?" Yeeun sighs at him.

He grins. "I mean that we'll make sure some people can't win tomorrow."

"Do I wanna know?" I ask.

"You will, when we're back," Wooshik says. "Now relax. It's your big day tomorrow."

Before I can maybe protest, which I know would be pointless, they are out the door and long gone. Yeeun clicks her tongue, knowing damn well we're not stopping them.

At least now I can faint onto the bed without the constant reminder of tomorrow's race.

"You're totally worried about this," she says.